Scary Experience Today

[photogsy]

Plenty of problem free flights with my Platinum, then today, this happened:

At the time I thought the drone was falling out of the sky as I watched the screen in horror. On reviewing the video again it looks like it was a gimbal malfunction, but difficult to know for sure...
Anyone else had this kind of thing give them a scare?

Flew the rest of the battery just now over some nice soft grass with no issues, wondering what caused it and whether I should be worried!

 

[dirkclod]

Had it happen once and did freak me out for a sec but was close enough
for me to see it good and saw it was just the gimbal freaking out . After I
got it back I put in a fresh battery and did a gimbal calibration and has never happened since .No clue why it did it .

 

[macoman]

Do u guys fly with the gimbal protector plastic or without? I always use the gimbal protector plastic transparent because I think it protect the gimbal from any strong winds.

 

[Mr. Salty]

Do u guys fly with the gimbal protector plastic or without? I always use the gimbal protector plastic transparent because I think it protect the gimbal from any strong winds.

I don't. I always take it off because it's impossible to get good video or photos with it on.

If it's too windy for the gimbal, I don't fly. But I've never had gimbal problems, regardless of wind.

 

[Former Member]

Anyone else had this kind of thing give them a scare?

It looks like a random gimbal reset, but didnt go through the entire initial calibration as they do on startup. If this is the first time it happened, you might check you gimbal motors for debris, and freedom of movement. Aside from that, if it happens more frequently, you might have a more serious problem.

 

[lrsn]

I always fly my MP without the protective cover

 

[dvarapala]

It looks like a random gimbal reset, but didnt go through the entire initial calibration as they do on startup.

It's also interesting that the recording did not stop, which is what usually happens during an in-flight gimbal reset.

OP, what size is your SD card? Is it > 32GB?

 

[Logger]

It's also interesting that the recording did not stop, which is what usually happens during an in-flight gimbal reset.

OP, what size is your SD card? Is it > 32GB?

I too suspect the SD card. BTW OPs vid may be from the mobile device which often does not stop in this situation while the SD recording does stop.

 

[Former Member]

It's also interesting that the recording did not stop, which is what usually happens during an in-flight gimbal reset.

Random gimbal resets most times dont stop the video and thats what freaks everyone out. They think their drone is spinning oiut of control when it's just the gimbal resetting.

 

[photogsy]

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

• @macoman - I never fly with the gimbal cover on.
• @dvarapala - yes card is a 64gb - never had problems before, video recording settings haven't been changed lately either.
• @Logger - that's right, the video I posted was from the tablet I fly with - it didn't record to the SD at all.

 

[Gray52]

You was recording in 4K, and that happened at about 9min 6 seconds? Easy solution, format your sd via the mavic and will be sorted. Done this with 2 cards now and 100% trouble free.

 

[photogsy]

@Gray52 I don't record the whole flight, this happened about 15 minutes in.
I format the card via the Mavic before every flight.

 

[Logger]

@photogsy If the gimbal bumps recur from time to time and it starts to bug you, switch back to using the 16gb card that came with the MPP. I suspect this will fix the problem.

While many people use larger SD cards without issue, it does seem to have be a common theme with gimbal resets.

I used a 64GBd samsung card with my Mavic Pro. I always re-formatted it in the Mavic Pro. It had about 10 resets in ~ 1,000 flights. There was a long thread on the issue last year. Camera system resets mid-flight...?

I traded the MP in for a Mavic Pro Platinum and on its very first flight, having formatted the 64gb card in the new MPP it had a gimbal reset. To me this pointed pretty strongly to the SD card as part of the cause. I switched straight back to the 16gb card that came with it. Been fine ever since.

 

[dvarapala]

You was recording in 4K, and that happened at about 9min 6 seconds? Easy solution, format your sd via the mavic and will be sorted. Done this with 2 cards now and 100% trouble free.

I formatted my 64GB card in my Mavic but it didn't cure the gimbal resets. I have since switched to a 32GB card and no resets so far.

 

[maestro-mds]

This happened to my drone, too. Always when there were very windy conditions. I assume that the wind had a grip on the gimbal from an unfortunate angle and the drone started to reset it. Very scary to see it on the screen, indeed.

 

[anom3]

Although I never had this happen to me, it looks like its quite common.

The gimbal resets mid flight, for whatever reason... Be it software or hardware.

One thing I noticed that is a dead give away early on in the process, is when you start to see "slow fluid like" motions in the video. 0:01+ in the video posted in the OP.

So that is one thing to look for. If you start to see that, chances are its just the gimbal... If your quad was falling out of the sky, judging by the videos on YT, it would look far more aggressive then the gimbal reset.

 

[coliwabl]

Do u guys fly with the gimbal protector plastic or without? I always use the gimbal protector plastic transparent because I think it protect the gimbal from any strong winds.

Not a good idea because with the cover on, it blocks the air flow for keeping the Mavic cool. Could result in overheating the Mavic and failure in flight.

 

[colinfowler]

Not a good idea because with the cover on, it blocks the air flow for keeping the Mavic cool. Could result in overheating the Mavic and failure in flight.

This is Incorrect

 

[Lapeer20m]

I fly with gimbal cover on if i plan to fly in snow or light rain/fog.

The manual says that gimball may stop responding if it gets wet but will return to normal when it dries out....I thought this was strange language to include as mavic really should t be flown in wet conditions at all.

 

[genesimmons]

I fly with gimbal cover on if i plan to fly in snow or light rain/fog.

The manual says that gimball may stop responding if it gets wet but will return to normal when it dries out....I thought this was strange language to include as mavic really should t be flown in wet conditions at all.

unortunatly i had a bad experience with this, user error of course, i dipped my mav into the lake and the gimbal was under water, the first error i got was a gimbal over load then other things went wrong, as the manual sugests once it dried she came back to life after a gimbal calibration of course, i got the over load error once again about a week after the dunk but it has not came back since, pretty tough ol bird in my mind haha