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One tiny o-ring requires whole gimbal to be replaced - what the?

Fish-head3

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Hi

I recently noticed a bulge in the o-ring that seals the camera lens when a lens protector or filter is put on. I figured that such a trivial part would be available for 10c form DJI but no.............the drone has to be sent away and for whole gimbal to be replaced. I tried a private repair shop and they can't get the part from DJI either.

Seriously? IN a world concerned about the waste of resources and plastics etc, how can this be a solution? I am flabbergasted. In addition the drone needs to be sent to an authorised repair shop with a turn around time of two to four weeks. No wonder these things cost so much money.

Does anyone have some easier, faster, simpler, cheaper and more environmentally responsible solutions?



DroneGimbal2.jpg
 
Not knowing where your at maybe @djidroneservice
can tell you.
Seems if you can get it out a parts house could match
one up. If it’s just a rubber O ring.
 
Mavic Air from looking at his back post.
 
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The o-ring is not broken, why can't you just push it back in using a micro screw driver
 
Last edited:
I see what he’s talking about now. Never had one in my hand
so know nothing on them
9434C230-9874-41ED-9F68-31501C3A5F0E.png
 
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I cant tell from the image whether or not it's a standard round o-ring or a custom gasket. It looks like there's an inner ridge on it which means gasket. If that's the case then you're stuck relying on DJI.

If it's an o-ring and if it's a warranty repair then its a no-brainer - send it in. If the warranty has expired or if its not covered by the warranty then try to replace it yourself; try gently removing the o-ring. If you can get it out without disassembly then you can take it down to the hardware store and see if you can get a match. If you can match it then bonus, if you can't then you still send it in for repair so no down side in trying, is there?

I'm not a drone repair tech - so this is just my own personal uninformed noob opinion.
 
Hi

I recently noticed a bulge in the o-ring that seals the camera lens when a lens protector or filter is put on. I figured that such a trivial part would be available for 10c form DJI but no.............the drone has to be sent away and for whole gimbal to be replaced. I tried a private repair shop and they can't get the part from DJI either.

Seriously? IN a world concerned about the waste of resources and plastics etc, how can this be a solution? I am flabbergasted. In addition the drone needs to be sent to an authorised repair shop with a turn around time of two to four weeks. No wonder these things cost so much money.

Does anyone have some easier, faster, simpler, cheaper and more environmentally responsible solutions?



View attachment 95214
This is precisely the motivation of the right to repair movement.
 
What kind of drone and did you crash it

From all the grit in the pic looks like a face plant happened. Could that force the o ring out?
 
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Honestly I would just take the O ring off and see if you can match it at your local hardware store. My local hardware store has 15 or so different O rings to choose from and they are all less than 40 cents each.
 
Hi all, thanks for this feedback. I think the hardware store is the first port of call.

Its a Mavic Air, sorry, should have mentioned that. Based in Australia.

The ring is stretched and wont go back in fully.

GregE, there was no face plant, just a dusty landing which I need to fix but the o-ring was an issue before that.
 
Well that o ring didn’t do that on it’s on I done seen to many
from transmissions that had stretched so I would figure out what caused it first. As one said the ridge which could have been from pressure on it. You really if not in your hardware
go to a auto parts house as they have em in metric and standard and betting its metric .
Is that threads I see above that o ring, kinda hard to tell.
 
Hi

I recently noticed a bulge in the o-ring that seals the camera lens when a lens protector or filter is put on. I figured that such a trivial part would be available for 10c form DJI but no.............the drone has to be sent away and for whole gimbal to be replaced. I tried a private repair shop and they can't get the part from DJI either.

Seriously? IN a world concerned about the waste of resources and plastics etc, how can this be a solution? I am flabbergasted. In addition the drone needs to be sent to an authorised repair shop with a turn around time of two to four weeks. No wonder these things cost so much money.

Does anyone have some easier, faster, simpler, cheaper and more environmentally responsible solutions?



View attachment 95214
I don't know what country you're in or if it's something you can easily get apart to change. Here in the US there is a parts supplier called McMaster-Carr, where you can get an o-ring of every imaginable size, both metric and SAE. You just order by the diameter of the o-ring material, and the ID/OD. You should have a similar industrial parts supplier wherever you are located. Worth a try if you are able to get it apart easily.
 
That o-ring did not just pop out on its own. Something caused it to do that and I feel there is more to the story but is not being disclosed. With that amount of muck around the gimbal, I would say you are going to be having far more problems that just that o-ring. You did something bad to make it pop out like that, otherwise we would all have that happening. Looking at the close up shot, it does not look like a simple O-ring either, but rather something that has a shape to cross cut profile of the rubber ring. Be safe and send it back for proper repair, since with that much sand around the whole are, you have no idea what find sand specs might have gotten into that uncovered are by the O-ring, that the eye can not see but the bearings etc indside the camera, can be affected by.
 
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I agree with those that have suggested going to a bearing supply house. They will have every kind of seal imaginable. Another trick that people use with O-rings is heat and cold. Cold, refrigerator or freezer will shrink it, while hot water or hairdryer will make it expand. Good luck.
 
I see what he’s talking about now. Never had one in my hand
so know nothing on them
View attachment 95215
Looks like the O-ring on my pool chlorinator....it gets squished and then loses its shape and seal.

Also, the OP's picture looks like the upper left part of the gimbal assembly has been skewed for some reason.
 
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The o-ring is not broken, why can't you just push it back in using a micro screw driver
would be relatively impossible. once the material stretches like that, it will refuse to take back to its original form. I work in engineering and deal with analytical sciences and failure analysis. I do testing on just about any material you can think of "literally" including ALOT of O-rings. Do to the Material and its Characteristics, their are certain factors that come into play when this happens, weather it be environmental or physical conditions that caused this to happen. The AC could of crashed, A piece of foreign material could of some how contacted and stretched it, or its due to conditions being flown in, example uv damage from the sun, humidity, or lack of Ect.
Pro tip: You can try all you want to push it back with a micro screw driver but all your going to end up with is a piece of marred plastic around the camera, or a scratch in the glass.
Respectfully,
 
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