Gimbal protector left on

[ScoobyD00]

Due to the poor weather in the UK I've been playing with the fly app and just having the mm on the floor without taking off but powered on.
I haven't been removing the gimbal protector, forgetting and thinking you didn't need to unless you actually fly.
I've read that leaving the protector on whilst the mm is turned on its a no no.
I've removed it and flown it indoors and the gimbal seems fine so no damage done.
Do you leave the protector on until the actual flight or take it off before turning the mm on?

 

[old man mavic]

Due to the poor weather in the UK I've been playing with the fly app and just having the mm on the floor without taking off but powered on.
I haven't been removing the gimbal protector, forgetting and thinking you didn't need to unless you actually fly.
I've read that leaving the protector on whilst the mm is turned on its a no no.
I've removed it and flown it indoors and the gimbal seems fine so no damage done.
Do you leave the protector on until the actual flight or take it off before turning the mm on?

always remove it before powering on the drone for whatever reason

 

[chriscuk]

I've forgotten a number of times.

 

[Mini6ix]

Due to the poor weather in the UK I've been playing with the fly app and just having the mm on the floor without taking off but powered on.
I haven't been removing the gimbal protector, forgetting and thinking you didn't need to unless you actually fly.
I've read that leaving the protector on whilst the mm is turned on its a no no.
I've removed it and flown it indoors and the gimbal seems fine so no damage done.
Do you leave the protector on until the actual flight or take it off before turning the mm on?

The app will show a warning as it does its preflight checks telling you the gimbal is stuck!!

 

[msinger]

Do you leave the protector on until the actual flight or take it off before turning the mm on?

Always remove it before powering on the drone.

 

[CyrusBlack]

I'm guilty of forgetting upon turning it on. I now have a label on the bottom of the MA reminding me

 

[lilewis]

I put attention-getting cloth tape over the front of the plastic camera cover.
That reminds me to take the cover off.

And if that doesn't remind me, when I start the drone my display is black because it can't see through the tape - making me think: why that is happening?

I don't understand why DJI didn't make this issue fool-proof in the first place?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I don't understand why DJI didn't make this issue fool-proof in the first place?

Gimbal repair$

 

[ScoobyD00]

Thanks for the replies.
Managed to remove it this afternoon and didn't forget and went for a 20min flight. So stable even in this british weather.
Just got back, the light was fading as getting close to dusk but ive just checked the footage and quality is excellent at 1080p 60fps.

 

[paulatkin73]

Always remove it before powering on the drone.

have anybody ever had gimbal motors burned out due to the locked gimbal? those motors are not even getting warm during actual mavic operation. is it really a legit threat? any gimbal controller is expected to sense the lack of movement upon power-up and stop any further attempts - did dji do something else there?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

have anybody ever had gimbal motors burned out due to the locked gimbal? those motors are not even getting warm during actual mavic operation. is it really a legit threat? any gimbal controller is expected to sense the lack of movement upon power-up and stop any further attempts - did dji do something else there?

On other models yes, well not burned out, but damaged.
The M1P was notorious for it, maybe the different MM design is a little more robust, hopefully they learn from previous flaws.

Ia ssume the MM is no different to other models, it does its calibration when it is powered on ?

Still, attach a bit of bright ribbon or whatever to the cover / clamp, it really is the best thing to do.
Mine is still on, and I am now well rehearsed in taking it off pre flight, would look pretty silly flying with it on !

 

[Deleted member 109934]

On other models yes, well not burned out, but damaged.
The M1P was notorious for it, maybe the different MM design is a little more robust, hopefully they learn from previous flaws.

Ia ssume the MM is no different to other models, it does its calibration when it is powered on ?

Still, attach a bit of bright ribbon or whatever to the cover / clamp, it really is the best thing to do.
Mine is still on, and I am now well rehearsed in taking it off pre flight, would look pretty silly flying with it on !

View attachment 85925

it does calibrate at power on, looks up down, left, right, all the directions, definitely remove it before power on.

 

[msinger]

The M1P was notorious for it, maybe the different MM design is a little more robust, hopefully they learn from previous flaws.

A lot of people fear it, but it's actually not true at all. Check out this poll:

POLL: Have you powered on your Mavic with the gimbal lock attached?

A lot of people worry about damaging the gimbal after accidentally powering on the Mavic with the gimbal lock attached. Have you ever done this? Please vote above.

mavicpilots.com

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

A lot of people fear it, but it's actually not true at all. Check out this poll:

POLL: Have you powered on your Mavic with the gimbal lock attached?

A lot of people worry about damaging the gimbal after accidentally powering on the Mavic with the gimbal lock attached. Have you ever done this? Please vote above.

mavicpilots.com

I do remember that poll.
Personally did it 2 or 4 times, shut down very fast, no problems.
Then in excitement / rush once in the desert I flew with it on, about a minute maybe, not sure how I missed all the warnings.
But it overloaded and mucked up the gimbal badly.
Good that DJI replaced it, even when told what I did, reading threads now I was very lucky.

Edit - Oh yeah, I think the poll was a bit skewed too, and it was in the general forums, and besides M1P users, M2P / M2Z owners were also included, that was a better designed gimbal I feel.

 

[johnbirt]

Same goes for Mavic Air with the also additional easily forgettable fold down of front antennae legs! The latter forgetfulness usually gets a reminder in the form of the gimbal clunking or mowing grass on the launch surface.

I have cured myself (hopefully!) by the simple expedient of an A4 encapsulated sheet with reminders for pre-flight or maintenance writ large in the case.

Same with MV2 Pro. With Anafi only problem is leaving the camera cover on which of course is flagged up by the app black screen. Must be one of the easiest drones to get into the air.

 

[Back Country]

Most of you will already know this but as a word of caution to noobs like myself, even if you take the gimbal cover off be aware of the surface you place the drone on afterwards.

After discovering that my 150lb wimp of a dog is terrified of my drone last night when I tried it out indoors for the first time before crashing it down my stairs on its maiden flight(separate story, not entirely my fault, the drone just flew in to the wall while hovering for some reason, but I should have put the prop guards on) I decided to try it out again this morning in my bedroom out of earshot of the dog(prop guards on this time! Lol).

I took off the gimbal cover, powered it on and set it on my bed. I thought my duvet was flat and firm enough to launch from but evidently not, I got gimbal overload/gimbal stuck error messsages as the camera had settled in to the soft duvet just enough to affect the gimbal movement when the drone went through its start up sequence.

Easily fixed, I just picked it up and tilted the drone around a bit and it seemed to recognize that the gimbal was free after doing so. Anyway, just a long winded word of caution for an issue that is probably painfully obvious to 99.9% of the people here on this forum already but I figured I'd share it regardless.

 

[Flynz]

Back Country you gotta fly outside!

Inside Is very risky. GPS may not work and the floor may not provide sufficient contrast for sensors. Drifting into a wall is almost inevitable.

 

[Back Country]

Back Country you gotta fly outside!

Inside Is very risky. GPS may not work and the floor may not provide sufficient contrast for sensors. Drifting into a wall is almost inevitable.

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that it is not uncommon for the drones to behave oddly indoors, I was no more than 5-7' directly behind it flying it very slowly and cautiously down my stairs to the lower living room area as it is fairly open. At the time I wasn't even using either stick and it just took a hard right in to the wall, fell down perhaps 4' in to the handrail and then fell off that to the floor below. A bit disappointing as this was within the 1st minute or so of flight time ever for the drone and me, luckily for me it was fine, other than some scuffing on the edges of a few of the props.

Took it outdoors today for its first ever outdoors flight, that went really well, had the drone up to as high as 110m and just shy of 1km upstream before I brought it back. Pretty high winds today as well, it handled them very well I thought.

I had a small landing pad on the ground anchored with stones on each corner, the wind managed to blow the drone props in to one as it took off with seemingly no harm done but after that I just took to hand launching and catching the drone to mitigate that concern. These things are really, really fun!! As a plus, my dog doesn't seem scared of it outdoors at all, he mostly just ignored it. If this snow stops falling I'll be out for more flying tomorrow afternoon.

 

[DanMan32]

I'm starting to wonder how effective VPS really is on the Mini. So far though, indoors didn't have sufficient light and when there is enough light for the VPS, there's already GPS.
I also sometimes briefly get Sensor Error. So far I assume that's insufficient light for the bottom sensor. It should say "insufficient light" and not a generic "Sensor Error". There's lots of sensors in the Mini.

I've notice too that there's very little clearance for the poor gimbal. It won't work on my carpet which has some pile but not drastic. I have to use a landing pad since any grass will hinder the gimbal.

 

[Flynz]

Country I flew my Mavic Pro in my bedroom in the evening after a few reds. Drifting a challenge so I thought land fast. It drifted towards my bed as it touched down and before I could shut down the props caught the edge of bed and it literally climbed under my bed. Broken leg and no insurance so was a costly bottle of red.

Landing pad a good idea if there is snow.. Permeably low wind. Also try a precision take-off so it can do an auto land on the pad.