Today my spark became a liability, it no longer can be flown without stress of major malfunction with a potential disastrous ending. Let me explain...and some may remember my other post about the flyaway ending up at Police HQ, well this time I would have gladly lost it rather than risking killing a child.

  

  

I wanted to give you guys some context with what happened last time before I get into Todays episode. About 2 weeks in repair and as soon as I took it out of the box the gimbal was crocked. the drone would freak out after about 2 or 3 minutes of sport mode with gimbal overload non stop and flying with the screen would become impossible. the gimbal would poinmt in weird directions or shake a lot so I called DJI AGAIN only to send it back but this time instead of going to Texas it went to BC Canada at a 3rd party center. Another 2 weeks later I get it back…it was supposedly tested as they sent me a picture with one of their technicians hovering the drone, showing it was fixed. again after opening the box I instantly realised the Altitude reading never went above 3 to 4 meters regardless if the sonar sensor was giving the correct reading. At this point I had paid for overnight delivery back N forth because I wanted to get it back in time for my vacation which I had planned to bring the spark and assist me with some memories, in a bit of a different style. Knowing that I had paid for express shipping for this specific reason and had again to waste more time to repair it, the company said to take a few days and test it out as they don't believe it would interfere. so I did the drone was flying better then before the initial fly away, no more compass errors every 2 seconds, no more ATTI mode, or velocity warning when thgere was barely a breezew no more issues, except for that altitude reading which reported as off but didn’t affect anything.

  

  

Today more of everything and in a way I would be a hypocrite not to be in favor of strict drone flying regulations because what happened to me could have easily killed somebody. I took it up for a sunset panorama, nothing crazy and on my property which I flew hundreds of times. After the 1st pano I get a bunch of GPS compass errors and everything that comes with it and knew it would go into ATTI. But this time I had time to be a bit smarter about it and I was really high up about maybe 150 feet so I just let it hover and kept visual line of sight then moved in a bit forward and backward until a minute later get one back into GPS. Just like that was able to take another panoramathen land home. at that point I had a flashback but at the same time I knew how to react to the situation after the second panorama the drone drops from the sky whilre I was bringing it down for a landing straight below. it barely started to go down when somehow all of the engines stop giving lift I thought I was going to be able to gain control but didn’t realize it had just stalled and was coming down like a brick. the propeller noise I was hearing was only because the drone was falling from so high that it was the wind in the propellers that actually kept it level the entire way down…that why I didn’t realize it was in freefall as I would have expected it to tip and spin on a vertical axis. the lights were always on, the camera was always sending the image to my phone but I had no control as I saw the slow motion image as it was heading straight for my front neighbours little house he built for his kids…terror was what I was feeling inside knowing that it was coming down so fast anybody getting that hit could have easily had a severe concussion and likely even die. It fell for a good 5-6 seconds, or so I thought because I remember making myself every possible scenario where the drone wouldf be my last time living a good life with somebodys death on the conscience. Thankfully for me nobody was home, so it slammed the roof of the little house and bounced off so hard made a 90 degree angle and just flew into the house that was about 20 feet in front hitting the side of the window just barely missing the glass. at that point I froze I looked at everything to see if I did something wrong and all I could see is that the drome with still broadcasting I could see the lights flashing in the grass..,it never stopped broadcasting and yet it hit with such force that the little tiles he put on top  that couple of them dropped on the floor. I was certain the drone was into pieces broken the window and that's when I realised it looked fine considerting the fact. I had a tank in my hands, not a drone because the only damage it had was a few scrapes around the gimbal and 2 broken propellers with the imprint of the white windows frame on the front of both motors, plus the IR windows was missing.

FLIGHT DATA RECORDER LINK

  

  

I checked app and it seems that there was nothing registered after the second panorama even if it was up there for about 30 more seconds and also nothing registered after it fell down even though I was still getting the signal. The picture that you see on the brick wall is exactly how I found it with lights in the back flashing yellow and one of the props torn in half and the other barely holding together. Impressive part in all of this is after I turn the phone off switch the battery and put another one in to turn it back on and see what was broken or pull the flight logs, nothing was wrong with it and after switching the 2 broken propellers I decided to make it hover in my living room and the whole thing was perfectly fine not a single issue and that's when I said DJI need to know about this even more, and this is the last time I’m keeping my civility hat on.

  

  

I contacted DJ right away because I was already very unhappy my drone has spent more time in the repair shops then with me and I knew that I had taken the time to learn about all the sensors and all the AI on the spark and purchased a gold plan from airdata just for the hell of it and after pleading my case and getting the agent to understand how frustrating it is, his reply was to explain the difference between 2.4 and 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi. at that point I just couldn't take the BS anymore and ask to speak to a supervisor because he clearly had no idea what he was talking about, I am an IT manager and have been 15 years in it and explained this is not the same type of Wi-Fi that we having our homes as I doubt anybody can purchase a router no matter how expensive and get and HD transmission from a mile away and yet the spark can and has done it for much further. This Wi-Fi is it a point to point transmission, or hotspot if we want,  and the drone is able to use a much narrower band then the 20, 40 or 80 megaherz that Wi-Fi relies on. With that its able to create a very “interference free signal”, much less prone from other signals messing around it, plus it’s a much wider spectrum anywhere from the 8-900mhz about 7000 MHz even though it's written 2.4 and 5.8. but that's beside the point. I have the call with DJI recorded, all my calls are just in case I need to review a support call with customers, and because I knew that I would have to fight my way through this agent even if he was super nice and kept repeating he is here to help me and make me happy. He even asked me what I wanted as a solution when he realised that I was very unlucky because he had proposed to fix it and I said no that is ridiculous because it's been 4 times already. Not only do I spend more time waiting for the drone to get back from repair than flying but I lost money to shipping it express and make sure that I get it back in time to take it on my trip and now, the disappointment is way worse turning into anger. I told the agent the only thing that I want is not compensation, it's just a little compassion and understanding and not offer me to fix it again and send me back the exact syndrome with a replaced plastic shell. I told him a replacement even if its refurbished or even better to upgrade me to some mavic, any gen and  refurbished and I will gladly pay the difference and everything thats included for the difference in warranty and that's knowing that I have spent over $400 in accessories for the spark that I never see again. Unfortunately his response was he can't do that and have to go through another repair. I knew I would have to fight this off to the end and until I get a reply back from DJI will not release the recording but I certainly will if I don't get a favourable answer because he told me that he will contact his manager and call me back later tonight, which he never did but because I have him on tape, and documenting everything here in the public forum for them to see when I send them the link to all this data, this is ridiculous nobody should be treated like this after purchasing $1000 product and having it send to repair 3 times in 2 months and if anybody knows anything about consumer laws they know that Quebec is notorious for protecting consumers and thank God for that the reason why Canada is always after US in receiving most of their products or most other services is because Quebec wants to make sure that if there is a roll out its with our consumers protected by our policies. Open any contract for anything, or almost, and in the coverage section you often see Quebec listed as an exclusion as we closely follow the Australian policies.

you didn't activate csc by accident (both sticks down and inwards or outwards diagonally)? unfortunately we cannot access your flight log on airdata. if you want real help from the forum, make your flightlog available. else just deal with dji support and hope for the best.

Hi Patrick,

Sorry for that incident...lucky you nobody has been injured!
Unfortunately, the flight log link you posted seems somewhat incomplete (at least to me), all the important details are missing, like voltages, stick movements, motor power and so on. It's impossible to tell what went wrong this way...may be you want to upload the flight log file.
The motors did obviouly not shut off and just sail. If they did, Sparky would have flipped over as hell :-) Its more like the motors were running at very low power, still able to stabilize attitude, but not the height. A free fall from 50m would have destroyed Sparky beyond repair.
You have been about 50 m high, a freefall from there lasts only 3.2 seconds, and the speed reached in that case is nowhere near its terminal velocity.

It would indeed be good to know what happened here. I can only think of a sudden barometric sensor failure. I understand that you are now very unhappy with the Spark...I'd feel the same. If DJI is not willing to compensate in cash, why not let DJI repair the bird, then sell it?

Cheers,
Wolferl

Hi polish_pat, we are so sorry for the crash accident, may I verify you contacted our official customer support to report the accident or the dealer? Where is the drone now? I didn't find the case number via your Forum account and the case number you posted in the picture is not from the repair center. More info would be appreciated.

"Today my spark became a liability, it no longer can be flown without stress of major malfunction with a potential disastrous ending. Let me explain...and some may remember my other post about the flyaway ending up at Police HQ, well this time I would have gladly lost it rather than risking killing a child."

What do people get out of overreacting the issue? Just curious is all. See these posts a lot where they act like their drone malfunction was something near earth ending.  I am not trying to downplay your issue as you clearly have a valid issue and something is clearly wrong with the Spark. So do not think that at all. Just the first overly dramatic part kind of threw me off a bit, specially after realizing it was a small spark.

The Spark is a cool drone so I'm not knocking it either. I just got one for my 10 year because I wanted to get him a starter toy drone over something bigger and more expensive. From seeing him fly it around I just don't see it causing any disastrous life threatening injuries to anything except some bugs.

Hopefully the issues you are having can get solved though as no-one deserves to have to deal with that on something that should be reliable.

I don't understand why people keep flying after getting serious warning messages. Should have landed and figured out the problem on the ground instead of going for second shot. This could have been avoided without damage to the aircraft. Pilot error!

Hi all, i just wanted to address the voluntary emergency prop shutoff, i though that was a myth, at least it seemed to me by reading around  the command was removed some time ago...but regardless, I have not attempted to do it. It was not even being controlled when it started to fall, i had just finished a pano and was switching the camera modes.

@wolferl that is correct sir, the way you describe it is the way I saw it. About 3 seconds of it falling down, it didnt reach terminal velocity but fast enough to cause a permanent mark on both the roof and wall...I know its hard to get the perspective i saw with my eyes and i believe no one every will due to the log cutting any additional data a few seconds prior to the fall, but heres how I saw it, and based off the factors of the event. The drone didnt reach terminal velocity, you are right about that, but i dont think in the way it fell it would have ever. The motors were perhaps as you say at a very low speed,  the stall was obvious because I could hear the wind spinning the props and also the drone fell in its normal perpendicular position...this is why i tried to show the path it took in the picture, if we take 0 degrees as being straight up, then it fell straight down at 180, then ricoched at 90 into the wall just in front...the damage is consistent with a front and bottom impact. The last thing I remember is the panorama was just done, all i did was started to descend for a landing, i never really went anywhere but above my position, any drifting away from it is to allow it to get back from ATTI

The flight log is linked here, please let me know if there are issues accessing it. https://app.airdata.com/share/uyQfTc

I just wanted to be transparent over my intentions, i'm not looking for any compensation, but the agent asked me what i would see as an appropriate resolution. I told him with everything ive lost, time money, hair on head, vacation plans setup to use the spark as an asset, and mostly the pleasure to have this hobby is no longer here when you keep asking yourself if that spark will cause somebody else some damage. I told him if he could easy my path to upgrading to a mavic, any mavic, refurb and in 1st gen, id pay for it, but i made it clear, i wont settle for a repair. The fact that the drone didnt smash into little pieces is the only thing i am impressed, but that doesn't mean it should be the determining factor of the case, the history of the drone and the severy outcome every time is what DJI should consider...especially when there is no abuse or carelessness from my part

@DJI Mindy please check you inbox, i have sent you the recording

Hedsic Posted at 2018-10-15 06:18
"Today my spark became a liability, it no longer can be flown without stress of major malfunction with a potential disastrous ending. Let me explain...and some may remember my other post about the flyaway ending up at Police HQ, well this time I would have gladly lost it rather than risking killing a child."

What do people get out of overreacting the issue? Just curious is all. See these posts a lot where they act like their drone malfunction was something near earth ending.  I am not trying to downplay your issue as you clearly have a valid issue and something is clearly wrong with the Spark. So do not think that at all. Just the first overly dramatic part kind of threw me off a bit, specially after realizing it was a small spark.

Exposure.
but I agree, but  i wasnt trying to dramatise my case, i keep stressing how I understand the challenges of such drone that a manufacturer has to deal with. But I had to attract eyes, I didnt want to end up at page 3 after 2-3 post but rather make sure people at least open the post and participate. Unlike that guy just under you who obviously has no place giving advise because he doesnt even take the time to check anything.  And dont underestimate the size, it just requires a bit more speed than a mavic or phantom, but straight down in free fall, its the last thing you want falling on you, i cant even imagine taking the 90g battery and throwing it at somebodys face

GPS is the only sesor that wasnt in a perfect range the entire flight, and for all I know, it help with positioning, but certainly doesnt influence  a stall

Why was my thread moved away from an active section to one that looks like its a hole for bad press?

I'm looking to get some feedback on what to do when you buy a spark, flymore and purchase care refresh, 5 batteries, many other accesories, and in a 60 days period since you got it, about a dozen have been spent in your posession...the rest it was caught up in multiple repairs that never fixed the problem without creating a new one...

https://forum.dji.com/thread-169452-1-1.html

My thread was moved to the service section...because of ? I didnt get any service, got lied to by DJI phone support, got recordings to prove it, and somehow my case doesn't have any validity more than any other...how would you feel if you send in a drone a few days after buying it, then get it back only to take it out of box with a broken gimbal, send it right away only to get it back with a defective set of sensors right out of the box....and when there is a clear agreement by DJI staff that this is very disappointing, you only realize its customer service scripted answers and in that case their words seem louder than actions.

I tried to look around for a compaint department, not customer service, complaints...CS are the ones i want to file this complaint about and send DJI a recording of how their employees lie to get rid of people they are paid to help. Can anyone direct me towards them?

polish_pat Posted at 2018-10-15 15:45
Why was my thread moved away from an active section to one that looks like its a hole for bad press?

Hi there, since the post is complaint orientation and it will be more convenient for us to keep following up in Service section and we will do our best to help. Thanks for your understanding.
I have received your PM about the phone call record, at the end of the call, our agent promised a callback, did you receive it? I didn't find any case number in the system with your email account, did our support create the case for you?

What you heard is what i got. No callback, no case number.

polish_pat Posted at 2018-10-16 07:26
What you heard is what i got. No callback, no case number.

We're terribly sorry about the unpleasant experience. May I have the phone number you used to contact our support? Also if you can send me PM, kindly confirm if the email address you have in this forum is also the active email address? We would like to check on what happened and as per Mindy, we cannot find any case number for this issue.

Mine did too, right after latest firmware update which shows failure at 99% mark.

I have had a miserable 45+ day ordeal trying to get it replaced. It dropped out of the sky at the beach with a burnt out ESC 4 motor chip post a failed firmware update and they refuse to honor their warranty despite clear as day facts.

Tech team saw salt damage from when it crashed in wet sand (low tide) and blindly assumed I crashed it into the ocean. Flight logs below CLEARLY show I was never over the water or ever within 12 feet of the ground at time of flight before the critical failure, but they refuse to honor warranty still. Their managers barely speak english and just deliver "I am sorry for your frustration" scripts without using common sense and just looking at the flight logs I sent multiple times. Just because they cant explain what caused their malfunction doesn't mean its user error. I have never had customer service be so blatantly ignorant to the facts.

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-10-16 13:09
We're terribly sorry about the unpleasant experience. May I have the phone number you used to contact our support? Also if you can send me PM, kindly confirm if the email address you have in this forum is also the active email address? We would like to check on what happened and as per Mindy, we cannot find any case number for this issue.

just got off the phone, case cas-2372717-c9x8v5

polish_pat Posted at 2018-10-16 14:03
just got off the phone, case cas-2372717-c9x8v5

Thanks for the case number, as per checking this case has been forwarded to the respective department and we will have someone to contact you soon about the next resolution, we are sorry again for the inconvenience caused.

After getting shipping label, I sent this update to DJI but my emails seem having some issues. So to be sure the message is received i pasted it here

Hey, I just wanted to update you on a small delay in shipping return. After our previous conversation, I had voiced my disappointment mostly on the fact that I had planned the short 4 day vacation according to the best chance of having the drone back from its second repair even paying 2x the cost of care refresh just for express shipping (the only 4 days I’ve truly had in the past 3 years) the spark would have been a tool to make this the most memorable few days in a while and when it fell from the sky from about 60m I was, and so was everyone I spoke to, including DJI staff, convinced it would not survive in a single piece. It did, and it took quite the battle scar but after visual inspection and seeing how I was always connected to the drone while and after it fell, I tried to look at the flight data which totally cut any logging a few dozen seconds before it dropped, I changed the broken props, made sure it was ok and turned the motors on for a few mins and was able to fly it back.

I started to figure out how the drone is dealing with this fall and once I got that understood, I have spent a few hours flying this weekend, without going too far or anywhere I’d risk losing it, and I’m able to get the pictures videos and panos I want, with some gimbal adjustment, some limiting down of performance and just using it as a camera, not an aircraft.

I have decided to take it with me, I’m leaving for 4 days starting Thursday of this week and will be back on Monday. Only 2 days will require the drone and settled on taking memories, not viral videos. I just wanted to be transparent, as the logs will be reviewed by your team. And besides the gimbal that works well but needs some adj. at every flight, the only thing different from before the fall is the altitude sensor, barometer I presume, went from never giving any readings above 5m to not being even close, sometimes giving negative values, or giving a 20m reading when I’m just about to land. This means I can, wilfully take the drone ashigh as wanted and can also bring it down in a much quicker speed and slamming it in the ground as it doesn’t know when its about to hit ground fast enough for the sonar to prevent a crash landing.

I have care refresh even if I wont risk anything to resort to using it

polish_pat Posted at 2018-10-21 20:08
After getting shipping label, I sent this update to DJI but my emails seem having some issues. So to be sure the message is received i pasted it here

Hey, I just wanted to update you on a small delay in shipping return. After our previous conversation, I had voiced my disappointment mostly on the fact that I had planned the short 4 day vacation according to the best chance of having the drone back from its second repair even paying 2x the cost of care refresh just for express shipping (the only 4 days I’ve truly had in the past 3 years) the spark would have been a tool to make this the most memorable few days in a while and when it fell from the sky from about 60m I was, and so was everyone I spoke to, including DJI staff, convinced it would not survive in a single piece. It did, and it took quite the battle scar but after visual inspection and seeing how I was always connected to the drone while and after it fell, I tried to look at the flight data which totally cut any logging a few dozen seconds before it dropped, I changed the broken props, made sure it was ok and turned the motors on for a few mins and was able to fly it back.

Your email account is fine and we have received your email. Since the drone crashed once, the performance cannot be fully ensured, as you mentioned, the drone is never giving any readings above 5m, we still recommend to send in the drone for the evaluation and repair service just in case any accident happens again, besides, the flight logs may be covered if you keep flying which would be difficult to analyze the previous logs, thanks for your understanding.

I understand this and it is the reason why I have been clear on the fact that I understand this drone cannot be assumed as functional because that might be just one of the many problems but all the flight logs and the data has been kept intact and is also being synced to air data which I can provide you with every single flight since the one that caused it to fall as I have mentioned it's not like if I lose control over the Drone anmore house making chair taken progressive steps temps de réaction just as when the Drone enters party mode and starts to drift away which I believe DJI should clearly state these types of situations where the old me positive outcome is for the pilot so be prepared and not be taken by surprise lose the Drone over pilot error.

polish_pat Posted at 2018-10-21 23:15
I understand this and it is the reason why I have been clear on the fact that I understand this drone cannot be assumed as functional because that might be just one of the many problems but all the flight logs and the data has been kept intact and is also being synced to air data which I can provide you with every single flight since the one that caused it to fall as I have mentioned it's not like if I lose control over the Drone anmore house making chair taken progressive steps temps de réaction just as when the Drone enters party mode and starts to drift away which I believe DJI should clearly state these types of situations where the old me positive outcome is for the pilot so be prepared and not be taken by surprise lose the Drone over pilot error.

We understand your concern, when the accident happens, there may be other issues that customer cannot see, we recommend to send in for a thorough evaluation for the safety concern, if any further accident happens, it may affect the previous evaluation, appreciate your understanding very much.