Disgusted by DJI customer care behavior, need technical help...

[adolfo melilli]

Hello everybody, I'm new to this forum.. My Spark lost GPS during a mountain Journey, it suddenly went into ATTI Mode and I was not able to preventing it from crashing against a tree,.,
Gimbal lens cover is cracked, but the lens is still free.. so the image is good, I also lost a cap under a motor.. but I guess it can be replaced,,
The only issue I have is I can't calibrate compass anymore, I can successfully go from the "yellow LED phase" to the "green LED phase", but next step (the "nose down" one) ends with an error due to magnetic interference.

The strange thing is: Radar in the App works correctly, it is still indicating the right orientation and the craft does fly fine... that makes me think the compass is OK...... mmmhh... so?

I bought DJI Care Refresh together with the drone, 4 months ago, but DJI "lost it", my aircraft's S/N results as "not bound" to any DJI Care Refresh... since some days i'm filling them with mails reporting my order info, they keep me answering "ohh we are sorry, we forwarded your concern to the right department and we will let you know as soon as possible"..

So, I decided to try to fix it myself... I thought I could get help from forum.dji.com, but noone gives technical help there, the only thing they repeat for any trouble is. "you should return the unit to DJI for repair."..

What I'm looking for is some kind of knowledge (I'm an Electronic Designer) to explain why a Compass that seems to be working, can't be calibrated anymore after a crash..

Thankyou for any hint

 

[The Editor]

Hello everybody, I'm new to this forum.. My Spark lost GPS during a mountain Journey, it suddenly went into ATTI Mode and I was not able to preventing it from crashing against a tree,.,
Gimbal lens cover is cracked, but the lens is still free.. so the image is good, I also lost a cap under a motor.. but I guess it can be replaced,,
The only issue I have is I can't calibrate compass anymore, I can successfully go from the "yellow LED phase" to the "green LED phase", but next step (the "nose down" one) ends with an error due to magnetic interference.

The strange thing is: Radar in the App works correctly, it is still indicating the right orientation and the craft does fly fine... that makes me think the compass is OK...... mmmhh... so?

I bought DJI Care Refresh together with the drone, 4 months ago, but DJI "lost it", my aircraft's S/N results as "not bound" to any DJI Care Refresh... since some days i'm filling them with mails reporting my order info, they keep me answering "ohh we are sorry, we forwarded your concern to the right department and we will let you know as soon as possible"..

So, I decided to try to fix it myself... I thought I could get help from forum.dji.com, but noone gives technical help there, the only thing they repeat for any trouble is. "you should return the unit to DJI for repair."..

What I'm looking for is some kind of knowledge (I'm an Electronic Designer) to explain why a Compass that seems to be working, can't be calibrated anymore after a crash..

Thankyou for any hint

There is no 'nose down' phase when calibrating the Spark compass.
The first rotation is with the aircraft orientated the right way up and the second is with the aircraft on it side. No nose down maneuver.

 

[Kilrah]

Side or nose down doesn't matter, you can do any of them.

What I'm looking for is some kind of knowledge (I'm an Electronic Designer) to explain why a Compass that seems to be working, can't be calibrated anymore after a crash..

The compass is in the front sensor board, if that moved due to the crash it could prevent calibration due to inconsistency with expected values.

 

[adolfo melilli]

There is no 'nose down' phase when calibrating the Spark compass.
The first rotation is with the aircraft orientated the right way up and the second is with the aircraft on it side. No nose down maneuver.

Ough... that sounds quite new to me, I own Phantom2 V+, Phantom3 Pro and Mavic, and since the beginning (4 years ago) I used to calibrate compass the same way for all DJI devices I had...

I admit I did not read the manual, I could not imagine that calibration procedure had changed, but I own the Spark since mid june and so far I never had calibration issues, so something is changed after the crash...

I will try to calibrate with the right sequence tonight, when I'm back from work and let you know,,
Thankyou for now...

 

[adolfo melilli]

Side or nose down doesn't matter, you can do any of them.



The compass is in the front sensor board, if that moved due to the crash it could prevent calibration due to inconsistency with expected values.

Thanks, that's interesting, I would not like to tear everything down, but if the compass board is easily reachable I will try to lift up the plastic "roof" of the drone and have a look inside....

 

[Dronason]

Ough... that sounds quite new to me, I own Phantom2 V+, Phantom3 Pro and Mavic, and since the beginning (4 years ago) I used to calibrate compass the same way for all DJI devices I had...

I admit I did not read the manual, I could not imagine that calibration procedure had changed, but I own the Spark since mid june and so far I never had calibration issues, so something is changed after the crash...

I will try to calibrate with the right sequence tonight, when I'm back from work and let you know,,
Thankyou for now...

I think there is a difference between the manual and what the Go4 indicate during the calibration. In fact it seems that both are possible, it totally depend how the firmware is doing the calibration.
At least I followed the one in the Go4 app and it worked nicely.

I would do compass calibration as per Go4 app, IMU calibration. Finally a test flight for the compass, just climbing at 30 meters, do 2 360° rotations, one in each direction and land.
Then you can check the calibration by retrieving these flight records from the Spark as a .DAT file using DJI assistant 2, explained HERE.

The following tools will extract the flight record from a DJI assistant DAT file into DAT file like FLYnnn.DAT and will use that file.
They are available HERE.

There are:

• CsvView will plot the first flight record found in the DAT file.
• ExtractDJI will split one DAT files containing flight records into one DAT file for each flight.
• DatCon is a converter tool to generate various file format.

You must read the documentation on the web site before trying CsvView, it helps a lot to start correctly.
You can display several plots at same time and the zoom + cursor is sync over the plots.
There is also GeoPlayer that can plot the flight on map, also cursor is sync with plots.

Finally MagDataPlayer (see documentation for details) that plot the magnetic field vector. Note that it is sync with the zoom of the plots. Usually good to zoom on flight at some altitude before activating it so you can evaluate the calibration of the compass out of influence.

You should be able to check that accelerometers are correctly calibrated by checking the earth gravity on each of the X, Y and Z axis.
Gyro can be check for function with the 2 360° rotation.
Compass is checked by the 2 rotations and using the MagDataPlayer when zoom in the plot portion when altitude is at 30 meters.

Hope it helps.

 

[adolfo melilli]

I think there is a difference between the manual and what the Go4 indicate during the calibration. In fact it seems that both are possible, it totally depend how the firmware is doing the calibration.
At least I followed the one in the Go4 app and it worked nicely.

I would do compass calibration as per Go4 app, IMU calibration. Finally a test flight for the compass, just climbing at 30 meters, do 2 360° rotations, one in each direction and land.
Then you can check the calibration by retrieving these flight records from the Spark as a .DAT file using DJI assistant 2, explained HERE.

The following tools will extract the flight record from a DJI assistant DAT file into DAT file like FLYnnn.DAT and will use that file.
They are available HERE.

There are:

• CsvView will plot the first flight record found in the DAT file.
• ExtractDJI will split one DAT files containing flight records into one DAT file for each flight.
• DatCon is a converter tool to generate various file format.

You must read the documentation on the web site before trying CsvView, it helps a lot to start correctly.
You can display several plots at same time and the zoom + cursor is sync over the plots.
There is also GeoPlayer that can plot the flight on map, also cursor is sync with plots.

Finally MagDataPlayer (see documentation for details) that plot the magnetic field vector. Note that it is sync with the zoom of the plots. Usually good to zoom on flight at some altitude before activating it so you can evaluate the calibration of the compass out of influence.

You should be able to check that accelerometers are correctly calibrated by checking the earth gravity on each of the X, Y and Z axis.
Gyro can be check for function with the 2 360° rotation.
Compass is checked by the 2 rotations and using the MagDataPlayer when zoom in the plot portion when altitude is at 30 meters.

Hope it helps.

Wow!! Thanks so much! Sure this will help, that's the kind of techincal approach I was looking for!
Unfortunately I fear I have to wait till the weekend to look into it, I'm out for work morning to evening during the week, anyway this bunch of information is quite PRECIOUS...!!!

 

[Dronason]

Wow!! Thanks so much! Sure this will help, that's the kind of techincal approach I was looking for!
Unfortunately I fear I have to wait till the weekend to look into it, I'm out for work morning to evening during the week, anyway this bunch of information is quite PRECIOUS...!!!

You are welcome.
If you like to go in depth, that's definitively the way to go.

 

[suprPHREAK]

There is no 'nose down' phase when calibrating the Spark compass.
The first rotation is with the aircraft orientated the right way up and the second is with the aircraft on it side. No nose down maneuver.

The app literally says "nose down" we doing a calibration.

OP: why not be patient for the Care Refresh issue to be resolved? If you open it up, they will likely deny all coverage...

 

[adolfo melilli]

You are welcome.
If you like to go in depth, that's definitively the way to go.

Mainly because I use my Spark not just for fun, I have commissioned jobs and I have made commitments with deadlines, in Italy it's a legal hassle to use bigger drones, the Spark weights 300 grams and is allowed for work operations in an urban center....

If I wait for the Care Refresh issue to be solved (who knows when), then I ship it,then I wait for them to send back a new one.. I run the risk to pay penalties,,, and in the meantime I cannot certainly use the Phantom or the Mavic in the city's main square....

 

[His415]

I know there are some shops around here that rent drones. If that's a possibility that might be a way to go.

 

[Kilrah]

Buy another one while this one gets repaired, then sell it once it's back...
It's always essential to have a backup machine for jobs.

 

[rcflyingaddict]

Buy another one while this one gets repaired, then sell it once it's back...
It's always essential to have a backup machine for jobs.

Seems the obvious answer if you are getting paid - invest 400/500 on a backup S.