Another one bites the dust

[Rodrigo Herrera]

I've been flying my spark consistently around once a week since I got it las july. Usually with OTG, but lately with Wifi as OTG was not getting telemetry with new versions and wifi seems to be getting more reliable lately.

Last night I tried OTG again with the latest version 4.2.6. Hooked everything up as usual, Got the green "Ready to fly sign" on the top left. As soon as I took off, the Spark went speeding forward as if it were in sport mode and in less than 5 seconds got lost out of sight in the street in front (I was taking off from the roof of my building where I've done it dozens of times and I feel perfectly safe).

I searched for it for a couple of hours but nothing. It's a complete mystery to me what could have happened and since the telemetry doens't work on OTG I don't have any data to work with.

Just to warn you guys. Be carefu flying with OTG with versions above 4.1.15

Guess I won't be around here for some time until I replace my spark which is ridiculously expensive in Argentina.

 

[msinger]

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

 

[Rodrigo Herrera]

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

Hi msinger, Thanks for your help, I uploaded the flight log to the website. And I'm uploading the TXT right here so you can take a look.

 

[msinger]

Here's your uploaded flight log:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[msinger]

The Spark seemed to be responding to your stick inputs. It was flying in ATTI mode, so that would explain why it continued to travel forward when you let go of the sticks. And if it was windy on top of those buildings, then your Spark would have also been drifting with the wind (since it was in ATTI mode).

 

[Rodrigo Herrera]

The Spark seemed to be responding to your stick inputs. It was flying in ATTI mode, so that would explain why it continued to travel forward when you let go of the sticks. And if it was windy on top of those buildings, then your Spark would have also been drifting with the wind (since it was in ATTI mode).

Actually it wasn't windy at all. That's the weird part.

 

[msinger]

According to Weather Underground, there were wind gusts up to 18 MPH around that time. See more details here.

 

[Dante' Watson]

I've been flying my spark consistently around once a week since I got it las july. Usually with OTG, but lately with Wifi as OTG was not getting telemetry with new versions and wifi seems to be getting more reliable lately.

Last night I tried OTG again with the latest version 4.2.6. Hooked everything up as usual, Got the green "Ready to fly sign" on the top left. As soon as I took off, the Spark went speeding forward as if it were in sport mode and in less than 5 seconds got lost out of sight in the street in front (I was taking off from the roof of my building where I've done it dozens of times and I feel perfectly safe).

I searched for it for a couple of hours but nothing. It's a complete mystery to me what could have happened and since the telemetry doens't work on OTG I don't have any data to work with.

Just to warn you guys. Be carefu flying with OTG with versions above 4.1.15

Guess I won't be around here for some time until I replace my spark which is ridiculously expensive in Argentina.

So I'm not the only one who has a telemetry problem with OTG. I have never got it to work. When I realized that the telemetry wasn't working I immediately switched to Wi-Fi to avoid your experience. Sorry to hear about your Spark.

 

[ChrisCatcher]

What is the problem with DJI?
Why they are doing this?
Maybe its time to find another drones?
I am so angry since my spark became an expensive gadget

 

[Dante' Watson]

What is the problem with DJI?
Why they are doing this?
Maybe its time to find another drones?
I am so angry since my spark became an expensive gadget

I understand that feeling. Losing a drone stinks. That is the only problem I've ever had. I ha e Mavic Pro too and so far so good. Although, I do wanna explore a new brand. There has to be another company who can provide similar drones. Like Autel, you should look into them, but they don't have as many options as DJI.

 

[Criptix]

I had 2 times problems with my spark with GPS and compass problems. Both times when I used OTG. For the rest I used wifi. With the compass problems I had no control over the spark [emoji54]. It's my second spark sinds I lost the first one when it dropped out of the sky with no mistake of mine, after a lot of trouble DJI admitted it and gave me a free RMA. But that was in August and before the obligated update in September.
So I never use OTG again, always on wifi.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G900F met Tapatalk

 

[ulnar]

It's a big error fly with otg without telemetry. In android you must choose 4.1.15 and otg, or last version with wifi. I can fly without battery info, but NOT without satellite info.

 

[Peter Case]

Is there an app that’s allows you to read the flight logs? Where can you find them?

 

[Rodrigo Herrera]

Yes there is. A fellow flyer on the forum gave me the link two days ago.
You can see the flight log in particular here:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[NyJosh]

To OP, I'm terribly sorry to hear you lost your Spark. I'm pretty sure that's the one thing all of us dread the most.

I'm sure this won't be popular, but I am just not comfortable even considering flying with an OTG cable. To my knowledge, DJI has never supported it on the Spark. Just because people discovered it worked and you "could", doesn't mean you should.

I know it overcomes various issues and improves some user experiences, but I have to assume that if it was tested and known to be safe, DJI would have publicly stated it's a supported option.

The fact that they haven't (to my knowledge) and in recent app versions seem to have actively eliminated normal function with it, makes me think it's not safe and may even have known issues that haven't been publicly disclosed. Being in an engineering community, I can easily imagine the scenario went something like "let's build OTG support into the upcoming Spark drone! Ok! Hey boss, we did some last minute testing on OTG and found some problems we haven't figured out how to fix. OK, well it's too late to change the hardware to remove the option, but we just won't support it or cover it in documentation".

When one of my users comes to me saying "Hey, I've been using your product in this unsupported way and your latest update broke that ability!" my answer unfortunately has to be "it's unsupported for a reason and just because you found that you could do something in a way it wasn't intended, doesn't mean you should and we certainly can't support you doing it that way".

From a purely engineering standpoint, the right answer is to solve the issues people have been using the OTG cable for within the app and hardware that IS supported. Fix the issue and people won't look for a workaround.

If the limitation is on the user's phones / tablets, there isn't much DJI can do about that beyond publishing a list of devices they've successfully tested to work with their products and produce the results they say their product can achieve.

That's ultimately the toughest nut to crack - there are tens of thousands of smart phones and tablets out there in unlimited combinations of OS and hardware versions. It's all but impossible to certify / decertify even a fraction of them.

 

[Dante' Watson]

To OP, I'm terribly sorry to hear you lost your Spark. I'm pretty sure that's the one thing all of us dread the most.

I'm sure this won't be popular, but I am just not comfortable even considering flying with an OTG cable. To my knowledge, DJI has never supported it on the Spark. Just because people discovered it worked and you "could", doesn't mean you should.

I know it overcomes various issues and improves some user experiences, but I have to assume that if it was tested and known to be safe, DJI would have publicly stated it's a supported option.

The fact that they haven't (to my knowledge) and in recent app versions seem to have actively eliminated normal function with it, makes me think it's not safe and may even have known issues that haven't been publicly disclosed. Being in an engineering community, I can easily imagine the scenario went something like "let's build OTG support into the upcoming Spark drone! Ok! Hey boss, we did some last minute testing on OTG and found some problems we haven't figured out how to fix. OK, well it's too late to change the hardware to remove the option, but we just won't support it or cover it in documentation".

When one of my users comes to me saying "Hey, I've been using your product in this unsupported way and your latest update broke that ability!" my answer unfortunately has to be "it's unsupported for a reason and just because you found that you could do something in a way it wasn't intended, doesn't mean you should and we certainly can't support you doing it that way".

From a purely engineering standpoint, the right answer is to solve the issues people have been using the OTG cable for within the app and hardware that IS supported. Fix the issue and people won't look for a workaround.

If the limitation is on the user's phones / tablets, there isn't much DJI can do about that beyond publishing a list of devices they've successfully tested to work with their products and produce the results they say their product can achieve.

That's ultimately the toughest nut to crack - there are tens of thousands of smart phones and tablets out there in unlimited combinations of OS and hardware versions. It's all but impossible to certify / decertify even a fraction of them.

Great post. My Mavic Pro came with the cable and it works flawlessly. Dji definitely supports it. I hadn't thought of it that way. I only fly Wi-Fi with my Spark.

 

[David Smalley]

I understand that feeling. Losing a drone stinks. That is the only problem I've ever had. I ha e Mavic Pro too and so far so good. Although, I do wanna explore a new brand. There has to be another company who can provide similar drones. Like Autel, you should look into them, but they don't have as many options as DJI.

Would Parrot be a good option?

 

[Dante' Watson]

Would Parrot be a good option?

I've been looking at the Parrot and so far they look stable, although I haven't seen one in action other than YouTube. I would like to have a fleet of drones that consist of different manufacturers other than just DJI. Autel is another good options but they only have a few drones on the market.

 

[Rafa7]

Can someone confirm that OTG cable is not supported by DJI on the Spark? That is what I use with my iPad mini 2 and I don't want to be part of the statistic.

 

[suprPHREAK]

Can someone confirm that OTG cable is not supported by DJI on the Spark? That is what I use with my iPad mini 2 and I don't want to be part of the statistic.

It is not now, nor has it ever been, supported by DJI. It just happens to work, for some.