Getting a gimbal to work after replacing ribbon cable and yaw arm

[MAdams]

I bought a used Adv bird with a broken yaw arm and cable. It has been flying for a while now without a camera (me and previous owner).

I replaced the yaw arm and cable today, following videos very carefully. I powered it up and I wasn't surprised when it didn't work right away. What do I need to check or do now?

I made sure the RC and bird were linked, the green light is blinking on the gimbal, etc. I have the NO SIGNAL red bar at the top of my screen.

Does the Firmware matter? Do I HAVE to have an SD card in it to make the camera work? Also, I tried using an old micro SD card and it said it couldn't format it, same with a second used one - so I am getting a new one to try.

Thanks for the help!

 

[With The Birds]

Did it give a no sd card warning after powered on?

 

[MAdams]

I don't recall a no sd warning. I will get a new sd card tomorrow and update. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[MAdams]

Got a new SD card, updating firmware now. what i do realize is that i am not getting the dancing gimbal at start up.

 

[MAdams]

HALP!

OK so here is where I am:

• 
  
• I looked up my firmware version and for my bird and remote it says N/A....
• I tried to format an SD card through the app and it failed, multiple times, different cards so I formatted with my laptop
• I tried updating to 1.4 and nothing happened, so just to check I tried 1.5 with the same results - none

When I put the SD card in and power up for the firmware update I get:

normal start up beeps
no dancing gimbal and a limp camera
I hear "DDD DDD DDD DDD DDD" from the gimbal
Front LED are red, rear are a blinking yellow
The gimbal LED flashes green fast, then will go green to red slowly, then back to flashing green, never solid.
I've let it sit for up to an hour like this
No txt file on the SD card after an hour

so, I have no idea what FW I'm on, I cant seem to change it so I at least know what I'm working with.... anyone have any ideas? The bird flys great, but I would like to use the camera now!

Thanks again for any help

 

[MAdams]

Now firmware is:

App 2.5.0
RC: 1.3.20
Aircraft: 1.3.20

No Gimbal Activity, just blinking green light

 

[MAdams]

I will continue to document incase someone else needs help.

I begrudgingly pulled apart the gimbal and reset some of the cables. I did this because I could move the gimbal by hand and see movement in the app, so I knew they were communicating. It had to come down to communicating with the motors and actual camera. After I reset and powered back up I saw the gimbal dance and video of my excited face. The video is jumpy but at least it's there.... now to figure this part out.

 

[With The Birds]

Now you just need to work out which of tue connectors you moved caused part of the functionality to return. Any chance the header on the lightbridge board was damaged in the crash?

 

[MAdams]

Now you just need to work out which of tue connectors you moved caused part of the functionality to return. Any chance the header on the lightbridge board was damaged in the crash?

I messed with the cables on the board, and the exposed ones on the gimbal. im not messing with it any more unless something goes wrong. I need to figure out if I should upgrade the FW or stay where I am. Everyone seems to be focused on downgrading and then others are always saying you should upgrade. no idea what to do....

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[NRJ]

I messed with the cables on the board, and the exposed ones on the gimbal. im not messing with it any more unless something goes wrong. I need to figure out if I should upgrade the FW or stay where I am. Everyone seems to be focused on downgrading and then others are always saying you should upgrade. no idea what to do....

Thanks for the feedback!

I crashed my P3A too and it ripped the yaw arm and ribbon cable in two. I ordered the parts and proceeded to repair it. I have different issues than you, but when I powered up and the camera did it's auto test of the camera, it went wild. Also, it would not sit straight but at an angle. When I bought the ribbon cable, I wanted to save money so I bought one for $$9.88. Then after I found it was doing crazy things, I went through the install process to ensure it was correct. Then I got other things working that I didn't have before such as the gimbal calibration worked. So, I new that each cable part had to be exactly straight with all cable locks in place. But, it still gave me no picture as well as it still went crazy on startup test.

I bought another cable and paid $54.99, installed it and everything works as it should now. Lesson learned. You get what you pay for. Good luck and happy flying.

 

[FlyOrFry]

There seems to be some bad ribbon cables being sold by third parties. Not sure if someone has started a list of good vendors but it would be nice to know who's got good cables. But that seems to be your problem. I had similar issues but happened to buy another cable from another vendor. One works, was able to do all firmware updates also. The other cable results in video signal bouncing constantly. I repeated these steps multiple times to the same results... It was the cable.