"Gimbal Motor Overloaded" = Worthless Mavic

[dwallersv]

Again, while it's awful you guys are having this problem, and I truly am sympathetic, while the handful of you complain here, there are thousands and thousands of Mavic owners out flying right now not having the problem and quite happy.

I've been where you are before. Not with a DJI product, but with other things. It's maddening. However, if there were a general, class problem with the gimbal motors overloading, there'd be thousands and thousands of people with the problem, world-wide, and you can believe it would be news.

Best of luck, and I hope you get it resolved soon. My experience has been the exact opposite: I got the last one, the display model, at Best Buy. It had been handled, arms extended and folded over and over, by how many people I'll never know. Fortunately, it was in a locked, glass display case so at least someone would have to ask to get their hands on it.

Anyway, they had everything, it was complete, only "negative" was display model. Gave me 10% off.

It's been absolutely perfect since I brought it home. I have a set of PolarPro ND filters, and I never have any problems with the gimbal powering up with a filter installed.

I share all this only to point out that I have plenty of reasons to be skittish about my MP, and it's solid as a rock. I'm very impressed with the build quality and performance. I suspect, though, that it's not that I got a "good one" in a sea of poor quality product, but rather the opposite: You unfortunate folk got "bad ones" in a sea of high quality product.

 

[whe1946]

I had a very similar crazy “Gimbal Motor Overloaded” issue that RC5728 presented, although compared to the video mine did a lot more knocking about before it settled down for a few seconds, only to begin dancing some more. The camera never seem to settle in the front-and-centered mode we are use to. After I determined that it was a gimbal only problem, I flew my MP a few times. I had no control over where the camera was pointing so I definitely kept it in clear sight. The videos at times the camera was pointing backward (at a downward angle, of course), which was strange. Maybe DJI could have a backward mode for a properly working WP. So I’m adding my comment to the list of people who have had this dancing gimbal problem.

What did I try do? I tried the several suggestions available on the web and even the DJI rep’s suggestion that I upgrade to latest FW (one had just come out before I called). I read with interest several recovery success stories in this thread, but they didn’t work for my MP.

What has been my experience with MP service? My MP with its dancing gimbal was repair free of charges under warranty. Concerns: the tech who suggested the FW upgrade almost certainly knew that FW wasn’t going to solve my problem. I lost four days before I was given permission to send my MP from the east coast to California (4-5 days of shipping each way). Their shipping department was the slow point both receiving and sending (3 days each time). DJI paid shipping both ways; inspection, repair, and testing each took one day. I believe they are sending me my repaired MP (due day after tomorrow). It was repaired under warranty at no cost. The web site gives clear reports about where you bird is during the process.

Based on what I’ve read, this issue is not a common problem, although it is a well know issue. I received my MP in January. Before the gimbal failed it had a been flown over 50 times (I hand catch it, so no hard or wet landings) and no collision or crash.

Etiquette: This threaded discussion has gone on and on. For those of us who are dealing with this problem, this should be a helpful forum. Telling us that you haven’t had this problem, worrying about your purchasing decisions, general complaining about DJI service, making suggestions when you hadn’t had this issue, repeating what you have already said, really doesn’t help. I appreciate that many of the posts were on topic and helped me understand what’s happening.

 

[RC5728]

Quick update.

Mavic #3 worked great for a few days and then started having jello issues on the video.

This is a different issue from the last two, and also started much sooner.

I did lots of troubleshooting, updating, recalibrating, etc and now (guess what?) I'm sending #3 back.

I'm now on my 4th Mavic in about 4 weeks. Unbelievable. Let's see how long #4 works.

 

[Kmccb]

Quick update.

Mavic #3 worked great for a few days and then started having jello issues on the video.

This is a different issue from the last two, and also started much sooner.

I did lots of troubleshooting, updating, recalibrating, etc and now (guess what?) I'm sending #3 back.

I'm now on my 4th Mavic in about 4 weeks. Unbelievable. Let's see how long #4 works.

OMG that is brutal.. I can't even imagine how frustrated you must be..

What is the "jello" issue?

 

[RC5728]

OMG that is brutal.. I can't even imagine how frustrated you must be..

What is the "jello" issue?

It's horizontal (left/right) jello on the video. Very annoying.

This whole situation honestly wouldn't annoy me so much if I was at home just doing some backyard flying, but I'm in the middle of a big trip and I need a working Mavic.

 

[F6Rider]

I have three friends who have purchased Mavics within the last three months and all three have had the same problem. Especially with ND Filters. Here's how I fixed all three of them.

Fire up the Mavic. (no "gimbal" errors) at all. Then, install the filter after the IMU has initialized. Take-Off and fly, no more gimbal errors issues at all.

A lot of time it's the filters. No matter the manufacturer (other than those useless DJI ND Filters), people were getting "Gimbal Overload" errors but when you install the ND Filter AFTER the Mavic is ready to fly the problem is gone.

I hope that helps some of you that are having "Gimbal Overload" errors with ND Filters attached.

Bud

Thanks, but this is the reason I switched from the 'other' filters as they had to be installed after the gimbal initialized. Seems that Polarpro's guarantee that their filters would not cause a overload was a bit premature, that or DJI changer the load parameters on the gimbal with a later update. Imstalling the filter after boot up is a PIA as the polarizing function requires some 'fiddling' around to get it right.

 

[HermanoLoco]

Again, while it's awful you guys are having this problem, and I truly am sympathetic, while the handful of you complain here, there are thousands and thousands of Mavic owners out flying right now not having the problem and quite happy.

I've been where you are before. Not with a DJI product, but with other things. It's maddening. However, if there were a general, class problem with the gimbal motors overloading, there'd be thousands and thousands of people with the problem, world-wide, and you can believe it would be news.

Best of luck, and I hope you get it resolved soon. My experience has been the exact opposite: I got the last one, the display model, at Best Buy. It had been handled, arms extended and folded over and over, by how many people I'll never know. Fortunately, it was in a locked, glass display case so at least someone would have to ask to get their hands on it.

Anyway, they had everything, it was complete, only "negative" was display model. Gave me 10% off.

It's been absolutely perfect since I brought it home. I have a set of PolarPro ND filters, and I never have any problems with the gimbal powering up with a filter installed.

I share all this only to point out that I have plenty of reasons to be skittish about my MP, and it's solid as a rock. I'm very impressed with the build quality and performance. I suspect, though, that it's not that I got a "good one" in a sea of poor quality product, but rather the opposite: You unfortunate folk got "bad ones" in a sea of high quality product.

Just made a quick search on Youtube and found a lot of videos teaching how to disassembling the gimbal and fixing it. Those videos have thousands and thousands views and they are many many videos...

It seems to me that in this lottery of defects there are many awarded by DJI

 

[HermanoLoco]

Having fixed and replaced a good number of Mavic gimbals, I can say that it is as strong as the Phantoms despite its small size. The parts that usually break on impact are the gimbal plate, silver video cable and the flat ribbon cable. The gimbal motor assemblies usually die if you had a really hard crash and the drone was still powered on, and the gimbal was trying to right itself. At least one of the motors usually fry. These days most gimbal parts are available, and are relatively cheap fixes.

Can you give some light on my problem? I'm from Brasil and its not possible to send my Mavic to you.
Look the above video:

After that, I went back home and tried to calibrate the gimbal. At 63%, the gimbal started to make a noise like a dentist's drill and got super hot. Turn off the drone and I was afraid to turn on the drone.
I live in Brazil and unfortunately it is not possible for me to send the Drone to you.

Thx

 

[Former Member]

Can you give some light on my problem? I'm from Brasil and its not possible to send my Mavic to you.
Look the above video:

After that, I went back home and tried to calibrate the gimbal. At 63%, the gimbal started to make a noise like a dentist's drill and got super hot. Turn off the drone and I was afraid to turn on the drone.
I live in Brazil and unfortunately it is not possible for me to send the Drone to you.

Thx

You can contact www.modelismobh.com.br for repair. Are you near them?

 

[HermanoLoco]

You can contact www.modelismobh.com.br for repair. Are you near them?

No, I'm not near them. Just to dispatch the drone to them is almost $ 100.00
They do not give price estimation and judging by the price they sell the products I have even afraid to ask ... Buying a Mavic Pro with them costs $ 2,225.00 and this is not the combo !!! A single battery costs $ 239
Do you have the motors of gimbal or just the complete gimbal? Do you have any used gimbal?

 

[DonLandis]

Today, I'll am joining this sorry bunch of failed Gimbals on the Mavic Pro.

The warning is the same- Motor overload. Check to see if the Gimbal protector is removed. Tried to calibrate and it stops at 5%. The video signal is fine and the focus works but I have no control over position now and the entire mechanism is free and doesn't appear to be blocked. I did some flying and the video is not steady at all, not surprised. I may be able to shoot with it and stabilize in the editor.
I checked all the ribbon cables and shock mounts and all seems normal. When I start up the drone, it doesn't even try to go through any testing. I wonder if there is a circuit overload interrupter that blew. I'll probably be contacting Mr. Thunderdrones when I get back from my road trip.

I'll be traveling soon so I'll wait until I return to send it in for repair.

 

[DonLandis]

Sitting here this afternoon, I decided to dig into the Gimbal problem to see if the failure cause is obvious and I might be able to repair it myself. After a bit of research, the dead Gimbal seems to be corrected by many replacing the ribbon cable on the gimbal. I saw there were many YT videos on how to remove the Gimbal and replace it with a new one.

So I pulled the gimbal assembly out and quickly saw the ribbon cable had broken off completely underneath where I couldn't see it until I removed the Gimbla assembly from the copter. Found lots of suppliers of the ribbon cable on line so I have one on order. From what I see, the ribbon cable breakage is a very common problem when you suffer a hard landing as I did. The other problem with crash is the plastic shock plate has been known to crack, but mine is fine. This part is also readily available.

 

[DonLandis]

Update on my Gimbal repair:

The new ribbon cable arrived yesterday afternoon so I began the repair.replacement. I would say it was one of the most difficult electronic repair jobs I have ever done. And I have done some pretty intense repairs, including soldering a GPU back on the MB of an XBOX360.

Removing the broken cable was pretty easy but routing the new one properly took me several hours. The ribbon cable is quite fragile and the way it comes is not how it can be simply inserted. It must be folded in a special way to fit. Plus the tiny multi pin connectors are rubber cemented in place and to put the new one on I had to scrape the rubber cement off with a pointy sharp knife being very careful not to ruin the tiny connector. Snapping the new one in place left doubts it had been inserted properly because it seemed to just sit in the connector.

The cable is marked with a Y, P, and R so you know which motor to attach to but more importantly is that the folds in the cable and how it is routed is what's very critical.

So I felt it was all in place and decided to test the repair before putting the cover back on. Put in a fully charged battery and fired it up. Immediately the Gimbal responded and went through the warm up. I was impressed! I actually was mentally prepared for a total failure and prayed no smoke would pour out of the Gimbal. But all was working fine.
I put the rest of the MP back together and hooked up my RC and iphone for a complete test. Video looked good. Did a Gimbal calibration and it completed normally. Then I updated the firmware to the 900 series and took it for a quick test flight to verify the image was stabilized. All working perfectly!

During the repair, I discovered the small plate the rubber band shock mounts were attached to was bent. So I was able to carefully straighten that too.

The only question I have is whether the rubber cement that dji used on those connectors is critical to prevent the tiny connections on the gimbal motor from coming loose. It won't be a difficult job to open it up and fix that but I'm not sure what sort of rubber cement to use. The most time consuming part and difficult part was the threading of the cable through the various openings. Honestly I spent at least 3 hours trying to get it right.


I watched about a dozen YT videos on this repair to be completely familiar with the procedure and still I made mistakes that will save me time when I have to do another.

The fact that the cable is easy to order and have from stock at so many places tells me this repair is very common.

The Gimbal ribbon is clearly a very weak part of this system and I hope dji comes up with a better system.

 

[Former Member]

The only question I have is whether the rubber cement that dji used on those connectors is critical to prevent the tiny connections on the gimbal motor from coming loose.

Not critical, but they use alot of glue there for a reason.

The most time consuming part and difficult part was the threading of the cable through the various openings. Honestly I spent at least 3 hours trying to get it right.

Alot of people give up at that point and either tear the ribbon or cant get it going. The first one I did took 4 hours, and I tore 2 ribbons in the process. Now I can get it done much faster.

Congrats on a successful repair.

 

[DonLandis]

Congrats on a successful repair.

Thanks! But I'm not confident I want to do this professionally. I'm too slow to make a profit.

On the rubber cement, do you have any recommendations?


I now have two Mavic drones and that gives me a nice backup when I travel. More importantly, I have one to do my experiments with and one to keep for stock camera work.

 

[Former Member]

On the rubber cement, do you have any recommendations?

LOCTITE Vinyl, Fabric and Plastic Adhesive or Shoo Goo. Both hold very well but are flexible and easily removable.

 

[DonLandis]

Got the Shoe-Goo in and it looks just like the stuff that dji used. Dabbed it on all the gimbal connections, put back together and it is good to go.

Have to work fast with that stuff as it skins over in a few seconds.

 

[Enigma]

I managed to fix the issue (yes!) by using a small screwdriver and correcting the alignment and un twisting the small ribbon cable of the camera.

It now clears gimbal calibration for first time too and does not knock on startup.

Try it. Good luck!

Can you give more details, perhaps photos of precisely what you did please.

 

[Bama DRONE]

What do you do when you have a gimbal issue and you bought it from Amazon, bought the refresh package but never activated the code? Do I even have coverage now because I didn't active the code?I only had it 11 days,so I returned it to Amazon, so if I do have a refresh package will it be transferable?