Inspire 2 Battery Button Stuck

[Quadpilot]

I took a saw and some pry bars to the battery compartment to see what causes the battery button release to fail.

I discovered much of that thing is secured with the aluminum backing plate that holds the circuit board ahead of the compartment, as well as a lot of snaps and maybe glue as well. Some of the internal parts are secured by melted plastic rivets like the slide covers. It will not come apart for service.

The part that fails is a small spring post that breaks off from the side cover and then gets pushed into the sleeve the release button slide drops down into. The slide is also part of the triangular lock on the outside of the case. Once that post snaps off, the button goes down and it sticks there. I could pull it up with a hook, but the post itself is damaged. I could see mine stuck in one of the two slots in the slide cover that is hot riveted to the case.

The rectangular piece that pushes the battery out of the holder at the front of the case has two springs attached to it. Both posts on mine snapped off as well so the black rectagular pieve was free to move. It might work with one spring and you could pull it out too, but if the pushbutton slide post breaks off, you're sunk.

So three parts gave up on mine: Two of the eject spring posts, and the pushbutton sping's lift post that causes the center button you push on the outside of the drone to stay down.

Chalk it up to flimsy plastic.

Casey-

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This happened to me also. I sent it in, as the previous posts have demonstrated that it's insanely difficult to effect the repair yourself. I think it's among the worst design flaws of the I2, because it's so easily fixable and so insanely inaccessible. Hope they re-design this for the Inspire 3

 

[Casey53]

This happened to me also. I sent it in, as the previous posts have demonstrated that it's insanely difficult to effect the repair yourself. I think it's among the worst design flaws of the I2, because it's so easily fixable and so insanely inaccessible. Hope they re-design this for the Inspire 3

Was yours under warranty? If not, what did they charge you to fix it? I'm curious as to how many hours they get for the job.

I may order another Part 17 to keep on hand as I see this as a problem part with an imminent failure at some point. With DJI discontinuing the X4S camera already, any parts for it may disappear soon too. When the Inspire 3 appears, no telling what they may run out of and no longer sell for repairing the thing.

Seeing how an installed battery keeps tension on the two battery ejector springs and their plastic posts both, it might not be wise to leave a battery installed unless flying. The area is well sealed so the plastic bits that break off won't go anywhere to damage anything and one could still use that side and manually slide the battery in and out if the latch part still works. That latch parts is the messy part of the design as the plastic post is under a lot of tension, and once snapped off that's pretty much it. They should have used a lift spring in a well from underneath the entire slide to the bottom of the case instead of midway on a tiny post. Bad engineering for any life expectancy.

Looking back, it wasn't a really bad job if I didn't snap a screw off. I'd guess I could do it in an hour or two now knowing how the thing comes apart and having the right tools at hand. I spent a lot of time taking notes and photos since I was away for it while waiting parts and sundry stuff. Takes up a lot of working space too. Second time doing it should be a piece of cake.

 

[Quadpilot]

Was yours under warranty? If not, what did they charge you to fix it? I'm curious as to how many hours they get for the job.

I may order another Part 17 to keep on hand as I see this as a problem part with an imminent failure at some point. With DJI discontinuing the X4S camera already, any parts for it may disappear soon too. When the Inspire 3 appears, no telling what they may run out of and no longer sell for repairing the thing.

Seeing how an installed battery keeps tension on the two battery ejector springs and their plastic posts both, it might not be wise to leave a battery installed unless flying. The area is well sealed so the plastic bits that break off won't go anywhere to damage anything and one could still use that side and manually slide the battery in and out if the latch part still works. That latch parts is the messy part of the design as the plastic post is under a lot of tension, and once snapped off that's pretty much it. They should have used a lift spring in a well from underneath the entire slide to the bottom of the case instead of midway on a tiny post. Bad engineering for any life expectancy.

Looking back, it wasn't a really bad job if I didn't snap a screw off. I'd guess I could do it in an hour or two now knowing how the thing comes apart and having the right tools at hand. I spent a lot of time taking notes and photos since I was away for it while waiting parts and sundry stuff. Takes up a lot of working space too. Second time doing it should be a piece of cake.

Yes, they replaced the craft under warranty. Funny thing, the craft with the broken latch was a replacement craft to begin with, which was a replacement of the initial craft that had mis-aligned motors, which I purchased to replace a crashed I2 that was lost and could not be found, so no CareRefresh.

The whole process took up several weeks/months? and lots of emailing back-and-forth. Sheesh!)

I understand about your worry on whether it's a good idea to keep batteries snapped in due to putting spring tension on the battery injector springs, but I'd rather worry about that issue than whether the latch continues to work if no battery is inserted. When my I2 is at home, I leave the batteries out, but when I'm traveling or on the road I keep a set of batteries clicked in to prevent any issues with the latch being mucked with.

 

[Casey53]

Thanks for the update.

I think I'll wait a bit to order a second part 17 battery compartment hoping DJI remedies the fragile pieces and weak design within it. Given it's DJI and them being super-slow, it might take a year or two before they fix the issue - if they ever do - and any current weak parts might still be out there. I expect the newly installed one will break in around a year since some reported breakages were under warranty and some were not. I think DJI's repair warranty is only good for 30 or 90 days.

I read where someone paid $360 to DJI to fix it. So their labor is about $130/hr. which is what I thought (i.e. Part is $100, and two hours shop time is $260.). I might stock up the landing servo too since it seems another weak link in this Edsel. I've never been enamored with DJI's repair tactic of possibly getting a grungy refurbished drone back with someone elses problem to find (I bought refurb camera gear to find out later why it was returned, as in "They all do that: Some better. Some worse!" e.g. Nikon's overheating and auto-shutdown SB-900 flash.).

Good idea on leaving the batteries out until going out to fly. Might save the flimsy plastic ejector spring posts, and maybe the plastic latch spring's lift post knowing the batteries are clamped if the buttons are up.

Anyhoo, happy flights!