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BUG WARNING LATEST UPDATE!!

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Apr 12, 2015
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Nearly lost my Inspire 1 over water today. Battery showed 65% on take off but after less than 5 mins the controller decided that the power level was critical and wanted to land..over water! Had a sruggle to get it back and not land in the water..the cancel button had no effect either. This has happened before and I had hoped that DJI had solved this in latest fw update. Managed to land but broke all props anyway. So do not trust your Inspire 1 with expensive accessories eg camera.

FYI
had calibrated compass before start.
Updated all batteries with latest FW
Had flown successfully twice this morning
Outside temp 12c..dry sunny conditions ..no wind

You have been warned!
 
This is a pretty old and highly talked about subject. Main lesson to learn is do NOT ever start with a battery at less than 100%. If you charged it to 60% then you did not go through the final balance phase of the charge. If you left the battery sitting for a while at partial charge it will have discharged unevenly. Both situations confuse the battery's "smart charge system." You must charge a battery until the lights stop blinking and use it before any discharge occurs.
If I shut a battery down with some charge, if I do not finish it within an hour, I do not use it.
 
Thanks for the tip..you would think that the folks at DJI would have fixed that if it is so easy to replicate. Have a still photo of DJI GO controller screen saying critical at 55% power...
 
When you say that you flew twice before, was that with the same battery?

Only other thing I can think of is, after the firmware update, did you cycle the battery? ie; discharge to 5%, let cool, then recharge.
 
Never fly on a battery that is not fully charged. Period.

I think it even says this in the manual.

The thing is that when it discharges automatically, it is not discharging under load, but under slow trickle discharge. It's only reading the voltage and it does have to make estimates.

As soon as you fly with the inspire it put heaps more load and the true voltage shows which then is probably even lower... So always charge your batteries fully before using it.
 
Never fly on a battery that is not fully charged. Period.

I think it even says this in the manual.

The thing is that when it discharges automatically, it is not discharging under load, but under slow trickle discharge. It's only reading the voltage and it does have to make estimates.

As soon as you fly with the inspire it put heaps more load and the true voltage shows which then is probably even lower... So always charge your batteries fully before using it.
Just so I'm clear on this - when you say never fly with a battery that's not fully charged, does this also apply if you land the aircraft at say 60%, shut it down and then start it up again? So in other words does the battery need changing to a fully charged one before re-starting?
 
I've done it a few times (for example to change a ND filter) without any problems but only within a confined location where I can land easily should the charge suddenly drop.

I see that Mazz above talks about not using a partially charged battery it if he doesn't finish it within the hour, so maybe that's the critical timeframe.
 
Just so I'm clear on this - when you say never fly with a battery that's not fully charged, does this also apply if you land the aircraft at say 60%, shut it down and then start it up again? So in other words does the battery need changing to a fully charged one before re-starting?
You should be OK doing it this way - I have tested this method and flown myself where I have first flown down to around 60%, landed, powered down. Then moved in the car a few miles, powered back up again and flown the rest of the battery.
I have done this several times without incident. The issue appears to be if you START your initial flight with a partially charged battery or you fly down to say 60% from a fully charged battery, then remove it and fly with a different pack and then put the 60% charged battery back in later.

However, I caveat the above with make sure you keep a very close eye on cell levels during your second flight in case there is an issue.
 
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Had the same problem but I use already used batteries only to measure hight of a tree or something very near so I can land within a minute. The "surprise" can be avoided only looking at voltage and ignoring % shown. The voltage was always about 3.4v when it jumped to critical battery. I have not experienced the voltage ever lying.
 
You should be OK doing it this way - I have tested this method and flown myself where I have first flown down to around 60%, landed, powered down. Then moved in the car a few miles, powered back up again and flown the rest of the battery.
I have done this several times without incident. The issue appears to be if you START your initial flight with a partially charged battery or you fly down to say 60% from a fully charged battery, then remove it and fly with a different pack and then put the 60% charged battery back in later.

However, I caveat the above with make sure you keep a very close eye on cell levels during your second flight in case there is an issue.
That's reassuring and interesting what you say about not switching batteries - I hadn't considered that.
 
i too have started with a full battery and powered down to move to get another shot and started with the same batt in the craft with out no problems like the editor said i think the key to this is not removing the partially charged battery and putting it back in again
this weekend i helped doing some aerial shots for a indi movie and we did 22 takes with my inspire and she preformed like a rock i was very impressed
 
You lost my attention when you said, "It showed 65% on take-off." LOL!!! Just a little humor. One thing which was not mentioned here. Prior to flying, top off each battery....even when you press the on/off button on the battery and it displays 4 lights. Plug the battery to the charger and if it doesn't start on its own, turn on the battery just like you would if it was in the I1 ready to fly. Wait a few seconds and the battery will start charging.

A lot of guys will argue but I charged the battery 5 days ago, it should be good to go. Trust me, it's not based on all the posting other folks have posted. That battery will need to be topped off. Enough said!! Good Luck and stay safe!!
 
I've done it a few times (for example to change a ND filter) without any problems but only within a confined location where I can land easily should the charge suddenly drop.

I see that Mazz above talks about not using a partially charged battery it if he doesn't finish it within the hour, so maybe that's the critical timeframe.
The hour was just a number that seems too short to hurt. I constantly land, turn off the craft, and restart within short periods. With the types of jobs I fly for, I rarely get to fly full packs to be honest. Never had an issue with a pack that started from 100%. I can go one further and say I have removed a pack at 50% because I wanted a full pack for the next shot, I then go back to my 50% pack when I run out of batteries. I do this very consistently without issue. Not saying it is a good idea or the right way but sharing my experience.
 
Thanks for your input guys..you're probably right about whats causing this and how to work around it but seriously...this is a DJI problem and I'm sure the competition is reading this and going to laugh all the way to the bank..

DJI wake up..you're credibility is at stake. Your asking us to invest in a technology which works until it doesnt work, just hope you never make real aircraft designed for passenger transportation. If this gets around no professional will dare to use DJI if it just falls out of the sky because the users didnt remember to recharge a charged battery.
 
Is there any competition bringing a 3kg drone in the air for 16-19min at a similar price? Honest question I dont know I didnt find alternatives above the 1,3kg toys.
 
There's little doubt the Inspires smart battery is as dumb as a box of rocks. There is no reason in the world a pilot should have to worry about flying his machine with a battery showing over half charge. What's really sad is the same system that is supposed to save your machine is putting it in the ground. Regardless of any battery state the pilot should have final say and total control until such time the battery is depleted.

What if this same machine was over a crowd of people and went in and injured someone thanks to the wonderful lack of common sense used in this battery fail safe design.
 
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good point..all thats needed is for the cancel button to work as I suspect that there's plenty enough juice left to be able to land in a dignified and safe manner
 
good point..all thats needed is for the cancel button to work as I suspect that there's plenty enough juice left to be able to land in a dignified and safe manner

You will only know this if you look at voltage. Again forget the % shown! Only look for voltage. Normally if it tells 0% it will have just about 3,3v and fly max 1 minute more. It doesnt matter if it showed you 60% 10 seconds before if it has 3,3volt you can just land very fast.
 
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Nearly lost my Inspire 1 over water today. Battery showed 65% on take off but after less than 5 mins the controller decided that the power level was critical and wanted to land..over water! Had a sruggle to get it back and not land in the water..the cancel button had no effect either. This has happened before and I had hoped that DJI had solved this in latest fw update. Managed to land but broke all props anyway. So do not trust your Inspire 1 with expensive accessories eg camera.

FYI
had calibrated compass before start.
Updated all batteries with latest FW
Had flown successfully twice this morning
Outside temp 12c..dry sunny conditions ..no wind

You have been warned!

Just happened to me a few minutes ago. Flew on one battery just fine. Landed, changed battery (100%) and flew for about a minute before it went into auto land because of critically low battery. Ok, thats weird, thought it was a fully charged battery but I am getting old so perhaps i didn't charge this one. So I fight it to land in an open spot, and change to a 3rd battery (100%..again) Get up in the air and again within a minute it does the same thing!!! WTF, goes from a full battery to less than 5% in seconds. Never had this problem before! Whats up with that?!
 
Just happened to me a few minutes ago. Flew on one battery just fine. Landed, changed battery (100%) and flew for about a minute before it went into auto land because of critically low battery. Ok, thats weird, thought it was a fully charged battery but I am getting old so perhaps i didn't charge this one. So I fight it to land in an open spot, and change to a 3rd battery (100%..again) Get up in the air and again within a minute it does the same thing!!! WTF, goes from a full battery to less than 5% in seconds. Never had this problem before! Whats up with that?!

What are your battery cell voltages?
 

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