Inspire 1 Floats in the Breeze

greatone76 · Aug 17, 2017

I bought an Inspire 1 used. I had been flying the Mavic Pro and in the wind the Mavic pro stays put in the air pretty well. When I fly the Inspire in any kind of wind I have a very hard time getting it stay on line to fly a straight line. I have been attempting to fly roofs in a grid pattern and have a very hard time keeping my line. I also notice that it gains and loses altitude all the time without warning. It will drop as much as 10 feet in a few second with no warning when the wind kicks up a little. It stays in place but loses or gains altitude with the wind. It also just feels very (loose) when flying and floats fairly dramatically when I try to fly a straight line.

I'm just looking to know if this is normal for the Inspire 1 and I'm just spoiled with the Mavic or if there is something I might be missing in the settings to get some of the "float and looseness" out of it. Or if because it is used it might be that the drone is loose or bent or worn in a way that gives me this extra "float and looseness".

If I would have had this brand new I might feel better if it just how it is or if it has worn to this condition or there is a setting I'm missing, but as I got it used, I'm not sure what "normal" is.

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Scoobywrx05 · Aug 17, 2017

They do move around some but dropping 10 feet at once is not normal at all. What firmware are you running and camera?

Scoobywrx05 · Aug 17, 2017

I'm assuming you are in place gps mode.

lake_flyer · Aug 17, 2017

I have both, the Mavic is a lot easier to fly. The I1 is more demanding for a pilot but feels a lot more like an aircraft to me.
With the right settings and firmware the I1 should be quite solid and should be able to keep its altitude easily within 1m (3ft). Maybe the previous owner messed up the gains?

lake_flyer · Aug 17, 2017

Scoobywrx05 said:
I'm assuming you are in place gps mode.

Both GPS and Atti mode use the barometer. It should hold altitude solidly in both modes.

Scoobywrx05 · Aug 17, 2017

lake_flyer said:
Both GPS and Atti mode use the barometer. It should hold altitude solidly in both modes.

Should you would think.

lake_flyer · Aug 17, 2017

greatone76 said:
I bought an Inspire 1 used. I had been flying the Mavic Pro and in the wind the Mavic pro stays put in the air pretty well. When I fly the Inspire in any kind of wind I have a very hard time getting it stay on line to fly a straight line. I have been attempting to fly roofs in a grid pattern and have a very hard time keeping my line. I also notice that it gains and loses altitude all the time without warning. It will drop as much as 10 feet in a few second with no warning when the wind kicks up a little. It stays in place but loses or gains altitude with the wind. It also just feels very (loose) when flying and floats fairly dramatically when I try to fly a straight line.

I'm just looking to know if this is normal for the Inspire 1 and I'm just spoiled with the Mavic or if there is something I might be missing in the settings to get some of the "float and looseness" out of it. Or if because it is used it might be that the drone is loose or bent or worn in a way that gives me this extra "float and looseness".

If I would have had this brand new I might feel better if it just how it is or if it has worn to this condition or there is a setting I'm missing, but as I got it used, I'm not sure what "normal" is.

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

An IMU calibration, did you do that already? Might help a lot. Do it on a perfectly level surface. Use a bubble to make sure it's 100% level. And do check the gains.

RMartin · Aug 17, 2017

greatone76 said:
When I fly the Inspire in any kind of wind I have a very hard time getting it stay on line to fly a straight line. I have been attempting to fly roofs in a grid pattern and have a very hard time keeping my line. I also notice that it gains and loses altitude all the time without warning. It will drop as much as 10 feet in a few second with no warning when the wind kicks up a little. It stays in place but loses or gains altitude with the wind. It also just feels very (loose) when flying and floats fairly dramatically when I try to fly a straight line. Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The first question that begs answering is what kind of winds are we talking about? Are you flying manually or in autonomous flight with a pre-programmed flight profile?

We upload a flight path and the UAS flies in autonomous mode during our mapping flights. The flight software does a decent job keeping it on path and at altitude but it helps to adjust the grid based upon localized conditions that you take on site before takeoff. For manual flight in P-GPS mode, it can be challenging to keep the UAS on track in high winds. That is generally why we cut the manufacturers specs by a quarter and don't operate in winds over 17mph manually.

djkelly57 · Aug 17, 2017

I have to agree with greatone76. I also bought a used inspire 1. I have to chase this thing all over the place. I have done all the calibrations. I even found a video to address my loose arms. I have found no good reason for this thing to act as it does. I wanted a zoom camera for inspection work. There is nothing for my inspire 2 or for my phantom 4 pro. I bought a z3 and this bird to hoist it. Bad move. I don't even need the wind to be elevated. The camera is great, if I could only get it steady.

William Gaddy · Aug 18, 2017

That's pretty odd behavior. I did a railroad bridge inspection in both manual (ATTI and PGPS, for under it) and using DroneDeploy and an I1 V2, firmware was 1.9 I believe, challenging flight, high-touch and close -- no problems. Sounds to me like you've got a stuck barometer or one that's "flappy". I'd send it in for service.

david cox · Sep 16, 2017

Hi,

I have an Inspire 1, and I have a similar problem. Pretty stable in hover at an altitude of 20'+, but cannot get it to move forward in the right direction. Took it to a field, laid out cones for 100', and hovered the drone above the first cone. Yawed the drone to be facing down the line of cones, and pushed right stick forward. At the end of the line, the drone was still pointing forward, but was hovering 30' to the right of the cone line. I pulled the right stick straight back, and sure enough, the drone ended up above me, but to the left of the line. It flew in a straight line both times. The wind speed was low, and when hovering, the drone was perfectly stable.

To get it to fly above the line, I have to adjust the right stick with left side pressure to counter the drift. Can I adjust gains to reduce this drift?

Aviator · Sep 20, 2017

david cox said:
Hi,

I have an Inspire 1, and I have a similar problem. Pretty stable in hover at an altitude of 20'+, but cannot get it to move forward in the right direction. Took it to a field, laid out cones for 100', and hovered the drone above the first cone. Yawed the drone to be facing down the line of cones, and pushed right stick forward. At the end of the line, the drone was still pointing forward, but was hovering 30' to the right of the cone line. I pulled the right stick straight back, and sure enough, the drone ended up above me, but to the left of the line. It flew in a straight line both times. The wind speed was low, and when hovering, the drone was perfectly stable.

To get it to fly above the line, I have to adjust the right stick with left side pressure to counter the drift. Can I adjust gains to reduce this drift?

If you used the camera to line up the aircraft with the cones, it could be that your camera is out of true alignment.
Just because you are looking straight down the line on the camera, it doesn't mean the aircraft is aligned with the cones.

david cox · Sep 20, 2017

Hi Aviator,

Thanks for the reply, but I didn't use the camera to line up the aircraft. It was hovering at 15' and above the first cone. I stood to the rear of the aircraft and used the body line of the aircraft to ensure it was pointing at the end cone. I watched the aircraft, and it's body remained parallel to the line of cones at all times, but it was flying off to the right. I tried this several times, both just watching the aircraft, and then just watching my stick, to make sure I wasn't pushing off at an angle. No change.
If I were to remain in hover directly above the first cone, and point the aircraft to where it finished at the end of the 100' line, I would have had to yaw to the right by around 10 degrees. I am wondering if the motors are out of balance.

Aviator · Sep 20, 2017

Okay, I understand..
Two more things to check.
1. send the inspire backwards down the same line and then forwards back to the start, does it drift to the left? If is does its the aircraft causing the drift. If it does not and drifts to the right again, it is wind that is causing the drift.
2. ensure your the inspires legs are perfectly aligned and not twisted. if the left boom was over-inclined (leaning in too much at the top) or, the right boom was under-inclined (leaning out at the top) this could also cause the bird to drift..

david cox · Sep 20, 2017

It drifted to the left when flown in reverse, so it isn't the wind. Interesting point about the booms, i'll take a look. When you refer to over- or under-inclined, how are looking at the booms? From above looking down on the aircraft, or from the front/rear, meaning one boom sits higher than the other when raised.

Aviator · Sep 20, 2017

Looking from rear to front (from behind the bird)
The booms will not sit higher when raised but the angle of the props will not be in sync.
Take a look at the attached image.

david cox · Sep 20, 2017

Thanks, i'll check it out and let you know.

wavelight · Jan 20, 2018

@david cox .... just wondering how this worked out for you?

greatone76 · Jan 21, 2018

I acquired a second Inspire 1 and it is a touch more stable, but it appears that the float I'm seeing in the inspire 1 is just how it flies. It appears that it fights the wind to stay in place it is willing to ascend or descend. At one point I put it about 10 foot in the air in the my front yard and it floated up about 3 to 5 feet. I flipped the heading 180 degrees and it dropped 3 to 5 feet. The wind was 10 mph, so on the higher side, but it appears that the bird is just programmed to fight the wind in a way where it is ok to ascend or descend.

I also had the experience of having my mavic pro's vision go out of calibration and flying without the vision functioning. The mavic floated much more in hover without the vision system working, so it might be the pure fact that the inspire one doesn't have the tech inside to hold a hover as "rock solid" as the newer DJI machines.