Bad start for a newbie

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

Hi all
I've just purchased a P3S after years of dreaming of having a P1/P2/P2V+, etc. With my birthday coming up and the price drop of the standard to £449 it suddenly came within reach. So I bit the bullet and ordered one on Sunday night from the DJI online store. Extremely excited!
Then this morning (much quicker than expected) the box arrived. It's been raining all day here so I wasn't in a rush to go out and so I calmly sorted everything out and charged the battery and controller. Once all that was done I thought I'd check for a firmware update. I turned everything on and noticed a clicking noise not dissimilar to an old PC hard drive. The firmware update continued, and so did the clicking. I then realised that the gimbal was jerking around and not levelling, and the clicking was when it was getting stuck. When I touched the gimbal is was very hot, and as I looked closer it appeared that the back of the gimbal was bent ever so slightly (whether this is meant to be like this I have no idea).
It was only at this point that I realised that the gimbal protector was still in the box and hadn't been attached during shipping.
It was then that my heart sank, and I realised that I must have been shipped a defective unit, or one that was damaged in transit.
Gutted. Absolutely gutted.

I've sent a message to DJI explaining the situation but have no idea what will happen now. My dreams of flying have been put on hold for the time being.
Anyway, I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience and whether DJI sorted it out quickly?

Thanks for reading my disgruntled first post.

Cheers
Alex (in the UK)

robsquad · Jan 26, 2016

any pics of what looks damaged ?

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

The back looks bent to me

robsquad · Jan 26, 2016

post up few more if poss

dannyboy75 · Jan 26, 2016

Sorry to hear that, bit of a letdown by the sounds of it.

Long shot but, as well as the gimbal clamp, some P3's ship with a bit of foam wedged up behind the gimbal. Pretty sure you would've spotted it as it has a red label on it saying 'remove before use', but worth mentioning in case.

Where did you buy it from?

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AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

dannyboy75 · Jan 26, 2016

Silly question but have you removed the lens cap? The weight of this prevents the camera from orientating itself correctly when it's attached. Sorry for asking but best to be sure.

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AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

Hi Danny
No, there was no other padding around the gimbal when I opened the box.
I bought it direct from DJI.com, but it shipped from a logistics company in Guildford, which I guess is their UK warehouse.

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

No silly questions in my book!

I hadn't done that, but I've just tried it and it doesn't make a difference. The gimbal is still thrashing about without levelling.

Tony Cowan · Jan 26, 2016

It's looks fine from the pics. His fire it up. No need to over react. No way you can know if it is bent. It is never straight to begin with until you connect it.

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scubasteve101 · Jan 26, 2016

AlexT said:
View attachment 41845 View attachment 41846 View attachment 41847

Here's a close-up of mine if it helps to compare:

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

Hi Tony.
I've connected it to the controller and turned everything on. The gimbal thrashes from side to side constantly and makes a horrible clicking sound and gets very hot.

Tony Cowan · Jan 26, 2016

Well the getting hot is troubling. I've actually never touched it so I can't compare. You can always pack it up and send it back ASAP to get another if you are afraid. Thrashing side to side hmm after turn on it should straighten itself out o be ready to move to whatever position you want to take pics with. This is very disturbing. I would ship it back for another. It sounds like you purchased it directly from dji? Not sure how soon they can get it back to you.

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mandalay · Jan 26, 2016

The hot camera is normal since your drone is not flying to cool it down. Does the camera stay put (without lens cover) and point straight after you turn the drone on for 20 seconds? You mentioned you updated the firmware. Did it tell you from the app that the update was successful?

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

Thanks for the photo Steve.

Looking at yours confirms to me that mine is definitely damaged. The arm that holds the camera assembly forward of the vertical part of the gimbal is angled towards the ground when it should be horizontal

Air Ontario · Jan 26, 2016

Something appears wrong as the camera shouldn't hang low enough to touch the floor.

Even with bird off and battery out, the camera should hang a good 1" or higher above the level the landing gear is resting on even with the gimbel pointed down all the way.

Air Ontario · Jan 26, 2016

Is everything tight around the camera and mount? These things can take some abuse and still work properly. Hard to imagine simple shipping gorillas could hurt it.

As mentioned check for update success in the file and also look for loose mounting screws and bolts.

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

If this works, I've uploaded a video to YouTube

AlexT · Jan 26, 2016

Forgot to mention that the firmware update said it was successful

Meta4 · Jan 26, 2016

AlexT said:
Looking at yours confirms to me that mine is definitely damaged.
The arm that holds the camera assembly forward of the vertical part of the gimbal is angled towards the ground when it should be horizontal

You do realise that the camera is adjustable up and down?
It's extremely unlikely that your gimbal has been bent in shipping.