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Won't launch from boat so I'm selling

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Nick

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Greetings, I have a brand-new inspire one production model with four batteries,pelican case and Samsung tablet for sale. I use UAVs for Marine research. Unfortunately we learned today that the inspire one will not allow the motors to start up while on a moving surface. The rocking of the boat does not allow us to power the motors up. I bought the aircraft from the New York distributor and they only offer in store credit. It turns out I'm stuck with the phantom 2 forMarine launching. I'm only looking to get out what I paid for it. Please call 847-502-8227 for details.
 
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It does fly great outside of not being able to launch from a boat :(
 
We are on a 100' at the moment in key west. We are not even in open ocean:(. Any movement shuts it down upon start up. If you start up on a flat surface you can shut down the motors and start tgem on a moving surface. It's the start up that shuts it down.
 
Does the Inspire not have a manual mode? I'm sure that would allow take off from a moving object. Once airborne then switch to GPS.
 
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Greetings, I have a brand-new inspire one production model with four batteries,pelican case and Samsung tablet for sale. I use UAVs for Marine research. Unfortunately we learned today that the inspire one will not allow the motors to start up while on a moving surface. The rocking of the boat does not allow us to power the motors up. I bought the aircraft from the New York distributor and they only offer in store credit. It turns out I'm stuck with the phantom 2 forMarine launching. I'm only looking to get out what I paid for it. Please call 847-502-8227 for details.

I feel badly for you. I'm not looking for another Inspire, at least not yet, but wanted to ask if this is something you followed up with DJI Support about. I've never heard this mentioned in any other thread, so you're the first to report this. What did they say? Is this something that is not fixable with a future firmware update? Or is this an inherent feature of the controller?

Best of luck with selling your craft.
 
Does the Inspire not have a manual mode? I'm sure that would allow take off from a moving object. Once airborne then switch to GPS.

Other than P-mode there is no manual mode, only ATTI, which I imagine requires a still craft while powering up the IMU. GPS has nothing to do with it.
 
That's a shame - and an oversight by DJI. Obviously they are trying to nanny the machine. If it had manual you would be able to take off from anything moving or not.

By GPS I meant that you could take off using manual AND THEN if you wanted the security of GPS hold you could switch it to that mode after take off.
 
That's a shame - and an oversight by DJI. Obviously they are trying to nanny the machine. If it had manual you would be able to take off from anything moving or not.

By GPS I meant that you could take off using manual AND THEN if you wanted the security of GPS hold you could switch it to that mode after take off.

Gotcha, but I don't know if I would want to launch off a rocking boat with manual controls and no attitude stabilization, period. The Inspire, even if you could get it to engage in GPS, would constantly be fighting to correct itself to a fixed GPS position, without knowing where level flight is, since the IMU could never erect to level flight without a stable reference plane.
 
Hmmmm...... I see what you mean. Although manual flight would be perfectly possible (with corrections made visually the way any R/C collective pitch heli is flown) the gyros/accelerometers would never initialize properly on a moving boat to enable that take off!

I will go back to me corner and shut up :p........... I guess there COULD be a way of engineering it with a gimbal enabled platform to enable IMU initialisation but the engineering would be prohibitive.
 
Hmmmm...... I see what you mean. Although manual flight would be perfectly possible (with corrections made visually the way any R/C collective pitch heli is flown) the gyros/accelerometers would never initialize properly on a moving boat to enable that take off!

I will go back to me corner and shut up :p........... I guess there COULD be a way of engineering it with a gimbal enable platform to enable IMU initialisation but the engineering would be prohibitive.

Yeah, but as the OP reported, he was able to launch with his P2 off the boat, so it's a question of threshold sensitivity in allowing an IMU initialization with a certain amount of wobble. Once airborne. most IMUs make updated adjustments to the horizon, or level flight, with help from GPS position in a feedback loop. That's why you'll often see MR's calm down after several minutes of flight.

That's why I asked him if he had contacted DJI to report the problem, and what their answer was. Maybe he'll enlighten us. With a 100 foot boat and in inland waters, there is not that much movement that would severely affect the IMU, in my opinion. I guess only time will tell.
 
The Phantom to does it perfectly. It must be this new flight controller. I take off in GPS mode from someone's hands all the time with the Phantom 2 on a 18 rib in 8-10ft seas
 
The Phantom to does it perfectly. It must be this new flight controller. I take off in GPS mode from someone's hands all the time with the Phantom 2 on a 18 rib in 8-10ft seas

Have you talked to anyone at DJI about your issue?
 
Yeah, but as the OP reported, he was able to launch with his P2 off the boat, so it's a question of threshold sensitivity in allowing an IMU initialization with a certain amount of wobble. Once airborne. most IMUs make updated adjustments to the horizon, or level flight, with help from GPS position in a feedback loop. That's why you'll often see MR's calm down after several minutes of flight.

That's why I asked him if he had contacted DJI to report the problem, and what their answer was. Maybe he'll enlighten us. With a 100 foot boat and in inland waters, there is not that much movement that would severely affect the IMU, in my opinion. I guess only time will tell.
Do you not think it would have been reasonable to mention this in the manual? Are there any other quadcopters that will not launch from a rocking boat?
Isn't it a reasonable expectation to assume, that, if most if not all other quadcopters launch from a rocking boat, that this one would as well?
 
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I did take up the issue with DJi 24 seven support with no luck. After an hour of routine questions they admitted to me that they didn't know and that I was probably right with respect to the inspired needing a completely stable surface to calibrate on
 
If you take your inspire and powered up while holding it in gently rocking it back-and-forth and while rocking back-and-forth without the propellers on of course try and send it I start motor command. It will not start. Then put the inspire on the ground and repeat the command and they will start. Fortunately on a boat there's no moment of total stability for the initial start. Ironically after powering on the unit and getting the motors on once you can then restart them and hand launch be inspire no problem.!?!
 
I did take up the issue with DJi 24 seven support with no luck. After an hour of routine questions they admitted to me that they didn't know and that I was probably right with respect to the inspired needing a completely stable surface to calibrate on

I've reposted a portion of you initial post over on the RCGroups forum. Hopefully one of the DJI Forum Support persons will address the issue. I assume you had done all the necessary things to get motors running, like update firmware, calibrate IMU and the compass dance. Actually, now that I think about it, does your boat have steel decks, and did you try to calibrate compass onboard?
 
We've tried launching from multiple boats different sizes fiberglass inflatable etc. it's updated, all of her tests indicate that movement is the problem in the same start up sequence were able to amend the issue by placing it on the pier it immediately starts up and ironically will restart in the same moving environment after one stable start up. I was able to him lunch after powering up on terra firma
 
Ultra frustrating to not be able launch from any type of boat. The slightest movement does not allow the motors to start in the unlock option on the app doesn't seem to do anything. That is the unlock motor option.thanks for posting it on the RC forum
 
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