Well It Finally Happened - Crash With Video

[Kilrah]

Was that battery brought down to 75% just before, or days/weeks earlier?
We have flown numerous times with not fully charged batteries without issues, but where the first bit of the discharge was done either the same day or 1-2 earlier.

 

[DaBone]

I had flown a little a day or two before, but is not sure when I charged the battery before.
May be that it started with its (10 day) auto-discharge .. But it´s usually not so long between charges.

 

[AlexanderAF]

Was that battery brought down to 75% just before, or days/weeks earlier?
We have flown numerous times with not fully charged batteries without issues, but where the first bit of the discharge was done either the same day or 1-2 earlier.

I flew it the day before from 100% to ~60%

 

[Frank508]

Edited - Indented text below from original post is in error. The Editor has pointed out...

Page 49 of the user manual, item 1 (emphasis added) .:

Preflight Checklist

1.Remote controller, aircraft battery, and mobile device are fully charged.
2.Propellers are mounted correctly and firmly.
3.Micro-SD card has been inserted if necessary.
4.Gimbal is functioning as normal.
5.Motors can start and are functioning as normal.
6.DJI Pilot app connected to the aircraft.

So taking off with less than a full battery is not in compliance with the manual. Sorry to have contributed to any confusion.

Unless they specify in the manual that the battery % is subject to instantaneous and unexpected drop offs, I think they owe this guy and everybody else this happened to a new aircraft.​

I didn't get bit because I was trying to induce the behavior and document it. But I could see someone really getting surprised.

 

[Quadpilot]

Tahoe_Ed and Bladestrike of DJI forum Support have mentioned numerous times on this forum and RCGroups that one should always fly with a fully charged battery. This does not preclude a second flight with a partially charged battery on the same day, once the battery has been flown from a fully charged state, but to reiterate, always charge batteries to full charge prior to flight.

It's apparent that there is a flaw in the battery logic that does not fully recognize if a battery has started to self-discharge when inserted into the Inspire. If the battery shows less than a full charge when inserted into the Inspire, do yourself a favor and fully charge the battery before flight.

 

[Frank508]

Yes, you are right.

There are many instances where we as a group claim a flaw in the Inspire. I had heard about this battery thing, and thought it would be a good idea to try and get a screen recording of an actual event. (Flying within a foot of the ground. - Call me chicken.)

So Tahoe_Ed, Bladestrike, and DJI are aware of this issue. The issue is easily avoided if one knows about it. So how will this information be disseminated? DJI has all of our emails, why not an email of known and confirmed problems with solutions? It would save a lot of heartache and frustration, and might reduce the repair backlog. It would be a win for everybody.

There is probably more data in all the flight logs they have analysed that could help us operate safely.

My batteries wouldn't take the update from a few weeks ago, but it didn't permanently brick any of them. So I have held off on the latest update, and today we are hearing reports of problems with last weeks update for the batteries.

I'm not a DJI hater, I think it is an amazing product. But I am baffled by DJI's reticence to document known problems. It is costing DJI a lot of money, and someone will eventually get hurt. If an injury occurs because of a known problem that would be tragic and pointless.

I am frustrated when someone posts a crash story blaming DJI, and it is clear that they haven't read the manual and they aren't sure what happened, or even what they did, but they are sure it wasn't their fault. Certainly there are plenty of those. But ignoring documented flaws is not excused by the many probably false (or mistaken) claims against the product.

 

[Shazbot4]

dji owes you new parts free of charge. here is the problem. unless your like me that checks this site almost every day for updates there is no way you could know what the new problems are causing crashes. did dji send out a email to all owners that said "dont use a battery unless it's 100% charged"? no. does it say you can't use a partially charged battery in the instructions it came with or with the online instructions? no. at least i dont know where it says use only 100% batteries, the dam things are 200 bucks with it's own computer... why can't we use them at 60%?

RTH failed. the smart battery software failed, the dji app failed. what the heck is programmed into the inspire to descend so freaking fast on low battery warning? that was a controlled descent by the auto pilot so i would bring it up with dji that the values are bad.

idea. sometimes i get a warning the battery needs to be brought below 5% and put back up to 50% for storage when i turn the inspire on. maybe you missed that warning and it had something to do with the crash if it's come up multiple times and you have not noticed.

 

[Obsoletion]

How do you get the PiP window in the lower right of the screen with the map and data?

 

[The Editor]

Yes, you are right.

There are many instances where we as a group claim a flaw in the Inspire. I had heard about this battery thing, and thought it would be a good idea to try and get a screen recording of an actual event. (Flying within a foot of the ground. - Call me chicken.)

So Tahoe_Ed, Bladestrike, and DJI are aware of this issue. The issue is easily avoided if one knows about it. So how will this information be disseminated? DJI has all of our emails, why not an email of known and confirmed problems with solutions? It would save a lot of heartache and frustration, and might reduce the repair backlog. It would be a win for everybody.

There is probably more data in all the flight logs they have analysed that could help us operate safely.

My batteries wouldn't take the update from a few weeks ago, but it didn't permanently brick any of them. So I have held off on the latest update, and today we are hearing reports of problems with last weeks update for the batteries.

I'm not a DJI hater, I think it is an amazing product. But I am baffled by DJI's reticence to document known problems. It is costing DJI a lot of money, and someone will eventually get hurt. If an injury occurs because of a known problem that would be tragic and pointless.

I am frustrated when someone posts a crash story blaming DJI, and it is clear that they haven't read the manual and they aren't sure what happened, or even what they did, but they are sure it wasn't their fault. Certainly there are plenty of those. But ignoring documented flaws is not excused by the many probably false (or mistaken) claims against the product.

The problem is not a DJI

How do you get the PiP window in the lower right of the screen with the map and data?

This is a thread about an Inspire crash due to sudden drop in battery level - can you post these sort of questions in a new thread or a relevant thread please?

Thanks.

 

[LockMD]

I think he posted here cause of how the video looked in the original post.

 

[The Editor]

I think he posted here cause of how the video looked in the original post.

Oooops, my bad, sorry. I thought it was so off topic, it was something more off topic than something hugely off topic (that was off topic)

In answer to @Obsoletion it has been added in post. It is not a feature of the app.

 

[purezerg]

I had a weird flight a few days ago also.
full charge. flying at 85% suddenly it said voltage critical low and it dropped to 3%.
I managed to do a good landing. it was dropping height really fast. from 100m? I am guessing at the rate of 5-10m/s at the last 10m, I went full throttle vertical up. and it managed to slow down just enough for a landing that is super soft.
my screen was still showing voltage critical. and I popped up the battery app. the battery levels were 3.91, 3.91, 3.91, 3.84, 3.91, 3.91

I powered off the battery and powered on again. and all the levels were back to 3.91. I managed to continue to fly until 25%.

I still cant figure out what happened even till now.

 

[Mark Krieger]

I flew the Inspire yesterday afternoon. I decided to use a battery at 60%, shortly got a critically low voltage error, and it dropped fast. Details in the video:

I'm just had a very similar flight - battery at 61%, warning, then rapid descent. I was able to land the rig safely, but it scared the s* out of me.

Kinda unrelated - I see on your flight recorder that you have a line with distance, battery stats, alt, etc. That doesn't show up on my app for some reason. Are you using the Android or iOS version? I'm on Android and I can't seem to find where to turn that on...