Well, the day had to come where I would write this, as it seems a big number of Spark users need to constantly deal with unpredictable problems while trying to fly their drones in demanding conditions. I had a terrifying flight in Iceland where I almost lost my drone, following a sudden GPS loss, Compass error, NFZ zone and all sorts of errors which made the Spark drift away madly. Fortunately it kept video feed, and I was able to return it in Sports mode, even though it looked light it wasn't properly responding to the RC inputs. As soon as the GPS signal was lost, I lost sight of it in a matter of seconds and all sorts of things crossed through my mind, mostly things like "this is it, it finally happened, another lost Spark". I managed to keep my cool and saved it using Sports mode, rising it's altitude a bit and then trying to return it through an extremely unstable video feed, where the AC didn't feel like it was properly responding to my RC inputs. Words are not enough to explain what if feels like to see a several hundred-dollar device suddenly disappear from sight and apparently not respond to any control, when it was working perfectly the second before...
I know many people speak about user errors and, as a newbie myself, I bet I constantly make a lot of errors while flying. Still, I wonder how all of a sudden appear a considerable number of posts on this forum speaking about lost GPS, compass errors, etc, after the last firmware update... Since I've made the last compulsory update, while doing some tests at Portugal, I started having an IMU calibration request, every time I turned on the Spark. I read that this should not happen that often, so I always decided to turn the Spark off and on, and then the IMU calibration request would disappear. This was a first sign that worried me, but I kept flying.
One of the main reasons I bought the Spark was to fly it in Iceland. I'm a professional landscape photographer who is addicted to Iceland, and having the possibility to film some sceneries from above was something I always wanted to do. I knew that Iceland is a very demanding place for a drone, but had no idea I would almost loose it because of a series of sudden unexpected errors. Fortunately this happened on the last day of the trip. Before that I flew it with low temperatures, cold batteries, very high Kp's, strong winds, fortunately having no problems.
I'm giving you below Airdata flight log, Phantomhelp flight log, video recording in youtube, Dji Go App flight log video capture in youtube, Blackbox download, everything, so I would really appreciate your help about what happened during this flight.
The flight took place in Sigoldugljufur, a gorgeous Canyon you can find on Google maps here . As you can see, there's a Power Station at a not very high distance, even though there were no high tension pillars near me. The Spark battery was cold at the beginning (long before the errors), and wind was quite strong (for an AC like the Spark).
Before this flight I had tried to fly the Spark twice in the same place, 10 minutes before, and was getting IMU calibration and lost gps errors, but they happened right at the beginning and then dissapeared. Since, like I said above, I have been getting constant IMU calibration warning which then disappear upon AC restart, and since I got no errors when I started the present flight, I thought everything was ok. Quite honestly, I have no idea how a GPS signal which is perfectly stable, can be suddenly lost in half a second and then have this being followed by all sorts of warnings.
Since I bought the Spark I've already flown it a considerable number of times. In retrospective, it seems that now and then there is always some sort of error messagem that pops up, making the whole experience of flying an exercise of stress. Drones are supposed to make us feel free, but that isn't happening with the Spark. If it weren't for the fact that I use the Spark as a content creation tool, I can't imagine myself using it as a stress-relieving device.
AirData Log - Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones
Phantomhelp Log - DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
You can view the recorded video of the Spark when things went bad. I guess that it's at 30 seconds that it lost GPS. Notice how fast it quickly drifts, while I standing there watching ... This is a video capture I made of the iPad screen showing the first two minutes and the last 5 minutes of the flight. As you can see, at the end of the first 2 minutes period there's a sudden GPS loss, which is quickly recovered. The last minutes, well... total chaos!
Flight Controller Log (from my iPad) - DJIFlightRecord_2017-09-17_[07-50-45].txt
Black Box Download Link (from the Spark) - Black Box - Google Drive
Unfortunately I could not download the Data Upload Flight Log through DJI Assistant 2, because the flight files are no longer available! As I had to travel back from Iceland, I had to discharge the Lipo Batteries for the flight, so the quickest way I found out to do it (I could not fly it, it was raining badly on the last day) was to turn on the Spark synced to the RC and iPad, with camera on. Unfortunately it looks like logs for these "flights" were created, overwriting the problematic flight file. Is there any way to retrieve it?
Thanks a LOT for your help!
I know many people speak about user errors and, as a newbie myself, I bet I constantly make a lot of errors while flying. Still, I wonder how all of a sudden appear a considerable number of posts on this forum speaking about lost GPS, compass errors, etc, after the last firmware update... Since I've made the last compulsory update, while doing some tests at Portugal, I started having an IMU calibration request, every time I turned on the Spark. I read that this should not happen that often, so I always decided to turn the Spark off and on, and then the IMU calibration request would disappear. This was a first sign that worried me, but I kept flying.
One of the main reasons I bought the Spark was to fly it in Iceland. I'm a professional landscape photographer who is addicted to Iceland, and having the possibility to film some sceneries from above was something I always wanted to do. I knew that Iceland is a very demanding place for a drone, but had no idea I would almost loose it because of a series of sudden unexpected errors. Fortunately this happened on the last day of the trip. Before that I flew it with low temperatures, cold batteries, very high Kp's, strong winds, fortunately having no problems.
I'm giving you below Airdata flight log, Phantomhelp flight log, video recording in youtube, Dji Go App flight log video capture in youtube, Blackbox download, everything, so I would really appreciate your help about what happened during this flight.
The flight took place in Sigoldugljufur, a gorgeous Canyon you can find on Google maps here . As you can see, there's a Power Station at a not very high distance, even though there were no high tension pillars near me. The Spark battery was cold at the beginning (long before the errors), and wind was quite strong (for an AC like the Spark).
Before this flight I had tried to fly the Spark twice in the same place, 10 minutes before, and was getting IMU calibration and lost gps errors, but they happened right at the beginning and then dissapeared. Since, like I said above, I have been getting constant IMU calibration warning which then disappear upon AC restart, and since I got no errors when I started the present flight, I thought everything was ok. Quite honestly, I have no idea how a GPS signal which is perfectly stable, can be suddenly lost in half a second and then have this being followed by all sorts of warnings.
Since I bought the Spark I've already flown it a considerable number of times. In retrospective, it seems that now and then there is always some sort of error messagem that pops up, making the whole experience of flying an exercise of stress. Drones are supposed to make us feel free, but that isn't happening with the Spark. If it weren't for the fact that I use the Spark as a content creation tool, I can't imagine myself using it as a stress-relieving device.
AirData Log - Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones
Phantomhelp Log - DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
You can view the recorded video of the Spark when things went bad. I guess that it's at 30 seconds that it lost GPS. Notice how fast it quickly drifts, while I standing there watching ... This is a video capture I made of the iPad screen showing the first two minutes and the last 5 minutes of the flight. As you can see, at the end of the first 2 minutes period there's a sudden GPS loss, which is quickly recovered. The last minutes, well... total chaos!
Flight Controller Log (from my iPad) - DJIFlightRecord_2017-09-17_[07-50-45].txt
Black Box Download Link (from the Spark) - Black Box - Google Drive
Unfortunately I could not download the Data Upload Flight Log through DJI Assistant 2, because the flight files are no longer available! As I had to travel back from Iceland, I had to discharge the Lipo Batteries for the flight, so the quickest way I found out to do it (I could not fly it, it was raining badly on the last day) was to turn on the Spark synced to the RC and iPad, with camera on. Unfortunately it looks like logs for these "flights" were created, overwriting the problematic flight file. Is there any way to retrieve it?
Thanks a LOT for your help!
Either something is up with your Spark or you were flying in one of those "Bermuda Triangle" areas for quads.
