Gimbal camera abnormal startup - horizontal calibartion knocking on gimbal metallic limits

Mr Spock · Apr 22, 2017

I am starting a new thread here as nobody has provided an answer to this very specific issue even though i searched the forum.
My gimbal was working fine till a month ago it started doing this during start up - see vid.
The camera during startup is knocking very hard during horizontal axis calibration at startup and this will eventually render my camera unless as the gears internally will be damaged along with the cam feedback potentiometers.
I have calibrated the IMU and the compass, the gimbal and so on... and i am an experienced DJI pilot owned a Phantom 3 Advanced, an Inspire 1 v2 in the past and my Mavic Pro now.
is there any fix for this ?
By the way I am on FW .0400 (not moving to another FW as this is the most stable one).

Mr Spock · Apr 22, 2017

Mr Spock · Apr 22, 2017

pic

Former Member · Apr 22, 2017

Just FYI, Im pretty sure there are no gears inside the gimbal to strip. All the motors are direct drive. The worst that can happen is as you say one of the potentiometers might become overloaded and then cause either a tilt, roll or yaw, and the motor affected by the defective potentiometer would start to buzz or smoke. I have only seen this happen after a crash where the motor circuit board was damaged and the motor was trying to turn the gimbal in a direction it wasnt designed to go due and binding at that point due to the potentiometer giving bad signals to the motor. The motor will heat up and buzz and you will get a gimbal overload message. If it's just doing it for a second during self-calbiration, it wouldnt bother me too much as long as the camera centers after the test, which yours appears to be doing. Also, the majority of your Mavics running time will be spent with the gimbal straight and level, not binding at any point.

BTW, version .0600 has enhanced "Optimized gimbal auto-calibration" features, where now it takes around 30-45 seconds to calibrate whereas before it took only 15 or 20 seconds. It takes it around the axes more, and it might very well solve your problem. I havent had a horizon tilt problem since updating. If it doesnt wrok, you can always downgrade back to .0400.

Former Member · Apr 22, 2017

Does it also do it if you do a gimbal autocalibration?

Mr Spock · Apr 23, 2017

Thunder-drones said:
Does it also do it if you do a gimbal autocalibration?

thank u for the observations i guess .0600 would be my last resort, i read the release notes and remember the bit about extended optimised gimbal cali as u mentioned too. i have never crashed nor had mishandled ever the AC. my gimbal issues started when i upgraded from 0200 to 0300. i had the gimbal twitching too when turning and gimbal overload message 2 or 3 times at startup only but these last 2 issues seam to have disappeared after i upgraded to FW 0400 and did a camera gimbal setings rest. No this issue is not happening during normal cali, only during startup cali.

Mr Spock · Apr 23, 2017

Thunder-drones said:
Just FYI, Im pretty sure there are no gears inside the gimbal to strip. All the motors are direct drive. The worst that can happen is as you say one of the potentiometers might become overloaded and then cause either a tilt, roll or yaw, and the motor affected by the defective potentiometer would start to buzz or smoke. I have only seen this happen after a crash where the motor circuit board was damaged and the motor was trying to turn the gimbal in a direction it wasnt designed to go due and binding at that point due to the potentiometer giving bad signals to the motor. The motor will heat up and buzz and you will get a gimbal overload message. If it's just doing it for a second during self-calbiration, it wouldnt bother me too much as long as the camera centers after the test, which yours appears to be doing. Also, the majority of your Mavics running time will be spent with the gimbal straight and level, not binding at any point.

BTW, version .0600 has enhanced "Optimized gimbal auto-calibration" features, where now it takes around 30-45 seconds to calibrate whereas before it took only 15 or 20 seconds. It takes it around the axes more, and it might very well solve your problem. I havent had a horizon tilt problem since updating. If it doesnt wrok, you can always downgrade back to .0400.

Do u think that it might help if i stuck a piece of soft tape of some short in the limits where the horizontal axis motor knocks on the gimbal and let it run one startup cali to restart the limits and then remove the tape and let it do another startup cali ? this way the limits could reset a bit further from the metal frame of the gimbal.

Former Member · Apr 23, 2017

Are you on .0600 now? If not. I would try updating to .0600 and see if that helps. Update, then do an autocalibration, then turn off, then on again.

If that doesnt help then you could try your tape trick.

Mr Spock · Apr 23, 2017

Thunder-drones said:
Are you on .0600 now? If not. I would try updating to .0600 and see if that helps. Update, then do an autocalibration, then turn off, then on again.

If that doesnt help then you could try your tape trick.

i won't upgrade to 0600 just yet. that FW is full of NFZ restrictions and people anecdotally report reduction in range too.
i will try the tape first.

Mr Spock · Apr 30, 2017

UPDATE: I have fixed the problem by temporarily sticking small rolled up duck tape tinny cut outs, sticky on one side only. i stuck them to the gimbal where the camera horizontal tilt limits where knocking.

Mr Spock · Apr 30, 2017

i Then started up the mavic and it self calibrated. but this time it knocked on the black pieces i located on the gimbal. Then i calibrated and removed the tape pieces. started the mavic up again and the knocking is reduced 90% it now only one side and negligible and i can make it go away all together if i use a thicker piece of tape on one side. vid to follow soon.