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Another Inspire drop out of nowhere.

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Jul 10, 2019
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Last night during sunset I experienced a drop with no warning and about 9:30 minutes left of battery.

One leg is broke and gimbal plate has been ripped but as of now I’m unsure of gimbal and lens performance. Drone still turns on and batteries read fine.

Super confused as to what happened and really bummed.

I have the flight log ready for dji but have yet to reach out as I’m out of warranty.
 
Super confused as to what happened and really bummed.

That’s what the flight logs are for. And are you asking for help or just here to vent in frustration? If you would like for options and opinions on what could have occurred, upload the logs here.

You are out of warranty.. ok, so you know whatever DJI come up with , it will still cost you money to repair.
 
I will. I’m now currently out of town on a LIDAR job but will present the logs on Thursday evening. Thank you.
 
Hey, I know how sh***y you feel, especially until you're able to figure out what went wrong. Not knowing your experience and technical knowledge about all the drone's functions and behaviors, its worth asking... is it at all possible that you have inadvertently pulled both sticks towards you in a V at any point and for any reason?
 
Hey, I know how sh***y you feel, especially until you're able to figure out what went wrong. Not knowing your experience and technical knowledge about all the drone's functions and behaviors, its worth asking... is it at all possible that you have inadvertently pulled both sticks towards you in a V at any point and for any reason?
While it might be considered OT is it possible to re-start in same manner assuming sufficient altitude and attitude?itxwouldxseem yes, but too ‘chicken’ to try. Obviously works on ground!
 
While it might be considered OT is it possible to re-start in same manner assuming sufficient altitude and attitude?itxwouldxseem yes, but too ‘chicken’ to try. Obviously works on ground!

Possible? Hmmm, I would say yes, the real question is: how much balls you have to do it on purpose, assuming a few grand isnt pocket change? And even more, how good are your reflexes if you completely forget this is even a possible maneuver to be used in case of emergency, and actually do it while testing out your freshly repaired inspire, when at about 230ft high you see your drone drop like a stone and pass below the tree line, get it disappear from all instruments, lose all communication, and just then realize what you did and get hit like a brick wall thinking you've just F*****d up a new X5 that you rented from a store minutes before and aside from losing your own personal drone, you also lost 2K$ because the insurance you took out doesn't cover the act of "sabotage"?

So to answer the latter, my reflexes are so good, I didn't know they did something to save me after my eyes were looking at the drone accelerating towards the ground and my brain was thinking of the joke I said when the guy replied to my question "what does the insurance not cover?" with "as long as you dont crash it because you felt like it, youll be fine" and I replied "ohh yeah, because my plan was to bring back my X3 once I had figured out the magnets and pass it as if you guys had marked the wrong model of gimbal" and we both sarcastically laughed while I walked out......luck, perfect weather, and maybe some force looking down and deciding to cut me some slack, all valid answers.

So when I asked about your last input on the RC, it was nervously making sure your tragic ending wasn't mine. I knew this was possible, I tried it with my spark and a mavic air, i never actually got it working maybe because they seem to be the only dji drones that don't have it enabled, so it left my mind and never even crossed my mind while you can clearely see i was twurling in the sky having fun with my drone that i had just repaired, and inching closer to suicide. The joystick replay in real time is hilariously wrong..............btw whats your last 10s look like????

Capture.PNG
 
i'm not the thread starter, I just commented about shutting down midair, and your response, made my day. I thought that shutting down midair might cause a tumble but surely if hovering, and a shutdown, the UAV is balanced at COG, else one or more motors would surely 'burn out'. But, I sure don't have the guts cuz I'm not sure what the heck happens at altitude on a planned shutdown; certainly no autorotation lol. Someone on this site MUST KNOW.
 
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i'm not the thread starter, I just commented about shutting down midair, and your response, made my day. I thought that shutting down midair might cause a tumble but surely if hovering, and a shutdown, the UAV is balanced at COG, else one or more motors would surely 'burn out'. But, I sure don't have the guts cuz I'm not sure what the heck happens at altitude on a planned shutdown; certainly no autorotation lol. Someone on this site MUST KNOW.
But of course...i knew that, I was testing you............

................uhhhhhm to see if you knew who you were

Anyways thanks for 1- giuving me a perfect occasion to show my carelessness and 2- how much i really pay attention to other and completely confuse them just because a J is THE ONLY common factor between them.

But in all seriousness, I could only see one outcome, a crash landing with relatively minimal damage....assuming other strong forces like wind or an impact weren't the reason why the drone had to bail. I don't really understand physics enough to see how else to reason, but a Helicopter has so little margin for error and as soon as the rear vertical rotor doesn't spin fast enough to counter the main rotors lift then it can either spin out of control or "GLIDE" like any other plane. I dont remember where or when but i saw some credible source saying its much safer to recover from a total engine failure in a helicopter than any airplane...and if 1 rotor is safer, isn't 3 even more??
 
For the enjoyment of all, please enjoy the inspire's hidden gems and acrobatics skills, last time i saw a video of a mid-air restart it was a mavic pro, much smaller, much lighter and much slower....and certainly much on purpose. This s the type of event you wish to be a part of... to see it with your own eyes, but as a spectator. OMG if this wasn't the maiden flight with rental camera, and it was recorded by only my ring video doorbell and not my slightly off 24/7 NVR, maybe, just maybe i could have known why does activating this stop all logging when thats specially at this time you want as much data possible, of course assuming the engine stop was used as intended.

 
Ok. Back from the road. Here are the last two logs filed. If someone could take a look and see wtf happened that would be so helpful. Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • DJIFlightRecord_2019-08-06_[09-13-35].txt
    1.4 MB · Views: 10
  • DJIFlightRecord_2019-08-03_[04-46-55].txt
    9 KB · Views: 2
Hey, I know how sh***y you feel, especially until you're able to figure out what went wrong. Not knowing your experience and technical knowledge about all the drone's functions and behaviors, its worth asking... is it at all possible that you have inadvertently pulled both sticks towards you in a V at any point and for any reason?
Pulling both joysticks in word does not shut down the motors on the inspire one. At least not on mine it doesn’t. The Mavic pro it does.
 
Pulling both joysticks in word does not shut down the motors on the inspire one. At least not on mine it doesn’t. The Mavic pro it does.
Huh, i was unaware your inspire serves as the golden master.

Seriously. 2 posts above is evidence you'd probably want to rethink the information you share as factual. You may have not been able to do it correctly, or are just quoting someone else who's ignorance you bought, but don't be the reason why somebody's ignorance and lack of judgement could have been a costly mistake. There are countless idiots on the DJI forums that saw information from 2-3 other posters and ended up learning the hard way...this isn't the type of hobby you can afford misinformation, just look up the kid who was so convinced the drone industry was being somehow lobbied by people who were ready to do what it takes to destroy it and has gone from a hobby to a career where regulations and strict rules requiring passing tests and being schooled just to fly a toy, and needed to prove it by showing the built in security that kept users from being wreckless, such as the impossible task of flying with 0% battery and how overriding the forced landing was impossible because DJI wouldn't let it drop from the sky.

In case you want to know, his Spark had 0% and he kept the left stick forward so the drone would fly higher and higher...until it powered off, fell a few 100 feet on a cars roof with so much force it had to be declared as total loss. The story had been posted and removed as the guy livestreamed and the cops had the investigation open, and some say that lead to a test where a Phantom was shown in slowmo hitting a wing in a simulated collision, DJI got involved, calling the whole thing as a setup to stop their dominance, yati yati yada.

So as a person that has invested time and money to keep this from getting so regulated and taxed, it really irritates me when I bother with posting HARD EVIDENCE, that can't be interpreted, or spun into some "1 time off" thing, and use a video of the flight data before and after, and 2 post below some dude with DJI in his name claims if it didnt happen to him, it cant be done. I hope you're not an actual employee, and if you were i wouldn't even be surprised.
 
Didn’t have time to read the whole book but I have heard on this forum that putting the joysticks in word does not shut down the motors I have read articles on this people thought that it did but it does not. Just going by what I have read and buy what I have tried.
 
Ok. Back from the road. Here are the last two logs filed. If someone could take a look and see wtf happened that would be so helpful. Thanks!
Ok, so I took a look at the detailed log thats 1.4mb...the other one was too small and i also wanted to have no prior history that might cloud my judgement, but tell me what you think makes sense. I also color coded to make it clear

Conditions of flight
So lets rule out any sort of weather or external factor. Wind, the fastest gust was 27km/h at about 10m into flight, no major change of direction as it always blew between 8pm and 6pm or 340 to 20 degrees on compass. KP index at 3, which is low, no interference in area or other.

The drone:
Rudder response was optimal and about the same for the duration at 200ms (aka input lag).
Battery: Was this a fresh battery?? I see MFG Date of March 2018 and only 1 total charge on the counter, and this was its maiden flight? (Battery in question has SN ending in 3201NB). If so, this battery might have a defective temperature sensor...I can usually see the landing temperature, this would be a great indicator (even better than mah) of battery degradation as over time the delta rises while mah get lower but doesn't really take any cell specific problem into account. I also see a minor issue with Cell 3, it seems to be always off while other cells are 0.001v within each other. This cell spikes from 0.005 to 0.02v, which is fine, for now at least. If things don't iron out after the first 7-10 cycles, which also should always be a "break-in period" for LiPo batteries and allow the battery to fully set in and increase in capacity.
Sensors: Data Tx Rx from RC-AC is 10/10, GPS signal constant, 15-19 with no drop or spike.
Compass: I can only base my opinion on this one flight. I believe that one flight is never enough and a pattern needs to appear to conclude but as far as i can see, this is the cause of this flights problem. Everything seems just fine with no data point saved (saves only abnormal) until 10m55s, at 111.4m H and 325m from Home, the compass has a rate of change (also can be seens as the amount of rotation coming from factors other than what the drone can receive as a command from RC or sensor data) of 25 degress per 0.1 second and until the end, so 6 seconds later and 60 data points, it goes well into 200 degrees. It essentially is a tumble down to earth.


If I had to conclude, PILOT error. The data tells a story that can be seen so many different ways, but aside from your battery not being used properly as stated previously, the 11 minutes or perfect flying until 6 seconds before its done, you crashed your drone my friend. You made a mistake i did when filming geese taking off from a river, I was following then from the side, flying sideways and trying to loop towards the front while they were starting to turn towards me, i was very well aware of the terrain, the river is my back yard, but the shot was so beautiful i zone out the line of very tall trees that line the waterside a bit further, knocked a brach and tumbled down 60m to my own faulty piloting.

Let me show you what you looked like while trying to film a train...right? or the empty tracks below.
 
Didn’t have time to read the whole book but I have heard on this forum that putting the joysticks in word does not shut down the motors I have read articles on this people thought that it did but it does not. Just going by what I have read and buy what I have tried.
Of course you didnt. It seems to be a pattern not to read and make conclusions. I'm not trying to be an *** with you, but if not already done, youre not bound to much success if you heard from one or 2 that you cant and then you try...sort of explains the mirror story of my book you should have read to get the potential crap youre exposing yourself to...
 
But of course...i knew that, I was testing you............

................uhhhhhm to see if you knew who you were

Anyways thanks for 1- giuving me a perfect occasion to show my carelessness and 2- how much i really pay attention to other and completely confuse them just because a J is THE ONLY common factor between them.

But in all seriousness, I could only see one outcome, a crash landing with relatively minimal damage....assuming other strong forces like wind or an impact weren't the reason why the drone had to bail. I don't really understand physics enough to see how else to reason, but a Helicopter has so little margin for error and as soon as the rear vertical rotor doesn't spin fast enough to counter the main rotors lift then it can either spin out of control or "GLIDE" like any other plane. I dont remember where or when but i saw some credible source saying its much safer to recover from a total engine failure in a helicopter than any airplane...and if 1 rotor is safer, isn't 3 even more??


Sadly, no. (I spend waaaaay too much time in helicopters)

When a helicopter is in powered flight, the tail rotor counters the torque created by the engine rotating the main rotor. When it loses the engine, the main rotor is automatically disengaged from the engine. Without the external forces of the engine driving the rotor, there is virtually no torque. If the tail rotor is still mechanically sound, it can still be used to control yaw because it is linked via transmission to the main rotor.

There are a few reasons a multicopter is not able to autorotate.
1) Lack of ability to disengage the propellers from the motors. Even when powered off, the motors significantly slow the rotor spin.
2) Fixed rotor pitch. A helicopter’s ability to roll, and pitch comes from the complex nature of the way the pitch changes as it moves through its rotation. It is nothing more than a spinning wing, so controlling the aircraft requires the ability to tilt it precisely.

All control for the multicopter comes from precision control of the speed of each prop. When it loses either power or control over the speed of each motor, it’s essentially an oddly shaped brick, and will tumble as drag impacts different parts of the airframe and camera.

In a helicopter with either sufficient forward speed or altitude, it can use its rotating wing (main rotor) along with the ability to control pitch, roll, and yaw, to achieve the correct balance of forward speed and descent rate. Variables like the air temperature, humidity, altitude, and weight of the loaded aircraft determine the correct procedure to get down in one piece.

You are correct that a helicopter without power can be safer than a plane under the same conditions. When properly executed, an autorotation maneuver gives the rotor about the same drag as a parachute. Cool, right? At the very end of the decent, a powerless plane needs a long, flat area to land. The helicopter can trade off almost all of its forward speed to slow the descent. It’s a one-time trade of energy, but it does mean that you can set down in a small area instead of looking for a highway.
 
Last night during sunset I experienced a drop with no warning and about 9:30 minutes left of battery.

One leg is broke and gimbal plate has been ripped but as of now I’m unsure of gimbal and lens performance. Drone still turns on and batteries read fine.

Super confused as to what happened and really bummed.

I have the flight log ready for dji but have yet to reach out as I’m out of warranty.
Friend of mine had a similar experiene wit I1. Result was a faulty battery. His machine was destroyed :(
 
Friend of mine had a similar experiene wit I1. Result was a faulty battery. His machine was destroyed :(

That seems to be the main reason for Inspire 1 accidents, and the reality is if people would check their batteries and replace them when they start swelling or show signs of cell deterioration that wouldn't happen.

I fly the Inspire 2, lost one battery during flight, second battery got me home.
For the life of me, why would someone want to stop the motors during flight?
 

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