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Gimbal Motor Overload- caused me to take a side crash on 3rd day

GrafXXX

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hello, newbie to the forum, I just got the Mavic air 2, so far I love it but on fathers day it was actually only 3 days old. I got a Gimbal Motor Overload error, and was actually my first error, well i stayed at hover to see if i could move the gimbal, and i could, I was approx 6 feet off the ground, with nothing above me, so I figure I just press the home button, and it said its going home words, but first it went approx 3-4 feet directly to the left and right into the vertical frame for the patio awning, then fell to the bush and the ground. Everything seemed fine and there was 1 rub mark so I got that off. But then i put it back on my target H pad to see if I could fly it, and thats when I noticed that it wasnt sitting balanced perfectly ( at first i just moved it over a foot thinking the grass underneath was not level) but then I noticed the front left leg was slightly bent inward. It wasn't visibly cracked or broken, it just looked like the further end of the leg at the light was out a little ( almost like you could just pop it back in) so I did a little research and felt comfortable loosening the 3 torx bolts for the leg, and thats where I noticed a hairline crack on both sides just underneath the area with the 2 furthest screws. So I used a little double sided tape just above the light to hold that tiny ( new gap) together, then I wrapped the leg like a Dr would on a sprained ankle with a good amount of electrical tape as that has a little stretch for me to make it snug. So my fathers day was great with the family but inside my head I was miserable, It does fly as it is only a few degrees inward and basically 98% of all the plastic is perfect, and now wrapped real nice, Im just flying it very low and close to still enjoy it. BUT I want to fix it, I dont think its worth using a refresh on it but I also saw that people are mentioning soldering and motherboards, and that is not the direction I want to go, is it possible to just swap out the front left leg? The motor is perfect, the props are perfect and the led light is perfect. shouldnt I be able to just take out the screws drop the leg ( i heard the antenna slides oout and the led is tricky on the mavic air, but this is the air 2, is it a major repair or just a swap out, and where would I get the leg, I saw a couple on ebay, but I want an OEM real part since it is less than a week old. Any advice, tips or recommendations are completely appreciated in advance, thank you
 

That won't help you now but...

So sorry for your luck.


It appears that you may have had a yaw error after takeoff, unrelated to the gimbal. No way to know without logs.

But that's not what you're here for.

Hope all goes well, again sorry for your luck.
 
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The leg, if or when it is available as parts, comes as a sub-assembly to include the motor. Replacement requires disassembly of the drone, including unsoldering and resoldering half a dozen wires. The antenna is also part of that sub-assembly, it has a miniature coaxial connector that plugs into the board.

Working on drones is doable, if you are mechanically adept and have the requisite skills (I fixed my M2, two broken legs, trashed arm pivots etc, but I was an electronics tech and instructor in the Navy for 8 years, so am experienced).

I would not recommend flying it with a band-aid repair, the risk of in flight failure, and an even worse crash, is too great.
 
It didnt happen after take off, i was good for atleast 10 min, then I got the gimble error, it was after I hovered in that spot for a bit. But your right may not be related, Im just looking now to see what the best options are to fix it. BUT I do get alot of gimble motor errors while using it close to me as Im not venturing out far with the leg not perfect. Are the gimble errors common on a new mavic air 2?
 
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The leg, if or when it is available as parts, comes as a sub-assembly to include the motor. Replacement requires disassembly of the drone, including unsoldering and resoldering half a dozen wires. The antenna is also part of that sub-assembly, it has a miniature coaxial connector that plugs into the board.

Working on drones is doable, if you are mechanically adept and have the requisite skills (I fixed my M2, two broken legs, trashed arm pivots etc, but I was an electronics tech and instructor in the Navy for 8 years, so am experienced).

I would not recommend flying it with a band-aid repair, the risk of in flight failure, and an even worse crash, is too great.
is the mavic air and air 2 basically all the same as far as how things are ran through the leg ? The arm , motor, led 3 screws are 100% perfect, I think when it did ht the ground the tip of the leg took all the impact, its literally 2-3 degrees inward and was still very stiff and sturdy prior to wrapping it. I did see on youtube someone bought the fell arm assembly with motor / leg and swapped out just the leg part ( getting the led through the new leg was a little tricky, but he did it) being a newbie to forum and DJI products what would be the best way to repair it or where do I go to get it repaired? I've worked on other brands, and have worked on small electrical compnents/ motors and sensors on my printing equipment at my business but dont want to start experimenting with a brand new drone, if its a few screws and swap out ( maybe a little glue) then Im good
 
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It didnt happen after take off, i was good for atleast 10 min, then I got the gimble error, it was after I hovered in that spot for a bit. But your right may not be related, Im just looking now to see what the best options are to fix it. BUT I do get alot of gimble motor errors while using it close to me as Im not venturing out far with the leg not perfect. Are the gimble errors common on a new mavic air 2?
Yes, gimbal errors were very common with the first batch.
 
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Welcome to the forum.

Sorry you had a crash.
Despite being somewhat minor, since you mentioned having refresh, why not use it.
 
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Is this the video you saw to remove the antenna and LED lights? Looks fairly doable with some patience, I guess the worst case if you give it a try and something goes wrong, then use refresh. This is assuming of course that Mavic Air 2 leg was designed similarly to the Mavic 2.

Alternatively, could you remove the screws to access the leg, and then use some epoxy (JB Weld) and put it on the inside hollow area to let it set? it would mean that the leg/antenna/LEDs would be sealed and never come out, but that might be another option too.

 
Is this the video you saw to remove the antenna and LED lights? Looks fairly doable with some patience, I guess the worst case if you give it a try and something goes wrong, then use refresh. This is assuming of course that Mavic Air 2 leg was designed similarly to the Mavic 2.

Alternatively, could you remove the screws to access the leg, and then use some epoxy (JB Weld) and put it on the inside hollow area to let it set? it would mean that the leg/antenna/LEDs would be sealed and never come out, but that might be another option too.

Thanks, yes I believe that was one of the videos I watched, if you look at that leg on the video thumbnail image, mine is not even close to to being that bad, I should have taken pics prior to taping it, I guess I need to look into the refresh program, is that only replacement? Or do they have a service to fix it, If I use it does that mean I would have to then purchase the refresh plus program this early to be eligible? I guess it’s like a car, a small fender bender nowadays can total out your car because the way they are made. It just seems this mavic looks like such an easy fix if I can avoid any electrical / mechanical changes and just replace the plastic leg. Thank you everyone for advise, as simple as the refresh seems, I also see people on the web complain about it, so that concerns me.
 
Use of the refresh will cost you 69 dollars for the first replacement, and 99 for the next replacement - you'll have to buy the refresh + before you use your 2nd replacement. The remainder of the refresh can be transferred to the replacement.
 
I ordered up the full arm today and also a leg only part, both items are OEM, so I was happy about that ( not sure if you can mention businesses) but the guy named Preston, from Wisconsin was extremely helpful on the phone, and he even took apart one while on the phone with me to explain how to go about replacing the leg only, he believes now that this was his first request that the leg is more like the mavic pro than the original air, and looks like it may be a simple swap ( hopefully) In the meantime i took off the tape and the LED housing and actually it may not be as bad as I thought, It appears that the plastic did not crack where i thought, it appears the screw above the LED took the force, and broke the little threaded plastic pc on the arm, but only a 1/32 of an inch or so and there is still approx 80% of the threaded ( plastic button / nipple not sure what to call it) left attatched perfectly to the arm. So it looks like it just broke off a couple turns deep of the threaded pc. So I called back to Preston and he asked for some pics of the screw and the pc that came off, and is sending me a bag of misc length screws so i can get a better bite into the threaded pc that is still there. The reason the leg was angled was because the screw and the little broken pc of plastic still attached to the screw shifted and did not sit flush, once I too that screw out a little the leg straighten right up. Hopefully I avoided a mess, and Im happy that I will still have some extra pcs / parts for the future. Thanks for the assistance and ill update when all is back to perfect

I apologize for my grammar I own a shhirt scren print shop and a sign shop, my sister is the english teacher in the family :)
 
good morning
Just a follow up, THE DRONE IS AS GOOD AS NEW. the front left legs on the Mavic air 2 is a simple swap out. Unlike the Mavic air, there is no need to open the LED hole to with a dremel or drill bit, it can easily fit through the existing Air leg opening once you figure out which angle to position the LED so it slides right through the opening. Then its just a matter of sliding out the antenna, and reinserting the LED in the new leg, reinserting the antenna and rescrewing the leg back to the arm. It turns out that when it did fall and landed on the leg first, the screw that goes through plastic pc ( behind the LED cover) took the impact and pulled through the plastic screw hole on the leg, so there was no damage to the actual arm. I included a few pics of before ( the super secure taping job I did, then the pic of where the screw is behind the LED cover that the screw pulled through, and going back on my claim that there was no cracks on the leg, I do correct myself as there were small hairline cracks next to the openings of the 2 forward screw on the leg ( under the arm )

so with that said its all fixed, no need to solder anything, glue anything or replace the full arm assembly ( which I also purchased just in case as some spare parts are not easily available just yet) so now I have the full left arm with leg assembly as a backup. The joke of the house is now from my son, I said to my son hey look Its all fixed like new, and I didnt even need the full arm assembly, he responded wow thats good can you return it, because that must of cost you an "ARM & A LEG"

If you notice a tiny tiny tiny gap between the led part of leg and the arm that is only because i put a small pc of 3m VHB tape between the leg and arm prior to screwing it in, and did not want to over tighten right away when I took the new pictures, Im a fan of if its possible to make something a little bit stronger, then why not.

BACK TO FLYING -
drone leg fix before and after.jpgdrone leg fix pics ARM LEG 3.jpgSCREW PULLED THROUGH.jpg
AND I DO NEED TO THANK PRESTON FROM US-DRONES, FOR SENDING ME THE LEG AND A PACKAGES OF EXTRA MISC SCREWS TO HAVE( NO CHARGE FOR THE SCREWS) AND TAKING THE TIME ON THE PHONE TO TAKE APART AN AIR 2 LEG ASSEMBLY AND LETTING ME KNOW YES IT SHOULD BE A SIMPLE SWAP OUT - AND IT WAS
 
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