Mini 2 camera gimbal jerking down during flight - cause & how to fix

[Ian in London]

I noticed this issue whilst trying to fly and film in Sports mode this week and also had a couple of people contact me thinking their new Mini 2 was broken.
It's a limitation of steep flying and easily avoided....
Cheers
Ian

 

[old man mavic]

@Ian in London thanks for another informative video always enjoy your offerings

 

[Repaid1]

I noticed this issue whilst trying to fly and film in Sports mode this week and also had a couple of people contact me thinking their new Mini 2 was broken.
It's a limitation of steep flying and easily avoided....
Cheers
Ian

Looks like simple "Gimbal Stop". As you described it's having the gimbal at or near it's full travel, thus not allowing it to do it's job to compensate during flight. Had the same thing come up when people were filming straight down and came to abrupt stops. It is completely normal and pretty much known to the more seasoned flyers with a bit of gimbal knowledge...Cheers. As you said not broke, just lack of knowledge on the flyer/filmers part.

 

[Zbip57]

I noticed this issue whilst trying to fly and film in Sports mode this week ...

Hi Ian,

The Mini-1 did this too, but obviously the capability of the Mini-2's greater pitch angle will bump into this condition more often.

I did a little video back in June with my Mini-1 demonstrating an odd issue. As the gimbal nears the mechanical limit of its range of motion, the gimbal will noticeably jump several degrees away from that bump stop and then remain fixed at that new displaced position until you decide to rotate it back to where you wanted it pointed. But it only behaves that way when the motors are running.

With the Mini powered up, but with the motors not running, the gimbal behaves differently. If you tilt the Mini to such an extreme angle that it exceeds the limit of the gimbal's mechanical range of motion, obviously the camera cannot remain in its stabilized position but will be physically dragged out of position. However, when the Mini is returned to a more normal level position so that the gimbal is no longer pinned against its bump stop, the camera then resumes its same initial stabilized orientation.

If this (as when motors are not running) were to happen in flight the camera view would be displaced only during the moments the Mini exceeds the gimbal's mechanical range of motion, but would then return to its previous stabilized position whenever the Mini levels off again. But the gimbal's actual behaviour with motors running forces the gimbal to jump away from the bump stop and stick there and it does not automatically resume the initial position.

I actually would prefer the gimbal to behave as shown with motors not running.

 

[Ian in London]

Hi Ian,

The Mini-1 did this too, but obviously the capability of the Mini-2's greater pitch angle will bump into this condition more often.

I did a little video back in June with my Mini-1 demonstrating an odd issue. As the gimbal nears the mechanical limit of its range of motion, the gimbal will noticeably jump several degrees away from that bump stop and then remain fixed at that new displaced position until you decide to rotate it back to where you wanted it pointed. But it only behaves that way when the motors are running.

With the Mini powered up, but with the motors not running, the gimbal behaves differently. If you tilt the Mini to such an extreme angle that it exceeds the limit of the gimbal's mechanical range of motion, obviously the camera cannot remain in its stabilized position but will be physically dragged out of position. However, when the Mini is returned to a more normal level position so that the gimbal is no longer pinned against its bump stop, the camera then resumes its same initial stabilized orientation.

If this (as when motors are not running) were to happen in flight the camera view would be displaced only during the moments the Mini exceeds the gimbal's mechanical range of motion, but would then return to its previous stabilized position whenever the Mini levels off again. But the gimbal's actual behaviour with motors running forces the gimbal to jump away from the bump stop and stick there and it does not automatically resume the initial position.

I actually would prefer the gimbal to behave as shown with motors not running.

Yes, that's interesting how it remembers where it should have been when the motors aren't running but gives up and forgets when in flight... I guess there's the alternate view that if you're flying into strong wind with a continuous steep pitch, it moves the gimbal down to a position it should be able to maintiain and therefore continue to give smooth video, albeit at a lower angle of view.
Ian

 

[Kaibil57]

I noticed this issue whilst trying to fly and film in Sports mode this week and also had a couple of people contact me thinking their new Mini 2 was broken.
It's a limitation of steep flying and easily avoided....
Cheers
Ian

A great solution, I was wondering if mine was Brocken Thanks for the info.

 

[Ddjmrql]

Trialing out quick shot today. I did not touch the camera wheel. This is fully automated.
Wind gust 3-4 mph, 23 satellites, mini 2 gimbal all over the place. I brought it down, inspected it then recalibrate the gimbal "pass" send it up and get same jerky image. No issues with previous FW and DJI FA. Updated to latest FW and DJI fly app 1.2.1 and this are the result. Why?

Another one:

 

[jencarta]

Thanks Ian and Zbip57! This all makes sense, but I do find it annoying. Even though it’s a personal drone, I use my Mini 2 for work sometimes and need to have it pointed directly downward for half the flights we do. It is annoying when the gimbal jerks up and stays up, even when flying very slowly. Obviously, it is more pronounced with higher winds. I live in the Colorado mountains, so wind is usually unavoidable. And I work mostly in coastal environments, so again, wind is usually a factor. Fortunately, I rarely collect video for work, so I can always hover and reset the gimbal before taking a photo.

Despite this issue, I think the Mini 2 is such a great little drone and I think it could be really useful for the work I do - oil spill and hurricane environmental response. (BTW, my Mini 2 is registered.)