DJI Spark water dip
2 weeks into owning the Spark, while I knew it's weird RTH behavior I didn't master it yet. My 7 yr old is always curious to play with the Spark which I let him in my presence. On this cold winter day when I was playing with the drone and about 40% battery left he just returned from the school and noticed me with the drone so I let him play in my backyard that adjoins our fenced pond. I was sitting watching him play while he drains the battery. After couple minutes I peeked and saw the battery was 25% something and then the nature calls and I had to take a leak. I thought 2 mins no big deal and so went into with the assumption that my son who is wary of the altitude and distance limits (that I impose when using the Spark) can handle until am back. I am supposing in that min or two battery charge left was about 20% and the automatic RTH kicked in and my kiddo obviously didn't know how to handle that. He was probably no more than 10ft away both distance and altitude (guessing). I had a safe altitude of 70m so not sure what happened but by the time I returned the drone was up in the air about 40 ft high and before I could grab the controller it was inches into the branches. It was too late and drone stuck there. Spark sensed it hit something and the rotors stopped rotating. The branch where it struck was right on top linear feet of the pond so the risk of falling into water was high if it were to fall down.
Following morning (battery is totally drained and night was clear or any rain etc.. so I knew the drone was left dry overnight) I managed to shake the tree and it indeed fell into the edge of the pond where it was few inches deep. I ran and took it off from the water, shaked it. It was probably was in the water about 30 seconds am guessing and another two minutes before I stuck in a bowl of rice (there is a lot of discussions where or not rice that's a good idea but it was irrelevant for me .. I used and personally know others using it to dry electronics so I had no other choice to think about in that situation). I took the battery out, let the drone and batery sit in the rice couple hours, took it out and let it sit in open air and stuck it back again in the rice. I did notice after couple times of doing this and also after hours there was water still left under the camera/gimbal region. Anyway I let it sit finally in the rice overnight .. took it out the following day, let it air dry another day, took the top cover off, blew hot air using hair dryer, and finally used some compressed air duster (I hated the fact that rice went inside the drone and feared there is too much of powdery stuff that got inside and so used the compressed air).
Anyway 2 days from the fall after feeling confident that it is it might be dry after all, I first tested the battery by trying to charge no issues. Then comes the moment of truth, I stuck the battery in the drone with the cap still removed and no blades, turned the spark ON. VOILA!! it started. I heard experiences that some functionality may not be fully working so I put the cover and propellers on, started the drone, recalibrated both compass and IMU and tested everything. Except for some hissing noise when going back and forward, which could be because of the new propellers (had to get new ones as the drop broke couple propellers) rather than drone damage, everything ran just fine. I tested the SD card, pic/video recording, balance etc.. and all is well. It just been one day of experience and time will tell if there is anything to discover but so far so good.
Couple key things compared to what others have experienced that I got lucky with
- Pond is fresh water unlike getting soaked in ocean/salt water
- Battery totally died and cooled down by the time it fell into the water
Lessons learned
- Be fully aware of the RTH functionality, know its limitation well and actually test it out
- Be wary when the charge is low
- Be cautious around water/trees combination
Following morning (battery is totally drained and night was clear or any rain etc.. so I knew the drone was left dry overnight) I managed to shake the tree and it indeed fell into the edge of the pond where it was few inches deep. I ran and took it off from the water, shaked it. It was probably was in the water about 30 seconds am guessing and another two minutes before I stuck in a bowl of rice (there is a lot of discussions where or not rice that's a good idea but it was irrelevant for me .. I used and personally know others using it to dry electronics so I had no other choice to think about in that situation). I took the battery out, let the drone and batery sit in the rice couple hours, took it out and let it sit in open air and stuck it back again in the rice. I did notice after couple times of doing this and also after hours there was water still left under the camera/gimbal region. Anyway I let it sit finally in the rice overnight .. took it out the following day, let it air dry another day, took the top cover off, blew hot air using hair dryer, and finally used some compressed air duster (I hated the fact that rice went inside the drone and feared there is too much of powdery stuff that got inside and so used the compressed air).
Anyway 2 days from the fall after feeling confident that it is it might be dry after all, I first tested the battery by trying to charge no issues. Then comes the moment of truth, I stuck the battery in the drone with the cap still removed and no blades, turned the spark ON. VOILA!! it started. I heard experiences that some functionality may not be fully working so I put the cover and propellers on, started the drone, recalibrated both compass and IMU and tested everything. Except for some hissing noise when going back and forward, which could be because of the new propellers (had to get new ones as the drop broke couple propellers) rather than drone damage, everything ran just fine. I tested the SD card, pic/video recording, balance etc.. and all is well. It just been one day of experience and time will tell if there is anything to discover but so far so good.
Couple key things compared to what others have experienced that I got lucky with
- Pond is fresh water unlike getting soaked in ocean/salt water
- Battery totally died and cooled down by the time it fell into the water
Lessons learned
- Be fully aware of the RTH functionality, know its limitation well and actually test it out
- Be wary when the charge is low
- Be cautious around water/trees combination
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