Why was I allowed to take off w/gimbal cover on?

[Steve LaBranche]

Yep, another newbie mistake. Been flying mishap free just a week now. Knock on wood, no crashes. Yesterday I took off and hovered at 3 feet and rotated bird and noticed darn gimbal cover is on. I land, remove cover and reboot everything. It didn't seem to harm anything as I continued to enjoy three successful flights.

But why did the system let me take off? I would have thought the bird would report a camera gimbal failure of some sort and not display, "Ready to Fly".

I welcome all feedback. Thank. Steve

 

[old man mavic]

good point but remembering to remove the gimbal lock is all down to you the pilot,lots of people put a bright coloured label of some sort on the cover to remind them to remove it,or you could make it part of your pre flight check list it will come with practice you really do need to remove it though as it could damage the gimbal if left on

 

[Porky]

I must admit I did that when I first got my M2P but it did inform me that there was an error with the gimbal. The gimbal does a self diagnostic test on startup which should indicate a problem but why it didn’t, I don’t know.

I’m sure someone will chime in with an answer?

 

[Mossiback]

Tape some ribbon to it so it is more obvious when attached.

 

[Kneebeard]

Yep, another newbie mistake. Been flying mishap free just a week now. Knock on wood, no crashes. Yesterday I took off and hovered at 3 feet and rotated bird and noticed darn gimbal cover is on. I land, remove cover and reboot everything. It didn't seem to harm anything as I continued to enjoy three successful flights.
But why did the system let me take off? I would have thought the bird would report a camera gimbal failure of some sort and not display, "Ready to Fly".
I welcome all feedback. Thank. Steve

Welcome to the Quad Family!
There is no "interlock" installed on the quad that would detect if the cover and lock has been removed. Adding a micro-switches would only increase the cost.
Here's a couple ideas:
Gimbal cover - add a small square of blue painters tape with a 4" florescent flag to the outside of the cover.
Gimbal lock - add a small "service tag" on a piece of string you can easily see with text which will act as a visual reminder to "Remove Before Flight".
Using a pre-flight check list helps me too.
Good luck and safe skies!

 

[Former Member]

Most times, if the gimbal bubble/lock is not removed, you will get a yellow banner at the top saying "Make sure gimbal clamp is removed." Other times you might get a gimbal motor overload warning. Same same.

 

[Thomas B]

Above is good advice.

I also do not like the rather difficult to install oem gimbals cover... so I went with the PolarPro which works much better and easier on and off and much more visible;

 

[Porky]

Most times, if the gimbal bubble/lock is not removed, you will get a yellow banner at the top saying "Make sure gimbal clamp is removed." Other times you might get a gimbal motor overload warning. Same same.

Yep that’s what I got but I don’t understand why the op didn’t get some kind of error message?

 

[Steve LaBranche]

Welcome to the Quad Family!
There is no "interlock" installed on the quad that would detect if the cover and lock has been removed. Adding a micro-switches would only increase the cost.
Here's a couple ideas:
Gimbal cover - add a small square of blue painters tape with a 4" florescent flag to the outside of the cover.
Gimbal lock - add a small "service tag" on a piece of string you can easily see with text which will act as a visual reminder to "Remove Before Flight".
Using a pre-flight check list helps me too.
Good luck and safe skies!

I get that adding an interlock would just increase price. And that it is my responsibility to do a through pre-flight.

I am going with tape and bright flag suggestion. I actually thought that, even the Blue tape part. I'll have the visual on my display too, but if I see the blue tape on display, I've already put the bird's gimbal.

My main question for the post was why didn't i get a warning. How could the bird turn on and pass initialization?

Safe flying....Steve.

 

[AMann]

Stick this on the gimbal cover backwards facing the camera so you only see it on the screen before you take off:



(I should do it also )

 

[Mossiback]

Stick this on the gimbal cover backwards facing the camera so you only see it on the screen before you take off:..

It's a humorous idea but if you can see it on the camera it is too late. The goal is to make the cover/lock easy to notice so it is not left on when powering up.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

I also like the Polar Pro gimbal guard. I did a video of a couple here:

Another nice thing about the Polar Pro version is it's black, you will notice when there is no picture on the screen. I have always received a warning when I've forgotten though.

 

[AMann]

It's a humorous idea but if you can see it on the camera it is too late. The goal is to make the cover/lock easy to notice so it is not left on when powering up.

Its a last chance reminder. A “remove before flight” ribbon would be a second chance option, and a checklist before powering on should be used first:

DJI Mavic 3 Cine Preflight Laminated Safety Checklist - Small - Pocket Sized | eBay

• Works with DJI Mavic 3 Cine. • This is the checklist film crews around the world are using.

www.ebay.com

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I went with the PolarPro which works much better and easier on and off and much more visible;
View attachment 70991

Now THIS is a good idea, it is opaque vs oem transparent.
Sure you could start up and get a gimbal error when it tries to calibrate . . . but you couldn't take off with it on really, as your viewing device screen would be black !!

A really easy economical option would be to put a bit of black electrical tape, cloth tape or vinyl over the oem cover in front of the camera.

I have had this on the back of my MP cover (edit) gimbal clamp from the time mine was replaced by DJI due to leaving it on one too many times (last time in flight for a couple of minutes).



Just a dab of polyurethane adhesive and some fluro rescue tape.

It is just automatic to remove it now, but will leave it on until it falls off (not in flight, at least, ha ha).

 

[RedBird2020]

Yep, another newbie mistake. Been flying mishap free just a week now. Knock on wood, no crashes. Yesterday I took off and hovered at 3 feet and rotated bird and noticed darn gimbal cover is on. I land, remove cover and reboot everything. It didn't seem to harm anything as I continued to enjoy three successful flights.

But why did the system let me take off? I would have thought the bird would report a camera gimbal failure of some sort and not display, "Ready to Fly".

I welcome all feedback. Thank. Steve

You should have gotten a gimbal motor overload notice on your screen (like other here have mentioned).

You can check the flight logs for that specific flight to see if the gimbal overload message was generate. It should be in .TXT file and I'd bet its also in the .DAT file too. The .DAT file on the table contains a lot more data than the .TXT file.

Follow the directions listed here: How to retrieve a V3.DAT from the tablet

Download CVSView, run it and find the EXPORT as CSV file.



Open that file with Microsoft Excel and search for Gimbal. You should see where it recorded the error message giving date and time.

You will also be able to see all events/warnings/etc for the flight and any other flight of interest.

Let us know what you find.

If you want, post your .TXT and the *.DAT file for that flight others here can check it as well.

 

[Thomas B]

You should have gotten a gimbal motor overload notice on your screen (like other here have mentioned).

You can check the flight logs for that specific flight to see if the gimbal overload message was generate. It should be in .TXT file and I'd bet its also in the .DAT file too. The .DAT file on the table contains a lot more data than the .TXT file.

Follow the directions listed here: How to retrieve a V3.DAT from the tablet

Download CVSView, run it and find the EXPORT as CSV file.

View attachment 71008

Open that file with Microsoft Excel and search for Gimbal. You should see where it recorded the error message giving date and time.

You will also be able to see all events/warnings/etc for the flight and any other flight of interest.

Let us know what you find.

If you want, post your .TXT and the *.DAT file for that flight others here can check it as well.

What is your point? Why go to logs?

 

[RedBird2020]

What is your point? Why go to logs?

OP did not think he got an error message, Then go check the logs

 

[Steve LaBranche]

You should have gotten a gimbal motor overload notice on your screen (like other here have mentioned).

You can check the flight logs for that specific flight to see if the gimbal overload message was generate. It should be in .TXT file and I'd bet its also in the .DAT file too. The .DAT file on the table contains a lot more data than the .TXT file.

Follow the directions listed here: How to retrieve a V3.DAT from the tablet

Download CVSView, run it and find the EXPORT as CSV file.

View attachment 71008

Open that file with Microsoft Excel and search for Gimbal. You should see where it recorded the error message giving date and time.

You will also be able to see all events/warnings/etc for the flight and any other flight of interest.

Let us know what you find.

If you want, post your .TXT and the *.DAT file for that flight others here can check it as well.

Recovering those files is another problem I'm having. My 11 yr old Dell Lap Top PC running old windows xp won't run DJI Assistant 2. I get DJI Assistant 2.exe is not a valid Win32 application. I can connect to the bird via my tablet but I only see video and picture files. I can DL the pics but the vids are too large, because they're larger than 1080? I can see a file on my phone and tablet, they're sync'd, but don't have whatever app I need to open it. I'll try to copy paste it here. What app am I meeting?

 

[Dronage]

Happened to me once at the start...never allowed it to happen again..! Probably got a warning..didn't notice it...certainly didn't notice the display..! Later i thought...how could i b so stupid....nervousness accounts for a lot of mistakes..

 

[Unsub]

Recovering those files is another problem I'm having. My 11 yr old Dell Lap Top PC running old windows xp won't run DJI Assistant 2. I get DJI Assistant 2.exe is not a valid Win32 application. I can connect to the bird via my tablet but I only see video and picture files. I can DL the pics but the vids are too large, because they're larger than 1080? I can see a file on my phone and tablet, they're sync'd, but don't have whatever app I need to open it. I'll try to copy paste it here. What app am I meeting?

Try putting a tag on the guard to remind you to remove it