Lost my brand new spark

[psymon82]

Hey all!

I am (was) a brand new drone owner. The spark has been my very first purchase as I thought it would be a good starting point.

I have to say, the set up to get everything going was confusing.

Anyway, I bought the combo version and decided to take it for a quick test flight in my front garden, using my Android phone as remote.

I live directly in front of the sea, a little harbour town called Dun Laoghaire, in Dublin, Ireland.

Anyway, the drone took off fine. I decided to just fly it straight up, watching my phone screen all the time.

I then decided to take it back down using the return to home button.

When I pressed it, I got a GPS warning and the drone suddenly started flying towards the ocean.

I panicked and tried to gain control manually, but the drone wouldn't respond.

It flew quite far out to sea and just dropped.

I have no way to retrieve it and just feel sick about it.

Does anyone know if there's any possible way of getting a replacement??

I know their probably isn't, but just thought I'd ask.

Simon

 

[msinger]

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

 

[Rick Morton]

I feel your pain. Same thing happened to me twice. First time I got GPS back and got control. Second time I didn't and it hit the treetops. Got it back, damaged, and sent it in for repair. The consensus seems to be that we really need to calibrate the compass whenever you change locations. GPS needs good compass to work right. But it's a problem. There are lots of reports of these "flyaways"... all with the same indications. DjI doesn't really address them other than to say, "Interference". I think they need to address this problem immediately. We bought it for it's GPS based stability. Easy to fly. Comes home. Then it dumps GPS and takes off like a bat out of hell. Call the company and complain. See what happens.

 

[Buddy411]

Sorry for your loss, brother.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but a couple things that may help someone else : I view "return to home" as a last ditch function. Once you let the computer take full control, wonky things can happen. Also, the controller is a very good investment. It offers more range and that means more time to recover from mishaps. Not saying you did anything wrong, but there are ways to reduce the chance of mishaps. Hope DJI helps you out!

 

[MyLittleDrony]

I'm quite experienced and mine is at the bottom of a lake, it happens and yes, it makes you feel sick.
That never changes. Its not even about the money half the time, its knowing you were probably at fault.

I would always advise people to buy a cheap phantom 2. Use that to train up on, learn what things are like without a DJI app holding your hand, then move onto something more expensive and you'll find they are child's play in comparison with all the stuff the go app does.

DJI are pretty good at keeping drones in the air, I would not expect much help from them though and I suspect this was something you did wrong or did not do.

 

[nicholas hickman]

Sorry to read of your loss. Without logs all we can do is speculate, so if you can upload them there are some very able people on these boards that could help. I will say that I will never trust my drone using just a phone to fly it, that's just me though. It's possible that something hadn't calibrated correctly, hitting the return command sent the drone off the wrong way and went out of range of the phone very quickly.

 

[Anthony kenny]

Hey all!

I am (was) a brand new drone owner. The spark has been my very first purchase as I thought it would be a good starting point.

I have to say, the set up to get everything going was confusing.

Anyway, I bought the combo version and decided to take it for a quick test flight in my front garden, using my Android phone as remote.

I live directly in front of the sea, a little harbour town called Dun Laoghaire, in Dublin, Ireland.

Anyway, the drone took off fine. I decided to just fly it straight up, watching my phone screen all the time.

I then decided to take it back down using the return to home button.

When I pressed it, I got a GPS warning and the drone suddenly started flying towards the ocean.

I panicked and tried to gain control manually, but the drone wouldn't respond.

It flew quite far out to sea and just dropped.

I have no way to retrieve it and just feel sick about it.

Does anyone know if there's any possible way of getting a replacement??

I know their probably isn't, but just thought I'd ask.

Simon

Hello Simon,, I feel the pain ,, I was flying my spark Thursday gone ,, I calibrated the spark and set RTH at my place of work before taking off as ive done several times before.

It's a large yard with plenty of space, it took off fine and suddenly went to atti mode, I'm kinda new to drones but after flying a phantom 3 standard I thought I'd be able to land the thing, as I brought it down to land (not easy) atti mode went off my screen and it lost signal, , it shot up and had a mind of its own.

It left the yard area and shot at high speed across roofs of nearby houses, disconnected was on screen of my mobile, I kept pressing RTH on the remote. I ran of in the direction it went thinking it was going to crash into building, trees or worse case hit somebody.

No sign of spark 15 minutes later, I searched the area and went back to the yard to get help from work mate's to look around,

As I entered the yard the spark was on the ground 6 metres from it took off,

Lots of scuff marks on the body and the props where slightly damaged.

It somehow returned to the yard from a different direction and landed while I was out looking for it. It hovered for several minutes until battery died. It did hit a wall also which left the minor damage. I had record pressed so looked at video later.

I'm afraid to fly it now in case it fly away ?

That's my story guys, back to p3s

 

[Eddie Meijer]

I am also new on drone flying. Bought a spark to jus up my holiday videos. Practiced with it at home and went off with the spark to Scotland. Unfortunately it flew away on the fifth day whiteout any reason. It was the 20th of august. When I was back home I contacted DJI, send in the flight records. After analyzing, they concluded it was not a pilot error and offered me a new one. That I call great service!
What remains is that from now on I am a little afraid to fly the spark, never know if it goes mad again. You read so many stories about drones getting a mind of there own and leaving forever.If I had know before that sparks are so unreliable I am afraid I would never have bought it.

 

[mlash]

Somebody on the "Mavic Forums" once said (and I agree totally), they would rather see the drone crash, hanging in a tree or flying away, rather than to just watch it sit on the kitchen table!

 

[Frantz]

Hi, I had the same story this summer. As Eddie above, I contacted DJI and after few weeks of discussions (I had to explain and send files several time) they offer me a free coupon for getting a new one. Great customer service. Just be patient.

 

[James21]

I´ve seen so many people on forums and youtube losing their Spark, up to now I´ve only used it in my garden until I´m 100% confident, the resent upload that had to be completed before the 1st of Sept, I uploaded and after the upload I had a problem getting a connection between the remote and the aircraft, it would work using the phone and many other people on youtube had the same problem, after a week one guy recommended a solution so once I had a connection I tied a very long piece of string so it couldn´t fly away.


I´ve only tried the palm control once, it was last week in my garden, as always it took flight in the driveway, I was walking round to the other side of the house it was following me I then I shouted to my friends to look at what I could do with my hands when without me knowing why, it shot straight up in the air above my house then started to move out of sight over the other side of the house, I was in a panic thinking I had lost it, I was looking for the remote to try and bring it back, then I remembered I had left it on the table near where I started the flight from at the other side of the house,


This is a mistake I will never do again: never put the remote down a walk away from it while doing hand controls because the remote and phone was at the other side of the house I couldn´t hear the nice lady saying on the phone battery low aircraft is returning to home pewwwww .

 

[Buddy411]

I'm afraid to fly it now in case it fly away ?

I understand. I had a nice pair of rollerblades. I was afraid to wreck them, so I kept them in a box. Do you know what happened? I outgrew them. I never wore them outside. Only in my room a few times. If you won't use your Spark, who cares if it gets broken? If you just keep it to yourself, maybe it'll be like my rollerblades. When you do decide to try it, it won't be any good. You should take a chance. Got nothing to lose.

 

[Darren Roach]

Bit of an expensive ornament if you don't use it. If it flies away just get another one.

 

[Spark 317]

I tied a very long piece of string so it couldn´t fly away.

I joked with my better half that if "we" purchase the Spark, and "we" fly it, I'm going to buy a mile of string so if I lose it we could follow the string if all else fails.

And with the DJI refresh, if we dunk it in water, just follow the string.

 

[Tom Croley]

I had a scare today! I've been flying the spark for a little over a week and doing well with it. I'm an advanced RC plane pilot but new to drones. Today, my grandson wanted to try it so we went out to the big field and cranked it up. I don't distinctly remember hearing the Home Point message but I think it did. I had a good GPS lock. We had a low fog ceiling about 150' to a shelf of fog. He took off and was doing real good then I had to open my big mouth. I asked him if he would like to see what the RTH feature would do, and he said yes. We were using the controller.

He flew way out into the field and then pressed the RTH button. I told him to watch how it goes up to about 100 feet and then just comes back. HA! That is when the fun began. The spark started to ascend and then it just kept going up up up up, into the thick fog. I didn't panic. I told him not to touch anything and just see what happens.

Soon...we get the "Maximum height" message and the screen showed 400 feet. We kept waiting and I just trusted that the drone was in the same position, or coming our way, even though we could not see it. The height display stopped working and no longer showed the number of feet. The camera showed only FOG.
It was overdue, enough time had passed to RTH.

Soon, we got the "low battery warning" and I thought.... gee if it goes totally dead at 400 feet there will be a big crash. So I took the controller and pressed the big X button to stop the RTH function. Then I just held the down stick down hoping it would start descending. Finally, Zack caught sight of it and it was coming down. The battery went critical and I kept holding the stick down.

Good ending.... we hiked out into the field to where it was descending. We got there in time to have it land impressively in my palm.

During the whole flight, I never lost connection and never lost GPS lock, as far as I know. My best guess is that maybe we took off too fast without establishing an RTH point.....but I thought we did. Now I doubt. 2nd guess is maybe the fog messed with it some how Since then I have tested the RTH three more times with no problems....but no more fog!!

Helpful comments appreciated.

 

[Darren Roach]

It's possible that the fog could of appeared as a solid object like the ground so carried on up from the conflict between the height being recorded and the down facing camera's

 

[Tom Croley]

It's possible that the fog could of appeared as a solid object like the ground so carried on up from the conflict between the height being recorded and the down facing camera's

Hmmm.... that's a thought, the fog was pretty thick starting at about 125 feet or so.

 

[MyLittleDrony]

I would be surprised if the sensors failed that badly due to fog.
But the spark WILL keep going up IF the sensors are covered so its a fair enough theory.

I would check the RTH height, but more than that, just fly it in good conditions.

 

[Harlequin66]

Hey all!

I am (was) a brand new drone owner. The spark has been my very first purchase as I thought it would be a good starting point.

I have to say, the set up to get everything going was confusing.

Anyway, I bought the combo version and decided to take it for a quick test flight in my front garden, using my Android phone as remote.

I live directly in front of the sea, a little harbour town called Dun Laoghaire, in Dublin, Ireland.

Anyway, the drone took off fine. I decided to just fly it straight up, watching my phone screen all the time.

I then decided to take it back down using the return to home button.

When I pressed it, I got a GPS warning and the drone suddenly started flying towards the ocean.

I panicked and tried to gain control manually, but the drone wouldn't respond.

It flew quite far out to sea and just dropped.

I have no way to retrieve it and just feel sick about it.

Does anyone know if there's any possible way of getting a replacement??

I know their probably isn't, but just thought I'd ask.

Simon

Maybe it was heading 'home' to China! I'm not kidding, did you set the RTH home point? I have heard of this happening with brand new drones, if the home point is not set it could try to return home to it's last known location.

 

[Darren Roach]

I guess it didn't make it back to China then