DJI Mavic pro gimbal problem

hattukauppias · Jul 28, 2020

Hello,
I had a small accident when taking of with the mavic pro and it crashed from 2 to 3 meters. After that i inspected the mavic and didn't see any obvious damage and flew that battery down to about 30-20%.
After changing the battery i encountered a problem where the gimbal clicks around at the startup (The first video). After researching the problem i came across changing the black ribbon cable and decided to check mine and change it just in case.
No luck with that. Also I'm having a strange thing that when i restrict the gimbal movement little bit with my fingers at the startup sometimes I'm able to get the gimbal fully working (as seen in the second video). I'm able to calibrate the gimbal without any errors and gimbal seems to be working as expected... Do any of you guys know what might be wrong with my mavic pro?

Things that i have done:
- Replaced the ribbon cable.
- Taken the gimbal a part and cleaning every part of it so no dust or anything anywhere.
- Downgraded the firmware version of the mavic.
- Calibrated the gimbal with the trick of restricting the movement of the gimbal at the startup
- Checked that the sensor that tells gimbal level inside camera seems to be working (after doing the trick to get gimbal working it shows the level correctly in the DJI app)
- Checked the silver cable in the gimbal and it seems to be fine. I get the picture from the camera correctly. Not sure what else goes trough that cable but at least the picture is okey.

1 Video of the problem:

2 Video of the trick that i did to get the gimbal working sometimes

1 Picture of the damage from the crash. This shows the damage to the underside of the mavic

2 picture of the damage from the crash. This shows the damage to the gimbal

lee82gx · Aug 1, 2020

ive had something similar, i can sympathize. that gimbal is literally the most fragile thing in the i seen have engineered.

first check if powered off, all axis of the gimbal can overshoot and bounce back if you apply a quick twist to it. looks like your pitch axis is potentially wonky. it must be smoothly or freely rotating with no friction, and can easily rotate to the limit and bounce back

if there is no obvious problem there, you can change the whole gimbal. in my country we can source used, working gimbals with cable for about us$25. next is the entire gimbal + cable + camera for about us75, or the gimbal + cable + camera + gimbal control pcb for us150. its available on aliexpress, worldwide too. this will usually guarantee successful repair.

sorry for my bad typing, the shift button is broken and i can't capitalize anything lol

hattukauppias · Aug 2, 2020

lee82gx said:
ive had something similar, i can sympathize. that gimbal is literally the most fragile thing in the i seen have engineered.

first check if powered off, all axis of the gimbal can overshoot and bounce back if you apply a quick twist to it. looks like your pitch axis is potentially wonky. it must be smoothly or freely rotating with no friction, and can easily rotate to the limit and bounce back

if there is no obvious problem there, you can change the whole gimbal. in my country we can source used, working gimbals with cable for about us$25. next is the entire gimbal + cable + camera for about us75, or the gimbal + cable + camera + gimbal control pcb for us150. its available on aliexpress, worldwide too. this will usually guarantee successful repair.

sorry for my bad typing, the shift button is broken and i can't capitalize anything lol

Thanks for the reply. I got the gimbal working with a temporary fix with a wooden rod limiting the gimbal motor movement. Im not sure what that motor is called, but its the motor that controls up and down movement of the gimbal. I think next step for me would be to buy a new gimbal arm like you said. But since i got it working with a temporary fix with wooden rod I'm not in a hurry. Ill try to remember to post here is i get it working with a new gimbal arm when it arrives. Thanks a lot for the reply ?

lee82gx · Aug 2, 2020

its exactly how i lived with mine for the whole of 2 months. i eventually bought a new set of gimbal including the control board, as i damaged the connectors during repair.

pay4nothing · Jun 11, 2021

hattukauppias said:
Thanks for the reply. I got the gimbal working with a temporary fix with a wooden rod limiting the gimbal motor movement. Im not sure what that motor is called, but its the motor that controls up and down movement of the gimbal. I think next step for me would be to buy a new gimbal arm like you said. But since i got it working with a temporary fix with wooden rod I'm not in a hurry. Ill try to remember to post here is i get it working with a new gimbal arm when it arrives. Thanks a lot for the reply ?

Hey, I have the same issue with my mavic pro. I replaced the Gimbal with it's three axis, and the ribbon cable but this didn't fix my problem. Could you share a picture of your wooden rod solution?

lee82gx · Jun 13, 2021

pay4nothing said:
Hey, I have the same issue with my mavic pro. I replaced the Gimbal with it's three axis, and the ribbon cable but this didn't fix my problem. Could you share a picture of your wooden rod solution?

if you've replaced the gimbal motors in all axis + the ribbon cable (which exists in many non-original copies, you can try a few sinces they are not expensive) then you'd either have to replace the Camera module itself (I think salvaged ones sell for about USD50 each) or the Gimbal control board PCB (which is rather quite costly, US80).

pay4nothing · Jun 13, 2021

lee82gx said:
if you've replaced the gimbal motors in all axis + the ribbon cable (which exists in many non-original copies, you can try a few sinces they are not expensive) then you'd either have to replace the Camera module itself (I think salvaged ones sell for about USD50 each) or the Gimbal control board PCB (which is rather quite costly, US80).

I already bought a new gimbal controller Board and tried the Gimbal without a connected camera (I mounted it in place but disconnected the camera). It seems that the camera does not contain the accelerometer of the Gimbal but the Gimbal itself does (please correct me if I am wrong). My next try would be to buy an original dji ribbon cable and try this one since I have this problem with non original cables. Hope this solves my issue, if it does I post about it in this thread.

lee82gx · Jun 14, 2021

pay4nothing said:
I already bought a new gimbal controller Board and tried the Gimbal without a connected camera (I mounted it in place but disconnected the camera). It seems that the camera does not contain the accelerometer of the Gimbal but the Gimbal itself does (please correct me if I am wrong). My next try would be to buy an original dji ribbon cable and try this one since I have this problem with non original cables. Hope this solves my issue, if it does I post about it in this thread.

You are wrong as far as my experience goes. There is another accelerometer in the camera itself. I would definitely do all diagnostics with camera fully attached and assembled. It would not be too bad ($) for you to buy camera ribbon cable also if you suspect that is damaged.

pay4nothing · Jun 14, 2021

Well I feared that... I already changed the camera cable and got exactly the same behavior, while the camera footage was perfect, there was no stabilisation. So I assume the camera cable must be intact, while the camera integrated accelerometer must be damaged. Either this or there must be a sort of incompatibility in djis parts.

lee82gx · Jun 14, 2021

you can try to run gimbal calibration with the full setup of what you have now, it won't be that much more harmful. For what its worth, my working gimbal after all repairs, would not even complete the calibration.
I definitely empathise with your frustrations, in my mind the MP1 has the worst gimbal of all time. Well as it was also the first Mavic, it makes sense. What doesnt make sense is after 5 years and countless mavics later you still see gimbal failures for new models....(I think I can't talk about DJI gimbals without smoke coming out of my ears).

If you are desperate you can also try to calibrate the gimbal at firmware level.

You need to replace spark with "WM220"

howto:og_service_comm_tool [dji.retroroms.info]

dji.retroroms.info

It is really a hard set of instructions to follow.

If you are really desperate to get it working and willing to pay, I think any service center can easily have enough spare parts by now for MP1. (I'm hoping that they only replace the parts that are broken and charge you for that). Or you can buy a complete full original service module of the entire camera+gimbal assembly including the control board.

Gimbal Camera Assembly 4K for DJI Mavic Pro Drone Repair Part : Amazon.sg: Toys

www.amazon.sg

This one is literally plug and play.

pay4nothing · Jun 14, 2021

Wow, this is something new I don't tried yet. So I will use this firmware level calibration and post about my results.

Going to a service center will be my last option since I'm pretty stingy and also talented with precision engineering and electronics.

Thank you very much, as said I will post about my results.

pay4nothing · Jun 14, 2021

So, i tried it with the Firmware level calibration. But when i start the calibration, the process ends with the error "no response on calibration command JointCoarse request.". Sometimes there is a little progress (but no gimbal movement) and the pc recives some reports but everytime it ends with the error "No progress tick on calibration request". I guess there is no other choice than replacing the whole gimbal assembly or go to a local service center. Or has somebody had this issue?

Thank you for your time.

pay4nothing · Aug 13, 2021

Well I solved my problem. I previously installed multiple gimbal cables from different manufacturers that were sold cheaper than an original cable. Now a purchased an original cable and everything works fine...