Gimbal stuck

[Randy M]

I was just out flying my mavic mini and, I had a fly away! I found it two blocks to the east of my takeoff point. Thank God! One of the first things I checked when I found it was my gimbal. It moves side to side just fine but it does not go up and down. When I do a gimbal recalibration, nothing happens. It just sits at 0% on the go fly app. Anybody know how I could fix this? By the way,.. the reason for the fly away was that a propeller broke in mid-flight. Lesson learned, never use non oem propellers in cold weather! I did do a pre-flight check and all props were flawless upon takeoff.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Can you pitch the camera up and down by touching it with a finger tip?
Does the gimbal roll?
By "side to side" do you mean the gimbal yaws?
If not then I'd have a good look around the relevant pivots for any debris.

Also make sure the gimbal is not jammed against the drone's body work. The gimbal carrier is connected to the drone's body via 4 rubber dampers, these are easily displaced in a crash. All point inwards with respect to the gimbal carrier, the rear 2 often get turned around in a disconnection for some reason and point outwards. The front 2 are more difficult to replace and may require the removal of the top shell.

If things pitch, roll and yaw using you finger tip but not when commanded to do so by the controller etc. then you may have disconnected or damaged control cables. The only cable that connects to the yaw motor is a ribbon cable that seems to be easily torn. The pitch and roll motors are driven via a stranded cable that also connects to the actual camera.
Does the camera work?
Unfortunately aside from un-jamming anything that is stuck and replacing anything that is obviously torn or broken, repairing is a matter of replacing something and seeing if that fixes any problem.

Have a good loo around the drone/gimbal and report any findings.

 

[twickers14]

Perfect example of why this Forum is so brilliant. Well done PF. Do hope you get that gimbal back up and running RM.

 

[Randy M]

Can you pitch the camera up and down by touching it with a finger tip?
Does the gimbal roll?
By "side to side" do you mean the gimbal yaws?
If not then I'd have a good look around the relevant pivots for any debris.

Also make sure the gimbal is not jammed against the drone's body work. The gimbal carrier is connected to the drone's body via 4 rubber dampers, these are easily displaced in a crash. All point inwards with respect to the gimbal carrier, the rear 2 often get turned around in a disconnection for some reason and point outwards. The front 2 are more difficult to replace and may require the removal of the top shell.

If things pitch, roll and yaw using you finger tip but not when commanded to do so by the controller etc. then you may have disconnected or damaged control cables. The only cable that connects to the yaw motor is a ribbon cable that seems to be easily torn. The pitch and roll motors are driven via a stranded cable that also connects to the actual camera.
Does the camera work?
Unfortunately aside from un-jamming anything that is stuck and replacing anything that is obviously torn or broken, repairing is a matter of replacing something and seeing if that fixes any problem.

Have a good loo around the drone/gimbal and report any findings.

I was able to remove the top shell and found no issues. After I put it back together, the gimbal started working just fine! As you suggested, something must have been jamming it. Thanks for your help!!!

 

[Cymruflyer]

Glad it got working again. With OEM props so cheap why bother with aftermarket brands? I see another post where the flyer was using aftermarket props on his Mavic 2 and one came off upon landing, all the screws were loose. Such low cost yet extremely important things like props, I would never consider anything other than OEM when replacing.