DJI Mavic Pro Gimbal Ribbon Cable Burnt and Smoked

[drdrone_M]

Hope everyone had a great day so far.

I desperately need some help here with my Mavic. I crashed it couple weeks ago: the broken parts are gimbal ribbon cable and one of the dampening rubber bands.

So I did replace the gimbal ribbon cable first and everything worked except the video was so unstable, gimbal motor overload message was shown occasionally, and gimbal calibration could not completed (stayed at 31%).

Then I realized one of the dampening rubber bands which holds the gimbal assembly was broken. So I ordered a new gimbal vibration assembly and replaced the existing one. Supposedly, everything should be worked from here.

As soon as I turned on the Mavic, smokes (with flames) came out of the gimbal assembly immediately. I was terrified and thought everything was done here. Then I realized the part of the ribbon cable was broke and metal wires within the ribbon cable were exposed. Please see the pictures below. Now I could not see any video feed and nor do any gimbal control . Has anyone had the similar issue as mine? Is the gimbal control circuit board also burnt? Or LVDS cable was broken as well? Please help…. Thank you

 

[Former Member]

Time to get a new gimbal before you fry the rest of your bird. Hopefully you didnt fry your core board with the electrical shorting and the fire.

 

[drdrone_M]

Time to get a new gimbal before you fry the rest of your bird. Hopefully you didnt fry your core board with the electrical shorting and the fire.

That`s the last option to get a new gimbal system. I still wish to fix this one. Do you think if the the control board on the gimbal was broken?

 

[Former Member]

The only way is to troubleshoot it by determining the cause of the problem.

 

[chrisc1309]

I just had this same problem tonight. I crashed my mavic (not a horrible crash). Got the gimbal motor overload but it flew just fine. Figured I'd replace the ribbon cable as I've done this once before and have an extra one on hand, but prior to replacing I decided to give it one last try. Turned on, connected and smelled smoke. Immediately pulled the battery. No flames. Pulled the mavic apart to inspect the ribbon cable and other than some obvious kinks and slight damage I can't see any exposed wires. I'm going to replace the cable tomorrow and hope for the best.

 

[drdrone_M]

I just had this same problem tonight. I crashed my mavic (not a horrible crash). Got the gimbal motor overload but it flew just fine. Figured I'd replace the ribbon cable as I've done this once before and have an extra one on hand, but prior to replacing I decided to give it one last try. Turned on, connected and smelled smoke. Immediately pulled the battery. No flames. Pulled the mavic apart to inspect the ribbon cable and other than some obvious kinks and slight damage I can't see any exposed wires. I'm going to replace the cable tomorrow and hope for the best.

Please don't ! If you had burnt your gimbal first. There might be already cause the gimbal control board damaged. I actually burnt the gimbal twice in a row. So I wasted two ribbon cables so far. I would recommend you connect the LVDs cable only to check if you still can get video transmission.then do a firmware update. Then connect the ribbon cable into the assembly. Right now I don't have video signal as well as gimbal motor control. So I am suspecting the control board was damaged

 

[chrisc1309]

Good advice. The odd thing is, right after I crashed it I replaced the propellers and flew it for a quick test. Even though the gimbal was throwing out a motor overload I was getting video. I didn't smell smoke during that 2 min flight. I packed it up and went home to the work bench. It wasn't until I turned it on then when it smoked. I'm debating between ordering a whole new gimbal assembly for $400 or just getting a whole new Mavic without the controller for a couple hundred more. Obviously I'm hoping it's just the ribbon cable. I'll give your advice a try and go from there. Thanks!

 

[drdrone_M]

Good advice. The odd thing is, right after I crashed it I replaced the propellers and flew it for a quick test. Even though the gimbal was throwing out a motor overload I was getting video. I didn't smell smoke during that 2 min flight. I packed it up and went home to the work bench. It wasn't until I turned it on then when it smoked. I'm debating between ordering a whole new gimbal assembly for $400 or just getting a whole new Mavic without the controller for a couple hundred more. Obviously I'm hoping it's just the ribbon cable. I'll give your advice a try and go from there. Thanks!

Do you think it's your fault for the crash? Is there anything wrong with drone itself ? E.g. failed to RTH or lost video feed within the desired distance? If so, You could call DJI for a fix but get everything covered. I read somewhere online the mavic has some serious design/manfacturee issue or batch issue.

 

[chrisc1309]

Totally my fault. Was showing off, popped it into sport mode and flew into a cable line that was going into the house. I just fired it up with the ribbon cable disconnected and I have no video. Ugh.

 

[drdrone_M]

Sorry to hear that. So now we are in the same boat. Regarding on the cause of this issue, I could be wrong. We could burnt either a camera or burnt the control board.
Right now I am waiting for a damaged gimbal which I bought from eBay recently. What I am planning to do is switch the control board to see if that works.

 

[chrisc1309]

Ok, update. On a whim I connected the sensors to the board and fired it back up without the ribbon cable attached. I was hoping to determine if I might have also shorted out the main board. When I fired it up with those sensors connected I was able to get a picture on the app no warning, other then the compass error because it was on my workbench. I'm going to give the ribbon cable a try. If that doesn't work then I'll bite the bullet and get a new Mavic without the controller. I love this thing too much to go without it!

 

[drdrone_M]

Ok, update. On a whim I connected the sensors to the board and fired it back up without the ribbon cable attached. I was hoping to determine if I might have also shorted out the main board. When I fired it up with those sensors connected I was able to get a picture on the app no warning, other then the compass error because it was on my workbench. I'm going to give the ribbon cable a try. If that doesn't work then I'll bite the bullet and get a new Mavic without the controller. I love this thing too much to go without it!

That`s awesome! I am very happy that the camera part of the system still works. And yes. I believe you just need to replace the gimbal ribbon cable. Even more exciting news for myself was I also able to see the video footage from my gimbal. That means I also just need to replace a ribbon cable (going to be my third one though).

Regarding on the installation of gimbal ribbon cable, I found it was quite tedious to put it back in. I wish you are able to figure it out by one time. Good luck! Also, it will be great if you can keep update with me here.
btw, where do you buy your gimbal ribbon cable?

 

[Linus Anakin]

Have the same problem. I don't dare to replace the flat ribbon cable myself.

Is there anyone who can repair this problem in Singapore?

Thanks!

 

[drdrone_M]

Ok, update. On a whim I connected the sensors to the board and fired it back up without the ribbon cable attached. I was hoping to determine if I might have also shorted out the main board. When I fired it up with those sensors connected I was able to get a picture on the app no warning, other then the compass error because it was on my workbench. I'm going to give the ribbon cable a try. If that doesn't work then I'll bite the bullet and get a new Mavic without the controller. I love this thing too much to go without it!

Did you replace the ribbon cable already?

 

[drdrone_M]

Ok, update. On a whim I connected the sensors to the board and fired it back up without the ribbon cable attached. I was hoping to determine if I might have also shorted out the main board. When I fired it up with those sensors connected I was able to get a picture on the app no warning, other then the compass error because it was on my workbench. I'm going to give the ribbon cable a try. If that doesn't work then I'll bite the bullet and get a new Mavic without the controller. I love this thing too much to go without it!

i replaced the ribbon cable by myself and updated to the newest firmware. There is no video transmission as well as gimbal control. It says gimbal disconnected within the DJI go app. I tried to reconnect everything and nothing has been changed.

 

[drdrone_M]

Have the same problem. I don't dare to replace the flat ribbon cable myself.

Is there anyone who can repair this problem in Singapore?

Thanks!

If you are in Asia, I would recommend you go to ebay to purchase a new gimbal assembly. It should be slight cheaper than buying one here in the States

 

[drdrone_M]

Since I started this discussion, I would like to add some more comments about my findings so far. Again, my issue was initially a gimbal motor overload and broken rubber band within the vibration dampening board. Then purchased a new vibration board and new ribbon cable. From here I have been burnt two ribbon cables. I have encountered the gimbal assembly disconnected issue. This was due to a bad image transmission cable (the silver wires) or bad contact at its two ends. Essentially, the image transmission cable provides the power to the entire gimbal assembly. Back to the ribbon cable smoke issue, I think this is due to the bad motors nearby or bad motor control board (small board behind each motor).

 

[Pepzki]

Since I started this discussion, I would like to add some more comments about my findings so far. Again, my issue was initially a gimbal motor overload and broken rubber band within the vibration dampening board. Then purchased a new vibration board and new ribbon cable. From here I have been burnt two ribbon cables. I have encountered the gimbal assembly disconnected issue. This was due to a bad image transmission cable (the silver wires) or bad contact at its two ends. Essentially, the image transmission cable provides the power to the entire gimbal assembly. Back to the ribbon cable smoke issue, I think this is due to the bad motors nearby or bad motor control board (small board behind each motor).

How now?

My story:
I bought used mavic pro over month ago.
It was gimbal ribbon cable repaired and so warranty avoided? If you know better, light me.
Test flyed and everything seemed fine. Arrived home and updated cos it "reguested" it. Now know better..
After that gimbal started messing, when moved it side ways and then worked it fine again.
Tryed calibrate everyting but not get gimbal calibrated. After that i got first gimbal motor overload message and sinse then havent got it working at all.
Tryed downgrade firmware and upgrade:
?-->v01.04.0000-->v01.04.0000-->v01.03.1000-->v01.04.0000--> v01.03.0400

Now like this: VIDEO
I thinked it messed ribbon cable in those violent moves.

Ordered two cheap gimbal ribbon cables: CABLE

Have changed both. Last one so gentle as can (no pre folds), no changes in behaving of gimbal.
I read your (Thunderdrones) comment about f/stop labs cables. Thinking now is all my 3 ribbon cables, gimbal motor or gimbal board broken.. So no burning in my case, and picture from camera is fine.

 

[Steveclegg]

I had a similar issue. My mavic did a nose first with a friend flying. Gimbal would go up then point down when restarted. Changed the cable which did nothing. Then I changed the gimbal arm assembly. I had video the entire time. Things got worse after changing the entire arm with the cable preinstalled. Ribbon cable started burning. I also noticed I was getting sensor errors which led me to the front sensor/ gimbal board.
Pretty sure the cable was bad anyway but the board was definitely bad.

 

[Bdwayneh]

So I am in the same boat. Crashed my Mavic Pro broke the vibration board and gimbal control cable. Ordered new parts put them on and kept getting a gimbal obstruction error well after a lot of messing around I ordered a gimbal motor assembly from eBay well when I was taking the old one off I noticed the ribbon cable was burned by the p connection. So I replaced the ribbon cable at the same time. Hooked it all up (the new gimbal motors and a new ribbon cable and the ribbon cable went up in smoke again by the p connector. The video still works fine.