Are the DJI Inspire Primary and Slave controllers the same? For instance if the primary remote was damaged or the battery was dead, could you use the slave remote to fly as you normally would? I am not talking about switching mid flight, but I am talking about configuring the remote in the app on the ground before the flight begins.

Right! the are totally the same so you can set Master\Slave remotes in APP

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-8-11 10:26
They are identical units.

The only difference being in the way that they are "paired" with the airc ...

100% correct

Thank you, PaulKerry, timswimm  and DJI-Dave!

ioshua Posted at 2015-8-12 00:51
Thank you, PaulKerry, timswimm  and DJI-Dave!

This brings up another question.  Why do we need an identical unit to pilot the camera?  Id like to see a less costly slave that is only a slave.

From what I understand, the primary remote communicates with the Inspire 1 via 2.4 ghz, and the primary remote communicates with the slave remote via 5.8 ghz. Please correct me if I am wrong. My question is does the 2.4 and 5.8 share the same antennas?

ioshua Posted at 2015-8-16 08:31
From what I understand, the primary remote communicates with the Inspire 1 via 2.4 ghz, and the prim ...

Yes, when looking down at your TX the antenna on the left side houses both the 2.4 GHz and the 5.8 GHz antennas.  The antenna on the right is only 2.4 GHz.

So if you upgrade your primary controller with a range/power extension do you loose the ability to have 5.8 GHz communication with a slave controller?

ioshua Posted at 2015-8-18 06:01
So if you upgrade your primary controller with a range/power extension do you loose the ability to h ...

This is what I  used for my Inspire-1 and it works great!
http://dbsmods.com/

Here is the tutorial video which will answer your question.
You will see in the video that you have a choice of what to do with the stock antennas and the 5.8 GHz component of it.  I chose to leave my original stock antennas in place & I kept the 5.8 GHz part of it unmodified.

tkeeg Posted at 2015-8-18 12:11
This is what I  used for my Inspire-1 and it works great!
http://dbsmods.com/

Thanks tkeeg. How and why did you select DBS over FPVLR? How far have you been?

ioshua Posted at 2015-8-19 02:51
Thanks tkeeg. How and why did you select DBS over FPVLR? How far have you been?

I did a lot of research & spoke to the makers of both antenna systems trying to gleam as much info as I could.  It was a hard decision, but I think I made the right decision for me.  The DBS antenna system is very sleek & compact and travels well. I am not really interested in flying more than a mile or so, but I do want to have better penetration of trees, building, etc..  I read as many articles as I could find on both antenna systems and this one caught my eye more than all the rest, especially posts # 15 & 18.http://www.inspirepilots.com/threads/stock-to-fpvlr-to-dbs-antenna-mod-comparison.4574/
With the DBS system I have flown my Inspire a distance of 6,600 feet at an altitude of about 300 feet across a substantial forest and at that range began to get low control signal, but my video signal was still 5 bars.
I have also flown 2,500 feet away at only 140 feet altitude, across a forrest with no line of sight before beginning to loose conterol & video signal.  I don't think you can go wrong with either system, but I am very happy with the DBS system and would buy it again in a heartbeat, especially at only $109.00.
What I really like about both systems, is that I now have SMA connectors mounted on my TX and I can now screw on any kind of antenna I want to use.  I can mount large Yaggi antennas on tripods and run wires from them to my Tx and have nearly unlimited capabilities.......
One other thing, I placed my Inspire at the far end of my back yard (about 125 feet from house) and had my Tx in the house with 3 walls between myself and the aircraft and had perfect 5 bar reception on both control & video.

Thank you, tkeeg!