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Inspire 1 - Not Powering Up After Motor Replacement. Motor Bleeping

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I bought an Inspire 1 requiring a motor / ESC board replacing. The board showed evidence of electrical shorting. I removed the motor (CW - front Right as you look at the drone) and ESC board and fitted replacements.
I had to wind the landing gear to the down position to fit the gimbal and camera. SD formatted with Firmware version V01.11.01.50
Fitted a fully charged battery and switched it on. A/C bleeps once, no lights come on and the replaced motor bleeps every second or so.
Any ideas would be gratefully received.
 
The most obvious answer is "polarity." I would make sure the motor is wired correctly. There are 3 wires on a DC device, which would normally be 2 wires. So it can be confusing.

How are your soldering skills? When I purchased my original P1 as a "parts only" drone, glaringly obvious was the previous owner's complete lack of soldering skill. Essentially, he had melted the ESC so badly that it was useless. So the second thing I would check are the solder joints. You should post photos.

D
 
Appreciate your reply. No soldering was required. The motor was/is pre-soldered to the ESC. board. The board screws into its fixing site in the leg. The Positive and Ground that come off of the board push connect to the wires that come down the arm. Why the motor beeps, I don;t know? The big question is why the drone doesn't power up? I have just heard from the seller that he had stripped the drone done investigating the motor problem. He says that he possibly hasn't pushed all the connections back properly, which would make sense. A job for tomorrow and hopefully a cheaper fix than replacing the main board. Will let you know how it goes.
 
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Appreciate your reply. No soldering was required. The motor was/is pre-soldered to the ESC. board. The board screws into its fixing site in the leg. The Positive and Ground that come off of the board push connect to the wires that come down the arm. Why the motor beeps, I don;t know? The big question is why the drone doesn't power up? I have just heard from the seller that he had stripped the drone done investigating the motor problem. He says that he possibly hasn't pushed all the connections back properly, which would make sense. A job for tomorrow and hopefully a cheaper fix than replacing the main board. Will let you know how it goes.

I would also double check that you have a correct rotation motor. I know this seems like a newbie thing to check, but I don't know your technical level. So I would mount the props and make sure all caddy-corner props confirm a proper CW / CCW X-pattern.

D
 
double check that you have a correct rotation motor.
Could you not just switch two of the wires on the esc and reverse the rotation? I seem to remember doing that on home built that I used to put together. Of course on those motors all three wires were the same black color.(Tmotor)
 
Could you not just switch two of the wires on the esc and reverse the rotation? I seem to remember doing that on home built that I used to put together. Of course on those motors all three wires were the same black color.(Tmotor)
You would have to change the propeller mounting system, too.

D
 
Guys, I checked the rotation before purchasing the replacement motor and ESC board (see my earlier post, I said CW). Even if it was the wrong motor, that would not prevent the drone from powering up, which is my biggest problem at the moment. If there was power, the motor I have fitted would rotate, even if it was a CCW instead of a CW. Next step, I will open the body up and check all the connections I can access. If that doesn't find the reason, provide the solution, then I will try replacing the main board. Unless anyone knows better. Thanks for your thoughts. Martin
 
Guys, I checked the rotation before purchasing the replacement motor and ESC board (see my earlier post, I said CW). Even if it was the wrong motor, that would not prevent the drone from powering up, which is my biggest problem at the moment. If there was power, the motor I have fitted would rotate, even if it was a CCW instead of a CW. Next step, I will open the body up and check all the connections I can access. If that doesn't find the reason, provide the solution, then I will try replacing the main board. Unless anyone knows better. Thanks for your thoughts. Martin
If you don't have another ESC to try with, I'll suggest to simply disconnect the one you replaced and power up the drone to see what he will do without the ESC. If the drone do something different on power up then this will prove the problem is with the new ESC or the motor itself. If the drone do the same (not powering up), then the problem is somewhere before the ESC.
 
Guys, I checked the rotation before purchasing the replacement motor and ESC board (see my earlier post, I said CW). Even if it was the wrong motor, that would not prevent the drone from powering up, which is my biggest problem at the moment. If there was power, the motor I have fitted would rotate, even if it was a CCW instead of a CW. Next step, I will open the body up and check all the connections I can access. If that doesn't find the reason, provide the solution, then I will try replacing the main board. Unless anyone knows better. Thanks for your thoughts. Martin
If everything is assembled correctly, It’s possible the FW on your new motor and ESC doesn’t match your Drone. You might run a FW update and see if that fixes your problem.
 
I replaced the main battery board and the main NC Core Light Bridge module and everything came to life. No bleeping ESC and without props and on a table, all of the motors fired up. Happy days! Sadly no. Now I am getting an ESC ERROR message and the motors will not run. The latest FW is loaded but each time I switch on the FW tries to load, it gets so far then the download seems or tries to accelerate with getting any further. Reviewing the .bin file shows Error. I have tried a blank SD card but still get the ESC error. This appears to be a very common problem with all DJI craft and attributed to crashes, hardware problems, software problems, FW versions and DJI GO app versions. Does anyone have THE solution? I saw something on another forum about some Assistant software that would allow you to run a diagnostic on reach motor/ESC, does anyone have any insight with that? Sounds useful.
Thanks Martin
 
If memory serves...

The Assistant software allows you to test each motor by simply spinning them up individually. There are no "diagnostics" per-se. But the ability to spin up the motors individually is definitely a good troubleshooting tool.

Maybe try this:


D
 
Donnie, thanks for your time in posting the above.
The software downgrade info is useful. However in the UK we are now limited to a 400ft/120m ceiling and a 500m line of sight maintained, flight distance. So I will not be looking to emulate your flights out to 2000ft and beyond.
Do you think rolling back the Firmware way resolve the ESC errors I am getting? After replacing the battery motherboard and the NC Core Light Bridge module, all 4 motors did start and stop on demand.
I have since found that the undercarriage rise and fall is not right. The drone rises and stops to allow the camera to be added. Back the other way the and the Drone lowers but then continues to the flight position. The NC Core Light Bridge was in a box of spares and I think it is faulty and had been replaced, rather than just harvested from a drone having parts salvaged. Back to the drawing board!
 
Donnie, thanks for your time in posting the above.
You bet.



The software downgrade info is useful. However in the UK we are now limited to a 400ft/120m ceiling and a 500m line of sight maintained, flight distance. So I will not be looking to emulate your flights out to 2000ft and beyond.
Copy that. I was just illustrating that if video feed and connection is solid from 2000ft out, certainly it will be solid closer in.




Do you think rolling back the Firmware way resolve the ESC errors I am getting?
No. Very doubtful. HOWEVER, it's worth noting that in a full firmware upgrade or roll back, the ESC's ARE part of the equation. So, in my mind I'm thinking that if your ESC hasn't been flashed correctly or has inconsistent firmware, that may be the problem. If so, then it seems a firmware flash MAY solve your problem. So...

Watch my video. Fully read the description section. Follow instructions to a tee, and see if this doesn't help. It certainly can't hurt.



After replacing the battery motherboard and the NC Core Light Bridge module, all 4 motors did start and stop on demand.
I have since found that the undercarriage rise and fall is not right. The drone rises and stops to allow the camera to be added. Back the other way the and the Drone lowers but then continues to the flight position. The NC Core Light Bridge was in a box of spares and I think it is faulty and had been replaced, rather than just harvested from a drone having parts salvaged. Back to the drawing board!
In these cases of complicated issues involving many variables, I find it's best to just take video and post it. Myself and others in this group have solved many issues by watching video. Spare no detail.

D
 
I'm waiting on some parts to move the above along. While I was waiting a seller on eBay put up a crashed (the Centre Frame Worm Screw was bent) Inspire 1 body for £250 Buy it Now. I didn't and the auction expired. The seller relisted the drone as an auction with a really low start price. I watched, jumped in at the end and got the drone in a DJI Inspire case for £82. In a box of bits I had a Centre Main Frame, so I watched a YouTube video then attempted to swop out the bent one. it took me 4 times longer than the video but I had no bits left over when completed. What I didn't notice was that the lower bearing was missing. Doh! I looked to salvage parts from the bent worm screw assembly. Trying to get the shaft out of the servo end fitting proved tricky. A tap with a hammer and it all came apart, the bearings hit the kitchen worktop and exploded into their component parts. Eventually (over a couple of days), all 14 of the minute ball bearings were accounted for and I was able to rebuild the bearings. Then I found out that although the servo motor worked, the shaft was not engaged. I have a mainframe on order from AliExpress, it cost £43 (bargain I thought) but it was then subject to 20% tax and shipping. It still worked out cheaper than from UK suppliers. In my searches I found that it was possible to buy the Centre Frame Servo only at around £30. (The other three sides of the frame if you need to source one are available on eBay for £10). But although I found 3 separate adverts for this part through AliExpress, all said In Stock, but when clicked on all three came up with a "No longer available" message.
As I have 3 Phantom 3s I am trying to refurbish and two Inspire 1s, I am in need of batteries. Searching again I found a site run by YANSAUET (yansauet.com), that had the Centre Frame Servo and cheap batteries for Phantoms 1-4 and Inspire 1. The CFS was CA$35 but shipping was another CA$33. Knowing that these sites often offer Free Shipping above a certain price, I upped the order to 2 and the shipping became CA$0! So I ordered two, which gives me a spare (Look out eBay - be worth a fortune!). I also bought two "new" P3S batteries for £36.38. I know people don't have a lot of trust in non-DJI batteries but I would rather have a gamble on these, than pay the same for a bundle of 3 non-functioning batteries that are sold for resurrecting/refurbishment.
Finally, I swapped the NC Core Light Bridge out of the drone with the ESC error and put it into #2. The ESC error went with it. I have ordered a new one.
 

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