Technical question regarding gimbal dis/reassembly

[Paulark]

Ok, so my Mavic Air 2 gimbal broke in the same spot that everyone else's does...its Achilles Heel, in my opinion. Personally, I believe this flaw could be intentional, but I'll refrain from boring you with another conspiracy theory. Let's stick to the facts. Here is Figure 1 that shows the broken gimbal arm.


I have repaired this break more than once with varied degrees of success, but it will usually last until the next encounter with a harder object, such as a leaf or feather. A situation with work left me in a position to try and obtain one of these gimbal arms directly from a DJI service center, so I drove there, knocked on the door, and asked them first if I could buy a new gimbal. To which they replied they were on backorder for a month and a half. And of course DJI doesn't sell just the arm itself...hmm...imagine that. Apparently they can't make enough cameras and gimbals to keep up with demand, likely due to this flaw...but I digress.... The employee, who shall remain anonymous, then told me about the difficulties in replacing the gimbal due to the proprietary software required for installation. But I already knew about that. He said that with parts and labor it would be nearly 400
bucks for them to install another gimbal. Then he said for $500, they had a brand new replacement drone they would sell me. Bet they got a pile of them, but a single gimbal is on backorder for a month and a half? Hmmm...strangest thing....

So I politely declined his offer and then explained that since I'm tough on equipment, I've taken that drone apart and put it back together so many times that I had to put all the guts into a new middle shell because the screw holes in the original had started cracking. So if it needs repaired, I'm quite capable. However, I do not have access to the calibration software required for gimbal replacement. (Boy, what a score that would be if one were to upload that to the interwebs.) I really just need the plastic gimbal arm and am more than willing to pay for it.. He then says, "ok...let me see what I can do."

So at this point he leaves and goes across the alley, tells me to stay there. "I'm seriously about to do a shady, back-alley drone deal..." I thought to myself. When he returns, he has not one, not two, but THREE broken camera and gimbals, broken in exactly the same spot. After I tell him they won't work because I need the gimbal arm, he goes back then returns with what looks like a new gimbal. I paid him 50 bucks for it and then flew home.
I tried to install the whole thing, did the DJI tool hacks, but its asking me to activate. When I do that, it can't retrieve the aircraft serial number so it won't activate. I have an older version of DJI FLY on an android phone. It actually worked by this method, but there is something obviously wrong with the gimbal (don't forget this came from a service center) and I keep getting all those error messages. Figured it was worth a shot.

So that brings me to the present in this long tale. I am removing my old camera and putting it in the new gimbal but I have hit a snag. I don't know if the last step in the removal is one way or another way, and it matters.

In order to explain, here are some visual aids. Continued on next post.

 

[Paulark]

As you can see on the new gimbal, the housing separated from the motor and this is how the camera came out. The housing must be glued inside the gimbal arm or something. I'm afraid if I try and force it out, I will break the arm in the same spot. Maybe this is what was defective with this gimbal?



But on the old camera, I cannot get the housing off of the motor. Since the gimbal arm was broken, the housing simply came out with the camera. I don't know which of these two ways is the correct way to take it out. Obviously, I have to choose so any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Can you go back and ask that chap if you could have one or two of those broken gimbals so that you could experiment with them. I can't help but wonder if these motors/bearing are glued in with a glue that will soften with heat ( like mobile phones).
With that in mind I am wondering if you could heat the gimbal arm (which might soften the glue?????) and when it is 'warm' put dry ice in contact with your "housing".
Wait and see what others say first, just in case such drastic measures would screw up the arm or any necessary magnetic properties.

In order to reinforce the "Achillies Heel" would it be possible to tack, with say super glue and in stages, a strong nylon thread, pulled taut, around the outside of the ring/cup bit of the gimbal arm that breaks, like whipping an eye to a fishing rod or a rope end. Then, when several turns of thread are in place and tacked down, smear them with a coat of epoxy, to both increase the adhesion and protect the whipping?
When I crashed my M2Z I broke the eye out of one of the damper rubber mounting points, I 'rebuilt' the eye doing something like that with a piece of cotton string and epoxy glue.

With regards "so many times that I had to put all the guts into a new middle shell because the screw holes in the original had started cracking" ........when refitting a self tapping screw into plastic I place the screw in postition and then attentively 'back it out', most times I can feel it 'drop' into the old thread in the hole. Sometimes it will tighten too quickly as if it were making a new thread, in those instances I back it out again and feel for it 'dropping' into 'another' old thread.

 

[Paulark]

Thats a good idea about reinforcement of the new one. Didn't use that exact method, but a little bit of bondo and a coat of epoxy should be enough reinforcement. But I like that method...seems legit.

Unfortunately that chap is a thousand miles away. And I disagree with your theory about warming it will make the glue come loose. It's a good theory, but I plugged in the camera to my drone before I had it installed and that gimbal motor ran and ran. It got very hot when doing so. So if that motor got that hot, I wouldn't think they would use a heat sensitive glue. And don't forget that arm is plastic...heat that too much and it's all over but the cryin'.

And I'm pretty sure I had just been overtightening the screws. Need to borrow my 12 year old nephew for screw detail to try and replicate the initial assembly.

Bwahahaha...I'm just kidding....

 

[Deleted member 103366]

and that gimbal motor ran and ran

What do you mean by that? E.g. did it revolve continuously or you could hear it humming etc. ?
PLUS is that normal behaviour?
I have never checked a gimbal motor or its surround for temperature and am deaf so would not hear a humming.

 

[Paulark]

Revolve continuously. Not normal behavior. When it's in the arm, the arm stops it. But I went ahead and warmed it to test the theory. No dice.

 

[Capt KO]

Looks like a press-on to the shaft. Friction alone holding it in place. Haven’t opened mine so just guessing. Not sure if exact position is needed so suggest marking it in advance. Fragile parts location so a drift pin and hammer might cause more damage but that’s the usual method to remove a press fit.
As another A2 pilot, would like to know your solution if you find one. Thanks for the post and good luck.

 

[Paulark]

I never was able to remove it so I tried swapping out the camera. Now it's out of focus and won't calibrate properly. Even after the python scripts. Then when I try and switch back, now the old one is out of focus as well, and won't calibrate.

It irritates me that you cannot do a simple< gimbal swap on this unit without having their software. Just more evidence that they have purposefully left a weak point in that gimbal. Then when it breaks they tell you that with calibration, a new gimbal will run you 400 bucks. But hell, since you're already up to 400, you should just buy a replacement drone for 500. So now you're in it for another 500 bucks when you really just needed a 69 cent piece of plastic that they conveniently don't sell.

Had I known that it was going to be next to impossible to repair the drone without that software (and it sounds like it will never see the light of day for the general public) I could've claimed it on insurance. Now I'm too late.

 

[Paulark]

Still no answer and I've seen so many cameras and gimbals broken at that exact same spot now I'm convinced that this flaw is purposeful. Because it seems like they have pulled out all the stops to stop you from being able to swap out your camera and gimbal on your own. I hope that some of these other competitors catch up soon, because that leaves a real bad taste in my mouth.