Lots of problems with our Inspire2

[AndreasOberg]

Hiya,
Of late I had several problems with our Inspire 2 X7. They make me quite nervous to use it for anything important. I am not so experienced and we do not fly that often.

Some of the problems I have had:

1. Today I started the drone at home and I got no picture. I only got a grey gradient where the image should be. I restarted many times, disconnected the camera but I could not see it. Then the Cendence controller said I needed a new firmware, I updated and now the image is back. I tested and I could actually film when this happened. I used the CrystalSky monitor. Any ideas of what this could be?

2. Two days ago I went out to test fly and i only brought 1 SSD. The SSD failed to Initialize, so I could never record on it. I suspect maybe this SSD may be broken but it has pretty much never been used.

3. On the same trip suddenly the camera would not record to any SSD or the small mini SD card either. After that when I restarted the whole screen was glitching out. I took off the camera and put it on again and the glitches where gone. I think it would refuse to record to the SD card when the camera connection is not perfect, but I am only guessing. Any ideas what this could be about?

4. We went to Falkland Islands half a year ago (last major filming we have done) and suddenly the connection begun disconnecting over and over between the drone and the Cendence controller.
I have had so much work so have not had time to look into it. I started the controller up and it could not connect to the craft and also not connect to our Wifi at home. Almost sounds like the wifi in it broke. I tried to take off the large square antenna and put on the default ones, but that did not change anything. Will do some more tests.

5. When I was in Falkland, I filmed using all our SSD cards. When I came home it only recorded on the SD card. Not sure why it did not record, but that made me paranoid. All our penguin footage now in 100mbit H.264 instead of 6k raw. I have now learned to look out for the tiny recording icon in front of the SSD and not only on the SD. Hopefully I can trust that icon.

6. Yesterday when I was test flying battery was att 44%, then suddenly it showed battery at 15% and a warning. It was only for a second and then everything was good again. What was that about? Did one of the batteries loose connection?

My plan is to fly very frequently so that I encounter as many problems as possible so that I can learn to fix them in the field. I do not want to encounter them on an island again with no internet.

Cheers,
Andreas

 

[davidjmurray]

Wow. Sounds like you get fun assignments! And wow, those problems are unfortunate. Re: #1, You didn't mention which camera. I had similar camera-to-craft connection issues with my X5S once a few years ago. Cleaned the contacts in the mounting and on the camera, and have not seen the problem since. Re: 5, I also have failed to record to SSD when intended. Needless to say this did not go over well with my customer. I determined that it was user error, and now I am VERY careful to ensure that I'm configured for SSD recording, and that I see the SSD capacity going down while recording. With those precautions followed I have always found the video frames to actually be on the SSD. No experience with the other problems. I like your plan to fly frequently. Good luck!

 

[AndreasOberg]

Hiya, we use the X7 camera. Yes, I can imagine the client not being overly happy with not having the raw material. That issue caught me off guard. A bit alien how a cinema camera can not record when the record button is pressed.

I inspected m Cendence controller and I think it is broken. The Crystalsky monitor cannot connect the the controller at all. It just says disconnected if I go to the controller settings. Also if I boot up the Cendence then the monitor does not start, so it feels as if they are not connected. I also see there is a screw missing on the the foot so maybe the foot has been physically damaged.
My other Cendence controller works fine. Anyone have any tips on how to test more or proceed?

<Wow. Sounds like you get fun assignments!
This one was a fantastic trip. We are doing a short movie about penguins so it was not a formal assignment. We brought 250kg of equipment there so was quite a challenge to fix the logistics, but very exciting to be so close to the penguins. We slept in a tent close to the colony. It was extremely windy (as in 80mph gusts!!) so we only had a few oppurtunities to fly.

Best,
Andreas

 

[Donnie Frank]

I would dump the Credence and Crystal Sky and trade them for OEM RC and an iPad. I consistently see Credence and CrystalSky as failure common denominators.

D

 

[AndreasOberg]

I see Donnie, that is interesting to know. If you have OEM RC, what would you recommend? Also can you link them as slave and master then as well?

 

[Donnie Frank]

I see Donnie, that is interesting to know. If you have OEM RC, what would you recommend? Also can you link them as slave and master then as well?

My advice stems from 2 things:

1) Profound Inspire 1 experience with OEM controllers and iPads (rock solid reliability).
2) Numerous articles in this forum with essentially the same complaint you have.

I assume you already have OEM RC's laying around somewhere. They came with the I2 when you purchased it. I also assume that you already own some kind of iDevice, probably an iPhone if not an iPad. So you can conduct this experiment with little cost other than your time, which will be well spent IMHO. At the very least, you'll be able to isolate the issue to either your Cadance, your CrystalSky or your bird. And "isolating the problem" is what troubleshooting is all about.

D

 

[Dobmatt]

My advice stems from 2 things:

1) Profound Inspire 1 experience with OEM controllers and iPads (rock solid reliability).
2) Numerous articles in this forum with essentially the same complaint you have.

I assume you already have OEM RC's laying around somewhere. They came with the I2 when you purchased it. I also assume that you already own some kind of iDevice, probably an iPhone if not an iPad. So you can conduct this experiment with little cost other than your time, which will be well spent IMHO. At the very least, you'll be able to isolate the issue to either your Cadance, your CrystalSky or your bird. And "isolating the problem" is what troubleshooting is all about.

D

1. Although Donnie's advice is sound, employing iPad and standard RC will be a step or two backward, last resort solution. Not performance wise, but after experiencing CS bright display it will be difficult for you to accept what any iDevice is offering. That said, I will suggest to investigate USB-C connection reliability first. It is fixed on top of CS mount on Cendence RC. Simply bypass this circuitry, using any USB-A to USB-C cable. C end goes into a socket at CS bottom, A end into USB socket at the back of Cendence. Second suspect for intermittent video feed and troubles in this department may be the coaxial antenna's wiring inside Cendence. It's been reported that repeated omni-directional antenna rotations may broke off the soldering. This is easy to confirm after removing 4 screws and pulling the entire board out. DJI Cendence Remote Air Module Removal and Patch Antenna Connection Info & Sneak Peek

2. Never launch with partially charged batteries! Charge fully hours before planned flight, keep at 50%-60% when not in use. Guaranteed for happy and healthy batts ...

3. Issues with not recognized/initialized SSD cards were reported. I'm not sure what else they (DJI) f....d up, but at some point they changed file extension format from FAT to exFAT, or something of this nature, making some older batches of cards incompatible with particular FW version. BTDT ...

 

[Donnie Frank]

1. Although Donnie's advice is sound, employing iPad and standard RC will be a step or two backward, last resort solution. Not performance wise, but after experiencing CS bright display it will be difficult for you to accept what any iDevice is offering.

To be clear, that advice was given for troubleshooting purposes...which is always a step forward....<;^)

That said, I agree that bypassing the on-board USB-C connection is a good first step.

D

 

[Lucawalt]

Hiya, we use the X7 camera. Yes, I can imagine the client not being overly happy with not having the raw material. That issue caught me off guard. A bit alien how a cinema camera can not record when the record button is pressed.

I inspected m Cendence controller and I think it is broken. The Crystalsky monitor cannot connect the the controller at all. It just says disconnected if I go to the controller settings. Also if I boot up the Cendence then the monitor does not start, so it feels as if they are not connected. I also see there is a screw missing on the the foot so maybe the foot has been physically damaged.
My other Cendence controller works fine. Anyone have any tips on how to test more or proceed?

<Wow. Sounds like you get fun assignments!
This one was a fantastic trip. We are doing a short movie about penguins so it was not a formal assignment. We brought 250kg of equipment there so was quite a challenge to fix the logistics, but very exciting to be so close to the penguins. We slept in a tent close to the colony. It was extremely windy (as in 80mph gusts!!) so we only had a few oppurtunities to fly.

Best,
Andreas

Hi, I am new to the forum and I just started to fly drone with a Mavic air 2. I am not sure if it could help but I had a similar issue and the problem was the connection port on the remote.It was defective and kept giving me connection problems between the remote and the screen....It might be due to cheap components used by DJI?