Camera gimbal goes bananas

[yotamkasam]

From time to time the camera starts shaking and vibrating with no apparent reason. As always I try to turn it off and on, switch the remote on and off, nothing helps. Sometimes it starts working again after an hour, at the moment it still ****** up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k_H8jE ... e=youtu.be

Any idea what may cause this?

 

[mfp]

That's messed up. How many flight hours are on it?

 

[Mr.mike31326]

Mine just started doing the same thing and it's only 3weeks old and no crashes or hard landings, I hand land it... I did a fly over brought it back, did some chores and decided to fly again and it just went haywire.... Let me no if you figure it out plz

 

[mfp]

Are you all on the latest firmware for everything?

 

[Mr.mike31326]

Everything but the phantom.... The gamble and camera updated like a week ago

 

[yotamkasam]

That's messed up. How many flight hours are on it?

Not sure exactly, should be 10-20 hrs.

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

I dare say it is due to the fact the camera/gimbal set up is crap... DJI have thrown together this wonder of modern technology and I wonder just how many hours testing did they actually do?
It begs the question just how many people bought these things after watching DJI promo the P2V+? I fell for it hook, line & sinker! Notice in all the promo videos the Phantom is either not flying, they're just holding it & tilting it side to side to show how fantastic this 3 axis gimbal is, or they're flying it like 50ft away and telling everyone how good this 'Flying platform' thing is? They fail to mention just how fragile the **** thing is, that there are zero spare parts available, even now months after its release. The sheer amount of returns for repair/replacement that were not crashed, but faulty out of the box suggests that little or no testing of individual units is carried out.
I am on my second P2V+ and until recently it was working fine... Since Saturday just gone however, the camera now does this massive 'twitch' to the left every few minutes, giving a wonderful view of the L/H landing gear in the middle of a video. Then there's the issue of the FPV.... The picture breaks up constantly even 150m away with clear LOS or the video on the app freezes altogether and you can't tell where it is or what it's doing. Yeah, people say upgrade the antennas etc etc. That's all good and well but you shouldn't have to. It should work as DJI claim it does. Well guess what DJI? It doesn't!
I am very much regretting purchasing this thing, twice....

(Thank you I've had my whine for the week. Off to take a chill pill now)

 

[yotamkasam]

Re: Camera gimbal goes bananas - SOLVED

Well not proven to be solved, but at least I found the root of the problem.

In the photo, a red double arrow line shows one of the gimbal's motors and how its axis separated from its base. The tip of the axis should be mounted in the hole without rotating. On the other side of this axis, not shown but marked with a blue arrow, you will find a small trimmer potentiometer which based on its angular position, the controller can tell what is the physical position of the camera on that axis. Once the axis broke from the base, the pot sends false positions and the controller is trying to fix that, obviously with no luck and causes the camera to go wild.

Once I'll be sure my fix works I will post all the information with additional photos.

 

[marcusdji]

From time to time the camera starts shaking and vibrating with no apparent reason. As always I try to turn it off and on, switch the remote on and off, nothing helps. Sometimes it starts working again after an hour, at the moment it still ****** up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k_H8jE ... e=youtu.be

Any idea what may cause this?

Exact same problem here!!!

 

[dezunka]

yotamkasam - When my first camera gimbal went berserk after a crash, I disassembled everything hoping to find a clear answer to the problem. That particular gimbal motor had me stumped. I couldn't figure out why there was nothing holding it together other than the magnets in the motor! I went ahead and purchased another gimbal camera assembly from DDM for $679 but have been waiting for a solution to repairing the old one.

That seems like such a simple fix! Why didn't they just make the shaft longer with a threaded end and put a small bolt on it to hold it together?!

 

[dezunka]

I just took apart the gimbal motor on my new gimbal/camera assembly to see what orientation the potentiometer is supposed to be from the factory. The flat portion of the pin should be on the top and level with the horizon. I'm interested to see what solution you come up with - personally I am leaning toward putting a dab of JB Weld on the pin to hold the outer assembly together.

 

[tedw123]

From time to time the camera starts shaking and vibrating with no apparent reason. As always I try to turn it off and on, switch the remote on and off, nothing helps. Sometimes it starts working again after an hour, at the moment it still ****** up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k_H8jE ... e=youtu.be

Any idea what may cause this?

Mine did the same until I updated firmware. If you update it fixes problem.

 

[dezunka]

tedw123 - A lot of these issues go WAY beyond firmware. Hard landings, mishandling the camera even on hand catches, fumbling with the camera gimbal clip when putting it on or taking it off... the gimbal gets damaged because it is really sensitive and in my opinion, poorly designed. The rear most gimbal motor being a big part of the problem. The weight of the entire camera assembly is resting on the one pin that yotamkasam photographed. If the pin gets slightly torqued counterclockwise or clockwise while there is resistance from the magnets during operation then the pin comes loose from the camera assembly and starts to spin freely. Once this happens the gimbal can no longer calibrate itself and goes "bananas" trying to do so.

 

[webstereo]

I just took apart the gimbal motor on my new gimbal/camera assembly to see what orientation the potentiometer is supposed to be from the factory. The flat portion of the pin should be on the top and level with the horizon. I'm interested to see what solution you come up with - personally I am leaning toward putting a dab of JB Weld on the pin to hold the outer assembly together.

Are you saying that if the broken gimbal is made to look like the one in the photo then it fixed the problem?

 

[dezunka]

The half cresent moon "pin" runs through the gimbal motor. The flat portion of the pin needs to be on the top and level with the horizon. The pin comes out the other side of the motor and the aluminum portion of the camera assembly that fits over the magnets is supposed to be press fit onto the pin so that when the pin rotates, the camera assembly rotates. It looks like when you have a hard landing or mishandle the camera or even mess with the gimbal clip - the press fit pin comes loose from the camera assembly. If this happens then the pin will rotate freely without resistance and the gimbal can't calibrate itself causing it to go haywire.

On my broken gimbal, I reset the pin with it in the orientation shown on this picture and I put a dab of JP Weld on the hole on the aluminum camera assembly and pressed it back together. I then put a clamp on it to hold it in place until the JB Weld dries. Once it is dry I am going to see if this fixes the gimbal. I will post results sometime in the next 24 hours once it dries.

If you look at yotamkasam's photo, the red arrow indicates that the pin and the hole should be bonded together with no ability to rotate.

 

[tedw123]

tedw123 - A lot of these issues go WAY beyond firmware. Hard landings, mishandling the camera even on hand catches, fumbling with the camera gimbal clip when putting it on or taking it off... the gimbal gets damaged because it is really sensitive and in my opinion, poorly designed. The rear most gimbal motor being a big part of the problem. The weight of the entire camera assembly is resting on the one pin that yotamkasam photographed. If the pin gets slightly torqued counterclockwise or clockwise while there is resistance from the magnets during operation then the pin comes loose from the camera assembly and starts to spin freely. Once this happens the gimbal can no longer calibrate itself and goes "bananas" trying to do so.

Mine took a direct hit on a boulder, video says it all but don't know how to post on this site. Long story short, actually put a dent in camera but everything works fine. I was impressed actually. No mechanical problems at all so mine is durable.

 

[Mr.mike31326]

i called B&M and was told this is a problem dji is having ., as i only had this P2V+ 17 days (this is the second one the first was defective out of the box) just send it back and they will replace it...if this one goes nuts im going to down grade to the P2V...no gimble....

 

[Dirty Bird]

i called B&M and was told this is a problem dji is having ., as i only had this P2V+ 17 days (this is the second one the first was defective out of the box) just send it back and they will replace it...if this one goes nuts im going to down grade to the P2V...no gimble....

You will likely be doubly disappointed should you make that downgrade. Not only will you have shaky video due to no gimbal, but your FVP range will be considerably less as well.