I've had my Spark for 6 months and had many successful flights/shoots with it. I recently was flying/shooting near a large waterfall and due to the wind generated by the falls the battery drained faster than normal and I had to perform an emergency landing in an area that got a little bit of the mist from the falls. The drone got a little bit of moisture on it but nothing that seemed excessive enough that it would've gotten inside to the circuitry.

BUT out of an abundance of caution I threw out the battery that was on it at that time (LiPo+moisture=huge explosion risk) and put the drone itself in a bag of rice for 24 hours. I plugged in my other battery (totally dry, didn't even take it to the falls) and fired up the drone, took off, flew for a couple minutes to test everything out and all was normal. Then when I plugged up the USB charger, the internal fans kicked on, and the battery lights did not come on to indicate charging. After a couple of times unplugging and re-pluging in the charger, the lights finally came on to indicate charging, but the fans were still going strong and the top of the drone got pretty warm after about 20 minutes. I then turned on the drone again in order to use the GO4 app to check the status of the battery, and am now getting a battery error saying the battery is invalid. (See screenshots below.)

My main question is, could this be due to the waterfall encounter or is it just a coincidence? Because the completely normal flight right after taking it out of the rice but before plugging it up to charge would seem to indicate that the waterfall encounter is not the problem here. Also the drone didn't get totally soaked or submerged, so I'd be pretty disappointed if DJI's drones can't event handle a light spritz without freaking out.

Hello there. We apologize that you're having some issues with your drone. Is the firmware updated? Can you try to refresh the firmware of the aircraft with that battery in it on DJI Assistant 2?

DJI Wanda Posted at 2018-6-18 03:09
Hello there. We apologize that you're having some issues with your drone. Is the firmware updated? Can you try to refresh the firmware of the aircraft with that battery in it on DJI Assistant 2?

First of all, there is no app in the app store called "DJI Assistant 2". There is only "DJI Assistant". I downloaded DJI Assistant and it will not connect to the drone, even though the drone is on and my phone is connected to it's WiFi successfully. However, DJI GO4 app does work, and does check for a firmware update every time it connects, and is telling me that the firmware IS up to date.

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-18 18:29
First of all, there is no app in the app store called "DJI Assistant 2". There is only "DJI Assistant". I downloaded DJI Assistant and it will not connect to the drone, even though the drone is on and my phone is connected to it's WiFi successfully. However, DJI GO4 app does work, and does check for a firmware update every time it connects, and is telling me that the firmware IS up to date.

its an app on the computer.. mac or windows.

you can also refresh firmware using your phone connected to the drone as you normally would fly, just open up the drone selection page(tap the dji logo in top left corner if in camera view of the app).. on top right corner 3 bars..hold that for about 3-5 second then lift off it should give you a screen to refresh your firmware.  

HereForTheBeer Posted at 2018-6-18 19:15
its an app on the computer.. mac or windows.

you can also refresh firmware using your phone connected to the drone as you normally would fly, just open up the drone selection page(tap the dji logo in top left corner if in camera view of the app).. on top right corner 3 bars..hold that for about 3-5 second then lift off it should give you a screen to refresh your firmware.

I got to refresh firmware screen via those instructions, but here is what it's showing me:

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-18 19:35
I got to refresh firmware screen via those instructions, but here is what it's showing me:

[view_image]

are you connected to the aircraft when selecting this screen?

click on the none button and should show you a firmware to select.

if this fails, plug your spark into your PC or Mac and install DJI assistant 2.  then go through and should be a firmware option on sidebar click on that it should have an option to refresh current firmware.

HereForTheBeer Posted at 2018-6-18 19:41
are you connected to the aircraft when selecting this screen?

click on the none button and should show you a firmware to select.

Installed and connected DJI assistant 2. It seems that the invalid battery error that started this thread in the first place is causing the assistant software to think that the battery is too low to run the firmware refresh. I've charged the battery via USB (fans still running hard), so I know it has well over 50% power, but the assistant app thinks it's below 50% and will not run the firmware refresh.

I have Spark battery and charging hub on the way in the mail, so maybe if I charge the battery using the hub, or connect the new battery and see how it behaves then, I can determine if it's just a faulty battery.

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-18 21:28
Installed and connected DJI assistant 2. It seems that the invalid battery error that started this thread in the first place is causing the assistant software to think that the battery is too low to run the firmware refresh. I've charged the battery via USB (fans still running hard), so I know it has well over 50% power, but the assistant app thinks it's below 50% and will not run the firmware refresh.

I have Spark battery and charging hub on the way in the mail, so maybe if I charge the battery using the hub, or connect the new battery and see how it behaves then, I can determine if it's just a faulty battery.

Alright. Please let us know if you still need any help.

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-18 21:28
Installed and connected DJI assistant 2. It seems that the invalid battery error that started this thread in the first place is causing the assistant software to think that the battery is too low to run the firmware refresh. I've charged the battery via USB (fans still running hard), so I know it has well over 50% power, but the assistant app thinks it's below 50% and will not run the firmware refresh.

I have Spark battery and charging hub on the way in the mail, so maybe if I charge the battery using the hub, or connect the new battery and see how it behaves then, I can determine if it's just a faulty battery.

sounds like maybe a faulty battery.  it is possible however that an official charging hub could fix the issue if its just a balancing issue or something stupid and minor preventing it from working right.  so here is to hoping.


dji really needs to work on these battery issues they have, this happening across a range of drones..  hopefully Dji can work on their quality assurance pretests more.  

DJI Wanda Posted at 2018-6-18 23:11
Alright. Please let us know if you still need any help.

I got the charging hub and and a brand new battery in the mail today. After connecting the brand new, fully charged battery, the GO4 app still shows the same invalid battery error as it did above. And after connecting it to Assistant 2, I'm still getting the same error when trying to refresh the firmware: the program thinks the battery is below 50% and will not refresh the firmware. Even though I just pulled it off the charging hub and it is definitely at 100%. I also tried restoring factory defaults in Assistant 2.

So we're back to square 1.

Below is a screenshot of my Assistant 2 screen-

This sucks man. Iam getting kinda sceptical about mine spark that just got last Tuesday for my bday

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-20 17:34
I got the charging hub and and a brand new battery in the mail today. After connecting the brand new, fully charged battery, the GO4 app still shows the same invalid battery error as it did above. And after connecting it to Assistant 2, I'm still getting the same error when trying to refresh the firmware: the program thinks the battery is below 50% and will not refresh the firmware. Even though I just pulled it off the charging hub and it is definitely at 100%. I also tried restoring factory defaults in Assistant 2.

So we're back to square 1.

Can you try to restart the computer?

DJI Wanda Posted at 2018-6-21 01:08
Can you try to restart the computer?

Yes, I've rebooted. The problem is very clearly that the drone does not recognize the battery correctly. How can I get this issue escalated to the next level of tech support?

Hi Steve, could you connect the drone with DJI Assistant 2 and export the backbox and flight logs? I'd like to forward to our engineers for analysis.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-6-21 19:47
Hi Steve, could you connect the drone with DJI Assistant 2 and export the backbox and flight logs? I'd like to forward to our engineers for analysis.
https://youtu.be/ngEHdAlAh9A

Ok, I did the data upload and uploaded all the available log files, plus I exported the black box file, and add it to the upload as well. It all completed, but I don't see anywhere to get the server link.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-6-21 19:47
Hi Steve, could you connect the drone with DJI Assistant 2 and export the backbox and flight logs? I'd like to forward to our engineers for analysis.
https://youtu.be/ngEHdAlAh9A

Hi, can you please advise on how to get the black box and flight logs to your engineers? There was no server link shown when I uploaded them in the Assistant 2 software.

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-28 11:06
Hi, can you please advise on how to get the black box and flight logs to your engineers? There was no server link shown when I uploaded them in the Assistant 2 software.

It is recommended to upload to Dropbox or Google Drive, then share the link here, we'll forward to our engineers for analysis.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-6-29 04:11
It is recommended to upload to Dropbox or Google Drive, then share the link here, we'll forward to our engineers for analysis.

Here is the link to download the logs and blackbox file:
Click here to download from google drive.

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-6-30 10:20
Here is the link to download the logs and blackbox file:
Click here to download from google drive.

Well received, I'll forward to our engineers to review.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-7-1 01:09
Well received, I'll forward to our engineers to review.

Hi, just checking on the status of this. Has a support ticket/case been created? And if so what is the case number so I can keep track?

Stevecrossrock Posted at 2018-7-6 11:57
Hi, just checking on the status of this. Has a support ticket/case been created? And if so what is the case number so I can keep track?

Just got an update from our engineers that it might be the aircraft issue as the performance cannot be ensured after watered. For this kind of situation, it is not recommended to use this drone anymore. Sorry about this.

Wow that was a terribly unsatisfying end to this thread...

djiuser_ucBXVHYLOp5o Posted at 2020-5-14 12:55
Wow that was a terribly unsatisfying end to this thread...

The thread CAN'T end there.  I'm just subscribed for the actual workaround to the issue.