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Shortly after purchasing the inspire 1 January 2016 I was on flight when 'compass error' was displayed on the screen. However the aircraft was controllable so I landed and calibrated the compass. Being a regular S900 pilot this disturbed me somewhat, I did not expect it. No further problems till last Sunday May 22 2016. I was around 5 minutes into the flight when the audio signal warned me 'Atti mode', the screen displayed 'compass error' and 'flight record error'. I had no control of the copter, it was at an altitude of 12 to 15 feet and around 50 feet away and just hovering. It then suddenly shot off at a very high speed across the field maintaining altitude. I hit the RTH button and hoped. It worked the copter landed safely. I calibrated the compass and then had 30 minutes of flight without further incidence. Problem is if this had hit anybody it could have done very serious damage or at worst case killed them. This has been reported to DJI but I have now no confidence that it will not happen again with serious consequences. As a fully qualified pilot I own and have flown the F450, F550, Phantom 2, and now P3A for years and the s900 for 3+ years without any malfunctions. It will be sometime before I feel confident of putting the X5 camera on the Inspire!!!!
 
Shortly after purchasing the inspire 1 January 2016 I was on flight when 'compass error' was displayed on the screen. However the aircraft was controllable so I landed and calibrated the compass. Being a regular S900 pilot this disturbed me somewhat, I did not expect it. No further problems till last Sunday May 22 2016. I was around 5 minutes into the flight when the audio signal warned me 'Atti mode', the screen displayed 'compass error' and 'flight record error'. I had no control of the copter, it was at an altitude of 12 to 15 feet and around 50 feet away and just hovering. It then suddenly shot off at a very high speed across the field maintaining altitude. I hit the RTH button and hoped. It worked the copter landed safely. I calibrated the compass and then had 30 minutes of flight without further incidence. Problem is if this had hit anybody it could have done very serious damage or at worst case killed them. This has been reported to DJI but I have now no confidence that it will not happen again with serious consequences. As a fully qualified pilot I own and have flown the F450, F550, Phantom 2, and now P3A for years and the s900 for 3+ years without any malfunctions. It will be sometime before I feel confident of putting the X5 camera on the Inspire!!!!
What were your mod values immediately prior to take off on these occasions?
Accelerometer?
Gyros?
Compass?

Where were your calibrations performed (where were you standing)?

What were your mod values (at rest) on deck after doing the calibrations?
There have been two versions of firmware released since you purchased your Inspire. Have you updated each time and are you running the most recent? (v1.8.1.00).

Are you a pilot who calibrates their compass either before each flight or each time you move location?

Did the aircraft exhibit TBE at any point during GPS flight?

Sorry - lots of questions......
 
What were your mod values immediately prior to take off on these occasions?
Accelerometer?
Gyros?
Compass?

Where were your calibrations performed (where were you standing)?

What were your mod values (at rest) on deck after doing the calibrations?
There have been two versions of firmware released since you purchased your Inspire. Have you updated each time and are you running the most recent? (v1.8.1.00).

Are you a pilot who calibrates their compass either before each flight or each time you move location?

Did the aircraft exhibit TBE at any point during GPS flight?

Sorry - lots of questions......

Accelerometer?
Gyros?
Compass?

Where were your calibrations performed (where were you standing)?

What were your mod values (at rest) on deck after doing the calibrations?
There have been two versions of firmware released since you purchased your Inspire. Have you updated each time and are you running the most recent? (v1.8.1.00).

Are you a pilot who calibrates their compass either before each flight or each time you move location?

Did the aircraft exhibit TBE at any point during GPS flight?

Sorry - lots of questions......[/QUOTE]
I don't know what the mod values were, who checks these when they are out on a job. Yes I calibrate every time at the home point with no large metal obstructions. firmware is always the latest, No TBE was experienced. I am a professional why can't you accept a fault took place, one day someone will be seriously injured if this problem is not sorted. I will not fly the inspire on any commercial job from now on. My insurance only covers me for £2 million!!!!!
 
Accelerometer?
Gyros?
Compass?

Where were your calibrations performed (where were you standing)?

What were your mod values (at rest) on deck after doing the calibrations?
There have been two versions of firmware released since you purchased your Inspire. Have you updated each time and are you running the most recent? (v1.8.1.00).

Are you a pilot who calibrates their compass either before each flight or each time you move location?

Did the aircraft exhibit TBE at any point during GPS flight?

Sorry - lots of questions......
I don't know what the mod values were, who checks these when they are out on a job. Yes I calibrate every time at the home point with no large metal obstructions. firmware is always the latest, No TBE was experienced. I am a professional why can't you accept a fault took place, one day someone will be seriously injured if this problem is not sorted. I will not fly the inspire on any commercial job from now on. My insurance only covers me for £2 million!!!!!
Ahhhhhh.....OK.
To answer your questions.
I personally check mod values before every single take off as do most members on this forum.
Compass calibration SHOULD NOT be done before every flight and there lies your problem I believe.

I too am a professional and use two Inspires commercially. I have held PFAW for a number of years and never had a SINGLE problem with either machine since they were first introduced.
But then I am not a compass calibration junkie. So many times a problem starts with..
"So I calibrated the compass before the flight and....."

I fear you suffered a bad calibration back in January and again in May.
Had you have taken note of your mod values (this is written into my ops manual and forms part of my pre-flight) you would not have suffered this incident.
Additionally, checking mod values would have alerted you to a bad accelerometer value or a gyro not giving 1.0 at rest.
So to answer your question "who checks those when they are out on a job?" - well pretty much everyone who does a comprensive pre flight checklist and wants a trouble free flight.

With regards to your comment "why can't you accept a fault took place" and someone could be injured unless this is sorted.

You may well have suffered a fault (that's what we are trying to ascertain) or, as I suspect, you introduced a bad compass calibration and were not aware of it because you do not check your mod values.
If there were a 'problem' that 'needs sorting' I think with over 17,000 members on a dedicated Inspire Forum we would be hearing more about random uncontrollable flights off to the side that might kill someone.

Although you have joined the community today, you have made your second post saying why can't I just accept a fault occured when I was simply asking questions to attempt to get to the bottom of what happened.

I think it would be wise to look over this forum and do some in depth reading (there is a wealth of information on here and some very experienced multirotor pilots who contribute) and you may not know the Inspire as well as you think you do.
 
Shortly after purchasing the inspire 1 January 2016 I was on flight when 'compass error' was displayed on the screen. However the aircraft was controllable so I landed and calibrated the compass. Being a regular S900 pilot this disturbed me somewhat, I did not expect it. No further problems till last Sunday May 22 2016. I was around 5 minutes into the flight when the audio signal warned me 'Atti mode', the screen displayed 'compass error' and 'flight record error'. I had no control of the copter, it was at an altitude of 12 to 15 feet and around 50 feet away and just hovering. It then suddenly shot off at a very high speed across the field maintaining altitude. I hit the RTH button and hoped. It worked the copter landed safely. I calibrated the compass and then had 30 minutes of flight without further incidence. Problem is if this had hit anybody it could have done very serious damage or at worst case killed them. This has been reported to DJI but I have now no confidence that it will not happen again with serious consequences. As a fully qualified pilot I own and have flown the F450, F550, Phantom 2, and now P3A for years and the s900 for 3+ years without any malfunctions. It will be sometime before I feel confident of putting the X5 camera on the Inspire!!!!
I second all of the editors suggestions. Also, check the RC stick calibrations. I had an issue of uncommanded actions from my AC. After rechecking compass and mod values (which were ok)
I took off again. The AC immediately flew backwards on its own. I struggled to land it and as a last resort, checked the RC calibration. I discovered that it wouldn't calibrate because of a fault and that just moving the RC or tapping the case (without touching the stick) was sending false commands to the AC. Just something else you should check.
 
Last but not least, upload your logs to healthy drone or drone logbook, if you are a "pro" this should be mandatory. easy to use and very helpful for after flight checks...

Chris
 
Ok I accept that a bad calibration could have taken place, and let me make it clear I do calibrate when I go to new locations (hundreds of miles away, and particularly when I am in Australia) but not when I am in my local environment, I am not the junkie you infer. I take on board all of your comments re the mod values and accept the Inspire is fairly new to me. However the issue remains that this has never occurred on any of my other rigs. The only time I check the mods on the S900 is when a firmware up grade takes place or I am re configuring the IOC. I think you raise a good point re the Ops Manual, although I have a lot of detail re pre flight checks particularly for the S900, LED status etc, I have not included mod values, at the next revision I will do so. I have just checked the mod values on the inspire and got 0.01,0.99 and 1520. Which appear to be within spec. The IMU does not require calibration at this stage. Regarding logs these are recorded in my pilot log book (mandatory for EUROUSC BNUCs /PFAW renewal), but will look at other options.Thanks for your comments, but this indecent does not sit well with me, I confess I don't check the EMS on my car or cruise control before every journey, I expect the technology to be thoroughly tried/tested and work as I do when I get on a plane. Once again thanks for all your help.
 
Ok I accept that a bad calibration could have taken place, and let me make it clear I do calibrate when I go to new locations (hundreds of miles away, and particularly when I am in Australia) but not when I am in my local environment, I am not the junkie you infer. I take on board all of your comments re the mod values and accept the Inspire is fairly new to me. However the issue remains that this has never occurred on any of my other rigs. The only time I check the mods on the S900 is when a firmware up grade takes place or I am re configuring the IOC. I think you raise a good point re the Ops Manual, although I have a lot of detail re pre flight checks particularly for the S900, LED status etc, I have not included mod values, at the next revision I will do so. I have just checked the mod values on the inspire and got 0.01,0.99 and 1520. Which appear to be within spec. The IMU does not require calibration at this stage. Regarding logs these are recorded in my pilot log book (mandatory for EUROUSC BNUCs /PFAW renewal), but will look at other options.Thanks for your comments, but this indecent does not sit well with me, I confess I don't check the EMS on my car or cruise control before every journey, I expect the technology to be thoroughly tried/tested and work as I do when I get on a plane. Once again thanks for all your help.
Hi John,
Not sure what flight controller you are running on the S900 but probably an A2 or similar. The problem is that is (now) old technology and required a connection to a PC or BT link to read off/change anything.
The Inspire platform and FC was a complete re-write of the book with redesigned IMU's and compass module together with different algorithms.
We now have far more information available to us than before and checking the mod values is an easy, quick confirmation that things are reading as they should.
Agreed, a trip to Australia would probably necessitate a compass calibration but one in the UK should not believe it or not. The UK's declination values do not really alter from one end of the country to the other so you should be fine travelling within our shores without calibrating (just check those mod values before take off).
Regarding logs - I believe unyks was referring to uploading your electronic flight logs (held on the aircraft) to healthy drones or Drone Logbook website to have a look at what your sensor values were immediately prior to the incident. Rather than your flight Logbook which is a separate subject.

Just as an aside, not sure if you are aware but come renewal of your PFAW you do not need to use EuroESC at all. You can just submit your SRG1320 along with the last two months of your logs (which must show <2hrs flight time) direct to the CAA and you will get renewal.
Euro tend to use scare tactics and say your BNUC-s will not be valid and all that rubbish. However, the CAA do not require yearly tests to maintain your PFAW - nor do any other NQE so why Euro insist on it is nothing more than a cash cow for them.

Hope that helps.......:)
 
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Shortly after purchasing the inspire 1 January 2016 I was on flight when 'compass error' was displayed on the screen. However the aircraft was controllable so I landed and calibrated the compass. Being a regular S900 pilot this disturbed me somewhat, I did not expect it. No further problems till last Sunday May 22 2016. I was around 5 minutes into the flight when the audio signal warned me 'Atti mode', the screen displayed 'compass error' and 'flight record error'. I had no control of the copter, it was at an altitude of 12 to 15 feet and around 50 feet away and just hovering. It then suddenly shot off at a very high speed across the field maintaining altitude. I hit the RTH button and hoped. It worked the copter landed safely. I calibrated the compass and then had 30 minutes of flight without further incidence. Problem is if this had hit anybody it could have done very serious damage or at worst case killed them. This has been reported to DJI but I have now no confidence that it will not happen again with serious consequences. As a fully qualified pilot I own and have flown the F450, F550, Phantom 2, and now P3A for years and the s900 for 3+ years without any malfunctions. It will be sometime before I feel confident of putting the X5 camera on the Inspire!!!!
If you want to know the Accelerometer, Gyro, mag, values etc. that info will be in the .DAT file on the A/C. The .DAT file will probably also have the data needed to determine what went wrong with your flight. If you retrieve the .DAT file I can help you look at it. Look here to see how to retrieve the .DAT file. It'll be large so you'll have to post a Dropbox link for others to access it.
 
Can someone post some screenshots of the mod and IMU values that *should* be displayed at rest before take off?
 
Can someone post some screenshots of the mod and IMU values that *should* be displayed at rest before take off?

Gyro : 0.00
Accelerometer: 0.99-1.02
Compass: 1400-1600 (can be slightly outside that range without problems but the value will fluctuate)
 
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Not much to add, but I had done a firmware update on my Inspire. I decided to do a compass calibration in the same location as the IMU.

Later that day I checked the MOD values before take off and the Compass was WAY off (I don't remember the value). Later that day in a completely different location I realized why, there's a very large power transformer in a big green metal box @ ground level where I did the calibration. The sad truth is the transformer has been there my entire life, but thought nothing of it! Mistakes happen and checking the MOD values very likely prevented a crash.

I thought it was silly too at first but it's a good idea, it only takes 1 bad compass calibration.

Ben
 
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What were your mod values immediately prior to take off on these occasions?
Accelerometer?
Gyros?
Compass?

Where were your calibrations performed (where were you standing)?

What were your mod values (at rest) on deck after doing the calibrations?
There have been two versions of firmware released since you purchased your Inspire. Have you updated each time and are you running the most recent? (v1.8.1.00).

Are you a pilot who calibrates their compass either before each flight or each time you move location?

Did the aircraft exhibit TBE at any point during GPS flight?

Sorry - lots of questions......
I've been flying my Inspire for a year and a half with no fly away type issues whatsoever.
However, I DO do a complete compass calibration EVERY time I fly at a different location from where I was from my previous location. Never had an issue with that.
The problem I am having is one that a lot of members are experiencing and that is "weak signal and no video". I'm still able, of course, to fly the bird but flying blind.
I've tried everything under the books to resolve it. Some are saying DJI is purposely reducing the range so now I am skeptical about doing future upgrades. Next thing we know, we will only be able to fly it to a maximum height and radius of 10 feet!
 
Better to be safe than sorry though.
At what point then would it be deemed necessary to do another compass calibration?
 
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