Hi

Just got a used Spark a couple of weeks ago. Today was my fourth flight only and I had no issues during previous flights. Brought the kids to the beach and we ran through one battery on the Spark with no problems. Switched to the second one and flew a couple of minutes then decided to fly a bit more over the ocean. Flew quite low, around 10-12 m above ground, along the shore and then continued out over the sea. It was about 150 m away from us and perhaps 15-20 m from the shoreline when it suddenly starts to descend. It was clearly within line of sight and I tried to bring it up with the controller but no response from the drone and it continued down and within a few seconds it was in the sea. It didn't fall from the sky but went down in a "controlled" manner.


So, my first drone is gone and I just wonder what the heck just happened?


// Mulle

Sorry about what happened, do you recall the % of battery charge when it started to descend?

Just read about the DJI Flight Log in another thread. Uploaded mine here: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/LY2OIRAAG9VEGGU026JS/

ssylca44 Posted at 1-19 08:06
Sorry about what happened, do you recall the % of battery charge when it started to descend?

According to the flight log I still had 69% of battery left. However I think I got a no signal or connection lost on my display just as it went down but as I was flying it LoS I'm not really sure when it showed up. It may have been after it went swimming as I had a pretty bad lag between phone and controller.

Reading the flight log I see something called VPS Altitude. What is that? It goes to N/A about one minute into the flight and starts displaying a value again shortly before going in the water.

Hello and good day Mulle. I am sorry to know what happened to your previous flight with your DJI Spark. This is not the experience we want you to have with DJI. Since this issue happened please contact DJI Support at https://www.dji.com/support for further help on this issue. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 1-19 08:23
Hello and good day Mulle. I am sorry to know what happened to your previous flight with your DJI Spark. This is not the experience we want you to have with DJI. Since this issue happened please contact DJI Support at https://www.dji.com/support for further help on this issue. Thank you.

[view_image]

Sure will do. Thanks.

Hi Mulle,

Good question ; what happend?

Well, had a look at your flight data and it looks like you had flown your Spark into to water!

At the end of your flight you had RC input "down" for long period, Spark descending from 6,5 metter baro height down to -3 meter.

VPS height starts indicating when the sensor is within reach, starts indicating at 5.5 meters down to 0.1, water level reached.
See the upper chart for VPS height, within sensor range you will seee VPS indicating in the Go4 app.
Flying low altitude with 100% down input and no speed is resulting is a forced landing, wich it did at the end.

Sorry for your loss.

cheers
JJB

You could watch the record in the go4 app
"switch" on the stick movements.
JJB pointed in the direction, perhaps you confused the moving for throttle?

JJBspark Posted at 1-19 09:39
Hi Mulle,

Good question ; what happend?

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I could see the sticks in the flight record indicating I pulled it full throttle down at the end. I am however 100% sure I did not. As soon as I saw it starting to descend I pushed it up but no response from the drone. Absolutely sure I didn't pull down!
I discovered however that the RTH altitude was set to 0 in the DJI go app when I opened it now. Don't know how that is even possible as the minimum value allowed is 20m. Not sure if a signal loss and an RTH altitude of 0m may have caused this? Really disturbing not knowing the cause. Don't want to get another DJI drone if these things "just happens".

S-e-ven Posted at 1-19 10:00
You could watch the record in the go4 app
"switch" on the stick movements.
JJB pointed in the direction, perhaps you confused the moving for throttle?

Yes, I clearly see what the sticks movement indicates. Hard to argue against that but I am as sure as one could be that I didn't pull down.

Mulle Posted at 1-19 08:35
Sure will do. Thanks.

You are very much welcome Mulle and thank you for your support.

Mulle Posted at 1-19 10:12
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I could see the sticks in the flight record indicating I pulled it full throttle down at the end. I am however 100% sure I did not. As soon as I saw it starting to descend I pushed it up but no response from the drone. Absolutely sure I didn't pull down!
I discovered however that the RTH altitude was set to 0 in the DJI go app when I opened it now. Don't know how that is even possible as the minimum value allowed is 20m. Not sure if a signal loss and an RTH altitude of 0m may have caused this? Really disturbing not knowing the cause. Don't want to get another DJI drone if these things "just happens".

This is what I meant about the RTH altitude:

DJI Go 4 version 4.1.15 (to be able to enter FCC mode). I know I have set this to 30m before, but it might have been reset when switching batteries in the drone or something. Just guessing here...

Replying to myself once again...

Now it is getting even more interesting. In the app, checking the stick configuration it looks like this:
It does not indicate which "mode" is set but the sticks are reversed compared to when I started the flight. I have always flown it with the normal setup, meaning up-down-turn on the left stick. So question remains, what the heck happened? A mid-air-app-reset, is that ever heard of?

Without being connected to the Spark, imho, you won't see the setting set IN the Spark.
The spark is, afaik, interpreting the stick movements by mode1, 2, 3, custom settings.

And if I remember that right, without a Spark connected, you don't get a RTH height, too.
That value is saved IN the Spark, too.

I am not sure if I (android) even can get into this window of the go4 App, without being connected to a Spark.

I agree you can't get into the window without connection to the Spark

S-e-ven Posted at 1-19 11:30
Without being connected to the Spark, imho, you won't see the setting set IN the Spark.
The spark is, afaik, interpreting the stick movements by mode1, 2, 3, custom settings.

Yes, you can get into that view with only the RC connected. In the recent 4.3.11 version you have to enter Camera View. However in the 4.1.15 version you get straight into that view when RC is connected. I have the latest version on my phone and the old "FCC version" on my sons phone. Today was the first time trying that old version to be able to fly further away.

Checking the settings in 4.3.11 everything looks correct regarding RTH altitude and Stick Mode 2 is selected (even now with no Spark connected). In the 4.1.15 version RTH altitude is 0m and Stick Mode is unknown but right and left is reversed.

Anyway, even if the stick settings had been reversed (as unlikely as that might be) it would not explain that descending. As far as I can recall I was just flying forward/forward-left the whole time, then I see it starting to descend. I push up, nothing happens, and I get some nice underwater footage on the display. The flight record indicates that it stopped going forward before descending. That may have been the case as it was quite far away and hard to see if it was still moving forward. However, I know I was still pushing forward on the remote when it started going down.

Nevertheless, I appreciate your replies, trying to figure this out. The flight record is definitely not in my favour.  But if I would have flown it into the sea myself I would still be pi**ed but not make a big deal out of it. Now it is just extremely frustrating as the whole thing happened without my control. Before even considering getting another DJI drone I want to have an idea of what caused this.

Hey,

Sorry to kind of hijack your thread, but I can't create a new thread.

I'm devastated. This December, I bought a spark for my girlfriend as a Christmas present. We have flown it about 2 hours in total now. Today, we went to a forest and started flying a bit and out of nowhere, the drone fell from the sky. It was flying at 61 meters and I had 81% battery left. The worst thing is that the drone was flying above a lake and is now resting at the bottom of the lake.

Out of nowhere, it just fell out of the sky, it must have been a malfunction of some sort. I'm devastated about it and have already opened a support ticket (1944268). Could anyone maybe check my logs to see if something weird that happened? You can find my log here. drive.google.com/open?id=1HL7vFx7wzgobcUdV89LTG-D7v6-jAqIm

I also have a cached video of the flight.

Did something like this happen to anyone else?

Ricky3 Posted at 1-19 13:03
Hey,

Sorry to kind of hijack your thread, but I can't create a new thread.

Upload your log here -> https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Hey! Here is the log: phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/LF6KH9E6GRZAGYYW1ONO/

Lysak2003 Posted at 1-19 11:43
I agree you can't get into the window without connection to the Spark

Yes you can. See my reply to S-e-ven.

Mulle Posted at 1-19 08:10
Just read about the DJI Flight Log in another thread. Uploaded mine here: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/LY2OIRAAG9VEGGU026JS/

i see battery cell deviations before the drone flew into the water. maybe that was the cause. or, were you flying near metal anywhere? any boats near it? that could have cause interference

Mulle Posted at 1-19 10:34
This is what I meant about the RTH altitude: [view_image]

actually, if you just enter the camera view of the DJI GO4 app without connecting drone it will say 0 altitude. i checked in my device. your settings do not stay when you enter random camera view.

fans6f66f9da Posted at 1-19 14:56
i see battery cell deviations before the drone flew into the water. maybe that was the cause. or, were you flying near metal anywhere? any boats near it? that could have cause interference

No, no boats around. Pretty much nothing except water, sand and some ducks...

fans6f66f9da Posted at 1-19 14:58
actually, if you just enter the camera view of the DJI GO4 app without connecting drone it will say 0 altitude. i checked in my device. your settings do not stay when you enter random camera view.

Ah ok, that's good to know. Then I guess that should not be the problem then at least. Thanks.

fans6f66f9da Posted at 1-19 14:56
i see battery cell deviations before the drone flew into the water. maybe that was the cause. or, were you flying near metal anywhere? any boats near it? that could have cause interference

Yeah, you are right there are some deviation during the flight but should that really cause this issue?

BTW, here's the flight I did just before, with the first battery: https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/SM6TPFFFNX0JO5Z59UNX/

Mulle Posted at 1-19 15:42
Ah ok, that's good to know. Then I guess that should not be the problem then at least. Thanks.

yep. looks like it may be DJI's fault according to what you say. but it will be interesting what they say because the flight log shows the control stick clearly brings the drone down although you do claim that you did not do that. good luck and be sure to update us. I've had 2 DJI support cases in the past month. 1 time I received a faulty spark battery (replacement went well other than at first they charged me for it, but then they did free of charge), the other time (right now) I dropped my controller on the pavement. ouch. we'll see how that goes.

Mulle Posted at 1-19 15:48
Yeah, you are right there are some deviation during the flight but should that really cause this issue?

BTW, here's the flight I did just before, with the first battery: https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/SM6TPFFFNX0JO5Z59UNX/

I don't know...

fans6f66f9da Posted at 1-19 16:53
yep. looks like it may be DJI's fault according to what you say. but it will be interesting what they say because the flight log shows the control stick clearly brings the drone down although you do claim that you did not do that. good luck and be sure to update us. I've had 2 DJI support cases in the past month. 1 time I received a faulty spark battery (replacement went well other than at first they charged me for it, but then they did free of charge), the other time (right now) I dropped my controller on the pavement. ouch. we'll see how that goes.

Sure, I will update here when I get a reply from the support. It is very clear that the flight log looks bad and it is my word against that log. Definitely not an easy win...

Mulle Posted at 1-19 10:12
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I could see the sticks in the flight record indicating I pulled it full throttle down at the end. I am however 100% sure I did not. As soon as I saw it starting to descend I pushed it up but no response from the drone. Absolutely sure I didn't pull down!
I discovered however that the RTH altitude was set to 0 in the DJI go app when I opened it now. Don't know how that is even possible as the minimum value allowed is 20m. Not sure if a signal loss and an RTH altitude of 0m may have caused this? Really disturbing not knowing the cause. Don't want to get another DJI drone if these things "just happens".

Hi Mulle,

Oke, best is to contact DJI and ask them for help.
Logs shows Down stick, you are sure that you did not do that!
Hope that DJI can solve this mystery.

Your RTH height during this flight was set to 30 meter.
No disconnection during flight, the forced landing was recorderd until it had to swim.Only 121 mV cell deviation, see much higher values without causing flight problems.

cheers
JJB

Ricky3 Posted at 1-19 13:31
Hey! Here is the log: phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/LF6KH9E6GRZAGYYW1ONO/

Hi Ricky,

Had a look at your flight.

Did you saw it falling out of the sky ?  Nothing in the log, afaik,  gives an explanation, so mayby the battery came loose from your Spark ?

You started your flight with 11 sats but only 2 bars for the reception, so after take off it flew a while in OPTI mode.  After 9.4 seconds HomePoint was recorded, so your HP was not the take-off position. (can get worse when a RTH is performed and the HP is above water....)

At 8 secs an warning : "Only a Battery performance will be lowered when it is lower than 15?. It will affect your flight safety. Fully charging it and heating it to 15? or above is recommended"  Weird thing is that in your log is written that the batt temperature is a steady 76.8 centigrade for the whole flight.

Lots of minor compass error in tle log, these errors are not seen in the Go4 app.

cheers
JJB

Sorry to know that mate

Update: Unfortunately no support from DJI on this one. In order to provide support they need the RC serial number. But, as the QR code on the remote is to worn to get the SN from and I do not have the original box and there is no other way to retrieve the RC serial number I will not be able to get any support. That was the final reply I received from them.

Too bad, as I was definitely not demanding a new drone or anything, I just wanted to know why it did what it did. Anyway, bought myself a Mavic Air instead and the plot thickens... Mavic Air, forced landing due to low battery 1 minute after take off

That sucks bad. Hope I never encounter that. Stick doing it own thing.

Hi Mulle,

It seems you are attracting bad batteries
Not only the Mavic Air battery was defective, your Sparks battery was bad too (see "cell deviation", 0.1 volts is /way/ too much).

Cheers,
Wolferl

Wolferl Posted at 1-30 01:35
Hi Mulle,

It seems you are attracting bad batteries

Hi Wolferl,

I have seen some logs with cell deviation > 0.1 volts, no flight problems at all.

In his log is seen that he flew his drone into the water, well, that`s what the RC input shows....

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 1-30 03:37
Hi Wolferl,

I have seen some logs with cell deviation > 0.1 volts, no flight problems at all.

Hi JJB,

Of course, the OP piloted his Spark into the water. My suspicion is that he moved the wrong stick (wanted nick back home, got height descent). I saw that happening to some  younger folks flying sometimes stick mode 1, sometimes mode 2. When I asked them why they do that instead of properly programming all their flying stuff, they said, its too complicated, I can fly it with both modes, I'm a pro. Yikes.

Anyway, a battery showing a cell deviation of as much as 0.1V is to be pronounced dead. It will totally fail very soon.

Cheers,
Wolferl

JJBspark Posted at 1-19 09:39
Hi Mulle,

Good question ; what happend?

That's what I was thinking!

Wolferl Posted at 2-1 04:36
Hi JJB,

Of course, the OP piloted his Spark into the water. My suspicion is that he moved the wrong stick (wanted nick back home, got height descent). I saw that happening to some  younger folks flying sometimes stick mode 1, sometimes mode 2. When I asked them why they do that instead of properly programming all their flying stuff, they said, its too complicated, I can fly it with both modes, I'm a pro. Yikes.

oke, i believe you for that 0.1V cell deviation.
But than many of the battery i see in the logs are going to be dead soon....