Mavic Drifted & Tumbled - Repair Options?

[Arclight]

Odd situation yesterday I could use some help with. I fired it up for takeoff and noticed the gimbal was not lined up with the horizon. I hovered for a bit and it appeared to straighten itself out, I set it back down and verified.

I took off and flew for > 5 minutes. About 20 feet from the landing spot a gust came in -- the area was clear so I took my thumbs off the sticks to "let it happen". The Mavic appeared to tilt slightly and upon righting itself dropped ~6 feet onto the ground. I lost a prop on the bounce, and had a few scratches but I wasn't too worried about it given the height and the fact that it was stationary.

On starting it up to check it out, I got the gimbal obstructed error. I took it inside and I believe I can see where the ribbon cable may have disconnected, or torn. Video looks good, but the gimbal isn't moving and this lines up with the symptoms I'd expect.

I'm concerned about two things -- the gimbal still appears to be off the horizon a tad and I'm not sure why, and after bringing it inside a small black L-shaped tab fell out near the gimbal assembly. The gimbal plate appears intact, and the long L-shaped piece at the back of the gimbal is still all there. After a few hours with a flashlight and magnifying glass last night, I can't find where this piece came from.

• I've owned the Mavic for 8 days.
• I do not have DJI Refresh. I found out about the 48-hour limit at 72-hours, and DJI let me know that I could send them a video to qualify for Refresh. This is what I was gearing up to do yesterday -- bad luck.
  
• I've taken a look at the DAT files, although none will visualize in the assistant software. Of ~8 DAT files from yesterday, I can only copy over the first 3. The rest give me an error when I try to move them over to my computer.

The options as I see them:

1. Order the ribbon, replace it and hope that's the only thing wrong. I'd love to be able to diagnose any problems here to get some confidence.
2. Send it to DJI for ~$300 / 5 weeks (and miss the trip that I purchased the Mavic for)
3. Other options?

DAT (Assuming the #30, largest DAT is the one in question):
Dropbox - FLY029.DAT
Dropbox - FLY030.DAT
Dropbox - FLY031.DAT

The "extra piece":


Ribbon cable:



CC: @Thunderdrones

 

[Former Member]

L bracket came from the top plate of the Mavic gimbal, very common broken part on hard landing.

Gimbal obstructed can come from a torn ribbon cable, as can the tilted horizon. Could possibly be a broken gimbal motor but that's rare.

You can send it off to DJI. They will charge you around $340 to replace the gimbal and around 5 weeks wait because they are moving their facility right now from Carson to Cerritos.

If you want to do self repair, you could order the ribbon cable from @fstop.labs, they have a website DJI Gimbal Accessories and Long range Antenna Systems. They also sell the gimbal top plate that you broke.

Be very careful installing the cable, they tear like paper.

I fix them for alot less and alot quicker than DJI. Here are some tools I use to replace ribbon cables.