Good Day All,

Is anyone having some slight issues with the spark in terms of it holding it's position?  I'm thinking about returning mine.  It bounces up and down w/out my hands on the controls.  I have calibrated the compass many times already and often after doing this it resolves the issue.  Keep in mind I'm flying this on my property and use the inspire 2 and mavic with no issues.  Any thoughts and suggestions?  Otherwise this is one fun little package.

Somehow many people are having issues with this - even to a point Spark flying completely away and bashing into something. It seems it is very sensitive to other radio/power sources, so if you are having troubles flying it at a certain place, try to fly it somewhere else. If the issue is still happening on on places like an empty field, I would contact the DJI Support. It seems a lot of Sparks are faulty

interesting...this is at my house and I have 5 APs around the property.  

would love to hear any other comments

Sounds like a defective unit. Mine is as steady as a rock. Did you contact support and submit your logs?

no, I'll likely just exchange it.

NJ Flying Slow  Posted at 2017-7-20 10:52
no, I'll likely just exchange it.

Is it jumping up and down at low altitude? If you could just explain a little more about what's going on.

I had noticed with mine the other day flying it just on dusk that it was not holding position very well at all, it seemed to drift both left and right, as well has changing height up and down.

I don't know if the light levels had something to do with it though, so tomorrow morning I will be taking it to a big empty field near my house to see if the issue persists, I will report back my results.

JaredD Posted at 2017-7-20 19:54
I had noticed with mine the other day flying it just on dusk that it was not holding position very well at all, it seemed to drift both left and right, as well has changing height up and down.

I don't know if the light levels had something to do with it though, so tomorrow morning I will be taking it to a big empty field near my house to see if the issue persists, I will report back my results.

Yes it does..

is in the manual...

when it goes into ATTI mode it'll drift because it can't hold position.. u have to manually "keep it in place"

We are sorry for the mishap and the trouble you’ve been experiencing. Just to verify, had you tried to calibrate the IMU of the drone? Because the drifting of the drone might have the relationship with the IMU, please try that. Here's the route: power on the drone (and RC), launch DJI GO 4 app---Enter Device---Main Controller Settings---Sensor----Calibrate IMU. Please notice that there are 6 directions when calibrating, follow the steps which shown on the left side of the app's screen.
Others like eylneb mentioned, when GPS and Vision system are not available, the drone can not hover steadily.
Please keep us updated if the problem persists, thank you.

Hi folks, yes it bounces at low distances mostly.  I actually almost crashed it coming out of a turn as it continued to yaw w/out controls active.  Thor, I'll give the IMU calibration a try and update everyone.  

NJ Flying Slow  Posted at 2017-7-21 04:05
Hi folks, yes it bounces at low distances mostly.  I actually almost crashed it coming out of a turn as it continued to yaw w/out controls active.  Thor, I'll give the IMU calibration a try and update everyone.

If it's moving around at low altitude, it's most likely VPS they need good textured surface underneath drone also good light, even something as plain as grass can cause drone to move up and down, VPS works from 0-26 feet above that your barometer kicks in.

Make sure vision sensors are clean, and try flying in good light and good ground surface see how you get on with this.

Have a read of link below, and try not to be calibrating compass this can have an adverse effect if not done correctly.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... &fromuid=260008

thanks Hallmark, is this drone more sensitive then the inispire 2 and the mavic?  I have those and don't have any issues like this.

NJ Flying Slow  Posted at 2017-7-21 05:17
thanks Hallmark, is this drone more sensitive then the inispire 2 and the mavic?  I have those and don't have any issues like this.

It probably is, I've noticed in even light winds it's a bit of a dancer especially low altitude, in no wind its rock steady, maybe a bit of fine tuning in future updates will help.

just wanted to report that I did try mine out again today during full daylight, and it stayed steady as it should.
Light levels definitely play a big part.

I am having this issue as well. Calibrated everything again, didn't change. It will sometimes bob up or down slightly, and not hold the altitude exactly during a fast forward flight close to the ground. It will rise or fall slightly.

I did the IMU calibration etc.  Seemed better but I notice again after a few battery changes it starts occurring again, mostly by where my outside APs are located.  My gut is there is nothing wrong with this unit, but rather that it is far more sensitive to interference.  

i keep losing control of my DJI Spark as well, last time it decided mid flight to change channels but during this time it managed to drift around 3mph out and away and by the time it got a channellock (surprising given how far it was and fact it very very wifi dense area on both spectrums) it covered 3 blocks and i had less than 30% battery, with a head wind..   RIP i thought but i barely made it back.

ya, DJI Spark seems to have poor shielding and poor channel hopping or something else we dont know.   i dont know what is going on with it.  my last flight today before i just took it home and plugged it back in and call it quits before i forever lose it, i got a flight log error pop up on screen (red exclamation point) saying compass error before wildly going out of control towards a parking lot(totally ignoring my inputs, luckily pause button over rode it and i was able to bring it back down after a bit of fuss. i calibrated my sensors including the compass before taking off.  it seems once it totally lost connection with something  it just tries to though its self off end of a bridge and kill its self.

another example of how weird the spark acts:

my GF was flying on our first battery today, all was well then 200 feet up in the air it lost GPS, mostly clear sky, the clouds passing by of no concern.  it drops into ATTi mode and it just straight up disobeyed her and lowered itself, then full effing speed ahead without any input into a fence.. yes it lowered itself and took off full speed at the fence without any input from her!  it was good 50 feet from the fence once it lowered and hovered at the time, not idea why it did that.  after that it started acting really weird mild drifting.. a recalibration fixed drifting again...  but still very odd behavior.

NJ Flying Slow  Posted at 2017-7-24 06:47
I did the IMU calibration etc.  Seemed better but I notice again after a few battery changes it starts occurring again, mostly by where my outside APs are located.  My gut is there is nothing wrong with this unit, but rather that it is far more sensitive to interference.

for wifi/RC signal issues....either poor shielding or more likely poor channel hopping algorithm or something along those line. i have noticed with spark and RC everything has to channel hop basically and that can cause app to disconnect as well, so they tend to limit band hopping which is good dont want loose app communication.  but it still happens.

as for erratic heart dropping behavior i get.  it appears to be issue with something else, the GPS and sensors resetting or something and just goes full panic mode and tries to kill its self...  i have tried it in 3 locations..

1 very wifi quiet area out in the woods, seemed to behave ok, but it still once battery got to 30% it started acting poorly again, no wifi in the area i was at.   

2. was what i would call mild wifi interference on 2.4Ghz band,  something most people would see in a park with buildings around it about 200 feet away.  this is where behavior was less than predictable.. i did remain in control as long as my App didn't crash or i was above my low battery mark, even flying over buildings where wifi is dense... signal was usable..

3rd location is what i call worst case scenario, is dense area of apartments and homes with diverse wifi......  DO NOT FLY IT IN AN AREA WITH DIVERSE WIFI SIGNALS AND BANDS!  this causes most issues even with unrelated stuff like my gps and sensors.     plus channel hopping is terrible, it if band hops while in a command loop (like move up or forward it can be game over as it may keep going without connection)  it will disconnect phone from wifi on controller and try to reconnect, OTG does shorten wait time a lot because dont need to wait for phone to connect again, but still a period of time where drone and RC are attempting a relinking..  OTG is unofficially supported, it works, DJI needs to make this an officially supported thing and include OTG cables


DJI, please update this...please fix this.. do something i nearly lost my $700 drone a few times because it goes full suicide for no reason.   also please add official support for OTG, i know it works now, but it  improved the range fairly large margins, it helps when channels are hopping and bands are hopping.

JaredD Posted at 2017-7-21 20:51
just wanted to report that I did try mine out again today during full daylight, and it stayed steady as it should.
Light levels definitely play a big part.

First time I flew mine as it got dark out, the sun had set and it erratically came toward me and bounced off my gutter down spout.  I'd attribute it to darkness, as the manual states...have not flown at night since then.  I think if you do, you just can't let it try and "hover" or it will get confused, but if you maintain stick positions, it could work at night, although I would not advocate it given that I think it's not something the FDA wants us doing.  

Cravenfan Posted at 2017-7-24 08:47
First time I flew mine as it got dark out, the sun had set and it erratically came toward me and bounced off my gutter down spout.  I'd attribute it to darkness, as the manual states...have not flown at night since then.  I think if you do, you just can't let it try and "hover" or it will get confused, but if you maintain stick positions, it could work at night, although I would not advocate it given that I think it's not something the FDA wants us doing.

you mean the FAA?  FDA is the food drug administration.  

i think flying at night is ok, with practice. and i think people should practice within safe range..   

also i think right now with the spark flying day or night have similar chances of problems...my drone only drifted at night.. really struggled to maintain position.

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-7-24 12:06
you mean the FAA?  FDA is the food drug administration.  

i think flying at night is ok, with practice. and i think people should practice within safe range..   

Ha, funny...had FDA on the brain from work, FAA indeed.  

I believe the law, or regulation is, "Anytime a person or business wants to fly a drone after civil twilight (30 minutes after sunset), they need a night waiver."  So, yes, it's ok, but only if you have a night waiver to do so.  

30 minutes after sunset for me = crash due to the Spark not being able to sense it's position relative to obstacle avoidance, the ground, etc.  

Cravenfan Posted at 2017-7-24 12:29
Ha, funny...had FDA on the brain from work, FAA indeed.  

I believe the law, or regulation is, "Anytime a person or business wants to fly a drone after civil twilight (30 minutes after sunset), they need a night waiver."  So, yes, it's ok, but only if you have a night waiver to do so.  

ah!  ya.. well hopefully DJI updates this soon, mine does ok at night.. not pitch black but main camera barely could see me...  ya it struggles to hover at night.   but flying around and landing seemed ok..

i may try a short RTH run tonight at the park, try to keep it low and see if it can figure it out on a small slope..

My Spark has also some irratic beahiour like hopping up and down at a low altitude while lifting off. It allmost caused me loosing my hair. Don't know what to do about it.

Hi, looks like we had the same problem. I'm still testing but I think resetting the factory settings and reïnstalling the firmware via DJI Assistant 2 worked for me.

Raadje Posted at 2017-8-27 13:48
My Spark has also some irratic beahiour like hopping up and down at a low altitude while lifting off. It allmost caused me loosing my hair. Don't know what to do about it.

What mode did your spark enter?  Any object affected spark work normally?Please read our user manual, turn to page 12 and you will see the precautions.
Or you can see through the link:
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... ser+Manual+V1.4.pdf

My spark definitely needs good lighting to stay steady down low, in a dark room or outside at night you have to "fly it" constantly. I also found aftermarket props dont work. I tried a set a friend gave me  because he had 4 sets for ebay and it wobbled bad, went back to my stock props and all was good. no interference ever knock on wood.

JohnnieYaz Posted at 2017-10-17 18:09
My spark definitely needs good lighting to stay steady down low, in a dark room or outside at night you have to "fly it" constantly. I also found aftermarket props dont work. I tried a set a friend gave me  because he had 4 sets for ebay and it wobbled bad, went back to my stock props and all was good. no interference ever knock on wood.

Where did you buy the props? Please buy our props through official website and recommended stores.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-10-17 20:12
Where did you buy the props? Please buy our props through official website and recommended stores.

Electra, No need to scold me! If you re-read the post, I didn't buy them. Not sure where a friend got them but like I said, someone on ebay. I posted because i feel it can cause issues others will think its a malfunctioning  Spark especially after a crash the broke a prop. I still have them and they are stiff and swing tight on the pin.  You can have them if you want

JohnnieYaz Posted at 2017-10-18 07:58
Electra, No need to scold me! If you re-read the post, I didn't buy them. Not sure where a friend got them but like I said, someone on ebay. I posted because i feel it can cause issues others will think its a malfunctioning  Spark especially after a crash the broke a prop. I still have them and they are stiff and swing tight on the pin.  You can have them if you want

Sorry to make you feel uncomfortable. You said the props from aftermarket didn't work, so I wanted to check if they were from our recommended stores. And I can help you reflect this situation to designated department.