Cooling the spark
- Thread starter Rbigham29
- Start date
Hello from the Hoosier Heartland, Rbigham29.
If DJI wanted a hole there, it would be there.
The air flows through the front camera, the fan, then out of the side vents cooling stuff along the way.
If you want to try the more air idea, just pop the top shell off and fly topless for a while and see what happens.
Welcome to the Forum.
If DJI wanted a hole there, it would be there.
The air flows through the front camera, the fan, then out of the side vents cooling stuff along the way.
If you want to try the more air idea, just pop the top shell off and fly topless for a while and see what happens.
Welcome to the Forum.
As Spark 427 said, when the Spark is in forward flight, the opening around the camera gimbal takes air in much like a hood scoop on a muscle car would and channels it into the Spark's body and to the cooling fan which then pushes the air out through the side vent openings.
The idea of cutting the hole in the cover is in my opinion is not going to provide any additional cooling unless you are just flying up and down all of the time. The cooling fan blades are designed to move air outward to the sides to push it out the vents and not to move air from top to bottom.
I had to laugh at the guy on YouTube that made a big deal out of that modification. Moral of this story is...
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
The idea of cutting the hole in the cover is in my opinion is not going to provide any additional cooling unless you are just flying up and down all of the time. The cooling fan blades are designed to move air outward to the sides to push it out the vents and not to move air from top to bottom.
I had to laugh at the guy on YouTube that made a big deal out of that modification. Moral of this story is...
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
I found that much of the heating was NOT coming from within the Spark but rather it was from the sun beating down on the aircraft.
So for $10 I swapped my blue Spark shell for a white one. It only took 5 minutes to remove the six tiny screws. The white color reflects much of the sunlight and it runs MUCH COOLER.
Got mine on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/2qFmudn
So for $10 I swapped my blue Spark shell for a white one. It only took 5 minutes to remove the six tiny screws. The white color reflects much of the sunlight and it runs MUCH COOLER.
Got mine on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/2qFmudn
Did that void your warranty? Assuming that your Spark is still under warranty. I read somewhere that opening the Spark in that fashion would do so.
I also can't imagine that the light blue color upper shell would produce any harmful amount of heat in direct sunlight. If that were true, then the red Spark would be doomed from the start. No offense intended. Just my opinion.
I also can't imagine that the light blue color upper shell would produce any harmful amount of heat in direct sunlight. If that were true, then the red Spark would be doomed from the start. No offense intended. Just my opinion.
Nobody implied or inferred that any particular color was "doomed" - only that the color affected the temperature. Would you rather sit in a black car or a white one on a sunny day?!?
The original poster requested options to cool his aircraft and was considering drilling holes in it - that would obviously void the warranty. Changing my cover plate to white made a huge difference without any power tools.
In the event my Spark needs warranty work I will simply reinstall the original. There is no way to detect it was ever swapped.
It is scientific fact (not opinion) that white refects light whereas the other available colors will retain it as heat. My blue Spark is noticably hotter than my white one when sitting in sunlight. But they both work fine
The original poster requested options to cool his aircraft and was considering drilling holes in it - that would obviously void the warranty. Changing my cover plate to white made a huge difference without any power tools.
In the event my Spark needs warranty work I will simply reinstall the original. There is no way to detect it was ever swapped.
It is scientific fact (not opinion) that white refects light whereas the other available colors will retain it as heat. My blue Spark is noticably hotter than my white one when sitting in sunlight. But they both work fine
To be honest the sun beating down on it is not a problem in South Wales where I live. (It's mostly raining) if anything I will need the red one to keep it warm lol. I was just wondering if anyone had done it that's all like I said I'm new to DJI drones normally fly racing drones without all the bells and whistles like GPS and stuff was just curious because of how warm it gets and if that normal. Cheers all for the replys anyway
I was speaking metaphorically about the red ones being doomed. As for knowing how infrared sun rays affect dark surfaces... I learned that by the time I was five years old. And yes. DJI has a way of knowing if a Spark has been disassembled. You are free to modify your Spark in any fashion you see fit. All I did was voice my opinion on the subject just as you did.
Yes, the Spark will get quite warm if is is not in motion. There is a lot of processing going on inside that produces heat electronically. Thus the well designed cooling system. Happy flying!
Locutus40
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- Sep 17, 2018
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- 243
the spark consume 200 mah or more idling .... this thing gets hot why.. bad design....the transmitter in it is soooo high powered its overkill its like 1 watt just like the remote...
the electronics flight controller gets hot too.. and the fan is a joke on it....do you see other flight controllers that put out that much heat no you dont i can go get a 50 dollar fc off embay and it have the same functions and it gets warm...
also the 1 watt transmitter is over kill.. they wanted ot make sure of a stable link when all they needed to do is add freq hopping.. like the spektrum transmitters or those other ones....
it amazes me how dji stays in business.. and i figured out how they rely on iphone customer thinking omg its got a new camera but it dont fly lol.......my spark used to be great now the transmission of the video is laggy and cuts out....
the electronics flight controller gets hot too.. and the fan is a joke on it....do you see other flight controllers that put out that much heat no you dont i can go get a 50 dollar fc off embay and it have the same functions and it gets warm...
also the 1 watt transmitter is over kill.. they wanted ot make sure of a stable link when all they needed to do is add freq hopping.. like the spektrum transmitters or those other ones....
it amazes me how dji stays in business.. and i figured out how they rely on iphone customer thinking omg its got a new camera but it dont fly lol.......my spark used to be great now the transmission of the video is laggy and cuts out....
Locutus40
Well-Known Member
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- Sep 17, 2018
- Messages
- 243
processing lol sorry not laughing at you..its bad design they used a chip thats cheap the traces are tiny ..... etc etc too much stuff in a small area.... i flew a copter that used a arduino once it didnt get hot and had far less computing power and did all the same things spark does gps etc... yet the spark gets hot... i once got a bunch of cable boxes from my cable company they got super hot flipped them over made in china.. asked for an american one oh sir we dont have that tech comes out hush hush here.. flipped it over said cisco on it aka american cool to the touch.... so folks its china thats slapping crap together to sell a product they dont care theres no checks and real ballances and dji does not care bout us they offer us sup par devices like a spark with no 4 k.. when hey guess what the camera already exisisted but lets make a whole new drone the air with it.... this is how they think... dji all they did was make it sexy the packaging like the iphone... under the hood is just garbage... im not knocking them to much but theve proven they just dont care
