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Crashed my Inspire Help Required
2094 37 2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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Sadly today my Inspire 1 V2 crashed and I'm wondering if anyone can offer some advice. I was videoing around a TV mast which I have done work on many times before. It's approximately  400ft high and I flew up to the top without any issue and flew back down, I then hovered for about 10 secs and flew back up. At the top I moved back from the tower and started an anti click wise rotation. I then lost the video feed followed by loss of gps (perhaps at the same time, I can't remember) . This was followed by a total loss of signal and the return to home warning. This never happened, it simply fell from the sky and crashed. On finding it, I removed the sd card and the video stops exactly when it stopped on my iPad. I had expected to see a video of it tumbling to the ground but no, it's almost as if the Inspire was switched off. Some facts that may or may not be relevant.The battery was charged that morning, put in the inspire and an  IMU and gimbal calibration performed, the battery read 97% after this.

4 hours later on site, a compass cal was performed on site.
I then started the flight and this happened 3 mins 10 secs into the flight
There was no glitches at the end of the video, it simply stopped as if you had pressed the stop button.
I do understand there could be some interference from the mast but could that switch off the Inspire, if indeed it was switched off?
If you were videoing and the power was cut, would the video have a nice neat ending?
On returning home and powering it all up (making a dreadful noise and no image from broken camera) the battery is showing 70%

If anyone has any further questions that can shine any light on this Black Friday please just ask.

Totally gutted, beer is now required
2016-9-23
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Movin on
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I would suggest a stronger drink and a call to DJI repair.
2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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Movin on Posted at 2016-9-23 18:31
I would suggest a stronger drink and a call to DJI repair.

Think as the night progresses you might be correct!!!!
2016-9-23
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Donnie
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Battery shorted in flight, I would  examine the battery .That is my guess anyway.  Also look at the battery connection to the Inspire , is that showing any signs of breakage ore pre-mature wear.  I see many pilots push there batteries into the the battery terminals ( and bend or damage them )  rather than straight down into the craft and then make connection .
The Tower I feel has nothing to do with it , kind of like the Ransom note in the Jon' Benet Ramsey case, a red Herring that will try to throw you off.
The aircraft has 4 pins that engage when the battery is mounted and locked in place , any damge here ?  Or look at the battery ( next to the main blade slide ins )  where the copper  touch the 4 pins , is it firmly in place or is it loose where it may have lost connection?

Sorry for the crash , did you find any other clues postmortem ?

  donnie


2016-9-23
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aidan.mcdonnell
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That's unfortunate to hear. Did you check if the battery shows any charge? We can then determine if there was a short/loss of power as mentioned above.
2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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Donnie Posted at 2016-9-23 19:29
Battery shorted in flight, I would  examine the battery .That is my guess anyway.  Also look at the  ...

The battery looks fine and on reconnecting up my ipad it shows 70%. It has had about 6 charges so its quite new, its a tb48, dont know if that makes any difference. I was wondering about the tower myself......so many variables grrrr
2016-9-23
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aidan.mcdonnell Posted at 2016-9-23 19:36
That's unfortunate to hear. Did you check if the battery shows any charge? We can then determine if  ...

See above Aidan. Thanks
2016-9-23
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Donnie
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-23 13:47
The battery looks fine and on reconnecting up my ipad it shows 70%. It has had about 6 charges so  ...

Did it ever show a cell broken warning ? Inspect the Wirng from where the Battery connects to the Aircraft, anything look amiss here ?  The way i8t sounds to me is the Aircraft lost power suddenly so ie battery or the Battery connection.  
Was the battery off\on  when you recovered it or did it Pop Out ?
The RTH would also be indicative of the craft sensing low voltage,  or if you lost video for at least 6 seconds or signal for at least 3 which the latter 2  you say was not the case.

donnie

2016-9-23
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aidan.mcdonnell
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Sure could have been the tower, but its hard to tell. I've heard of many instances where drones have been 'scrambled' or hijacked by antennas, radio towers, even jet fighters...

What makes it more confusing is that you said you had no problems flying up the first time. Maybe it had something to do with the positioning or timing depending on if the tower was on or not.
Take a look at this link: http://www.phantompilots.com/thr ... ion-antennas.29587/
Quote (noiseboy72): "[size=14.6667px]But this won't help if the transmitter is so powerful that it swamps the receiver on the quad. ANY frequency with enough power will black out the reception on the receiver, so get too close to a big TV mast or high power directional disk and you are in trouble."
2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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Donnie Posted at 2016-9-23 19:54
Did it ever show a cell broken warning ? Inspect the Wirng from where the Battery connects to the A ...

No it did lose the gps and rf signal then said returning to home. flight log has battery at 72%
2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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The battery was on when I found it!!
2016-9-23
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DJI-Jamie
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I'm sorry for your loss. Have you contacted the European Support team to see if the unit can be salvaged? They can perform flight data analysis as well to see what went wrong.
2016-9-23
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R&L Aerial
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Sounds to me like your inspire connected with that big antenna
2016-9-23
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RichJ53
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Firstly, I am sorry for your loss! Unfortunately with radio controlled aircraft it will be difficult to know what exactly went wrong. The data logs could possibly help determine the root cause. It sounds like radio interference or just loss of power to the main board.

Get the files to DJI and let us know what you find out

Rich
2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-9-23 22:06
I'm sorry for your loss. Have you contacted the European Support team to see if the unit can be salv ...

Jamie, could you send me the details of where I should send it. I was conducting tests with the Inspire prior to purchasing a 600 with a sony alpha 7 rii on it, so now feel very very nervous about the whole thing. If you can send me the details I would be most grateful. Thanks
2016-9-23
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R&L Aerial  Posted at 2016-9-23 23:12
Sounds to me like your inspire connected with that big antenna

Perhaps via some signal but certainly not, physically!
2016-9-23
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Helipilot
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RichJ53 Posted at 2016-9-24 01:18
Firstly, I am sorry for your loss! Unfortunately with radio controlled aircraft it will be difficult ...

Thanks Rich, I will once I manage to get the files off the inspire. I use a mac and for some reason it doesn't seem to see the Inspire when connected.....nothings ever easy!!!
2016-9-23
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Machoman
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-23 21:27
No it did lose the gps and rf signal then said returning to home. flight log has battery at 72%

That means almost nothing.

Check the logfiles for voltage and how much voltage shown at the last entry.
2016-9-24
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Helipilot
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Machoman Posted at 2016-9-24 14:16
That means almost nothing.

Check the logfiles for voltage and how much voltage shown at the last  ...

Hi thanks, can you tell me exactly how I do that  macho man as I'm new to DJI. Thanks
2016-9-24
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DJI-Jamie
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-24 14:07
Jamie, could you send me the details of where I should send it. I was conducting tests with the In ...

You would send an email to support.e@dji.com and they can set you up with a RMA. In addition, you would want to sync your flight records from the DJI Go app and supply your DJI account email to them.
2016-9-24
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Helipilot
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-9-24 18:55
You would send an email to  and they can set you up with a RMA. In addition, you would want to syn ...

Thanks, how exactly do I sync the data?

Thanks
2016-9-24
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DJI-Jamie
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-25 06:09
Thanks, how exactly do I sync the data?

Thanks

When you go into "flight records" you will see a cloud icon at the top of the screen. You would select that button in order to start syncing.
2016-9-24
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Cougar1
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-24 14:09
Thanks Rich, I will once I manage to get the files off the inspire. I use a mac and for some reaso ...

You need a windows machine in order to get the DAT files of the flight controller using the usb connection in the back of the inspire, used to be able to do it on a Mac but it was changed sometime last year. Tried this many times.
2016-9-24
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Cougar1 Posted at 2016-9-24 23:24
You need a windows machine in order to get the DAT files of the flight controller using the usb co ...

Thanks cougar, been going mad here trying to sort it. I'll dig out my old laptop. Thanks
2016-9-24
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-9-24 23:11
When you go into "flight records" you will see a cloud icon at the top of the screen. You would se ...

Thanks jamie, I've done that now, so all I need to send them is my sign on name which is my email....right? Appreciate all the help.
2016-9-24
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-9-24 23:11
When you go into "flight records" you will see a cloud icon at the top of the screen. You would se ...

Thanks jamie, I've done that now, so all I need to send them is my sign on name which is my email....right? Appreciate all the help.
2016-9-24
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DJI-Jamie
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-25 14:01
Thanks jamie, I've done that now, so all I need to send them is my sign on name which is my email. ...

That's correct, just provide them with that email and let them know the dates to review (so it's not a needle in a haystack scenario) and you would be good to go.
2016-9-26
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-9-26 17:52
That's correct, just provide them with that email and let them know the dates to review (so it's no ...

All sent, thanks for your help. What is the average response time I can expect? Thanks
2016-9-26
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DJI-Jamie
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-9-27 01:12
All sent, thanks for your help. What is the average response time I can expect? Thanks

I would say the average response time is about 24-48 hours.
2016-9-26
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Helipilot
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Thanks Jamie.
2016-9-26
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DJI-Jamie
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You're welcome.
2016-9-26
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Helipilot
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Well DJI have repaired/replaced the unit and its on its way back to me under warranty, so 10/10 guys. HOWEVER, I have now on 3 separate occasions asked what happened as I've lost confidence in the unit. The TV mast was not on during the flight, this has been 100% confirmed, so it looks like the inspire developed a problem causing it to just fall from the sky. I was hoping the dat files and the fact that DJI could get perhaps further info from the inspire itself that I might have got some sort of report. Has anyone had a machine replaced or repaired without an explanation as to what went wrong. I don't want to sound ungrateful but some of my work is in built up areas and the thought of it falling on someone is just horrific!!!
2016-10-15
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markaguille
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-10-15 09:54
Well DJI have repaired/replaced the unit and its on its way back to me under warranty, so 10/10 guys ...

All the Inspire I have heard of falling out the sky have been from losing a blade, clipping something in flight or from taking off with less than 100% battery. There is a known issue with the batteries and it is advised to take off with no less than 100%.
2016-10-15
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markaguille Posted at 2016-10-15 23:14
All the Inspire I have heard of falling out the sky have been from losing a blade, clipping someth ...

Well it wasn't a blade issue and the battery was above 70% when it was recovered. There were no issues with any of the cells during the flight as per the log files, I'm hoping I will get a reply from DJI as to the nature of the problem.
2016-10-16
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naildrivingman
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My experience was not the same and not as tragic, but I flew off an abandoned railroad trestle (all steel in construction) with a chainlink fence guardrail.  This trestle is a walking bridge that spans a local river valley.  I thought it would be cool to fly off the trestle and descend into the valley for some video and stills.  The first few attempts went well, but on the third attempt I took off and the bird banked hard to one side and luckily crashed into the chain link fence, otherwise it would have been a 100' drop into the river.  The damage was limited to broken props, a few scratches and little chipped pride as there were a few people watching this (from a safe distance of course).  I decided that there was too much metal in the immediate vicinity.  I have no proof of this and did not submit anything to DJI for diagnostics or repair.

My solution is that I simply will not fly around a large amount of metal in the future.  I don't know if this information bears any merit, but it works for me and that's just fine.
2016-10-16
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markaguille
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Helipilot Posted at 2016-10-16 11:51
Well it wasn't a blade issue and the battery was above 70% when it was recovered. There were no is ...

You say the battery was above 70%, but was it at 100%? Any less than 100% and batteries have been known to fail. I know this does not seem logical so is hard for people to understand but DJI have warned against taking off with anything less than 100% battery specifically because of this.

I know, doesn't make sense right?
2016-10-16
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markaguille Posted at 2016-10-16 13:53
You say the battery was above 70%, but was it at 100%? Any less than 100% and batteries have been  ...

It was above 70% when I found it on the ground after a 4 min flight. It had been fully charged and I had done a compass calibration, so it was about 98%. In other words 100 less the time for the calibration.
2016-10-16
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naildrivingman@ Posted at 2016-10-16 12:24
My experience was not the same and not as tragic, but I flew off an abandoned railroad trestle (all  ...

Thanks for that. The strange thing was it was if the inspire just switched off but when I found it the battery was still on and showing 72%. The video also stopped up in the air at the same time. I thought I would have had video of it tumbling to he ground but no. It was like an in air shutdown but battery still being on???? It was next to a steel structure and I could see it perhaps affecting the signal from the controller to the inspire but surely not switching it off while keeping the battery on. I'm going to chase up DJI for a full report and will let you know the outcome if interested. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
2016-10-16
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