Great drone, but battery life too short

Wolfman Jonathan · Jun 23, 2017

Started with phantom, then inspire. Currently have Mavic (love!) and a spark. Love the yellow. I'm happy I bought it, and I'm not returning it. BUT I have to say I am disappointed with the battery. Seems like I just start flying when I have to land. It feels too short. I start it up and want to play with its features. A couple of dronies and it seems like that's it. I don't dare fly far away with it. It makes me really appreciate the battery on my mavic.

This morning I had trouble connecting the controller to the drone. A bit of fiddling and I fixed it... but now I only have three lights on the battery. Sigh.

I just ordered 4 more batteries to add to my flymore 2. I feel foolish to throw so much money in the thing. But, if I'm going to own it, I might as well be able to really fly it. Am I crazy?

Michael Ainsworth · Jun 23, 2017

Yes..........

Knight Hawk · Jun 23, 2017

Wolfman Jonathan said:
Started with phantom, then inspire. Currently have Mavic (love!) and a spark. Love the yellow. I'm happy I bought it, and I'm not returning it. BUT I have to say I am disappointed with the battery. Seems like I just start flying when I have to land. It feels too short. I start it up and want to play with its features. A couple of dronies and it seems like that's it. I don't dare fly far away with it. It makes me really appreciate the battery on my mavic.

This morning I had trouble connecting the controller to the drone. A bit of fiddling and I fixed it... but now I only have three lights on the battery. Sigh.

I just ordered 4 more batteries to add to my flymore 2. I feel foolish to throw so much money in the thing. But, if I'm going to own it, I might as well be able to really fly it. Am I crazy?

I think so, I would have ordered 12 batteries.

Pedro · Jun 23, 2017

I easily get 15 minutes out of my Spark, a little less in sports mode so you must be some kind of time warp if you only get "a couple dronies" out of yours.

Former Member · Jun 23, 2017

The problem is that you are used to flying a Mavic with an advertised flight time of 27 minutes (I get 18-20). The Spark is advertised with flight time of 16 minutes, (I get 12) so it really could be almost half of what you are used to with your Mavic.

The Spark wasnt designed for the same purpose the Mavic was. I would compare the Mavic to Voyager 1 where you can go great distances, and the Spark to the space shuttle, it can go far but not too far. They each have their capabilities, and drawbacks.

To answer your question, no you are not crazy to buy multiple batteries for your Spark. I know people who have 6 batteries for their Mavic. Thats 2 hours of flight time back to back! They arent crazy, they just like to have enough batteries just in case. If you are going to buy extra batteries, try to find a multi charger so that when 1 is drained, you will have another ready to fly.

One last thing. If you do own 6 Spark batteries, make sure to rotate them around so that each one gets used a few times a year. It's not good to let a lipo sit unused for a few months at a time, so try to be diligent and mark each battery when the last time it was charged and flown. It will extend your battery life.

Anthony Viscomi · Jun 23, 2017

@Thunderdrones Yes, the Mavic has definitely spoiled a lot of us new Spark owners.

yendor · Jun 23, 2017

Wolfman Jonathan said:
Started with phantom, then inspire. Currently have Mavic (love!) and a spark. Love the yellow. I'm happy I bought it, and I'm not returning it. BUT I have to say I am disappointed with the battery. Seems like I just start flying when I have to land. It feels too short. I start it up and want to play with its features. A couple of dronies and it seems like that's it. I don't dare fly far away with it. It makes me really appreciate the battery on my mavic.

This morning I had trouble connecting the controller to the drone. A bit of fiddling and I fixed it... but now I only have three lights on the battery. Sigh.

I just ordered 4 more batteries to add to my flymore 2. I feel foolish to throw so much money in the thing. But, if I'm going to own it, I might as well be able to really fly it. Am I crazy?

I agree. I sold my Mavic to a buddy and used the money to buy the Spark combo with the remote and extra battery. Like many others have reported I was very impressed with the small size and weight. The mavic is an amazing craft so I was not expecting DJI to create a smaller drone but I am pleasantly surprised. My two year old kid is often frightened by the Mavic in flight so I thought the Spark would be less 'scary.' You are correct about the battery life , for experienced pilots it seems to drop to empty rather quickly. I am currently getting about ten minutes of flight time and I have not yet used sport mode. What I do like about the drone is how much fun it is to fly in areas I would not usually fly a drone in. Beacuse it is so tiny I do not have a fear of slamming into somebodies car or injuring a person like I do with a normal DJI craft. I have had the drone up to three hundred feet in the air and have not had any problems with connecting
to the controller. ***Alert*** I have two friends that have Mavics and when I fly with them I lose the connection to the Spark. One three seperate flights the screen on my iphone 6 went black and the craft tried to return to home. I don't know if I was just having bad luck or the Mavics were interfering with the signal in some way I do not understand. In closing, I really look forward to the industry changing and creating smaller almost toy like craft that are not as large but will be able to offer the same photo/video quality of some of the larger more expensive quads. I would love to take my Spark on vacation and shoot some footage of a whale or other wildlife.

John Gowland · Jun 23, 2017

Thunderdrones said:
The problem is that you are used to flying a Mavic with an advertised flight time of 27 minutes (I get 18-20). The Spark is advertised with flight time of 16 minutes, (I get 12) so it really could be almost half of what you are used to with your Mavic.

The Spark wasnt designed for the same purpose the Mavic was. I would compare the Mavic to Voyager 1 where you can go great distances, and the Spark to the space shuttle, it can go far but not too far. They each have their capabilities, and drawbacks.

To answer your question, no you are not crazy to buy multiple batteries for your Spark. I know people who have 6 batteries for their Mavic. Thats 2 hours of flight time back to back! They arent crazy, they just like to have enough batteries just in case. If you are going to buy extra batteries, try to find a multi charger so that when 1 is drained, you will have another ready to fly.

One last thing. If you do own 6 Spark batteries, make sure to rotate them around so that each one gets used a few times a year. It's not good to let a lipo sit unused for a few months at a time, so try to be diligent and mark each battery when the last time it was charged and flown. It will extend your battery life.

Hi Thunderdrones, you convinced me to think again about the Mavic, getting one tomorrow