fansdbce68d7
lvl.2
Flight distance : 349793 ft
United States
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From a hardware perspective, the Spark is pretty awesome (except for controller disconnects). And I love my P4 and Mavic. But here are some Spark software design choices and failures that really bug me.
1st. Android support. App crashes constantly. I would have more respect for DJI if they just pulled support for android, rather than claim it works but it just fails constantly. Please don't give me grief about supported devices, IOS, etc... If you claim your app works with android, and you let it install on my device, IT SHOULD WORK. If my device is unsupported, DJI shoud SAY SO and not allow the installation or use of buggy software. It is basically fraudulent to claim something works, when it blatanly doesn't for so many, and extremely unsafe as well. Very unprofessional of DJI and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a class-action lawsuit for all the users deprived of operating their purchases as promised, or a potential incident where the buggy software is directly to blame. Shame on DJI for sticking their heads in the sand and refusing to publicly acknowledge the issues and take positive and corrective actions.
Upon controller disconnect, Spark decends to 0.5m and stays there (untill battery RTH is invoked, I think, haven't tested). Lame... If you lose connection due to distance or obstruction, decending is the last thing you want to do to re-acquire signal. It's also potentially dangerous, especially if it's into trees, bushes, humans, cars, etc... Correct behavior should be RTH like all the other DJI products. Reconnect is sporadic and unreliable, I have had disconnects from 10m away, and sometimes take 2 minutes to reacquire (restarting controller, app, etc...).
Fog or clouds disrupts the visual altitude sensor, causing the spark to think it's near the surface when it's still high up in the air. Vehicle stays in "landing" mode, which only allows 0.3 m/s decent rate. Which means the vehicle will run out of battery before it can reach the ground. My vehicle RTH'd into fog at 100m, and while I could still manuever around, I could not decend quickly, resulting in a free fall when it ran out of battery. Lack of manual throttle overide is a big problem, especially combined with an automatic and indefeatable "landing" mode.
Controller/vehicle frequency setup it unrealiable and non-intuitive. When I connect with phone wifi, I can set 2.4 or 5g. But is that from my phone to the controller, or from the controller to the spark? When I plug in using the OTG cable, I no longer can choose the frequency settings. If I mess with the connection orders I can get the spark to use 2.4 and use the OTG, which seems like the best possible combo, but it doesn't remember these settings, and I have to reset every flight.
Controller will not connect to phone (Pixel XL), via wifi or OTG, with cellular data enabled. WTF? So I can't get updated maps, or unlock areas, while actually flying.
I honestly don't understand all the rave reviews for the spark, it is the worst performing and least reliable drone DJI has every produced. And it's form factor and cuteness is not enough to compensate, at least for me...
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