"Gimbal Obstruction" Error, erratic gimbal movement and snapped black piece behind gimbal.

[adamtoronto]

Traveling through Brazil and it appears I've damaged my drone. No crashes, but perhaps I was rough on it in in the case.

I tried starting it up and it's giving a 'gimbal obstruction' error. The gimbal is erratically moving the camera around, and indicates it's 'restarting' constantly in the IOS app.

It appears that both the gimbal obstruction error and the snapped back piece are both common. My thought is the snapped back piece weakened the gimbal, and it was extra sensitive (damaging the ribbon cable).

I've seen a video on replacing the ribbon cable to fix the obstruction error:

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I'm trying to figure out the best option, I'm in South America for the next 6 months, I could send it to DJI in North America, but because the black piece is snapped, I feel this won't be covered under my one-year warranty, so it will end up costing $150 for shipping, plus potentially $300 for a new gimbal, which is brutally expensive.

The other option is fixing the back piece and replacing the ribbon cable by somehow getting the part shipped to Brazil.

Any thoughts? anyone have similar problems with the Mavic?

(Photo of snapped back piece: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet)

 

[Former Member]

I've seen a video on replacing the ribbon cable to fix the obstruction erro

I could be wrong, but I think that's a video on how to fix a gimbal overload message, not a gimbal obstructed error. 2 different messages and 2 different repairs.

Im putting a new thread in the general forum for repair shops in Brazil. I sell alot of parts to Brazil, maybe I can hook you up with a repair shop.

Here is the thread:

Repair shops in S America?

 

[Former Member]

Ive sent some emails to some of my Brazilian customers to see if they can help you repair it. What part of Brazil are you in?

 

[adamtoronto]

Thanks Thunderdrones!!

I've actually received both error messages, they seem to toggle back and forth between "Motor overload" and "Gimbal obstructed". Hopefully a ribbon swap fixes both!

I'm actually in Colombia now for about 1-2 months now, heading to Brazil after. Do you have any contacts here? Ideally near Medellin?

 

[Former Member]

Well, when you get to Brazil, here is one of my customers who is a repair shop, or you can send it to him from Colombia and he can repair it for you. Be a lot cheaper than sending it to DJI NA:

ModelismoBH - Assistência Técnica de Drone, Helicópteros e Automodelos

 

[adamtoronto]

Awesome! I'll reach out to him for a quote on the errors.

I imagine you don't have any suggestions in Colombia, do you?

 

[Former Member]

Google is your friend.

HELIBOSS COLOMBIA
Cra. 26 # 39 - 47 1 er Piso Bogotá, Col

Contáctenos

 

[Landlord]

First.... this problem likely did not happen due to rough handling. It's a known factory defect affecting about 3-5% of all mavics shipped this year. DJI are being absolute cunts about owning responsibility for the problem.

Like you I bought my Mavic expecting a working product and like you this problem came out after a few dozen flights and like you I'm on long term travel so the cost and logistics of sending it in for repair are prohibitive (don't forget customs duties... they typically send you a different serial number so customs will treat it as a brand new item and charge you hundreds of dollars in duties potentially!)

I've done everything imaginable to find a compassionate party at DJI to make a special exception to let me get it repaired locally but they won't budge.

I'd never buy another DJI product again

 

[adamtoronto]

Ahhh, yeah the customs is really what I was afraid of. If it costs $200 to send it up north, then another $150 or so for customs (I really have no idea of costs), THEN they don't actually fix it under warranty, I would be better off just paying $350 locally for a new gimbal / camera assembly. Beyond that the whole process would likely take 3-4 months.

I found a shop in Medellin, Colombia that will service drones, I will be taking it in for their thoughts. Likely I'll end up having a ribbon cable sent from Amazon here and service the device myself with my fingers crossed.

Amazon.com: FSLabs DJI Mavic Pro Gimbal Flexible Flat Pcb Gimbal Ribbon Cable: Camera & Photo

(EDIT: And yes, I was considering an Inspire 2, but this whole support ordeal has put me off DJI. Impressive while it lasted though!)

 

[Former Member]

Ahhh, yeah the customs is really what I was afraid of. If it costs $200 to send it up north, then another $150 or so for customs (I really have no idea of costs), THEN they don't actually fix it under warranty, I would be better off just paying $350 locally for a new gimbal / camera assembly. Beyond that the whole process would likely take 3-4 months.

I found a shop in Medellin, Colombia that will service drones, I will be taking it in for their thoughts. Likely I'll end up having a ribbon cable sent from Amazon here and service the device myself with my fingers crossed.

Amazon.com: FSLabs DJI Mavic Pro Gimbal Flexible Flat Pcb Gimbal Ribbon Cable: Camera & Photo

(EDIT: And yes, I was considering an Inspire 2, but this whole support ordeal has put me off DJI. Impressive while it lasted though!)

A word to the wise, order 2 from @fstop.labs hahaha

They tear so easily, and then it would take a few weeks to get another from Fstop. If you can fix it with 1, you can always keep the 2nd as a backup or sell it.

 

[Landlord]

You and I are soul brothers.
I'm bringing mine to the local repair shop for inspection $60 and quotation tomorrow

But... a worry I have is this: despite this whole problem being entirely DJIs fault, if you have aun unauthorized repair center (even an authorized dealer) do the repair, it probably voids the warranty.

Thoughts on that?

Thoughts on gathering 8 more guys with this problem and bum rushing DJI to make it right?

Ahhh, yeah the customs is really what I was afraid of. If it costs $200 to send it up north, then another $150 or so for customs (I really have no idea of costs), THEN they don't actually fix it under warranty, I would be better off just paying $350 locally for a new gimbal / camera assembly. Beyond that the whole process would likely take 3-4 months.

I found a shop in Medellin, Colombia that will service drones, I will be taking it in for their thoughts. Likely I'll end up having a ribbon cable sent from Amazon here and service the device myself with my fingers crossed.

Amazon.com: FSLabs DJI Mavic Pro Gimbal Flexible Flat Pcb Gimbal Ribbon Cable: Camera & Photo

(EDIT: And yes, I was considering an Inspire 2, but this whole support ordeal has put me off DJI. Impressive while it lasted though!)

 

[adamtoronto]

@Thunderdrones, yeah I will definitely be buying 2!

@Landlord, definitely wouldn't be hard to find 8 guys with similar issues based on what I've seen.

I'm not concerned about warranty as long as I can get my drone flying again with a $30 part. It's a pretty useless warranty as I don't spend much time in North America and the processing time is absolutely ridiculous for us Canadians.

I had my Phantom 4 serviced for another known hardware defect (white speckles in video) and it ended up taking 2+ months to be returned (mailed April 5th, returned June 15). It was all covered under warranty, but think of all the flying that could have been done in that time. Besides, it took so long that I wasn't able to take the drone on this trip.

Curious how your inspection goes!

 

[adamtoronto]

@Landlord, hey man, how'd your inspection go? I have the option of getting the ribbon cable replaced here for about 100$. I'm just not sure if that's the problem.

It turns out there are actually quite a few drone shops in Colombia.

 

[adamtoronto]

Hey guys - thought I'd follow up.

I ended up buying a replacement gimbal cable from Amazon USA, had it shipped to Colombia and installed here for about $50 USD. Runs like new now. Total cost about $80 USD.

It's still missing that little snapped black piece that supports the gimbal (img below), but it runs fine:
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Hope this helps someone.