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Busted gimbal

ehenderson410

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2018
Messages
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Age
45
So my gimbal crapped out. I must assume it’s the fault of the ribbon cable, since the symptoms seemed to match those of several youtubers (this is how I learn anything and everything nowadays). Now the only work I’ve don’t to my mavic before now was a leg replacement and a landing gear fix, both of which were pretty straightforward. However, the last, and only, times I’ve disassembled a gimbal have not gone well, and both of them weren’t nearly as small or complex as my mavics. I dug in.
Only had to fight with one stripped screw getting it taken apart. I assume I did that putting it back together the first time I opened it up. Getting it out took as long as the rest of the tear down combined.
Managed to remove the gimbal assembly. At this point I had to search for a new instructional video in search of better resolution and narration by someone whose accent wasn’t quite so absurd.
Popsicle break.
At six screws into the gimbal disassembly I begin to question whether I’m in over my head with this repair. I pause YouTube and check out amazon and eBay. A new ribbon cable is ten bucks. If I screw this up I can still get the arm assembly with cables already routed for fiftyish. I can afford fiftyish, so I proceed headlong, making sure to find a nice safe spot for the main board, since adding that part tacks another hundred bucks or so onto the price tag.
I got the whole thing took apart, removed the offending cable, which did indeed show signs of damage, although to be honest I could’ve done that taking it apart. Even managed not to damage the crazy little signal cable. Now I have to put it back together. I know me, and if I leave it in pieces while I’m waiting on replacement parts, **** gets lost. That starts a bad chain reaction of events that I don’t wanna deal with. Easier to put it back together minus the bunk part, and then take it back apart when said part arrives. Besides, now that I’ve done it I’m confident about doing it again.
Made a point not to tighten down the screws, so hopefully no stripped screw issues next time.

....to be continued......
 
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Reactions: FoxhallGH
Happy to announce that surgery went well. My mavic’s gimbal and camera seem to be functioning normally. I’m getting a downward vision sensor calibration error, but I’m thinking I should be able to iron that out fairly easily. Hardest part of. The whole ordeal? That one stripped screw and getting those damned little rubber bands back on correctly.
 

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