Bye bye Sparkie!

[AlanMS]

I was until yesterday, the proud owner of a spark. It was a brief but exciting relationship. I purchased a Trello in December and was hooked! I upgraded to a Spark a month later. We shared many fun times together but yesterday it filed for divorce and I haven’t seen it since. It was 50m up and 100m out (not far at all) in a light breeze in a built up residential area when it suddenly disconnected and disappeared out of site. I pressed the return to home button after a minute or two (usually it auto returns) but 15 minutes later there was still no sign of it. It had GPS lock, I never take off without that and the home point was verified as correct just after takeoff. I spent the next hour pacing up and down the field but no success.
I tried the “find my drone” app but as far as I can tell it just indicated the location at the time it became disconnected.

Anyone have any advice as to my next step, I miss her terribly

 

[Fairwind]

That is very strange as it seems you had cleared all checks before take off. What was your RTH altitude set at and how many satellites did you have? Last do you have another drone you can put up in the area to search where it may have went down?

 

[Andre Levite]

Did you get any error messages during the flight?

You can upload the flight record to better pinpoint the possible crash/landing site.

 

[AlanMS]

Hello Fairwind, thank you for the reply. I was connected to 18 satellites at the time of the disconnect. My RTH altitude was 30m. See attached screenshots just before disconnect and at disconnect.

 

[AlanMS]

Hello Andre,
Nope, no warnings at all. I have no data after it became disconnected.

 

[Paul215]

Sorry for the lost of your buddy In the upper screenshot you can see it was Atti mode (No GPS connection). RTH is GPS controlled and can't work without GPS. Can you upload your flightlog at phantomhelp or airdata so we can see what happend?

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

 

[AlanMS]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the comment. The screen shot 2 seconds before I lost contact shows GPS mode with 18 satellites connected. It only went into Atti mode after the disconnect. Or am I misunderstanding you?

 

[sky chameleon]

I was until yesterday, the proud owner of a spark. It was a brief but exciting relationship. I purchased a Trello in December and was hooked! I upgraded to a Spark a month later. We shared many fun times together but yesterday it filed for divorce and I haven’t seen it since. It was 50m up and 100m out (not far at all) in a light breeze in a built up residential area when it suddenly disconnected and disappeared out of site. I pressed the return to home button after a minute or two (usually it auto returns) but 15 minutes later there was still no sign of it. It had GPS lock, I never take off without that and the home point was verified as correct just after takeoff. I spent the next hour pacing up and down the field but no success.
I tried the “find my drone” app but as far as I can tell it just indicated the location at the time it became disconnected.

Anyone have any advice as to my next step, I miss her terribly

I seen on the news just yesterday that the North Pole magnetic field is shifting if I remember correctly, and that will interfere with GPS in general,so maybe that could of been a problem,as I read your post made me think twice of putting my drone up in the air, my spark that is

 

[Paul215]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the comment. The screen shot 2 seconds before I lost contact shows GPS mode with 18 satellites connected. It only went into Atti mode after the disconnect. Or am I misunderstanding you?

Now I'm confused.... The upper screenshot is the last one, isnt it? There you have 17s more flight time then the other screenshot. An there I can see 18 satelites (but all bars are grey) and atti mode. Help me to understand Flightlog helps a lot to reproduce the what happens.

 

[AlanMS]

Hello Paul, you are correct, the top one is the last contact with 18 satellites and in Atti mode. I am trying to attach the flight log.

 

[AlanMS]

Why would it switch to Atti mode if it was connected to 18 satellites? Is that normal?

 

[lmel2005]

If you takeoff with magnetic interference, it will switch to ATTI mode.

 

[Gavieboydgi]

Why would it switch to Atti mode if it was connected to 18 satellites? Is that normal?

It can go into atti mode any time the spark only has one compass and IMU so no others to fall back onto. As soon as it goes into Atti mode you have to really fly the thing, because its not locked onto GPS so if it was windy that day your spark would of being blown which ever way the wind was blowing.
It's weird that you lost video connection, every time mine has gone into atti mode I've always had at least video feed to help me fly the spark back.
Like the poster above me says upload your flight log from your phone and someone can work out which way your spark blew away towards before either auto landing or it might of reconnected to GPS and auto landed

 

[Sparksupersonic]

My Spark did that in Nov. with 9 minutes battery remaining, in an a suburban area with lots of other signals, I never located it either. The video on the edit files showed it further away than the location on flight records when it was last connected. The wind obviously carried it always. Check the video under edit and see if shows anything.
I eventually went through process of emailing with dji about it, they agreed it should be covered under warranty and recently offered me a new one.

 

[AlanMS]

Hello Andre,

Please see below the flight log. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you
Regards
Alan

 

[Paul215]

Hello Andre,

Please see below the flight log. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you
Regards
Alan

Hope it's ok that I uploaded your flightlog. Much easier for all

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

You got the Error "downlink restored" and then the Atti mode.

 

[Pegasus]

Same thing happened to me last December: sudden disconnection. I found it, though, in perfect shape... without the battery! A mystery. Since then I pay special attention the battery clicks into place correctly and never lose sight of the wifi signal strength. I fact, I've never been able to fly farther than 600 m.

 

[Rick W]

It appears that while connected to 18 satellites and flying in Sport Mode there was a loss of reception of the GPSsatellite signals (no bars). Loss of speed error occurred when the GPS position was lost and movement could no longer be detected. The loss of GPS signal pushed you into ATTI mode without a possibility of RTH.
I think it is clear what happened. What remains unclear and disturbing is why. What do you know about the location shown on the last video frame. Large generators, motors, radio signal transmission or some other anomaly that prevented reception of transmission from 18 GPS satellites. I would focus my search in the area of that last video frame. I don’t think Sparkie flew very long in ATTI mode. I also fear it didn’t fly very well in that final decent. Hopefully Sparky can be found and he has health insurance.

 

[Spark 317]

Anyone have any advice as to my next step, I miss her terribly

I'm not sure if this will help but I'll give a try.

I looked up the weather for your area on Wednesday, February 6 and did some fuzzy math.

Your log shows 42% battery left and was a little over 2 minutes in flight during Sport mode.

I don't know the power consumption of the Spark during Sport mode but I assume it's a lot. If the average flight time is 16 minutes per DJI with a full battery, half of that would be 8 minutes. I know there is time lost on the ground while preparing for the flight and you were 2 minutes into it before the loss.

I'm guessing with my fuzzy math that you probably had 5 minutes of battery left and if the Spark was in Atti-mode floating with wind, it could have traveled over to 2 miles away with a 23 mph NE wind at noon and 4:00pm which was the maximum speed that day, until that battery gave out.

Here is a search area you might try.



The wind was from 9 - 23 mph so chances are the Spark didn't go the full distance, making the search area smaller.

Look up in the trees, roofs, etc if the Spark decided to land there.

Good Luck.

 

[AlanMS]

Tha

I'm not sure if this will help but I'll give a try.

I looked up the weather for your area on Wednesday, February 6 and did some fuzzy math.

Your log shows 42% battery left and was a little over 2 minutes in flight during Sport mode.

I don't know the power consumption of the Spark during Sport mode but I assume it's a lot. If the average flight time is 16 minutes per DJI with a full battery, half of that would be 8 minutes. I know there is time lost on the ground while preparing for the flight and you were 2 minutes into it before the loss.

I'm guessing with my fuzzy math that you probably had 5 minutes of battery left and if the Spark was in Atti-mode floating with wind, it could have traveled over to 2 miles away with a 23 mph NE wind at noon and 4:00pm which was the maximum speed that day, until that battery gave out.

Here is a search area you might try.

View attachment 8705

The wind was from 9 - 23 mph so chances are the Spark didn't go the full distance, making the search area smaller.

Look up in the trees, roofs, etc if the Spark decided to land there.

Good Luck.

I'm not sure if this will help but I'll give a try.

I looked up the weather for your area on Wednesday, February 6 and did some fuzzy math.

Your log shows 42% battery left and was a little over 2 minutes in flight during Sport mode.

I don't know the power consumption of the Spark during Sport mode but I assume it's a lot. If the average flight time is 16 minutes