Spark spent a night in the ocean!

[His415]

Story time! I went to my favorite surf spot and started filming with the spark. Spark fell out of the sky and into the ocean it wasn't too deep so I looked for a while but the water was very murky so I couldn't see anything. Assuming the spark was lost I started the case with DJI since it just fell out of the sky. The very next day I got a call with someone who had found the spark. It had washed up and still had the sticker with my phone number on the side. The poor little Sparky will never fly again but at least I have DJ I care refresh so I can send the unit back for a replacement. I pop the top off to see how bad the damage was on the inside and took some pics for you guys. FYI salt water in the spark don't mix.

 

[webvan]

Thanks for sharing and good for you, DJI are going to have to cough up a new one after probably telling you yesterday that you were OOL without the wreck ;-)

 

[His415]

Totally! Sigh of relief! And consider this a PSA for you all to put your phone number somewhere on there!

 

[rcflyingaddict]

Where on the spark did you have your contact info?

 

[His415]

I put it on the side next to the gimbal with a label maker sticker

 

[JeyTea]

glad you find it..which fw was installed? the new one .600? thought the falling from sky Drama had end with the mandatory update from 21st August!?

 

[The Editor]

Story time! I went to my favorite surf spot and started filming with the spark. Spark fell out of the sky and into the ocean it wasn't too deep so I looked for a while but the water was very murky so I couldn't see anything. Assuming the spark was lost I started the case with DJI since it just fell out of the sky. The very next day I got a call with someone who had found the spark. It had washed up and still had the sticker with my phone number on the side. The poor little Sparky will never fly again but at least I have DJ I care refresh so I can send the unit back for a replacement. I pop the top off to see how bad the damage was on the inside and took some pics for you guys. FYI salt water in the spark don't mix.

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Doesn't look too bad.
Just do an IMU and compass calibration and should be fine.

 

[His415]

Doesn't look too bad.
Just do an IMU and compass calibration and should be fine.

Lololol. I got this

 

[mmee]

Lololol. I got this

What firmware did you have installed?

 

[His415]

iOS 4.1.9 and .600 on the spark. I'll let you know what DJI's analysis comes back as

 

[mmee]

iOS 4.1.9 and .600 on the spark. I'll let you know what DJI's analysis comes back as

****, thats no bueno.

 

[Toegema]

So it's safe to say that it's not safe to fly "normally" yet even with the .600 FW......(?)

 

[JeyTea]

So it's safe to say that it's not safe to fly "normally" yet even with the .600 FW......(?)

who knows, he did not mentioned any details about the crash..interesting is f.e. the flight log, if it ends before the spark felt in water...like a shut off mid air

 

[His415]

I don't think we have a reason to freak out yet, there is a chance I didn't get the batteries updated correctly. Anyone smart able to deduce that from the flight log? I'm attaching a drop box link for the flight log. Dropbox - DJIFlightRecord_2017-09-03_[16-02-51].txt

 

[His415]

When I updated to .600 I used Assistant 2 but didn't get any notification about the batteries being updated.

 

[His415]

Also one other additional note the battery was not found, just the spark.

 

[Buddy411]

A lot of that will buff right out.

 

[Pappy]

Also one other additional note the battery was not found, just the spark.

I wonder if these falling out of the sky incidents maybe caused by the battery latches. I once installed the battery and thought it was in properly installed only to find out on a second check, by pushing the battery in again, I heard a click. So only one of the two latches was holding the battery in place. It could be a similar situation as the Go Pro Karma, it to was failing out of the sky due to the battery disconnecting during flight.

 

[Lastrexking]

Wow, those photos.... You've motoivated me to get some labels made up though.

 

[Dronason]

I don't think we have a reason to freak out yet, there is a chance I didn't get the batteries updated correctly. Anyone smart able to deduce that from the flight log? I'm attaching a drop box link for the flight log. Dropbox - DJIFlightRecord_2017-09-03_[16-02-51].txt

Thanks for sharing, the flight shows you where in sport mode, about 8 feet above your takeoff point, braking from max speed down to zero and ...
As usual, the .DAT flight record would tell us more but seeing the status of the electronic after a night in the sea, no way.
Battery not secure, motors stop due to 90° tilt (wind gust, hard maneuver), hardware failure, firmware ... Who knows ?