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Recovery/Redundancy
5613 25 2014-11-21
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ericj
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I'm making the assumption that if a motor or prop fails on the Inspire 1, it will drop like a brick. At 6 lbs, I can only imagine that a fall with any moderate height would likely result in gimbal, camera, and frame damage/distruction.
Several companies make recovery parachutes that can reduce the speed of a falling disabled multi/quad. The parachutes are activated by remote servo. It is possible to plug such a deivce into the Inspire Board and subsequently control the servo with an assigned button/toggle on the Inspire remote? i.e. Are there open toggles to assign?
2014-11-21
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max
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South Africa
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What I do is ask my insurance company to insure the drone against total loss for a relatively small amount each month.
Less than the cost of a battery a year.  So worth it
2014-11-21
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ericj
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max@kingsley.co Posted at 2014-11-22 04:20
What I do is ask my insurance company to insure the drone against total loss for a relatively small  ...

thank you for the reply but the initial question still remains. Can user program toggle?
2014-11-21
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ericj
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DVPLLC Posted at 2014-11-22 05:38
Dropping out the sky worries us too but one of the DJI guys said he has only seen 1 motor fail in 3  ...

thank you for the reply but the initial question still remains. Can user program toggle?
2014-11-21
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Daninho
Second Officer
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Germany
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DVPLLC Posted at 2014-11-22 05:38
Dropping out the sky worries us too but one of the DJI guys said he has only seen 1 motor fail in 3  ...

one in three years means one completely destroyed inspire in 3 years, at least the 600 dollar remote cant crash :p
2014-11-22
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StevenHuff
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max@kingsley.co Posted at 2014-11-22 04:20
What I do is ask my insurance company to insure the drone against total loss for a relatively small  ...

Smart Max.  I plan to get a business insurance policy that will provide me liability insurance in case I get sued ... if I accidently injure someone or do damage to something.  I  think the policy will cover my business items, including the drone.  I don't have a price on it yet, but I bet a years worth of full coverage business insurance will be no more the $400 for the year.
2014-11-22
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StevenHuff
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Daninho Posted at 2014-11-22 22:35
one in three years means one completely destroyed inspire in 3 years, at least the 600 dollar remo ...

I don't presume to speak for DVPLLC but took it that he did not mean that each person will only have one motor fail in 3 years.  I think he is saying that in all of his experience in and around drones, he has only seen one motor fail.

Still, a failure is a failure... and on a quad that means it is coming down.
2014-11-22
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max
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South Africa
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StevenHuff Posted at 2014-11-23 02:50
Smart Max.  I plan to get a business insurance policy that will provide me liability insurance in  ...

Hi Steven

Normally (Check with your insurers), you have an automatic personal liability buit in to your standard short term insurance.  (You should have it already), so no extra cover is needed should your drone accidentally damage a person or property.
(Normally these personal liability insurance is up to $300 000 automatic)
Just the drone should be about $200 per annum, to cover total loss
2014-11-22
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StevenHuff
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max@kingsley.co Posted at 2014-11-23 05:43
Hi Steven

Normally (Check with your insurers), you have an automatic personal liability buit in t ...

My only concern is that if something happens, my personal insurance company will say "no coverage" since you were engaged in a "business activity."   Since I make my living in video production, they might be able to get away with it.  But anyone who is shooting just for fun probably has liability coverage through their home or renters insurance.  Anyway, covering the loss of the INSPIRE itself is important because I am probably more likely to damage or lose it, than actually hurt anyone.  
2014-11-22
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Tahoe_Ed
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I personally doubt that any insurance company will cover the loss of an Inspire or any other drone.  If flown for commercial use or not.  I checked into insurance and the loss of the craft while it used to be covered is no longer.  You can get coverage for the camera at a price but if you want coverage for both your are going into a special risk pool and the cost will be very high.  What I heard was the the loss rate for insurers was 100%.  It was just a matter of time.
2014-11-22
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peterrussell23
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Australia
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The dude from myth busters asks about control customisation in this video. The answer seems to be that the the camera controls are locked but there is some form of customisation of the controller in the app (doesn't run from a PC/mac assistant software). He seems pretty vague on it but it may help.

However he also goes on to say that if you request access to their SDK (developer kit) then you could potentially design your own app/function. Its an approval process that you have to go through but if you get access to Level 2 then you have full control over the inspire to do what you want.

Sounds like a tough project. In my opinion, there is always a risk that the drone will fall from the sky for many unlikly scenerios, and adding tech to this thing for every thing that "could" go wrong would turn it into a flying junk yard with 2 minutes of flight time.



2014-11-22
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StevenHuff
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Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2014-11-23 09:13
I personally doubt that any insurance company will cover the loss of an Inspire or any other drone.  ...

I am not surprised to hear this.  The liability insurance is the most important thing.  If this thing gets away from me due to system error or pilot error and hurts someone or damages property, I will be liable.  While I hope it never happens, it will be better to be covered, especially while doing commercial work.
Thanks for you input on this.
2014-11-22
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ericj
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Liability insurance will likely not cover anything as lawyers will argue that by flying (and crashing) in proximity to property or people, by default you are flying outside the scope of safe operation. If mechanical or system failure is to blame, it will have to be proven that the unit was properly maintained to the Nth degree - some of these concerns prompted my original post asking about redundancy and the installation of a parachute device. I have seen a video from another manufacturer that purports to employ recovery algorithms which detect a rapid loss in stabilization on a quad and it recovers enough to land safely - this begs the question (engineers out there are you listening?) - can a 6lb quad such as the Inspire maintain flight (or at least enough balance for a safe landing) on 3 engines with advanced flight algorithms?
2014-11-22
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max
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South Africa
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StevenHuff Posted at 2014-11-23 12:36
I am not surprised to hear this.  The liability insurance is the most important thing.  If this th ...

Happy to report my insurance has confirmed in writing that they will cover total loss of my drone for around $300 per year.
Good news and great piece of mind
2014-11-22
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Daninho
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Germany
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I see multicopter test videos on youtube from an university and they developed an algorithm cabable of flying a quadcopter when one motor fails. The whole copter is spinning like hell but it can be landed. I hope DJI can develop similar things in the future
2014-11-23
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max
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South Africa
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I must admit deploying an emergency parachute does sound practical and should be easy to implement.
Surely the size required to safely land 6 pounds must be only a few grams extra to carry, and there should be a channel available to monitor all 4 motors normal operation?  If one becomes abnormal, immediate motor lock and chute deploy?  DJI?  Can his be done?
2014-11-23
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max
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AHA!  Some clever people have already developed it!
2014-11-23
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max
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South Africa
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I see they already offer many rescue kits, so I just mailed them to ask if they will be developing one for the DJI Inspire
Will keep you updated as to their answers
2014-11-23
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StevenHuff
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max@kingsley.co Posted at 2014-11-23 15:57
Happy to report my insurance has confirmed in writing that they will cover total loss of my drone  ...

max, do you mind telling me who your insurance carrier is?
2014-11-23
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max
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South Africa
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StevenHuff Posted at 2014-11-24 00:10
max, do you mind telling me who your insurance carrier is?

Im in South Africa, Steven, doubt if that will help
2014-11-23
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Eirlink
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Ireland
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Dji have a parachute system developed

Click the link for a video

2014-11-23
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StevenHuff
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Eirlink Posted at 2014-11-24 01:22
Dji have a parachute system developed

Click the link for a video

Fascinating!  Great idea.
2014-11-23
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Tahoe_Ed
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Note that the system is 550g and not adaptable to the Inspire in my opinion.
2014-11-23
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Daninho
Second Officer
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Germany
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Is this flight controller algorithm posible with the inspire or phantom? It would be a last chance to save a quadcopter with a bad motor
2014-11-27
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alessandrobecca
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Switzerland
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Very very interesting link. thank you for sharing this !! There si even a more recent video showing a quadricopter flown in the open , where they switch off one motor and manage not only to bring it down, but also to sort of fly it home !!!
Having this failsafe algorithm built into the flight controller software would certainly be a big plus and worthwhile investment for practically every DJI inspire 1 buyer ! DJI should really consider this, and even for their phantoms !
2014-11-27
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alessandrobecca
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here is the link for the video:
http://flyingmachinearena.org/videos/
2014-11-27
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