Wifi issue, landed on its own

[JackFL]

Hi everyone. New Spark pilot and new here. Been flying for about a month now and enjoying it a lot. No issues so far......until yesterday. I fly it over the water a lot while boating but thankfully that wasn't the case yesterday. I was video recording some beach footage, flew it out about 200 feet, maybe less and it suddenly started landing on its won. I noticed that I might have lost Wifi signal, battery was almost full. I was able to locate it, thankfully I was nearby at the beach and not flying over water. I'm surprised I lost wifi, it was a residential area on an island. My question is......shouldn't the Spark fly back to me when it lost signal instead of just landing all of the sudden on its own? I'm still learning so your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[zenfly]

I read wifi stuff like this and fly aways too before I bought the Spark and never even tried it on wifi..I bought a cable for between the controller and ipad first. I think it should have come home as long as the Home Point was updated. I have a cable for the Mavic too.

 

[RoarRoar]

Check the available channels and connect to an “empty channel” before you fly. This video will explain that.

Flying on a channel with little to no interference will improve your connection and range.

I read wifi stuff like this and fly aways too before I bought the Spark and never even tried it on wifi..I bought a cable for between the controller and ipad first. I think it should have come home as long as the Home Point was updated. I have a cable for the Mavic too.

The spark connection itself is WiFi from controller to the drone. That’s how it communicates back and fourth. I rarely use the otg cable and regularly fly 2000+ feet out. The cable only makes the video transmission signal slightly better that’s it. Has nothing to do with range.

 

[zenfly]

Stop calling the transmission system on the Mavic Air and indeed Spark WiFi. It is Radio transmission (or RF) that is on 2.4 or 5.8 GHz. The wifi is between the controller and phone/ipad where I have always used a cable..

 

[JackFL]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I do use the controller and the cable. I noticed when the Spark decided to land, the wifi symbol was flashing red so I assumed that was the reason it decided to land. But still cannot figure out why it did not come back to me instead. Doesn't the home point always update automatically?

 

[zenfly]

1. Nope it’s a long range WiFi signal. That’s why it’s flawed sometimes. The Mavic series uses conething called occusync to connect. It’s much more reliable and much longer range than the spark and Mavic air use WiFi as their connection.

I thought 2.4 or 5.8 GHz was a radio signal like a RC plane..You mean to tell me the wifi goes out 2.5 miles? I don't do that but there are a few on youtube that have with their Mavic Air.

 

[RoarRoar]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I do use the controller and the cable. I noticed when the Spark decided to land, the wifi symbol was flashing red so I assumed that was the reason it decided to land. But still cannot figure out why it did not come back to me instead. Doesn't the home point always update automatically?

I had a similar landing issue once it was due to low battery. I’d just use caution the next time and double check your home point or be sure to manually set it next time.

I thought 2.4 or 5.8 GHz was a radio signal like a RC plane..You mean to tell me the wifi goes out 2.5 miles? I don't do that but there are a few on youtube that have with their Mavic Air.

Yes. Look up “Occusync” vs “WiFi” on YouTube. Captain Drone did a great video about this.

 

[zenfly]

I had a similar landing issue once it was due to low battery. I’d just use caution the next time and double check your home point or be sure to manually set it next time.



Yes. Look up “Occusync” vs “WiFi” on YouTube. Captain Drone did a great video about this.

2.4 or 5.8 GHz are radio frequencies that sre used for wifi so isn't wifi just another name for radio controlled?

 

[RoarRoar]

2.4 or 5.8 GHz are radio frequencies that sre used for wifi so isn't wifi just another name for radio controlled?

Scientifically yes it’s is a type of radio frequency.

At this point we are way off the original topic though.

 

[JackFL]

So am I correct in my assumption that the reason for the sudden landing was the loss of wifi signal? Battery was about 85%. Still can't figure out why it did not return to me though, is it because I did not update the home point and assumed it was automatically updated?

 

[Spark 317]

Here's a RTH flow chart. It may or may not be associated with your scenario.



You could retrieve your flight logs by following the instructions here and posting the results, maybe we can see something.

 

[nilanjan118]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I do use the controller and the cable. I noticed when the Spark decided to land, the wifi symbol was flashing red so I assumed that was the reason it decided to land. But still cannot figure out why it did not come back to me instead. Doesn't the home point always update automatically?

Two reasons I can think of why the Spark didn't return home and started auto-landing instead.
1. It went into Atti mode just before losing connection.
2. It entered a No Fly Zone.

 

[JackFL]

Two reasons I can think of why the Spark didn't return home and started auto-landing instead.
1. It went into Atti mode just before losing connection.
2. It entered a No Fly Zone.

Thanks but it did not go into the Atti mode and I'm pretty sure it was not a No Fly Zone, I was at the beach.

 

[JackFL]

Here's a RTH flow chart. It may or may not be associated with your scenario.

View attachment 11354

You could retrieve your flight logs by following the instructions here and posting the results, maybe we can see something.

Thank you. Here it is, not sure how to make any sense of this.

 

[nilanjan118]

Thank you. Here it is, not sure how to make any sense of this.

Here's your flight record in Airdata.

 

[nilanjan118]

The flight seems very normal mostly. Home point is recorded, GPS signal is a bit weak to start with but gets better. Signal strength is also good throughout. You never lost signal. The aircraft was always responsive to your stick inputs. However, the bottom sensors were detecting and obstacle from about 4m 37s at ~75m altitude (which is not normal). And then from 4m 47s, you throttle down completely, while the bottom sensors are still triggered.



So the aircraft thinks it is close to ground and you keep throttling down fully for ~5s. Probably this led the aircraft to go into landing mode at 4m 51s.

 

[RotorWash]

Here's your flight record in Airdata.

Noticed something odd in the flight record but not sure what if anything it would have to do with losing a connection to the RC. The VPS is picking up sporadic altitude readings even with the AC at 40-80m. Normally after 10m the VPS doesn't record altitude. Edit: as you've already noticed, nilanjan118.

 

[JackFL]

The flight seems very normal mostly. Home point is recorded, GPS signal is a bit weak to start with but gets better. Signal strength is also good throughout. You never lost signal. The aircraft was always responsive to your stick inputs. However, the bottom sensors were detecting and obstacle from about 4m 37s at ~75m altitude (which is not normal). And then from 4m 47s, you throttle down completely, while the bottom sensors are still triggered.

View attachment 11357

So the aircraft thinks it is close to ground and you keep throttling down fully for ~5s. Probably this led the aircraft to go into landing mode at 4m 51s.

View attachment 11356

Wow, that's pretty cool, thank you for the explanation. Where do you see that I'm throttling down, out of curiosity?

I think I was trying to bring it down and control it once I received the landing signal. So the mystery is the unknown obstacle? Wonder if maybe it was a bird, the seagulls were very curious when I was flying from the boat a day earlier. Was afraid they might even knock it down.

This still worries me, not sure if I will fly this above water anytime soon. Luckily this happened on the beach.

 

[nilanjan118]

Noticed something odd in the flight record but not sure what if anything it would have to do with losing a connection to the RC. The VPS is picking up sporadic altitude readings even with the AC at 40-80m. Normally after 10m the VPS doesn't record altitude. Edit: as you've already noticed, nilanjan118.

Yes, there was no issue of signal loss between AC-RC here. The live view on the app may sometimes give an impression that the signal is not good, but it can be due to connection issues between phone and RC too.

 

[nilanjan118]

Wow, that's pretty cool, thank you for the explanation. Where do you see that I'm throttling down, out of curiosity?

I think I was trying to bring it down and control it once I received the landing signal. So the mystery is the unknown obstacle? Wonder if maybe it was a bird, the seagulls were very curious when I was flying from the boat a day earlier. Was afraid they might even knock it down.

This still worries me, not sure if I will fly this above water anytime soon. Luckily this happened on the beach.

You are most welcome. See the two circles on the bottom right of the screenshots I posted? Those are your controller sticks. Click on the Notifications tab of the Airdata link I posted. Then click on HD flight player. You can now play the entire flight and see the arrow (which indicates the AC's heading) move on the map along with the controller stick inputs.

Now coming to the 'obstacle', it may not necessarily be a bird or a real obstacle. The Spark's bottom sensor is known to be very sensitive. Even fog or reflection (from water, snow) triggers it sometimes. Accessories like landing gear, strobe lights installed underneath may also trigger it. Hard to say what really happened in your case, but from a pilot's perspective, make sure you are keeping an eye on the telemetry display always. A flickering altitude reading from a high value (barometer reading) to a low value (bottom sensor reading) tells you that something is wrong. Fly the AC back towards you asap when it happens. Inspect the bottom sensors and clean them if required.