Can the gimbal operate without a connection to the yaw motor?

[mgracio]

Hello all.

I recently got offered a mavic 2 drone which was involved in a crash and Im trying to get it working again.
In addition the other damage, the camera cable connector was ripped out and the yaw gimbal motor flat cable was cut clean off.
I have installed a new camera cable and was real happy that the camera itself seems good, but the gimbal does not do its startup dance, and I cant control it from the Dji go 4 app.
In the app, the gimbal status is n.a.

So I was thinking of getting a new yaw motor, but would that resolve the issue?
ie. Does the lack of the yaw motor effectively shut down the gimbal? Maybe the firmware checks and if its not there assumes none of the other motors are) ?
Or does this behaviour show there is yet another problem?
I wanted to test the pitch and roll motors if at all possible.

Thank you for any info!

 

[Cafguy]

How much are you willing to spend on your repair? and are you quite sure your results will be OEM quality. I say this only because if you send it in to DJI and pay the repair cost, They will send you a new {refurb} drone and you will not spend money on parts that you can very easily Damage. You probably at least need a new axis gimble Motor and that part alone will cost you around 150 US Dollars at the moment. and that's with some of the cables.
Is this your first go around with Drone Repair?- Yes- Send it in.
Are you able to work with and download a few programs that will be needed to complete your repairs?-Yes- Still I say send it in.
If you want to do it yourself I am sure you could do it given the proper instruction.
IF you like I can post a repair video for you or there are many good ones on Youtube.

 

[old man mavic]

@mgracio you say that you have installed a new camera cable ,but you made no mention of whether or not you installed a new gimbal control cable ,if as you say it was damaged you will need to dismantel the gimbal and fit a new ribbon cable that controls all the various stepper motors in the gimbal, if i have misunderstood your post, and you did indeed install a new ribbon cable ,as well as the camera cable, then i apologise for my mistake,

 

[mgracio]

How much are you willing to spend on your repair? and are you quite sure your results will be OEM quality. I say this only because if you send it in to DJI and pay the repair cost, They will send you a new {refurb} drone and you will not spend money on parts that you can very easily Damage. You probably at least need a new axis gimble Motor and that part alone will cost you around 150 US Dollars at the moment. and that's with some of the cables.
Is this your first go around with Drone Repair?- Yes- Send it in.
Are you able to work with and download a few programs that will be needed to complete your repairs?-Yes- Still I say send it in.
If you want to do it yourself I am sure you could do it given the proper instruction.
IF you like I can post a repair video for you or there are many good ones on Youtube.

Hello and thank you for replying!

How much are you willing to spend on your repair? - As little as possible ^^;
As of now the bill is like this:
6.8 Eur Rear axis
22.4 Eur Front sensors
11.5 Eur Gimble camera cable

40.7 Eur Total

A gimbal yaw motor will be another 25 Eur, for a total of 67 euros. Which is not bad.
But I didnt want to order it before trying to find out if the gimbal is not moving because the firmware thinks its not there by not testing the other motors (probable but not certain), or it should work and there is another problem.
In which case id drop the gimbal repair altogether (just fix it in place and still got a cool camera)

Im sure dji would do a great job but just the price of sending them the drone (I live in the Azorean islands in Portugal and the nearest support center is in Hungary) would be almost as much as Ive spent until now.
The drone powers up, no errors in the app except for a Gimbal: n.a. message, the motors start and sound smooth.
For a drone that had its last flight in 2020 and was stored somewhere untill last month its in pretty good condition. Even the battery was able to be charged (I thought for sure it was a goner)

I like to fix things (not always successfully -_-) but Id have a real blast and making this bird fly again.
Ive seen lots of videos and absorbed any information that I could and Im always looking for more info so if you could, Id like very much to see the repair video you mentioned

Thank you for your time, regards!

 

[Cafguy]

Thanks you. and If you have a specific question I could also ask builders with much more knowledge than myself BUT if you follow the vids you shouldnt have a problem.
Personally I would just replace the thing and not rely on the one that has seen a crash IMO. EDIT: Sorry video coming up in a min

 

[mgracio]

@mgracio you say that you have installed a new camera cable ,but you made no mention of whether or not you installed a new gimbal control cable ,if as you say it was damaged you will need to dismantel the gimbal and fit a new ribbon cable that controls all the various stepper motors in the gimbal, if i have misunderstood your post, and you did indeed install a new ribbon cable ,as well as the camera cable, then i apologise for my mistake,

Hello and thank you for replying!

I maybe phrased it wrong (english is not my first language), but I did disassemble the gimbal and passed the camera (gimbal control?) cable through all of it, what a pita that was -_-!!
Here is a picture of the completed work, Ive already removed the yaw motor and also managed to dissasemble it (why is there almost zero info on doing this I dont know..)

The round cable coming from the gimbal is what I called the "camera cable" hence perhaps the naming confusion, sorry about that.

Just for kicks, the dismantled yaw motor and the tools I used. No need for those specialized tools (theyre not..) selling for 70 euros.
Oh, there was also a vice, not pictured though ^^

Pity that flat cable is impossible to repair -_-

 

[Cafguy]

(why is there almost zero info on doing this I dont know..)

Because most if not all repair techs throw the end item away and replace it. It is very delicate and rebuilding it is usually not as good compared to replacing it.
Here is the video hopefully it will help!

 

[mgracio]

Thanks you. and If you have a specific question I could also ask builders with much more knowledge than myself BUT if you follow the vids you shouldnt have a problem.
Personally I would just replace the thing and not rely on the one that has seen a crash IMO. EDIT: Sorry video coming up in a min

Oh for sure to replace would be easier, but not half as fun!
If not, could I trouble you to ask the builders you know if missing the yaw motor negates all gimbal operation?
My belief is that the firmware tests for it, if its not there it assumes the gimbal is ripped off and doesnt even try to initialize it (hence no startup dance ;_; )

If thats the case, it could be worthwile to try and order a new yaw motor and try it out.
Fortunatly theres that python code to recalibrate the gimbal, this just might work.

 

[Cafguy]

f not, could I trouble you to ask the builders you know if missing the yaw motor negates all gimbal operation?
My belief is that the firmware tests for it, if its not there it assumes the gimbal is ripped off and doesnt even try to initialize it (hence no startup dance ;_; )

I will ask BUT I believe you are correct the drone checks at startup also it may actually be trying to initialize and you dont see it because the motor is broken hence no Dance.

 

[mgracio]

I will ask BUT I believe you are correct the drone checks at startup also it may actually be trying to initialize and you dont see it because the motor is broken hence no Dance.

Thank you very much!

 

[mgracio]

Because most if not all repair techs throw the end item away and replace it. It is very delicate and rebuilding it is usually not as good compared to replacing it.
Here is the video hopefully it will help!

Thank you for the video!

 

[paradanglers]

My belief is that the firmware tests for it, if its not there it assumes the gimbal is ripped off and doesnt even try to initialize it (hence no startup dance ;_; )

Hi Mgracio, hope your repair is going well. I'm also in the process of repairing my Mavic 2 Zoom (also with the aid of the ever helpful Cafguy!). My repair is now including a new roll motor for the gimbal, I had the thing in bits over the weekend and can confirm, if you hadn't found out already, that the connector on the yaw motor is the sole connector back to the 'gimbal motherboard' for all the motors. they must be connected in series somehow. Pitch motor connects to the roll motor - roll motor connects to the yaw motor and finally yaw motor connects to the motherboard. So no yaw motor no startup dance.

Mine's a bit weird in that I get the startup dance no problem but then I get a message of gimbal motor overload and the roll motor won't move, but the pitch and yaw ones are fine. Fingers crossed a new roll motor will fix it but I haven't figured out how to get the old one out of the housing yet - I think its in there with just double sided sticky tape, but I'll wait till the new one turns up before I try to pry the old one out.