Spark goes haywire, again!

Tom Piotrowski · Jul 1, 2017

You are not alone. Today something like that happened to me. After using SPARK for over 4 weeks, on two occasions today, after launching SPARK from hand and letting it hover for few seconds, touching the yaw on iPhone screen (the very latest DJI Go App), drone kicked off at full speed, before hitting nearby tree, damaging one propeller and ending up on grassy surface. I have reported problem to DJI and am awaiting their outcome.

John Car · Jul 1, 2017

This is why I ordered the combo package. Flying a high-tech drone from your phone is not good in my opinion.

redrydermedia · Jul 1, 2017

Tom Piotrowski said:
You are not alone. Today something like that happened to me. After using SPARK for over 4 weeks, on two occasions today, after launching SPARK from hand and letting it hover for few seconds, touching the yaw on iPhone screen (the very latest DJI Go App), drone kicked off at full speed, before hitting nearby tree, damaging one propeller and ending up on grassy surface. I have reported problem to DJI and am awaiting their outcome.View attachment 324

Your flyaway flight path looks exactly like mine. Helix type expanding arc with a curve to the left. That's exactly like what mine did. I think this is the third report I've read on this forum alone where this same fault occurred. There has to be something to this.....this is not a random occurrence.

yo-dude · Jul 1, 2017

John Car said:
This is why I ordered the combo package. Flying a high-tech drone from your phone is not good in my opinion.

for Sure!!!! just asking for trouble

yo-dude · Jul 1, 2017

After your first errant flight.... did you recalibrate your compass and IMU? You should at least check both IMU and compass manually...as in...dot trust the status the screen gives especially after a troubled flight. Check both again...even after calibration. sounds like your compass is off ad needs repair. Good luck!

ed gonzalez · Jul 1, 2017

This is extremely dangerous. My spark stopped mid flight with 60% battery life it just dropped out of the sky. Others are reporting the same issues DJI needs to resolve this or refund everyones money.

Ryan Klompus · Jul 1, 2017

I lost my Spark the 2nd day of ownership. Launched in gesture mode, flew it for awhile (taking selfies and tracking) when it decided to fly straight up in the air and flew away. I re calibrated the flight before and it didn't fly towards where it came from, completely different direction. No matter what I did it wouldn't come down to land prior to it taking off, wouldn't respond to gestures at all.

This replacement most likely will never be in gesture mode and always connected to a remote control, not a phone. Unless significant improvements are made to the firmware.

Now I must say this thing in sport mode connected to a controller is FUN but too bad the gimbal can't handle it without jerking all over the place.

dropro · Jul 3, 2017

... still no response from dji...

Dragonfly47 · Jul 3, 2017

Symptoms sound very similar to the ones described in this Youtube video:

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 3, 2017

KP index was high yesterday, could have been a problem I guess.

Falk Lumo · Jul 4, 2017

As I noted in the other thread, some Spark units seem to be defect, either shipping with the defect, or becoming defect quickly. I see two symptoms, "Wide arc fly away" and "Shut down in mid flight".

I think we have to wait DJI to analyze returned defunct units to learn more.

In the mean time, somebody could create a poll about #users having one of the two problems, or not, with option to re-vote when the issue emerges. I won't do it myself though as I am a newbie on this forum.

I thank the OP for making us all aware of the issue.

mcquoidd · Jul 4, 2017

sounds weird, but I just re do the compass each time im in new place, takes 5 seconds , and even being in the bag and in the car for a length of time COULD do something,

so yeah , i only leave the compass , if the drone is up right and in same place as im flying then algood, if it goes in bag, then re do compass everytime I take it out ,

Ryan Klompus · Jul 5, 2017

mcquoidd said:
sounds weird, but I just re do the compass each time im in new place, takes 5 seconds , and even being in the bag and in the car for a length of time COULD do something,

so yeah , i only leave the compass , if the drone is up right and in same place as im flying then algood, if it goes in bag, then re do compass everytime I take it out ,

I do 99% of the time as well. When in launching in gesture mode it is pretty hard to calibrate for sure.

8BitSpark · Jul 6, 2017

Similar thing happened. Using gesture mode only, the Spark started to orbit. It did continuously until I figured to get out of its tracking quickly and it stopped. Then I grabbed my RC, turned it on and took control. I will not use gesture mode only any more.