‘Pop’ Noise During Software Upgrade, Inspire Dead

[RogerRamjet]

G’day all,

Took the Inspire out after at least 6 months of no use, switched it on and all looking good aside from software update being required.

About 5mins into the update, I heard a low sounding ‘pop’ and the light had stopped flashing. Swapped through 4 fully charged batteries (47’s and 48’s) but no response. Batteries light up as normal but the drone doesn’t boot up at all. ‘Pop’ sound was like the when you put a plug into a socket.

App shows ‘Aircraft disconencted’ but no other info.

Can’t find anything about it online so not sure how to go about problem solving! Anyone experienced this before? Could an update short circuit the drone?

 

[MrTVR]

Probably nothing to do with the update.

Did you store it in a cool dry place?

Excess RH during storage could lead to corrosion of the PCBs and excess temperatures could dry out capacitors, both of which could lead to a short circuit and explain the pop noise you heard.

 

[The Editor]

What he said ^^^^^^

Sounds very much like the dielectric has failed on a capacitor and 'popped' and now the aircraft is dead.
Only option is a strip down of the airframe.

 

[RogerRamjet]

Thanks for the replies. Apparently it’s somehow ‘water damaged’ from never seeing any rain and sitting in the case for more than 6 months.

Repair has not been recommended due to safety hazard but happy to relieve me of US$1,500 if I want it fixed

Wouldn’t given any more specifics so looks like I’ll be hanging up my Inspire pilot hat unless I can figure out something.

@The Editor is there a tutorial that would help with the ‘strip down of the airframe’ suggestion? Or should I just sell the frame and not muck about trying to fix it?

 

[TruGreen]

it could be the Ncore which is in the nose and very simple to replace. 4 silver screws on the nose and two smaller hidden on the bottom underside of the nose by gimbal plate and nose cone comes off. then 4 small torx screws hold the Ncore in place. just dont mix up the antenna wires.

or could be the main battery circuit board which is right there inside the battery tray