Buy it or steer clear?

[Deleted member 103366]

Just guessing but the initial camera fault could have been the camera being set to manual control and operating VERY underexposed. I have done that myself to get a black screen, the problem is remembering it's set to manual, it's an easy thing to forget. There has been at least one thread where this turned out to be the problem.

With regards to the gimbal, if things are similar to the Mavic 2 Pro etc. if you put a finger on the phone's screen and hold it there for a second or so you can 'drag' the gimbal up and down, if this is available with the MPP have you tried that? Also, on page 48 of the manual, there seems to be mention of a phone screen button that can flip the gimbal between down and horizontal, have you tried that? Ditto the "5D" button on the controller.

All the above said there are two or three 'types' of flight logs recorded by the equipment.
On the phone a .txt and possibly a .DAT log, and on the drone likely another .DAT log.
If you go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help there are instructions for accessing the first two and possibly the third.

From having a M2P ....With regards to the DAT on the drone, it may be that you can access those by connecting the drone (switched on) to your computer whilst your computer is running the Assistant 2. I do not have a MP so am guessing here but if it behaves in the same way as my M2P the DATs on the drone can be downloaded en masse or individually or individually but split into various sections. I would be inclined to try either of the latter two rather than en masse.

I do not know if the DATs from the drone are readable but someone here may say.

The logs from the phone probably are readable and might contain an indication of what the problem is but they would cover ONLY your usage of the drone.
You can process the .txt with the software CsvView CsvView Downloads and probably the .DAT too or, post them to here and someone may investigate them for you.
The .DATs on the drone will cover your usage PLUS the latter part of the usage by the previous owner, how far back those DAT's go is likely to depend on there size, there is limited space in the relevant memory and old logs are over written as required.

If you can access the logs on the drone and they are readable you could post one of your logs but I WOULD NOT post one of the previous owner's logs.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

With regards to the gimbal part 2, switch the drone on and when it has completed the boot pick the drone up and wobble it a bit, does the gimbal try to stay horizontal with respect to pitch and roll? The controller need not be on.
You mention "full range of movement' or something similar, against what are you judging this etc. etc. Have you watched youtube etc. showing the gimbal's dance at boot?

 

[dajain]

Just guessing but the initial camera fault could have been the camera being set to manual control and operating VERY underexposed. I have done that myself to get a black screen, the problem is remembering it's set to manual, it's an easy thing to forget. There has been at least one thread where this turned out to be the problem.

With regards to the gimbal, if things are similar to the Mavic 2 Pro etc. if you put a finger on the phone's screen and hold it there for a second or so you can 'drag' the gimbal up and down, if this is available with the MPP have you tried that? Also, on page 48 of the manual, there seems to be mention of a phone screen button that can flip the gimbal between down and horizontal, have you tried that? Ditto the "5D" button on the controller.

All the above said there are two or three 'types' of flight logs recorded by the equipment.
On the phone a .txt and possibly a .DAT log, and on the drone likely another .DAT log.
If you go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help there are instructions for accessing the first two and possibly the third.

From having a M2P ....With regards to the DAT on the drone, it may be that you can access those by connecting the drone (switched on) to your computer whilst your computer is running the Assistant 2. I do not have a MP so am guessing here but if it behaves in the same way as my M2P the DATs on the drone can be downloaded en masse or individually or individually but split into various sections. I would be inclined to try either of the latter two rather than en masse.

I do not know if the DATs from the drone are readable but someone here may say.

The logs from the phone probably are readable and might contain an indication of what the problem is but they would cover ONLY your usage of the drone.
You can process the .txt with the software CsvView CsvView Downloads and probably the .DAT too or, post them to here and someone may investigate them for you.
The .DATs on the drone will cover your usage PLUS the latter part of the usage by the previous owner, how far back those DAT's go is likely to depend on there size, there is limited space in the relevant memory and old logs are over written as required.

If you can access the logs on the drone and they are readable you could post one of your logs but I WOULD NOT post one of the previous owner's logs.

The manual setting on the camera was never touched but I did think about that and did double check that when the screen was black. But that doesn't mean it wasn't under exposed . Either way, that has been corrected. I would bet a quarter that it was probably operator error.

With the gimbal and the remote on this MP, there are 3 ways I programmed it to try and move the gimbal via the app. Of course the roller knob. That's the one that showed a brief fault after the firmware but never made it move. The button on the back of the remote to go forward/down with a single press. Got it programmed to do that and no action at all. Then of course the toggle next to the right joystick. Programmed that for the movement also and still nothing. I will try the tap and hold on the screen. If that works, I would be happy with that.....Just not as convienent nor what I'm used to.

I will definetly study your suggestions with the logs and see if I can figure that all out. If I can, worst case scenerio is ifI find out whether there was a crash or not. Best case scenerio, I find out if the drone is receiving the signal. Either way, definetly going to go to Youtube University and get edumacated on this. I think it is definetly a greta suggestion.

As far as my logs? Motel room and around the back yard within eyesight. But should have enough data to see whether the gimbal control transmission is there or not.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Did you try the screen related stuff on the phone? Did you try the hand held pitch and roll test?

 

[dajain]

With regards to the gimbal part 2, switch the drone on and when it has completed the boot pick the drone up and wobble it a bit, does the gimbal try to stay horizontal with respect to pitch and roll? The controller need not be on.
You mention "full range of movement' or something similar, against what are you judging this etc. etc. Have you watched youtube etc. showing the gimbal's dance at boot?

Yup, the gimbal does keep hoizon and move according with the unit as it should.

Regarding the "full range of motion" statement, it does the same motions at start up as it did when I was loading the Firmware.

It rotates up similar to someone rolling their eyes back into their head. Then rotates down and points the camera back to the drone body itself. Then goes back to straight ahead. Then rotates the camera far left then far right and back to center. Then the lens rotates CW and CCW then back to focus.

It's all a very quick process and happens every time I turn the drone on. My reference to what it should be doing is only to what it did while updating the firmware.

 

[dajain]

Did you try the screen related stuff on the phone? Did you try the hand held pitch and roll test?

You mean does the camera move to keep horizon if the drone itself is moved? It does do that and automatically keeps horizon very well. I just can't manually look down or up with the gimbal with any 3 of the remote control options.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

You mean does the camera move to keep horizon if the drone itself is moved? It does do that and automatically keeps horizon very well.

Yes partially, that answers the "Did you try the hand held pitch and roll test?" but not the first question, for the latter have a look at Mavic pro control camera tilt via phone screen not side dial and from 1:59 onward in the video of post 2

 

[dajain]

So, I took it out for a little spin.

It flies great so no problem there. Took it up to 300 feet and about 1100 feet away and it didn't miss a beat. Mechanically at least.

The camera is set on Auto so this is what was happening. Not sure how much of this is normal with this drone so please tell me if it is (due to steady pictures my guess).
-the left and right movements of the gimbal are slow. Meaning if I just turn the drone, the camera will show either the gimbal arm or the left "foot" upon rotation. But then will slowly come back to center.
- experienced some lag time with the video and sometimes would just completely out for a brief second.
- the lens tried to re-focus several times thru the flight. Go completely blurry and then back to focus.
- The camera is pointed up enough to see the blades on the drone. Wont rotate in either direction .

Basically, I had no control over the camera during flight. Didn't have a SD card in, but that shouldn't make a difference, should it?

 

[dajain]

Yes partially, that answers the "Did you try the hand held pitch and roll test?" but not the first question, for the latter have a look at Mavic pro control camera tilt via phone screen not side dial and from 1:59 onward in the video of post 2

I just folowed the video step by step and got nothing from any of those gimbal short cuts.
On a good note, my screen is brighter now so I can see it better. That's awesome.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

-the left and right movements of the gimbal are slow. Meaning if I just turn the drone, the camera will show either the gimbal arm or the left "foot" upon rotation. But then will slowly come back to center.

That's odd, I think.
I begin to doubt it is a controller problem and suspect it is a problem stemming from the drone or gimbal or both.
Someone else need to chip in here I don't have a MPP so can't confirm it is unusual but none of my drones allow the camera to 'stay put' whilst the drone turns/yaws. In all of them the camera stays aligned* with the front to back axis of the drone.
*There may be a slight lead / lag in the camera turning with the drone but it is only a few degrees, no where near enough to see a leg.
( The Mavic 2 does allow me to manually yaw the gimbal relative to the drone but I don't know if the Mavic 1's can do that. )

 

[dajain]

I'm actually thinking this may be a specialist repair request and above my paygrade to properly diagnose.
Just created a ticket with the DJI drone repair service.
Anyone used this service? How expensive is it?
They say an estimate will be given but must be approved before repairs or they will ship it back free.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Probably the best thing to get it looked at.

No experience with DJI Australia, I've only ever had the one repair by a DJI approved repairer here, it was a bearable cost (to me).

DJI repairs can be ok sometimes from what I've read on the forum here, they usually fix things very well.
Cost depends on what they just 'throw on' to fix an issue, parts like gimbals can be pricey.

There are other similar options, @DDS here on the forum, a vendor, in NJ.
Another 'past member' in GA is good on DJI.

 

[BossBob]

So, I took it out for a little spin.

It flies great so no problem there. Took it up to 300 feet and about 1100 feet away and it didn't miss a beat. Mechanically at least.

The camera is set on Auto so this is what was happening. Not sure how much of this is normal with this drone so please tell me if it is (due to steady pictures my guess).
-the left and right movements of the gimbal are slow. Meaning if I just turn the drone, the camera will show either the gimbal arm or the left "foot" upon rotation. But then will slowly come back to center.
- experienced some lag time with the video and sometimes would just completely out for a brief second.
- the lens tried to re-focus several times thru the flight. Go completely blurry and then back to focus.
- The camera is pointed up enough to see the blades on the drone. Wont rotate in either direction .

Basically, I had no control over the camera during flight. Didn't have a SD card in, but that shouldn't make a difference, should it?

With my Mavic Pro, when panning left or right there is a little movement of the gimbal in the direction of the pan then the drone does the rest of the movement with the gimbal centering and then smoothing the stop. So the drone moves the camera rather than the gimbal. The gimbal does move through 110 degrees from 20 up to vertically down. This is it’s behaviour from new. The camera is panned left and right by turning the drone unlike on previous DJI drones where the gimbal rotated the camera.

 

[dajain]

I've had the MM for a while now and even though it's not even close to being a similar drone, my thought process says the gimbal movement SHOULD be close to the same where the drone movement is the main source for the left/right movement. This MP acts like it is trying to stay focused on a given point when turning and then slowly follows the drone to the straigh ahead point almost 2 seconds later.

It is weird, not what it should be doing, software updates didn't fix anything and there is more wrong with it than just wont go up or down.

I'll re-post when I hear back from DJI Repair center as to what they say is wrong with it.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

One thought, do you have any form of tracking switched on? I doubt it but......
As a related test, with the drone OFF, yaw/turn the drone and look to see if the camera lags the yaw/turn or remains pointed in a given direction. If not that would seem to suggest that the drone was commanding the powered gimbal to remain pointed in a pre yaw/turn direction.

 

[dajain]

One thought, do you have any form of tracking switched on? I doubt it but......
As a related test, with the drone OFF, yaw/turn the drone and look to see if the camera lags the yaw/turn or remains pointed in a given direction. If not that would seem to suggest that the drone was commanding the powered gimbal to remain pointed in a pre yaw/turn direction.

Not sure, but the drone is all packaged and labeled up for shipment. Will be in route to New Jersey this afternoon.
I would absolutely love for DJI to say there is nothing wrong with the drone and it is operator error but since the guy I bought it from said the gimbal was acting up, I kinda doubt this will be the case.

For all of us scratching our heads on this one, I will let you know what DJI says.
Taking donations now for repair costs. haha

 

[t0m541]

Not sure, but the drone is all packaged and labeled up for shipment. Will be in route to New Jersey this afternoon.
I would absolutely love for DJI to say there is nothing wrong with the drone and it is operator error but since the guy I bought it from said the gimbal was acting up, I kinda doubt this will be the case.

For all of us scratching our heads on this one, I will let you know what DJI says.
Taking donations now for repair costs. haha

Hi. New to the forum and this thread caught my attention as I just bought an MP1 and I had the same issue, the gimbal wouldn't pan down, I thought it was a hardware issue but after a couple of hours of head scratching and a few youtube videos watched I discovered that it was the gimbal speed, it was set to zero, hence it wouldn't move.
I set it to 25 (I think) and sure enough it now pans up and down when the pan wheel is rotated.
The gimbal speed setting is under gimbal-advanced settings IIRC.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Hi. New to the forum

Welcome, good post

 

[dajain]

Hi. New to the forum and this thread caught my attention as I just bought an MP1 and I had the same issue, the gimbal wouldn't pan down, I thought it was a hardware issue but after a couple of hours of head scratching and a few youtube videos watched I discovered that it was the gimbal speed, it was set to zero, hence it wouldn't move.
I set it to 25 (I think) and sure enough it now pans up and down when the pan wheel is rotated.
The gimbal speed setting is under gimbal-advanced settings IIRC.

That was one thing that was brought to my attention too so I looked into it and it was set at full speed.
And since I re-programmed all the firmware, reset it to factory settings and it was still doing weird things like slow following and still no pan down or up, I decided it as above my paygrade.

Can't wait to hear from DJI Service to see if it was new operator error or what was actually wrong with it.
For what it's worth, my Mini is still flying trouble free. haha

 

[t0m541]

That was one thing that was brought to my attention too so I looked into it and it was set at full speed.
And since I re-programmed all the firmware, reset it to factory settings and it was still doing weird things like slow following and still no pan down or up, I decided it as above my paygrade.

Can't wait to hear from DJI Service to see if it was new operator error or what was actually wrong with it.
For what it's worth, my Mini is still flying trouble free. haha

Hi, I noticed that there was 2 sliders, one was, like yours, set to full, changing that did nothing.
It was the lower slider I changed.
The person I bought the drone off had put a new gimbal in and included the old one in the box.
I'm wondering if that's why they sold it, the gimbal wasn't moving.
Like yours it did the full calibration movement etc and would look forward or directly down using the toggle on the controller.
It will be interesting to find out what DJi come back with.