Inspire 1 V2 Crashed Today, help needed

[Liam McGrath]

Sadly today my Inspire 1 V2 crashed and I'm wondering if anyone can offer some advice. I was videoing around a TV mast which I have done work on many times before. It's approximately 400ft high and I flew up to the top without any issue and flew back down, I then hovered for about 10 secs and flew back up. At the top I moved back from the tower and started an anti click wise rotation. I then lost the video feed followed by loss of gps (perhaps at the same time, I can't remember) . This was followed by a total loss of signal and the return to home warning. This never happened, it simply fell from the sky and crashed. On finding it, I removed the sd card and the video stops exactly when it stopped on my iPad. I had expected to see a video of it tumbling to the ground but no, it's almost as if the Inspire was switched off. Some facts that may or may not be relevant.The battery was charged that morning, put in the inspire and an IMU and gimbal calibration performed, the battery read 97% after this.

4 hours later on site, a compass cal was performed on site.
I then started the flight and this happened 3 mins 10 secs into the flight
There was no glitches at the end of the video, it simply stopped as if you had pressed the stop button.
I do understand there could be some interference from the mast but could that switch off the Inspire, if indeed it was switched off?
If you were videoing and the power was cut, would the video have a nice neat ending?
On returning home and powering it all up (making a dreadful noise and no image from broken camera) the battery is showing 70%

If anyone has any further questions that can shine any light on this Black Friday please just ask.

Totally gutted, beer is now required

 

[The Editor]

Sadly today my Inspire 1 V2 crashed and I'm wondering if anyone can offer some advice. I was videoing around a TV mast which I have done work on many times before. It's approximately 400ft high and I flew up to the top without any issue and flew back down, I then hovered for about 10 secs and flew back up. At the top I moved back from the tower and started an anti click wise rotation. I then lost the video feed followed by loss of gps (perhaps at the same time, I can't remember) . This was followed by a total loss of signal and the return to home warning. This never happened, it simply fell from the sky and crashed. On finding it, I removed the sd card and the video stops exactly when it stopped on my iPad. I had expected to see a video of it tumbling to the ground but no, it's almost as if the Inspire was switched off. Some facts that may or may not be relevant.The battery was charged that morning, put in the inspire and an IMU and gimbal calibration performed, the battery read 97% after this.

4 hours later on site, a compass cal was performed on site.
I then started the flight and this happened 3 mins 10 secs into the flight
There was no glitches at the end of the video, it simply stopped as if you had pressed the stop button.
I do understand there could be some interference from the mast but could that switch off the Inspire, if indeed it was switched off?
If you were videoing and the power was cut, would the video have a nice neat ending?
On returning home and powering it all up (making a dreadful noise and no image from broken camera) the battery is showing 70%

If anyone has any further questions that can shine any light on this Black Friday please just ask.

Totally gutted, beer is now required

I noticed you said you did a backwards and anticlockwise maneuver when this happened.
My best guess would be CSC.

 

[DesertWindAero]

Or, someone turned something on and an EM pulse fried it?

Did you "replay" the mission showing your stick commands?

Do you have a healthydrones.com account?

If not, you might give that a try.

 

[Liam McGrath]

Maybe I should have been clearer, when I got to the top I pulled back to get a wider view and once I had this wider view, I held it there for 6 secs then on the left joystick slowly moved it to the left, it got about 4 secs into the rotation and then bingo! I've checked this back on the sd card, in some ways I would be happy if I had caused it but there was def only one joystick getting used and slowly at that.

 

[Liam McGrath]

Or, someone turned something on and an EM pulse fried it?

Did you "replay" the mission showing your stick commands?

Do you have a healthydrones.com account?

If not, you might give that a try.

No, how do I do that?

 

[The Editor]

Maybe I should have been clearer, when I got to the top I pulled back to get a wider view and once I had this wider view, I held it there for 6 secs then on the left joystick slowly moved it to the left, it got about 4 secs into the rotation and then bingo! I've checked this back on the sd card, in some ways I would be happy if I had caused it but there was def only one joystick getting used and slowly at that.

Ah-ha, in that case NOT CSC!
OK, healthy drones may help (maybe not).
Were you directly in the Fresnel zone of any microwave dishes up there?

 

[Liam McGrath]

Ah-ha, in that case NOT CSC!
OK, healthy drones may help (maybe not).
Were you directly in the Fresnel zone of any microwave dishes up there?

I'm not sure to be honest

 

[The Editor]

I'm not sure to be honest, I don't think so as I've been to other sites and on getting a permit, if there are microwave transmitters, they insist on them being switched off but to be honest I couldn't rule it out. Could that switch it off??

25-50w of microwave energy focussed at that close range could do some very strange things. It could certainly swamp the front end of the Inspire receiver. Given that much rf power generated locally it is feasible that it could generate emf energy within the chips/processors themselves so a reboot of the flight controller couldn't be ruled out.

 

[DesertWindAero]

If you upload your flight log file in a post or private message, I have a healthydrones.com account and will analyze it for you.

 

[Liam McGrath]

If you upload your flight log file in a post or private message, I have a healthydrones.com account and will analyze it for you.

Thanks so much but I'm having trouble getting my iMac to see the sub connection. I've managed to look at it on the iPad but don't know how to get that file off to send to you. One thing for sure it wasn't me with the joysticks as only the left one activated very slightly to the left to do s slow pan.

 

[DesertWindAero]

Thanks so much but I'm having trouble getting my iMac to see the sub connection. I've managed to look at it on the iPad but don't know how to get that file off to send to you. One thing for sure it wasn't me with the joysticks as only the left one activated very slightly to the left to do s slow pan.

Click the link below...

downloading flight records

 

[lake_flyer]

Looking at the stick movements afterwards, can one determine at all, if the commands were given by the pilot or a rogue radio signal? Any radio signal that tricks or influences the flight controller will be shown as stick input, right?
Ext. radio interference can cause anything you can think off, including CSC and stopping the camera recording, and or pitch/throttle in any direction. But later it will show as stick inputs because the flight controller recognised them as stick inputs.
It looks like a sudden power loss, or as the Editor already suggested, an EM field or pulse, that forced a complete reboot of the system, in which case the camera would stop recording. If it was just a wrong stick input or an external radio signal the camera would normally have continued sending video signal all the way down to the ground.

Sorry for your loss and all the luck in getting back in the air asap!

 

[Liam McGrath]

Looking at the stick movements afterwards, can one determine at all, if the commands were given by the pilot or a rogue radio signal? Any radio signal that tricks or influences the flight controller will be shown as stick input, right?
Ext. radio interference can cause anything you can think off, including CSC and stopping the camera recording, and or pitch/throttle in any direction. But later it will show as stick inputs because the flight controller recognised them as stick inputs.
It looks like a sudden power loss, or as the Editor already suggested, an EM field or pulse, that forced a complete reboot of the system, in which case the camera would stop recording. If it was just a wrong stick input or an external radio signal the camera would normally have continued sending video signal all the way down to the ground.

Sorry for your loss and all the luck in getting back in the air asap!

Thanks Lake, I looked at the files on my iPad and the stick inputs were exactly as I remembered, with me pulling back away from the tower, then no stick input, hovering for about 6 secs, again no tick input, then a very slight stick input on the left controller to the left to commence a very slow rotation. At that point I got about 3/4 secs and the video looks as if it was just stopped, no glitches at the end. The controller/iPad showed loss of gps signal and RF signal and said RTH but it simply fell from the sky to its demise. It didn't tumble, in fact my pal though I was making one hell of a decent. Gutted!!!!

 

[Donnie Frank]

Sadly today my Inspire 1 V2 crashed and I'm wondering if anyone can offer some advice. I was videoing around a TV mast which I have done work on many times before. It's approximately 400ft high and I flew up to the top without any issue and flew back down, I then hovered for about 10 secs and flew back up. At the top I moved back from the tower and started an anti click wise rotation. I then lost the video feed followed by loss of gps (perhaps at the same time, I can't remember) . This was followed by a total loss of signal and the return to home warning. This never happened, it simply fell from the sky and crashed. On finding it, I removed the sd card and the video stops exactly when it stopped on my iPad. I had expected to see a video of it tumbling to the ground but no, it's almost as if the Inspire was switched off. Some facts that may or may not be relevant.The battery was charged that morning, put in the inspire and an IMU and gimbal calibration performed, the battery read 97% after this.

4 hours later on site, a compass cal was performed on site.
I then started the flight and this happened 3 mins 10 secs into the flight
There was no glitches at the end of the video, it simply stopped as if you had pressed the stop button.
I do understand there could be some interference from the mast but could that switch off the Inspire, if indeed it was switched off?
If you were videoing and the power was cut, would the video have a nice neat ending?
On returning home and powering it all up (making a dreadful noise and no image from broken camera) the battery is showing 70%

If anyone has any further questions that can shine any light on this Black Friday please just ask.

Totally gutted, beer is now required

If you can find out the frequency of the tower and the wattage, that would be a big help. Most cell towers are around 40 watts, which will bugger any microwave device at close range. Remember, "Return to Home" only kicks in when you lose signal. Your Inspire won't know how to handle rogue signal - which might manifest itself as arbitrary commands...like turning off the camera or shutting down the vehicle.

 

[Liam McGrath]

If you can find out the frequency of the tower and the wattage, that would be a big help. Most cell towers are around 40 watts, which will bugger any microwave device at close range. Remember, "Return to Home" only kicks in when you lose signal. Your Inspire won't know how to handle rogue signal - which might manifest itself as arbitrary commands...like turning off the camera or shutting down the vehicle.

Hi, this was actually a TV mast and the frequencies are way down the spectrum from where we are in the inspire. I personally think the mast is a red herring but who knows. The RTH was displayed on the iPad before it fell to the ground but whether the RTH had been initialised or whether it was just displayed because it had lost all communication, I don't know. One person on another forum thought that the cup or a component had been "fried" by the signal, interestingly l have now powered up the inspire and despite looking rather sad, it is working apart from the camera which it landed on! All systems check fine, gps is there and all motors start up fine!!!!!!

 

[lake_flyer]

Hi, this was actually a TV mast and the frequencies are way down the spectrum from where we are in the inspire. I personally think the mast is a red herring but who knows. The RTH was displayed on the iPad before it fell to the ground but whether the RTH had been initialised or whether it was just displayed because it had lost all communication, I don't know. One person on another forum thought that the cup or a component had been "fried" by the signal, interestingly l have now powered up the inspire and despite looking rather sad, it is working apart from the camera which it landed on! All systems check fine, gps is there and all motors start up fine!!!!!!

It could also simply be a matter of the battery not being fully inserted (until it firmly locks with a click). I have tried it and can confirm the battery makes contact before the click. I think this is a design flaw. It should not be able to start up the bird without being firmly locked.
Some other forum folks have discovered already that to their misfortune.

A fraction of a second loss of contact and the Inspire1 will reboot in the air. This will shut down the camera and the motors at once. The RTH message would obviously appear on screen as well.

 

[Donnie Frank]

If you can find out the frequency of the tower and the wattage, that would be a big help. Most cell towers are around 40 watts, which will bugger any microwave device at close range. Remember, "Return to Home" only kicks in when you lose signal. Your Inspire won't know how to handle rogue signal.

Hi, this was actually a TV mast and the frequencies are way down the spectrum from where we are in the inspire. I personally think the mast is a red herring but who knows. The RTH was displayed on the iPad before it fell to the ground but whether the RTH had been initialised or whether it was just displayed because it had lost all communication, I don't know. One person on another forum thought that the cup or a component had been "fried" by the signal, interestingly l have now powered up the inspire and despite looking rather sad, it is working apart from the camera which it landed on! All systems check fine, gps is there and all motors start up fine!!!!!!

I have friends in the RF industry. I wish I knew the exact frequency and strength of the tower. I might be able to pick their brain about it. The symptoms of the crash sound like rogue signal issues. My thoughts that *any* frequency - if strong enough - might cause problems. But I just don't know enough about RF to reach a reliable conclusion.

In other news, my business partner crashed his Inspire on set last year. He was able to send it to DJI in L.A. and get it repaired for 600 bucks, which was about 400 less than we thought it would be. If you want, I can get that information for you. But a chat session with DJI might be a quicker way to go.

Good luck!

 

[Liam McGrath]

I have friends in the RF industry. I wish I knew the exact frequency and strength of the tower. I might be able to pick their brain about it. The symptoms of the crash sound like rogue signal issues. My thoughts that *any* frequency - if strong enough - might cause problems. But I just don't know enough about RF to reach a reliable conclusion.

In other news, my business partner crashed his Inspire on set last year. He was able to send it to DJI in L.A. and get it repaired for 600 bucks, which was about 400 less than we thought it would be. If you want, I can get that information for you. But a chat session with DJI might be a quicker way to go.

Good luck!

Hi I'm in the UK so Ive sent the logs of to their European support group. The tower was supposed to be off at the time of the inspection but who knows! Thanks for your help.

 

[Liam McGrath]

If you upload your flight log file in a post or private message, I have a healthydrones.com account and will analyze it for you.

Ive emailed you the log to your main email address. Thanks again.

 

[Liam McGrath]

It could also simply be a matter of the battery not being fully inserted (until it firmly locks with a click). I have tried it and can confirm the battery makes contact before the click. I think this is a design flaw. It should not be able to start up the bird without being firmly locked.
Some other forum folks have discovered already that to their misfortune.

A fraction of a second loss of contact and the Inspire1 will reboot in the air. This will shut down the camera and the motors at once. The RTH message would obviously appear on screen as well.

I'm pretty sure I checked that as part of my take-off procedure I check the gimbal, the props and the battery fully down. Years of being a helicopter pilot tends to make you not skip any checks but of course nothings 100%