Does Mini 3 Gimbal jerk down like Mini 2

[Melissab737]

I have several drones, and two mini 2‘s. Both of my mini two gimbals jerk down and ruin most of my shots. It’s annoying, and I’ve looked around for a solution but there is none. Does the mini three jerk down like the two?

 

[akdrone]

Mine does not. I had a Mavic 3 that continued to flow downward after I released my finger from the wheel. It required a new controller. My Mini3 is smooth as silk. If you are using the same controller it may very well be the problem.

 

[lensimages]

Mine does not. I had a Mavic 3 that continued to flow downward after I released my finger from the wheel. It required a new controller. My Mini3 is smooth as silk. If you are using the same controller it may very well be the problem.

Neither of my mini 2 and 3 behaves like that, cheers Len

 

[eva2000]

I have several drones, and two mini 2‘s. Both of my mini two gimbals jerk down and ruined most of my shots. It’s annoying, and I’ve looked around for a solution but there is none. Does the mini three jerk down like the two?

My Mini 2 doesn't do that either. Got a video example of the jerking?

 

[Chaosrider]

All of my Minis do that, if I'm in Sport mode and I have the camera tiled all the way up. It won't allow the camera to stay fully pointed up at high speed. It's a mechanical stop on the camera angel, or something like that.

Do yours do that in normal mode?

 

[Zbip57]

It's the gimbal protection system. If the Mini tilts too far forward with the gimbal rotated all the way up, or tilts backward with the gimbal rotated straight down, the gimbal hits the mechanical limit of how far it can physically rotate. The gimbal motor wants to turn the camera farther to keep it stabilized but that's further than it can actually move, which stresses the gimbal motor. The gimbal protection system automatically bumps the camera a few degrees away from that hard bump stop. That's what causes your camera image to suddenly jump.

I did a little video a a couple of years ago to illustrate this.

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[Melissab737]

All of my Minis do that, if I'm in Sport mode and I have the camera tiled all the way up. It won't allow the camera to stay fully pointed up at high speed. It's a mechanical stop on the camera angel, or something like that.

Do yours do that in normal mode?

Both of my minis jerk down in the normal mode as well.

 

[Melissab737]

It's the gimbal protection system. If the Mini tilts too far forward with the gimbal rotated all the way up, or tilts backward with the gimbal rotated straight down, the gimbal hits the mechanical limit of how far it can physically rotate. The gimbal motor wants to turn the camera farther to keep it stabilized but that's further than it can actually move, which stresses the gimbal motor. The gimbal protection system automatically bumps the camera a few degrees away from that hard bump stop. That's what causes your camera image to suddenly jump.

I did a little video a a couple of years ago to illustrate this.

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Thanks for posting. if I’m understanding you correctly, as long as I don’t point the gimbal to the hard stop, the gimbal should no longer jerk back.

 

[Zbip57]

Thanks for posting. if I’m understanding you correctly, as long as I don’t point the gimbal to the hard stop, the gimbal should no longer jerk back.

Try it for yourself, as shown in my video above.

With the camera aimed straight down, the gimbal will smoothly maintain that position only as long as the Mini doesn't pitch too far rearward nose up causing the gimbal to hit its hard bump stop.

Similarly, with the camera aimed all the way up, the gimbal will maintain that position only as long as the Mini itself doesn't pitch nose down too far forward.

If you need to fly with the camera aimed at either of those stabilized end points, just try to fly smoothly to avoid any extreme nose up or nose down pitch angles. Those steep pitch angles can occur if you're just hovering and suddenly give full forward or rearward stick input. Or sudden pitch changes can happen if you're flying forward or backward at full speed and suddenly release the control stick, causing the Mini to brake hard to a stop.

Note two different scenarios in my video. With the Mini powered up, but without the motors running, the camera is forced away from the full downward position when the gimbal runs out of mechanical range of motion. Obviously this causes the camera view to push away from its vertical position, but the gimbal returns to its stabilized full downward position whenever the Mini regains level.

The gimbal protection system is enabled whenever the motors are running. If it senses the gimbal is about to hit the bump stop limits of its mechanical range of motion, the gimbal will automatically jump a few degrees away from the limit stop to avoid overloading the gimbal motor. That causes the camera view to jerk away from its original position, and it'll stay at this new position when the Mini regains level rather than automatically returning back to where it was supposed to be aimed. That's annoying.

You could avoid the situation by not aiming the camera straight down or fully up, leaving sufficient angle for the gimbal to swing before it can ever reach its mechanical limits. Or if you need to use the full controllable range of the gimbal, either full down or full up, just fly smoother and avoid sudden extreme pitch angles such as you'd get whenever giving full stick inputs flying in Sport Mode.