This may be a long post but bare with me.  Starting in early August  2018 my Spark would become very jumpy / hoppy when taking off and still  close to the ground.  If I could get it to approximately 10m off the  ground it would fly great.  I posted about this in another thread ( https://forum.dji.com/thread-166549-1-1.html )

So,  after the first couple of times, I started going through the normal  troubleshooting of cleaning the sensors, recalibrating the IMU/compass,  reset of the firmware, etc...  Nothing worked and on my last flight of  trying a trouble shooting method the spark crashed breaking the glass  over the gimbal and two propellers.  I ended up contacting DJI and got  the spark sent in for repair. It came back as user error and wanted me  to pay $250 for the fix.

After  this I contacted DJI support again and asked for a clarification.  They  said that due to user input at 71s into the flight, unit recorded an  external impact then fell. However, I didn't believe this so I looked at  the flight log myself and not only does nothing eventful happen at 71s,  the actual flight time was 132s before the crash happened.  

I  brought up this fact in a reply email and they said they would have  someone contact me.  A couple of days later, Jayson, a manager at DJI  support phoned me and essentially read me what the email said.  I  reviewed with him the erratic behaviour leading up to the crash and he  asked me to send him screenshots of the flight logs that I thought  showed erratic behaviour. I did just that and I've included a few below.  I also included a description at the side of the log of what is going wrong:

Log 1


Log 2


Log 3


I  didn't hear back from Jayson for a few days, then I got a reply saying  it was determined that I flew at night and therefore was responsible  regardless!?  I flew at approximately four in the afternoon, and the flight  log file name even confirmed that: DJIFlightRecord_2018-09-01_[16-09-29].txt or 4:09pm.

Jayson  then emailed me to say he would be calling me yesterday but I received  no phone call and any flow up emails have gone unreplied to.

I'm hoping someone at DJI can help me out here.

You have presented a good case.

Hi, We are so sorry for the difficulties that you had experienced, however, we are able to check your case and there is an E-mail sent to you by our higher department.

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-9-25 16:49
Hi, We are so sorry for the difficulties that you had experienced, however, we are able to check your case and there is an E-mail sent to you by our higher department.

Laat email I received from you was Saturday just after midnight and I was informed that he wanted to speak to me on the phone. I gave a time that I was free but never received a call and two follow up emails that I have sent have not been responded to.  Can you please look into it or have someone else contact me?

ad19 Posted at 2018-9-25 17:19
Laat email I received from you was Saturday just after midnight and I was informed that he wanted to speak to me on the phone. I gave a time that I was free but never received a call and two follow up emails that I have sent have not been responded to.  Can you please look into it or have someone else contact me?

Sorry for the troubles. This has been forwarded to the management for further review, the team will double check and contact you during the working time. Hope we can figure this out soon.

Now they are saying that those screenshots aren't mine! This is incredibly frustrating. I don't even understand how they could say that. The rep asked for screenshots of the flight log and now he's saying they can't say for sure those logs are from my Spark! I tried to get him to explain the erratic behaviour then he said they couldn't be sure those screen shots were from my flight log. Give me a break. This has got to be one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever encountered.

ad19 Posted at 2018-9-27 17:33
Now they are saying that those screenshots aren't mine! This is incredibly frustrating. I don't even understand how they could say that. The rep asked for screenshots of the flight log and now he's saying they can't say for sure those logs are from my Spark! I tried to get him to explain the erratic behaviour then he said they couldn't be sure those screen shots were from my flight log. Give me a break. This has got to be one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever encountered.

Hi there, the screenshot you provided is analyzed by the third party software right? If yes, we are unable to analyze the third party software, your case is following up by the higher team, we will inform the team to figure it out as soon as possible, appreciate your understanding.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2018-9-27 22:53
Hi there, the screenshot you provided is analyzed by the third party software right? If yes, we are unable to analyze the third party software, your case is following up by the higher team, we will inform the team to figure it out as soon as possible, appreciate your understanding.

Hi Mindy,

Thanks for getting back to me.  I understand you wouldn't like a 3rd party software to analyze the data but it's merely a program the converts the DJI text log file into a spreadsheet format.  Regardless, I don't understand how the flight analysis determined the crash happened at 71s but when you look at the flight log, it flies for 132s.  First of all, I know for sure it didn't crash at that time.  Second of all, if by some chance it did crash at the time, how do you explain the flight continuing for 60s after the crash.  And the flight data doesn't say it was sitting on the ground for 60s, it actively shows me flying it.  If someone could provide an adequate explanation to that I would gladly pay for the repair but I have yet to see any evidence of it.  Really hope you can help me out here.

ad19 Posted at 2018-9-28 06:33
Hi Mindy,

Thanks for getting back to me.  I understand you wouldn't like a 3rd party software to analyze the data but it's merely a program the converts the DJI text log file into a spreadsheet format.  Regardless, I don't understand how the flight analysis determined the crash happened at 71s but when you look at the flight log, it flies for 132s.  First of all, I know for sure it didn't crash at that time.  Second of all, if by some chance it did crash at the time, how do you explain the flight continuing for 60s after the crash.  And the flight data doesn't say it was sitting on the ground for 60s, it actively shows me flying it.  If someone could provide an adequate explanation to that I would gladly pay for the repair but I have yet to see any evidence of it.  Really hope you can help me out here.

We really understand your point, Andrew. Don't worry, this is still being sorted out by the higher team to provide an accurate result about the claim. We'll make sure to provide feedback asap. Thanks for extending your patience.

Jayson got back to me with some data from the Spark.  DJI is arguing that is was user error that caused the crash but even if you look at the limited data they provided me I think it pretty clearly shows that something was wrong with the Spark BEFORE the crash.  I've attached the graph they sent me with my observations in red and blue text.  If anyone has another interpretation of the data it would be greatly appreciated.



The red line is relative altitude and the blue line is the throttle (up or down).

ad19 Posted at 2018-10-4 10:04
Jayson got back to me with some data from the Spark.  DJI is arguing that is was user error that caused the crash but even if you look at the limited data they provided me I think it pretty clearly shows that something was wrong with the Spark BEFORE the crash.  I've attached the graph they sent me with my observations in red and blue text.  If anyone has another interpretation of the data it would be greatly appreciated.

[view_image]

Thanks for providing an update, Andrew. This has been reviewed and being checked with the proper team for further explanation. Please expect a feedback from the higher team regarding this case. Thanks for understanding

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-10-4 17:28
Thanks for providing an update, Andrew. This has been reviewed and being checked with the proper team for further explanation. Please expect a feedback from the higher team regarding this case. Thanks for understanding

Hi Diana,

Thanks for looking into it for me.  I haven't heard back from anyone yet and Jayson has stopped replying to my emails.  I have sent 3 over the last week and haven't heard anything back. Just wondering if you could get someone to get in contact with me or if you could let me know the status of my case.

Thanks for your help

ad19 Posted at 2018-10-8 17:29
Hi Diana,

Thanks for looking into it for me.  I haven't heard back from anyone yet and Jayson has stopped replying to my emails.  I have sent 3 over the last week and haven't heard anything back. Just wondering if you could get someone to get in contact with me or if you could let me know the status of my case.

Hi ad19, I see each of your emails has been replied except the last one since the local support team is not in the working hours at this moment, we have informed the team to follow up again, please wait patiently, thank you.