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Bought a Spark and need some help

mclld

Member
Join
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
12
Age
45
I bought one from a store that had it has a on shelf demo, it was new and never used. I b=tried setting it up in the DJI app and it wanted me to scan a barcode on the box but i dont have that. I tried scanning the big code on the Spark under the battery but it doesnt scan. I did link the controller to the Spark and can fly it without my phone so I know it works, how can I activate this and fly it using my phone as my screen? I use a Pixel 2 XL
 
The barcode method doesn't work for anybody - best to forget you ever heard of it.

You can link the aircraft to your phone by entering the password manually. It's the alphanumeric code on the sticker on the battery compartment. Write down the code - reset the Spark's wifi by holding down battery button until 3 beeps - go into phone's wifi settings and enter code. Your phone and spark should now be connected.

You may need to re-link it to your remote control a second time after that. Even though I've done this process several times there's always a hitch. It can take a few tries but once you see the camera view on your phone it's all worth it.
 
Thanks

Since I saw this post I saw a YouTube video showing an otg cable that cuts out the wifi through the phone and it is supposed to be more stable so I ordered that
 
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Thanks

Since I saw this post I saw a YouTube video showing an otg cable that cuts out the wifi through the phone and it is supposed to be more stable so I ordered that

OTG cable should be standard from the factory! Works great every time. Wifi from controller and aircraft are both weakness of the Spark. At least you eliminated one of them. Good choice
 
I'm about to go on a road trip to several states and parks and can't wait to use this for some pics and video. I ordered an extra battery on amazon for 43 but I just saw on this site that you can get the batteries for 34 at Target so I will get a couple more
 
I'm about to go on a road trip to several states and parks and can't wait to use this for some pics and video. I ordered an extra battery on amazon for 43 but I just saw on this site that you can get the batteries for 34 at Target so I will get a couple more


The formula for the proper number of batteries is...

n + 1

Where n= the number of batteries you currently own. Ha!
 
I like everything I have seen about the Spark other than battery life. Is the Air supposed to be the replacement for the Spark? I figure they would have made a new one by now. I was also thinking about the DJI Goggles, are they worth it if I can get them for around 200 or so used? I thought about maybe trying see VR goggles instead if that would work
 
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No. The Mavic Air is definitely not the replacement for the Spark. Spark has only been readily available for 20 months and is still dominating the entry level drone market. There's currently no market or economic pressure on DJi to release a 2.0 or Pro version.

The Mavic Air fills the price and feature void between the Spark and the original Mavic Pro. I personally don't think there's a strong reason to recommend the MA over either the Spark or MP1. Based on the low number of MA posts on the Mavic Pilots Forum it's just not that popular. And many complaints the MA is way too noisy.

The DJI Goggles look like fun but I don't think I'd use them enough to justify the cost. I would only use them if I had a spotter because of the extremely limited field of view. I've got Litchi and a cheap VR headset for just $30 total and haven't even tried it yet.
 
I'm about to go on a road trip to several states and parks and can't wait to use this for some pics and video. I ordered an extra battery on amazon for 43 but I just saw on this site that you can get the batteries for 34 at Target so I will get a couple more
BTW - If your road trip is in the USA, it is not legal to fly in any national park. You may get away with it if you takeoff and land outside of the park. State parks are OK though. There are several don't do's: dams (400'), stadiums, airports (5mi), forest fires...
 
regarding the mavic air: I've had it for a couple weeks and turned back to Spark for several reasons.
can confirm - camera output is very grainy in dim portions of pictures even on the lowest ISO.

Since I'm mostly into panoramic photography, it was the first thing I've been testing and Air was kinda disappointment.

For example the horizontal (3x3 pictures) pano shot. Spark lets you to adjust the center of panoramic shot by tilting the camera and composes other shots around it so the desired object stands in the middle of stitched panorama. Mavic Air doesn't let you do this and always tilts gimbal back up to horizon so you have a lot of useless (and overbrighted since the pano mode overrides the exposure lock and set up by first shot which is usually the ground so everything brighter is washed out) sky in the picture.

Automatic pano mode also has the exposure glitch when some of pictures are taken with completely wrong EV so some parts of final image are darker making the picture useless. This happens randomly and as I examined on forums, it's partially the software issue and sometimes caused even by faulty imaging processor.

Stitching the set of pictures was also pain in the a*. I don't actually know why (guess it's because Air has wider field of view lens) but 8 of 10 pano shots were really badly stitchable causing awful glitches on stitch lines. Even the Lightroom CC wasn't able to handle it sometimes.

You can say that I could do the panorama manually and that's what I aslo did but that way I spent more than half of time in the air by setting up everything and with flight time slightly better than Spark (on pretty new Air battery with 6 or 7 cycles I wasn't able to get more than 15 minutes of flight to 30% batt level) it's not very entertaining.

I can say that video quality is far ahead of Spark not only in the aspect of resolution or framerate but for hobby shooting I believe that Spark is a better choice for its price.

Just my opinion and experience.
 
Stitch glitches and graininess. The brighter one is shot with Spark (not exactly the same distance so it's more zoomed but it's the only similar shot I found). Screenshot_20190314-124740_Gallery.jpegScreenshot_20190314-125330_Gallery.jpeg
 
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Arizona too. Many city and county parks also ban them so it's best to find out before you fly. Save yourself some embarrassment and a possible citation.
 
If a ticket is the worst that would happen that would be worth it depending on the park
 
Here’s a question: do DJI goggles violate the FAA rule requiring VLOS? (Note the wording, simple LOS does not meet the definition. Thoughts?
 
I bought one from a store that had it has a on shelf demo, it was new and never used. I b=tried setting it up in the DJI app and it wanted me to scan a barcode on the box but i dont have that. I tried scanning the big code on the Spark under the battery but it doesnt scan. I did link the controller to the Spark and can fly it without my phone so I know it works, how can I activate this and fly it using my phone as my screen? I use a Pixel 2 XL

You can connect the phone and controller via an OTG cable. Amazon has some good ones.
 

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