Gimbal / Mavic goes crazy

iamSteve · Feb 19, 2018

Please can you offer any suggestions as to the problem I encountered the other day?

Flying quite happily, wind was about 10mph but had a gust now and again. Seconds after this clip was shot, the image on the tablet was at about 20 degrees then I saw it flicker black, then I could clearly see most of the front right prop (Never normally see these as I disable -15deg) then I think another flicker then gimbal straight again.

I started to fly back 'home' then switched to sport mode and I was at my maximum VLOS and wanted it back by me ASAP. For the next few minutes it flew fine and recorded without issue.

I dont remember stopping the recording and not restarting it but I have a gap of no file for about 1 min after the incident and while returning in sport.

Sadly I have no footage of the actual problem I witnessed, cant confirm if the mavic stopped recording or me. Just to add I was using the Latest version of Litchi as DJI ALWAYS crashes on the K1 I use and DJI cant be bothered to fix the issue.

Flight Log
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Regards,
Steve.

Top Hat · Feb 19, 2018

There's no fix for Gimbal Freak Out till today, you just have to live w/ it.

iamSteve · Feb 19, 2018

First time I have experienced this, Mavic 12 months old but not flown as much as I should. So this is ‘commn’ then? Scares the crap out of you when you are only just within vlos.

Anyone know what causes it?

Top Hat · Feb 19, 2018

It will happen to almost everyone, it's a common glitch that has no fixed to date.
Just don't panic just in case it does that again, your MP is still good and controllable.
It's really nerve wracking when it happened BLOS, recording usually stop when it freaked out.

GTMonster · Feb 19, 2018

I had an issue with the gimbal changing to 15 degrees when turning. Turned out to be a gimbal control board failure according to DJI.

GTMonster · Feb 19, 2018

Oh and sack of the K1 off. I got a Crystalsky and have never looked back. The K1 is slow at best and crashes too often for comfort.

Mr. RTH · Mar 11, 2018

It is happening to me too. Not sure if it's the same issue. It started a few flights ago, and I noticed the gimbal freaks out whenever the video reaches it's maximum record lenght. Instead of keep recording in a new file, it just stops, gimbal bounce a few seconds (while I can't control it), and then things goes back to normal. When I start rec. again it seems ok, although there's always a missing file in the sequence count (from dji00060.avi next file recorded will be ...062.avi ). By the way, the microSD video is fine and don't show the gimbal error (it cuts right before), and device cache video is disabled for performance reasons as I'm using a Galaxy S5. Are these symptoms of the same problem?

GTMonster · Mar 12, 2018

It sounds as though it may be a gimbal controller error (Well thats waht DJI said my issue was). Not quite the same simptoms that I had... mine was a gimable error while yawing. The gimbal would shift angle on its own during slow turns. During fast turns, the gimbal would go nuts and the video would stop recording all together. Are you sure that the video is not stopping as a consequence of a gimbal issue rather than the gimabal issue as a effect of the video stopping? Does the gimable go nuts when you stop video manually?

Either way, I'd recomend a holiday to the DJI repair centre. Make sure that you give all information in the RMA before sending as you won't get any useful customer service assistace while the Mavic is away. Customer services is in China and they comunicate with DJI repair centeers by a 1 way messaging porthole. If you have any other previous issues remeber to add them to the RMA as well.

byedaway · Aug 28, 2018

iamSteve said:
Please can you offer any suggestions as to the problem I encountered the other day?

Flying quite happily, wind was about 10mph but had a gust now and again. Seconds after this clip was shot, the image on the tablet was at about 20 degrees then I saw it flicker black, then I could clearly see most of the front right prop (Never normally see these as I disable -15deg) then I think another flicker then gimbal straight again.

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I started to fly back 'home' then switched to sport mode and I was at my maximum VLOS and wanted it back by me ASAP. For the next few minutes it flew fine and recorded without issue.

I dont remember stopping the recording and not restarting it but I have a gap of no file for about 1 min after the incident and while returning in sport.

Sadly I have no footage of the actual problem I witnessed, cant confirm if the mavic stopped recording or me. Just to add I was using the Latest version of Litchi as DJI ALWAYS crashes on the K1 I use and DJI cant be bothered to fix the issue.

Flight Log
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Regards,
Steve.

What's a "K1?"

byedaway · Aug 28, 2018

I'm having the same issue I think with a Mavic Pro Platinum that I purchased just five weeks ago. At first I thought I must be getting hit with some kind of interference: I lose control of the gimbal. Usually it points upward on its own and I lose focus. I can't bring it back down again for a few seconds. Sometimes it rolls over about 45 degrees: half way between landscape and portrait modes I guess. I've had this condition last for as long as 20 seconds or so, then I get control back. Usually focus is the last thing to come back. Very unnerving. The flight is unaffected. In fact I just had this happen today... I was only 20 meters or so from the landing pad and maybe 10 meters high. It also happened yesterday. Yesterday it happened right before the video I was recording reached 4 GB. That's the magic cut off when it starts a new file. But it doesn't always happen there. An hour later on another flight it smoothly transitioned from the 1st video file to the second at the 4 GB mark and I didn't know till I looked at the files later. The video is usually cut off and I never get a record of the weird gimbal movements (I have my cache turned off)... except I did get a bit of it on a FaceBook "Live" recording once (the one and only time I tried that feature). Today it happened when I was about to land: my battery was just a bit less than 20% and I got the "Low Voltage" warning (I set my warning level to 20%). I was not making a video, but a bird flew by and I turned on the video. Almost immediately it went into the gimbal crazy mode. I've had this happen 4 or 5 times in the 5 weeks I've owned it. I have not seen a consistent pattern regarding what sets it off.

elsmeghead · Jul 23, 2019

I had the same issue on the Phantom 4. Now I'm having it with my Mavic PP.
Here's a video of the P4 doing it with a view of the gimbal as it happens.
I did my own investigating and hours of tests and narrowed it down to a glitch with recording in 4K30p in a particular firmware version.
It took DJI almost a year (after initially denying that it even existed) to release a Beta firmware version that cured it, although the problem then migrated to a different resolution that was ok before.
I'm currently running more tests on the MPP firmwares and resolutions to build another case with them.

GTMonster · Jul 23, 2019

elsmeghead said:
I had the same issue on the Phantom 4. Now I'm having it with my Mavic PP.
Here's a video of the P4 doing it with a view of the gimbal as it happens.
I did my own investigating and hours of tests and narrowed it down to a glitch with recording in 4K30p in a particular firmware version.
It took DJI almost a year (after initially denying that it even existed) to release a Beta firmware version that cured it, although the problem then migrated to a different resolution that was ok before.
I'm currently running more tests on the MPP firmwares and resolutions to build another case with them.

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Sadly gimbal errors appear to be plague the MP. You're definitely not alone on this one, myself included. I had to RMA my first MP and it was entirely replaced under Warranty. Then after another 2 years my MP gimbal has started to do strange things when reversing fast and stopping abruptly....though this is not enough for me to have it repaired and I also have other drones to fall back on including an M2P.

From what I can see, I do not believe that this is a firmware issue. It appears more like a gimbal / gimbal controller hardware error. I'd say that a gimbal stabilisation sensor is malfunctioning or has become misaligned and is feeding crap information back into the gimbal controller... or the gimbal controller is malfunctioning and miss interpreting the gimbal sensor information.
I'd recommend either:
1) Returning it for DJI service definitely if under warranty as they will pay shipping and costs and replace parts for free. This may also be cheaper than trying to repair yourself as DJI will often just do a full Mavic swap or replace all parts associated with the error (in your case gimbal and associated hardware).
2) Try to repair it with spares purchased of eBay, Bangood, aliexpress or similar, however this may be a bit hit and miss as it may be the gimbal or the gimbal controller.

adam3112 · Jul 23, 2019

From what you describe it sounds like a gimble reset. It's fairly common and I've had it happen to me a couple of times whilst recording video for a long time.

It's scary at first, especially when your Mavic is a long way out but don't panic, it's not a fault with the craft or gimble but seems to be a software glitch.