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Well It Finally Happened - Crash With Video

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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:

 
Sorry about your accident, man wish I could fly from my backyard!! I'm jealous of that.

So I guess if you HAVE to fly on a 60% battery, the answer would be to keep it close and keep an eye on battery level. Once I was tinkering in backyard takeoff, mess around, land, takeoff, etc.....luckily it was dusk and I noticed the light on tail was blinking red, I landed so quickly the gear almost didn't get down in time and almost touched the gimble/camera LOL

Hey???? Wasn't the RTH supposed to kick in?
 
Sorry for your loss? I notice the power lines? Do you think they might have something to do with the hard landing? I too had a critical power failure while flying 9 feet over a raging river and never recovered. Life is good! good luck!
 
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:

Never, ever EVER fly with anything other than a fully charged battery. Of all the sudden drop in capacity battery scenarios I have heard of it has been because the user started the flight with less than a fully charged battery (usually less than 75%).
It seems the 'smart' battery technology is not so smart at calculating remaining capacity if it doesn't start at full charge. Once the pack is under load and the firmware has had an importunity to 'think' about things it seems it 'thinks' " Oh crap - my estimation is way out lets drop to 7%"

I know it is being clever after the event and you would think it shouldn't happen but.......for future reference, only ever fly with a full battery.
 
I agree with Editor. This happen to me once, my battery was at 45% and after took off in a park (2min flight) it drop to 8% and auto land. it skip RTH. Man, i was pissed in my pant. Lucky i got her down in 1 piece, alot of trees there.
I notice if your battery was NOT FULL charge, and you did took out from your AC, and put it back. Battery will be out of wack or sudden drop happen. I did this test myself

LG G3
 
I've flown within proximity of the power lines many times without issues (don't worry, I'm very aware of where they are). All those times though, I started the flight with a full battery charge. I have the latest critical battery update, so I guess even that doesn't protect against this critical voltage error. I looked through the manual before and never saw anything recommending not to take off with a partially charged battery (although not the wisest). Think this is something that could possibly be covered under warranty?

I'd rather have DJI perform the repairs. I can afford them if needed, and I'm not sure what I'm going to be presented with if I open it up.
 
But isn't RTH supposed to happen before that then?
If the battery gradually discharges as expected yes. But here the battery detected a sudden unexpected low voltage condition, at which point it can not know anymore how much energy is really left and whether it's able to come back or not. Land NOW to avoid a potential total power loss.
 
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You can now monitor lowest cell voltage on the Pilot app.

Never, ever EVER fly with anything other than a fully charged battery. Of all the sudden drop in capacity battery scenarios I have heard of it has been because the user started the flight with less than a fully charged battery (usually less than 75%).
It seems the 'smart' battery technology is not so smart at calculating remaining capacity if it doesn't start at full charge. Once the pack is under load and the firmware has had an importunity to 'think' about things it seems it 'thinks' " Oh crap - my estimation is way out lets drop to 7%"

I know it is being clever after the event and you would think it shouldn't happen but.......for future reference, only ever fly with a full battery.
 
The grinding motor is easily replaced yourself but carefully inspect the carbon booms for fractures since they're extremely thin.

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:

 
You can now monitor lowest cell voltage on the Pilot app.
Wont help you in this instance unfortunately - It is not a cell imbalance problem it is a firmware algorithm problem and capacity estimation not based on mAh used but on potential difference of the pack under load.
 
It's still the low voltage that triggers the alert though... so if the displayed lowest cell voltage is still reasonably normal you could decide to fight the autoland and come back.
 
Video should play now...

I was experimenting with this scenario this morning. Took off with 41%.


Events using youtube time:

00:32 Take off - 41% Battery
00:50 1st warning "Critically Low Voltage" - Indicated Battery 39% - This is odd because I have my 1st warning level set to 15% and my 2nd warning set to 10%.
1:05 Landed Manually re-positioned A/C
1:30 2nd Take of - Hovered 6"- 12" altitude to see what the battery would do.
2:20 At 33% Battery view Battery Info Page. When selecting Battery Info Page instantaneous drop to 8%.

Seems odd that there would be such a sudden drop off. This battery was left a week ago at about 43-45% charge to set up for this test. This is NOT the newest battery firmware. My batteries wouldn't take the update from last month, so it is the firmware from several months ago. Makes this the test less useful, and in fact I wasn't going to post it. But it seemed like it might fit this thread, so here it is. FWIW .

Flight logs ends because A/C shut itself down (with 7% sowing remaining.)
 
Last edited:
With my Phantom, I often flew with batteries that were not fully charged, but with my Inspire 1 I have only done it once. Never again.

I mostly photograph houses and are usually only in the air for 4-6 minutes, so I thought it was okay to fly with a battery that was 75 percent charged.

This time it was a house that was next to a fairly busy road.
No problems with starting and fly up and away to the other side of the road, but 2 minutes later, I received the first warning. 30% ..
Thought immediately that this was not okay and started to take home the drone. Took a few seconds and then it was down to 10%. Got cold sweat .. :eek:
Seconds later it was down to 3-5%, I can´t remember, becouse it started to descend on the busy road! o_O
Managed to get it to abort the descent and get it over the road and into the garden to the house, I photographed.. 1% left when I landed.

So, only fully charged batteries for me now. :confused:
 

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