Will Inspire 1s become obsolete in 2018?

[lake_flyer]

My I1 didn't suddenly start to fly worse the day the I2 was announced. It is still as valuable to me as the day I decided to buy it. It's a serious workhorse. Not exactly a typical consumer toy with a consumption cycle of 12 months.

I expect (but who am I) the I1 platform not to become obsolete for DJI any time soon, although it is EOL. They might have seized the production of the frame but all the I1's being replaced by I2's don't just disappear from the market. They will be kept flying by others. And those might still want an upgrade to X5 or X5R, new props, batteries, extra controller, you name it. DJI would want to harvest on that second life. That said, never saw a company do these 180 (well, any)degree turns like DJI have shown us, time and time again.

I can only hope we will be left fewer GO(3.X) and firmware updates (fixing stuff while ruining perfectness in other areas) and stabile performance and predictability for the many many paid flights still to come. I am totally done with the updates, which feels like a never ending heroine trickle just to keep typical consumers hooked to their social media crap.

We can only speculate, which in the case of our multi headed Chinese dragon is practically impossible.

 

[DavidK]

Why wouldn't they . I'm sure newer models are on the horizon. It's only progress . Trust me I had an x5 an was disappointed in what they did making everything un compatible.

yeah it really stinks how DJI does that so greedy 1

 

[ACHdigital]

My opinion is that DJI should adapt the 20mpx camera to it and new batteries with longer flying time. The rest of the bird is perfect no need to update.

 

[Steve Reid]

I have 2 complete units of I1's plus an extra frame that's new and a control that's new. I will buy an upgrade X3 if they ever improve zoom stability.

 

[Eric]

Agreed, my very early 2015 bird will and should still be flying 2019 missions. I like and fully agree with the XT, Z3, and other industrial cameras keeping the i1 an excellent option for many applications. It would be nice for a TB49 with an extra 5-10 minutes or so... just dreaming. But I know i1's will still be flying in 2019 and most likely beyond.

 

[lake_flyer]

I kind of hate/admire DJI, the way they market and make us unwillingly take part in their social media crap and app update madness. At the same time they have the guts to spend millions in technology research and design, making it possible to do things you would never be able to do without spending a ton somewhere else.

The Inspire1 is the most innovative and astounding piece of technology/design I've met thus far. It was it's time well ahead and no one could even come close with a competitive alternative. And still today, there's no competitor other than the I2. And it flies so incredibly good. I simply love it (as a flying machine, NOT the apps and constant updates) and I really expect to see our Inspire1 in the Museum of Modern Art one day.

I'll be flying my Inspire1 years from now. No matter if I get a newer bird one day, I intend to keep it flying. In the applications where it's good enough, it's really the best.

 

[dragonfly1]

I believe if the inspire had a 20 megapixel camera option i think it would stay in the game a great deal longer. that to me is the only feature that would exclude it from carrying on being the workhorse that it is in the professional industry. Lately I've been running into commercial customers that are requiring 20 megapixel imagery, but not very many as of yet.

 

[Steve Reid]

I'm down to one I1 and I use it for everything including Saltwater Surf fishing. I fly my bait out 300 plus yards. I did buy the Mavic 2 Pro and love it.

 

[Dobmatt]

I believe if the inspire had a 20 megapixel camera option i think it would stay in the game a great deal longer. that to me is the only feature that would exclude it from carrying on being the workhorse that it is in the professional industry. Lately I've been running into commercial customers that are requiring 20 megapixel imagery, but not very many as of yet.

Inspire 1 (purchased Nov 2015) is my most wounded warrior. Survivor of numerous minor crashes caused by lousy piloting, patched, implanted, modified etc. And she's still flying charmingly, although with a little wobble in hover, probably caused by bugged firmware. Her future, however, is certain. Major facelift by DJI is beyond consideration, period. Ultimately she'll end up in a housing for veterans, eventually in a private museum ...

 

[Dobmatt]

Is the Zenmuse X5S not compatible with the Inspire 1 mate?

No, and it will never be.

 

[SierraSARPilot]

Yep, obsolete. Please continue with the narrative so all those "consumer types" will throw their a/c and accessories on fleabay for cheap. $3-400 usd I1's will keep us in parts for quite awhile. When we can no longer get new batteries, the rebuilders will step up. There are so many I1's out there, I believe there will be parts and service available for years to come. Not so the consumer platforms that have an inexpensive alternative. Like others have said, most of that market consists of the iphone type customers, that will always want the latest, shiniest...

 

[Aman93]

i hear the Phantom 3 Pro is no longer for sale, it was released in 2015.
I'm certainly no expert but I've had my I1 Pro one year and quite frankly I love it, the I2 is an order of magnitude beyond my needs so I'm wondering should I purchase a few I1s to have for future parts? Enterprising dealers may resort to purchasing used platforms for future sales and parts. Kind of thinking "out loud".

Many people will continue selling I1 and Ph3 parts. Also you can special order parts for P3

 

[Tridiver]

I Hope not, I just bought one!!!!

 

[dslanter]

I don’t believe so, in fact I think the I1 will continue to be the go to commercial airframe for one reason...DJI is no longer pushing out updates. It was the tipping point for me between buying the I1 and I2. The current I1 FW is stable and works well with third party flight management and operations software providers...we use KittyHawk but it could be one of several....and the LAANC system is a game changer for waivers and flight authorizations.

Ask any I2 driver about FW issues and they’ll tell you.

Also if you are a commercial operator with insurance coverage and have a claim, one of the first things the underwriter will ask you to do is to prove that the FW was up-to-date. Not updating is not an option if you have insurance.

Lastly, while the 20 meg pictures benchmark is coming, it won’t be an industry standard for quite awhile in my opinion. In fact when it comes to real estate photography and ortho photos maps, less pixels are actually a good thing from an Internet posting and processing perspective.

 

[The Editor]

Also if you are a commercial operator with insurance coverage and have a claim, one of the first things the underwriter will ask you to do is to prove that the FW was up-to-date. Not updating is not an option if you have insurance.

And how would you do that with total loss of aircraft (crash) or theft?
I have no idea what country you are talking about but in the UK, the claims adjusters would not care what version of firmware you have decided or not to install. Only that you are operating within the remit of your ops manual when the loss occured.
An insurer could not refuse liability simply because you haven't or do not want to load a particular firmware unless it was specifically written into the policy as a condition of cover either within the body of the wording or as an addendum, in which case, I would look elsewhere for my commercial coverage.
Alternatively, if you had written into your own ops manual then you would effectively have shot yourself in the foot since it would then be incumbent on you to maintain the most recent version of firmware.

 

[dslanter]

And how would you do that with total loss of aircraft (crash) or theft?
I have no idea what country you are talking about but in the UK, the claims adjusters would not care what version of firmware you have decided or not to install. Only that you are operating within the remit of your ops manual when the loss occured.
An insurer could not refuse liability simply because you haven't or do not want to load a particular firmware unless it was specifically written into the policy as a condition of cover either within the body of the wording or as an addendum, in which case, I would look elsewhere for my commercial coverage.
Alternatively, if you had written into your own ops manual then you would effectively have shot yourself in the foot since it would then be incumbent on you to maintain the most recent version of firmware.

Because FW updates are considered to be maintenance. Don’t perform maintenance per manufacturer recommendations? Here in the states you’d be toast.

Also with telemetry and cloud computing, you don’t need the bird to establish what FW was running.

 

[MrTVR]

Because FW updates are considered to be maintenance. Don’t perform maintenance per manufacturer recommendations? Here in the states you’d be toast.

Also with telemetry and cloud computing, you don’t need the bird to establish what FW was running.

So are you saying that flying with the .200 firmware on an Inspire 2 would be mandatory over the .100 version, despite the numerous bug and potential safety issues with the .200 release?

I operate commercially in the UK and will only adopt a firmware update once it has been proven to be safe & reliable for use. As there have been numerous reports of issues since the release of .200 f/w several months ago I have remained on .100 and will do so until DJI get their act together.

Hopefully this will be soon, with the pending release of .300, which looks to be good from all of the beta test reports.

 

[PrecisionAeroworks]

Because FW updates are considered to be maintenance. Don’t perform maintenance per manufacturer recommendations? Here in the states you’d be toast.

Also with telemetry and cloud computing, you don’t need the bird to establish what FW was running.

Toast? My (US) insurer would want to know if I was operating within the SOPs that I created, submitted, and had approved by their underwriters. These procedures do not require immediate FW updates whenever DJI craps one out. The older firmware was considered safe and reliable enough to release, no?

Refusing a claim due to a slow FW update sounds like a bullying tactic of a sub-par insurance company.

 

[MrTVR]

Toast? My (US) insurer would want to know if I was operating within the SOPs that I created, submitted, and had approved by their underwriters. These procedures do not require immediate FW updates whenever DJI craps one out. The older firmware was considered safe and reliable enough to release, no?

Refusing a claim due to a slow FW update sounds like a bullying tactic of a sub-par insurance company.

Agreed.

Our ops manual states that FW updates will only be installed once there is a clear indication that other people are not experiencing issues with a given update. Your insurance company cannot use the lack of an update to refuse a payout if it is within your SOP.

 

[madgadget]

2018...You could call this year all but over, and the I1's "I" support are anything but obsolete. Support in this instance means maintenance / inspection. That includes 5 that I see once a month for 107 operators and 2 of my own that I fly for fun and personal content creation. A Harbor freight ultrasonic cleaner and scorpion motor oil has sustained the bearings in one clients I1's motors going on hundreds of hours. I encouraged them to replace em but they declined noting that video is still smooth with at 42mm. Not being able to quote mtbf stats from the bearing manufacturer left me with no argument so I completed routine inspection/maint and logged it airworthy not obsolete.