- Joined
- Jun 30, 2014
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi Guys, Hope this may be of interest to someone. Coming from the Phantom Quads, I have only had my I1 since July 1st. Having had 8 to 10 successful flights it was love all over again. Then one day I was prepping for a flight showing(off) a friend the steps I go through from taking it out of the case to actual take off. Well this was where my problem begins, I was doing more talking than paying attention to what I was doing. When I connected the gimbal to the aircraft I noticed it didn't fit in place as smooth as it normally does, but I continued on. When it was ready I powered up the RC and iPad opened the Pilot app and the powered up the I1. The camera did it's normal dance and everything looked good. Except the app shows a "Disconnected". When i dropped down the status it showed an error message, "needs firmware upgrade" Well since I had upgraded the firmware to the latest version before I ever flew it, this was perplexing. But thinking in my mind that the firmware could possibly be corrupted, i reformatted a memory card and downloaded the " latest firmware" from the DJI support site, went through all the steps of upgrading the firmware. Every time I did this the light would stay a flashing yellow and I would never hear any beeps. After waiting 25 minutes plus on all three attempts I would always get the text file message saying" failed." Worrying that this somewhat major investment was now bricked, I emailed DJI quote "24 hour support" and was notified that the offices were closed on weekends. Well after a very long weekend feeling dejected. Just for something to do and not knowing how long I was going to be grounded I decided to deplete my three fully charged batteries to 50%. It was during this time when I picked up the aircraft and visually inspected the airframe for any loose connection or flaws. I noticed the circuit board in the quick connect gimbal, that one of the miniature contacts was bent. Thinking I could straighten it I used everything from a razor blade to precision tweezers and could make it look straight but not in line with the rest of the pins and the upgrade firmware returned when I applied power. I searched the various Inspire 1 forums but could find no mention of this type of error. After searching the different DJI Parts vendors I did find the circuit board, it is DJI Part # 30 with a cost of $30.00. Since this was the only item on the aircraft that was not a 100%, I took a chance ordered a new part Monday and received Wednesday morning. Replaced the suspected part with the new one, fired it up and all the errors went away. My I1 is back good as new and yeah I could've sent it back to DJI under warranty and waited 6 plus weeks, but as far as I'm concerned it's the best $30.00 i could've spent. I had planed to upload a picture of the circuit board to show how minor the damage that caused me so much trouble, but I haven't researched how to upload pictures yet. Safe Flying and Happy Landings everyone.
