Spark gone wild!

[ramar]

Hello,

I've been a PhantomPilots member for a couple of years but this is my first post on SparkPilots.

I'm trying to decide what to do about my Spark. I bought it used last Fall and it worked fine until recently. Now it's plagued with the problems I've been reading about here and on other forums. It started out with just a few compass errors, switching into Atti mode, and brief loss of control. Yesterday evening my son (he's the better pilot) and I took it for a flight to try some troubleshooting and it went crazy. It flew off by itself and wouldn't respond to my son's attempts to regain control. I thought it was gone but it came back and seemed to be responding to controls. My son started to bring it in for a landing and then it suddenly took off again. . . right into a tree. The branches slowed the fall and it appears to be undamaged. Now what? We're nervous about trying to fly it again.

It's not under warranty so I'm guessing DJI isn't the answer. There's a DJI repair shop about 30 minutes from me. Is it worth having them take a look? Anything I can do myself?

 

[chousehold4]

Hello,

I've been a PhantomPilots member for a couple of years but this is my first post on SparkPilots.

I'm trying to decide what to do about my Spark. I bought it used last Fall and it worked fine until recently. Now it's plagued with the problems I've been reading about here and on other forums. It started out with just a few compass errors, switching into Atti mode, and brief loss of control. Yesterday evening my son (he's the better pilot) and I took it for a flight to try some troubleshooting and it went crazy. It flew off by itself and wouldn't respond to my son's attempts to regain control. I thought it was gone but it came back and seemed to be responding to controls. My son started to bring it in for a landing and then it suddenly took off again. . . right into a tree. The branches slowed the fall and it appears to be undamaged. Now what? We're nervous about trying to fly it again.

It's not under warranty so I'm guessing DJI isn't the answer. There's a DJI repair shop about 30 minutes from me. Is it worth having them take a look? Anything I can do myself?

It sounds to me like you have an internal problem . This happened to me and DJI gave me a new one fortunately I was under warranty! Good Luck!

 

[ramar]

It sounds to me like you have an internal problem . This happened to me and DJI gave me a new one fortunately I was under warranty! Good Luck!

An "internal problem" sounds pretty ominous. ?

 

[Anthony kenny]

Hello,

I've been a PhantomPilots member for a couple of years but this is my first post on SparkPilots.

I'm trying to decide what to do about my Spark. I bought it used last Fall and it worked fine until recently. Now it's plagued with the problems I've been reading about here and on other forums. It started out with just a few compass errors, switching into Atti mode, and brief loss of control. Yesterday evening my son (he's the better pilot) and I took it for a flight to try some troubleshooting and it went crazy. It flew off by itself and wouldn't respond to my son's attempts to regain control. I thought it was gone but it came back and seemed to be responding to controls. My son started to bring it in for a landing and then it suddenly took off again. . . right into a tree. The branches slowed the fall and it appears to be undamaged. Now what? We're nervous about trying to fly it again.

It's not under warranty so I'm guessing DJI isn't the answer. There's a DJI repair shop about 30 minutes from me. Is it worth having them take a look? Anything I can do myself?

 

[ramar]

I've found several references to compass errors being caused by the drone being stored near a magnet. Our drone spent most of the winter in a case with a tablet and a DJI charging station. The tablet has a speaker so perhaps a small magnet. I'm not just about the charging station but I doubt it since it designed to hold the drone.

Any ideas?

 

[Scooped]

My drone did the exact same thing. Its an IMU issue I believe from reading different posts. Have sent mine back under warranty.. I did upload the app airdata and it shows the flights and error codes while flying

 

[ramar]

I re-flashed, calibrated IMU and compass and everything appears to be working properly. I believe compass calibration was the key.
Lesson learned: Waiting for the DJI Go app to prompt compass calibration isn't always the best practice.