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Flyaway! GPS? Probably Not....

Hi Eric,
Are you saying you have basically had 3 flyaway situations on different occasions/locations? I might be reading that wrong.
If that is the case you appear to have something fundamentally wrong with your aircraft!
Have you contacted DJI and got the logs to them?
You may have more of an issue than just bad calibration etc. There have been a few instances of faulty flight controllers and if you are saying you still could not control the Inspire after switching to Atti then it does seem to point to flight controller/IMU issues.

Yes three, Agreed. I've got 160 flights with more than 20 hours up approximately 5 minutes of white knuckled flying. I've sent the logs and I'm still waiting on something other than the acknowledgment email from back from DJi. I don't calibrate my compass if my mods are good. After all three situations my readings were off after I landed high & low (1700's,1300's,1700's) and I danced after those three flights. Once back in range I get smooth flights again. I've got a perfectly flat spot that I've done most of my IMU calibrations and like I've said I always check my MODs and only take off after I'm with range... Except for this last time I was in the 1600's and down in the 1500's after take off. Which I've had to do lately at a few different spots, only having issues this last time. The previous two fly offs I took off with perfect readings. The first fly off I was on my 6th battery of the day in the sticks away from everything. The second time, battery two, near buildings and power lines, and this last one, in front of my house, wifi everywhere, first battery, first flight... I don't believe my problems are from external sources. So basically I know I've got a major gremlin running around. I do believe from reading the others that have had issues that we are experiencing strikingly similar problems. Bad batch of FC's, faulty IMU's I don't know. From my 15 years of working on AC (USAF) I do know that "Gremlins" are hard to catch. :-(
 
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Im in WI and had the same thing happen today. Lucky I got it back under control by switching from GPS to ATTI a bunch of times. Also lucky I had visual on the drone to keep it somewhat stable while it got back under control. I think its the solar flares. Im sticking with that.
 
image.jpg I'd say it's been a bit high. Very possible. Nice job. Yah, switching at least has an effect, but wasn't the cure all I'd hoped for.
 
Hi Drone Mastery
I have looked at your video and timings and would like to make the following observations..
You and your friend are sitting in an enclosed area with your backs to a building and with a building on your right hand side these are two "RC blind areas".
Your problems start at exactly the same moment as your friend accelerates away and possibly behind the blind area.
Maybe the RC got confused about which I1 to connect with?
Just a thought...


David,
That could be possible, one thing i didn't take into consideration is that The Editor asked if we were on auto channel select, {And we were}, even though we have flown together many times before, there just could be that one chance that a signal got crossed, good point....
 
My point to the directional inquire, thanks!. Good to rule out one general direction. Come to think of it my first was north at first but then south back towards me without commands. Staying cool is hard but essential! Basically from my first and third un-authorized "missions" I've learned to first go up and then try everything... Whatever seems to be working do that and then usually repeat the process until she stops or until she's back at your feet. My second attempted un-authorized mission she started to take off a few seconds after a auto take off (a friend that was next to me slid the bar) surrounded by people and cars and buildings. I choose down and counter left to her pitched 45 right, luckily to a safe skidding stop. I'm sure I've now lost years on my ticker. Sadley I'm getting used to this and my hands only shook for 20-30 minutes afterwards this time. The first time they were shaking like a leaf on a tree, during a hurricane, for almost two hours. Luckily during the events I don't feel like I have time for that nonsense. Great job getting yours back. I know if you don't keep your cool, you won't be as "lucky". I can't really fault anybody that looses theirs during what I've experienced. Pilot skill and luck required!

Eric,
I agree about keeping calm, it gives us that little time to think out a logical alternative rather then continue to keep trying to fight it. I feel terrible for anyone that has tried and lost there I1..
 
Im in WI and had the same thing happen today. Lucky I got it back under control by switching from GPS to ATTI a bunch of times. Also lucky I had visual on the drone to keep it somewhat stable while it got back under control. I think its the solar flares. Im sticking with that.

Jeff, great news to hear you were able to save it, hope we come up with a definite source, but who's to say. Happy Flying
 
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I also heard of similar problems with two Inspire Pilots flying in close proximity which resulted in the one aircraft Pilot losing control and his aircraft entering a return to home. When they then moved to 30+m apart they flew both aircraft without problems.
 
Same thing Happen to me a almost 2 months a go! finally got my bird back from DJI as they asked to shipped them my I1 for a check up. I got it back and they said that nothing is wrong with it that the Firmware update probably fixed the Issue. I don't know if there's a way to check the latest flight with my inspire one! Attahed is the link to the video of the flight log...
i was able to bring it back and i had to do a hard landing as I was afraid that something else would happen at that moment. Sucks not to have an answere as to what cause this issue!
 
I would re-bind controller to the aircraft, but the fact the roll on the gimbal was fooked and twitchy, I would check your gimbal pins as well- something may be shorting out the bird causing other issues. Good to see someone switching to ATTi to let the bird settle down. By far this is the simplest way to stop the "flying away" at speed issue to bide you time.
 
I would re-bind controller to the aircraft, but the fact the roll on the gimbal was fooked and twitchy, I would check your gimbal pins as well- something may be shorting out the bird causing other issues. Good to see someone switching to ATTi to let the bird settle down. By far this is the simplest way to stop the "flying away" at speed issue to bide you time.
Well here is a story using GPS to assist and avert a possible horrible crash.

I was flying at approx 20m altitude and about 80m horizontally away, flying in atti mode and just hovering when all of a sudden the aircraft starts to spin uncontrollably and I can see something hanging from it. I simply struggle to gain control and at this point starting to wonder what the hell is going to happen next. Trying to remain calm, I decide to switch into GPS mode to see if that can help stabilise the aircraft, it certainly helps although not fully and it continues to spin although certainly not as much.

So all the time I am trying to get the aircraft down by bring it down in a 45° angle. I eventually manage to get it to about 1 foot off the ground and just get it down. It hits the ground with one engine on the front and the prop just pops straight off. (I was using the old the props with the clip on prop locks).

When I approach the aircraft I find that amazingly the only apparent damage is the prop that flew off. Then I look closer and realise the reason for the issue, the support strut/rod had came out of its socket on the aircraft, which is what I could see hanging from the aircraft whilst it was spinning at altitude.

So this I think is an example of where GPS helped to stabilise the aircraft sufficiently to assist in getting the aircraft on the ground.

Just thought I would point out that ATTI mode is not always the answer to everything and as a Pilot everything should be considered and used if necessary.
 
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i did some testing today, and it works as with any other controller out there.

i have a camping table (not sure what is made of) what i can tell from the mod values is that its crazy on the Compass, i turned on my inspire on the table and let it do the calibration dance on the gimbal.

results were pretty bad the aircraft was alway about 30/35 degree inclined to the left, thought i could still control it it was tilted and trying to rotate constantly, i did this 5 / 6 times with the same result.

so you should be very careful how / where you turn your inspire 1 on, and if you see anything erratic land and do a power cycle.
 
Wow!!!!

I have HAD THIS EXACT problem THREE times. Your narrative of this problem is perfect! By the grace of the deal lord was able to recover my birds (yes, thats plural. Two of them). Because of what I do for a living, I was able to have our Director of RF Engineering come out to my property with a Agilent and Spectral Analysis device (about a 70K piece of equipment). Lots of interesting information here, too long to type out. Bottom line, RF is NOT causing our issues. So one MAJOR issue is eliminated from the variable list. We should really do a conference call and talk about what to do. This just is not the best way for bi-lateral dialogue.

For what it is worth, I'm the CEO of a Software company. These issues are NOT related to your android or iOS device either. That said, to be safest, it's best to use a simple iOS ver8.x device with no other software with ALL of its radio's turned OFF (e.g., in the airplane mode). We do MAJOR application dev for both platforms. We love them both. When it comes to aviation, you want as few variables as possible. Using a 'walled-garden' device affords that. Anyway, I can explain our CTO's view on that (he's on of the best connected device/mobile experts in the world) if we can jump on a call. I'd also invite anyone else with this problem to join a call too. If you want to do this; let me know and I'll set up a bridge that we can dial into. Best, Mike

This morning a friend and I went flying our I1's and flew 4 batteries each after new app upgrade. The lag on both I1's was terrible, both of us experienced app closing out in the middle of flights. He had 2 incidents of app closing during flight and I had 3 failure of app during mid flight, lag was terrible. (He is using a Tab 4 and I am using my Samsung Tab S 10.5) Been using these for quite sometime now, I have never had a app issue until now.
So we went back to the house and decided to get 1 more flight to double check the app before reinstalling the old version. I check all sensor values before every flight and calibrate compass when we fly in different areas. Mind you, I have never had a issue with my I1 until now... (88 flights 481,994 ft. perfect)

The reason why I'm posting this is because not only a flyaway occurred but something very different happened and it is cause for concern. GPS could have been the initial problem however atti mode was not functioning properly. Full battery, 17 satellites and Full Signal Prior to takeoff. IMU settings 1480, gps 1 ect...

I had full radio and gps signal, battery 78%(at the time of incident)

Timeline of events that occurred...

:30 "Battery Signal Loss" came up for less then 2 seconds, went away. (TB48 7 charges total)
1:10 noticed "yaw" slowed as i was following his I1 then completely stopped
1:17 Flyaway occurred I1 turned and booted, I had no control
1:24 Emergency procedure, Switched to Atti to regain control, Atti stop the flyaway but still no yaw control, no forward flight, throttle ect. at all... Had full radio signal all radio functions all looked normal...
1:28 Hit GPS mode then tried RTH, It held position for then..
1:32 Flyaway again different direction
1:35 Switched to Atti mode again, stopped flyaway but again no radio function at all, so you can see the wind drift...
1:59 Desperate to regain control, hit GPS then RTH again. It held position once again then
2:11 RTH seemed to be working
2:15 Started Flyaway again....
2:18 Switched to ATTI again, finally radio regained control and brought it in...

The reason for this post is, Even though Atti stopped flyaway, Control from radio was not responding even while in atti.



This morning a friend and I went flying our I1's and flew 4 batteries each after new app upgrade. The lag on both I1's was terrible, both of us experienced app closing out in the middle of flights. He had 2 incidents of app closing during flight and I had 3 failure of app during mid flight, lag was terrible. (He is using a Tab 4 and I am using my Samsung Tab S 10.5) Been using these for quite sometime now, I have never had a app issue until now.
So we went back to the house and decided to get 1 more flight to double check the app before reinstalling the old version. I check all sensor values before every flight and calibrate compass when we fly in different areas. Mind you, I have never had a issue with my I1 until now... (88 flights 481,994 ft. perfect)

The reason why I'm posting this is because not only a flyaway occurred but something very different happened and it is cause for concern. GPS could have been the initial problem however atti mode was not functioning properly. Full battery, 17 satellites and Full Signal Prior to takeoff. IMU settings 1480, gps 1 ect...

I had full radio and gps signal, battery 78%(at the time of incident)

Timeline of events that occurred...

:30 "Battery Signal Loss" came up for less then 2 seconds, went away. (TB48 7 charges total)
1:10 noticed "yaw" slowed as i was following his I1 then completely stopped
1:17 Flyaway occurred I1 turned and booted, I had no control
1:24 Emergency procedure, Switched to Atti to regain control, Atti stop the flyaway but still no yaw control, no forward flight, throttle ect. at all... Had full radio signal all radio functions all looked normal...
1:28 Hit GPS mode then tried RTH, It held position for then..
1:32 Flyaway again different direction
1:35 Switched to Atti mode again, stopped flyaway but again no radio function at all, so you can see the wind drift...
1:59 Desperate to regain control, hit GPS then RTH again. It held position once again then
2:11 RTH seemed to be working
2:15 Started Flyaway again....
2:18 Switched to ATTI again, finally radio regained control and brought it in...

The reason for this post is, Even though Atti stopped flyaway, Control from radio was not responding even while in atti.



 
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