- [Michael] The DJI Spark is the newest
and most affordable flying camera from the company
that's made drones a household name.
And it took me less than 48 hours to lose it forever.
I'm Mr. Mobile, the worst drone pilot in Boston.
Here's how to avoid making the same mistake I did.
Now I did manage to roll a bit of film on the Spark
before it disappeared into oblivion and here it is.
This is the Alpine White version,
but it's been completely in a vinyl skin from dbrand
who were also trusting enough to lend me
this ill-fated review unit.
They won't make that mistake again.
Anyway, the Spark was built to appeal to
first-time drone owners,
so let's go over its basics.
It's pretty small compared to most drones,
but it's takeoff weight is a solid 300 grams.
The work of keeping all that mass in the air
is divided among four eclectic motors,
each driving a single folding two-bladed propeller
and the power to spin 'em comes from
a removable LiPo battery that's pretty chunky.
Even so, you only get 16 minutes
flight time on a full charge.
So expect to buy more batteries if you want to fly
more than a few times a day.
An extra pack comes with the pricier Fly More Combo
which also offers an even more important accessory,
the controller.
And that's my tip number one for not losing your DJI Spark,
buy the controller.
When I lost my Spark I was flying it
from a smartphone alone,
which is totally fine,
if you want to fly low and slow
and stay within range of your phone's limited WiFi radio,
but those big antennas on the controller mean
it's basically guaranteed to reach much further
than your smartphone can.
And that'll probably help you out
when you boldly decide to push the envelope
after less than 2 days with the drone.
That takes us to tip two,
pay attention to what the software is telling you.
It's very frustrating to pair the Spark to an Android phone.
Seriously, it got me so angry
I took a lunch break just to calm down.
At which point, of course, it worked.
But once it is connected, it is a very nice interface.
And it's very clear when you're low
on the two most important signals
the Spark needs to fly: WiFi and GPS.
Without a solid GPS lock the Spark
can't effectively determine where home is.
That's the point to which it will return automatically
if there's a problem.
When I flew the Spark on day one
with a solid GPS signal and a large, open space
it returned flawlessly when I asked it to.
Seriously, it landed on the exact spot
it had taken off from.
But the next day, when I hit the Come Home button
with a bad GPS fix and a weak WiFi connection,
well, this happened.
Poor radio channel quality, I'm gonna bring it home.
Uh oh! Uh oh!
And that's the last I ever saw of it.
But while that obviously should not have done that,
it's actually not really the Spark's fault,
it's mine.
I was in a rush to get a particular shot in a public place,
and I was thinking more about how to do it surreptitiously
than how to do it safely.
So, I took off despite the low-signal warning,
and, because I was right next to a very tall building,
I couldn't see where the drone went
when it decided that home was somewhere over the rainbow.
So tip three is, don't be reckless.
That means deliberately and carefully
choosing your flight venue.
It means make sure your equipment is working well
before you hit the takeoff button.
It sounds obvious and it sound tedious,
but drones can be dangerous if they fall from the sky
and hit someone.
So, yeah, the cause of this loss was pilot error,
I'll own that.
But there is one thing I'll complain about
before I give you my last tip.
When something inevitably does go wrong with drones,
most of them, frankly, suck
at helping themselves get rescued.
When my Spark went over that roof,
I had already lost my connection to it,
so my producer Justice and I
had no technological assistance at all
for the three hours we walked around trying to find it.
For an aircraft that's otherwise so advanced,
so packed with technology,
isn't it weird that there's not a rescue package on board?
With, say, a dedicated Bluetooth module
that sends out a locator signal
you can track with your phone?
Or even just a simple speaker that makes a beeping noise
when the drone detects that it's lost a connection?
If either of those had been included, it's likely
I'd have been able to recover the Spark.
So my final tip is,
until drone maker start including such a thing,
tape a Bluetooth tracker, like a Tile, to the Spark.
Keeping in mind that
even a lightweight accessory like that
will likely shorten your flight time.
Or at the very least, be sure your name
and phone number are on the thing.
So that when someone does find it in their attic,
three months after you crashed it through their window,
they'll know where to send the drone
and the bill.
I'll be getting another Spark to replace this one,
but it won't have a dbrand skin,
so feast your eyes on it one last time.
A skin like this won't protect your drone
from a reckless pilot,
but it will protect its fuselage from the scratches
and scuffs of a hard landing.
Of course dbrand also make skins for smartphones,
laptops, consoles, and tons of other tech.
If you want one of your own,
help me regain their love after losing their drone.
Use the link in the description.
Until next time, thanks for watching,
fly safely, and stay mobile, my friends.