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Out of control Inspire

Joined
May 27, 2015
Messages
18
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Location
Colorado
So I bought a Inspire, I drove home all excited and ready to fly. I charged the batteries and read the manual. I spent five min flying it the night I bought it just to test it. Flew it low and slow..... No problems was a dream! Woke up early the next morning and went to a open field and did my pre flight checklist. I calibrated the compass and checked the gimble. I took off and flew over the water and checked the gimble again. Still everything is working like a dream. So with everything looking good I take off and see what she can do at about 30 feet. I bring it back and start to play with the camera. Still working great!

Here is where things start to get bad....

I started to climb and I noticed it was going up to fast so I let off the stick but its still going up. Next thing I know it stops at max altitude 400FT. I let off the controls to let it stabilize, after a few seconds it starts to rock back and forth. It becomes very very unstable so I pull all the way down to bring it down ASAP to check on it. It doesnt respond instead it starts flying in small circles that get larger and larger. I realize something is not right so I hit RTH. Then things get really bad. The inspire doesnt turn to come home. I press record so that I have the issue on camera. It doesnt respond at all instead it takes off flying sideways and spinning out of control. Pretty soon the whole unit is flying full speed in a massive circle. I cancel RTH and try to manually control it and get it on the ground. No luck it wont respond. Now its headed toward a park so I try to kill the unit but still nothing. At this point its spinning in circles as it flys in circles.

At this point I am in O Sh** mode. I try everything with no luck. I watch in horror as the unit is headed full speed towards a tree about a mile away. I heard the crash as I look down and my screen freezes and says signal lost.

I find the unit laying in pieces on the ground in a old mans back yard. The impact was so hard that it tore the battery out and disconnected the gimble (both of which I never found). I checked the flight app and no video was cached.

I went back to the flight log and watched it. It shows the mayhem but I noticed that it showed at least one time that landing was complete even though it was still flying. It shows the command for RTH on the screen.

Has anyone ever seen this? Does anyone know what this is?

The dealer wants to give me another unit because obviously this is a faulty unit. He says he has seen this happen once before and whats creepy he said it was almost the same exact pattern. He however didnt know what caused it.

Even though the dealer wants to replace the unit DJI is giving the dealer a hard time and wanting all the flight data pulled off the unit. So Im currently without a unit

Im hoping someone can shed light on what happened.

Ill upload a picture of the flight log when I get my phone.
 

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Last edited:
Bad calibration, not good MOD values? Spinning out of control in circles is the TBE (toilet bowl effect) as I understand it. You might have been able to switch to atti mode and recover it ???

Always check your mod values before every flight. I'm sorry for your loss :(
 
Bad calibration, not good MOD values? Spinning out of control in circles is the TBE (toilet bowl effect) as I understand it. You might have been able to switch to atti mode and recover it ???

Always check your mod values before every flight. I'm sorry for your loss :(

How would that affect flight randomly and suddenly in the middle of flight? Even if they were off I would see some deviation from its current flight even if its not what I input right? Your MOD values should affect communication between the controller and the unit right?
 
How would that affect flight randomly and suddenly in the middle of flight? Even if they were off I would see some deviation from its current flight even if its not what I input right? Your MOD values should affect communication between the controller and the unit right?

Sorry, maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in. I'm just trying to say (repeat) what I've learned. To me, if the compass was off, you would like to think you'd notice it early on.
 
Sorry, maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in. I'm just trying to say (repeat) what I've learned. To me, if the compass was off, you would like to think you'd notice it early on.

I appreciate it brother I'm just so frustrated right now because I cant figure out what went wrong for the life of me.
 
I appreciate it brother I'm just so frustrated right now because I cant figure out what went wrong for the life of me.

I hope someone chimes in for you ..... I've had my Inspire for a week now and have only tinkered/hovered in the back yard......reading manuals over and over, watching you tube videos, reading this forum.....I've flown CP Helis before, so not so new to this hobby. But flying 3K scares me, so I'm trying to get every bit of education I can before I take the plunge. Wish you the best!
 
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Hey kipp!!
Welcome to inspirepilots.com! !
Ya man.. this is the second time recently that I've heard about a i1 going nuts. .
I wish I knew what caused this but I dont..
It seems like your dealer is aware there's an issue and hopefully they will help you get another i1 or your money back..
Would you mind telling me who your dealer is??
Again I wish you had used a screen recoding device so we all could see what the instruments in your app said at the time of the malfunction and see the actual flight. .
I'm sorry you had a bad experience and I'm glad nobody was hurt from the crash..
hopefully this will get resolved quickly and you can get back behind the sticks!!
I'll keep my eyes and ears open and if I find out anything I'll let you know..
try and not let this get you down and be patient in the meantime. .
turbo. ...
 
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There have been reports of a bad compass calibration causing mid flight malfunctions. .
I hope that wasn't the issue ,but it's a possibility. .
in those cases the pilot had some sort of control though and since you didn't this makes me think it's something else..
 
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Hey kipp!!
Welcome to inspirepilots.com! !
Ya man.. this is the second time recently that I've heard about a i1 going nuts. .
I wish I knew what caused this but I dont..
It seems like your dealer is aware there's an issue and hopefully they will help you get another i1 or your money back..
Would you mind telling me who your dealer is??
Again I wish you had used a screen recoding device so we all could see what the instruments in your app said at the time of the malfunction and see the actual flight. .
I'm sorry you had a bad experience and I'm glad nobody was hurt from the crash..
hopefully this will get resolved quickly and you can get back behind the sticks!!
I'll keep my eyes and ears open and if I find out anything I'll let you know..
try and not let this get you down and be patient in the meantime. .
turbo. ...

Thanks Turbo, I bought my i1 from Multicopter in Castle Rock CO just south of Denver. Great store and very helpful staff!
 
Ya man...
please keep us posted on what you find out ..
this blows my mind and concerns me at the same time..
I don't want these types of malfunctions to cause problems for our awesome hobby or whatever it is to you..
This is a serious issue and I hope there's an easy fix for it..
No matter what happens we need to have control of our inspire1's at all times and when we don't it must rth automatically every time..
turbo...
 
Ya man...
please keep us posted on what you find out ..
this blows my mind and concerns me at the same time..
I don't want these types of malfunctions to cause problems for our awesome hobby or whatever it is to you..
This is a serious issue and I hope there's an easy fix for it..
No matter what happens we need to have control of our inspire1's at all times and when we don't it must rth automatically every time..
turbo...

That's my concern. While I'm not new to drones and UAVs I am far from seasoned. I am using the i1 for a business and this has made me question the use of UAVs and the desire to take another shot. Only time will tell.

I think drones are a great piece of tech. I worry that malfunctions like this will cause problems for the future of these devices. Additionally you would think that DJI would do everything to make customers that spend 3000+ happy after an event like this, so that the word doesn't spread that their new flagship unit has disastrous problems.

I will definitely post any new information I get from DJI on what happened. Im doing my best to stay positive.
 
Ya kipp..
unfortunately there's times in life when things happen that we don't have control of ..
What's important is how we deal with these situations and not to let it get us down. .
That being said I believe you shouldn't let this take the joy out of this awesome hobby and get back in the air and do what you do!!
Don't let fear run your life make the necessary adjustments and fly on!!
I've dealt with with dji and have had a crash or two myself I know how you feel. .
Make sure and alert me to your progress! !
Turbo. ..
 
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I have changed the title of this thread (I assume you didn't mean to call it 'Of of control Inspire'). ;)
 
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I’m truly sorry for loss, I had a similar incident.
On 26/5/2015, I calibrated my inspire 1 than made sure there was a GPS single and flew it with the first battery without any problems. Changed the battery and flew again for couple of minutes and landed it without any issues. I always place the inspire in front of me facing ahead as instructed by DJI. As soon as I took off the inspire went full speed backward as it was charging on me, I ducked so it missed me by an inch. I directed it up to avoid trees and others obstacle and the inspire had a mind of its own. It started flying away and making crazy turns, I tried to control but I had a little response. I used the RTH but no response also. I was flying it in a valley, it kept on going until it reached the other side of the valley and crashed. I had to drive more than 10 km around the valley to reach to it. I found it crashed, the battery was out and broken, the camera and gimbal broken and found 10 m away, the carbon arms and props broken. I am devastated, I have invested a lot in my inspire, I have a second remote and 3 extra batteries. I use it for my work as Aerial photographer. I have a lot of bookings ahead, this week I lost 2 events shooting. All I can say thanks God the inspire didn’t lose control when I had an event shooting with a lot of people. This could have been a disaster. Kindly help me get some answers on what happens as I don’t feel safe flying an inspire anymore and what to do so DJI reimburse me?
 
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I’m truly sorry for loss, I had a similar incident.
On 26/5/2015, I calibrated my inspire 1 than made sure there was a GPS single and flew it with the first battery without any problems. Changed the battery and flew again for couple of minutes and landed it without any issues. I always place the inspire in front of me facing ahead as instructed by DJI. As soon as I took off the inspire went full speed backward as it was charging on me, I ducked so it missed me by an inch. I directed it up to avoid trees and others obstacle and the inspire had a mind of its own. It started flying away and making crazy turns, I tried to control but I had a little response. I used the RTH but no response also. I was flying it in a valley, it kept on going until it reached the other side of the valley and crashed. I had to drive more than 10 km around the valley to reach to it. I found it crashed, the battery was out and broken, the camera and gimbal broken and found 10 m away, the carbon arms and props broken. I am devastated, I have invested a lot in my inspire, I have a second remote and 3 extra batteries. I use it for my work as Aerial photographer. I have a lot of bookings ahead, this week I lost 2 events shooting. All I can say thanks God the inspire didn’t lose control when I had an event shooting with a lot of people. This could have been a disaster. Kindly help me get some answers on what happens as I don’t feel safe flying an inspire anymore and what to do so DJI reimburse me?

Sounds like we both are in the same boat. I desperately want to trust this tech but I dont know how I can if I cant trust that they will be safe and reliable. I wonder if phantom owners have this problem or if this a glitch that can be fixed with firmware. Ill keep you updated if you keep me updated.
 
Does anyone reading this thread know of issues like this in any of the Phantoms? Its strange that everyone who has reported this issue so far seems to be having it after the battery firmware update. Im curious if its isolated to the i1 or if its an issues across all DJI models.
 
Sorry to witness your loss but I have to ask, just before your Inspire went sideways it was getting close to some wires. Not sure if hey were telephone or power lines but there are some variables that could cause things to bonkers.

What's the chances.
 
Sorry to witness your loss but I have to ask, just before your Inspire went sideways it was getting close to some wires. Not sure if hey were telephone or power lines but there are some variables that could cause things to bonkers.

What's the chances.

I believe they are telephone, all power lines in this area should be buried. To be honest though I don't know.
 

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