Circumstances aside, it was my fault, my Inspire went swimming. All is well with the exception of an ESC error and engines wont start as a result.

I am thinking I need a new ESC, anybody have 1 for sale ? Or a wrecked Inspire with a good ESC ?

Or any wonderful hints on how I might save this ?

In water for 10 seconds maybe, battery pulled immediately, air compressor to blow out water, and in a garbage bag full of rice. Battery won;t power up, no big deal there, but all power up looks ood, say ready to fly GPS, on start, I get the ESC error.

Any help would be appreciated !!!!!

You might need to change all motors, they should come with esc boards too. Not sure if you can buy them. The best will be to send it to DJI for service. Or just buy a new frame and use the old one for spare parts.

I may have a spare ESC soon. During the first flight of our quarry Inspire 1 it went a bit crazy and crashed into a sand and gravel bank. Not too healthy ! Busted carbon fibre arm / connectors / various scratches. Its currently with DJI in Germany awaiting a verdict on what went wrong with it

Pretty sure motors come with the esc. I'd buy a new one and fix yourself, take about ten minutes instead of two months waiting for those clowns to do it and send it back.

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-8-10 05:56
Pretty sure motors come with the esc. I'd buy a new one and fix yourself, take about ten minutes ins ...

Update: All engines start and operate. Flight is possible, but had a fly away at low altitude and was able to kill motors and "safely" crash it in lush grass, no damage. It appears that there is an issue with the right from motor, as it spins much longer on shutdown than the other 3 do. Also the flyway direction indicates this motor was the culprit.

Does the long spin time indicate the motor is out of whack ?

I don't want to fly with the possibility of another uncontrolled flight episode.
Not looking forward to a 6 week wait for DJI either

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-8-10 05:56
Pretty sure motors come with the esc. I'd buy a new one and fix yourself, take about ten minutes ins ...

Good point. I note that the motor I suspect (right front) spins niticeably longer than the other 3 do on shutdown. See my update to this thread. Summary:

Engines start, bird flys. When testing maneuvers at low altitude I had a sudden hard right fly away. I was able to shutdown and it crashed harmlessly into lush grass, no damage. I did an IMU and compass calibration and flew it a bit more with no incidents. But I am concerned that this will re-occur possibly in a dangerous fashion.

Is the spin down time of the motor indicative of a failure ? I would think so.

todd.mcgeachy@e Posted at 2015-8-13 01:03
Good point. I note that the motor I suspect (right front) spins niticeably longer than the other 3 ...

probably, how much longer?  Mine arent all in perfect time either, but only a second or two different. maybe a damaged esc controller not able to control it as well as it is supposed to.  im not 100% sure of how that all works, id not trust it either if you try it again carefully and it does the same thing.  test low and slow.

I did the same thing and haven't tried to repair yet. DJI will not repair it because of safety concerns after it being in water. Instead they are offering me a discounted replacement. I'd still like to try to replace motors and/or ESC's myself but haven't been able to find replacement parts. dronespecialist.net is out of stock and so are other sites who claim to carry them (DJI does not actually offer replacement motors on the retail market, so the few out there must have been stripped from a whole unit.

You will notice that the DJI E800 motors (http://amzn.com/B00V31AKY6) look almost identical to the I1's, but don't have the vertical mounting plates. Aside from this, do you think they are identical enough that the ESC's could work as replacements?

Todd, I will definitely remember your cautionary tale about the flyaway when testing. Maybe a short tether and some foam landing pads would be good for the first flight!

chris.w.love@gm Posted at 2015-8-25 15:56
I did the same thing and haven't tried to repair yet. DJI will not repair it because of safety conce ...

I obtained another airframe (brand new). I would be willing to discuss selling a motor and esc from the old frame. I have 3 known good motors. Are all of your fried ?

chris.w.love@gm Posted at 2015-8-25 15:56
I did the same thing and haven't tried to repair yet. DJI will not repair it because of safety conce ...

Regarding the e800 motors, note that the connections come out of the side vs. the bottom on the Inspire motors. In addition to the mounting issue.