Bird Strike on Gimble - fixable?

[bwhatnall]

Had a bird attack my Mavic only two days after getting my drone - flying it maybe 2km away and got a very weird error on the DJI Go app - flashed yellow warning symbol and got an error about the engines, telling me to stop them. I cannot remember exactly. At the same time I saw black coming in and out of the camera feed - I suspect there was a bird not being so friendly to my drone.

Anyhow, flew it back - landed and no damage on the drone - but when putting the camera gimble lock back on I noticed the back plate that slots into the gimble lock was damaged - something had hit my drone and done some damage to the gimble.

Happily the gimble still works perfectly - but it would be good to replace this plate some time - can anyone shed some light on where would be best to get this spare part? It looks like it screws on and off.

 

[BossBob]

It is a plastic moulding that both protects some camera wiring and acts as a locator for the gimbal lock. Many users have found cracks in the same place as your bird damage caused by over tightening of the screws that secure it. Currently spares are not available.

 

[Davidss]

From my reading of the posts I thinks it's fairer to say that the current assumption of the cause of these frequently reported failures is over tightening of the screws.
There is more than one source of second-hand spare parts reported in these forums; the most frequently cited (because he is generous with his forum time and advice) is ThunderDrones. A forum poster recommended one in Canada, but I'm not sure if the supplier himself posts to these forums.
As you haven't inserted your location in your profile details no-one can suggest a 'local' supplier, because while these are the only two I recall, there may be others.

I'd be tempted to very carefully unscrew the cover, superglue it back into one piece, then replacing it 24 hours later. You might want to insert some sort of thread lock as the screws go back in so you can be relaxed about not getting that last bit of tightness. That said, the cover plate doesn't want to be loose, seeing as it plays an important role in securing the gimbal while in transit.
When I say 'very carefully' I mean being very careful not to stress the gimbal mounting system. Brace the camera head with one hand to equally balance the pressure being applied via the screwdriver.

Lastly, while I don't doubt the 'bird strike', I think it's difficult to see this damage being caused by that, as the cover plate is generally 'protected' by the main drone structure, unless of course the camera was looking straight down at the time of the attack.

Regards.

 

[mavic6611]

I'm not to sure on how to advise regarding the gimbal other than just do a live chat with dji in the go app. You can send them the image instantly from there so they can advise.

Regarding your error messages, if you open your Dji go app up, there are 3 options as you know.. Being, the location arrow symbol, disconnected, and Enter device.
If you click on the location arrow you will arrive at your flight log screen. Drag the screen up from the bottom and click on the relevant day The bird strike happened. The map will then appear. Look at the bottom of the screen and press the play button. As you watch the flight all screen activity will appear exactly as it did even you were flying in real time.

Hope this helps