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Mavic 2 Pro Gimble freakout

Noleafclover1337

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I’ve had about 7 flights or so with my new M2P. So far everything’s been fine but on two flights so far I’ve had the gimble freakout and start spazzing, moving in all directions. This last flight before takeoff it said “gimble overload error” even though the casing was off and nothing was blocking it. I checked it, turned the Mavic off and on again and took off. A minute later the gimble went crazy in the air.. really thought the Mavic was spiraling out of the sky but it was just the gimble going crazy. Anyone else experience this or know why this may happen? Starting to be concerned it’s a lemon.
 
On any Mavic, if you are getting a gimbal motor overload message, you have removed your gimbal clamp, and your gimbal is spazzing out uncontrollably, you have a defective unit. It's either a bad gimbal motor assembly or gimbal ribbon cable, and might have gotten damaged in transit from DJI to you. These poor drones get manhandled by 2 or 3 different shipping companies on their way from China to you, and they have delicate electronics inside.

The good news is that it is still under warranty, and they will send you a brand new one if you file an online warranty claim. This is a warranty issue, not a Refresh, just to make sure you file the correct claim with DJI.
 
BTW, OP, if you have a chance to post a video of it when it's doing it, we can be sure whether it's the swipe feature, or a mechanical malfunction.
Thanks, I will do that when it happens again. It’s an uncontrollable spaz from the gimble for no reason when the housing is removed. Def. don’t think it’s a swipe thing, seems like a malfunction.
 
Thanks, I will do that when it happens again. It’s an uncontrollable spaz from the gimble for no reason when the housing is removed. Def. don’t think it’s a swipe thing, seems like a malfunction.

Thanks. I know youre talking about an M2, but do you think it is as severe as this MP? I know you said it eventually comes back to center, the one in this video never recenters.

 
Thanks. I know youre talking about an M2, but do you think it is as severe as this MP? I know you said it eventually comes back to center, the one in this video never recenters.


Similar movements but like 30x faster. It’s like the gimble is possessed and trying to free itself from the body.

Kind of crazy. I’m torn what to do because this is happening more frequently now, maybe every other flight or so. I have a trip planned in 2 weeks and want the drone for the trip.. so would prefer not to have a long warranty claim period.. but this is making me nervous.

Sigh.
 
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I don't know if it is the same thing you are experiencing but my Mavic Pro 1 would occasionally freak out also. I think the camera/gimbal would decide to reboot (if that is what you want to call it) and go through it's initialization process while in flight. I could see everything on the screen but if I was recording at the time, it would stop the recording and would not start recording again until it had finished its initialization process. It would do this once every 10 or so flights. Didn't seem to effect the flight, just the camera.

Needless to say, the first time, I about died. I was sure it was falling out of the sky. My heart stopped and I looked up quickly so that I could see what was going on. I was very happy but puzzled to see it hanging there in the sky like nothing had happened. I am sure hoping that the Mavic 2s do not have this problem. It's rather unnerving!
 
Similar movements but like 30x faster. It’s like the gimble is possessed and trying to free itself from the body.

Kind of crazy. I’m torn what to do because this is happening more frequently now, maybe every other flight or so. I have a trip planned in 2 weeks and want the drone for the trip.. so would prefer not to have a long warranty claim period.. but this is making me nervous.

Sigh.

Where are you located?
 
Similar movements but like 30x faster. It’s like the gimble is possessed and trying to free itself from the body.

Kind of crazy. I’m torn what to do because this is happening more frequently now, maybe every other flight or so. I have a trip planned in 2 weeks and want the drone for the trip.. so would prefer not to have a long warranty claim period.. but this is making me nervous.

Sigh.

Ok here's my opinion. If it does it when the drone is in flight, but eventually centers itself, you can fly it for now, just keep it within line of site. If it starts doing it while youre flying you can hit the RTH button and it will land you safely.

Depending on your location, and since you might not have enough time to send it in to DJI and get a new one back, you have nothing to lose by trying to bring it with you on the trip in its damaged condition. I dont think that it's unsafe to fly, just inconvenient. Try to be efficient in your video capture, dont waste time or footage, keeping in the back of your mind that the gimbal might fail permanently before the end of your trip.

Do you have a backup drone? You could always go and buy a Tello or Spark, and then sell them when you get back. This is a good reason for new M2 owners to keep their old birds around for redundancy.
 
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Ok here's my opinion. If it does it when the drone is in flight, but eventually centers itself, you can fly it for now, just keep it within line of site. If it starts doing it while youre flying you can hit the RTH button and it will land you safely.

Depending on your location, and since you might not have enough time to send it in to DJI and get a new one back, you have nothing to lose by trying to bring it with you on the trip in its damaged condition. I dont think that it's unsafe to fly, just inconvenient. Try to be efficient in your video capture, dont waste time or footage, keeping in the back of your mind that the gimbal might fail permanently before the end of your trip.

Do you have a backup drone? You could always go and buy a Tello or Spark, and then sell them when you get back. This is a good reason for new M2 owners to keep their old birds around for redundancy.

Sound advice. My buddy has a couple mavics I could borrow too if needed. I’ll see how the next few days go with flights and go from there. Thanks!
 
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My gimbal did the same and then died shortly after. I've found at least 4 other people having the same overloaded gimbal freakout problem now and I'm sure there will be plenty more in the coming weeks. I don't know if there are just defects getting out or if there is a legitmate large scale problem here, but the new gimbals seem to be very weak. One person said that DJI responded by saying it can be caused by strong wind. I really hope that isn't the cause as I never want to worry about a breeze burning out my $1500 drone's gimbal.

I also tried everything and the gimbal moves slightly on its own but won't center or calibrate (gets stuck at 10% and doesn't move). No crashes.
 
My gimbal did the same and then died shortly after. I've found at least 4 other people having the same overloaded gimbal freakout problem now and I'm sure there will be plenty more in the coming weeks. I don't know if there are just defects getting out or if there is a legitmate large scale problem here, but the new gimbals seem to be very weak. One person said that DJI responded by saying it can be caused by strong wind. I really hope that isn't the cause as I never want to worry about a breeze burning out my $1500 drone's gimbal.

I also tried everything and the gimbal moves slightly on its own but won't center or calibrate (gets stuck at 10% and doesn't move). No crashes.

Wow, yeah that’s pretty crazy if a breeze is what’s burning out the motors. It’s a heavy camera so I can see how it’s possible if they didn’t account for that when making this model. Agreed though, it shouldn’t happen. Wonder if there will be a recall on this model with more and more of these issues popping up.

Did you start the warranty return process yet? How long is turnaround expected?
 
I'm going to do a straight return as its clearly defective. I want to order another but I really dont have faith in the new gimbal's durability right now.
 
I'm going to do a straight return as its clearly defective. I want to order another but I really dont have faith in the new gimbal's durability right now.

Yeah that's a good idea. I will most likely do the same soon. The past few flights has been okay where the gimble hasn't totallty freaked out, but it's "twitched" a bit at times when turning if it catches a slight breeze. Really just hoping to get through my honeymoon with it in 2 weeks before starting a return. Keep me posted with how the return goes.
 
Yeah good luck! I flew it on a windy day through a few packs so I guess if the wind is the issue it was exposed a good amount. It was 100% stable for me until it freaked out and made me think it was dropping out of the sky. Got it back and all I could get is that gimbal overloaded message with no real gimbal movement. Not sure what to do as I really want to buy another one but at this point it really looks like it could be possible design flaw when it comes to handling wind.

I've found this thread on DJI's site that has alot of people reporting the same problem! Mavic Pro 2-Gimbal Overload Error, might be a good idea to get anyone having the issue to post over there as well.
 
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On any Mavic, if you are getting a gimbal motor overload message, you have removed your gimbal clamp, and your gimbal is spazzing out uncontrollably, you have a defective unit. It's either a bad gimbal motor assembly or gimbal ribbon cable, and might have gotten damaged in transit from DJI to you. These poor drones get manhandled by 2 or 3 different shipping companies on their way from China to you, and they have delicate electronics inside.

The good news is that it is still under warranty, and they will send you a brand new one if you file an online warranty claim. This is a warranty issue, not a Refresh, just to make sure you file the correct claim with DJI.

Even when you file a warranty claim, don't be surprised when you file the claim that DJI tries to get you to pay for a refresh fee (if you bought Refresh), just because you have a refresh policy. It took me an extra week to convince DJI to cover my Mavic Pro gimbal overload repair under warranty in May 2017 (YES, the same exact problem the OP has with Mavic2). After a week of back and forth emails with no progress I got DJI on the phone and had them admit there was no justification for me to pay a refresh fee when I didn't break it from misuse or crash. This has soured my confidence in the refresh policy DJI sells, it was such a bad hassle (as opposed to Hasselblad :rolleyes:)

This gimbal overload issue was a common issue for a small percentage of Mavic Pro. My craft was flying fine for about 3 months, then one day I pulled it out of the backpack to fly and the gimbal wouldn't finish the startup exercise, stating gimbal overload and the gimbal constantly going through its gyrations. DJI replaced the craft and it's been fine ever since. I'm sorry to see the Mavic 2 has similar "gimbal overload" issues. The M2 gimbal looks so much better than M1
 
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