RTH crash :( R.I.P Inspire Pro

[Mad_angler1]

Can you post a video of the flight log or upload the tablet log.

As for who to contact I would phone DJI support but to be clear I don't think you will get anywhere with this one TBH.

But absolutely contact them and see.

 

[Fastrack]

I should mention, that while experienced pilots can and do make mistakes, I have over 4 years experience in the industry as a pilot and flown over 100KM with my Inspire 1 pro and 11 hours flight time with this aircraft and 81 flights. There was no dialogue for me to exit RTH, nor was the aircraft responsive to further stick inputs.

Yeah you gotta love it when people make posts assuming everyone are newbies just buying this tech and flying with no experience. I bought the Inspire for the sole purpose of doing Aerial imagery commercially. I started flying in 2000 with a Nexus 30 Nitro Heli! I've had numerous blade heli's since as well as a homemade 3D printed 500mm quad based on the multi-wii, designed in Solidworks.

Even if the FAQ is correct that pressing the RTH button cancels RTH, I doubt it would have cancelled quick enough as it was mere seconds before mine struck the tree. In my situation I had 30% battery left before walking down the path and the prop wash was loud (only 10' in front of me), I did not hear the RTH warning. I'm thinking of putting an ear bud in 1 ear so I can hear the alerts.

I fail to understand why if the pilot is pulling FULL down on the throttle it doesn't respond, that is the most intuitive thing to do when RTH starts.

One additional question. Since the copter didn't finish the flight in the expected manner and I didn't click the end recording button, my last video file is being seen as unfinished and won't play. Can anyone let me know if there is a way to repair the clip or finalise it so that it can be played?

I've read if the gimbal can be powered up it'll finish writing the file but in your case the damage sounds pretty bad. If your on windows I've had good luck with "Remo Repair MOV" on my homemade quad videos which I used the Mobius. Download the Demo and see if it'll do anything.

I never contacted DJI support before but I would probably phone the US support #.
DJI Support - Inspire 1

Have you looked at your flight log? Playback on your device? On mine as soon as the Mode is changed to RTH, you can see the throttle stick go full down, but alias it doesn't respond to that. And about 1 sec later it hits the tree branch. Which btw was an OAK tree, and the props shaved the bark off like a knife.

Ben

 

[Bren]

That sucks man. I also started in 2000 w/ a nexus 30. So you *should* be able to kill RTH by pressing the button? and did I read a dialog box also appears on the screen? I run an Ipad mini.
Did you think or try to kill the motors by going bottom center w/ the sticks as a last ditch effort? Would have halved your impacts at least...

 

[Fastrack]

That sucks man. I also started in 2000 w/ a nexus 30. So you *should* be able to kill RTH by pressing the button? and did I read a dialog box also appears on the screen? I run an Ipad mini.
Did you think or try to kill the motors by going bottom center w/ the sticks as a last ditch effort? Would have halved your impacts at least...

I feel like I hi-jacked this thread! So for now let's focus on the original posters issue. RTH on critical low battery!

I was not flying via the screen, I was walking down a path of trees walking about 2.5m behind the Inspire.

Which was flying around 1m above the ground. I had my iPhone 5s at max volume but did not hear the alert.

I dono how long it takes to disengage RTH with the button, but I'm going to test it. CSC might have worked, but of course I had no idea what was going on so I held down the throttle , which I'm very surprised does not cancel RTH! It all occurred in just over a second The branch it hit is only about 3m off the ground. When RTH engaged I was about 1m off the ground.

I'm going to be putting an ear bud in 1 ear in the future so I can hear the alerts. As I fly in heavy wind as well.

All in all, the damage is $272 CAD (210 usd). It appears my x3 survived as it works on the osmo.

Ben

 

[burlbark]

Turn off Smart Return to Home when flying under canopy or indoors. It seems to only be useful when flying it out of sight and long runs.

 

[Razmo1]

Turn off Smart Return to Home when flying under canopy or indoors. It

Does anyone have any thoughts/ advice/ constructive criticism for me?

Turn off Smart Return to Home when flying under canopy or indoors. It seems to only be useful when flying it out of sight and long runs.

Hello from the laurentians in Quebec Canada. First post on Inspire pilot. I wonder why you just didn't flip the switch to attitude mode and land the craft. That is what i do all the time because i don't thrust the autopilot when near the ground when the battery is low.

 

[Haakon]

I'll just add - I experienced a similar issue yesterday using map pilot app - first battery warning at 30% so I initiated RTH (you do this in Map Pilot to be able to restart a mission) i then switched to P and flew the aircraft to my chosen landing point perhaps some 10-15 metres from the original take off point. All was going as expected and I was about to land, until it was around 12" off the ground it sounded critical battery alert "returning to home" and started to climb rapidly and wouldn't obey sticks - until I switched to ATTI and brought it back down safely. Slightly squeeky bum time, and if I had been under a tree canopy as OP was then I too would have an expensive repair bill.

 

[Canuck32]

I had this exact scenario happen to me back in Oct while depleting a battery in hover. Same exactly as I had moved from the home point location. I had the same issue of the craft immediate going into RTH with no warning time to cancel it when it hit the trigger level. I even was watching for the RTH so I could cancel it, but trigger came and craft went into the RTH. I had a large tree between me and the RTH point. Only thing I was able to do to save the craft was throttle up enough to clear top of the tree as the inspire was already transitioning towards the RTH as it was climbing.

I now make sure I keep the RTH home point set to where craft is hovering or I'm clear of obstacles if I'm doing any battery conditioning.

 

[Bren]

Cancuck- I wasn't even thinking about atti, I try to fly in atti most of the time so perhaps why I've avoided this scenario to date. Question, as she's rapidly climbing in RTH mode and you switch to atti, does it immediately sync the motors back to your current stick's throttle position?

 

[Canuck32]

That is one scenario I haven't tried, being 20 + m away from HP allowing craft to go into RTH mode due to low battery and seeing if switching to atti lets controller override RTH. My gut says that craft RTH should be able to be overrode in that setup. I was told by a DJI engineer that in my situation all I had for control of craft was what I used which was throttle up to clear the tree.

I know you can override a RTH craft from RC disconnect and from RTH button on RC once reestablishing comms. Also able to maneuver craft while on RTH but just didn't have time in my scenario above.

 

[White Airwolf]

I was filming with a regular client of mine this week. We had just finished doing a shot when the first level battery warning was shown (25%). I began to bring the Inspire back to land about 10 feet in front of me, or about 30 feet from my take off position. I had the Inspire right in front of me and I brough the landing gear down and brought the throttle down to land. When the aircraft was about 1.5 feet from the ground, it hit the second low voltage warning (15%) and attempted to return to home. The aircraft rose rapidly upwards, I looked at my iPad screen and i had no option to cancel the RTH, nor would it accept my stick inputs. The aircraft continued to rise until it clipped a tree brach with a prop and tumbled about 30 feet to the ground. The Inspure broke a leg, jammed and bent the camera and bent the frame and centre worm gear. It was very frustrating because i was 1.5 feet high with the landing gear down and throttle down, ready to land when it shot up and hit the branch.

Is this worth a repair or is it dead?

Does anyone have any thoughts/ advice/ constructive criticism for me?

Just press the Rth button on the controller for a few seconds!
That will do it.

 

[Vladimir]

Load the min SD card into the copter camera or another copter camera. Power up the machine. Let it settle. Power off. This should wrap the file.

 

[isaias]

...because i was 1.5 feet high with the landing gear down and throttle down, ready to land when it shot up and hit the branch.

Is this worth a repair or is it dead?






About question if it worth repair, I did crash once because too much wind and hit hardly a wall, and broke an arm, the endless screw inside to rise and bring the landing gear, the support base for the gimbal and some of the legs... all of these it is reparable and actually easy to repair, I even did a carbon fiber repair on the arm and everything is now working perfect.

But the only thing I could not repair was the Zenmuse X5 gimbal broken in one of the axis So I had to change the whole gimbal and camera...
Hope this helps...
Cheers

 

[Bryan Conover]

With 10 and 30 % RTH warnings set I had a 15 cycle TB48 battery go critical warning at 20% when landing. I was 3 feet from touching down and it dropped like a rock with no response from adding throttle. Luckily there was enough thrust to prevent a hard drop. Deep cycled the battery and it added 200mah. Yet to test.

 

[Joe R]

OK, moving slightly from your home point should not have any adverse effect since if you are within 20m of your home point RTH will not (or shouldn't) trigger a increase in altitude and return to home flight but simply land within that 20m radius at the point RTH is triggered.
What I find more intriguing is that critical battery level should not invoke a return to home condition but simply cause the aircraft to slowly decend and land (although you can keep the aircraft airborne by pushing up on the throttle).
The very fact that the battery has reached critical means it has insufficient power remaining to make a return to home flight (that's for the first level) and so will make a landing where it is.

I have to agree with the Editor on this.
On more than one occasion (Just when I need to calibrate my batteries by cycling them to the cut-off point, then fully charging them), I run my I1 all the way to the critical level every 8 to 10 flights.
I fly it to drain the majority of the juice, then use the fight simulator to finish it off which is basically what the manual says to do. I always cycle the batteries after every firmware update too just to be sure they are calibrated.
As matter of personal preference, I set my first level battery warning at 35%, then the critical at 10% which is the lowest it will go but I never fly BLOS and rarely over 600'. I usually disable the Smart RTH just because I never fly that far. I also set the geo fence at no more than 900 feet.(depending on the location, sometimes it's much less but never more than that). I figure that 35% battery is way more than enough to fly 600' and I always come back to land very soon after it hits the first level warning. I use 10% as the critical level because I'd rather it not trigger a landing till the last possible minute.

Everytime I reach the critical battery level, it just begins the landing sequence (landing gear already lowered) and have never had it trigger RTH at that point. I always do this with the I1 about 1 foot above the ground. Never had a problem with doing it that way. I only take it to the critical level when I want to cycle and calibrate the batteries as per the user's manual.

Just last week I was filming a creek with several rocks in it that created some really nice rapids (great for stock footage). The path was right beside of the creek so I walked with the I1 up the creek while filming and was at least 100 meters from where I started and from where the Home Point was recorded. I did periodically reset the home point along the way as well as reset it on a takeoff since I had to install a fresh battery about half way, that should have kept it within the 20 meter distance to keep it from triggering RTH and raising it to the RTH altitude.
Both times when the battery reached about 20%, I brought the I1 over to the path, hovered it till it reached critical level, then it triggered auto land and landed right where it was at. I was still able to raise the throttle to slow the descent and land very softly. At other times I've tried flying with the Smart RTH off and it still accepts my stick inputs for obstacle avoidance. I wish I could set the RTH altitude less than 20 meters because those trees over the creek were no more than 15 ft. above the creek. I can't find anyway to disable RTH. Even the minimum flight altitude is 20 meters and can't be turned off (as far as I know).

Oh, ever since I started out with a 700 class electric, single rotor heli with FPV for filming, I've used an earbud to listen to the alarms and the copter. Back then the earbud was plugged into an SD monitor (10 inch Portable TV with an A/V input) instead of an iPad (one thing I miss on the I1 is the audio so I can hear the motors). I use a regular set of earbuds but use just one of them in my left ear. I like it.

Just wondering if you downloaded the txt files after your last FW upgrade to make sure the FW upgrade was successful or not? I'm sure you did but it was worth asking.

If you have the flight record still in your flight records list, maybe you could send that to DJI. You would need to send them the txt file as confirmation that the FW upgrades were successful as well. (I always keep a copy of the results of my FW upgrade txt files just in case).

If the FW upgrades were successful and you still have the flight record, DJI should replace the AC and camera if they determine that it was a defect in the equipment

I haven't had any problems with mine yet (knock on wood). I did notice after 102 flights that the cooling fan for the electronics was making some noise and suddenly rotated slower than it should so I replaced the fan but other than that, it's all been good.

The FW in mine is:
App - V2.8.0
AC - 1.8.01
RC - 1.6.0
Camera - 1.8.01

I wish you the best of luck in resolving this.
Sorry to hear you had that problem!

Regards,

Joe

 

[thecampilot]

I was filming with a regular client of mine this week. We had just finished doing a shot when the first level battery warning was shown (25%). I began to bring the Inspire back to land about 10 feet in front of me, or about 30 feet from my take off position. I had the Inspire right in front of me and I brough the landing gear down and brought the throttle down to land. When the aircraft was about 1.5 feet from the ground, it hit the second low voltage warning (15%) and attempted to return to home. The aircraft rose rapidly upwards, I looked at my iPad screen and i had no option to cancel the RTH, nor would it accept my stick inputs. The aircraft continued to rise until it clipped a tree brach with a prop and tumbled about 30 feet to the ground. The Inspure broke a leg, jammed and bent the camera and bent the frame and centre worm gear. It was very frustrating because i was 1.5 feet high with the landing gear down and throttle down, ready to land when it shot up and hit the branch.

Is this worth a repair or is it dead?

Does anyone have any thoughts/ advice/ constructive criticism for me?

Is it worth a repair?

I had similar damage as a result of my own lack of concentration & the repair bill came to about £480.00 for the Inspire & £300.00 for a replacement gimbal & camera. There are some X3s available on Ebay as folks upgrade to the X5. I certainly would ask DJI to look at the files to establish the cause of the incident.

 

[Joe R]

It's hard to say if it's worth repairing but it couldn't hurt to send it in to get an estimate.
At least you'd know.

I would imagine that it is worth the repair cost considering the cost of a new one.

And it would be good as new when you get it back.

I can only speak for myself here but I would send it in just to see.

Most repairs can be done yourself but if it has anything to do with the electronics, you can't buy the parts.

I wanted to order a new ribbon cable for my remote but they wouldn't sell one to me. They said I'd have to send it in for that.
Since I didn't have time for that and considering my background in electronics, I was able to use a boom type microscope made for electronics, trace which contact was bad and added a jumper wire for that broken contact.
Now it works good as new.
Point being that they will sell things like cooling fans, arms, ESCs, motors, or anything that's not directly related to the electronics portion.

Hope this helps!!

Good luck!!

Joe

 

[Mr Phantom]

IrishHeights, thanks for the reply. I have all firmwares up to date, 1.8 I believe and DJI Go updated to current version. There was simply no dialogue for me to press - usually a box of text is displayed with two buttons under it, one of which is "cancel" but I had nothing on my screen at all. The app was still showing the camera view and the other various DJI UI but there was 100% no button presented to me.

You don't need a dialogue or a button on the GO app. You can cancel the RTH mode by pushing the right hand button on the remote control, the same which you control your landing gears with.

 

[gregdd]

One additional question. Since the copter didn't finish the flight in the expected manner and I didn't click the end recording button, my last video file is being seen as unfinished and won't play. Can anyone let me know if there is a way to repair the clip or finalise it so that it can be played?

Search these forums. this has been a common issue since day 1