Flew up to 350 ft and Spark took off. Lost forever. DJI's respnse:

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

So I flew straight up and the Spark flew away to be lost forever. I sent my logs to DJI and below is their response. Unbelievable. The flight record just ended so they can't verify what happened. No ****. Then they offer 30% off coupon. What a joke.
For your claimed case xxxxxxx, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:
1. APP Account: xxxxxxxxx Date and time of the incident:17/09/2017 20:07:35(UTC+8)
2.The aircraft was working in GPS mode, and responded to the RC command well.
3.T=01:58, H=106m, D=14.3m, the flight record interrupted.
4.The pilot was pushing 100% throttle stick up before interruption.
The home point: 44.9374006 -85.2717128
The last point: 44.9373214 -85.2715682
With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards. Sorry for the inconvenience.
We truly appreciate your support for DJI, and especially applied for a 30% off coupon for Spark (Alpine white)aircraft without remote: https://store.dji.com/product/spark?from=menu_products
If you would like to accept the offer, please reply to my email for example “I accept the offer”. And when you place the order online, would you like it ship to the US?
Should you have more questions, please feel free to let me know.

msinger · Sep 27, 2017

cvansice said:
So I flew straight up and the Spark flew away to be lost forever.

What exactly did you see after you flew it straight up?

Did you 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.

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

msinger said:
What exactly did you see after you flew it straight up?

Did you 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.

Appreciate the help but I've ben through all that on another forum. There nothing unusual until it just goes blank and flies off.

Blue Baron · Sep 27, 2017

Interesting the "flight record just ended". This sounds like the firmware crashes on the Spark. I would think that DJI by now knows the symptoms of their issue (firmware malfunction) and I guess "light record just ended" is one of them.

Press harder and communicate to DJI that you are discussing their issue on an intern'l forum ...

msinger · Sep 27, 2017

cvansice said:
Appreciate the help but I've ben through all that on another forum.

So, what did you hope to gain by rehashing the incident here?

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

msinger said:
So, what did you hope to gain by rehashing the incident here?

Awareness so others know that this could happen to any one at any time.

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

Blue Baron said:
Interesting the "flight record just ended". This sounds like the firmware crashes on the Spark. I would think that DJI by now knows the symptoms of their issue (firmware malfunction) and I guess "light record just ended" is one of them.

Press harder and communicate to DJI that you are discussing their issue on an intern'l forum ...

I did. Going to spread the word to many other places if there isn't a better solution. Going to give them a chance first.

WayneMHK · Sep 27, 2017

cvansice said:
Awareness so others know that this could happen to any one at any time.

Well, since I wouldn't fly any of my drones straight up above me to 350 feet, and at full throttle no less, I'll likely not have that issue. Thanks, tho.

Blue Baron · Sep 27, 2017

WayneMHK said:
Well, since I wouldn't fly any of my drones straight up above me to 350 feet, and at full throttle no less, I'll likely not have that issue. Thanks, tho.

What kind of comment is this?
Going straight up to 350ft is a legit use case, if you want constant altitude fly-over footage. And then we have no clue what exactly causes these firmware crashes. It could happen to *you* anytime at whatever *you* consider save flight behaviour ...

We better all know about the current issues Spark has and that it can happen anytime, although with a very small probability only.

WayneMHK · Sep 27, 2017

Blue Baron said:
What kind of comment is this?

It's simply a comment from someone who understands from experience that 350 feet straight up is not the best situation for a good signal.

webvan · Sep 27, 2017

cvansice said:
Appreciate the help but I've ben through all that on another forum. There nothing unusual until it just goes blank and flies off.

If you can't be bothered to upload that file using the link kindly provided by msinger you could at least post a link to that "other forum", the last time we had a "DJI are only offering me a 30% discount" complaint it turned out the guy started a dronie with 22% battery left...

And no one here needs to be "warned" about the DJI rule you're unhappy about, the rules are clear, be it DJI or Parrot, no damaged drone, no replacement. Yeah it sucks, but accidents will happen when you fly a tiny drone out of sight.

msinger · Sep 27, 2017

cvansice said:
Awareness so others know that this could happen to any one at any time.

All we know is your Spark crashed/landed somewhere unexpected. Without more information, we don't know if this is due to a malfunction or pilot error.

Blue Baron · Sep 27, 2017

WayneMHK said:
It's simply a comment from someone who understands from experience that 350 feet straight up is not the best situation for a good signal.

I know, but lost signal isn't the issue here.

After I've seen the video with a Spark falling out of the sky, I am a lot less sceptical about those reports about malfunctions. IMHO, DJI really needs to adopt a graceful policy in case of lost drones.

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

Link:
Spark flew away and is gone. Help.
I'll try to get video of the log when I get home.

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

"And no one here needs to be "warned" about the DJI rule you're unhappy about, the rules are clear, be it DJI or Parrot, no damaged drone, no replacement. Yeah it sucks, but accidents will happen when you fly a tiny drone out of sight."

FYI: It wasn't out of site. I could see it above my and watched it fly away. Maintained line of site at all times, as usual, until it flew away.

msinger · Sep 27, 2017

Here's a link to the uploaded flight log:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

As DJI noted, the flight log does not show anything unusual.

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

The log stopping midflight is normal?

msinger · Sep 27, 2017

Yes, it's normal when the downlink drops.

cvansice · Sep 27, 2017

Then what is supposed to happen?

msinger · Sep 27, 2017

When the downlink drops? Data is no longer sent back to the remote controller. If the remote controller is still connected, you can still fly the Spark (even though it'll appear to be disconnected in DJI GO).

If the remote controller disconnects too, the Spark will automatically initiate RTH after 3 seconds. In your case, it appears your Spark might have switched to ATTI mode and drifted away with the wind. If that happened, that would explain why it could not return back to the home point.