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Spark flew away (with flight records)

Good, follow-up questions. The drone was not there when I checked since it's been many days, unfortunately. But, because I knew where it landed I went and spoke with the Park and Recs Department to see if they had it or would notify me if it was turned in. After posting that link I went into the 3rd party app I was using 3D Survey Pilot and also found a log which is actually where the flight started at 93% battery. When things went haywire and after what felt like multiple minutes of flyaway not responding I manually crashed the app and launched DJI Go App which only picked up the tail end of the flight since it created a new log. The real original flight is actually this one DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com . The home point did record at the correct location as will be more obvious in this new log below. But yes @SPark_South_Oz I agree that it was a Yaw error, I just wish it had notified me of the error before the flight as you'll see it wasn't there initially. I'm thinking about calibrating my compass and IMU before every flight now due to this. Does that seem excessive?
 
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I agree that it was a Yaw error, I just wish it had notified me of the error before the flight as you'll see it wasn't there initially. I'm thinking about calibrating my compass and IMU before every flight now due to this. Does that seem excessive?

Ah, that explains the Go4 log then, home point, and later battery level.

It's REALLY strange how these yaw errors happen, and pilots don't get a compass error.
You'd think that would happen, as it's something interfering with that.
It only has to be very minor though and bam, the flight is doomed usually.

I know from the Mavic Pilots forum, the analysts there are superb, way beyond my (not terribly interested / motivated to learn) skills of reading the logs / using the Budwalker CSV viewer that makes the nice graphs with all the info to confirm various issues.

Always though with this error, the map red arrow doesn't match the actual true orientation on the ground, which is why checking that when the Go4 lady asks is so important.
If there is a mismatch, all that's needed usually is moving a short distance away and seeing if the mismatch resolves.
I would recommend just shutting down between the move, but it might even resolve if the drone is left on (not sure, I've never had this happen in 5 years).

I've only ever had one compass warning, and that was when I was launching from a painted roadside rest area table, thought it was timber . . . on inspection it was heavy steel tubing !
I just moved the drone onto the ground 6 feet away and all good.

You don't normally have to do any compass or imu calibrations unless asked.
I did one when I first got my M1P, the Go4 app asked me to do that, never been asked again, and I have flown it in some different places across Australia, distances with some 3000km (1865 miles) variation in longitude.

I've never been asked to compass calibrate for the Spark.

I guess it doesn't do any harm to calibrate as you mentioned, just be sure you do the compass where you are sure there are no magnetic anomalies, nearby steel, ground metals like high iron content, underground pipes, reinforcing bar in concrete, even as far as not wearing a wrist watch while doing that.

All the best with the M1P for the job, it should manage fine, it's another very good aircraft from DJI, as resilient as the Spark I feel.
 
Ah, that explains the Go4 log then, home point, and later battery level.

It's REALLY strange how these yaw errors happen, and pilots don't get a compass error.
You'd think that would happen, as it's something interfering with that.
It only has to be very minor though and bam, the flight is doomed usually.

I know from the Mavic Pilots forum, the analysts there are superb, way beyond my (not terribly interested / motivated to learn) skills of reading the logs / using the Budwalker CSV viewer that makes the nice graphs with all the info to confirm various issues.

Always though with this error, the map red arrow doesn't match the actual true orientation on the ground, which is why checking that when the Go4 lady asks is so important.
If there is a mismatch, all that's needed usually is moving a short distance away and seeing if the mismatch resolves.
I would recommend just shutting down between the move, but it might even resolve if the drone is left on (not sure, I've never had this happen in 5 years).

I've only ever had one compass warning, and that was when I was launching from a painted roadside rest area table, thought it was timber . . . on inspection it was heavy steel tubing !
I just moved the drone onto the ground 6 feet away and all good.

You don't normally have to do any compass or imu calibrations unless asked.
I did one when I first got my M1P, the Go4 app asked me to do that, never been asked again, and I have flown it in some different places across Australia, distances with some 3000km (1865 miles) variation in longitude.

I've never been asked to compass calibrate for the Spark.

I guess it doesn't do any harm to calibrate as you mentioned, just be sure you do the compass where you are sure there are no magnetic anomalies, nearby steel, ground metals like high iron content, underground pipes, reinforcing bar in concrete, even as far as not wearing a wrist watch while doing that.

All the best with the M1P for the job, it should manage fine, it's another very good aircraft from DJI, as resilient as the Spark I feel.
 
My Spark was returned to me safely! A local group was doing a river cleanup and spotted the aircraft about 10’ from the banks safely perched in tall brush just outside of my search radius. I can’t believe how fortunate I am! The aircraft had successfully completed an emergency landing that kicked in when the battery hit 20%. I’m attaching a photo the guy sent me when he found it. The crazy part is the way he found me was looking on the sd card and referencing the images gps to property tax records. Once he had my name he looked me up on Facebook and saw my public community post about it missing. It’s always pleasant to find good people out there in the world who will not even take a reward offer.

Some final thoughts on this guys. The location where the drone was recovered was about 875’ off from where the logs showed it landed. Am I correct in assuming that this due to the yaw error and abnormal compass error reported in the logs? And last, does anyone know if Spark’s are water proof? During the 3 weeks it sat in the brush in normal landing/take off position it was rained on quite extensively. I’m afraid to try and power it up. I may error on the side of putting it in a bag of rice for a few days 1st unless I can get confirmation that these are sealed devices.
 

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And last, does anyone know if Spark’s are water proof?

Waterproof, No.

Tough, Yes.


There's a vendor on the Mavic site that sells wetsuits for the Mavics so you can fly in the rain.

Sealing the battery from moisture is important since the Mavic batteries sit on top.

The Spark battery may have some protection since it's on the bottom. 🤔

Keep an eye on that one for bulging in the future.

The brushless motors should be fine.

I've read stories of the Spark flying again after freshwater crashes.


I’m afraid to try and power it up. I may error on the side of putting it in a bag of rice for a few days


Desiccant packs may work better along with a can of air for blasting electronics.

.
 
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My Spark was returned to me safely! A local group was doing a river cleanup and spotted the aircraft about 10’ from the banks safely perched in tall brush just outside of my search radius. I can’t believe how fortunate I am! The aircraft had successfully completed an emergency landing that kicked in when the battery hit 20%. I’m attaching a photo the guy sent me when he found it. The crazy part is the way he found me was looking on the sd card and referencing the images gps to property tax records. Once he had my name he looked me up on Facebook and saw my public community post about it missing. It’s always pleasant to find good people out there in the world who will not even take a reward offer.

Some final thoughts on this guys. The location where the drone was recovered was about 875’ off from where the logs showed it landed. Am I correct in assuming that this due to the yaw error and abnormal compass error reported in the logs? And last, does anyone know if Spark’s are water proof? During the 3 weeks it sat in the brush in normal landing/take off position it was rained on quite extensively. I’m afraid to try and power it up. I may error on the side of putting it in a bag of rice for a few days 1st unless I can get confirmation that these are sealed devices.

Wow, that's great !
It probably lost connection before landing, and therefore wasn't able to log the complete flight before auto land.

So now you have that back and the M1P, before doing anything, label your drones with your mobile / cell number, and / or put a file on the micro SD card with your contact info.

Next, if not already done, remove the battery, no trying it in the drone to see if it functions.
It probably auto landed with 5% or less power in the battery, so you might be ok with any possibility of it shorting if it did get rained on.
The battery wouldn't have lasted much longer after landing before it shut down totally.

When the battery is out, I would try a single push and see if any leds came on
Will only be a flashing first led I imagine, indicating very low power (if any leds light up at all).
Either way, put it aside and get the drone checked I think.

I'd start like this . . . take a cover off the Spark and check inside for moisture, search youtube for how to do this, search something like > remove covers from DJI spark drone

Visibly check inside for moisture, hopefully none, but I would give it some drying time anyway, even if it looks dry.

Forget the rice, it's an old wives tale and does very little to help the drying process.
If wanting to help any drying to be perhaps faster (be good if you do see any moisture / condensation inside), get a tupperware type container, buy a lb or half kg of silica gel crystals, wrap the drone in cloth, and place in the container on top of the crystals carefully, don't bother covering, to much risk of dust etc (rice is far the worst for dust though).

Or, if inside looks dry, you can just wrap in a cloth lightly and put it in a warm place, a sunlit window sill, mantle over a fireplace (only if just warm !) a drying cupboard etc.
Leave it a few days, check again, repeat if necessary, but a few days should be ample.

Once the drone is dry.
You have other batteries ?
If so, charge one and try it in the drone, props off, initialise, check gimbal does its dance, check through menus etc, etc.
If all seems ok, got through a motor start up without props and see if it sounds normal.
Then with props on a simple hover test flight outside.

Get more and more bold with testing gradually, until sure it's behaving normally for flight, then take some photos etc and see if that's all ok.
Check your flight logs each time to see if there are any warnings or anomalies through the flights.

The battery that was in it and in the weather, you could try this while the drone is getting a dry out.
If not swollen, I'd certainly test it . . . put on charger, see if it takes a charge.
Make sure not getting unusually hot, not swelling, be extra careful to be there with it in sight while charging.

If it seems ok with normal charging process, when finished I'd try it in the drone in a similar fashion you do with the spare battery above, nice gradual testing before possibly trusting it again.

Good luck with it.
 
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