Mavic on LSD - Hopefully Part I and Final

[Robert Mitchell]

Vibrations wouldn't cause the world to look like a slow lava flow and it wouldn't have perpetual motion. However all the gimbal bands and clips are in their proper positions and the gimbal appears to react like it normally would.

It was 89 degrees F outside and the max ambient temp for the Mavic is 104 degrees F so I'm well within my range but the heat did make me wonder but then you'd expect it to bug out at a different time, not when it gets a cooler gust of wind blown by it.

The Mavic has some issues with really fast or really active objects in it's center of view since I notice the only time it really ever gets choppy is then and when I was using the zoom buttons. Perhaps something with Auto Focus for that because I'm always stable when I use those features since I'm not fancy enough to operate 3 sticks at once.

I never noticed the horizon in this video but there was random light breezes that day. All 5-10 MPH. The other videos rarely have horizon shots too but when they do I'm high up and in an air stream so while moving but I assumed that was expected.

Either way I can't really rule out much until I fly it again. I figure it probably won't happen again but if it does then there's obviously something broken, and if it doesn't.... well then it will remain a mystery and I will def reach out to DJI.

Actually that's exactly what high frequency vibrations do. They make the video look like jello, hence the name.
But, I'm not saying that's it, just don't rule it out yet.

 

[entity-unknown]

ahhh HF vibrations. Sorry I must've misread that but this I can somewhat accept as plausible as well however I'd expect it to continue on my next flight if it's the issue.... I hope I didn't just screw myself by saying that.

So you're saying this has happened before? That's the key reason I posted here just in case this has some history.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

This is a video post however this is also a troubleshooting post. My childish mind tells me the Mavic must be have found some LSD dealer with some really good stuff.

I do have some awesome tech skills however they want to believe the childish mind is probably right, otherwise something with the stabilization software didn't quite work out so well. It also seems to have something to do with the dirt bike breezing by. I'm 10 feet above the ground (yes we both agreed to this shot in the middle of NOWHERE) and just after he passes the drone, everything goes weird and the video is scrambled at the controller. The reason this is relative also is because I zoomed in twice in two other videos before this and each time the video froze, scrambled, and was unresponsive on the controller. In the first two events the video recorded normally however the third instance which is this one; things just went into a world someone like Salvador Dali would appreciate. I'm pretty confident I did not try to zoom on this video since I already had two failures but honestly I can't say for sure.

I am on the latest 4.07 DJI Go App using an Android phone, with the current firmware on the RC and Mavic as of 1 week ago. If they released a new once since( I think I'm on the .600 series? ) then I haven't updated it. I'm not plugging the Lil' Bastard in right now since the batteries are charging and I'm lazy otherwise I'd check.

I did however look to see if anyone else has experience a similar problem since there's quite a few blatant words that come to mind if you watch this video. So I'm really curious if this has happened to anyone out there?

So WT$ am I talking about? Well here you go, enjoy!

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Jello. A mechanical defect (vibration) interacting with the scan rate of the sensor.

Inspect the gimbal area deeply for debris or badly "hooked" suspension. Nothing obvious or fixable - send back to DJI under warranty. (Or return to vendor (Amazon, BestBuy), etc.).

 

[JLane]

That's a cool effect!! hehe

But in all seriousness, my first thought was that it's possible some dust/sand/debris got into the motors and/or gimbal motors, causing micro vibrations resulting in the jello effect.

It's possible that the .dat file from your flight could reveal something in the motors' behavior at the time.

 

[entity-unknown]

Never looked at the Flight Log yet but I think I'll try to pull that too. Do I do that with the DJI Assist or is there something/somewhere else I need to pull it from?

I'll check the gimbal mount but I've checked it several times and it appears to be properly suspended. The catch there is if it wasn't I'm not sure I'd even know unless it was obviously dis-lodged. I've seen what that looks like from some video which I'm not observing here. Either way, fun times and I'll reply back when I got some more useful info.

Thanks again y'all!

 

[Afzal's Mavic]

connect it to your computer...open DJI Assist and calibrate your gimbal. i will work fine.

 

[MacIak]

That's sweet to see the desert perform a bellydance!
Do you fly in the sand often? I think the mavic handles water better than sand. Might wanna flush the dust out of the components.

 

[entity-unknown]

Not all deserts are sand I was very careful with the dust. I've got a large launch pad and I've got a bed cover I lay down below that. I was also using a huge piece of plywood for my other flights out there. Looking at the Mavic, there's no dust on it either so it should be good in that sense.
Still haven't had time to go check anything out yet though. Had plenty of winds the last few days and when not I'm just too busy to go play with the Lil Bastard. Gettin there though

 

[JLane]

Not all deserts are sand I was very careful with the dust. I've got a large launch pad and I've got a bed cover I lay down below that. I was also using a huge piece of plywood for my other flights out there. Looking at the Mavic, there's no dust on it either so it should be good in that sense.
Still haven't had time to go check anything out yet though. Had plenty of winds the last few days and when not I'm just too busy to go play with the Lil Bastard. Gettin there though

The reason I thought it could be dust/sand/debris was because of what was being kicked up by the bike. It seemed like the jello started just as the cloud was blown past the Mavic in the wind. Although I realize it's possible the cloud was not actually as close to the Mavic as it appeared in the video.

 

[Big Fil]

Like others mentioned it's classic jellovision caused by vibration. Looked like you were having some issues from the very start of the video although at very low levels. Your 180 degree was fast and with an abrubt start and stop which is where it goes bad. Can you take a picture of your gimbal and mounting plate? Check that all motors are spinning freely. A bad bearing in a motor will give issues. Check each prop carefully. If one of the hinges is not moving freely it can cause vibrations. Check your gimbal plate is hanging correctly and on the inside of the gimbal plate hook. If your gimbal plate hook is bent it could be coming into direct contact with the gimbal plate which will cause excessive vibrations.

 

[entity-unknown]

So it was the gimbal mount. The rubber nub that holds one of the two rear ends to the frame had come loose. After some delicate surgery I pushed that thing back in there and it's happy again.
The Mavic was very clean, motors, gimbal, camera, body, etc. when I fixed it so the dust wasn't an issue.
I never heard the term jello effect before but with some searching I see it's a real thing mostly related to moving shots which I'm not accustomed to. Thanks all for pointing me in the right direction

 

[Big Fil]

Nice! Glad to here you got it fixed and everything is back to normal.

 

[MPPilot]

Wasn't on the earth. He was in the air. AIRQUAKE!

Nah, I use to live in California and the ground moved like that all the time.

 

[dwallersv]

ahhh HF vibrations. Sorry I must've misread that but this I can somewhat accept as plausible as well however I'd expect it to continue on my next flight if it's the issue.... I hope I didn't just screw myself by saying that.

So you're saying this has happened before? That's the key reason I posted here just in case this has some history.

You're out of your element, my friend, with your skepticism.

That is EXACTLY what was happening. A milder form of the problem is ubiquitous when shooting in very bright conditions.

What you're seeing is beating effects between two close harmonics of vibration from the props and the shutter speed. What likely happened is the gimbal got mechanically coupled to the mavic somehow -- the 4 rubber dampers were not "hanging" freely.

Could be something else, but most of the time this is the reason. Also, always use an ND filter to knock the shutter speed down -- in all situations. Never film without one.

 

[entity-unknown]

That's an odd phrase to use when someone is asking troubleshooting questions and trying to figure it out with the help of others; out of my element with my skepticism. Still to no surprise the members here helped me figure the issue out and all gave great advice so bravo!

The issue was with one of the gimbal rubber dampers being disconnected from the body so they were hanging freely but one not securely and certainly none in alignment. Once put back where it's supposed to be the Mavic is happier than ever albeit it's never had issues besides a gimbal shake error on a fast turn. Well except this random moment you've watched.

The ND filter doesn't work when filming shiny objects so not always actually since I needed to capture the shimmer along with the natural color of the unnatural colors used. Otherwise I certainly wouldn't argue and that's why I have them.

 

[dwallersv]

That's an odd phrase to use when someone is asking troubleshooting questions and trying to figure it out with the help of others; out of my element with my skepticism. Still to no surprise the members here helped me figure the issue out and all gave great advice so bravo!

Hey, my humble apology for being offensive there. I admit that when I read it again it looks kind of weird, and critical. Not the way I meant, I was just horsing around and it didn't come out right. Again, my apologies.

 

[entity-unknown]

No worries. I deal with e-mails and misconceived attitudes all the time. Sucks trying to get a point across without soundin like a jerk sometimes so def no offense taken