Inspire One Crashes

R.Perry · Mar 4, 2019

One of our pilots was mapping 170 acre site in the Sacramento area and the Inspire 1 just went dead stick and dropped 250 ft to the ground. It didn't land near anyone but the Inspire was destroyed according to the pilot. He is a very experienced pilot that has been with our company for a few years. He was using Drone Deploy, attempted to disengage with no response from the drone, and of course RH didn't work. Battery was 70% when the drone went dead stick, it doesn't sound like it had anything to do with Drone Deploy, but was obviously a catastrophic failure of some kind. My first thought was battery failure but that was ruled out. I'm wondering if the battery could have lost connection.
I would like to know if anyone else has had a failure like this with either the Inspire 1 or 2?

jasonlday · Mar 5, 2019

I had a similar issue. Got error message MC Connector to Centerboard lost. Check your log to see if there were any errors

LUIS MARTINEZ · Mar 5, 2019

The logs should tell the story...mostly.

BigAl07 · Mar 6, 2019

I've got an I1 V2 with tons of hours and miles and it's never missed a lick. With that being said, our batteries are getting some age on them for sure.

Have you pulled and analyzed the logs yet? If you need some help let us know.

R.Perry · Mar 6, 2019

Thanks BigA, I just talked to the pilot and he said they are sending in to DJI repair to see if they can determine what failed. I'm not familiar with the Inspire 1, is it possible if the battery wasn't seated properly it could show connected then disengage during flight? The reason I ask is I've had one of my batteries fail to seat properly but with the Inspire 2 I got an battery error.

The reason I ask is he said the drone just abruptly went dead in the air, motors stopped and fell to the ground.

BigAl07 · Mar 6, 2019

R.Perry said:
Thanks BigA, I just talked to the pilot and he said they are sending in to DJI repair to see if they can determine what failed. I'm not familiar with the Inspire 1, is it possible if the battery wasn't seated properly it could show connected then disengage during flight? The reason I ask is I've had one of my batteries fail to seat properly but with the Inspire 2 I got an battery error.

The reason I ask is he said the drone just abruptly went dead in the air, motors stopped and fell to the ground.

It's entirely possible it wasn't fully seated but it's a pretty solid CLICK connection.

I'd love to see the DATA logs before it's sent off but if it's already gone it is what it is

R.Perry · Mar 6, 2019

BigAl07 said:
It's entirely possible it wasn't fully seated but it's a pretty solid CLICK connection.

I'd love to see the DATA logs before it's sent off but if it's already gone it is what it is

I would to, I'll see if he will get it for me.

R.P..R · Mar 7, 2019

“MC Connection to Center Board Failed” message is annoying, I first encountered this message years ago, after installing the Argtek antenna. And if you search on the forums a lot of guys has gotten this message due to breaking the u.fl connector and the pin did not sit or has little contact to the coaxial. This message would only pop up, when I’m using a 3rd party app. Litchi (progressive flight) DD (mapping), and also GS Pro (mapping)

I fixed my problem by soldering the antenna directly to the board, reflashing the firmware, recalibrating, and by connecting the AC to the RC prior to opening any flight app (go app or 3rd party app) and it also helps to have another main RC that’s not boosted.

The i2, the u.fl not as flimsy as the i1.

R.Perry · Mar 7, 2019

R.P..R said:
“MC Connection to Center Board Failed” message is annoying, I first encountered this message years ago, after installing the Argtek antenna. And if you search on the forums a lot of guys has gotten this message due to breaking the u.fl connector and the pin did not sit or has little contact to the coaxial. This message would only pop up, when I’m using a 3rd party app. Litchi (progressive flight) DD (mapping), and also GS Pro (mapping)

I fixed my problem by soldering the antenna directly to the board, reflashing the firmware, recalibrating, and by connecting the AC to the RC prior to opening any flight app (go app or 3rd party app) and it also helps to have another main RC that’s not boosted.

The i2, the u.fl not as flimsy as the i1.

Interesting, I don't believe any mods were made on this Inspire. As soon as I get the flight data I will post it, other than that I guess it is all speculation.

R.P..R · Mar 7, 2019

R.Perry said:
Interesting, I don't believe any mods were made on this Inspire. As soon as I get the flight data I will post it, other than that I guess it is all speculation.

No mods to AC, but you can mod the RC. This notification (as noted above) will alert you prior to flight. Most crashes with i1 points to the battery.
You can check the deviations of your cells through dronehealth or airdata.

Can’t wait to see your telemetry, as I’m curious of what happened.