The Spark has been well performing for over 20+ flights with the latest firmware. After my last flight, the gimbal stopped responding and in the app it said Gimbal Disconnected. Now when the aircraft boots up, the gimbal is unresponsive. The camera video feed works fine. Anyone has a similar issue?

Just to verify, is there an impact damage to the drone? Could you please try to format or just take out the SD card and check again, make sure the firmwares are all up to date first. If it persists, please send it back for repair. Thank you.

There was no crash or hard landing. I have sent it in for repairs. Would this be covered under warranty?

fansf4fe20e2 Posted at 2017-10-8 09:31
There was no crash or hard landing. I have sent it in for repairs. Would this be covered under warranty?

Thanks for getting back to us. Could you tell us the case number? I'd like to look into it.

Hello Susan,

My case number is CAS-1064093-S8J4S7. I appreciate you looking into this.

The case came back denied because there was sand on the drone. There was no mention that effected the gimbal. In DJI warranty, there is no mention that this would not be covered.

fansf4fe20e2 Posted at 2017-10-10 16:19
The case came back denied because there was sand on the drone. There was no mention that effected the gimbal. In DJI warranty, there is no mention that this would not be covered.

Jason, I've checked your case, the drone has been assessed by our engineers, they've found sand inside this unit and the damage is not caused by a product malfunction, that is why the drone hasn't been covered by warranty, hope you can understand!

It's not a product malfunction but a manufacturing defect. How can sand get inside and cause the gimbal to disconnect? The camera works just fine and I've been operating the drone under normal use.

I had a gimbal disconnect message after the Spark got turned on with a gimbal protective lock installed.  I ended up re-pairing the Spark and RC and the message went away and all has worked fine since.

fansf4fe20e2 Posted at 2017-10-12 09:26
It's not a product malfunction but a manufacturing defect. How can sand get inside and cause the gimbal to disconnect? The camera works just fine and I've been operating the drone under normal use.

I would dare to assume that your Spark was delivered sand-free. If sand gets into the Gimbal mechanics, it is natural that this can cause malfunctions.

fans3c3673db Posted at 2017-10-12 11:58
I had a gimbal disconnect message after the Spark got turned on with a gimbal protective lock installed.  I ended up re-pairing the Spark and RC and the message went away and all has worked fine since.

The normal message you would get in this case is "Gimbal Overload". And it is not necessary to repair RC and Spark when it happens. Simply switching off Spark and back on should solve it.

fansf4fe20e2 Posted at 2017-10-12 09:26
It's not a product malfunction but a manufacturing defect. How can sand get inside and cause the gimbal to disconnect? The camera works just fine and I've been operating the drone under normal use.

Per the case log, there is sand inside the drone, thus the gimbal camera was damaged. Selecting a good flying environment and do a fully pre-flight checklist are recommended all the time. As explained above, it is not a product malfunction, we are sorry it is can not be covered by warranty. Hope you respect DJI's policy and let us know how would you like to proceed.