Check Your Gimbal

[bradsandry]

Well my mavic is a couple weeks old and it seems to have what looks like a crack in dang near the same spot he has. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Now my question is..... Am I going to get a refurbished mavic back???? Is it worth the gamble for something like this??? I'm not concerned about the 2-3 week wait, it's still pretty cold out, but I really don't want a refub unit back!View media item 468

They are sending me a refurbished one but get this!!! When they get some from china which has been along time An no answer how long it'll be what a nightmare

 

[Pepino Grande]

Why not just do a small soldering job on it?

 

[bemeis]

It looks like I've got a small hairline cracks but it's not by the camera, it's on the armebettween the gimbal and upper vibration plate.

Edit: also this isn't a first production mavic, I received it mid january

 

[ScottJD]

Two things worry me reading these comments.

One, I think it's a meterial defect. They wanted the gimbal light and small, but small means small motors with less power. So it back to it being less weight with a light metal of some kind.
This may end up being a recall? Or maybe just some from one manufacturer that had the casting wrong or drilled the wholes to small, or maybe used wider screws?

Two, I got DJI Refresh being my first DJI product mostly for the portability and camera. I don't like proprietary stuff but made an exception this time. I figured the refresh would be the best for fast replacment or repairs. Now the way everyone is commenting makes me think you never want to send your DJI product back because you get something worse in return.

I have an open case, sound like a bearing on one motor that has a bit of a grind when I spin them on the preflight check. And the idle changed a little, never crashed. They want me to send it in, but I decided to check it with the FLIR and the temp is the same as the others. So I asked about being charged if they decide nothing is wrong, it just sounds different then the other three motors.

Then they tell me they detected abnormal high temp alert, something that is not in the warnings logs that I can see. So do they have logs of all my flights? This just brought up more questions. Like why don't I get to see that error in my logs. What days was that error, was is when I was flying or during a firmware update in my house?

I returned the first one when the box was damaged and a corner was crushed in. At first I thought I was being over cautious and the packaging should be able to take a shipping drop, but when you pay this much money you expect new, not dropped. Then I saw videos of people unboxing them with the gimbal out of place, and the gimbal lock failed to keep it in one place so I'm glad I returned it and got a different unit now.

Now I'm more worried because they want me to send it in, I don't want something that someone crashed or is not repaired correctly when mine works good. I think I need proof of this over temp error also.

 

[raymo]

The sorts of things we are seeing here are manufacturing defects. DJI needs to be all over this, and needs to correct the problem at the manufacturing level. Perhaps, as many suggest, the gimbal assembly is not so critical, but if this happens to a motor, you will have a crash, and that's DJI's problem. If DJI does not monitor this site, they need to. In any event, they need to be informed of issues like this so they can correct manufacturing problems. ScottJD, you got it right when you outline some of the potential sources for these issues.

 

[Dan Lee]

Well my mavic is a couple weeks old and it seems to have what looks like a crack in dang near the same spot he has. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Now my question is..... Am I going to get a refurbished mavic back???? Is it worth the gamble for something like this??? I'm not concerned about the 2-3 week wait, it's still pretty cold out, but I really don't want a refub unit back!View media item 468

Refurbished units are supposed to have an R at the end of the serial number.

 

[bemeis]

I emailed them and here's the response. Should I risk sending it. I flew it twice.

 

[larkin]

The camera housing experiences minimal stresses, so I wouldn't return an otherwise healthy Mavic. Never know what issues the replacement might have.

 

[ScottJD]

I emailed them and here's the response. Should I risk sending it. I flew it twice.

That's an automated response mostly, I got the same one. I fear they are about to get busy with repairs. I also fear if the cracks keep spreading. You can see one in my video and it's not just a stress crack from a screw that was to big. It's goes down around the corner of the bracket and this is with NO crashes or hard landings at all. Only 7 packs flown on it, I'm still waiting for good weather.

 

[Former Member]

Here is my opinion on gimbal arm and cover cracks. I have sold, repaired, assembled and disassembled more than a hundred Mavics.

On some occasions, maybe 10% of the time, the unit arrives to the customer from the factory with a cracked or completely dislodged gimbal roll motor back cover. This is due to someone at the factory misaligning the gimbal clamp, forcing it on, and stress cracking the part. In all my repairs, I have seen only 1 that completely broke off, and all the others were just cracked laterally in the middle of the cover. On the other side of that cover is a pretty sturdy epoxied mesh, so just because you are seeing cracks on one side of the cover, doesnt necessarily mean it's going to crack any further because there is no stress on the part. However, if you continue to abuse it by using the stock crappy OEM gimbal clamp, it IS going to break eventually and you will have to send it in to get replaced so your roll motor wires are not exposed.

The other cracks that I am seeing are the ones near the screw holes at the base of the arms (covers). Those are a result of overtightening the screws at the factory, and the part itself is flimsy enough to crack. Those dont worry me either. If the part falls off, your bird is not going to fall from the sky, your video is not going to be affected, and the worst that can happen is the back of one of the motors will be exposed. It is mostly cosmetic.

IMO you should send your unit back to DJI if:

1. Your roll motor back cover has broken off and you can see wires
2. Any other cover of the gimbal has broken off

You might keep it if:

1. You notice cracks but are vigilant about preflighting your bird for further extension of the existing cracks. You can use a black magic marker to trace the existing cracks, if you see the crack continuing over additional flights past the end of the marker line, monitor it to see how far it goes.
2. You are comfortable repairing your own bird and are handy with epoxy or superglue
3. Nothing has broken off, and the cracks are microscopic.

If you have found cracks, take pictures of them now and save them just in case it gets worse and you do have to send the bird in.

My best advice is to throw the existing gimbal clamp into the trash and buy an aftermarket clamp that holds on to the lens instead of the fragile rear roll motor cover. Here is one by an MP approved vendor:

Dynamic 3D Solutions

If you insist on keeping the OEM clamp, check your bird for cracks on the gimbal over time. Also, its easier to install the OEM gimbal clamp when the bird is on its back.

 

[soks]

Hi There,
I've noticed a gimbal crack going from the screws just like on the yt below (30sec)

A question to any of you that had this problem - does it, in you case, get worse? is this a structural thing or just a cover?
Will a tiny bit of super glue protect this from spreading further?

 

[soks]

NVM. I've glued crack with a superglue. Looks good. A bit if fuming around on the plastic cover, but that's ok.