So far the Spark has worked beautifully!

• Image to the phone is crisp and clear with a short delay between drone movement and video presented on the phone
• Active track works well although when my little boy runs around and changes direction, it takes a moment to respond meaning it can lose the subject
• Gesture controls work well. Didnt really have any issues
• Landing back in your hand is gentle. I have racing drones and dont go near it when armed. This one does feel much safer but still need to exercise caution
• One battery is no where near enough! Luckily I have 6 more coming
• I have a Xiaomi Mi2 Powerbank and it charges the Spark quite fast while in the field
• The Go 4 app does a great job at creating videos from your footage using transitions and audio tracks
• The live stream to facebook and other social media sites works well!
• Height is indeed limited to 50m while using the phone. At that height though this thing is a dot in the sky
  

Future tests;

• I have a Xiaomi Nano Youth on the way and will test if it works and do a distance run. I am in Australia so Spark output power is reduced unlike you lucky Americans!
• I already have the DJI goggles and will test once the remote comes in
• I will go through all 7 batteries and see how the Spark goes after continuous use
  

GCBrent - Thanks for your concise assessment of the Spark.  Just like the rest of us, I can hardly wait to get my Spark FlyMore and fly this small bird.

Nikon 1 Posted at 2017-6-10 14:54
GCBrent - Thanks for your concise assessment of the Spark.  Just like the rest of us, I can hardly wait to get my Spark FlyMore and fly this small bird.

No problem. It is a great little drone and REALLY cant wait for the controller. FPV using the goggles will be awesome! Luckily my local guy let me have the fly-less until the fly-more comes in. I also took 5 of the 20 batteries he has coming in along with the 2 in the fly more should keep me in the air for extended fun time!

May i ask a question that what is the mah of ur power bank and how many times ca it charge a battery?

Thanks for your initial experience. Sounds pretty exciting. Curious, what is the lowest altitude can you fly your Spark at? What is the lowest altitude you can set Active Track? Thanks!

The power bank is 20,000 mAh so can theoritcally charge it nearly 5 times after taking into account the voltage differential. Not too bad.

I was flying my spark pretty low at one stage, maybe 2 feet. It holds altitude pretty well. Active track I only used so far at a good height, say 3 -5 meters. I was having chase my boy and he loved darting around the place so if its too close it would lose him. But a low follow shot sounds like a great idea! I will give it a go!

For the field, I have a 170,000mah battery at 12V so that will charge the batteries about 220 times over...

Took it out to one of my favorite places to fly around the trees. Flying around trees with just the phone to control is definitely not recommended. Ended up in a tree. Virtual sticks just dont cut it. That being said, once the RC comes in, it will definitely be a different beast. Even when using the phone, I had it out to 82m and stopped myself, it didnt reach the end of its capability so I am very impressed with its range just with the phone. The RC will be something else again.

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-11 11:09
The power bank is 20,000 mAh so can theoritcally charge it nearly 5 times after taking into account the voltage differential. Not too bad.

I was flying my spark pretty low at one stage, maybe 2 feet. It holds altitude pretty well. Active track I only used so far at a good height, say 3 -5 meters. I was having chase my boy and he loved darting around the place so if its too close it would lose him. But a low follow shot sounds like a great idea! I will give it a go!

thanks for the reply
but how about actual usage, how many times can a battery be charged by your 20000mah power bank? thx!

A quick question regarding Active Track. From what I have seen it can be initiated by gesture control but does it start recording at the same time?

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-11 11:09
The power bank is 20,000 mAh so can theoritcally charge it nearly 5 times after taking into account the voltage differential. Not too bad.

I was flying my spark pretty low at one stage, maybe 2 feet. It holds altitude pretty well. Active track I only used so far at a good height, say 3 -5 meters. I was having chase my boy and he loved darting around the place so if its too close it would lose him. But a low follow shot sounds like a great idea! I will give it a go!

Thanks GCBrent! Would love to hear how your low level follow shots turn out. It would be very cool to know if Spark could just operate a few inches off the ground from some dramatic footage. Cheers

BirdBefore Posted at 2017-6-12 07:18
Thanks GCBrent! Would love to hear how your low level follow shots turn out. It would be very cool to know if Spark could just operate a few inches off the ground from some dramatic footage. Cheers

It will operate a few inches of the ground, but just remember you need to have very flat and level surface and you need to have VPS turned off, also these cameras may not focus under 1 meter so you need to check this out.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-6-12 08:41
It will operate a few inches of the ground, but just remember you need to have very flat and level surface and you need to have VPS turned off, also these cameras may not focus under 1 meter so you need to check this out.

Great to know, thank you for your input!

Nice.. What store was this?

Also just noticed the Spark emblem under your name - Very Cool!

I have used the powerbank to charge it but only once. Only had it from Friday and its been shocking weather here. It should charge it about 5 times.

It does indeed operate a few inches off the ground and I tested that out. It holds its altitude very well although you will need to adjust if you are going down hill as it will hold altitude, not distance to the ground. When doing my low run, the ground was clearly in focus so wasnt a problem.

Gesture control of active track does work but wont take video. You need to use the app to do that. But you can do that, start the video and put your phone your pocket anyway.

One thing I DONT like is the fact that the app (or spark) stops recording video all the time! I do come into close proximity of trees/me/ground, etc. and it seems to be when this happens it stops the video recording. Not sure how to turn that off and dont know why its on to begin with. When I want to I will stop it recording...why does the app/spark decide to stop the video capture???

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-12 18:02
One thing I DONT like is the fact that the app (or spark) stops recording video all the time! I do come into close proximity of trees/me/ground, etc. and it seems to be when this happens it stops the video recording. Not sure how to turn that off and dont know why its on to begin with. When I want to I will stop it recording...why does the app/spark decide to stop the video capture???

I have been doing some reading on this and there seems to be a lot of people with this issue on other DJI drones. Seems like the SD card can cause this. I purchased an SD card that was on the recommended list from DJI for the Spark and that doesnt seem to still stop these issues. I bought a 64Gb Samsung Evo class 10 card @48mb/s. Still issues. So I am currently waiting on the Samsung Pro SD card which has a write speed of 90mb/s. If that doesnt work then nothing will! Still you would think that the DJI recommended SD card would work... wrong.

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-12 18:12
I have been doing some reading on this and there seems to be a lot of people with this issue on other DJI drones. Seems like the SD card can cause this. I purchased an SD card that was on the recommended list from DJI for the Spark and that doesnt seem to still stop these issues. I bought a 64Gb Samsung Evo class 10 card @48mb/s. Still issues. So I am currently waiting on the Samsung Pro SD card which has a write speed of 90mb/s. If that doesnt work then nothing will! Still you would think that the DJI recommended SD card would work... wrong.

A standard class 10 would suffice..
I think an 8 or 16gig would be fine considering the spark does 1080p@30fp@24mbs.
And it doesn't do RAW/DNG so a $10 SD class 10 card should work fine for speed/

And i suggest everyone to get multiple 8/16gig cards. Tape one to the controller and leave a few in your bag. You don't want have a 64gig card and leave all your eggs in one basket in the case you lose the spark.

it's my understanding that the Mavic Pro will not descend in a scenario using active track when decreasing altitude such as snowboarding. Will the spark descend down hill during active track?

devanss Posted at 2017-6-12 22:03
it's my understanding that the Mavic Pro will not descend in a scenario using active track when decreasing altitude such as snowboarding. Will the spark descend down hill during active track?

Good question, I will have to try that.

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-12 22:38
Good question, I will have to try that.

thanks for the quick response

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-12 17:45
I have used the powerbank to charge it but only once. Only had it from Friday and its been shocking weather here. It should charge it about 5 times.

It does indeed operate a few inches off the ground and I tested that out. It holds its altitude very well although you will need to adjust if you are going down hill as it will hold altitude, not distance to the ground. When doing my low run, the ground was clearly in focus so wasnt a problem.

Awesome to know-thank you!

So my problem with the video stopping seems to be from the FAKE SD cards I bought off ebay. Whatever you do DONT buy SD cards off ebay!!! Got 2 from different sellers and both are fake! File explorer says they are the right size (64GB) but when tested they are only 8GB and rebadged. Unreal!!!

Flying 50m with just the smartphone is pretty impressive. That's in fact illegal for most part of Berlin, for example haha The normal limit is 30m.

Lupa Posted at 2017-6-14 01:39
Flying 50m with just the smartphone is pretty impressive. That's in fact illegal for most part of Berlin, for example haha The normal limit is 30m.

No the height limit for Berlin is 50m for unmanned aerial systems like the spark. 30m is for modellairplanes.
But in Berlin its almost illegal everywhere (people, airports, heliport, government buildings, streets, traintracks...)
and even on the outskirts ist mostly ilegal becaus of nature reservates, industial areas, or even nuclear testreactors (wannsee)

kasei Posted at 2017-6-14 03:21
No the height limit for Berlin is 50m for unmanned aerial systems like the spark. 30m is for modellairplanes.
But in Berlin its almost illegal everywhere (people, airports, heliport, government buildings, streets, traintracks...)
and even on the outskirts ist mostly ilegal becaus of nature reservates, industial areas, or even nuclear testreactors (wannsee)

modell airplanes are 50m as well. https://www.dfs.de/dfs_homepage/ ... 7C%20%22Drohnen%22/

but i dont know why its 50. the new laws allow 100m height. maybe some special airspace in berlin because of the airports an stuff.

While in gesture modes is the drone recording video ? And if not how do I turn on video recording while using gesture mode ??

alexyanet Posted at 2017-6-14 06:13
While in gesture modes is the drone recording video ? And if not how do I turn on video recording while using gesture mode ??

all the previews said its not recording video in gesture mode.
also to take a pic the spark has to enter follow me mode first, where the spark flies a few feet away from the "pilot" and starts tracking.
thats bad because in follow me mode you cant position the drone with your hands, its auto adjusts its position.
hope they update on these features, i think the way it works now it is very diffucult to get the shot you want.

While shooting video, moving forward/backwards while turning makes the video super blurry and out of focus. Moving forward/backward while up/down doesn't.

Anyone else having these issues?

CloneCommander Posted at 2017-6-14 11:52
While shooting video, moving forward/backwards while turning makes the video super blurry and out of focus. Moving forward/backward while up/down doesn't.

Anyone else having these issues?

I havent had that issue as I fly forward and yaw. Still looks crystal clear!

Good information, What's the minimum radius and height you can fly in orbit mode?

Dragonfly47 Posted at 2017-6-14 13:13
Good information, What's the minimum radius and height you can fly in orbit mode?

Just a quick question, I'm new to DJI drones:

If I fly in a forest and Spark looses connection (app crashes, phone resets, …), will Spark ascend to 30m and possibly crash into trees while attempting to come home? Or will it just hover?

Donalbain Posted at 2017-6-16 07:52
Just a quick question, I'm new to DJI drones:

If I fly in a forest and Spark looses connection (app crashes, phone resets, …), will Spark ascend to 30m and possibly crash into trees while attempting to come home? Or will it just hover?

You can set the RTH height or even have it RTH at the current height it is at. That is exactly what I will be setting when flying in forest environments.

Dragonfly47 Posted at 2017-6-14 13:13
Good information, What's the minimum radius and height you can fly in orbit mode?

Well I have tried it at about 4 meters so far and with an elevation of about 1m above me and it goes from there. Worked well and was quite smooth.

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-16 12:14
You can set the RTH height or even have it RTH at the current height it is at. That is exactly what I will be setting when flying in forest environments.

Thanks! When I tried to set it, the number always resetted to 30m. Will try again, if it will ever again connect to the app again …

My Spark went haywire in Gesture mode.  After a few times using it, it just stopped responding and soared about 100 feet into the sky.  I now lost all control of the unit.  It hovered and then came crashing down and the gimbal broke.  Anyone else have this issue or can say what I did wrong?  Im new to droning so maybe I told it to do something.  But I cant imagine it should go that high.  I mean how would I gesture it at 100 feet up?

fansf0c87e63 Posted at 2017-6-21 16:39
My Spark went haywire in Gesture mode.  After a few times using it, it just stopped responding and soared about 100 feet into the sky.  I now lost all control of the unit.  It hovered and then came crashing down and the gimbal broke.  Anyone else have this issue or can say what I did wrong?  Im new to droning so maybe I told it to do something.  But I cant imagine it should go that high.  I mean how would I gesture it at 100 feet up?

If you can connect your Spark to PC using DJI assistant 2, extract the flight record out and send to DJI support. They can help to analyze and tell you the reason.

fansf0c87e63 Posted at 2017-6-21 16:39
My Spark went haywire in Gesture mode.  After a few times using it, it just stopped responding and soared about 100 feet into the sky.  I now lost all control of the unit.  It hovered and then came crashing down and the gimbal broke.  Anyone else have this issue or can say what I did wrong?  Im new to droning so maybe I told it to do something.  But I cant imagine it should go that high.  I mean how would I gesture it at 100 feet up?

That's crazy! I don't know any of the gestures that will send it that high or why it would just stop and crash. I would extract the flight data and send to DJI for review. No doubt they will replace it...

GCBrent Posted at 2017-6-21 23:30
That's crazy! I don't know any of the gestures that will send it that high or why it would just stop and crash. I would extract the flight data and send to DJI for review. No doubt they will replace it...

Just to verify, do you still have the short delay problem for image transmission? If so, would you please leave me your e-mail address, we'll contact you and provide you the test firmware? Thank you in advance!

How are you planning to charge all those 6 batteries