Inspire 1, my pain as it flew away

[Steve is Inspired!]

Not much to go by, DJI needs to have your Inspire 1 and check out all of the electronics. This log means nothing to me. They must have a better debugger tool at the engineering level.

Maybe they should exchange it with a new Inspire 1 and they keep yours?

Push them.

Let me say that since day one when my Inspire 1 arrived, i took it slow and did not trust this it.. I saw a bunch of control issues and I did report them to DJI HQ directly. The US support team is new and not that experience but i am sure by now they are getting up to speed on this design and the field issues.

AS of today and after all the DJI upgrades as of NOW, i am still a bit careful not to fly to far and high. Like i reported, I am seeing Great improvement thanks to DJI whit the help of people like you and the others posting issues and reporting them to DJI. It will make for a better product but are our expense i guess.

So at this time and now that the weather is good in Boston (the N.E.) i will be pushing my Inspire 1, like i did with my Phantom 2's and see if these Bird has the reliability at the $3.4K price i paid. Will see..

Keep pushing DJI and suggest to them that they send you a NEW Bird replacement.

DJI can afford this, they are making a boat load of money from us.

Keep us posted.

Best regards,
Steve

 

[Steve is Inspired!]

One question: How did you plot this graph?

 

[Consult]

I found this site:

https://www.mapsmadeeasy.com/log_viewer

 

[Steve is Inspired!]

Thank you!

 

[Milton]

Hi,

The same happened with me. Before new FW.

 

[Consult]

So, now the analysys of the crash date is said to be complete but they want to tell me the results by telephone.
I need the results in writing so i can file a claim to either the company that sold the inspire or my insurance company.

I hope they understand this....

 

[Bren]

What was the former land use of the parking area you were in? Looked kinda like an old dump. Did you calibrate the compass there? Thinking you had a skewed compass calibration. I didn't see if you noted your mod value at takeoff?

 

[Consult]

What was the former land use of the parking area you were in? Looked kinda like an old dump. Did you calibrate the compass there? Thinking you had a skewed compass calibration. I didn't see if you noted your mod value at takeoff?

It's just a plain field where a hill used to be, the rock removed and the ground flattened for future use.
The compass was calibrated before flight on site, but i did not check the mod values as there is no referencde to do so in the manual. Now i know to do this before takeoff and it would have been simple to add this piece of info to the manual.

But shouldn't a skewed compass affect the flight from the beginning, not suddenly after several minutes of flying?

 

[Bren]

It's just a plain field where a hill used to be, the rock removed and the ground flattened for future use.
The compass was calibrated before flight on site, but i did not check the mod values as there is no referencde to do so in the manual. Now i know to do this before takeoff and it would have been simple to add this piece of info to the manual.

But shouldn't a skewed compass affect the flight from the beginning, not suddenly after several minutes of flying?

Depending upon the composition of that is exposed bedrock it could have a high iron ore content or other ferric metals. Just speculating. But no, if it did have some sort of a "field" that you calibrated in once it gets away from that it could possibly go bizerk with now skewed values. I'm glad I never looked at that manual

 

[Shazbot4]

read your story and some of the replies at a glance. sounds like you experienced every bad glitch back to back.
if you ask the site editor or a few other people about the battery suddenly dropping in voltage they will tell you it's your fault and there is no way it could crash your inspire.

the truth is when the voltage skips like that it really screws the auto land sequence up and usually totals the aircraft completely. sounds like you learned the lesion, only fly at 100%. feel lucky it survived that one at all. it's not your fault the voltage dropped like that. the software has a known issue that has not been fixed and the band aid solution is only fly at 100% and land at 30%.

the second one where it flew away has been described on here a few times and one person thinks they figured it out why it happens. somehow the internal compass gets reversed when you turn on the aircraft. on the pilot app the direction compass can show complete 180 of what the aircraft is actually doing. they showed a recording of the compass being 180 degrees off and their attempts to bring it back manually only flew it further away, they tried return to home and it just kept going the wrong way till it crashed.. again the auto land feature failed. so if you get your i1 going again make sure the compass arrow on the pilot app shows the same direction the aircraft is facing. if not then don't fly it, restart it and check again. for such a small display it actually is super important.

hope this helped.

 

[turbodronepilot]

read your story and some of the replies at a glance. sounds like you experienced every bad glitch back to back.
if you ask the site editor or a few other people about the battery suddenly dropping in voltage they will tell you it's your fault and there is no way it could crash your inspire.

the truth is when the voltage skips like that it really screws the auto land sequence up and usually totals the aircraft completely. sounds like you learned the lesion, only fly at 100%. feel lucky it survived that one at all. it's not your fault the voltage dropped like that. the software has a known issue that has not been fixed and the band aid solution is only fly at 100% and land at 30%.

the second one where it flew away has been described on here a few times and one person thinks they figured it out why it happens. somehow the internal compass gets reversed when you turn on the aircraft. on the pilot app the direction compass can show complete 180 of what the aircraft is actually doing. they showed a recording of the compass being 180 degrees off and their attempts to bring it back manually only flew it further away, they tried return to home and it just kept going the wrong way till it crashed.. again the auto land feature failed. so if you get your i1 going again make sure the compass arrow on the pilot app shows the same direction the aircraft is facing. if not then don't fly it, restart it and check again. for such a small display it actually is super important.

hope this helped.

Ya man...
the pointer in the radar can get turned around in different directions depending on your compass calibration. .
It can take a few times to get it to calibrate correctly. .
This only happens on android and not ios...
I agree it's important to stand behind your i1 and make sure that your pointer in your radar faces the same direction you and your i1 are facing..
Also once you get a good compass calibration leave it alone unless you travel a great distance. ...
Check your mod values before take off..
Know when your instruments are working properly. .
Anyways use a gps tracker and a screen recoding device. .
happy flying. .
turbo. ...

 

[Consult]

Got a mail saying the bird was not "performing well during the flight" and that it was controllable, that i should have moved roll stick instead of throttle to get it back. That the aircraft followed control order( i crashed it intentionaly?) That's the conclusion of three weeks of waiting for an answer.

They offer 50% discount on repairs.


Now, i did not get an answer to what caused the issue, but If they offer discount there was clearly a malfunction of some sort. If DJI cant do any better than half of the repairs i'll go to to my dealer and have the purchase annulled according to commercial laws of Finland that state the dealer has responsibility If the product is flawed.

On the 50% of repairs, let's say i'd go with it. Gimbal and camera cost, props, and today i found a piece was broken where the arm connects to body. The gimbal cable and maby the connecting plate need to be replaced. Parts and labour might cost 600-700€, consumer price?

That means 300-350€ plus shipping for me. Real cost for DJI 200€ for parts max, 50-100€ labor. That would mean i pay the whole deal.

Will i take the deal? Nope.

Something happened that made the bird act against its programming. If i set it to GPS mode i have the right to expect it to be controlled the way the manual says to control it. If it does not and it gets damaged i have two parties to take the cost, factory and dealer. One should take responsibility of flawed product, other must take responsibility for selling a flawed product. I'm protected against costs by law either way but witch one is fair?

Well, im still willing to give DJI a chance, let's see what happens next week

 

[1n5pired]

Am I the only one that noticed that the irritatic behavior began when the bird is near the power lines? Is there not a warning both in the manual and tutorial videos to stay away from power lines?

From Inspire 1 Quick start guide
● Environmental Considerations:

The aircraft will return to the Home Point automatically in the following cases (all require a strong GPS signal).
Smart RTH: When you press the RTH button on the remote controller or in the App. Low Battery RTH: The DJI Pilot app notifies users to take action when the battery level falls to a specified threshold.

Failsafe RTH: When the remote controller signal is lost.

1. Do not fly in severe weather conditions. This includes high wind, snow, rain and smog.
2. Only fly in open areas. Tall buildings and steel structures may affect the accuracy of the onboard compass and GPS signal.
3. Avoid from obstacles, crowds, high voltage power lines, trees or bodies of water.
4. Minimize electromagnetic interference by not flying in areas with high levels of electromagnetism, including mobile

phone base stations or radio transmission towers.

 

[Frank508]

That the aircraft followed control order(

Would it be possible for you to quote their analysis more extensively?

 

[Consult]

Am I the only one that noticed that the irritatic behavior began when the bird is near the power lines? Is there not a warning both in the manual and tutorial videos to stay away from power lines?

From Inspire 1 Quick start guide
● Environmental Considerations:

The aircraft will return to the Home Point automatically in the following cases (all require a strong GPS signal).
Smart RTH: When you press the RTH button on the remote controller or in the App. Low Battery RTH: The DJI Pilot app notifies users to take action when the battery level falls to a specified threshold.

Failsafe RTH: When the remote controller signal is lost.

1. Do not fly in severe weather conditions. This includes high wind, snow, rain and smog.
2. Only fly in open areas. Tall buildings and steel structures may affect the accuracy of the onboard compass and GPS signal.
3. Avoid from obstacles, crowds, high voltage power lines, trees or bodies of water.
4. Minimize electromagnetic interference by not flying in areas with high levels of electromagnetism, including mobile

phone base stations or radio transmission towers.

Yes, High voltage Iines area to be avoided for sure. The power lines you see area only 1000 volt lines, also known as low voltage lines.<=1kV=low voltage, 1kV-36kV=medium voltage, >36kV=high voltage so it's far from high voltage . The guys that area with me area electrical engineers so it's 100% sure. As i'm making a claim for malfunction of product i have to be absolutely sure i've followed the manual to the letter of else i have no case, right?

 

[Consult]

Would it be possible for you to quote their analysis more extensively?

I don't want to do word for word as they state in the mail it's not to be copied. But i got no info what happened, only what i wrote earlier. I guess theyre unwilling to write what caused this as this would be evidence that theres something wrong with their product and i understand this from a
company view.

But i have something to take to my dealer and get my money back If needed, but that also means no more DJI for me and i'll be sure to spread the word of a possibly dangerous product being sold.

 

[Ward Paterson]

Why cant people simply switch to ATTi mode when noticing strange behaviour? If you cant fly in ATTi then you shouldn't be flying a $3.5k bird in the sky. Go back to a cheap phantom... I'm sorry, I refuse to have any sympathy for fly aways, because with the proper skill, they can be recovered so easily....

 

[turbodronepilot]

Hey Ward...
Welcome to inspirepilots.com! !
Ya man...seems simple,but I have a feeling that's inside information for most,
so they just don't know better.
If you don't spend time on the forums reading threads like this the information passes by you..
Many pilots probably only fly in gps mode so they're probably not ready to switch to atti and might not even have multiple flight mode enabled. .
So far I can't remember hearing about anyone gaining back control after switching to atti mode although it makes sense. .
hopefully post like this will help pilots be more prepared for this scenario so it's not an issue. .

turbo. ..

 

[Ward Paterson]

Hey Ward...
Welcome to inspirepilots.com! !
Ya man...seems simple,but I have a feeling that's inside information for most,
so they just don't know better.
If you don't spend time on the forums reading threads like this the information passes by you..
Many pilots probably only fly in gps mode so they're probably not ready to switch to atti and might not even have multiple flight mode enabled. .
So far I can't remember hearing about anyone gaining back control after switching to atti mode although it makes sense. .
hopefully post like this will help pilots be more prepared for this scenario so it's not an issue. .

turbo. ..

Hey Turbo,

We all know there are many things that can affect the GPS on DJI craft. Its not a new thing, and can be brought on by a number of issues. I have no doubts fly aways will continue to happen and thats where pilot experience is beneficial...

Over the last 4 years, I have had several fly aways - mostly Naza M V2 and one Wookong M flight controllers. All have been recoverable switching to ATTi (or manual).. The problem with amateur drone pilots these days is that they get it in their heads that flying GPS mode seemingly eliminates the need for advanced piloting skills. I guarantee probably 98% of pilots flying DJI equipment would have issues flying a craft like this without all the cheats enabled..

I fly mini quad racers and 3D Helis all without assists (other than gyro). Its training like this that saves $$$$ when the situation gets out of hand - especially when someone can be seriously hurt.

Food for thought, GPS mode (God Mode) is awesome, but its the devil when **** hits the fan...

 

[Consult]

Hey Turbo,

We all know there are many things that can affect the GPS on DJI craft. Its not a new thing, and can be brought on by a number of issues. I have no doubts fly aways will continue to happen and thats where pilot experience is beneficial...

Over the last 4 years, I have had several fly aways - mostly Naza M V2 and one Wookong M flight controllers. All have been recoverable switching to ATTi (or manual).. The problem with amateur drone pilots these days is that they get it in their heads that flying GPS mode seemingly eliminates the need for advanced piloting skills. I guarantee probably 98% of pilots flying DJI equipment would have issues flying a craft like this without all the cheats enabled..

I fly mini quad racers and 3D Helis all without assists (other than gyro). Its training like this that saves $$$$ when the situation gets out of hand - especially when someone can be seriously hurt.

Food for thought, GPS mode (God Mode) is awesome, but its the devil when **** hits the fan...

Well, we all did not know about these issues before. Atti is no problem, but multiple flight mode was not enabled.

If i buy a product i expect it to act the way the manual says it will, or if the manufacturer gives additional information about possible issues and how to act upon them they would have covered their asses. Would have been simple to send an automated email about this on registration.

Now, this is not a money thing, it's a safety thing. I get my money back either way. Even if there wouldn't have been any issues i would have sent a bill to my customer for the inspire and my time testing it. My job is to find solutions for any issues my clients need, unfortunately DJI is not the solutions it seems.

When problems like this appear, i know exactly how to deal with it. All that matters is official information like manuals and direct communication from manufacturer, posts about issues on forums does not hold up in courts.