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Major vibration

I flew mine today in very windy conditions, I would not have even bothered if I had a phantom. I noticed after a few minutes with the landing gear down that the left arm started to shake, so I raised the landing gear and no more shaking. The wind eased and I lowered the landing gear and it seemed ok. Then the wind got stronger and was buffeting the inspire and it started the shake of again. Raising the gear stopped it. I only noticed it as I was looking for it, it was there but no where near as bad as videos I've seen and these were all with the gear raised which is how it is supposed to be flown. I will try it all again on a calm day and see what happens. I felt all for legs when it was hovering above me and I had minimal vibration, which I would consider normal. All my props have been balanced as well.

I will keep an eye on it but I'm not panicking over it, I'm also going to keep an eye on the arm joint itself and if I see any black dust then adjustment will be done or it can go back to the dealer.

All in all a perfect 1st flight with the new .17 firmware.
 
Here is a link on how to balance your props:-



I personally do not sand my props, but use the balancing tape method, but each to their own.
 
I flew again yesterday in moderate winds, and the Inspire looked like it was about to disintegrate at some point. I'm exaggerating here, but the vibrations were very strong resulting in large amplitude movement at all four corners. Strong enough that I would consider ending my flight anytime this happens going forward.

I am surprised that this issue has relatively quieted down. Honestly, from my perspective, this is the #1 problem with the Inspire at this time. It makes flight less stable, could result in mechanical failures and premature wear of joints and other components. DJI cannot stand by and not fix this issue immediately. Soon, I'll have to consider voiding my warranty and fixing it myself.

Hopefully, I'm not just one of a handful seeing this and DJI releases a fix soon.
 
We're the arms up or down? Keeping flying until damage has been caused to the joints and dji will repair it as long as the warranty stickers are still on. I see a little on mine today but only when the arms are down. Perfect when they are up.
 
Worse when the arms are down, but often present with the arms up. Almost never see them in really calm winds - I mean really calm.

I understand about sending it for repair, but this is not practical. It's going to be expensive, at least for me, as I'm not in the US. I'll lose the unit for weeks as it is repaired. It doesn't make sense for a brand new quad with a dozen battery discharges - it's brand new! In the realms of automobiles, this would be called a lemon with all of what that implies as far as returning it or getting it replaced.
 
The vibrations are totally unacceptable. I have flown and built multi-rotors for the last four years commercially and have spend a lot of time finding ways of reducing vibrations - the major challenge with this technology.

Obviously the production tolerances of the T-joints holding the main arms are not very good, preventing appropriate clamping of the interior half-shells.
The information regarding this mechanism is gleaned from another forum entry.

Besides the possible effects on the images, there are serious technical implications:
Mechanical wear and tear - if it vibrates it can only get worse.
Loss of fasteners and subsequent failure of componenets
Loss of electrical connections over time
Effects on the IMU in throwing it off-balance - this may also explain some of the reported sudden crashes straight after launch.
Premature aging of the vibration dampeners holding the gimbal.

The Inspire 1 being a one-purpose-only image gathering machine at the moment should be absolutely vibration free to technically achievable extent.
This is over and above the issues with camera performance in video mode (aliasing due to over sharpness, compression artefacts)

It is an absolute disgrace that DJI are not responding adequately to the many issues with the Inspire 1, leaving a lot of customers in a situation where the risk voiding the warranty just to make their investment work for them. One could be inclined to suspect that this loss of warranty may even be intentional - although it would not be very good business in the long run.

DJI if you are following this forum, and I hope and assume you do, make it your utmost priority to publish procedures to rectify tis issue locally.
There is NO WAY I will return my machine for this to be fixed in China, as the official importer to New Zealand RC-Tech has no procedure in place to fix this. If I find I have to return the Inspire, I will return it for good within the consumers protection act timeframe and will never touch DJI again!
 
Just out of curiosity for those having a vibration problem, do you know your date of production (or at least based on the inspector sticker that accompanied the aircraft)?

I ask because it seems to me that a lot of the issues that I see people having always seem to be on early production crafts.

Just wondering...


Mark
 
Mine says 2014/12/28. I'm pretty sure I was in the first batch that came into Canada.

Mark, your question is crucial and one that I've been wanting an answer to for long. I don't recall anyone on this forum having specifically looked for this problem on their Inspire and claiming their unit does not suffer from it. Do we know if DJI even fixed this in recent production units?

The vibrations are not always easy to notice. I did not see them at all in my first handful of flights. They're more obvious in windy conditions. Their frequency is sometimes so high they are hard to spot with the naked eye.
 
Mine says 2014/12/28. I'm pretty sure I was in the first batch that came into Canada.

Mark, your question is crucial and one that I've been wanting an answer to for long. I don't recall anyone on this forum having specifically looked for this problem on their Inspire and claiming their unit does not suffer from it. Do we know if DJI even fixed this in recent production units?

The vibrations are not always easy to notice. I did not see them at all in my first handful of flights. They're more obvious in windy conditions. Their frequency is sometimes so high they are hard to spot with the naked eye.

I asked because when I read all the "issues" that the Inspire has they for the most part seem to be early production models. (In my opinion, they're all software issues and as DJI had made changes to their software the problems are getting less and less)

I was just seeing if there was any correlation between actual physical/mechanical issues and production times. I've only flown mine in heavier winds once and didn't see any vibration. Mine is also a Feb production, just wondering if they made changes to newer models.


Mark
 
Just reeived my prop balancers. The shakings are just vanished again. Let's see how long it lasts.
 
If it happens again, can you post some external videoing looking at the I1, so we can see what kind of vibes you are having? I'm curious to see what this is that's happening so I can make sure I know if it ever starts with mine...
 
Flyingclint, imagine an angled image. the front right motor/props shake 1"radius, up and down. That's it. Better say, that was it.
 
It is my understanding that it has been addressed. I discussed this when I was in LA last week. They have many of the new shims available for repairs. I believe that the concern over making this a DIY solution is that the arms are made too tight and that will cause premature failure of the worm drive. The repair is simple enough but you have to perform additional steps to make sure there is no binding. Maybe in time. I don't know and do not make those decisions. I have seen the service video and it looks like it was intended for a user solution.


Ed, I just sold my Inspire today, because it had the vibration issue. What if any do you think the long range fix / correction whatever you want to call it will be. Sending my Inspire back and waiting 5-6 weeks for a fix was simply not an option.
 
Considering the same thing here. There is *no way* I'll send it out for 5-6 weeks to DJI LA.

TahoeEd, can you please push on DJI on our behalf so that they at least authorize top-tier dealers to perform the repair? Thanks.
 
I'm on my 3rd Inspire due to this vibration problem. My latest one a 'B' model only seems to have this problem only sometimes and only with the gear is down. The previous 2 'A' models had this problem all the time but only when the gear was raised.
I've been reading that in the US the repair turn around is now 6-8 weeks. I'm thinking that this year DJI is likely to service every single Inspire at least the ones people are willing to send back.
I figure I'm unlikely to wait 6-8 weeks to get mine repaired so when it comes time I will void my warranty and do the vibration repair myself. I find it difficult to understand why DJI even puts warranty seals on the Inspire. I thought those things went out with the 80's. I think I may start a side business of selling DJI warranty stickers, that should solve the problem.
Funny thing is with my P2V+ which has no warranty stickers I never even considered that I would send it in for warranty repair. Once the first 30 day return policy was past I started modifying it and if it crashed and burned for any reason I would have thought nothing of it. If there had been no stickers on my Inspire I probably would have fixed the first one I received and thought nothing of it.
 
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