so this has been in the back of my mind for a while. we do a lot of infrastructure inspection work and occasionally a client will want something beyond standard EO, like multispectral or a specific thermal sensor that isn't a Zenmuse. the Inspire 3 has that payload interface that DJI talks about but the actual documentation on what you can realistically hang under there without losing flight characteristics or triggering a bunch of FC warnings is pretty thin on the ground.

anyone here actually flown an Inspire with a third party payload, not just a gopro hanging off a bracket but like a proper integrated sensor situation? curious what the actual weight limits feel like in practice vs what the specs say and whether you had to do anything weird with the balance to keep it flying normally. the rated payload numbers always feel optimistic to me but maybe thats just me being paranoid

We ran a Micasense RedEdge on an Inspire 2 for an agricultural survey job a while back, wasn't a clean integration at all, basically a custom bracket solution and a separate battery pack for the sensor. The I2 handled the weight fine honestly, we were well under the limit, but getting the trigger timing synced up properly with our GCS was a whole thing. The FC didn't care about the payload per se but you do notice it in wind, the yaw authority gets a little sloppy when you're hanging something asymmetric. For the I3 i haven't tried it personally but i'd imagine the more aggressive attitude control helps with that.

the specs being optimistic is 100% real, not just you. i think DJI rates payload in like ideal conditions with fully charged batteries and probably a 20 year old test pilot lol. in real world especially in heat or at any kind of altitude you want to be conservative. i'd say take whatever number they publish and mentally apply like a 70-75% factor if you actually care about flight time and handling. also worth checking if your specific payload triggers any of the DJI SDK weight warnings cause i've heard some configurations cause the aircraft to flag a load imbalance even when its within spec