Mavic Pro 2 Gimbal Overload

[Mlaw30]

Hey all, a friend of mine has crashed my mavic pro 2. Unfortunately when started my smart controller now states that the gimbal motor is overloaded, it moves up and down on start and that is about it. There is no broken parts on the camera and the gimbal is all intact.

The gimbal setting option no longer appears on the controller either. My goal is to replace the gimbal ribbon but does anyone have any insight as to what else it could be.

 

[vindibona1]

Something seems to have gotten buggered up in the crash. This is one more example of why I will never let anyone else fly my M2. If I let someone fly my Mini, it's with me standing over them, flying only in C mode and in an open space close in at lower altitudes, well within VLOS.

 

[Thomas B]

Hey all, a friend of mine has crashed my mavic pro 2. Unfortunately when started my smart controller now states that the gimbal motor is overloaded, it moves up and down on start and that is about it. There is no broken parts on the camera and the gimbal is all intact.

The gimbal setting option no longer appears on the controller either. My goal is to replace the gimbal ribbon but does anyone have any insight as to what else it could be.

Manually check the gaps on both sides between the camera hanger arms and the camera itself to be sure the mechanical parts are lined up. Also check the gimbal hanger clips to drone body to be sure it’s properly attached.

 

[Mlaw30]

Manually check the gaps on both sides between the camera hanger arms and the camera itself to be sure the mechanical parts are lined up. Also check the gimbal hanger clips to drone body to be sure it’s properly attached.

Cheers, hanger arms have no noticeable gap and everything else seems to up to standard.

The gimbal tilts off to the right when held freely. I took off the gimbals cable and there doesn't seem to be noticeable damage except it being separated, as pictured.

 

[Mlaw30]

I'm no drone technician but I am under the assumption that if the cable isn't suppose to separate, the gimbal just may be need a re calibration to sit right? If not I guess it'll be something a lot more major.

 

[Fizzbang]

I have the exact same issue. No error messages and no reason to suspect anything was wrong.
Worked fine despite some historic minor collisions. Worked on holiday. Took it to fly on return home message said inconsistent firmware.
So I updated the firmware. Result was same issue as you gimbal hangs to the left. It would not complete the gimbal dance.

Re-calibrated the compass and the IMU;
swapped the SD card;
formatted the sd card outside and inside the drone.
unloaded the firmware back to previous. It still would not complete the initial gimbal dance just dropped swung left and stopped.
No error messages of any sort.

Re-calibrating the gimbal stopped at 10% then stopped at 5% after updating the firmware again. I also think that things would be fine if it could complete a calibration.

Ran out of things to try so bit the bullet and sent it away for repair.

Diagnosis was
requires 3x Motor arms due to them bending passed end stop
camera/gimbal performing strangely is due too a faulty Yaw MotorArm and resistance throughout the other parts

They want the same price as a new camera and gimbal to repair.

I told them to return the drone

I will be disassembling the whole gimbal assembly myself to see whats what.

One thing which did come to mind whilst it was away was from a post where someone who had said the connection cable from controller to phone had caused a similar fault. On replacement the fault went away.

Still awaiting the return of my MP2 and have bought another in the interim.
If I cannot repair the original MP2 I will buy a Zoom camera and gimbal and substitute that.
So hopefully I will end up with either
two MP2's and one controller (one I've repaired and one new)
or
one MP2 and one MPZoom with one controller.

PS Other issues I forgot to mention.
There are no error messages.
The camera refuses to react to any up or down or left or right instruction from the controller.
The drone flies well and returns home but all images are on a slant.
There is no obvious bend or deformed gimbal arm

 

[EricJT]

Something seems to have gotten buggered up in the crash. This is one more example of why I will never let anyone else fly my M2. If I let someone fly my Mini, it's with me standing over them, flying only in C mode and in an open space close in at lower altitudes, well within VLOS.

I have let my 6 year old granddaughter fly my M2P, but it is in tripod mode with me hovering very near to her in case I need to take over control of the SC.

 

[Thomas B]

I have the exact same issue. No error messages and no reason to suspect anything was wrong.
Worked fine despite some historic minor collisions. Worked on holiday. Took it to fly on return home message said inconsistent firmware.
So I updated the firmware. Result was same issue as you gimbal hangs to the left. It would not complete the gimbal dance.

Re-calibrated the compass and the IMU;
swapped the SD card;
formatted the sd card outside and inside the drone.
unloaded the firmware back to previous. It still would not complete the initial gimbal dance just dropped swung left and stopped.
No error messages of any sort.

Re-calibrating the gimbal stopped at 10% then stopped at 5% after updating the firmware again. I also think that things would be fine if it could complete a calibration.

Ran out of things to try so bit the bullet and sent it away for repair.

Diagnosis was
requires 3x Motor arms due to them bending passed end stop
camera/gimbal performing strangely is due too a faulty Yaw MotorArm and resistance throughout the other parts

They want the same price as a new camera and gimbal to repair.

I told them to return the drone

I will be disassembling the whole gimbal assembly myself to see whats what.

One thing which did come to mind whilst it was away was from a post where someone who had said the connection cable from controller to phone had caused a similar fault. On replacement the fault went away.

Still awaiting the return of my MP2 and have bought another in the interim.
If I cannot repair the original MP2 I will buy a Zoom camera and gimbal and substitute that.
So hopefully I will end up with either
two MP2's and one controller (one I've repaired and one new)
or
one MP2 and one MPZoom with one controller.

PS Other issues I forgot to mention.
There are no error messages.
The camera refuses to react to any up or down or left or right instruction from the controller.
The drone flies well and returns home but all images are on a slant.
There is no obvious bend or deformed gimbal arm

Sounds like it may boil down to a new gimbal/camera and cables

 

[Mlaw30]

Sounds like it may boil down to a new gimbal/camera and cables

Just to update everyone in this forum as well as any people with similar issues that find this forum. The gimbal arm seemed to be damaged. Dji quoted the arm replacement for $260 and I got a few other damages that occured in the crash fixed.

The total was $491 including $120 in labor. DJ I's prices for their parts are surprisingly very fair. This is in AUD

 

[Droniac]

Totally appreciate the update! Ty. I’m glad in the end it worked out shy of a few sheckles. Godspeed

 

[Fizzbang]

Update on an old issue. post #6 above and similar to MLaw30 none movement of camera.
I did take my gimbal apart (learning a great deal in the process) and rebuilt it, only to find the same none response. (found nothing wrong) There was and still is absolutely nothing wrong with any motor arms.

However DJI tools commands JointCoarse and LinearHall did move the gimbal.

Note the date September 2020
there were firmware/software updates in July that I had failed to update.

• Date: 2020.07.07
• Aircraft Firmware: v01.00.0670
• DJI GO 4 App iOS: v4.3.37

More than that, I was using (Assistant 2) and not (Assistant 2 for Mavic)

I uninstalled (Assistant 2) and installed (Assistant 2 for Mavic) and uninstalled the Go 4 App and reinstalled the Go 4 App, Now the update worked and so did the camera/gimbal calibration.

My whole none movement issue appeared to have been brought about by inconsistent firmware.

My original drone is now fully functional again.

Along the way. As stated in my previous post I bought a replacement.
I also, having gained a great deal of knowledge on the gimbal, bought a faulty Mavic 2 Zoom and a faulty Mavic 2 Pro fixed those (updated the firmware) and swapped the cameras and drones.

Embarrassingly from this experience I now have three Mavic 2 pro drones and a Mavic 2 Zoom, all fully working and functional. None of the so called expert diagnosis was correct.