Hi All,

This is my 1st post on a DJI forum.  I am a brand new drone owner and loving the technology.  

Some backstory.  I was gifted a Phantom 4 pro, I know an incredible gift, about a month ago.  Last weekend I launched it on a flight and went out a bit further than normal.  I guess I encountered some radio interference and the drone just lost contact with the receiver.  PANIC! Yes, panic.  After a few seconds (felt like minutes) the connection was remade, but the battery had lost 10% power and as I started to come home, its reached it max safe level and started to land.... then lost contact with the receiver again.  I took the last known coordinates and a machete and spent all of the rest of the weekend and a day off from work on Monday searching, no luck.  This is probably enough for another thread and I might post it, but wanted to give some background.

So sitting at my desk on Tuesday, distraught, and hung-over from the loss (and an overindulgence of adult beverage the night before; trying to forget) I decided to replace with what I could afford, a SPARK.  It arrived today and I'm very pleased with how compact and put together it is.  I took it on a quick test flight and really like it.  Its slower in flight, I did not activate sports mode, and of course, it does not have the same quality camera, but the camera is still great and its got most of the other features I was using on the Phantom.  So, I'm impressed and a huge fan!

My question is, I only got the aircraft and controller, as I was not sure I would like it.  Now I know I do, I am going to get a few more batteries.  I don't mind charging it through the aircraft. But is this bad for the aircraft?  IF it is, is there anything wrong with the aftermarket chargers on Amazon, which are 10 of the OEM charger?

Thanks all for reading, I hope you got this far.

B

I feel bad for your Previous experience with Phantom as that was a beast and losing it is not less than a nightmare.
And you should always contact the Dji support in such cases as they sometimes provide a new piece if there is no pilot error.
And welcome to Spark community.
I would like to tell you that Dji spark has a very great feature that it can be charged on the go with a micro usb cable.
So don’t worry about charging the battery directly from spark’s micro usb port as it the most impressive feature of Spark.
You can also use a powerbank to charge your drone.
And always buy a good branded charger for spark.
You should use the charger that you got with the drone.

Ani Posted at 2018-8-24 14:37
I feel bad for your Previous experience with Phantom as that was a beast and losing it is not less than a nightmare.
And you should always contact the Dji support in such cases as they sometimes provide a new piece if there is no pilot error.
And welcome to Spark community.

Thanks, Ani - I did contact DJI tech support about the lost Phantom, but they were barely even apologetic, however,  guess I feel slightly to blame as I flew out my line of sight.  But then whats the point of having any drone that can travel more than .5 miles, coz by then its outta my eye ball range anyway?

Good to know about the battery charging.  I only use the drone 2 times a week and will just charge the extra batteries through the drone.

I'm a farmer and used the Phantom to check on pastures that I did not have time to check on personally.  ITs been a huge timesaver, hence purchasing the spark.  Really happy to have it!

Just got the 3 battery charger and love it, though I only have 2 batteries. Haven't charged through the drone since it arrived.