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Well , I lost Sparky.....BUT I FOUND IT!

Toxie

Active Member
Join
Jun 3, 2019
Messages
40
Age
69
Loc
Province of Quebec, Canada
Flew this afternoon all is well. Flew this evening and although RTH properly setup ...Sparky although asked on 3 different opccasions to come back....just hovered at some place I could hear but not see ( over a forest)... I tried to guide it back ..no success....It ran out of juice and went silent.....
 
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Very sorry to hear that. Did you try the "find my drone" feature? You can also check the last flight record and see if you can trace it.
 
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I am working on the recovery methods. Can you elaborate on the 'find my drone ' feature for I am not aware of that one..

Last flight record is being evaluated and after loading the log ( txt file), I for one cannot understand why given that it recorded RTH location before it's flight....upon calling it back on 3 occasion and confirming it was heading back..on all occasions requested, when in actual fact it climbed above the set MAX altitude authorized in my Go 4...and instead of coming back flew away.

Totally weird when 4 hours earlier in a different location Sparky shined for being so obedient, pleasant and sharing some breath taking view points.

Anyhow....focus now is to try to locate and recover the drone....but something is definitely wrong somewhere.... Call RTH 3 times and log shows it agreed and confirmed ...but elected to aim for the Moon (when RTH is set at 20 Meters) and meters (300 +) away from home (when Max permited away is 120 meters)...hence obviously...Sparky ran out of juice and collapsed..now the search is where did it colapse and touch wood did it do so from 40 feet drop ( according to log ??) and softly drop... in the forest....challenge galore and hope galore in the same prayer at this end.

Bottom line there is some obvious pit fall in the DJI claims I am finding them on the hardway.

Obstacle avoidance being the first one that I finally understood today and verified in my afternoon flight ( not the evening fight)....Wind....if Sparky detects wind ..it reacts as if there was a building in front of it.....no way can you move forward in that direction...

And a couple more but moot point if my Sparky experience ends here after 4 days of ..dare I say fly ????!!
 
The "find my drone" feature is nothing but an indication of the last recorded location of your drone. For details, you can watch this video.

But since you are already looking at the flight records, I guess you already know the last recorded location of your Spark along with a bunch of other information. I sincerely hope you find your drone. Really unfortunate that this happened after just 4 days. Good luck with the search. You can also share a link of your flight record here so that people can take a look and may be help you in some way.
 
Thank you kindly for this very informative and simple tip ( Find my Drone)..it gives me a starting point as to where to go look for it..upon review of MY stats, it seems I was not looking at the right place . So given your 'tip', I shall go chasing in the area suggested by the Find my Drone output.
 
Sadly not, I just came back from a 2 hours search in the forest utilizing the guidance from 'find my drone' ( arrow pointing in the direction - that alone took me a good hour to get to the general spot)

I will look for an Android App that can pinpoint me more precisely to the GPS coordinate, although the forest is rather open ( not tick)....a lot of dead wood on the ground so it makes for rough places to crawl into.

So back at it this afternoon..none the less there is a serious issue with the Spark....which right now I cannot fully articulate but none the less....
 
Were you walking around when you were flying sparky? because if you were it may have very well returned home but you were not at the home point.
 
NO not walking and it never did RTH....I could hear it in the distance b ut it wasn't coming back.....it would appear according to some people that sparky was fighting the wind, which is quite possible given that it pick up suddenly and that,s why I was trying to bring it back...for I had no control on it...

I'll load a GPS locating app and go back at it tomorrow morning....
 
Glad that you found it. I examined your flight log and feel that something is definitely not right with your Spark. You have "Not Enough Force/ESC Error" repeated during flight quite a few times. I also noticed that you had the bottom sensors even at altitudes of 75m+. That explains why the AC was going up during RTH. Now that you have found the AC, you should definitely send it to DJI for analysis.

 
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I take notice of your comments, but possibly the not enough force was due to Sparky being cut in a strong wind ...which was a: My mistake to send it flying b: Wind was mild when I sent it but suddenly there was a gust of wind and I lost connection , it reconnected but to no avail would it do RTH.

I must ask however is it normal for the top of the Aircraft to be rather HOT....even inside the house if I power it up ad let it on my desk....after a few minutes it is really hot on the top casing.
 
Yes its normal for the Spark to get heated up even when it is just lying powered on. But more than anything else, you should be concerned about the bottom sensors getting triggered at that altitude. The Spark will always attempt to gain altitude if it senses something below it which was reflected in your flight log. Do you have any assessorie installed on your Spark which may be triggering the sensors? eg: landing gear, sun hood, gimbal protector etc.
 
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Found Sparky resting 20 feet up in a tree in a perfect landing position. Shock the tree and Sparky now back at home resting from its misfortune. Nothing broken and all is well....pheuuuufff....
Happy outcome! After reading about your experience I'm even happier that I installed Loc8tor. Hope I never need it...
 
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Nothing under the AC....however and that I found out the hard way.... Sparky hates wind and Collision avoidance kicks in when their is strong wind and the only way to bring it back is to fly backward.

So possibly the wind gust is what it detected as an object below and it climbed.....

Lesson learned here, contrary to DJI claims that Sparky can handle the wind.....on windy day MY sparky will remain on the tarmac.....not going through this again.
 
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Happy outcome! After reading about your experience I'm even happier that I installed Loc8tor. Hope I never need it...
==============================

NOt sure that Loc8tor brings added benefit for the flight data stored on your cell phone in the DJI Go 4, does provide the GPS location of the down aircraft it is a matter of searching in the vincinity after reaching the location. Then again back up security has no price.
 
Toxie said:
Found Sparky resting 20 feet up in a tree in a perfect landing position. Shock the tree and Sparky now back at home resting from its misfortune. Nothing broken and all is well....pheuuuufff....


good happy for you that's a lot of money to lose ?
 
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Indeed it is and let me assure you that I will be much more carefull on my next flights. I've already re-engaged Beginner mode.....and will find a better place to go fly......
 
Indeed it is and let me assure you that I will be much more carefull on my next flights. I've already re-engaged Beginner mode.....and will find a better place to go fly......

So sorry to hear you lost your bird. I myself have never fully lost a drone. I thought my Mavic Pro was totally gone, and used my Spark to locate it (!).....in the end, I got the Mavic back, the good old fashioned way, walking all over, alerting people.

You might want to look at other DJI models, as IME they are less susceptible to signal loss, interference, etc.

Another thing that has helped me is using an app like Litchi. You can pre-program your 'mission', and then let the drone just go where you want it to go. It's much easier to pay attention to your photos/videos when the drone is on Autopilot. I have lost signal many times with my Spark, but it has always come back, with video onboard.

Best....
 

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