Crash and now gimbal issues

[User Error]

Ugh.

I've been so careful flying, really getting a hang of this awesome drone and not doing anything risky. I'm about 10 flights in (with 100s on smaller drones previously).

Today I launched from a table outside my balcony - something I worked up to as I considered it quasi risky. I thought I was so clever using this table to launch the drone - and it had worked great for multiple flights. But what I didn't think about is the surface is grooved. And so one of the Mavi's legs got stuck in the grove as I was taking off.

I noticed it a millisecond after takeoff. The Mavic struggled a bit, went a bit lopsided but went airborne. Had I not done anything, it probably would have been fine. But, instead, I tried to correct and slammed into the wall then did a motor kill.

The battery came off, the props got dinged, but it seemed fine. She still flies just fine but the gimbal isn't working. I get the motor overloaded issue when first starting up then that switches over to 'gimbal obstructed'.

Gimbal calibration doesn't do anything. I did an IMU calibration but didn't seem to change anything. I made sure that the gimbal was physically seated correctly - the front two clips being above the metal piece, and the back being above the tab. I can't move the gimbal with the remote but it does move around on startup and if I physically move the drone.

Is she dead? Anything else to try? I'm so pissed at myself.

 

[Darkback2]

Don't be pissed at yourself. Things happen, and honestly if you fly eventually you will crash...Too bad about the gimbal though.

I have a few thoughts as to what may have happened. (the gimbal is a weak point in this design IMHO.)

check to make sure the gimbal arms are not bent. Another thing is to move it by hand when powered off and see if it moves as freely as it should. It may be that a magnet got knocked loose inside one of the motors and is rubbing on the windings. (a crash hard enough to eject the battery is probably hard enough to damage a gimbal motor.) Unfortunately I would bet this will need to be sent back to DJI for service.

Keep us posted and good luck.

DB

 

[BrooklynFlyer]

Get the $60 State Farm Insurance, quick!

 

[erkme73]

Get the $60 State Farm Insurance, quick!

And watch your auto/homeowner premium go up after you file a claim. Bad advice. Once you file a claim for a personal articles floater, your insurance risk score goes up as though you had an auto accident.

 

[User Error]

And watch your auto/homeowner premium go up after you file a claim. Bad advice. Once you file a claim for a personal articles floater, your insurance risk score goes up as though you had an auto accident.

Is there any data on this? I've got the state farm and was thinking about filing a claim.

 

[User Error]

Don't be pissed at yourself. Things happen, and honestly if you fly eventually you will crash...Too bad about the gimbal though.

I have a few thoughts as to what may have happened. (the gimbal is a weak point in this design IMHO.)

check to make sure the gimbal arms are not bent. Another thing is to move it by hand when powered off and see if it moves as freely as it should. It may be that a magnet got knocked loose inside one of the motors and is rubbing on the windings. (a crash hard enough to eject the battery is probably hard enough to damage a gimbal motor.) Unfortunately I would bet this will need to be sent back to DJI for service.

Keep us posted and good luck.

DB

Thanks for the feedback. I don't see any bends. I can move it around when powdered down just fine. When it starts it sort of bangs around a bit. I'll make a video of it and post.

How does it work if I send back to DJI if I don't have the Refresh protection?

 

[BrooklynFlyer]

How much impact can a single $1000 claim possibly have?

 

[User Error]

Here's the gimbal on startup. Note that the thing that sort of looks like a dent is actually a small piece of clear plastic I can't get off

Video: mavic

 

[User Error]

See how it sort of spazes out after flipping (and hitting something)

 

[seanmclean]

How much impact can a single $1000 claim possibly have?

You'd be surprised. It's not the dollar value, its the number of claims - filing a claim over a trivial amount significantly impacts the probability that they think you will file a large claim.

 

[Darkback2]

I don't have my mavic yet...Doesn't it normally start facing forward?

 

[Darkback2]

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[seanmclean]

Why is that video called Gimbal Fix when it is only calibrating the vision system?

 

[Drone Master]

Ugh.

I've been so careful flying, really getting a hang of this awesome drone and not doing anything risky. I'm about 10 flights in (with 100s on smaller drones previously).

Today I launched from a table outside my balcony - something I worked up to as I considered it quasi risky. I thought I was so clever using this table to launch the drone - and it had worked great for multiple flights. But what I didn't think about is the surface is grooved. And so one of the Mavi's legs got stuck in the grove as I was taking off.

I noticed it a millisecond after takeoff. The Mavic struggled a bit, went a bit lopsided but went airborne. Had I not done anything, it probably would have been fine. But, instead, I tried to correct and slammed into the wall then did a motor kill.

The battery came off, the props got dinged, but it seemed fine. She still flies just fine but the gimbal isn't working. I get the motor overloaded issue when first starting up then that switches over to 'gimbal obstructed'.

Gimbal calibration doesn't do anything. I did an IMU calibration but didn't seem to change anything. I made sure that the gimbal was physically seated correctly - the front two clips being above the metal piece, and the back being above the tab. I can't move the gimbal with the remote but it does move around on startup and if I physically move the drone.

Is she dead? Anything else to try? I'm so pissed at myself.

Based on your video, I would say that there is a broken connection with in one of the axis motor sensors. The main controller sets up the gimbal on start up by first looking for center of each axis motor. If one of the axis motors does not center or if the motor sensor is damaged, the gimbal will hunt for that center for a few seconds. When it can't find center, it will throw up the errors that your seeing. The flipping out of the gimbal as you put it is the controller looking for that center. All three axis motors work in sequence and if there is just one broken connection or damaged sensor with in the three, it will never stabilize.
I would suggest that you send in for repair.
Sorry about your mishap.
Good luck with the process.
BB..

 

[HeavensAbove]

Don't be pissed at yourself. Things happen, and honestly if you fly eventually you will crash...Too bad about the gimbal though.

I have a few thoughts as to what may have happened. (the gimbal is a weak point in this design IMHO.)

check to make sure the gimbal arms are not bent. Another thing is to move it by hand when powered off and see if it moves as freely as it should. It may be that a magnet got knocked loose inside one of the motors and is rubbing on the windings. (a crash hard enough to eject the battery is probably hard enough to damage a gimbal motor.) Unfortunately I would bet this will need to be sent back to DJI for service.

Keep us posted and good luck.

DB

Hope you are not using that when you do the next British Airways strapline!

 

[User Error]

Based on your video, I would say that there is a broken connection with in one of the axis motor sensors. The main controller sets up the gimbal on start up by first looking for center of each axis motor. If one of the axis motors does not center or if the motor sensor is damaged, the gimbal will hunt for that center for a few seconds. When it can't find center, it will throw up the errors that your seeing. The flipping out of the gimbal as you put it is the controller looking for that center. All three axis motors work in sequence and if there is just one broken connection or damaged sensor with in the three, it will never stabilize.
I would suggest that you send in for repair.
Sorry about your mishap.
Good luck with the process.
BB..

Thanks for checking this out. Off to DJI. Which is really too bad because I had a project planned for being home at the holidays. I guess the best lessons are learned ice cold.

 

[Darkback2]

Thanks for checking this out. Off to DJI. Which is really too bad because I had a project planned for being home at the holidays. I guess the best lessons are learned ice cold.

Please keep us posted. I am wondering about the cost of repair. There are some people I am sure who are on the fense about the whole "dji care refresh" deal...Is it worth it? as for the future...Best of luck.

DB

 

[User Error]

Please keep us posted. I am wondering about the cost of repair. There are some people I am sure who are on the fense about the whole "dji care refresh" deal...Is it worth it? as for the future...Best of luck.

DB

I REALLY regret not getting Refresh. I planned on just using the State Farm option. My fault for not fully evaluating the repercussions of submitting a claim. It's just not worth it. Based on another DJI gimbal prepare thread, I'm guessing it will be $3-400. Good times.

 

[User Error]

The total cost to repair was $380. The gimbal was $179 and then they replaced some of the Mavic's body - which wasn't really needed. If I had time I would have asked they only fix the gimbal since they just shipped me a brand new Mavic from China instead of actually doing a repair. Oh well.

The service process was very smooth though. Shipped it to them on 12/20 and it was back 8 days later.

 

[Starfighter]

I had a thought, but am not really sure of the answer. There is a RTH altitude that you set. I set mind above the highest trees and buildings in my area. 150 ft is plenty.

But DJI brags about their active RTH with its obstacle avoidance. In my mind the RTH altitude is important for tree branchs and other stuff collision avoidance won't pick up. Did you have a RTH altitude set. In any case, that cliff was no tree branch. You'd think it should have hovered and climbed over it. The lighting was funny. Dark in that, light where it hit. One things for sure: It didn't take any aggressive action. It tried to fly right THROUGH the cliff. Even DJI can't do that yet!