He's already bought the drone!! So the original topic has been closed, so go screw yourself!!
Anything I can learn before purchasing used I1?
- Thread starter John Gullam
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2015
- Messages
- 738
- Reaction score
- 149
- Age
- 42
I have an I1 which sat idle for about 18 months, i cycled the batteries, and I flew it around a bit. BUT i never connected the tablet,
now I cannot get a tablet or phone to connect for love nor money, ive pruchased two used remotes, which do the same thing.
none of the remotes were really used in a long time, and they simply show no signs of usb connectivity. Ive gone as far as removing the usb hdmi boards and putting them in a P3 and they work as they should.
I have come to the conclusion that on the mainboard of the remote there must be a usb controller that ***** itself after not being used for ages.
ive used the same cable and tablet that works on a P3 and nothing, ive put the p3 usb board in the inspire remote, and nothing, no firmware updates, no phone asking to trust usb etc etc, totally dead.
on a plus note, my 4 tb48 batteries seem to have lasted well with some maintenence and i get over 15mins flight time from them.
now I cannot get a tablet or phone to connect for love nor money, ive pruchased two used remotes, which do the same thing.
none of the remotes were really used in a long time, and they simply show no signs of usb connectivity. Ive gone as far as removing the usb hdmi boards and putting them in a P3 and they work as they should.
I have come to the conclusion that on the mainboard of the remote there must be a usb controller that ***** itself after not being used for ages.
ive used the same cable and tablet that works on a P3 and nothing, ive put the p3 usb board in the inspire remote, and nothing, no firmware updates, no phone asking to trust usb etc etc, totally dead.
on a plus note, my 4 tb48 batteries seem to have lasted well with some maintenence and i get over 15mins flight time from them.
Last edited by a moderator:
The X5 camera is the only reason to fly an Inspire 1 these days, as others have pointed out the Mavic 2 Camera is as good as the X3, also the P4 Professional is better than the X3 according to the specs, however I would consider them about equal in actual use. The X5 is a whole 'nother deal, excellent camera, interchangeable lenses. Reduce flight time a little, the Inspire 1 is only good for about 15 minutes if you don't want to abuse the batteries. Speaking of which, the Inspire 1 is an amazing drone, but you are only as good as your battereis, which eventually wear out or fail. The batteries are apparently out of production, and I don't know of anyone rebuilding them.
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2019
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 1
- Age
- 34
I recently bought an I1, unfortunately only with an X3 but I got a very, very good price and I have always wanted one. The "coolest" drone in my opinion. I do some aerial photography so I will probably find a reasonably priced X5 to play with. Anyway, one of the batteries which came with it was completely fubar'd, so I removed the cells and modified it to hook up to any Lipo battery. I've tested it but haven't finished the battery mounting bracket to actually fly it yet. It was relatively easy, and my hope is this may be a solution to us I1 flyers battery rarity since you can buy a couple of 3000 ish mah batteries (2 for safety) for quite inexpensive.
I'd definitely go for it if you find a good priced I1, I love the one I got!
I'd definitely go for it if you find a good priced I1, I love the one I got!
Interesting thread and relatable. I just last week picked up a I1 with x5r and 5 batteries for my son. We are new to DJI as all of his experience has been through freestyle 5” quads which he rips. It shows we are on the 1.11 FW. So guessing we are seemingly screwed for some of the things i have read here in the thread. We have seen some breakup at around 1200+ ft away on both controllers... but he hasn’t pushed it too far as that’s way further then he does freestyle for sure. Surprised as the last post mentioned that there is no one doing battery rebuilds etc. we fly 6S on all of our quads and wish it was as easy as doing new cells in there. We got luck as all the batteries we got were under 50 cycles and seem to have been taken care of. He’s getting maybe 13 minutes per flight on it which he’s good with as the freestyle rigs get around 2-3 minutes at 65-80mph. We are admittedly a little lost with the RAW deal as i can’t get it to pull on my new Mac book to save my life. That’s for the help.
With firmware V01.11 DJI aparently reduced the transmitter power on the drone radio to 0.1W which is what some other countries allow. The FCC in the US allows 0.5W but it was easier to make them all the same worldwide (that's reading the tea leaves, but is entirely plausible). Maybe that works OK for the Phantom series, but for the Inspire it borks everything, minly because it operates on 2.4Ghz only, not 5.8Ghz. Plus the Inspire knows what country it is in by the GPS position. Apparently they are more concerned about liability from someone using 0.5W in some other country than they are about you the consumer. Imagine that. And to add insult to the situation the prevent you from downgrading the firmware, also prevents the FCC channel and transmitter power hacks, once you are on V01.11. The only solution I can see if you are already on firmware V01.11 is to get a directional "plate" antenna. The parabolic clip on reflectors are not as good as a true directional antenna. The best plate antennas for DJI drones (maybe the only ones) are made by IT Elite, the DBS extender line covers all the DJI drones except Mavic. I have one on my Inspire and as long as you are facing the drone, and don't have a lot of 2.4Ghz interference, you can control it as far as you can see, maybe further, but you're supposed to be able to keep VLOS anyway. In practice it's enough to restore usability. Just make sure the inspire is set to RTH if you lose signal, and the RTH height is higher than all obstacles. As a footnote, even with the ITElite antenna I have seen loss of video signal when only 100 ft from the Inspire, due to excessive 2.4Ghz interference, power lines, fences, etc. and yes I was using "auto" frequency hopping. Other places with little wifi interference you have no problems as far as you can see the Inspire. I would consider a preflight check for 2.4Ghz interference mandatory.
Hi All,
New to the forum. Same question as original poster on this thread, considering purchasing an Inspire 1 with a Z3 camera. I’ll be looking at it this afternoon. I do not know if it’s a v1 or v2 Inspire 1. 3 batteries in the kit. From this thread I’ve summarized I need to check the firmware version, calibration ability, and expect to have battery replacement issues (although I am seeing some after markets available on various sites).
Regarding rotors - all the listings on various sites say “currently unavailable”. Is this because the Inspire 1 is no longer in production (although why the rotors wouldn’t be interchangeable w/Inspire 2 is beyond me) or another coronapanic supply casualty that will eventually work itself out? I’m at 5750 feet MSL, inspections up the hill can put me around 6500-7000’ MSL, density altitude can have me kissing the max listed sea level spec (2500m Inspire 1 - Product Information - DJI) in the summer. What are people’s feelings/experience with high elevation rotors? Experience w/availability of rotors in general?
Given the battery concerns, parts/repair availability, etc. - what price point (eg this amount and below) strikes you all as still worth going ahead and buying it? Our business interest in this one is the zoom available on the Z3 camera, but since it’s only 12mp and a larger drone (which may result in needing to fly a bit further away from the object being inspected than with the Mavic 2 Pro due to trees or other obstacles) I’m wondering if we pick up that much? What is the collective experience from capturing at 20mp and zooming in vs capturing w/optical zoom (77mm) at 12mp?
The dual controls certainly allows for our inspector to be able to view real time and gather more specific photos/video (“stop, go back, look at that closer, etc”) than the current setup with the Mavic 2 Pro of reviewing video once off site and me hoping I got everything he needed.
Thank you in advance for your input.
New to the forum. Same question as original poster on this thread, considering purchasing an Inspire 1 with a Z3 camera. I’ll be looking at it this afternoon. I do not know if it’s a v1 or v2 Inspire 1. 3 batteries in the kit. From this thread I’ve summarized I need to check the firmware version, calibration ability, and expect to have battery replacement issues (although I am seeing some after markets available on various sites).
Regarding rotors - all the listings on various sites say “currently unavailable”. Is this because the Inspire 1 is no longer in production (although why the rotors wouldn’t be interchangeable w/Inspire 2 is beyond me) or another coronapanic supply casualty that will eventually work itself out? I’m at 5750 feet MSL, inspections up the hill can put me around 6500-7000’ MSL, density altitude can have me kissing the max listed sea level spec (2500m Inspire 1 - Product Information - DJI) in the summer. What are people’s feelings/experience with high elevation rotors? Experience w/availability of rotors in general?
Given the battery concerns, parts/repair availability, etc. - what price point (eg this amount and below) strikes you all as still worth going ahead and buying it? Our business interest in this one is the zoom available on the Z3 camera, but since it’s only 12mp and a larger drone (which may result in needing to fly a bit further away from the object being inspected than with the Mavic 2 Pro due to trees or other obstacles) I’m wondering if we pick up that much? What is the collective experience from capturing at 20mp and zooming in vs capturing w/optical zoom (77mm) at 12mp?
The dual controls certainly allows for our inspector to be able to view real time and gather more specific photos/video (“stop, go back, look at that closer, etc”) than the current setup with the Mavic 2 Pro of reviewing video once off site and me hoping I got everything he needed.
Thank you in advance for your input.
Check the sold listings on eBay. Good indicator of current sale prices.
TB47 or TB48 batteries in said package?
High altitude props will burn more battery power.
TB47 or TB48 batteries in said package?
High altitude props will burn more battery power.
The nice thing about the i1 is that you can get RAW for less. You can pick up a used X5 with SSDs for around $1500 on ebay. For a I2 you need to buy the CinemaDNG or Apple ProRes Upgrade ($1000 & $500) and you need DJI SSDs which are just rebrand Samsungs with a crypto password chip at 10x the price. They really ream you on those.
I believe with DJI Go 3 and an I1 you are responsible for no-fly zones. ie nothing stops you from flying which could be a bonus. I'm like 75% sure this is the case. Maye others can elborate.
You can attempt to ressurect an I1 battery. There's how to on youtube. Basically pull off the cap and charge the cells directly. Works some of the time.
I believe with DJI Go 3 and an I1 you are responsible for no-fly zones. ie nothing stops you from flying which could be a bonus. I'm like 75% sure this is the case. Maye others can elborate.
You can attempt to ressurect an I1 battery. There's how to on youtube. Basically pull off the cap and charge the cells directly. Works some of the time.
Congratulations
On the batteries
There is alot of knowledge of them in this Forum.
Some can resurrect the batteries that are flat dead.
If you are handy in electronics, you can take the top of your battery and purchase a TB48S or TB48D new from Dji etc. I believe th cells are the same, only the top and circuit board is different.
I have read you can buy TB48 new from DJI. New. For $500. From their Tech Dept.
Any of the existing batteries TB47 TB48 stopped being manufactured long ago. Even with 5-10 flights, the battery itself is very old.
You can send your batteries to Switzerand to a company that rebuilds them with new cells.
Imo, this is a ploy by DJI in Forced Obsolesence.
Another thought. Go to the FAA website and fetch a Permit to fly. I think I paid $10. That goes on your aircraft and in the case of a fly-away etc, whoever finds it can find you and return it or ...
Look up the App, B4UFLY from the FAA.
There is another App to download your flight data which with all the above, will prove times, path everything you did. The FAA can make life very difficult but if you can show logs etc of what you have done, they seem to like you a little better. There is a ton of info here and on YouTube for that stuff.
On the batteries
There is alot of knowledge of them in this Forum.
Some can resurrect the batteries that are flat dead.
If you are handy in electronics, you can take the top of your battery and purchase a TB48S or TB48D new from Dji etc. I believe th cells are the same, only the top and circuit board is different.
I have read you can buy TB48 new from DJI. New. For $500. From their Tech Dept.
Any of the existing batteries TB47 TB48 stopped being manufactured long ago. Even with 5-10 flights, the battery itself is very old.
You can send your batteries to Switzerand to a company that rebuilds them with new cells.
Imo, this is a ploy by DJI in Forced Obsolesence.
Another thought. Go to the FAA website and fetch a Permit to fly. I think I paid $10. That goes on your aircraft and in the case of a fly-away etc, whoever finds it can find you and return it or ...
Look up the App, B4UFLY from the FAA.
There is another App to download your flight data which with all the above, will prove times, path everything you did. The FAA can make life very difficult but if you can show logs etc of what you have done, they seem to like you a little better. There is a ton of info here and on YouTube for that stuff.
Similar threads
