Hey All,
Just picked up an Inspiration V2 Pro that had a Collison with a tree and the tree won. Mostly, by all accounts, the damage so far all appears repairable.
Picking it up second-hand, and of course understanding that there is no warranty, I was eager to get to the heart of the problem which all road seem to lead to one structural component. That's right, part WM610, my new nickname for this craft. I have to comment on how impressed I am with the design and engineering of this drone. I have a new Magic Air, and had a Spark before that, but my budget won't allow for an Inspiration 2...so when I had the chance ( for a much reduced price ) had jumped on it and now here I am. It really is quite a piece of equipment and the tear down was really an education.
I did come to a couple conclusions though, as I sat and thought about the Inspire 2 and all the changes that they made. After studying the broken part....as well as the new "used off eBay" part (WM610 )...it occurred to me exactly what, where and why this part failed. On the one still in the drone...and the new old one that was experiencing the same thing just not as bad ...yet.
For the past 38 years, my full time career has been a Goldsmith/Platinumsmith/ Diamond setter... doing primarily one-off custom pieces, and having the pleasure to design and create more pieces than I can remember...with a few very large and expensive gem stones. To the tube of well over $100,000 per gem on a few select pieces. In doing this line of work, I ended up becoming a pretty decent caster and my platinum pieces were coming out consistently without a hiccup. Plantinum...more than say gold or silver can be tricky at best.
The point being...I can read metal and read castings at a glance ( I use to working at 10x mag +...so as I am...I got my loupe out and inspecting. Sure enough...I found the issue. The A-Arms on the worm Acme screw yolk...pretty clearly look CBC. If not, then they were printed and then cast...but I don't think so. I think the tool lines visible are from a mill, which I also used CAD/CAM at work later in the past 15 years to do all my 3D design work on and then send that stl to the mill which we had on house.
The problem seems to be the yoke itself. The A arms are too long, and act as can openers...per say. And t he castings! Yikes! As I have come to find in all my years...that designs that transition from thick to thin very quickly as the arms of the yoke transition to the ring in the center, that screws into the Delron bushing ( or whatever it's made of )that supports and rides up and down, to lower and raise the struts out of Landing position into flying position. There must be a terrific amount of force placed on that bushing and the tool itself, for the A arms, who actually deform and distort the threaded ring in the cast Aluminum?? alloy...to the point, that the A-Arms and arms of the yolk...act like two can openers...and push in...and pull out at the same time. This acts like a pair if vise grips by pinching in on the Delron bushing, until it reaches it's failure point. On the one still in the drone...it separated the piece in halves. On the second one, it chipped fragment off the flange which was initially what caught my eye. I'm so trained to spot "chips" in gen stones while setting them, that my eye immediately spotted what looked identical to a stone that's been chipped and how it chips. It's from the same cause...too much compressive force coming from opposing directions. The entire weight of the craft, is translated to that one tiny point...whether under G Force, or impact...it All goes right there... working from the outside to the inside...and right to that Center pivot point.
Unfortunely...just one man's opinion...that's a lot of G's and Kinetic force bearing down on s plastic part. But that would not have happened if the casting wasn't so porous which of course is worst...right where it translations. Billit CNC Aluminum alloy for machining, would not have deformed like that in my opinion. I noticed, FYI changed that on the Inside 2. They shortened the A arms and moved the pivot point. This changed the geometry..and gives a better mechanical advantage with less force needed to basically do the same thing. That knuckle, is an engineering marvel, get me wrong...but best laid plans. In the real world... when the customer walks out the door, no one can ever predict the destructive force that the general public can unleash on a product...in ways the designers or engineers would never dream of. One woman who bought a ring from the store I worked for that same night, went to an NBA basketball playoff game. She was wearing another big ring on her other hand, and was screaming and clapping all night. When the game was over she look down at her hand and both of her rings were destroyed! The same day she bought it and it wasn't cheap I can tell you that much. LOL
Anyway .. maybe just a heads up for anyone with an Inspire 1 to do a close inspection of your yoke and that delron peace I'm talking about. You'll have to loosen t he dust boot...and slide it up to expose the top of the yolk which the flange of the same but rests on top of. The fact that they made the top to fit the dust boot, ( by narrowing it ) the fact that the rest of it is threaded and goes inside the yolk means that it's in there as well right at the point where it needs to be thicker...but if course. I'm thinking on a couple if improvements to this arrangement, and let you know what I come up with. There's room enough still...to drill another hole in the yolk...to change the geometry of the A arms...in an attempt to do what DJI ultimately ended up doing with the Inspire 2.
There's another issue with the set pins coming off the support cover for one of the curcuit boards... but I'll save that for another post...after I 'be already fixed it and made sure it's repaired. I let y'all know what I come up with.
J
Just picked up an Inspiration V2 Pro that had a Collison with a tree and the tree won. Mostly, by all accounts, the damage so far all appears repairable.
Picking it up second-hand, and of course understanding that there is no warranty, I was eager to get to the heart of the problem which all road seem to lead to one structural component. That's right, part WM610, my new nickname for this craft. I have to comment on how impressed I am with the design and engineering of this drone. I have a new Magic Air, and had a Spark before that, but my budget won't allow for an Inspiration 2...so when I had the chance ( for a much reduced price ) had jumped on it and now here I am. It really is quite a piece of equipment and the tear down was really an education.
I did come to a couple conclusions though, as I sat and thought about the Inspire 2 and all the changes that they made. After studying the broken part....as well as the new "used off eBay" part (WM610 )...it occurred to me exactly what, where and why this part failed. On the one still in the drone...and the new old one that was experiencing the same thing just not as bad ...yet.
For the past 38 years, my full time career has been a Goldsmith/Platinumsmith/ Diamond setter... doing primarily one-off custom pieces, and having the pleasure to design and create more pieces than I can remember...with a few very large and expensive gem stones. To the tube of well over $100,000 per gem on a few select pieces. In doing this line of work, I ended up becoming a pretty decent caster and my platinum pieces were coming out consistently without a hiccup. Plantinum...more than say gold or silver can be tricky at best.
The point being...I can read metal and read castings at a glance ( I use to working at 10x mag +...so as I am...I got my loupe out and inspecting. Sure enough...I found the issue. The A-Arms on the worm Acme screw yolk...pretty clearly look CBC. If not, then they were printed and then cast...but I don't think so. I think the tool lines visible are from a mill, which I also used CAD/CAM at work later in the past 15 years to do all my 3D design work on and then send that stl to the mill which we had on house.
The problem seems to be the yoke itself. The A arms are too long, and act as can openers...per say. And t he castings! Yikes! As I have come to find in all my years...that designs that transition from thick to thin very quickly as the arms of the yoke transition to the ring in the center, that screws into the Delron bushing ( or whatever it's made of )that supports and rides up and down, to lower and raise the struts out of Landing position into flying position. There must be a terrific amount of force placed on that bushing and the tool itself, for the A arms, who actually deform and distort the threaded ring in the cast Aluminum?? alloy...to the point, that the A-Arms and arms of the yolk...act like two can openers...and push in...and pull out at the same time. This acts like a pair if vise grips by pinching in on the Delron bushing, until it reaches it's failure point. On the one still in the drone...it separated the piece in halves. On the second one, it chipped fragment off the flange which was initially what caught my eye. I'm so trained to spot "chips" in gen stones while setting them, that my eye immediately spotted what looked identical to a stone that's been chipped and how it chips. It's from the same cause...too much compressive force coming from opposing directions. The entire weight of the craft, is translated to that one tiny point...whether under G Force, or impact...it All goes right there... working from the outside to the inside...and right to that Center pivot point.
Unfortunely...just one man's opinion...that's a lot of G's and Kinetic force bearing down on s plastic part. But that would not have happened if the casting wasn't so porous which of course is worst...right where it translations. Billit CNC Aluminum alloy for machining, would not have deformed like that in my opinion. I noticed, FYI changed that on the Inside 2. They shortened the A arms and moved the pivot point. This changed the geometry..and gives a better mechanical advantage with less force needed to basically do the same thing. That knuckle, is an engineering marvel, get me wrong...but best laid plans. In the real world... when the customer walks out the door, no one can ever predict the destructive force that the general public can unleash on a product...in ways the designers or engineers would never dream of. One woman who bought a ring from the store I worked for that same night, went to an NBA basketball playoff game. She was wearing another big ring on her other hand, and was screaming and clapping all night. When the game was over she look down at her hand and both of her rings were destroyed! The same day she bought it and it wasn't cheap I can tell you that much. LOL
Anyway .. maybe just a heads up for anyone with an Inspire 1 to do a close inspection of your yoke and that delron peace I'm talking about. You'll have to loosen t he dust boot...and slide it up to expose the top of the yolk which the flange of the same but rests on top of. The fact that they made the top to fit the dust boot, ( by narrowing it ) the fact that the rest of it is threaded and goes inside the yolk means that it's in there as well right at the point where it needs to be thicker...but if course. I'm thinking on a couple if improvements to this arrangement, and let you know what I come up with. There's room enough still...to drill another hole in the yolk...to change the geometry of the A arms...in an attempt to do what DJI ultimately ended up doing with the Inspire 2.
There's another issue with the set pins coming off the support cover for one of the curcuit boards... but I'll save that for another post...after I 'be already fixed it and made sure it's repaired. I let y'all know what I come up with.
J
