Mavic Air - motor gimbal overload

[Sumalosep]

Been flying my mavic air since August this year till it started showing Motor Gimbal Overload warnings. In Laguna Beach, CA I remember my drone missed a few inches the landing pad during RTH and landed on the sand. It wasn’t a hard landing. After that I noticed this Gimbal Motor OL. Gimbal looks fine, no sign of motor binding or stuttering, didn’t see much sand inside Gimbal motor. Just annoys me with the message “Gimbal Motor OL.

Been in contact with DJI chat help desk and asked me to reload DJIGo app to see if the Gimbal Motor OL clears up- but no it didn’t work.

I was asked then to download DJIassistant2 to my computer but its not showing up in my computer. I have iMac os high Sierra version 10.13. DJIassistant shows download successful but I can’t find it in my computer.

Does anybody out there able to solve this Gimbal Motor Overload problem using the DJI assistant? Or am I missing something in my trouble shooting?

Thank you for your help. Happy flying

 

[Former Member]

Probably sand in your gimbal motor assembly. Even a few grains in the wrong gap can cause the overload error. With the power off, try working the gimbal through all of it axes, and try to get the sand out. Be gentle. If you feel any of the motors gritty, use computer cleaner compressed air to try and get it out. Blow the air down so that it doesnt go inside the chassis.

 

[Bigbird48]

I agree sand in the motor had this happen to me. It loked fine but there was sand in it. DJI says never use canned air pressure is to high, us a air compressor and turn it down to low pressure. I ended up taking back to the store they took it apart cleaned it recal everything and took a week cost me 35 bucks

 

[Former Member]

I agree sand in the motor had this happen to me. It loked fine but there was sand in it. DJI says never use canned air pressure is to high, us a air compressor and turn it down to low pressure. I ended up taking back to the store they took it apart cleaned it recal everything and took a week cost me 35 bucks

Not everyone has an air compressor, and dont want to go buy one just to clean out a gimbal. Canned compressed air is actually a better choice than an air compressor because it is usually more pure and dryer than an air compressors output, as long as the can is held upright. The bearings in the gimbal motor assembly are sealed, they cant be taken apart and require no maintenance.

 

[Bigbird48]

Hey guy I'm just sayin what DJI told me. They said canned air was too high pressure and could damage the gimbal. Yes no everyone has a compressor but most have access to one

 

[Former Member]

Hey guy I'm just sayin what DJI told me. They said canned air was too high pressure and could damage the gimbal. Yes no everyone has a compressor but most have access to one

That's the problem with talking to DJI. One person can tell you 1 thing and another person can tell you a different thing and they might both be wrong.

I fix these everyday and I have both compressed air in a can and a compressor and my weapon of choice is the canned air because of lower contaminants and a heck of a lot less noise.

Semper fi and thank you for your service.

 

[Bigbird48]

thanks

 

[maVik-Venkat]

Had this issue, took the whole thing apart, replaced the ribbon cable, put it all back together. Gimbal looks like it works pretty smoothly. Still getting overload issue. Any good fixes besides blasting air at it or paying DJI?

 

[Sumalosep]

Big thanks to Thunderdrones and Bigbird48, I listened to their advice. Micro magnetic sand do gets inside motor gimbals.

A good dyson vacuum using micro nozzle attachments with built in soft brush works wonders. The brush pushes micro magnetic sand off the motors.

My motor gimbal motor OL problem went away.

 

[maVik-Venkat]

Update: I went a bit simpler: I blew air at it and flicked the gimbal around. Started working perfectly. YMMV

 

[DanMan32]

Regards to Assistant: you downloaded it but did you install it?
If you did install it, you might find it in Finder. I'm not a Mac expert though.

 

[Sumalosep]

Yes “Finder” is the place, then I click on Applications and yes I found Assistant DJI blue cube icon.

I haven’t tried Assistant yet, maybe sometime this week because after I solved the dreaded motor gimbal OL fault my Mavic Air can’t get a compass calibration.

I tried several compass calibration away from any metal or magnetic sources, in the middle of baseball field- keeps failing compass calibration.

Any suggestions or solutions on this? Please help me get flying. Thank you in advance.

 

[Her_vazquez]

Same problem here, did you get it fixed?

 

[Latawiec]

Yes “Finder” is the place, then I click on Applications and yes I found Assistant DJI blue cube icon.

I haven’t tried Assistant yet, maybe sometime this week because after I solved the dreaded motor gimbal OL fault my Mavic Air can’t get a compass calibration.

I tried several compass calibration away from any metal or magnetic sources, in the middle of baseball field- keeps failing compass calibration.

Any suggestions or solutions on this? Please help me get flying. Thank you in advance.

Just make sure you don't have any source of magnetic field near by. It could be a small magnet in your jacket fastening/studs, mobile phone case, watch strap, any kind of jewelry. I had the same frustrating experience, when my Air wouldn't calibrate in places I used to fly in the past regularly. It turned out, that my leather brancelet on my wrists had tiny (1.5 x 1mm) magnet in its fastening that was affecting the Air's compass. No bracelet, no more issues with calibration. Pay also attention to the places you are keeping your MA when not flying. Around the house/car there is plenty of magnetic field sources, ie. Speakers, electrical goods... that may mess up the MA compass.