Good day,

I bought my Spark on 1/21/2018. One battery works great; the spare that came with the package gave me an error message that the battery firmware needs to be updated. When I connect the Spark to the DJI 2 Assistant, no firmware updates come up; I get the message "Cannot load firmware list. Please retry."

I ordered and received another spare battery. I charged it up and connected it to the aircraft this morning. For this spare battery, I got the same message on the app and the DJI 2 Assistant.

I've already opened up a case number on the first spare battery failure, so I'm going to add this one.

My question is, does anyone have working spare batteries? Where do you order yours - is there a reputable 3rd party that sells these batteries, or just DJI? It's hard to believe that 2 spare batteries in a row are fritzed. To be honest, everytime I plug in the original that still works, I hold breath, because I'm convinced that sooner or later it's going to give me the same error message, then I'm grounded.

Thanks,

Do you have an option to refresh the firmware? Are you in Windows or macOS?

AdamTheGreat Posted at 2018-1-25 07:10
Do you have an option to refresh the firmware? Are you in Windows or macOS?

Windows 10, no option has come up at all. One original battery is absolutely fantastic. FWIW, I just ordered yet another spare battery, and if it has the same issue, I'm going to have to consider something wonky with the Spark itself. Because I find it hard to believe this many spare batteries in a row have the same firmware error as per the DJI support person I chatted with. I admit, it doesn't make sense that one out of three batteries works fine, so I also have to wonder if there's a bad batch that have been built. The two bad spares have very similar serial numbers; only the last four digits are different.

AdamTheGreat Posted at 2018-1-25 07:10
Do you have an option to refresh the firmware? Are you in Windows or macOS?

Windows 10, no option has come up at all. One original battery is absolutely fantastic. FWIW, I just ordered yet another spare battery, and if it has the same issue, I'm going to have to consider something wonky with the Spark itself. Because I find it hard to believe this many spare batteries in a row have the same firmware error as per the DJI support person I chatted with. I admit, it doesn't make sense that one out of three batteries works fine, so I also have to wonder if there's a bad batch that have been built. The two bad spares have very similar serial numbers; only the last four digits are different.

Windows 10, no option has come up at all.

One original battery is absolutely fantastic. FWIW, I just ordered yet another spare battery, and if it has the same issue, I'm going to have to consider something wonky with the Spark itself. Because I find it hard to believe this many spare batteries in a row have the same firmware error as per the DJI support person I chatted with.

I admit, it doesn't make sense that one out of three batteries works fine, so I also have to wonder if there's a bad batch that have been built. The two bad spares have very similar serial numbers; only the last four digits are different.

sorry for the repeats; this forum is acting wonky on me for some reason.

Nancy SEO Posted at 2018-1-25 07:17
Windows 10, no option has come up at all. One original battery is absolutely fantastic. FWIW, I just ordered yet another spare battery, and if it has the same issue, I'm going to have to consider something wonky with the Spark itself. Because I find it hard to believe this many spare batteries in a row have the same firmware error as per the DJI support person I chatted with. I admit, it doesn't make sense that one out of three batteries works fine, so I also have to wonder if there's a bad batch that have been built. The two bad spares have very similar serial numbers; only the last four digits are different.

When you connect to the Spark with the app, do the following:
- Click the three little dots in the top right corner, then click the three little dots in the menu that opens.
- On the right side, scroll all the way to the bottom and click "About".
- Does it show the firmware for the battery?

did that multiple times, nothing comes up. Everything but the battery.

Nancy SEO Posted at 2018-1-25 07:27
did that multiple times, nothing comes up. Everything but the battery.

What did DJI Support recommend?

That I send the defective battery back as per the case number process, which I am doing.

Have you tried through the IOS or Android app?

the DJI Go 4 app for Android pounds sand. It doesn't bring up anything for a firmware update. It doesn't even register. And yes, t's updated (the app). I checked it this morning.

Nancy SEO Posted at 2018-1-25 08:07
the DJI Go 4 app for Android pounds sand. It doesn't bring up anything for a firmware update. It doesn't even register. And yes, t's updated (the app). I checked it this morning.

I don't think it has anything to do with the batteries. The DJI Assistant will not generate the firmware information. Clicking "Restore Defaults" option does not help. I have 2 Sparks. My first one never had an issue showing the firmware version. I have 3 batteries and they are all up to date with my first Spark. I could easily update. The second Spark which I just bought last week is up to date, done thru the Go4 App on an IOS device, which is also where I registered it. My concern is with each one of the batteries. Which is why I use the PC version of the DJI Assistant. To update each one of the Intelligent batteries. I checked all Firewall settings, even uninstalled and reinstalled the most current version. But it will not work. Unfortunately I can't plug in my first Spark. I dropped it in 12" of water while flying over a river. Thus my 2nd purchase. I will eventually repair that one. But it's not the batteries that are defective. I flew with each one of those with no error or update messages using the GO4App on an ios device.
Please Help.

I don't think it has anything to do with the batteries. The DJI Assistant will not generate the firmware information. Clicking "Restore Defaults" option does not help. I have 2 Sparks. My first one never had an issue showing the firmware version. I have 3 batteries and they are all up to date with my first Spark. I could easily update. The second Spark which I just bought last week is up to date, done thru the Go4 App on an IOS device, which is also where I registered it. My concern is with each one of the batteries. Which is why I use the PC version of the DJI Assistant. To update each one of the Intelligent batteries. I checked all Firewall settings, even uninstalled and reinstalled the most current version. But it will not work. Unfortunately I can't plug in my first Spark. I dropped it in 12" of water while flying over a river. Thus my 2nd purchase. I will eventually repair that one. But it's not the batteries that are defective. I flew with each one of those with no error or update messages using the GO4App on an ios device.

well, I'm running the PC version of the DJI Assistant. It's not detecting any firmware updates for the batteries, period. Nada. I have one battery that works wonderfully. The Spark runs like a champ. I don't know what you're referring to about the firewall settings. All's I can say is these two spare batteries don't work, neither the app nor the Assistant detect any firmware issues or even errors for these two batteries. If the drone is working with one battery, and if it's not the spare batteries, then I don't know what could be defective. The app works great on my Android phone with the remote control unit. The DJI 2 Assistant properly detects that a DJI Spark is plugged into my computer.

Nancy SEO Posted at 2018-1-25 07:17
Windows 10, no option has come up at all. One original battery is absolutely fantastic. FWIW, I just ordered yet another spare battery, and if it has the same issue, I'm going to have to consider something wonky with the Spark itself. Because I find it hard to believe this many spare batteries in a row have the same firmware error as per the DJI support person I chatted with. I admit, it doesn't make sense that one out of three batteries works fine, so I also have to wonder if there's a bad batch that have been built. The two bad spares have very similar serial numbers; only the last four digits are different.

Nancy, did you try to update it with other PC? If you keep failling to update the battery, please contact our support and start a case: http://www.dji.com/support

I have a case # assigned.

So something rather strange happened about an hour ago.  For grins and giggles, I plugged in one of the batteries that has been giving me a fit. I don't know why; I just decided to one last time before shipping it off. I snapped it in place, turned on the drone, remote control unit, fired up the app on my Android phone and immediately got a notification that my Spark needed an update. So I told it, go right ahead, do it. In less than two minutes, the Spark updated whatever it needed to do, and lo and behold...the batter started working. Go figure. I raced outside with everything and spent the next 15 minutes flying the thing and recording video. This supposedly defective battery now works. I have no idea why.

Now, before this, I had taken the other bad battery, plugged it into the drone, and turned the Spark on. I wanted to completely drain the battery and then re-charge it, just for grins and giggles. When it's all charged up, what the heck, I'll plug it into the drone and try the same thing.

I will say that both batteries that have not been working were both manufactured in July 2017. Maybe there was a funky batch from the factory. All's I know is I have one good spare now. Stay tuned.

Well, this is really strange.  Yesterday around 5PM EST, I fired up the drone, remote control unit and the app on my phone. The app started updating, and did it's thing in less than two minutes. Last night, I ended up recharging and plugging both supposedly bad spare batteries into my Spark, and now they both work. WTAF?

While I am grateful that this issue self-resolved, it leads to more questions for me.

If the app/drone/batteries are in between updates, do the batteries just go on this impromptu vacation? It's been a week since I bought the drone and spare batteries, and again, neither spare previously worked out of the box.

Have any of you all had to wait for updates to get your equipment working again?

At any rate, I have yet another spare battery coming today, so I'll be curious to see how it behaves out of the box. Thanks to everyone who responded with suggestions. Now I'm off to have fun and go play with my drone to learn how she operates for more than 12 minutes at a time! SMH...

When I set ours up it updated the remote and the drone only.  I ran down both batteries charged them and when I went to use it an hour later I couldn't do anything until I updated the batteries.  So yeah at least the first time out it didn't update everything at one time.

I think the take away for me is to not immediately ask for a refund, but to give the firmware time to update everything. But I still think an entire week of a firmware error is ridiculous.