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Remain calm

skipper420

Well-Known Member
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Jan 6, 2019
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55
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24
Went out this afternoon flew over an elctric fenced pasture at an altitude of 250ft distance out1250ft then all the sudden i get a warning about magnetic interference then it drops gps and goes into atti.....i immediately let off the controls,turned on attitude indicator and flew it back as soon as i crossed out of that pasture gps was back and all normal. Im guessing an electric pasture fence emits magnetism. Anybody else encounter this?
 
An electric fence puts out a 16 - 20,000 volt pulse about once per second. Yeah, I suppose that could interfere with the Spark o_O
 
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This for the Mavic but the same rules apply for the Spark.


It may take a few times of watching it to grasp all of the information concerning the attitude indicator.
 
There is one thing that you should bear in mind, in order for the attitude/orientation to be accurate and show the direction in which the spark is pointing, the tablet or mobile phone that you are using must have a magnetic compass sensor. I struggled for months to realise this, and only identified the need when loading a compass app onto my device. When I tried to use the compass it told me that my tablet did not have a sensor so it would not work. You would be amazed how many do not have this feature. The go 4 app obviously uses the mobile sensor to show orientation of the spark in the display. Being able to know which direction the spark is pointing is invaluable in attitude mode, or when it is out of line of sight. Not that I fly out of line of sight, obviously. Lol
 
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There is one thing that you should bear in mind, in order for the attitude/orientation to be accurate and show the direction in which the spark is pointing, the tablet or mobile phone that you are using must have a magnetic compass sensor. I struggled for months to realise this, and only identified the need when loading a compass app onto my device. When I tried to use the compass it told me that my tablet did not have a sensor so it would not work. You would be amazed how many do not have this feature. The go 4 app obviously uses the mobile sensor to show orientation of the spark in the display. Being able to know which direction the spark is pointing is invaluable in attitude mode, or when it is out of line of sight. Not that I fly out of line of sight, obviously. Lol
Have no idea if my phone has that or not. Does the triangle move away from center as you fly out away from you? Not sure how you would know which direction to move the spark otherwise.
 
Have no idea if my phone has that or not. Does the triangle move away from center as you fly out away from you? Not sure how you would know which direction to move the spark otherwise.
If you download a compass app, when you try to run the app if it works you have got the magnetic sensor in your device, if it doesn't work it will tell you you have no sensor. There are two views in the bottom left corner, selectable by touching the corner of the graphic. If you have a magnetic sensor in you phone/tablet, one view is the map view, showing the route you have taken with orientaion of the spark, second is the horizon view, showing orientation of the spark relative to the controller and the horizon level, left and right plus the horizon level up and down. It is like you see in fixed wing flight software. Going up/down, banking left/right. Hope this helps, describing software is not my forte.
 
The video above is good but the red triangle representing the drone stays in the center of the circle. If you are flying far enough away that you no longer have los, how do you know what direction home is if the red triangle stays in the center of the circle.
 
If you download a compass app, when you try to run the app if it works you have got the magnetic sensor in your device, if it doesn't work it will tell you you have no sensor. There are two views in the bottom left corner, selectable by touching the corner of the graphic. If you have a magnetic sensor in you phone/tablet, one view is the map view, showing the route you have taken with orientaion of the spark, second is the horizon view, showing orientation of the spark relative to the controller and the horizon level, left and right plus the horizon level up and down. It is like you see in fixed wing flight software. Going up/down, banking left/right. Hope this helps, describing software is not my forte.

As a private pilot, I initially found the horizon display confusing. It works the same as an artificial horizon in an aircraft for pitch, but is the reverse of what I expected to see for roll. Not sure why they chose to do it this way.
 
The video above is good but the red triangle representing the drone stays in the center of the circle. If you are flying far enough away that you no longer have los, how do you know what direction home is if the red triangle stays in the center of the circle.
The triangle doesn't stay in the center of the circle. It's a very large scale representation, so you have to move the spark a significant distance from the controller before it becomes noticeable. The video link above is worth watching, but check out this one too.

 
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The triangle doesn't stay in the center of the circle. It's a very large scale representation, so you have to move the spark a significant distance from the controller before it becomes noticeable. The video link above is worth watching, but check out this one too.

Thanks. Makes perfect sense now.
 
My phone has no compass so north on the indicator doesn't move but the red triangle does this is the spark, just point it back towards the white dot in center and watch distance worked well for me and yes its confusing but when in atti mode good thing to know
 
Here's another video explaining the same thing. I think I'm starting the get it.
Really helpful vid there. I've been wondering about that lower left indicator and exactly what it represents. Nice when someone else does the explaining, the manual is pretty thin on this. The more one understands, the less likely we are to have a flyaway disaster. Well done!
 
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Really helpful vid there. I've been wondering about that lower left indicator and exactly what it represents. Nice when someone else does the explaining, the manual is pretty thin on this. The more one understands, the less likely we are to have a flyaway disaster. Well done!
That's right. Generally speaking if you have line if sight you can see the orientation of the Spark, but there are also occasions where you cannot, particularly if you drift out of line of sight. I suspect that a very high percentage of flyaways and lost quads have been a result of the panic that sets in when you have no idea which way the spark is pointing and which way to fly it back toward you. The description in the DJI literature really is dismal for something that I believe is a very important thing to understand and be confident with. This thread should really be shared with, and read by, all our members.
 
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