Hi all,

Just got something wired happend last weekend. I got beautiful fly for over 2 hours, before I was trying to get the last overview shots about 600 ft, I started to take off from the ground, every indicators (green LED light, status normal) tells me I was good to go, so I took off very slowly, then I noticed that i1 start to drafting heavily by itself, and felt like the GPS position is not working at all, so I landed, and did IMU calibrition and compass calibriation too, then I took off again, some drafting happend again, I did another twice IMU calibriation and campass, it just did the same thing. So i packaged up, did not fly until I figure out what's going on. I am so glad it was not crash, if I was take off as fast as I did before, then did not pay attention on the drafting, this bird might got out of control and fly away.

So, I wonder does any here have same experience and what's the problem? it never had this before since I got Inspire 1.

Thank you in advance!

Howie

Seems like one or more of your motors is not firing properly and the others were not able to fully compensate for it.

You said you took off very slowly.  How close were you to the ground and what type of surface was it?  If you are using adaptive landing gear, then the vision system would have been monitoring the surface below.  Uneven ground or wind blowing grass could possibly confuse the sensors and cause the inspire to drift or behave erratically.  Next time, try gaining altitude a little quicker and see if that helps.
Good luck.

Jason

Ph02on Posted at 2015-5-5 02:03
You said you took off very slowly.  How close were you to the ground and what type of surface was it ...

Thank you Jason. I was taking off slow as I did before, it never had this issue, and it positioned very nice, hover over without moving , I flew on the concrete floor, and there was barely wind that day. it did perfectly like 2 hours ago before the glitch happened.

Cacc Posted at 2015-5-5 01:42
Seems like one or more of your motors is not firing properly and the others were not able to fully c ...

well, never think of it's the motor problem.

A few questions.

First, are you certain that it always showed "SAFE TO FLY - GPS"?  It is not uncommon for the Inspire to occasionally lose GPS and switch to Atti mode without warning.  You would only see this on the app - it doesn't beep or anything.  You'd have a red indicator in the top center of your screen, though.  I ask this because your description is consistent with a switch to Atti mode, which will happen if it loses GPS.

Second - when your bird was drifting was it still flying level and steady?  Was there any sign of it wobbling or tilting in the air?  Were there any odd motor noises?

And - if you gentle rotate the four motors just a little bit, to any of them feel any different from any of the others?  More or less play, easier/harder to turn?

Finally - if you power up the Inspire and start the motors (CRC), and let it idle on the ground, are there any unfamiliar sounds coming from any of the motors?

You may try to rotate the drone 90 degrees before trying to start again : if he drift in the same direction as before, it's probably that the logic makes him believe he has to do so.
If he drift 90 degrees to the original direction, it may be a mechanical problem.

Did you check if the home position was set correctly?

blackbox Posted at 2015-5-5 04:53
You may try to rotate the drone 90 degrees before trying to start again : if he drift in the same di ...

aha, that's a good call. I might try out. I did not do any home position setting. I thought i1 itself will checking the take off place as home point, is it?

PeteGould Posted at 2015-5-5 04:20
A few questions.

First, are you certain that it always showed "SAFE TO FLY - GPS"?  It is not uncom ...

Hi Pete, thank you for the help.

Answer your questions:

First: I am 100% sure on the app, it shows safe to fly -GPS. and on the drone itself, the led lights was flashing green.

Second: it drifting very  stable, it just not hover over, and try to fly away by itself, so I had to uncomfortably forth it to come back to land. there are no any odd motor noise for sure

Third: I did not hear any nosise, I did it for 1-2 mins

howie121218@gma Posted at 2015-5-5 05:17
drifting very  stable, it just not hover over, and try to fly away by itself, so I had to uncomfortably forth it to come back to land. there are no any odd motor noise for sure

So it really doesn't sound like a motor problem.  It sounds as though it is either not registering a proper GPS location or is having IMU or compass issues.  What are the chances that the area you're flying in has interference or something that could affect proper compass calibration?  Have you tried flying it in multiple locations?

Yes, sounds more like a compass interference caused that. If possible, can you send that flight log to me?

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-5 17:19
Yes, sounds more like a compass interference caused that. If possible, can you send that flight log  ...

I am sorry, Could you please tell me how to get the fly log from i1?

howie121218@gma Posted at 2015-5-6 03:37
I am sorry, Could you please tell me how to get the fly log from i1?

1）        Connect INSPIRE 1 and PC via usb cable, turn on RC & Inspire 1. Run Djipilot.
2）        Click “mode” icon get into “advanced settings”.
3）        Click “ MC enter read flight data mode”.
4）        After a few seconds, the DJI FLY LOG disk will be detected by PC and data can be available then.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-6 10:20
1）        Connect INSPIRE 1 and PC via usb cable, turn on RC & Inspire 1. Run Djipilot.
2）        Click “mode ...

Thank you so much, i will post here ASAP.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-6 10:20
1）        Connect INSPIRE 1 and PC via usb cable, turn on RC & Inspire 1. Run Djipilot.
2）        Click “mode ...

Hi Captain,

the flylog is too large to attached, so I share you with the dropbox link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j2h6a ... DbrpYBExfqgg3a?dl=0

there are three flylogs whihc were the time the glich happend I believe. Thank you for your kind help. Look forward to hearing from you.

Howie

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-6 10:20
1）        Connect INSPIRE 1 and PC via usb cable, turn on RC & Inspire 1. Run Djipilot.
2）        Click “mode ...

Hi, did you find something weird?

Thank you.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-6 10:20
1）        Connect INSPIRE 1 and PC via usb cable, turn on RC & Inspire 1. Run Djipilot.
2）        Click “mode ...

I am still waiting to see if there's any issue in my fly log. Please help to take a look.

You mentioned you took off from a "concrete floor". Very often concrete has internal rebar which DJI says can cause issues in calibrating the compass. If that's the case, and your compass was calibrated there just prior to take-off, could that be a factor?  And if concrete/rebar can interfere with calibration, could it also interfere with flight close to the ground?

peterconquest3 Posted at 2015-5-13 04:55
You mentioned you took off from a "concrete floor". Very often concrete has internal rebar which DJI ...

I don't think so it's the issue, cause it was fly on the same concrete road without any problem.

howie121218@gma Posted at 2015-5-14 06:02
I don't think so it's the issue, cause it was fly on the same concrete road without any problem.

How about power lines, the RC park I fly at is lined with Power Lines all down one side, in fact, most of the RC parks seem to be that way. Anyway, many times while calibrating the compass I recieved the warning message about "Electro-Magnetic Interference detected..."

Did you ever get that message?

Just a thought, but reading the input from others I tend to agree its either a compass issue or IMU issue.

I hope you are able to get back into the air soon!

michaelanthony. Posted at 2015-5-15 12:18
How about power lines, the RC park I fly at is lined with Power Lines all down one side, in fact,  ...

There was no power-line around , I did not get any message like that. Thank you for your thoughts though.

Where is DJI-Autumn? Please take a look my flylog, and let me know what is going on. Thank you.

So I called DJI, they did not know what's going on with the bird, so sent it back to DJI for diagnosing. will wait for their feedback.. I will keep it up here.

howie121218@gma Posted at 2015-5-14 06:02
I don't think so it's the issue, cause it was fly on the same concrete road without any problem.

Your road is concrete? or asphalt? Asphalt is black and has no rebar or wire mesh, concrete almost always has steel reinforcement which will interfere with a compass calibration.

I had a similar issue at the farm, I did a calibration but was within maybe 30 feet of a galvanized steel mill shed. The aircraft took off like a drunk and was very unstable to fly. I managed to wrestle it to the ground before it smashed into something. So any metal, including keys, phone, car etc. must be well away from the aircraft during calibration. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Just a thought, but if you were flying it for that long (2 hours as you stated) something over heated?  Maybe not causing a permanent problem but maybe enough to throw off the gps?

busclas Posted at 2015-5-23 18:56
Just a thought, but if you were flying it for that long (2 hours as you stated) something over heate ...

Not sure about the issue, but when I got home, I upgraded the new firmware, and changed different battery, everything shows safe to fly, did IMU, calibrate compass, it still did the same thing, it automatically fly away as soon as I took off. I only took off about 2-3 feet, because there are trees,  in order not to crash it if it go crazy.