DJI Spark Internal Corrosion

General Drone Discussion
1

Lovely sunny day today so I decided to take my Spark out for a spin.

Powered up all connected fine but about a minute or so later I saw green & red bars on my screen then the error message about image transmission error, forward vision error etc…

Searched Google, saw a few people suggesting restore to factory & sd card format.

I tried the later in the drone but it was not recognising my sd was even inserted.

Saw another suggestion that perhaps the cable cable had become loose, they had crashed there, I hadn’t, my last flight with this drone was Aug last year and ended without issue.

I decided it was easy enough to check for a loose cable and proceeded to open up the drone, that is when the £&@# words started.

Nearly everything inside the drone was corroded, the heatsink under the GPS module looks like flaky cardboard.

I have never flown this drone near water and never fly in bad weather.

The corrosion is worse near the rear of the drone and it is stored in its bag bottom down, so I wonder if this is internal condensation after flight condensing on the RF cans and then running down, who knows.

I purchased the Spark second hand in Feb last year and flew it numerous times without issue until now albeit with a break since last Aug.

I priced parts on AE for £80 but currently looking at other second hand Sparks on eBay.

Thing is although this drone doesn’t get flown a lot, it’s really good fun to fly and quite cute so I don’t want to bin it.

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The drone itself is clear of any signs of corrosion, weird.

2 Likes
2

I remember mine going up in flames think @Jord had the same issue a few years back

4

What, the same issue as mine with corrosion?

5

Did it originally come from a seaside area? The salt in the air (especially being forced through for cooling) would do that to electronics.

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My heatsink is completely shot, managed to find just that part on eBay for less than £9.

Just ran the main board and GPS module through ultrasonic bath with IPA a couple of times, now in dehydrator to fully dry.

Not sure about the GPS module, after taking it out of IPA bath I noticed what looks like a very tiny coin cell on the board so I’ve probably shorted that :smirk:

If I can get image back and sd card read it’ll be a great step.

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Unsure mate just that it shorted out and went up in smoke so something got wet me thinks

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One of my early Cardiff Bay flights was from the now disused lock entrance to the Roath Basin, by the Norwegian Church. I actually flew from a piece of roughish ground just the other side of the lock from the church, but which had some suitable benches for me to set out my base camp on. I had not perfected the art of palm landing then, and landed on the ground close to the bench I was sat on. Video was still recording.

When I got home and played it, I was quite impressed with the little cloud of dust the drone had kicked up as it landed; very cool and cinematic. But further thought brought me to the conclusion that kicking up dust, or landing on wet grass, or mud, or flying through salt-laden or polluted air, is Not A Good Thing.

Drones are not hermetically sealed against whatever they are flying through, because they’d overheat if they were. In fact, there are ventilators and a through-flow of air, so anything that you don’t want to get inside your drone cannot easily be kept out. I have got myself into the habit of putting a hand-held usb-rechargebale vacuum clearer over the bottom vents after flights in the hope of sucking out any dust, or pulling through sufficient flow of air to dry any condensate. I have no idea if this is preventing corrosion or other problems inside my drone, but it is certainly doing no harm! A hair dryer might be better if there is damp to dry out.

Salt water spray or sea-mist is a more intractable problem, though. because when you’ve dried it out as best you can, it leaves corrosive acidic deposits behind it. It can be found several miles inland after stormy weather. Perhaps it would be a good idea to open the drone up periodically to inspect for this and get rid of it as far as is practicable.

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9

Really :scream:

Come on :roll_eyes:

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10

Maybe the original owner had a wet experience, which is why he sold it?
P.

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Yeah, that’s a possibility.

Strange how it’s taken this long to manifest a fault after a dozen or so flights between when I purchased it in Feb’23 yo the last flight in Aug’23.

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I put everything back together enough just to test it, and still the same fault.

Forward vision sensor error and no image.

When I unhook the forward IR module completely there are loads more errors including compass etc…

I am just assuming that forward vision is the IR unit itself so have ordered a replacement, cheap enough to try it.

Odd how if it is just the IR board, it knocks out image transmission too.

Will post back when parts arrive.

13

Rules of the internet, video or it didn’t happen

You need to get out more John

14

Looks like it may have gone swimming some time in the past. Sea air is corrosive, but that seems excessive.

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But, but, I went out only last week…

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Internet rules apply , photos or video or it didn’t happen

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17

A quick update.

I received a replacement front sensor, heat sink & gps unit and fitted them, still the same error.

I sort of guessed that, even though the error says front vision sensor, the sensor itself looked free of any corrosion.

I’m thinking that it’s a damaged trace on the PCB to the cpu and that is all under the cans which at this time I do not want to remove but I may do this in the future just for kicks :joy:

My next option was a replacement main board, I looked into this but then spotted an opened and not used Spark open to offers on eBay.

I got a great deal on a whole drone and so went down that route.

New one was spotless had no miles on it and needed activation as well as usual calibration for a new drone.

Glad to have a working Spark back in my fleet.