This evening, I thought I wanted to capture a sunset and started up my Spark. Everything connected and I was happy to get a Go Fly within 3 minutes. Then I slid the bar to start it flying - and as it rose, a No Signal came on and the camera feed went blank. The drone became unstable vertically and when I tried to bring it down to switch off, I could not. All the controls from the RC didn't work and I had no choice but to grab hold of it (scary!). Then I tried to shut it down by the usual battery shut-off procedure and it would not shut down! It was difficult as I could not pull it lower and after a few attempts at the switch, I decided that the only way was to pull the battery out. I didn't know what else to do as it seemed like the drone wanted to rise too so I didn't dare let it go. When the battery disconnected, the drone finally shut down.

I attempted to reconnect a few times but I still got No Signal and no camera view. I only did two things before takeoff and that was to format the SD card, which went okay, and to make some adjustments to the video settings because I wanted to try to get a nicer image of the evening sky. I don't think these would knock out the signal from the drone!

I have updated my firmware as and when requested and in fact, this morning, I got a message asking me to do so and I did so, delaying my takeoff by 10 minutes. Two flights went okay but the third one seemed to have lag and unpredictability on camera control. In fact, I almost lost my drone as with the lag, I could not control its hover properly and it had drifted out of sight as I looked down too long. I usually watch it in the sky rather than pilot by camera.

The No Signal problem occurred on the fourth flight about 4 hours after the last one.

It's disappointing to have this problem suddenly appear and from what I am reading, it seems that the latest update could have caused it. I am also disappointed because just yesterday I had bought a new Samsung tablet so that I would have a bigger screen to view instead of the small one on my Sony Xperia. I also bought an accessory to mount the tablet and I was beginning to enjoy flying more and now this happens.

I hope that DJi will quickly provide a fix.

If you are holding the AC, you can tilt the AC 90 degrees to switch it off.
Possibly you can download the flight log from the AC so the forumers and DJI can support you?

Looks like the drone movie owned by the devil. But now without jokes it would be interesting to post the flight data

Those things can be frustrating, starting up Spark is a pain for many, but last update certainly for iOS has made it slightly quicker, not sure about Android.
Maybe if otg supported returns we can just plug in and fire up without the need for all the connections and disconnects before getting ready to fly.

Hopefully you get a bigger and better Sunset Soon.

rimza Posted at 2018-1-7 03:41
If you are holding the AC, you can tilt the AC 90 degrees to switch it off.
Possibly you can download the flight log from the AC so the forumers and DJI can support you?

How does one download the flight log?    I'm a noobie and I'm having compass errors and magnetic -field interference issues almost immediately after take-off.     My Spark won't fly very far before it stops with these errors and hovers ......   My running the DJI Go 4 on an iPhone 5.      Thanks!

for ios records: connect itunes, DJI GO/Documents/FlightRecords/FlightRecord_yyyy-MM-DD-[HH-mm-ss].txt

for anroid records: android device sdcard, /sdcard/DJI/dji.pilot/FlightRecord/FlightRecord_yyyy-MM-DD-[HH-mm-ss].txt

Make sure you're not flying in a place with lots of other WiFi equipment around, like dense commercial or residential areas for example. This will cause disconnections and lag as the Spark tries to find a channel with low interference. You can try selecting a channel manually to help this if you must risk a flight in the area.

For compass, don't take off from or near concrete or metal structures, and always check your compass interference level before flight. Green is good, yellow or red don't fly to be safe.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. The signal came back and I could fly today... but now I have the dreaded transmission and video lag. It's strange that this problem occurs after about 5 flights. The same thing happened with another Samsung phone and I figured it was a low-end model so maybe it wasn't good enough. So I went out and bought a Galaxy Tab as I mentioned earlier and for the first few flights, I was delighted that I could see a bigger display and fly more confidently, and there was no lag or video mess like the earlier Samsung.

But just now, it all came back again and I had to cut short another attempt at capturing a sunset scene. I couldn't control the camera movement properly and the lag got bad that I was never sure exactly where the AC was pointed. I don't fly very high and it's just in my back garden. But it's getting rather boring sending the AC up and down, capturing the same scenery for the past 5 months.

I don't know if it's because the Spark is a low-end affordable model and maybe the electronics are also low-end compared to the Mavic and Phantom, but for now, I am reluctant to go out and buy a Mavic in the belief that I won't have all these problems just because they are more expensive drones.  

It has been suggested by a friend that I should use an iPad and there will be no problems. Unfortunately, I'm not an Apple person for one thing and so I am unwilling to pay a lot of money to buy an iPad just to be able to fly the Spark, which is what I bought the Galaxy Tab for.

fans0c5f7811 Posted at 2018-1-9 03:05
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. The signal came back and I could fly today... but now I have the dreaded transmission and video lag. It's strange that this problem occurs after about 5 flights. The same thing happened with another Samsung phone and I figured it was a low-end model so maybe it wasn't good enough. So I went out and bought a Galaxy Tab as I mentioned earlier and for the first few flights, I was delighted that I could see a bigger display and fly more confidently, and there was no lag or video mess like the earlier Samsung.

But just now, it all came back again and I had to cut short another attempt at capturing a sunset scene. I couldn't control the camera movement properly and the lag got bad that I was never sure exactly where the AC was pointed. I don't fly very high and it's just in my back garden. But it's getting rather boring sending the AC up and down, capturing the same scenery for the past 5 months.

I must fully agree that the SPARK has a very very bad software program that even DJI fail to fix it !! May be the software is subcontracted to some other vendor.
However there is no doubt that the hardware is far superior or equal to any other drones out there.

fans0c5f7811 Posted at 2018-1-9 03:05
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. The signal came back and I could fly today... but now I have the dreaded transmission and video lag. It's strange that this problem occurs after about 5 flights. The same thing happened with another Samsung phone and I figured it was a low-end model so maybe it wasn't good enough. So I went out and bought a Galaxy Tab as I mentioned earlier and for the first few flights, I was delighted that I could see a bigger display and fly more confidently, and there was no lag or video mess like the earlier Samsung.

But just now, it all came back again and I had to cut short another attempt at capturing a sunset scene. I couldn't control the camera movement properly and the lag got bad that I was never sure exactly where the AC was pointed. I don't fly very high and it's just in my back garden. But it's getting rather boring sending the AC up and down, capturing the same scenery for the past 5 months.

Sir, I would recommend you clean up the cache files of your tablet. Or you can try to snyc all the flight records and reinstall the app. Do not shield the antenna of your RC when you fly your spark.
Please enter the wifi setting and ensure that most of the channels are green before your flight. Please follow the tips and see if the methods work.