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Motor or ESC failure - Inspire1 meets lake

Any and all info is greatly appreciated. The more I can learn about the I1 the happier I am :D
Losing a bird can be a lonely experience, so the good wishes of fellow pilots are also much appreciated.
Thanks you lot!
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...Ferdi, i had also passed along your report to 'Kauaigene' in 'Help' he also had his craft suddenly tumble out of the sky.. video
looked almost identical...
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.
...NS...
.
(repeat)

I have absolutely no idea what this abbreviation means, or the reference to 'repeat' other than possibly I am a Non Smoker (Which is correct).

And I will continue (repeat) to be a non smoker, thank you. :)
 
Yes. The FETs turn on and off at a high frequency. There are three "channels" timed in such a way to move the motor. Usually they are never always on, but pulsed on and off. If one shorts, then full power goes to the coils that FET is controlling. You will notice in the pictures that not all the coils are burned. It appears two of the three channels failed.

You could put a replacement motor in and test it to see if it runs. A brief power up shouldn't damage the motor winding. However, this should be a very quick test. If you have a shorted FET, powering it up you can try turning the prop by hand. A shorted FET will make turning the prop harder than a normal working ESC/motor.

Geo
Thank you, I learnt something today.
 
.
...Ferdi, i had also passed along your report to 'Kauaigene' in 'Help' he also had his craft suddenly tumble out of the sky.. video
looked almost identical...
.
Thank you. His incident happened a few weeks before mine. I actually watched his video and remember thinking: "That sucks! Good thing he wasn't at 400ft when that happened! Hope that doesn't happen to me while I'm over the ocean somewhere!" :oops: Funny how life works sometimes... At least it was a lake and not the ocean! :)
 
Today I lost my F550 in a lake too. The fall was identical to yours. Everything was normal after several flights without problems and suddenly he turned down.

I see this problem happen on water often. Will be any interference?

It was the first time I flew on such a large volume of water. :(
 
Today I lost my F550 in a lake too. The fall was identical to yours. Everything was normal after several flights without problems and suddenly he turned down.

I see this problem happen on water often. Will be any interference?

It was the first time I flew on such a large volume of water. :(
Welcome to the forum!

Really sorry for your loss man! Hope you could get the bird back. Somehow it makes me feel better to have it back, even if it is ruined. :)

We spend a large amount of time flying over water (usually the ocean) and I've never had this kinds problem. Interference shouldn't be a problem, but then again, what do I know? More likely it's motor/esc failure.
 
Bem-vindo ao fórum! Realmente sinto muito por sua perda homem! Espero que você poderia obter o pássaro de volta. De alguma forma isso me faz sentir melhor tê-lo de volta, mesmo que seja arruinada. Nós gastamos uma grande quantidade de tempo de voar sobre a água (geralmente o mar) e eu nunca tive esse problema os tipos. Interferência não deve ser um problema, mas, novamente, o que eu sei? O mais provável é falha no motor / esc.
Thanks. Tomorrow a diver will demand it. Hopefully it appears, maybe something to work and decrease the loss.

I am very upset because I made numerous flights perfect and so was confident of flying over a lake. Just this flight the crash happens!
 
[QUOTE="The question is: Buy the I1 or another F550 + GoPro4."[/QUOTE]
That depends on what you use it for I guess... In my humble opinion the GoPro has far better image quality than the Inspire, BUT (and it's a BIG BUT), the GoPro's auto exposure makes it almost useless to me as a flying camera. The Inspire is a beautiful, powerful, awesome machine:D. You can adjust camera settings on the fly, have a dedicated camera operator etc etc etc.

Is it perfect?

Nope...

But there's nothing on the market that gives you the bang for buck value of the Inspire.

Get an Inspire1, study the manual, use the simulator, learn to fly in Atti (I guess you can do that already) and learn from the knowledge and experience from the veteran pilots on this forum (that excludes me by the way ;)). Use common sense and you'll have an awesome time flying an awesome bird.
 
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Hey guys, I'd like some feedback on this incident and the events leading up to it. Just curious as to what your opinions are and how you would've handled the situation.

History:
On 16 June we experienced a compass error and fly away. (I couldn't attend the shoot as I had other pressing work, so my business partner did the piloting. All MOD values were good at take-off so I advised against doing a compass cal.) Anyway, when he could not get the craft back he landed in a field. The landing was soft but the craft tipped over. The pilot did a CSC and stopped the motors. No visible damage anywhere.
He then moved to the next location for the day. Here he did a fresh compass calibration, but upon take-off the the right rear motor stopped (or never started, pilot wasn't sure) and the craft tipped over.
The following day the craft was inspected by a DJI supplier and all motors were running fine, even when applying resistance to the motors.
On 24 June we did a test flight, flying very low for 17mins, then immediately measured the temperature of each motor using a laser temperature gauge. All motors were the same temp. We flew 3 more successful missions with no incident.
(I've heard reports of pilots recovering their crashed Inspires with motors smoking and not having problems with the motors afterwards.)

Incident:
Then on Sunday morning 5 July 2015 I was flying over a lake when our Inspire 1 suddenly, and without warning fell out of the sky like a stone.
From the footage it appears to pitch back and to the right, so I suspect that either the right rear motor or ESC failed.
I was about 22m above my take-off spot (which was about 6m above the lake), flying west against the wind when the incident happened.
I was able to recover the craft from the lake, but it had spent about 3 hour in approximately 3m of fresh water.
All the props were still attached, but the gimbal had been torn off. We recovered that as well.

Password: tmc2015

Followup:
With the Inspire dead, I decided to take it apart and have a "peek under the hood". I must confess I rather enjoyed taking the old girl apart. When opening the motors I found something interesting. The motors on the left side of the craft looks perfect, but the ones on the right both have blackened copper wiring, as if it had burnt (see attached photos). I wonder what could've caused the blackened copper wiring?

Looking forward to your constructive comments and opinions. ;)

View attachment 2688
View attachment 2689View attachment 2690View attachment 2691

with a kit r/c aircraft you put together from parts over 100 hours when something as you described happens for the first time and your brain goes "what the heck" it means figure out the problem and fix it before it causes a bigger problem later. we can't really do that with the inspire 1 without voiding the warranty. so taking it apart like you would a normal r/c craft and finding the bad bearing, motor brushes or a ETC module starting to break it's own welds from over heating is kinda out of the question. so your really only left with 1 option which is send it in 5 weeks to have the geniuses at the factory do what we should be able to do our selves on the table. yeah you don't have your toy for a long time but in hind sight you would be covered if you got it back, they did nothing and your I1 took a swim like it did, or at least a good argument for a free replacement. DJI wants the responsibility of keeping these things in the air, not the pilots that own them, i don't agree but it's the way it is.

i think i counted 3 times when your inspire did something kinda funny before it was really over. if it was me i would instantly think the first incident there is something wrong with either the motors or the electronic speed controller. 2 things i'm not allowed to fix myself so it needs to go back. this is a no brainier unless you have so much money you don't care if 2000 dollars crashes every time. ive built helicopters gas powerd airplanes since high school and im afraid to tear into the i1 because i'll probably do more damage then good just trying to get to what i think is a bad part.

my inspire 1 is currently in the factory for repair on the ground sensor unit. a firmware update disabled it. i think im the only one who has described this problem on here or the dji forums. could i buy a replacement part for 100 bucks and replace it myself? sure. would that fix the problem? maybe, maybe not but since it's most likely a software thing probably not. would i void my warranty trying? oh yeah. could that sensor not working cause a huge problem later on? i'd be stupid to think it couldn't since there are so many cases of just 1 part of the flight software not working causing a completely destroyed i1.

r/c aircraft cash a lot. since the i1 is out of the box ready and a lot of people are first time flyers with it they are completely clueless whats required to keep this stuff in the air. with just about any other model 1 part can start to go bad, you can buy the replacement install it yourself and avoid a bad situation in 1 afternoon and be flying 100% again. with the i1 you have to have the same mentality, if one part starts to act funny or look warn you have to send it in for the 5 weeks or whatever, it sucks but that's the game we have to play. at least until dji changes it's attitude and lightens up.

the lesson i learned from your story just compounds what i already knew. if i see smoke from my i1 at any point it's going back ASAP. the risk is a uncontrollable crash. 600 bucks for a new camera every time minimum if your lucky. would it be a good idea if the i1 could fly on 3 props if 1 fails? yup! if it flips over on it's side while sitting on the ground or 1 prop isn't spinning, mine is going back every time, let dji spend the money and time fixing, i'll hit the beach and go surfing and read sites like these and learn more what not to do.
 
with a kit r/c aircraft you put together from parts over 100 hours when something as you described happens for the first time and your brain goes "what the heck" it means figure out the problem and fix it before it causes a bigger problem later. we can't really do that with the inspire 1 without voiding the warranty. so taking it apart like you would a normal r/c craft and finding the bad bearing, motor brushes or a ETC module starting to break it's own welds from over heating is kinda out of the question. so your really only left with 1 option which is send it in 5 weeks to have the geniuses at the factory do what we should be able to do our selves on the table. yeah you don't have your toy for a long time but in hind sight you would be covered if you got it back, they did nothing and your I1 took a swim like it did, or at least a good argument for a free replacement. DJI wants the responsibility of keeping these things in the air, not the pilots that own them, i don't agree but it's the way it is.

i think i counted 3 times when your inspire did something kinda funny before it was really over. if it was me i would instantly think the first incident there is something wrong with either the motors or the electronic speed controller. 2 things i'm not allowed to fix myself so it needs to go back. this is a no brainier unless you have so much money you don't care if 2000 dollars crashes every time. ive built helicopters gas powerd airplanes since high school and im afraid to tear into the i1 because i'll probably do more damage then good just trying to get to what i think is a bad part.

my inspire 1 is currently in the factory for repair on the ground sensor unit. a firmware update disabled it. i think im the only one who has described this problem on here or the dji forums. could i buy a replacement part for 100 bucks and replace it myself? sure. would that fix the problem? maybe, maybe not but since it's most likely a software thing probably not. would i void my warranty trying? oh yeah. could that sensor not working cause a huge problem later on? i'd be stupid to think it couldn't since there are so many cases of just 1 part of the flight software not working causing a completely destroyed i1.

r/c aircraft cash a lot. since the i1 is out of the box ready and a lot of people are first time flyers with it they are completely clueless whats required to keep this stuff in the air. with just about any other model 1 part can start to go bad, you can buy the replacement install it yourself and avoid a bad situation in 1 afternoon and be flying 100% again. with the i1 you have to have the same mentality, if one part starts to act funny or look warn you have to send it in for the 5 weeks or whatever, it sucks but that's the game we have to play. at least until dji changes it's attitude and lightens up.

the lesson i learned from your story just compounds what i already knew. if i see smoke from my i1 at any point it's going back ASAP. the risk is a uncontrollable crash. 600 bucks for a new camera every time minimum if your lucky. would it be a good idea if the i1 could fly on 3 props if 1 fails? yup! if it flips over on it's side while sitting on the ground or 1 prop isn't spinning, mine is going back every time, let dji spend the money and time fixing, i'll hit the beach and go surfing and read sites like these and learn more what not to do.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment Shazbot4. I appreciate the feedback and I agree with what you are saying (however there was never actually any smoke from my I1, I was referring to another guys post. If there was smoke she'd be going back ASAP:)).

I think what threw me was that I wasn't there with the initial incident and I thought something might've been stuck in the the motor from the first tip-over that caused the motor not to run and cause the second tip-over. Then the supplier checked it and we did the laser heat test and all seemed fine.

Since we use the Inspire1 very often for business I was reluctant to send it in for the 5-9 weeks. That decision cost us an Inspire and now we'll be without it for 5-9 weeks anyway. We bought a P3 to fill the void while we sort out insurance/warranty. This will act as a back-up drone when the I1 steps back into the production line. Will also make it easier to send the I1 in if there's any hint of trouble.
 
guessed i mixed up your story and a reply about the smoking inspire.

you did a lot more than most people would checking the temperature and actually trying to locate a problem. but with this aircraft there is nothing the owner or even a dealer can do to solve anything major like that. dji did a good job of misleading people all this time that they have control of their 3000 dollar play thing when you really dont. i don't care what anyone one here says. all you can do is send it back which makes owning more than 1 aircraft that much more important when the only solution to fix anything easy or complicated takes 2 months. it's probably part of dji's plan to make more money. your situation requires the engine to be removed and pretty much written off then and there and just replaced, that's what most anyone else would do just to avoid the risk of a motor going bad in flight. but that would require you to remove the warranty stickers needed to start that project in the first place.

then you have the flight software that is even more restrictive to tampering and could easily be part of the problem and actually might be. there isn't really anything you can do to find out except look at the flight data which is inconsequential anyway, nothing you find there can prevent a crash in the future.

one aspect that i keep repeating is customer service in the r/c world doesn't exist. the fact dji is taking broken inspires after they have been flown and crashed repeatedly without charging the customer anything but shipping is the first i've ever heard of it. dji should be commended for it. people complain Ooo 5-8 weeks i dont have my toy. any other company the solution is buy a new one full retail and be more careful next time.

if your in the industry of filming and making money with the inspire it seems stupid just to have 1. you should have at least 2. as i said it doesn't take much to crash an aircraft and having a backup will come in handy more times then most people realize.

the only thing anyone can do to prevent a crash is check the flight app data, compass calibration and make sure the battery is at 100% every time. beyond that if your inspire is going to eat it there is nothing you can do to stop it except equip parachutes.
 
guessed i mixed up your story and a reply about the smoking inspire.

you did a lot more than most people would checking the temperature and actually trying to locate a problem. but with this aircraft there is nothing the owner or even a dealer can do to solve anything major like that. dji did a good job of misleading people all this time that they have control of their 3000 dollar play thing when you really dont. i don't care what anyone one here says. all you can do is send it back which makes owning more than 1 aircraft that much more important when the only solution to fix anything easy or complicated takes 2 months. it's probably part of dji's plan to make more money. your situation requires the engine to be removed and pretty much written off then and there and just replaced, that's what most anyone else would do just to avoid the risk of a motor going bad in flight. but that would require you to remove the warranty stickers needed to start that project in the first place.

then you have the flight software that is even more restrictive to tampering and could easily be part of the problem and actually might be. there isn't really anything you can do to find out except look at the flight data which is inconsequential anyway, nothing you find there can prevent a crash in the future.

one aspect that i keep repeating is customer service in the r/c world doesn't exist. the fact dji is taking broken inspires after they have been flown and crashed repeatedly without charging the customer anything but shipping is the first i've ever heard of it. dji should be commended for it. people complain Ooo 5-8 weeks i dont have my toy. any other company the solution is buy a new one full retail and be more careful next time.

if your in the industry of filming and making money with the inspire it seems stupid just to have 1. you should have at least 2. as i said it doesn't take much to crash an aircraft and having a backup will come in handy more times then most people realize.

the only thing anyone can do to prevent a crash is check the flight app data, compass calibration and make sure the battery is at 100% every time. beyond that if your inspire is going to eat it there is nothing you can do to stop it except equip parachutes.
The first thing I did after the initial incident was enquire about replacing the motor, but like you said, it needs to go in, no matter how big or small the problem might be.

Yes we use it as part of our video production business, and yes it's stupid not to have at least two. However at NZ$5500 per bird it's a pretty big outlay for a small business such as ours, especially considering all the other expensive camera gear we need to maintain/replace.

Anyway... We'll just see what DJI says...:) Thanks for your time Shaz
 
no prob. i know they can be hefty price tag when your not in the us. and as you said you got a p3 which will do 95% of everything the i1 does. unless your following something that moves kinda fast even the old phantoms will do everything you need.

one thing i can add that may help you in the future. i think someone posted they managed to get insurance to cover a i1 crash here in the usa, got re embursed enough to get a replacement strait up. i think it was a type of home owners insurance, so something to look into if your going to fly it a lot. either way, if your using it for your business you can always write it off as a loss if you don't get it going again.

also the used market is always there. i've seen I1's duel remote 3 batteries go-professional hard case sell for 3000 strait up on this site, and they are only getting older and cheaper as time goes on
 
no prob. i know they can be hefty price tag when your not in the us. and as you said you got a p3 which will do 95% of everything the i1 does. unless your following something that moves kinda fast even the old phantoms will do everything you need.

one thing i can add that may help you in the future. i think someone posted they managed to get insurance to cover a i1 crash here in the usa, got re embursed enough to get a replacement strait up. i think it was a type of home owners insurance, so something to look into if your going to fly it a lot. either way, if your using it for your business you can always write it off as a loss if you don't get it going again.

also the used market is always there. i've seen I1's duel remote 3 batteries go-professional hard case sell for 3000 strait up on this site, and they are only getting older and cheaper as time goes on
Thanks Shazbot. Yes, we have insurance specifically for our UAVs. It's not covered under normal insurance here and it's expensive (it falls under aviation insurance). We also need to have public liability to be able to operate professionally with the level of clients we work with, so insuring the bird at the same time is a no-brainer. We will most likely make the claim, I just wanted to check what DJI had to say before I do. Might not need to fork out the $1000 excess (that would be nice :)), but to be honest, I doubt DJI will accept it as a warranty claim.

Also, I wanted to hear from the community and at the same time make others who've had (will have) tip-overs aware that all might not be well even if it does fly fine after...

Will most likely buy a new I1 as shipping to NZ can be horrendously expensive,plus the 15% import tax makes buying secondhand from USA or EU pretty expensive, but I'll keep my eye out just in case.

Thanks again!
 
I already frequent this forum to find that the I1 is the successor to my F550. Now after the accident must decide quickly which new appliance purchase.

The question is: Buy the I1 or another F550 + GoPro4.
.
...My advise or 2cents worth is this.. if you want the Shiny New Cool Factor (like i did) get the Inspire.. if you want a craft
with readily avail parts get or stick with the F550...
.
 
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User Manual: "Avoid from obstacles, crowds, high voltage power lines, trees or bodies of water"

We are stubborn!
Yeah we are!:D

But my stubbornness only extends to "trees" and "bodies of water". Image my Inspire fell out of the sky into a crowd!!!:eek: 3kg falling from 26m.... I'd hate to see what that would've done to a person. That's why I NEVER EVER fly over people.
 

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