New Spark, A Few Questions

Chrislaf · Dec 30, 2017

Got a new Spark for Christmas to complement my P3S I have had for a year. I am waiting on a controller from Amazon. In the meantime I might try the Spark with my iPhone 7 while I wait. If my iPhone were to shut off during flight (winter and cold weather is here), would the Spark behave as if I turned a physical controller off - RTH if > 20m or land if <20m? Also, our lakes are frozen over and everything is white from the snow. Should I turn the OA sensors off? The manual states they can be confused by a monchrome landscape. My P3S doesn’t have OA sensors so it is not an issue. Lastly, I usually hand catch my P3S. I’m assuming for the Spark I would just let it hover and then grab it.

Note: I have a battery warmer and am aware I need to keep the battery warm before flight.

Chris

AeroMirage · Dec 30, 2017

Hmmm..... I would wait until the RC arrived. Why take chances?
I only fly with RC. Never by phone.
Call me old school, but the only thing my props have ever hit is bugs!

Chrislaf · Dec 30, 2017

AeroMirage said:
Hmmm..... I would wait until the RC arrived. Why take chances?
I only fly with RC. Never by phone.
Call me old school, but the only thing my props have ever hit is bugs!

That’s what I have been doing but it has been on order for almost 3 weeks from Amazon and still no ship date. I have a Spark Power Pack arriving on Tues from DJI and it was ordered after the RC.

msinger · Dec 30, 2017

Chrislaf said:
If my iPhone were to shut off during flight (winter and cold weather is here), would the Spark behave as if I turned a physical controller off - RTH if > 20m or land if <20m?

The RTH process would be initiated after 20 seconds (instead of 3 seconds).

Check out the "Failsafe RTH" section of the Spark manual for more details about what happens when RTH is initiated at different distances from the home point. There are different scenarios depending on the distance and settings in DJI GO.

Chrislaf said:
our lakes are frozen over and everything is white from the snow. Should I turn the OA sensors off? The manual states they can be confused by a monchrome landscape.

The downward sensors cannot be turned off by turning off OA. Just don't fly close to the surface of the ground and all will be just fine.

Chrislaf said:
I’m assuming for the Spark I would just let it hover and then grab it.

You can catch it just like you catch your P3S. You'll need to be a little more precise with your finger placement though (so you don't lose any fingers). Another option would be to initiate the auto landing process and then hold your hand flat below the Spark as it lands.

Corriefisted · Dec 30, 2017

Chrislaf said:
Got a new Spark for Christmas to complement my P3S I have had for a year. I am waiting on a controller from Amazon. In the meantime I might try the Spark with my iPhone 7 while I wait. If my iPhone were to shut off during flight (winter and cold weather is here), would the Spark behave as if I turned a physical controller off - RTH if > 20m or land if <20m? Also, our lakes are frozen over and everything is white from the snow. Should I turn the OA sensors off? The manual states they can be confused by a monchrome landscape. My P3S doesn’t have OA sensors so it is not an issue. Lastly, I usually hand catch my P3S. I’m assuming for the Spark I would just let it hover and then grab it.

Note: I have a battery warmer and am aware I need to keep the battery warm before flight.

Chris

Hey Chris, yeah the spark will RTH if your phone switches off just as if u had an RC. The forward OA sensors are infrared on the spark so should not cause an issue. It’s the downward sensors that can get confused if flying low over reflective surfaces. I’ve never turned mine off though but haven’t flown in snow. I palm land mine everytime by bringing it close then engaging gesture control.
Couple of wee tips; Make sure you have Bluetooth totally off and in airplane mode on your phone and have a solid gps before you take off. Go vertical about 10m to let it take a photo of the home point for RTH. Also check your compass and imu are good before you launch and that the small red triangle on the map if oriented correctly for the drones direction before you fly. Have fun! Much better with the RC though! And even better if you have FCC mode!!

Chrislaf · Dec 30, 2017

Thank you for your reply.

msinger said:
The RTH process would be initiated after 20 seconds (instead of 3 seconds).

Check out the "Failsafe RTH" section of the Spark manual for more details about what happens when RTH is initiated at different distances from the home point. There are different scenarios depending on the distance and settings in DJI GO.

I did read about this in the manual but it doesn't say anything about RTH if your phone goes off - unless I missed it. The reason I ask is that I had my phone shut-off once due to cold weather when flying my P3S but I still had control with the RC. With the phone as the RC this wouldn't be possible.

The downward sensors cannot be turned off by turning off OA. Just don't fly close to the surface of the ground and all will be just fine.

What about landing and take-off? With my P3S, because of the cold temps now I usually hover for a minute or so to make sure everything is ok before flying off.

You can catch it just like you catch your P3S. You'll need to be a little more precise with your finger placement though (so you don't lose any fingers). Another option would be to initiate the auto landing process and then hold your hand flat below the Spark as it lands.

Do I need to turn on gesture control in this case before engaging auto-land?

Chris

msinger · Dec 30, 2017

Chrislaf said:
Do I need to turn on gesture control in this case before engaging auto-land?

No. I'm suggesting you let the Spark land on your open hand. It cannot tell the difference between a hand and the ground.

Chrislaf · Dec 30, 2017

Corriefisted said:
Hey Chris, yeah the spark will RTH if your phone switches off just as if u had an RC. The forward OA sensors are infrared on the spark so should not cause an issue. It’s the downward sensors that can get confused if flying low over reflective surfaces. I’ve never turned mine off though but haven’t flown in snow. I palm land mine everytime by bringing it close then engaging gesture control.
Couple of wee tips; Make sure you have Bluetooth totally off and in airplane mode on your phone and have a solid gps before you take off. Go vertical about 10m to let it take a photo of the home point for RTH. Also check your compass and imu are good before you launch and that the small red triangle on the map if oriented correctly for the drones direction before you fly. Have fun! Much better with the RC though! And even better if you have FCC mode!!

I always fly my P3S in airplane mode which turns off bluetooth and will do the same with the Spark. Thanks for the tips. I would like to try with my phone while I wait for the RC but it seems it can be unreliable. I would just take a short flight around the home point if I did so. I would think that if flying with an phone (in my case an iPhone 7) was such a problem that DJI would disable it in firmware or issue a warning.