Alot of the time, folks that are happy and getting the results they wanted, do not post much on these Forums. Sometimes it is difficult to seperate the fly specks from the pepper.
In reality ...
How many of the Inspire 1 folks have been affected, to experience a simple fly away or for whatever reason fall from the sky or otherwise self destruct?
If on a limited budget, to get the Pro version with an X5 (or similar) fixed can get pricey.
Thoughts?
It's almost ironic that you bring this up. After about 6 years of very successful flights with my trusty Inspire 1, she finally fell from the sky mercilessly to the concrete below, destroying the X3 camera, the Inspire 1, v2 and even the MicroSD card. I was going to post about it but just haven't gotten around to it. But since you're askin'....
A few months ago I acquired a new construction progress job from an existing client. I use the now-defunct Autopilot program to not only steer the drone via waypoints, but it also controls the camera. As I stated earlier, I have been using this rig with much success for many years.
The way Autopilot works is I naturally build the mission on my iPad, taking best guesses at waypoints and camera angles. I then physically fly the mission on location to refine the waypoints and camera composition. Because the client had acquired this property years ago, they had actually asked me to build a mission a couple years ago. I charge a fee for building missions. So if the client bails, I still get paid for my time. So back then I built the mission and did the on-site R&D and then put the mission "in the can" where it sat for almost 2 years.
2 years later I get an email that they're ready to move forward with regular flights. Unfortunately, the scope of the job had changed slightly. So it was kind of back to the drawing board to modify the original mission to accommodate the larger area. This is a "change order" that I also charge for.
It's important to know that while building the missions and correcting camera angles, my focus gets pulled away from the telemetry data. Because I had flown this area a couple years earlier, I took for granted that I would be able to fly again without trouble. This was mistake #1.
I had done some of the R&D on Sunday, but didn't quite finish. So I came back on Monday to finish building the mission. Upon takeoff, about 40' out I completely lost all telemetry. Hmmmm....that's odd. I chalked this up some kind of freak anomaly. I simply brought the bird back and rebooted everything. This was mistake #2.
After rebooting, I started to take off and the drone took an immediate hard right toward a cinderblock wall. I countered with a hard left with the joystick, which brought the drone back to a stable hover. Ignoring this anomaly was mistake #3.
I continued flying the drone to the first waypoint and then uploaded the mission. The drone started the mission as normal. I put on the goggles to check composition, making adjustments as the drone continued along its flight path. The drone got to a certain point and stopped about 9/10ths through the mission. I didn't care about the rest of the mission so I was good. The image in the goggles was locked on the parking lot. I decided that I wanted to see how tall the building behind me was, so I yawed the drone around to the right. But the imagine in my goggles didn't change. I removed the goggles to check on the drone and she was no longer there, which was about 150' AGL and about 200' out. Relatively close by any standard. Was she in RTH mode? I scanned the sky, but with several trees around me, it was possible that the drone was obstructed. So I listened. I could hear nothing. I checked the remote. The drone was no longer connected. I checked the goggles and there was that same parking lot image. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the goggles CACHED the last known working image. ARGH!!!!!!!!!! Lesson learned. Do NOT trust the image in the goggles!!!
After a while it was clear that the drone was nowhere to be found. So I walked to its last known location and sure enough, there she lay on the sidewalk in pieces. Oddly enough, forensics showed that she had crashed in the street, but someone had moved her to the sidewalk. I went to the street location and was lucky to find the ejected MicroSD card. The card was physically cracked in half. The card was toast.
Fortunately, I had a spare Inspire 1, v2 at home set up with exactly the same firmware. So I am now flying my spare drone.
Upon return to the job site I decided to start from scratch by examining the WiFi (microwave) environment. I have the 32 channel hack on my software, so finding an open channel is usually pretty easy. I was shocked to find that every single channel had interference. There were varying levels of interference. Channel 12 was clear 95% of the time, so that is the channel I selected. The channel I had been using before - channel 4 - was completely polluted with interference. I decided to do a visual survey of the area. It was then that I noticed a brand new antenna array on one of the buildings:
I can only speculate that this array was the cause of most of the interference. These look like 2.4Ghz planar antennas to me. I had worked with them a long time ago during another career.
X marks the spot where I lost control of the drone:
So now what? Do I risk flying my drone again? I decided that I didn't want to lose the client, and with more diligence, I believed I COULD fly this site safely.
First step was to identify the clearest channel, which was #12.
Second step was to utilize the power of my signal boosters (passive parabolic reflectors that focus signal into a narrower area).
Third step was to modify the mission so that the drone now flew over and behind the offending antennas.
Fourth step was to pay very close attention to signal strength during the mission.
With these 4 systems in place, I HAVE been able to successfully fly this jobsite. I believe I have flown it successfully 4 times as of this writing.
My old drone sits in a pile in a box in my drone room. I haven't yet connected to the USB port. The drone DOES power up, but I'm not sure if I can grab flight logs off the Inspire 1. If I recall, the Inspire 1 does NOT store flight logs. But as of this writing, I haven't even tried. It's on my list of things to do.
So there's the answer to your question. After 6+ years of flying that drone nearly every week, she finally gave up the ghost.
Worth noting; I also suspect that the drone may have simply had its own failure. I have lost signal to this drone before and she always either RTH's or hovers in place. The fact that she crashed tells me that there may have been an onboard failure. But the fact that she failed in a WiFi saturated environment raises a flag. But the fact that I have successfully flown this area a half dozen times with my other drone makes me second guess my original assessment. I guess I should try and pull flight logs...assuming they even exist.
Another note: The battery suffered very little damage and still works. The battery was still firmly in the drone and powered up when I got there. So I have ruled out "battery failure."
D