camera points right, twitches up and down

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I've read everything I can find here and elsewhere, watched youtube vid's, etc. And I have had help from the company that sold me the parts, but I'm not understanding their last instructions and hope y'all can help.

Background (skip to asterisks below if you don't have time for this): Not my drone. My father's P3 Pro. Yeah...
He left it with me while he went on vacation because he couldn't get the aircraft to connect to the remote. He'd only flown it like 3 times and was ready to give up. A couple of hours later, thanks largely to what I learned on your forum, it was up and running. He was thrilled and told me to fly it because- and I quote- "You can do as well as I could."
He was wrong, apparently.
I was in a big open field being very careful. I'm still not sure what happened, but it got stuck wayyyy up in a tree. Seemed fine other than being stuck. Removal efforts crashed it to the ground where the yaw arm and ribbon cable broke :-(
I ordered replacement parts and have spent the week on an emotional roller coaster of hope and doom while learning more than I ever thought I would about the innards of a drone gimbal.
I took it apart and replaced the bad parts and reassembled using mostly these two videos:
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The first time I put it all back together, the gimbal didn't behave properly. I figured out that I needed to align the hole in the yaw arm with the mark on the flat side of the main axle before putting in the set screw. Unfortunately, that time I also broke off the clip for one of the two attachments of the ribbon cable on the main board. I took it out and flew it, took some pictures, and then tried video only to realize it was showing a garbled mess on the screen.

So it came back apart, and I realized I hadn't actually gotten the black clip back on as I'd thought. This second time I used a magnifier to see better and was sure I reattached it. And the video worked- yay!

When I landed that first post-repair flight, I did the controls to bottom center after gently touching down, and the thing went berserk and flipped on its side :-( It's like only two blades stopped, and the other two went faster?? I'm not positive these last two problems I'm about to describe didn't exist before that happened- sorry.

*****SKIP TO HERE IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BACKSTORY****
Remaining problems are:
1. Camera points right. I have calibrated the gimbal with supposed success numerous times. The company who sold me the replacement parts is telling me to rotate the bell housing of the motor. But they're also saying I shouldn't have to dismantle anything to do so, and that makes no sense to me. The motor that controls left/right is between the body of the copter and the gimbal, so at the least, I'd have to remove those stupid drop pins again. And once I get to that point, I don't understand exactly what to do. Just force the yaw arm to center and then rotate the bell housing to accommodate that amount the other direction?? I can't imagine the shaft rotating that easily?? And I"m scared of breaking the little arm. Should I take the arm off and hold the axle with pliers??? This whole procedure makes me more nervous than taking it apart and putting it back together!
Related to this, the supplier has also asked me to confirm that an unknown number of "hall effect sensors" are still soldered to the flex-pcb cable. I'm assuming that's the ribbon cable? Neither my old nor the new have anything "soldered" to it, and I can't fathom how anything would be soldered to plastic anyway???

2. Camera gently flicks up and down constantly. I suspect this might have to do with the fact that the ribbon cable adhesive will not stick. If not, that is still a problem. Supplier has suggested superglue, but won't that create problems if I have to remove it for some reason??

This is NOT a horizon problem. I did make sure that the axle discussed in the video was parallel to the camera back. Ironically, of the 3 directions, all the info I see has to do with repairing the horizon. My issues are with the other two directions.

And Dad is on his way back home. Soooooo close!
Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
First, after landing DO NOT do a CSC aka "controls to the bottom center"
That will flip the bird backwards!
Shut down the motors after landing by lowering the left stick all the way down for a couple of seconds.
You have 3 gimbal motors that have to be properly aligined, and from my own experience, and reading other posts here, all of them can cause goofy gimbal behavior.
When just replacing a ribbon cable, I wouldn't imagine that you would have gotten the yaw motor shaft messed up (at least when I replaced my cable, I didn't mess around up there) so that leaves the roll motor, and pitch motor.
The roll motor shaft flat side should be level with the camera body and pointed UP
The pitch motor also has a flat spot, and I had mine backwards, and the gimbal just went screwy.
Sadly though, I can't be certain which way the flat side should point. I think it faces the rear though.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
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Thank you, mdowney58!

I'd found a youtube video about the CSC vs left down to shut down. I wonder why the manual says to do it that way if it doesn't work all the time? Or did I misread that??

Remember, I didn't just replace the cable, I crashed it :-/ so anything is possible.

I've seen lots about the roll motor needing to be level with the camera body, so I feel good about that one.

The yaw motor (one closest to the body of the copter) has to have the flat side and tiny circle visible through the hole for the set screw, so that seems pretty foolproof to me. However, the parts provider is telling me to "rotate" that one. Like hold the bell housing in one hand and turn the yaw arm, thereby forcing the shaft to turn within the motor. Or I'm misunderstanding, which is entirely possible. I can't make sense of that and am afraid to do damage.

The pitch motor (one farthest from the copter body) I've seen absolutely no info on. And yet the up/down twitching seems most likely related to that.
So frustrating to feel so close and yet stopped due to lack of information :-/
 
I've never messed with the yaw motor, but IF it is just like the roll motor, holding the bell housing and turning the yaw motor shaft (or turning the yaw arm while it's connected to the yaw motor shaft) would provide the same result.
For instance. When you hold your camera level, and turn the back end of the roll motor shaft, the roll arm is holding the roll motor bell housing for you, and the opposite end of the roll motor shaft is small, and is pressed into that small hole in the center of the bell housing, so that little shaft is actually turning inside the bell housing.
What I don't know for sure though is if the Yaw motor shaft is also just pressed into the yaw motor bell housing, and able to be turned the same way.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
Thanks again for the input, mdowney.

When I hold the bell housing in my bare hands, turning the shaft just causes the bell housing to spin with it no matter how hard I hold it. Maybe that's the problem, that it's bound up?? But I can't imagaine that's the way it works. I mean, if the motor is supposed to turn the shaft, then they have to operate as one, do they not??

In a few hours I have an appointment with a knowledgeable person who is going to try to straighten me out via Facetime.
We can hope...
 
Yes, the motor shaft is supposed to turn the bell housing.
I'm not sure if all 3 are supposed to adjust manually like the roll motor (by holding the roll arm/bell housing) and then turning the shaft that's under that rear cover or not, but the shaft that is pressed into the bell housing should be tight enough to stay put I'd think. I've never had to adjust my roll motor.
I'm surprised that no one else has chimed in on this!
Maybe no one has ever tried to adjust the yaw motor shaft.....
My latest thought (just wondering here) is this.
You know how the roll motor shaft in the rear goes through a little sensor? I believe the sensor is called a pot.
It is the pot that tells the brains what position the roll motor is in.
There has to be a pot on each of the 3 gimbal motors, and I'm wondering if the Yaw motor pot somehow got knocked out of it's correct position, due to the flip over.
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Or maybe I misunderstood completely- I'll find out in a little over an hour and post back to let you know.
I have this terrible feeling I'm going to try to do as instructed but wind up breaking something else <cringe> I've done pretty well so far. I've taken the camera/gimbal off and apart several times successfully- go me! Just wishing this will be the last time.
The fella has said he suspects one of the boards may be shot, and they don't sell those :-(
The news just keeps getting better, doesn't it? ug- so frustrating!
 
I had read your reply in my email and only got part of it.
Just now reading the rest about the pot. I'm not familiar with that at all. My supplier had mentioned "hall effect sensors," which he described as being "soldered" to the ribbon cable. The best I can figure/research, either he misspoke or I misunderstood about them being on the ribbon cable. There are 3 in each motor, little black doobers. They seem to all be in-tact. Supplier also mentioned a magnet of some sort in there but hasn't elaborated.
Going to research pots...
 
OMG- totally forgot latest discovery: The roller control that is supposed to move the camera up and down does not. Zero response.
Can't believe I forgot to post that- so sorry.
And I can't find a way to control that from within the DJI GO app.

And now the cake topper:
I decided to fire it up before placing the scheduled call, just to confirm I hadn't already fixed it somehow with the last tear-down/rebuild.
Worse- it's back to a nonsensical wagging behavior as if it is quite confused.
*%%$*%&!!
 
It sure sounds to me like you have;
A)One of the gimbal motors out of proper orientation.
B)A damaged ribbon cable.
C)A bad ribbon cable connection
D)A board issue
E)Any combination of A-D


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pondering your list... It's helping me sort through what surely appears to be multiple issues at this point.

A) entirely possible and going to explore that on my phone call in a few minutes. I just don't understand how to tell if they're out of alignment on the outermost and innermost ones. Only the middle one seems to have any specifics available in that regard.
B)I sure hope not. I just bought this one and installed it. I really don't want to have to wait on another one. The adhesive never stuck in any of the required spots. That has required quite a bit of handling to work out. I've tried the original adhesive, double-stick tape, loctite putty, and finally superglue. Of course now it is superglued nicely in place and will probably have to come off again. &%*&*(U)! Truthfully, the ribbon cable doesn't seem to be "just right." It doesn't want to stay in the little collar thing at the outermost point, and it just refuses to stay properly against the base of the yaw arm. As the arm rotates, the ribbon cable comes up out of the little hole. Annoying. I did not directly compare the old to the new before assembling. It's obviously really close. I suspect whatever issues it has are due to just not being perfectly aligned. It's really hard to make that thing align while working in tight quarters with it trying to stick to everything (but then coming loose again after you put it where you actually want it- arg)
C) I'll double-check those again when I pull it apart during the phone call on which I hang my hopes. I prefer this to B.
D) That seems quite likely. And these are not available for purchase, as I understand it. Gonna have to find a "junk yard," I suppose.

What I don't understand is how it seemed to work fine except for that little flinch and the offset orientation before I opened it this time, and I don't think I changed anything. I took it out to the garage. I wonder if all the metal might have caused an issue? I am well and truly grasping at straws at this point.

And to add insult to injury, I'm gonna be relegated to working in the garage to avoid the noise of power up because hubby is asleep and has to get up at midnight to go to work.
 
fascinating info here:
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Mine is in-tact, so no super-glue needed. And my shaft is aligned on this one. This is the one I call the "middle"- the one that has so many videos devoted to it. And of course the only one I don't need help with.
 
Darn! I've been stood up!
Looks like we got our wires crossed on the time or something.
Good news, though- when I toted everything out to the garage and tried to fire it up one more time, it went back to it's usual slightly to the right and flinching up and down routine, not the general spaz. When it spazzed, I was on the concrete near the refrigerator- maybe too much interference?
So I"m back to a lesser level of doom.

While waiting for my knight in shining armor, I did a firmware update on the RC. Don't ya love that sound? It says it has 1.6.0 and needs to upgrade to 1.6.0. What?
 
Darn! I've been stood up!
Looks like we got our wires crossed on the time or something.
Good news, though- when I toted everything out to the garage and tried to fire it up one more time, it went back to it's usual slightly to the right and flinching up and down routine, not the general spaz. When it spazzed, I was on the concrete near the refrigerator- maybe too much interference?
So I"m back to a lesser level of doom.

While waiting for my knight in shining armor, I did a firmware update on the RC. Don't ya love that sound? It says it has 1.6.0 and needs to upgrade to 1.6.0. What?
Did you ever get this resolved? I have the exact same issue. It is turned to the right just a hair, and does that like up and down twitch periodically.
 

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