Whoa! Gimbal Freaked Out!

[Big Fil]

So just flying along yesterday on my 4th flight of the day and my gimbal decided to freakout mid flight. I was 8:32 into the flight making a nice large gentle turn at 20mph in to line up my next shot when suddenly all I see is sky on the screen, then some hectic quick side to side roll movements. My first thought is oh ****, this thing just lost it's mind and is falling backwards out of the sky. So muscle memory kicks in from a decade of flying RC helis and trying to counteract the movements that i'm seeing happen to try and level the craft. Approximately 8 seconds in and realize the stick movements correlating with what i'm seeing on screen and are likely delayed by the gimbal so I go to plan B. Past experience with an unresponsive P1 tells me go into ATTI mode..........oh yeah, no ATTI mode. Sport mode it is then, but that not stopping the crazy movements so onto plan C. I start looking navigation screen to see what the attitude of the aircraft is doing in relation to stick movements. OK everything is matching so start to realize the aircraft is responding correctly so decide to let off the sticks and sure enough everything goes level. Meanwhile the image in the screen keeps jumping around wildly and eventually settles although at a very noticeable tilted horizon which very slowly starts to re-level itself. From what I can tell the whole event lasted around 30 tense seconds. Fortunately I was 190ft up and clear of any obstructions.


Trying to figure out what happened here. I got my Mavic about 3 weeks ago and have had 42 flights before this one. No crashes or hard landings and hand launched/landed all but the first flight. Upgraded to .600 firmware last weekend and had 8 flights since with no issues. IMU, GPS, and gimbal calibrations all done after the firmware update. All 3 prior flights yesterday were uneventful. The only thing that was different today was I was using a new 64gb Sandisk Extreme card that was formatted in the aircraft before use.

So anybody have any ideas what would cause the gimbal to go crazy like that? Not sure if was the gimbal deciding to calibrate itself midflight but it was it felt like it went on longer than the typical calibration. Hard to tell honestly as I was trying to process alot of things at the time. I was not recording at the time but oddly there is a 3 second cached clip on my ipad that IS NOT on the SD card.

 

[Spanishcop]

That's why I'm on 0400. I had issues with gimbal on 0600. Not chancing it.

 

[madman4049]

Haven't had this but I've definitely had weird gimbal behavior since last update. After gimbal initialization I get a pitch up and roll to right which takes a minute or two to recenter. Though now that I think about it I had the drone sitting on the desk powered up while messing w/ settings and watching youtube on the PC last night and I coulda swore I saw the video twitch a few times in my peripheral with the drone just sitting there.

 

[newnan3]

I know not all recording devices are able to handle large memory cards. Not sure how a 64gb card would cause a gimbal freakout but maybe something to consider.

 

[blackcamo]

Not sure but since .600 I've had camera settings reset themselves. At first I thought I changed it and managed to forget, but as I went through all of them two nights before and set dng+jpeg for photo file type, I flew yesterday and was taking pictures only to discover that all that has been on sd card was jpegs... Previous event was a video resolution/fps on a day trip... I had it set to 2.7k 25fps on the day before, yet it was set next day to 1080p 48fps which completely ruined all the footage, I should've notice that as it's right in front of my eyes but the views were breathtaking, I was focused on the shots etc. I'm going to downgrade it now, too many stories for this firmware to be coincidental...

 

[Big Fil]

Not sure if it's related to the firmware or not. Not going to rule it out but maybe not going to say it is either. I had close to 3hrs of flight on .600 with no issues. The change to a new SD card was more recent but also not sure why an SD card hiccup would cause the gimbal to go weird. Also I did bring the bird back in close after the incident but didn't land for the remaining 15 or so minutes of the flight with no further issues and more recording.

 

[Flawless]

The Mavic can handle 64GB cards just fine - it can use up to 256GB, in fact (SDXC) but DJI recommends 64GB maximum.

Personally, I swap between 32GB cards. I've used them repeatedly, know they won't interfere with the Mavic, and can use them to "file" my videos while flying (use one for a set of shots, switch batteries and cards, and do another set).

It is entirely possible that the memory card could be causing problems with the camera - it's been known to affect various drone systems.

 

[sdharris]

That is the sort of movement the gimbal does when it's 'obstructed', mine did this on startup and is now in for repair. Following a bit of jerking about like that my camera faced down and back.

I was on firmware 600 without problems and had downgraded to 400 when the problem occurred but I thnk its unrelated to firmware, just one of those things.

Perhaps you just got a bit of dirt in there, or it caught some wind which pushed it back on its dampener. Have you flown it since?

 

[Bintryin]

I Had this happen once, close to HIGH voltage power lines. Also .600 firmware has gimbal problems with my Mavic . so back on .400 and there are no problems now. Sweet!

 

[Big Fil]

Perhaps you just got a bit of dirt in there, or it caught some wind which pushed it back on its dampener. Have you flown it since?

I have not flown it since. It happened on the last flight yesterday evening right as the sun dipped behind the hills. Note that it did operate fine for the remaining 13 minutes of the flight so if it was an obstruction it cleared out. Wind shouldn't have been a factor as it was calm at the time. I was also flying at half speed and in the middle of a very long steady turn only using rudder with no bank angle. No erratic movements on the sticks

It is entirely possible that the memory card could be causing problems with the camera - it's been known to affect various drone systems.

I'm going to keep an eye on it. At least if it happens again i'll know it's the gimbal right away, get off the sticks, check the attitude, and let it work itself out. If it happens again with the 64gb card i'll fly for a while with the 16gb stock one and see if the issue arises again.

 

[maclun]

Your youtube video seems to be gone. I suspect I may have similar issue.

Problem: The problem is that drone stops recording, gimbal moves weirdly and indicators about the card start showing 'N/A' on the screen. The result videos are always of 3-second length.

Card: I have problem when using 128GB card. When switched to stock 16GB, problem seems to disappear. I am not sure if it is because I have lots of files on it or not. In the beginning I never had this issue. Maybe it starts to appear when card is being filled (?). I have 30GB used and hundreds of files.

Three different situations. All on 128GB card:

 

[Flawless]

Download H2testw H2testw Download and test the card.

Gimbal freakouts are almost always down to the card used - either it's fake (not a real 128GB card, just a 4GB altered to read as 128GB), faulty, or incorrectly formatted (was not formatted in the drone).

I've said it many times: don't get cards larger than 32GB. It's a massive, massive waste. Get a single card (either 16 or 32GB) for *EACH BATTERY* and just swap the card when you change batteries. Format on takeoff or have it preformatted via the APP (not formatted on desktop etc).

 

[maclun]

I tested the card. All good. It is Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS 3, V30.
My friend has 128GB Lexar 1000x and has zero problems;/

 

[JeffreyButler]

The point at which your gimble freaked out is pretty close to the point in recording where the system starts a new file (2GB limit). Do a search on here for more info.

 

[Flawless]

I am not sure if it is because I have lots of files on it or not.

I tested the card. All good. It is Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS 3, V30.
My friend has 128GB Lexar 1000x and has zero problems;/

I missed the part where you mentioned you already had files on it.

Remove them, and format the card in the drone with the app. The problem is occurring because you have previously formatted it in another device (either PC or mobile device).

Never format the microSD cards anywhere but in the drone.

The point at which your gimble freaked out is pretty close to the point in recording where the system starts a new file (2GB limit). Do a search on here for more info.

The cut occurs at 4GB, or just over 9 minutes of 4K footage (60mbps). It causes gimbal reset when the microSD card is not formatted correctly.

 

[maclun]

Files that exist on the card were all taken with Mavic. Just keeping creating new and not deleting them.
I think these theories don't apply to my case. I never take videos that would reach 2 or 4 GB.

 

[Flawless]

Format the card in the Mavic after copying all files off that you want to keep.

Remove the card, put in PC, and test with H2testw.

It will take a long time, but I imagine your card is faulty or fake (if H2testw suddenly starts reporting a ton of errors at 4, 8, 16 or 32GB point, it's fake).

 

[Jacknet007]

Not all Micro SD cards are the same. Lots of fakes out there. A genuine card rated U3 or V30 or higher should work to record 4K video. A U1 might record 4K but might be glitchy.

 

[Flawless]

Not all Micro SD cards are the same. Lots of fakes out there. A genuine card rated U3 or V30 or higher should work to record 4K video. A U1 might record 4K but might be glitchy.

A Class 10 card (minimum 10MB/s) will work fine with the Mavic's low 4K bitrate (60mbps or 7.5MB/s).

 

[Tajino]

Download H2testw H2testw Download and test the card.

Gimbal freakouts are almost always down to the card used - either it's fake (not a real 128GB card, just a 4GB altered to read as 128GB), faulty, or incorrectly formatted (was not formatted in the drone).

I've said it many times: don't get cards larger than 32GB. It's a massive, massive waste. Get a single card (either 16 or 32GB) for *EACH BATTERY* and just swap the card when you change batteries. Format on takeoff or have it preformatted via the APP (not formatted on desktop etc).

Have you ever had gimbal freakouts before?