Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
Search
Search titles only
By:
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Search
Search titles only
By:
Search titles only
By:
Menu
Welcome DJI Spark Pilot!
Jump in and join our free Spark community today!
Sign up
Forums
DJI Spark Forums
Spark Discussions
Stupid & Lucky - A Beginners Tale
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="kgmf" data-source="post: 21792" data-attributes="member: 4683"><p>Hello,</p><p></p><p>I'm just sharing this in case it helps someone not make the same mistakes I did. I've had my spark about a week. Its my first drone, and I'm super excited. I live in Ireland and its winter time so its dark, cold and windy. Terrible time to take up such a hobby but I dove in anyway.</p><p></p><p>Took it out a few times in a park, with great success, despite a wee bit of wind. It works a little to stay stable but it sucdeeds well. Only impact is slightly reduced battery time.</p><p></p><p>In all thoase times I've just popped it on the ground and taken off, nothing more complex than that. This led me to a false sense of confidence in carelessness. </p><p></p><p>Brought it to my friends house. His kids were home and he didn't want to leave them alone for us to go to a park or something, so we went to his backyard. I was so excited to show him the drone i ignored many many common sense issues. His backyard is very small. Bad decisions made that day:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off with no GPS</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off too close to the house (had to swerve to avoid hitting the lip of the roof)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off too close to the house (compass interference)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off too close to the house (IMU interference)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off in the dark</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off in wind<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took off with limited visibility of the surrounding area (fences, other houses etc in the way)</li> </ul><p></p><p>Completely unsurprisingly, the Spark lifted off and then just drifted away very quickly. I tried to bring it back and land it in a panic but it didn't respond as I expected it to and it collided with my friends house but was still flying somewhere above a halfway-up ledge. I now couldn't see it anymore but i could hear it. I tried to bring it back over the grass but instead it collided with his neighbours house, then his neighbours satelite dish and then finally - the ground.</p><p></p><p>Damage report:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">My ego</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1 destroyed rotor blade, 2 damaged rotor blades.<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1 LED light fell off (but was put back on and works)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scratches</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Possibly the neighbours satelite signal (I have contacted them, I will pay for a service if their dish needs to be aligned)</li> </ul><p>Powered it back up and it reports no issues but its now super windy and not safe to fly so I can't test it in flight. Assuming it takes flight again I am incredibly lucky in terms of the damage. I was really stupid with what I did.</p><p></p><p>Assuming you've read this far and aren't saying "you muppet you deserve this mess" I do have some follow up questions. I tried to look at the flight/sensor data but I don't understand it too well. I THINK I see it get the altitude completely wrong (presumably due to interference from the house/electrics). At the point of takeoff, the altitide goes DOWN instead of up. I'm sure this led to confusion and panic and why it moved off to correct this supposed problem.</p><p></p><p>So my questions are:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Is it more likely that the wind took the drone away and the lack of sensors meant it could not recover, or is it more likely the wonky sensors caused it to move away and the wind just made it worse<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In the event that the drone is making the decision to move, will it adhere to the speed limit in the control settings (ie will the drone move away faster than i can attempt to bring it back if i've set the speed limit super low)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Any advice for the first flight after the crash (asside from the "obvious" ie everything i did wrong the last time)</li> </ul><p></p><p>If anyone is interested i'll upload the .dat from the "flight".</p><p></p><p></p><p>Thanks for reading guys. It's been educational for me <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>K</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kgmf, post: 21792, member: 4683"] Hello, I'm just sharing this in case it helps someone not make the same mistakes I did. I've had my spark about a week. Its my first drone, and I'm super excited. I live in Ireland and its winter time so its dark, cold and windy. Terrible time to take up such a hobby but I dove in anyway. Took it out a few times in a park, with great success, despite a wee bit of wind. It works a little to stay stable but it sucdeeds well. Only impact is slightly reduced battery time. In all thoase times I've just popped it on the ground and taken off, nothing more complex than that. This led me to a false sense of confidence in carelessness. Brought it to my friends house. His kids were home and he didn't want to leave them alone for us to go to a park or something, so we went to his backyard. I was so excited to show him the drone i ignored many many common sense issues. His backyard is very small. Bad decisions made that day: [LIST] [*]Took off with no GPS [*]Took off too close to the house (had to swerve to avoid hitting the lip of the roof) [*]Took off too close to the house (compass interference) [*]Took off too close to the house (IMU interference) [*]Took off in the dark [*]Took off in wind [*]Took off with limited visibility of the surrounding area (fences, other houses etc in the way) [/LIST] Completely unsurprisingly, the Spark lifted off and then just drifted away very quickly. I tried to bring it back and land it in a panic but it didn't respond as I expected it to and it collided with my friends house but was still flying somewhere above a halfway-up ledge. I now couldn't see it anymore but i could hear it. I tried to bring it back over the grass but instead it collided with his neighbours house, then his neighbours satelite dish and then finally - the ground. Damage report: [LIST] [*]My ego [*]1 destroyed rotor blade, 2 damaged rotor blades. [*]1 LED light fell off (but was put back on and works) [*]Scratches [*]Possibly the neighbours satelite signal (I have contacted them, I will pay for a service if their dish needs to be aligned) [/LIST] Powered it back up and it reports no issues but its now super windy and not safe to fly so I can't test it in flight. Assuming it takes flight again I am incredibly lucky in terms of the damage. I was really stupid with what I did. Assuming you've read this far and aren't saying "you muppet you deserve this mess" I do have some follow up questions. I tried to look at the flight/sensor data but I don't understand it too well. I THINK I see it get the altitude completely wrong (presumably due to interference from the house/electrics). At the point of takeoff, the altitide goes DOWN instead of up. I'm sure this led to confusion and panic and why it moved off to correct this supposed problem. So my questions are: [LIST] [*]Is it more likely that the wind took the drone away and the lack of sensors meant it could not recover, or is it more likely the wonky sensors caused it to move away and the wind just made it worse [*]In the event that the drone is making the decision to move, will it adhere to the speed limit in the control settings (ie will the drone move away faster than i can attempt to bring it back if i've set the speed limit super low) [*]Any advice for the first flight after the crash (asside from the "obvious" ie everything i did wrong the last time) [/LIST] If anyone is interested i'll upload the .dat from the "flight". Thanks for reading guys. It's been educational for me :) K [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
DJI Spark Forums
Spark Discussions
Stupid & Lucky - A Beginners Tale