Is spark a short lived hobbie?

MannyCAM2001 · Mar 5, 2018

Gavieboydgi said:
I had my first flight on mine today can I ask which rth setting is best to use the flight back at same altitude or the one where you set it with the hight setting?

This would depend on how far you are from the Spark (the home point mind you) 20 meters or more the aircraft will return to home at the altitude you’ve set in the settings. The default being 30 meters roughly 100ft. This setting can easily be overlooked when flying in new surroundings. I set mine to 200 ft. Or 60 meters.
A distance of 20 meters and less, the aircraft will respond to the setting, if set RETURN AT CURRENT ALTITUDE. If this setting isn’t set and you are less than 20 meters it will not return home but hover there and wait for you.
The actual RTH WHEN BEYOND 20 meters. Default is 30 meters. If you’re flying close to towers or high buildings and forget to reset to match the surroundings, you may end up with a kamikaze run when you initiate a RTH. This is because of the foward sensors being disabled in RTH. THIS almost happened to me, everything in the area was less than 100ft. Except for this huge water tower. Lost my connection, the aircraft initiated a RTH and it flew just bearly missing the tower. And if you check thr RTH flightpath on your map. It is a perfect B-line straight back. You can trace it with a ruler, thats how sraight it is. I don’t know about you but that technology is mind boggling in a craft this small.
But with all of that, it still comes down to pilot habits, chk lists, and just plain horse sense.
Cheers

MannyCAM2001 · Mar 5, 2018

Richard Ruckert said:
I've had my Spark for about 6 months now, and I have flown close to 100 flights. Never had an issue until this Saturday. Parked it in a tree. completely my fault. Had to use a ladder and a stick to dislodge. The Spark fell to the ground. The battery popped out, a propeller popped out, and the ND filter fell off. Immediately put humpty dumpty back together again, and it flew fine. Robust little bastard. No regrets on buying the Spark though I do wish it had a third axis. In addition to making sure the IMU and compass are calibrated (check through sensors state in app), make sure you register the home point, and hear the app state "home point recorded" and you will appreciate it's reliability.
If there is a Spark 2, or Spark pro, I hope it has a third axis. I can live without on board memory, backward sensors, and 4K.

A Spark 2 would be the only upgrade for me. I LOVE my Spark!

️
Haha, the only way you would separate me from Spark is to pry my cold dead fingers from it....lol

Robert G · Mar 10, 2018

Whatever RTH you set , behaviour when 100 metres away or more is what altitude is set in rth. Only at less will it rth at current alt.

uasav8r · Mar 10, 2018

MannyCAM2001 said:
This would depend on how far you are from the Spark (the home point mind you) 20 meters or more the aircraft will return to home at the altitude you’ve set in the settings. The default being 30 meters roughly 100ft. This setting can easily be overlooked when flying in new surroundings. I set mine to 200 ft. Or 60 meters.
A distance of 20 meters and less, the aircraft will respond to the setting, if set RETURN AT CURRENT ALTITUDE. If this setting isn’t set and you are less than 20 meters it will not return home but hover there and wait for you.
The actual RTH WHEN BEYOND 20 meters. Default is 30 meters. If you’re flying close to towers or high buildings and forget to reset to match the surroundings, you may end up with a kamikaze run when you initiate a RTH. This is because of the foward sensors being disabled in RTH. THIS almost happened to me, everything in the area was less than 100ft. Except for this huge water tower. Lost my connection, the aircraft initiated a RTH and it flew just bearly missing the tower. And if you check thr RTH flightpath on your map. It is a perfect B-line straight back. You can trace it with a ruler, thats how sraight it is. I don’t know about you but that technology is mind boggling in a craft this small.
But with all of that, it still comes down to pilot habits, chk lists, and just plain horse sense.
Cheers

That is how it SHOULD work!. I was 20m away at 3m altitude and on RTH it flew up into a tree. It is cuurently at DJI for repair

pr413 · Mar 10, 2018

Gavieboydgi said:
I absolutely love that feeling you get when you land after the flight, only drone flyers no what I'm talking about hahaha

Haha, so true. I've lost mine a few times, line of sight in the the bright sky, and broke out into a sweat. lol.

MannyCAM2001 · Mar 10, 2018

Yeah, and the worst feeling in the world, is the screen going black..lol

MannyCAM2001 · Mar 10, 2018

Oh and one more thing, very important on the RTH at current altitude. If you are 30 meters away or further, and have your RTH set at a height of 30 meters and you’re actually flying at a height of 90 meters. When you iniciate, or it iniciates a RTH, the Spark will NOT drop to 30 meters, as set in your RTH settings. If “Return At Current Altitude” is enabled. It will come back at the 90 meters you are currently at.
Based on my experience.

HoboDan · Mar 10, 2018

Matty J said:
Newbie here and been following this forum for a cpl of weeks and loosing faith that spark is a long term hobbie, I did have a spark for 4 days and then it did its own thing to which Dji have just just offered %100 replacement coupon which is respected very much, my question is are there any long term pilots that can restore my confidence in this product.
Cheers

You being a newbie says to me that the spark is the perfect drone to fly. I have been flying for about 3.5 years and the spark is my fav.. 2 reasons: size and price. I lost 2 P3p’s and cost 3k to replace.. if I lose the spark, 399 tops..
I still have a P3p, Typhoon H, and several racers.. But the spark my fav.

Gavieboydgi · Mar 10, 2018

Flight I had today. Wow I absolutely love this little spark I can't wait for spark 2 and please dji give it a 3 axis gimble. When flying and recording you can't use left and right stick motion because it's so jittery. Well here's some pics and the YouTube video 1080p not edited them [emoji16]

Matty J · Mar 10, 2018

HoboDan said:
You being a newbie says to me that the spark is the perfect drone to fly. I have been flying for about 3.5 years and the spark is my fav.. 2 reasons: size and price. I lost 2 P3p’s and cost 3k to replace.. if I lose the spark, 399 tops..
I still have a P3p, Typhoon H, and several racers.. But the spark my fav.

Good to hear positive things about the spark and yes I agree its a great drone with a bunch of tech for the price, after my fly away and reading alot of reliability issues with connection, compass error etc etc I have lost confidence in it, replacement spark is delivered wednesday so hopefully it restores faith in it otherwise I'll have to move on to something else

Rafa7 · Mar 10, 2018

Matty J said:
Good to hear positive things about the spark and yes I agree its a great drone with a bunch of tech for the price, after my fly away and reading alot of reliability issues with connection, compass error etc etc I have lost confidence in it, replacement spark is delivered wednesday so hopefully it restores faith in it otherwise I'll have to move on to something else

I hope all goes well with your new Spark, my faith on Spark will take a hit otherwise. Fly safe.

HoboDan · Mar 10, 2018

Matty J said:
Good to hear positive things about the spark and yes I agree its a great drone with a bunch of tech for the price, after my fly away and reading alot of reliability issues with connection, compass error etc etc I have lost confidence in it, replacement spark is delivered wednesday so hopefully it restores faith in it otherwise I'll have to move on to something else

I hear ya. Felt the same way with the P3p

eddie258 · Mar 13, 2018

Absolutely Love mine. Great little drone to just pull out and pop in the air for some quick shots and a little fun.

Matty J · Mar 15, 2018

This just turned up in the mail today thanks to DJI warranty, hopefully this 1 last more than 4 days.
Spare controller unopened now, sell or keep as spare?

Rafa7 · Mar 15, 2018

Matty J said:
This just turned up in the mail today thanks to DJI warranty, hopefully this 1 last more than 4 days.
Spare controller unopened now, sell or keep as spare?View attachment 3997

...that's awesome! Of course it will last, you are that much more experienced. Go for it [emoji111] -make it memorable, record unboxing it and Spark first fly, I didn't : -)

Matty J · Mar 19, 2018

New spark playing up, first flight fine then second flight it played up before take off thank goodness.
Video image was coming on and off constantly but this clip only shows it off
1 of the many onscreen warnings was bluetooth interference all our Bluetooth devices were off, any idea what this might be?
Ps playback quality needs to be on 480 to watch
Cheers

MannyCAM2001 · Mar 19, 2018

Matt, i think you need to tell us everything in order to help. All the steps, including whether or not there’s a card in the recording slot.
Activation, linking to the remote, updates?
The Sparks sensors are usually reliable. Move to another part of your house, or better outside. What device you’re using?

Matty J · Mar 19, 2018

MannyCAM2001 said:
Matt, i think you need to tell us everything in order to help. All the steps, including whether or not there’s a card in the recording slot.
Activation, linking to the remote, updates?
The Sparks sensors are usually reliable. Move to another part of your house, or better outside. What device you’re using?

Manny thanks
-All updates done on aircraft, ipadair2, app as requested in activation process.
-A formatted 32gb class10 micro sd.
-Remote linked as per dji linking tutorial video.
-Wifi connection, no otg.
-compass calibration done as app requested.
First flight fine, second attempted flight errors so I turned aircraft and remote and ipad off then on in the exact same position of the house and there is no errors
Glitch in start up process maybe I dont know

MannyCAM2001 · Mar 19, 2018

Sounds like you’ve covered everything.
Matty, one successful flight.
Have you moved it outdoors yet?
If so, GPS coming?

Matty J · Mar 19, 2018

MannyCAM2001 said:
Sounds like you’ve covered everything.
Matty, one successful flight.
Have you moved it outdoors yet?
If so, GPS coming?

Yes Manny gps does work when outside although that dropped out a cpl of times, wish it was as reliable as my car gps very rarely drops out.
I know there is risk in every flight but would you continue flying if your spark had a bad start up like mine did but now seems fine or would you get it looked at by dji?