Sport Mode death - has this happened to anyone else?

[Jonny Brikbrak]

Hi all,

My first post, so be kind

I had a weird (actually, quite unsettling) thing happen a couple of weeks back and I'm keen to know if it's happened to anyone else. I put the spark into sport mode and had a play. During one move, the Spark rolled/pitched so far that the rotor safety kicked in - the motors stopped and it fell out of the sky. Fortunately I was only about 8 feet in the air so damage was minimal.

For background, it wasn't a particularly violent move, it wasn't windy and I'm not using any mods or hacked apps.

This has really put me off using sport mode - if this were to happen ay 300feet, I'd be screwed.

Has this happened to anyone else? Did I do something wrong? Any help or advice appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Dronason]

If it happen to somebody, try to retrieve the flight log (.DAT) using dji flight assistant 2. The Spark memory is limited and keep only a few last flight log.
If you retrieve it, then it can be analyzed to see what happened.

 

[Adrian]

Yes it happened to me twice already, first time I couldn't get the logs. Just today this happened yet again. I no longer trust my Spark due to this, had several drones before none of which ever fell out of the sky for no reason at all.
here is my logs from this event toda: Dropbox - DJI_ASSISTANT_EXPORT_FILE_2017-08-19_11-27-32.DAT

Scary stuff. Wondering if it is a defective Spark or firmware issue.

Thanks,

Adrian

 

[Mikel Manitius]

Yes it happened to me twice already, first time I couldn't get the logs. Just today this happened yet again. I no longer trust my Spark due to this, had several drones before none of which ever fell out of the sky for no reason at all.
here is my logs from this event toda: Dropbox - DJI_ASSISTANT_EXPORT_FILE_2017-08-19_11-27-32.DAT

Adrian

Wow. Scary. First time I've heard of this.

Can you upload your log to Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones and share it publicly so we can see the analysis?

 

[Adrian]

Wow. Scary. First time I've heard of this.

Can you upload your log to Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones and share it publicly so we can see the analysis?

Here is the link: Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

I looked around but didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

 

[actionjack]

I think this feature should be removed in an update or modified to prevent mid air shut off with wilder angles or Gs. I used the grab and flip once while retrieving my Spark on the bow of a boat and I bled a lot. Probably needed stitches. Sport mode is a selling feature for this bird except for having it shut off in the air.

 

[Rensyo08]

Same thing happened to me today an hour ago. Went 80ft up in the air, switched to sport mode and full throttled. I looked at my ipad and the next thing i remember was that the Spark got disconnected and total silence. Got really nervous and drove to the last location on my video cache with my wife.

Good thing that she was my lucky charm coz the next thing we saw when we drove to the next street was red blinking lights on the grass! I found my Spark intact and no damage! The angels might have guided it on it's way down to the grass and not concrete!

Now i am afraid to fly it again in sport mode. Although this morning i flew in an open field 5000 ft out in Sport mode and went back safe.

Can i upload my CSV file directly from the Ipad or i have to go through the DJI Assistant 2?

 

[Jonny Brikbrak]

I was kinda hoping that I was the only person this happened to and it was a one off.
This really needs to be raised with DJI because IMHO this is the most dangerous 'glitch' I've heard about.

 

[Rensyo08]

I checked my flight data at AirData UAV and didn't find anything unsual.

Is there a way that anyone can actually do a more detailed analysis as to what probably happened?

I was kinda hoping that I was the only person this happened to and it was a one off.
This really needs to be raised with DJI because IMHO this is the most dangerous 'glitch' I've heard about.

 

[Durash]

Can u tell us your software and hardware version (Firmware and App Version) is it a new bug in the last updated app?

 

[Rensyo08]

Can u tell us your software and hardware version (Firmware and App Version) is it a new bug in the last updated app?

App ver 4.1.5
Firmware ver 01.00.0500

 

[Adrian]

For my case, I have latest firmware last updated July 2017 and App is version 4.1.5 (2952) which I think is also the latest.
I am pretty sure what is happening is what someone said above, in sports mode it is tilting too much which stops the motors, not sure why this is happening I suspect a firmware flaw.

 

[Rensyo08]

Here is the link: Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

I looked around but didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

This is for my flight. Comparing the battery deviations, we both have one cell possibly abnormal. Could this be the issue why motors shut down in the middle of the flight in sport mode? Too much current drawn from the batt?

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

 

[Adrian]

This is for my flight. Comparing the battery deviations, we both have one cell possibly abnormal. Could this be the issue why motors shut down in the middle of the flight in sport mode? Too much current drawn from the batt?

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

I don't think that's the case, because those are minor deviations according with Airdata, and no major deviations were found, beside I don't think that would cause a motor shutdown unless it was heating up too much of something like that, but even then it would probably limit the power but the motors would still work.

In my case I was turning when it happened, were you performing a turn as well? I really think that is shutting down due to the turn/tilt angle or something like.

 

[Rensyo08]

I was flying forward and not even full throttle in sport mode.

I am here at the park and just flew the Spark in Sport mode using the same battery from yesterday. Performed crazy maneuvers in full throttle but everything seemed to be fine. Forward, backward and sideways. Abrupt stops and all those stuff. Didn't turn off the motors. I did grab it as well, tilted it to shut off the motors and everything went well.

If the emergency stop engaged, then why is it that i was disconnected from the drone yesterday? Lost video on my screen the same time the motors stopped. This morning i tried replicating the same thing and i was still connected after the emergency stop.

Hmmmmm.....

I don't think that's the case, because those are minor deviations according with Airdata, and no major deviations were found, beside I don't think that would cause a motor shutdown unless it was heating up too much of something like that, but even then it would probably limit the power but the motors would still work.


In my case I was turning when it happened, were you performing a turn as well? I really think that is shutting down due to the turn/tilt angle or something like.

 

[xtro83]

I checked my flight data at AirData UAV and didn't find anything unsual.

Is there a way that anyone can actually do a more detailed analysis as to what probably happened?

here on the official forum : DJI SPARK forum

 

[Johnm]

Curious if those are PV panels on the roof or solar thermal?

I was kinda hoping that I was the only person this happened to and it was a one off.
This really needs to be raised with DJI because IMHO this is the most dangerous 'glitch' I've heard

 

[Dronason]

I checked my flight data at AirData UAV and didn't find anything unsual.
Is there a way that anyone can actually do a more detailed analysis as to what probably happened?

You can retrieve the .DAT flight record of the Spark as explained HERE. Then you can upload them to something like dropbox and post a link here.
Then it can be checked more in details. There is limited space for these flight records in the Spark, older are deleted to have space for new, so retrieval should be done as early as possible.
You can also do it yourself from the DAT file and plot flight parameters using the CsvView tools available HERE.
The advantage of using the DAT file is that you get what the Spark has seen and not only what the Go4 app has seen (subset).

 

[Rensyo08]

You can retrieve the .DAT flight record of the Spark as explained HERE. Then you can upload them to something like dropbox and post a link here.
Then it can be checked more in details. There is limited space for these flight records in the Spark, older are deleted to have space for new, so retrieval should be done as early as possible.
You can also do it yourself from the DAT file and plot flight parameters using the CsvView tools available HERE.
The advantage of using the DAT file is that you get what the Spark has seen and not only what the Go4 app has seen (subset).

Thank you so much for the reply. I tried downloading the flight data using DJI assistant 2 but it isn't displaying anything upon clicking Data Upload. All i get is the spinning wheel. Any suggestions?

 

[Rensyo08]

You can retrieve the .DAT flight record of the Spark as explained HERE. Then you can upload them to something like dropbox and post a link here.
Then it can be checked more in details. There is limited space for these flight records in the Spark, older are deleted to have space for new, so retrieval should be done as early as possible.
You can also do it yourself from the DAT file and plot flight parameters using the CsvView tools available HERE.
The advantage of using the DAT file is that you get what the Spark has seen and not only what the Go4 app has seen (subset).

I managed to see the list of flight data files. Unfortunately, the data when my bird dropped from the sky got automatically deleted since I flew yesterday trying to replicate my flight to find out what happened