Please help with mavic air 2 fault

[mavicmaz84]

Hey all,

I recently bought a second hand mavic air 2 drone, I already have a mavic mini but wanted something with the follow function and collision avoidance. I bought the drone cheap as it was untested and in an auction

When I got it home, it all turned on, everything worked but the gimble was stuck in a funny position, it was showing a image on screen though. Also the drone was overheating. A quick strip down revealed there was some broken wires going to the cooling fan. I've now replaced that, and it's flying, however I've completely lost any transmission from the camera. It has the 40021 error usually associated with the camera being changed and needing the SN matching. So I've spent another £22 on the software to do that, but when I run it it says "error getting camera sn". And I don't honestly think it needs the SN setting as the camera was working fine before and hasn't been replaced. I'm at a loss now as to what to do with it. I don't want to replace the whole camera unit, as its not worth it now for what i have already in the drone. Wondering if it could be a damaged flex cable going to the camera from the board? All looks okay but hard to tell on these things. I'd really appreciate any thoughts. Thank you. Carl

 

[GFields]

When it comes to the gimbal/camera my experience has shown it best to send it to DJI for repair. You can end up spending more money on it trying to do it yourself than what you would pay them.

 

[Cafguy]

Was the camera gimble changed by the other owner??
What other errors do you get ...It will help.
Have you re-calibrated the IMU........Your drone was in a crash......The last owner changed the gimbal BUT did not match it.
After any install you need to replace ALL the Cables Sorry but thats the Deal it will save you from buying a part twice...Replace all cables with new.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Hey all,

I recently bought a second hand mavic air 2 drone, I already have a mavic mini but wanted something with the follow function and collision avoidance. I bought the drone cheap as it was untested and in an auction

When I got it home, it all turned on, everything worked but the gimble was stuck in a funny position, it was showing a image on screen though. Also the drone was overheating. A quick strip down revealed there was some broken wires going to the cooling fan. I've now replaced that, and it's flying, however I've completely lost any transmission from the camera. It has the 40021 error usually associated with the camera being changed and needing the SN matching. So I've spent another £22 on the software to do that, but when I run it it says "error getting camera sn". And I don't honestly think it needs the SN setting as the camera was working fine before and hasn't been replaced. I'm at a loss now as to what to do with it. I don't want to replace the whole camera unit, as its not worth it now for what i have already in the drone. Wondering if it could be a damaged flex cable going to the camera from the board? All looks okay but hard to tell on these things. I'd really appreciate any thoughts. Thank you. Carl

I'm with GFields on this, I suspect the best thing to do is send it in.
Make no mistake I am most definitely in favour of well performed and sensible DIY repairs, I've repaired a couple of drones myself and will do so again if needed.

But gimbal/camera stuff now seems so finicky that it often seems to be more trouble than it is worth.

Cables can have chips built in to them ( Mini 2, I rebuilt one ) which could possibly create problems and it can be very difficult to spot damage to these ribbon cables.
Gone are the days when you could fit a P3adv camera/gimbal to a cameraless P3 pro and get a flying P3 adv.

Did you by any chance get the original box with the drone?
If so it might be worth checking the outside of the box for a camera serial number.
If you find one then check that number against the entries in the CSV of flight logs where the camera worked. the relevant columns are entitled "RECOVER.cameraSeria"l, EZ, and "DETAILS.cameraSerial", FL.

 

[mavicmaz84]

Was the camera gimble changed by the other owner??
What other errors do you get ...It will help.
Have you re-calibrated the IMU........Your drone was in a crash......The last owner changed the gimbal BUT did not match it.
After any install you need to replace ALL the Cables Sorry but thats the Deal it will save you from buying a part twice...Replace all cables with new.

That's what I'm saying though, it can't have been changed and not been matched, the camera was working before I replaced the fan, so that rules that out. I'm also getting an error for the the backwards vision sensor.

 

[mavicmaz84]

When it comes to the gimbal/camera my experience has shown it best to send it to DJI for repair. You can end up spending more money on it trying to do it yourself than what you would pay them.

Thank you

 

[mavicmaz84]

I'm with GFields on this, I suspect the best thing to do is send it in.
Make no mistake I am most definitely in favour of well performed and sensible DIY repairs, I've repaired a couple of drones myself and will do so again in needed.

But gimbal/camera stuff now seems so finiky that it often seems to be more trouble than it is worth.

Cables can have chips built in to them ( Mini 2, I rebuilt one ) and it can be very difficult to spot damage to these ribbon cables.
Gone are the days when you could fit a P3adv camera/gimbal to a cameraless P3 pro and get a flying P3 adv.

Did you by any chance get the original box with the drone?
If so it might be worth checking the outside of the box for a camera serial number.
If you find one then check that number against the entries in the CSV of flight logs where the camera worked. the relevant columns are entitled "RECOVER.cameraSeria"l, EZ, and "DETAILS.cameraSerial", FL.

I'll look into sending it in in that case. I do have the original box with it so I can check that. It's just weird how the camera was working before I changed the fan

 

[Cafguy]

If you want to try and do it you can BUT sending in is really the best You are not gonna save anything by DIY really and Actually once you send it in you will get a new one back. Its a refurb but thats the same thing.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

It's just weird how the camera was working before I changed the fan

Not necessarily.
You could have damaged something in your work.
I have a suspicion that I tore a ribbon cable when a spudger slipped and went too deep into a mavic 2.
I recollect the sensor the cable connected was working after the crash but it wasn't working after the first rebuild, 70 quid down the drain.
I think it would also be fairly easy to knock SMD resistors, diodes and capacitors off their solder points etc. etc. etc..
Multi pin male and female connectors also look very susceptable to damage.