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RJB1

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Jul 4, 2019
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Hey Everyone, I'm in Australia. I bought my Spark back in December last year. It was used but I bought it from a local guy who didn't use it as he has a Phantom. He had the full fly more combo, and it looked brand new. The weather here in northern Australia hasn't been conducive to much flying, rain rain rain and then windy. I also live in DNF zone near an airport, so I have to drive to a location to fly. So with all that I haven't done much flying with the Spark. The flights I did were mixed results. Some were perfect but others Id have the dreaded Spark hop issue, then it started mysteriously dropping under power. Because the drone is out of 12 month warranty it seems DJI isn't interested. They don't want to look at flight records, they wont let you talk to anyone, all they keep saying is "send it to our service center" Ok who works at your service centre and why can't i talk to someone there? But they never tell you, its just "send it to our service center" Ive heard horror stories from others on forums that send it to these DJI service centers only to have their drone stripped down then told "its broken you need a new drone, where do we send these bits" I don't understand why they wont let you talk to someone. The number they give for the service center in Australia is a 300 number switched to a call center in presumably Hong Kong. And all they tell you is "send it to our service center"!!!

Anyway I've been having this conversation on the DJI forum in a number of threads that I started when my drone had issues. The moderators or admins either avoid the conversation or then just say, "send it to our service center and you will be paying for everything and no we wont tell you who works there and you can't talk to anyone" I've got them so pissed off I think they are about to ban me, so I found this site, for when the inevitable happens. Welcome to the new world of Chinese power I guess.
 
Sorry for your inconvenience, but your going to have to send your response to our service center. LMAO



sorry, had to do that. and I am appalled at how your being treated at DJI. I can only hope to sell my spark before I have to deal with those people. I haven't been flying mine lately cause it seems to have lost range.


now in response to your issue, have you thought of doing the repairs yourself?
 
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Hello from the Hoosier Heartland, RJB1.

Welcome to the Forum. ?
 
Sorry for your inconvenience, but your going to have to send your response to our service center. LMAO

sorry, had to do that. and I am appalled at how your being treated at DJI. I can only hope to sell my spark before I have to deal with those people. I haven't been flying mine lately cause it seems to have lost range.

now in response to your issue, have you thought of doing the repairs yourself?

I started reading that and for a second I thought you must work for DJI! haha

If you know that forum, there have been lots of others who are treated like that by them. A 12 month warranty is the minimum they can give by law, and the minimum is all that want to do, then you are dead to them.

yep I've watched a few youtube vid's that I could do repairs, I'm a fix it sorta guy, but what do you fix? It could be the IMU. It could be a sensor, it could be something else. It's not like the problem is consistent, so it's hard to say.
 
Hey Everyone, I'm in Australia. I bought my Spark back in December last year. It was used but I bought it from a local guy who didn't use it as he has a Phantom. He had the full fly more combo, and it looked brand new. The weather here in northern Australia hasn't been conducive to much flying, rain rain rain and then windy. I also live in DNF zone near an airport, so I have to drive to a location to fly. So with all that I haven't done much flying with the Spark. The flights I did were mixed results. Some were perfect but others Id have the dreaded Spark hop issue, then it started mysteriously dropping under power. Because the drone is out of 12 month warranty it seems DJI isn't interested. They don't want to look at flight records, they wont let you talk to anyone, all they keep saying is "send it to our service center" Ok who works at your service centre and why can't i talk to someone there? But they never tell you, its just "send it to our service center" Ive heard horror stories from others on forums that send it to these DJI service centers only to have their drone stripped down then told "its broken you need a new drone, where do we send these bits" I don't understand why they wont let you talk to someone. The number they give for the service center in Australia is a 300 number switched to a call center in presumably Hong Kong. And all they tell you is "send it to our service center"!!!

Anyway I've been having this conversation on the DJI forum in a number of threads that I started when my drone had issues. The moderators or admins either avoid the conversation or then just say, "send it to our service center and you will be paying for everything and no we wont tell you who works there and you can't talk to anyone" I've got them so pissed off I think they are about to ban me, so I found this site, for when the inevitable happens. Welcome to the new world of Chinese power I guess.
American business attitudes, also.....I got your dollar, I don't need you now
 
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American business attitudes, also.....I got your dollar, I don't need you now

OK, that remark got my attention. Please explain what you mean and what factual evidence it's based on. Are you an American? Curious minds would like to know. Thanks!
 
Are there any drone shops in Australia? Even if not DJI certified. Yes you will pay a diagnostic fee, but at least you can get a pro opinion.

As for the weather, here in the northeast USA I have same 2.7 miles from a medium size airport and the weather is as you describe. Finally in July we actually get two days without rain or high winds.

On Tuesday evening plan on trying to video and photo a club sailboat race. We will see if the weather permits.

Good luck with the spark.

Not sure why you titled this thread as you did ??
 
Are there any drone shops in Australia? Even if not DJI certified. Yes you will pay a diagnostic fee, but at least you can get a pro opinion.

As for the weather, here in the northeast USA I have same 2.7 miles from a medium size airport and the weather is as you describe. Finally in July we actually get two days without rain or high winds.

On Tuesday evening plan on trying to video and photo a club sailboat race. We will see if the weather permits.

Good luck with the spark.

Not sure why you titled this thread as you did ??
Haha yes we aren't completely backward here. there are drone shops. We even have Pine Gap where they make components for the US spy drones! :) But I live in the far north in Cairns, a population of 160,000 and the closest big city is 2000km away. No one here in the local shops can work on drones as far as I'm aware, so Id have to send it away. Id be happy to send it to the DJI service center, but I don't understand why you can't talk to someone who works there. I'd just like to have a bit of confidence that it's going to someone who knows what they are doing. I think their service center is actually just a clearing house. Faulty products come in and they just send them to China to be worked on.

I titled the thread as I did because the admins are clearly pissed that I'm exposing faults in their product and their service and they would rather see me gone, so they are finding ways to delete my account.
 
Did not intend to imply being backward. It has been a while since being in Australia. Good luck with get your spark fixed.
 
Hey Everyone, I'm in Australia. I bought my Spark back in December last year. It was used but I bought it from a local guy who didn't use it as he has a Phantom. He had the full fly more combo, and it looked brand new. The weather here in northern Australia hasn't been conducive to much flying, rain rain rain and then windy. I also live in DNF zone near an airport, so I have to drive to a location to fly. So with all that I haven't done much flying with the Spark. The flights I did were mixed results. Some were perfect but others Id have the dreaded Spark hop issue, then it started mysteriously dropping under power. Because the drone is out of 12 month warranty it seems DJI isn't interested. They don't want to look at flight records, they wont let you talk to anyone, all they keep saying is "send it to our service center" Ok who works at your service centre and why can't i talk to someone there? But they never tell you, its just "send it to our service center" Ive heard horror stories from others on forums that send it to these DJI service centers only to have their drone stripped down then told "its broken you need a new drone, where do we send these bits" I don't understand why they wont let you talk to someone. The number they give for the service center in Australia is a 300 number switched to a call center in presumably Hong Kong. And all they tell you is "send it to our service center"!!!

Anyway I've been having this conversation on the DJI forum in a number of threads that I started when my drone had issues. The moderators or admins either avoid the conversation or then just say, "send it to our service center and you will be paying for everything and no we wont tell you who works there and you can't talk to anyone" I've got them so pissed off I think they are about to ban me, so I found this site, for when the inevitable happens. Welcome to the new world of Chinese power I guess.

Can you elaborate on your setup? As an example I went for a fly during the week and after one flight with Litchi and some waypoints - I returned to home, then when I went to take off again it hopped for a bit, then landed suddenly. It didn't even power down either. Then I changed the battery, thinking it might have been down on power...Next it wouldn't take off. It would spin up, but not take off...Then all of a sudden it did, but would stutter going forward, I was reluctant to push it out more than a few feet in case I had a Fly away. so Returned, but it wouldn't land. Long story short, it was stuffed I thought...
As it turns out it was just the Cable to the Tablet I was using along with Litchi.

I've used it since with some stunning results. So for you - I would be suggesting, if only using Litchi - make sure you connect to DJI Go 4 app as well to make sure you have latest firmware. If you have the flymore combo, I hazzard a guess that means you have the controller. Are you connecting to the controller via WiFi or USB? You can't connect to both at the same time either, so make sure if connected to USB you turn off your wifi on your Phone/tablet which is also connecting to the controller.
Check your Cables (if any) and subsequently how firm they sit in the ports...
 
Can you elaborate on your setup? As an example I went for a fly during the week and after one flight with Litchi and some waypoints - I returned to home, then when I went to take off again it hopped for a bit, then landed suddenly. It didn't even power down either. Then I changed the battery, thinking it might have been down on power...Next it wouldn't take off. It would spin up, but not take off...Then all of a sudden it did, but would stutter going forward, I was reluctant to push it out more than a few feet in case I had a Fly away. so Returned, but it wouldn't land. Long story short, it was stuffed I thought...
As it turns out it was just the Cable to the Tablet I was using along with Litchi.

I've used it since with some stunning results. So for you - I would be suggesting, if only using Litchi - make sure you connect to DJI Go 4 app as well to make sure you have latest firmware. If you have the flymore combo, I hazzard a guess that means you have the controller. Are you connecting to the controller via WiFi or USB? You can't connect to both at the same time either, so make sure if connected to USB you turn off your wifi on your Phone/tablet which is also connecting to the controller.
Check your Cables (if any) and subsequently how firm they sit in the ports...

Nope I'm not doing anything fancy. I have the remote, I fly with wifi from an iphone, not a cable, I'm only using the go4 app.

I've eliminated a few things, by trial and error. Such as having the hop issue and changing batteries and it still did it. having the hop issue giving up on flying, going home doing a few re sets, but not changing props and trying again and it working fine. So its not props, its not batteries.

yesterday was interesting. I went for a flight, started hopping. Usually it won't respond to the landing command. It beeps, and tries to land but continues to hop. this time it managed to land quite quickly. So I did an IMU calibration and tried to take off again. It got to about 2 feet in the air and was hesitating and wanting to start the hop again, so I yawed it and rotated and it responded and then started flying fine. I did a 5 minute flight then without issue. I think it has to be a sensor or IMU, that somehow plays up but just now and then.

I might switch this over to a new post, rather than the check in section. Then post flight records and videos of it acting up.
 
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Nope I'm not doing anything fancy. I have the remote, I fly with wifi from an iphone, not a cable, I'm only using the go4 app.

I've eliminated a few things, by trial and error. Such as having the hop issue and changing batteries and it still did it. having the hop issue giving up on flying, going home doing a few re sets, but not changing props and trying again and it working fine. So its not props, its not batteries.

yesterday was interesting. I went for a flight, started hopping. Usually it won't respond to the landing command. It beeps, and tries to land but continues to hop. this time it managed to land quite quickly. So I did an IMU calibration and tried to take off again. It got to about 2 feet in the air and was hesitating and wanting to start the hop again, so I yawed it and rotated and it responded and then started flying fine. I did a 5 minute flight then without issue. I think it has to be a sensor or IMU, that somehow plays up but just now and then.

I might switch this over to a new post, rather than the check in section. Then post flight records and videos of it acting up.

have you always been using the iPhone while flying... just wondering if you have tried it with the remote control only and conversely to this, tried it without the remote control but just the iPhone.
Also if you install the DJI assistant you should be able to download a whole lot of diagnostics from the unit which will have flight logs in it in raw format, browsing through those you might be able to see some errors at the times when the hopping is occurring
 
have you always been using the iPhone while flying... just wondering if you have tried it with the remote control only and conversely to this, tried it without the remote control but just the iPhone.
Also if you install the DJI assistant you should be able to download a whole lot of diagnostics from the unit which will have flight logs in it in raw format, browsing through those you might be able to see some errors at the times when the hopping is occurring
Hummm nope haven't tried any of those. Although I have flown once of twice with just the phone. The thing is, the problem is intermittent, so I can't always tell that changing this or that solved it or caused it. It has to be a series of tests repeated over time. But from the results I've had it seems to be a hardware issue in the drone, rather than a connection.

Been thinking about getting another phone dedicated for the drone and getting an android platform so I can also do that work around to use 2.4ghz waveband, as here in Australia we are only limited to the shorter range 5.8.
 
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Well I am in Aus too - in Vic - Eastern Suburbs.
Limited to 5.8Ghz - where did you read that? You can use 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz, all my other transmitters are 2.4ghz Or are you saying that as far as since 2.4 is so congested the Preference is 5.8Ghz (which although faster, limits your range.)

I myself did as you mentioned though I ended up getting a 10" Lenovo M10 tablet from Officeworks - $247ish AUD. I can use it for a heap of other things too if I want, but it is kind of my dedicated Spark monitor. Even though I have the DJI RE goggles as well, but I'm a good citizen and only fly VLOS. The problem there being I can't use either Litchi or DJI Go App both on the Phone/Tablet and also have the goggles connected anyway - need to wait till I step up to something like a Mavic Pro and higher (maybe after I complete my RePL and Cert 3 in a couple of weeks and can afford to be broke again...HAHA)

I know you mention you think it is the Drone rather than connection, however the symptoms can indeed seem the same, if anything flaky is coming out of the Phone or Controls, where else is it going to go to - The Drone.

One thing I might look further a-field to is Radio interference - You did mention Pine Gap...OK I know they are not close, but it was just to have you consider when you are in the App on the phone - check the Bandwidth usage to make sure you are not on a congested frequency - even if you go out away from the DNF area. Maybe even install a Wifi Analyzer to look for signals too.

If Litchi was free out of the box for a trial too - that is the other thing I would try to see if it isn't the Go App itself (but flying Stick only should eliminate that theory if it still behaves badly.)

I agree, you need to use a true scientific method to derive more data with More tests, Rinse and Repeat until you can replicate both the Fail and Non-Fail results.
 
Well I am in Aus too - in Vic - Eastern Suburbs.
Limited to 5.8Ghz - where did you read that? You can use 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz, all my other transmitters are 2.4ghz Or are you saying that as far as since 2.4 is so congested the Preference is 5.8Ghz (which although faster, limits your range.)

I myself did as you mentioned though I ended up getting a 10" Lenovo M10 tablet from Officeworks - $247ish AUD. I can use it for a heap of other things too if I want, but it is kind of my dedicated Spark monitor. Even though I have the DJI RE goggles as well, but I'm a good citizen and only fly VLOS. The problem there being I can't use either Litchi or DJI Go App both on the Phone/Tablet and also have the goggles connected anyway - need to wait till I step up to something like a Mavic Pro and higher (maybe after I complete my RePL and Cert 3 in a couple of weeks and can afford to be broke again...HAHA)

I know you mention you think it is the Drone rather than connection, however the symptoms can indeed seem the same, if anything flaky is coming out of the Phone or Controls, where else is it going to go to - The Drone.

One thing I might look further a-field to is Radio interference - You did mention Pine Gap...OK I know they are not close, but it was just to have you consider when you are in the App on the phone - check the Bandwidth usage to make sure you are not on a congested frequency - even if you go out away from the DNF area. Maybe even install a Wifi Analyzer to look for signals too.

If Litchi was free out of the box for a trial too - that is the other thing I would try to see if it isn't the Go App itself (but flying Stick only should eliminate that theory if it still behaves badly.)

I agree, you need to use a true scientific method to derive more data with More tests, Rinse and Repeat until you can replicate both the Fail and Non-Fail results.

Ah yes I still get confused with the wavelength stuff. We do get both 5.8 and 2.4 but its the CE european version that is a much reduced power than the FCC version.

I don't think its radio interference as I've flown in areas and had the problem then flown there again and not.
Yep I do need to try flying with just the RC and see how that goes.

Hey I just posted a thread asking if anyone in Melbourne could go by the listed DJI address for their service center and check it out. Maybe knock on the door and see if they can talk to someone. I'm interested if any servicing really is done there. I don't think it is. Are you interested in going over there? This is the address they gave me, 46 Indian Drive, Keysborough VIC 3173
 
Hi, from Brisbane, have you used the serial number checker to see when the Spark was made? That will give you a better idea of its age.
But not when it was originally purchased.
My 1st Spark was built March 2019, also bought 2nd hand but less than 12 hrs from original purchase, which was 26 April it failed within 2 weeks, was replaced by a unit built in May 2019.

Bought another one yesterday that was bought new December 2018, so still under warranty, but by Serial Number age sat around for a year before being sold as it was built August 2017.
Sending the faulty Spark to Melbourne wasn’t too bad took just over a week I think. But if no warranty cheaper to repair it yourself if you have the skills.
I bench diagnosed mine for days with multiple factory resets before finally shipping it in. But knew it would be covered as a faulty unit.
A complete Core Board is half the cost on eBay compared to local repair charges.
As I was sent an Invoice of parts + labour prices that was waived.
The address you mention was where mine went to, they obviously have the means to diagnose faults, but as you say I doubt they will actually be repaired there.
The other option may be a paid repair through a closer D1store. Brisbane may be the closest ones.
 
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Hi, from Brisbane, have you used the serial number checker to see when the Spark was made? That will give you a better idea of its age.
But not when it was originally purchased.
My 1st Spark was built March 2019, also bought 2nd hand but less than 12 hrs from original purchase, which was 26 April it failed within 2 weeks, was replaced by a unit built in May 2019.

Bought another one yesterday that was bought new December 2018, so still under warranty, but by Serial Number age sat around for a year before being sold as it was built August 2017.
Sending the faulty Spark to Melbourne wasn’t too bad took just over a week I think. But if no warranty cheaper to repair it yourself if you have the skills.
I bench diagnosed mine for days with multiple factory resets before finally shipping it in. But knew it would be covered as a faulty unit.
A complete Core Board is half the cost on eBay compared to local repair charges.
As I was sent an Invoice of parts + labour prices that was waived.
The address you mention was where mine went to, they obviously have the means to diagnose faults, but as you say I doubt they will actually be repaired there.
The other option may be a paid repair through a closer D1store. Brisbane may be the closest ones.

Yes Brisbane would be my closest, but that is still 2000km away. Where do I find the serial number checker?

Edit: found it.
 
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Haha yes we aren't completely backward here. there are drone shops. We even have Pine Gap where they make components for the US spy drones! :) But I live in the far north in Cairns, a population of 160,000 and the closest big city is 2000km away. No one here in the local shops can work on drones as far as I'm aware, so Id have to send it away. Id be happy to send it to the DJI service center, but I don't understand why you can't talk to someone who works there. I'd just like to have a bit of confidence that it's going to someone who knows what they are doing. I think their service center is actually just a clearing house. Faulty products come in and they just send them to China to be worked on.

I titled the thread as I did because the admins are clearly pissed that I'm exposing faults in their product and their service and they would rather see me gone, so they are finding ways to delete my account.



RJB1, again there is no truth in what you say !

" I think their service center is actually just a clearing house. Faulty products come in and they just send them to China to be worked on."

DJI have Chinese speaking technicians in Melbourne and the repairs & assessment of issues is handled there !
All enquiries however must go via China 1300 number to a service department, then they speak with Melbourne, & supply you with a case number and label to forward it in for service ! End of story no drama. I had spent hours trying to explain that on this sight in another section, but you seem not to understand simple DJI Customer Service protocol !

Ask Maniac_au,
he has done it, perhaps you might just believe him ?
man up mate !
 
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