I maidened my Inspire today and noticed vibration happening on both arms in which the arms vibrate up and down with a high frequency. The root of the vibration seems to be originating from the left-front motor/prop/arm. Prior to the maiden flight out doors, I flew the Inspire inside and that's when I first noticed the vibration. At just past half throttle the vibration reaches it's viration frequency. It appears to be at its worst when it's at hovering RPM. I checked all the props with a prop balancer and all 4 were properly balanced. There doen't seem to be any vibration on any of the motors when the props are not attached. It's only when the Inspire is hovering in place that you can see and (if you're holding the top of the fuselage) feel the vibration occuring.
Is this normal, DJI? If so, I would suspect that over time this will cause issues where screws and nuts are loosened, electronics shake loose, etc. Please advise. I'm attaching a video however they are were taken on the iPhone 6 and the frame rate does not give a good illustration of the vibration occuring but if you look closely you can see it. Vibration up and down of the control arms but again the problem seems to originate from the front-left arm extension.
This is a great video demonstrating vibrations that shouldn't been happening. I haven't experienced this with my Inspire.
Check that the the nuts on the shaft of the arms are not loose. Some users are reporting jiggly arms and loose nuts leading to vibrations in flight. Also check that your props are all sound and not bent or damaged.
The video below talks about how to fix the loose arms. There is warranty tape that would have to be removed to do this so make sure you speak directly with DJI Support about this before taking any action yourself.
I have exactly the same problem....i got some Jello-effect in the video, due to the vibrations. Sent an email to Dji a few minutes ago. Stills hope they give us a Hint how to resolve the problem in place. I don't really like the idea to send the Craft back to China....seems to be a minor problem to be fixed but i don't wanna lose the warranty without an official response from Dji
The biggest problem in the moment is the Jello-effect. Can't use it like this........
I tightened down all the hex nuts as well. Now there is zero play in any of the arms and necks. A few of them were actually pretty lose. Have to be careful because I think the fittings are aluminum and if tightened too much will crack. We'll see next time I fly if that makes any difference. I'll be sure to document.
OC over seas should be better than this on such a Hi Tech product Im sure DJI appreciates this info and is on it asap.. I will be when I finally get an inspire or I should say when.
You can see the arm flexing and that Stanton arm moving almost now you look at it..
Prop balancer should be sent with every inspire with a 3k drone this stuff should be laser precision crummly we ae left to fine tune the things good luck let us know what you find out.
I too am having issues with vibration in bright light, where the ND just isn't enough to compensate. I had the loose nuts (well, they were slightly off on one side) and I tightened them. The shake seemed to be less severe; a video will be posted in the morning which includes some shots of the props and landing gear in flight.
I had zero jello or vibration over 15 min in 10Mph cold winds tonight, but it was at sunset and overcast, so I was able to bring the shutter down to 1/50 which I am sure helped a ton.
If one could tighten those hex nuts fully it would eliminate any wiggle totally.
But then it would be impossible to raise the landing gear.
As it would lock the tubes the motors are fixed on, so they would be unable to rotate to keep vertical.
Without looking inside the knuckle I would guess that the bearings, if there are any.
Are made a tad too oversized and allow a loose fit and therefore don't add drag to the landing gear motor.
If the fit of the bearings were constructed with great accuracy both aspects would not be a problem.
I wonder if it is to ease manufacture.
I think the hex nut is purely to stop end-play.
I just checked mine and there is an ever so slight movement. I mean ever so slight. But I've flown it a few times now and has been rock solid so I'm not so sure that making them so tight is the right answer. I know there are tolerances to most everything and rod has to be able to spin so it can go up and down. Has anyone at DJI said there suppose to be solid with no movement at all? That's an answer I would like to hear?
Thanks Mike,
I also sent DJI an email as I'm not messing it. Mine doesn't seem to have any vibrations but I would like the peace of mind of knowing whether it's right or wrong....
Just an update on my end: I opened a ticket with DJI and they are asking me to send it back to them for Warranty repair. Unfortunately, I'm the hook to pay for shipping to the west coast but happy they are addressing the issue.
Just an update on my end: I opened a ticket with DJI and they are ask ...
Still to receive mine, surly these things should be tested before shipping to make sure it's flying right. This is about the fifth person having this problem on this forum. Not a good start having to send it back.
BTW, in the original video posted above if you slow the video down to 0.25 speed, using the settings (gear) button below the video, you can clearly see the arm shaking.
I have noticed this in my Inspire once or twice. I have had experience with this with my 3D helicopters and other 3 and 4 channel, small, copters. My largest is a 300 size and in all of them, through repairs and crashes I have noticed that some of the problem stems from the blades being overly tightened, or too loose (sometimes it's a shaft problem but I will forego this idea since it is a new unit and the vibration hasn't been an issue more than twice).
My thoughts are possibly that the props aren't tightened enough, or too much, or aren't uniform in how much they may be tightened or a combination of the 3. I could see this being a contributing factor and will watch for the vibration more closely in other flights.
The vibrations are totally unacceptable. I have flown and built multi-rotors for the last four years commercially and have spend a lot of time finding ways of reducing vibrations - one of the major challenges with this technology.
This video shows exactla what's happening with my machine:
Obviously the production tolerances of the T-joints holding the main arms are not very good, preventing appropriate clamping of the interior half-shells.
The information regarding this mechanism is gleaned from another forum entry.
Besides the possible effects on the images, there are serious technical implications:
Mechanical wear and tear - if it vibrates it can only get worse.
Loss of fasteners and subsequent failure of componenets
Loss of electrical connections over time
Effects on the IMU in throwing it off-balance - this may also explain some of the reported sudden crashes straight after launch.
Premature aging of the vibration dampeners holding the gimbal.
The Inspire 1 being a one-purpose-only image gathering machine at the moment should be absolutely vibration free to technically achievable extent.
This is over and above the issues with camera performance in video mode (aliasing due to over sharpness, compression artefacts)
It is an absolute disgrace that DJI are not responding adequately to the many issues with the Inspire 1, leaving a lot of customers in a situation where the risk voiding the warranty just to make their investment work for them. One could be inclined to suspect that this loss of warranty may even be intentional - although it would not be very good business in the long run.
DJI if you are following this forum, and I hope and assume you do, make it your utmost priority to publish procedures to rectify tis issue locally.
There is NO WAY I will return my machine for this to be fixed in China, as the official importer to New Zealand RC-Tech has no procedure in place to fix this. If I find I have to return the Inspire, I will return it for good within the consumers protection act timeframe and will never touch DJI again!