I had a small accident with my Inspire 1and it ended up with a small amount of damage to a part that isn't vital to flight.

http://blog.supasympa.com/2015/02/09/dji-inspire-1-bounce-test-passed/

So I wanted to understand how easy it would be to fix it. Through my curiosity I decided to purchase a broken Inspire 1 aircraft and take it apart for my own knowledge and to share this knowledge with others. If I can make some money from a repair or selling it as spares then that's even better.

So - I'm looking to deconstruct /dismantle / teardown a broken Inspire1 aircraft so that we can all see what we're flying.

I'd hoped that other Inspire owners would be just as interested - seeing as if you crash your Inspire, you tread on it, your car runs it over or you drop it - you're going to have to fix it orpay to get it fixed.

If you're interested please let me know at :

http://blog.supasympa.com

Twitter: @supasympa

This is not an anti DJI thing, simply imparting knowledge that I'm hoping to get myself.

** DISCLAIMER - I'm not recommending that anyone repairs their Inspire 1 themselves, you should let professionals do it especially if you're not confident, you'll likely void your warranty bytaking your Inspire 1 apart **

So where is the link I click so I can view the teardown?  

Chris Con Posted at 2015-2-22 08:04
So where is the link I click so I can view the teardown?

My point is I'm not going to bother if no one is interested!

supasympa Posted at 2015-2-22 08:09
My point is I'm not going to bother if no one is interested!

I think MANY people would be interested.  I know I am.

What size are the hex bolts?

Yes Im, very interested

We are all interested..  Lets see you do this.  Great idea.  

I would love to see a tear down. To understand the bird and help with future repairs I won't pay someone else to do if it's not warranty.
where do I sign up???

Exellent ! Idea you had obtaining the crashed unit for parts and full dissection ... Exellent !

Confidence no problem as I see it , torn down just about everything , and a couple phantoms this is needed extra knowledge if your gonna hang with the inspire . Exellent !

supasympa Posted at 2015-2-22 08:09
My point is I'm not going to bother if no one is interested!

Post it on you tube it will go viral within the dji community and more , like mic bergsma  and the GoPro tutorials he's done ... Check him out Exellent info , but no ones got the inspire gig yet on a decent tear down job , you'll be famous ! ... Just seeing the real exploded views laid out would be super !! Definitely would like to see them on YouTube and then be a subscriber for your videos ! Ok then hope to see somthing .

How much do you want for the foot? I broke the white damper in mine.

I Know I would like to see a complete tare down video of the Inspire 1, I agree Post it on You Tube it will grow viral.

Yes, I am definitely interested!

Interested!

supasympa Posted at 2015-2-22 08:09
My point is I'm not going to bother if no one is interested!

of course we are all interested. Even if I never do a tear down I have always wanted to know how things come apart and go back together and the "critical" points in a system.

Interested!

Yes we are all interested.
Please go ahead and take it apart and video tape it, and if you really want to be a pioneer and do us all right please perform the following, also video taping each event.
1) Crash it from super high altitude.
2) Hang a heavy object from it while in flight
3) Freeze it
4) Set fire to it
5) Pull a banner behind it
6) fly it upside down
7) pull the legs apart until you hear it cracking and then fly it
8) drive over it with your car
9) fly it past max altitude until it cant be controlled anymore and record that altitude.
10) same with distance

I am interested

Intrested a lot !!!

I mentioned this before.....No response!!

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... %2BDown&lang=en

But of a working unit.

Any ideas what this box is for on the rear of the Inspire:

Inspirehttp://s1123.photobucket.com/user/GB114/slideshow/Inspire%201

A battery power expansion module?

Any ideas what this box is for on the rear of the Inspire:

Inspirehttp://s1123.photobucket.com/user/GB114/slideshow/Inspire%201

Hi,

So from the limited dismantling of the frame I did over the weekend, here are a couple of (surprising) things I've learned:

* The carbon fibre arms (legs / booms - whatever) are single pieces of CF with holes in the middle to feed the wires from the CF lever arms that lift them.
* The plastic mounts at the end of the arm are bonded to the carbon fibre with what I'm guessing is epoxy or CA.
* The shock absorbers that are formed as part of the Inspire 1 feet are bonded to the plastic - effectively creating a single sealed part (again I expect that is bonded with CA)

What does this mean? I have a list of spares that DJI are offering for the Inspire 1 and neither the landing gear feet, frame arms or shocks are on that list.

If you have a rough landing, or worse still a crash, and damage any of these things it's going to be VERY difficult to fix this without returning the whole aircraft to DJI or (I'm guessing) an approved dealer. I understand several reasons for this, from a safety perspective but ultimately I think this is a business decision on the part of DJI.

I think that it might be useful for us Inspire Pilots to setup a virtual scrap yard on here so that we might be able to trade parts!

more to follow ...

As soon as I have edited some of the footage I'll post it on Youtube.

I won't be flying this aircraft any time soon - and likely never again if I'm not 100% satisfied with it. This is currently just an expensive jigsaw (for anyone that was concerned about my idiocy!)

Supasympa- speaking of a virtual scrap yard... How much do you want for that foot (plastic part only, no electronics)?

Klon Posted at 2015-2-23 23:33
Supasympa- speaking of a virtual scrap yard... How much do you want for that foot (plastic part only ...

@Klon Hi. At the moment it's probably not for sale, you're the 2nd person to ask on this thread and on Twitter there was a guy who has broken all 4 of the feet! (must have been some landing!) and one shock in my (main) Inspire is broken which was what started me on all this ...

The foot would come with light cover, light wiring and antenna and include the damper / shock. If I was going to sell it now it would cost £100+P&P just because of the high demand that I'd expect.  

I hope that DJI start selling these as spares!

markaguille Posted at 2015-2-23 02:22
How much do you want for the foot? I broke the white damper in mine.

Please see the message to Klon above.

Eric Chang and Tahoe Ed said early on in the introduction of the I1that the craft is NOT crashworthy.
You are discovering what we were told.
There will be replacement assemblies, but probably not many individual replacement parts.

Eric Cheng and Tahoe Ed said that the I1 is not "crashworthy". Really? Wow, I'd be interested to hear that repeated and explained. Does that mean they didn't think it would do well in a crash or just that it would be hard to fix!
Can you direct me to where they made these comments?

Brilliant experiment, keep up the good work for us!

Quick update:

I bought a small amount of acetone from a pharmacy here in the UK and have soaked one end of the Inspire 1 arm in it for around 90 minutes and the epoxy that bonds the CF and the epoxy resin that sticks it to the plastic did become easier to remove so I think that soaking the arm in more acetone and some grinding / sanding should allow me to free the plastic pieces from the arm completely.

Interested - Hell Yeah we are interested!!!!! Tell me someone who doesn't break something and that will be someone who doesn't do anything!


Get Cracking on that Rubix cube and hook us up with the YouTube Nitty Gritty!

Thanks,

Thanks for all of your posts supasympa. It's interesting following along with someone who is doing things that none of us have done yet.

supasympa Posted at 2015-2-24 02:35
Eric Cheng and Tahoe Ed said that the I1 is not "crashworthy". Really? Wow, I'd be interested to hea ...

Eric Cheng interview:

Listen to his comment @ 21:20...

For Ed's comments, you'll just have to read some of his posts over on RCG.
He made the crash worthiness and repair complexity comment to me in a phone conversation...

T J Gilbert Posted at 2015-2-24 23:28
Eric Cheng interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMBpSY5IXdQ#t=1404
Listen to his comment @ 21 ...

Thanks TJ. Much appreciated.

So I've just got around to writing an introduction to what I'm hoping to do. Sorry for the amount of time this is taking ... I have a lot of other work and have to fit this in in my spare time.

http://blog.supasympa.com/2015/0 ... rdown-introduction/

More coming soon I hope.

@Tahoe_Ed - if you or someone else at DJI are able to comment on the questions I have around warranty and the cost of replacing a shock I'd be really happy to reflect this in my blog posts.

supasympa Posted at 2015-2-25 00:48
Thanks TJ. Much appreciated.

No problem.
And I'm not being sarcastic...
A crashworthy flying machine is pretty much an oxymoron.

T J Gilbert Posted at 2015-2-25 00:53
No problem.
And I'm not being sarcastic...
A crashworthy flying machine is pretty much an oxymoron ...

If I'd heard that comment before I'd bought one, I would never have purchased an Inspire 1.

I've never had any intention of crashing an Inspire 1 but I think that if you spend any considerable amount of time in the air you increase the likelihood of having something bad happen. It's a shame to think that the only route from then is to send it back to DJI to get it repaired, for electronics or serious repair I understand completely but for mechanical parts I'd hope that wouldn't be the case.

I'm sure that a lot of design thinking went into the design and build of the Inspire 1 to balance it and make it perform as well as it does and I expect that this is what is making repairs to the mechanical parts more difficult but for a machine that costs upwards of £2k and is marketed to enthusiasts and professionals it would be good to know what to expect if one breaks - I don't feel I was fully aware of this until I started to take this one apart.

supasympa Posted at 2015-2-25 01:47
If I'd heard that comment before I'd bought one, I would never have purchased an Inspire 1.

I've ...

Again, no sarcasm here...

The information I'm sharing with you is out there.
Did you do some research before you purchased?
The RTF multirotors are not in the same category as the DIY utilitarian frames.
The pro level frames are not as easily repaired as the hobby level frames.

You sound like a photographer/videographer turned pilot.
Not a pilot turned camera buff.
True?

Those of us that have flown RC for years have always accepted the fact that you will eventually crash.
And a crash is usually a total cata$trophe.
Also, nothing to do with flying has ever been warranted like DJI warrants stuff now.
It was always fly at your own risk.
And, this hobby has never been cheap.