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My Spark just fell from the sky
1724 18 2017-8-2
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kabekid
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34 great flights and on the 35th, i was hovering at about 65 feet when the spark just shut down and fell to the earth. nice 80f outside, well within operating temps.
it's in the forest so i've been looking for it, but haven't found it yet. i am about to start looking again, i spent an hour earlier.
talking to dji support they ask me what the error is?

i told them i don't know. it shut down and fell. i haven't found it yet. they ask if i want to start a lost drone case.
i tell them i need to start a case for a defective spark. i didn't lose it, it fell from the sky because of some sort of failure, and i haven't found it yet.
they tell me dji care doesn't cover a lost drone? i tryed to tell them i didn't lose it. it fell from the sky in my line of sight and i just haven't found it yet. it didn't fly away, i didn't fly off a mountain, it fell, and i have to walk the forest to find it.

it's like they want to blame me for losing it, instead of looking at what happened.

i'm not sure i like the customer service so far.

i synced the app so it shows my flight out that just abruptly ends, but i'm wondering if it even matters.

so will the warranty even cover this as it seems to be an issue with the Spark?
it's like i'm being treated like i'm the one to blame.

not good.

case #

CAS-857495-R3Y7K1




2017-8-2
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Frangu
lvl.3
Flight distance : 19849 ft
United States
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with the logs they would be able to see what happened. they could determined from there it wasn't your fault.
2017-8-2
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Onomarn
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Did you try using the "lost drone function" its usually semi accurate within a few feet.

Hate to say this, but there are many lost Spark drones, but DJI is not replacing them, instead they offer you 30% off a new drone. Its annoying that they want you to throw more money at them, when they can't even tell you what happened in the first place or admit to any issue with the drone. Good luck on finding your drone.

I had mine for less than 5 days and it fell right into the ocean with my scuba dive team watching... Couldn't recover it. Chase refunded me the full amount, screw going through DJI's customer service.
2017-8-2
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fans5d9349b7
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United Kingdom
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Where you using the latest firmware flashed to the Spark and battery? There were reports of falling sparks over the past few weeks but a firmware update was supposed to fix it.
2017-8-2
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kabekid
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latest firmware on spark, battery and rc. so i found the spark, it lost one motor pod in the fall so it's days are done. the only reason i was able to find it was i found some pieces on the ground, and it was hanging in a tree by one arm.


so i'm about to pull the flight logs off it. i don't think they'll say much, the cached video just shows me hovering and then it ends, so it shut down totally.

i don't feel too confident in dji right now. i was even a little nervous to take my mavic up to look for the spark.

find my drone didn't show me anything, where it thought it was, but it was off by more then 500-700 ft.

it fell from the sky and hit one of my tuff sheds, bounced off and ended up in a tree. i was lucky that i saw one of the led covers on the ground that led me to close in on the area.

2017-8-2
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BriRi
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kabekid Posted at 2017-8-2 13:37
latest firmware on spark, battery and rc. so i found the spark, it lost one motor pod in the fall so it's days are done. the only reason i was able to find it was i found some pieces on the ground, and it was hanging in a tree by one arm.

Since you found it and can send it back they will almost certainly replace it.

They aren't replacing lost drones even though they seem to be the same malfunction!!!

Good luck!!!
2017-8-2
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kabekid
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thanks. i just got all the repair paperwork done and i'll send it off tomorrow. guess i'll be sparkless for a while.

hopefully they do their part and replace it without a hassle. i'm just glad i found it. well, most of it.
2017-8-2
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ImHereToCrash
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i have noticed with update to the battery it appears 2 things DJi did with the batteries.   1 is they appeared to more accurately show power usage.  2 is they seemed to change the thermal properties.   the battery has to be a lot cooler to charge it than before, i haven't checked in app the temps.  but it appears needs a longer cool off period..

on a side note... i got 12 minutes out of a pack before it was down to 30% default low battery..i felt so confident i took a lap around a store 1/4 mile out, a place i haven't pushed it yet... came back.. 24% battery....  3 minutes for a round trip...   15 minutes run time before i landed it with 24% battery!!!?????!!!  wtf??  however, while that was astonishing and probably means i could get 20 minutes out of that pack, is one issue, the battery was super stupid hot.. like to the point i would be worried the thermal protection was getting ready to kick in.  i didn't check the app for temps, i just pulled the battery and placed it aside to cool off..too concerned that was too hot to the touch. not too hot to touch or to hold but noticeably hottest battery i ran.  i plan to do more testing.  other 2 batteries im running i havent pushed but they getting closer to average run times i think.. 9-10minutes before 30% warning...  

on a side note as maybe a suggestion.  DJi, maybe you could implement into all ur drones including the sparky... allow a custom battery buffer zone for power remaining...like a slider between default dji and + xx%.   example of why this may be useful:    say maybe you flew your drone out really far (as an example here) but winds when you did that super calm, but now at return to home battery power and wind is stirred up a bit and fighting head on., the app wasn't anticipating this fight because going out was ok... if ahead of time you just incase pulled slider up to 10% battery buffer.. return to home power would have extra 10% remaining power, because it would have thought its 10% lower than it really is..  it may only be a visual mental thing, but trust me it works well if implemented well.  and it is a genuinely smart if you are using it to explore a new place....

2017-8-2
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$gambino$
First Officer
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Try not to fly past 20% as a person who fly's heli's and other multirotor 20 % is rule of thumb for longer battery longevity... Keep taking it way down and you will notice that you're not getting much speed and the battery feels like it's losing power during flight just not overall good for a lipo battery
2017-8-2
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DJI Mindy
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We are so sorry for the falling accident. I think our support just want to clarify to you that DJI Care Refresh will not cover any lost or partially lost aircraft, gimbal or accessories including recovery failure.
Though the drone was not recovered, our data analysis team will try their best to find out the reason of the accident and warranty the drone if it's malfunction.
Fortunately the drone was recovered, please send in as soon as possible and local team will contact you about the result of accident after analysis is done.
2017-8-2
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DJI Mindy
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Onomarn Posted at 2017-8-2 10:27
Did you try using the "lost drone function" its usually semi accurate within a few feet.

Hate to say this, but there are many lost Spark drones, but DJI is not replacing them, instead they offer you 30% off a new drone. Its annoying that they want you to throw more money at them, when they can't even tell you what happened in the first place or admit to any issue with the drone. Good luck on finding your drone.

Onomarn, sorry for your experience, since the drone wasn't recovered, the black box cannot be retrieved. While the flight records in mobile device are limited to analyze the reason, sometimes we could not find the precise cause about the accident so we provide a discount to reduce your loss as much as possible.
We apologize for the trouble caused.
2017-8-2
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Eiwar
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Flight distance : 38786 ft
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Good to know you found your quad. As for me, it was completely lost in the sea. DJI is currently looking into it and the only way to reach out is via email as they don't have phone support in our region. 3-4 working days is long and the waiting game is agonizing as you have no idea what the outcome would be. Fingers crossed.
2017-8-2
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Eiwar
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DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-2 18:35
We are so sorry for the falling accident. I think our support just want to clarify to you that DJI Care Refresh will not cover any lost or partially lost aircraft, gimbal or accessories including recovery failure.
Though the drone was not recovered, our data analysis team will try their best to find out the reason of the accident and warranty the drone if it's malfunction.
Fortunately the drone was recovered, please send in as soon as possible and local team will contact you about the result of accident after analysis is done.

DJI Mindy - That's not good enough. Providing us a discount due to a device failure is unfair. this is clearly an isolated issue with the number of people experiencing it. DJI should be able to know what is happening by now and offer an appropriate solution.
2017-8-2
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Eiwar
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DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-2 18:41
Onomarn, sorry for your experience, since the drone wasn't recovered, the black box cannot be retrieved. While the flight records in mobile device are limited to analyze the reason, sometimes we could not find the precise cause about the accident so we provide a discount to reduce your loss as much as possible.
We apologize for the trouble caused.


DJI Mindy - That's not good enough. Providing us a discount due to a device failure is unfair. this is clearly an isolated issue with the number of people experiencing it. DJI should be able to know what is happening by now and offer an appropriate solution.
2017-8-2
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DJI Mindy
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Eiwar Posted at 2017-8-2 19:09
DJI Mindy - That's not good enough. Providing us a discount due to a device failure is unfair. this is clearly an isolated issue with the number of people experiencing it. DJI should be able to know what is happening by now and offer an appropriate solution.

I have responded in your thread, please keep us posted there, thank you.
2017-8-3
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Onomarn
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Flight distance : 4728 ft
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DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-2 18:41
Onomarn, sorry for your experience, since the drone wasn't recovered, the black box cannot be retrieved. While the flight records in mobile device are limited to analyze the reason, sometimes we could not find the precise cause about the accident so we provide a discount to reduce your loss as much as possible.
We apologize for the trouble caused.

Reduce my loss at much as possible? I basically paid 759 USD (Drone fly more combo + Dji Care Less) for a drone that after 4 days of owning went crashing into the ocean because of a power cycle or something that you guys will refuse to admit to. I've had other drones in the past and this has never happened.

When a similar issue (not the exact same issue probably, but may never know because DJI won't say anything other than its a "known issue that affects a "small" number of drones) happened to GoPro, they sucked it up and recalled all their drones, fixed the issue, then put it back up for sale a few months later. Y'all need to take a lesson from GoPro.

Offering users 30% off a new drone to replace the one they lost due to an issue that DJI refuses to fully admit is ridiculous. The way I see it and probably others do to is, you basically want us to throw more money at you so we can buy another drone that may or may not go crashing again, and then say oh sorry for your loss here is another 30% off another drone.

I'm sorry but the forums here have over 50+ cases in total (there was a running list until a moderator deleted it) and you are still trying to hide how big its become? I know that this is a new drone and issues are expected to arise, though with most companies you will be well taken care of after the fact, but with DJI nope thats not the case.  All I've seen so far is "please post your flight logs and we will analyze the data". That data is analyzed then nothing happens other than "sorry for your loss".

Here's my data http://app.airdata.com/main?share=IJTmsT As you can see everything was ideal, from temp to visibility. At the end of the recording I was 58m (190+feet) in the air. The drone ceased to respond to commands and fell from the sky like a brick into the ocean. Luckily it was prior to 8am and the beach was mostly empty. The only thing DJI can say is: Thanks for your patience.

For your claimed case CAS-800296-L6J0Q3, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

1.The aircraft worked at GPS mode, and responded to RC command perfectly;
2.T=02:20, H=58 m, D=39.1 m, battery power 85%, the pilot pulled down the throttle stick fully, and the drone had the falling speed of 1.5m/s, then the flight records was interrupted;
3. Take off point:36.6100290,-121.8965219; last point:36.6102157, -121.8961493. The subsequent flight situation was unknown, which could not determine the cause of the accident.

With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards.

We truly appreciate your support for DJI, and especially applied for a 30% off coupon for aircraft without charger and remote:
http://store.dji.com/product/spark


This "Evelyn" from DJI support must be very busy, because the same name is responding to everyones case, luckily the answers are from a script. If I got the drone back from the ocean, I'd probably get a similar response, we will analyze your data and get back to you. Oh the flight data is inconclusive.
2017-8-4
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DJI Mindy
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Onomarn Posted at 2017-8-4 14:48
Reduce my loss at much as possible? I basically paid 759 USD (Drone fly more combo + Dji Care Less) for a drone that after 4 days of owning went crashing into the ocean because of a power cycle or something that you guys will refuse to admit to. I've had other drones in the past and this has never happened.

When a similar issue (not the exact same issue probably, but may never know because DJI won't say anything other than its a "known issue that affects a "small" number of drones) happened to GoPro, they sucked it up and recalled all their drones, fixed the issue, then put it back up for sale a few months later. Y'all need to take a lesson from GoPro.

Onomarn, if you mean lost power mid-flight issue, we are aware of a small number of reports involving this, our engineers are thoroughly reviewing each customer case and working to address this matter urgently.
For your case, the flight records was interrupted unfortunately, we would like to help you, but we are unable to figure out what caused the accident without records.
30% off coupon is be the best offer we could provided. Sorry for the inconvenience that has been caused.
2017-8-7
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Onomarn
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DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-7 02:20
Onomarn, if you mean lost power mid-flight issue, we are aware of a small number of reports involving this, our engineers are thoroughly reviewing each customer case and working to address this matter urgently.
For your case, the flight records was interrupted unfortunately, we would like to help you, but we are unable to figure out what caused the accident without records.
30% off coupon is be the best offer we could provided. Sorry for the inconvenience that has been caused.

Small number??? there have been more than a small number. Stop deleting post and review the 10 pages that appeared in the other post and see how many drones crashed. All of our responses from DJI says the same exact thing, our flight record was interrupted. DJi is not thoroughly reviewing each customer. DJI just looks at the basics and says "oh sorry" your loss, throw us more money. DJI is one of the worst companies at customer service. Its unfortunate that y'all currently own a majority of the market share, but that probably won't be for long with how DJI conducts business. I've worked with small and large firms and these automatic responses from DJI is ridiculous, like something out of an 80's manual.
2017-8-7
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DJI Mindy
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Onomarn Posted at 2017-8-7 06:42
Small number??? there have been more than a small number. Stop deleting post and review the 10 pages that appeared in the other post and see how many drones crashed. All of our responses from DJI says the same exact thing, our flight record was interrupted. DJi is not thoroughly reviewing each customer. DJI just looks at the basics and says "oh sorry" your loss, throw us more money. DJI is one of the worst companies at customer service. Its unfortunate that y'all currently own a majority of the market share, but that probably won't be for long with how DJI conducts business. I've worked with small and large firms and these automatic responses from DJI is ridiculous, like something out of an 80's manual.

Onomarn, your concern has been escalated to related team for further resolution, we will have someone to contact you by email later, please note and thanks for your patience.
2017-8-8
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