Gimbal still off-center

[Serenity]

The gimbal on my phantom 3 was aiming very far left on power up. I returned it to DJI, they sent it back in a timely manner but it is still aimed slightly off-center to the left.
It's usable now, before I returned it the camera was pointed full left into the landing struts, but it's still slightly off-center to the left and makes things trickier when recording video.

I thought I'd ask if there was any new info on this or word on a yaw trim function? Otherwise I'm thinking I probably have to return it again, just a lot of down-time.

 

[Sinisalo]

they may have replaced the camera and gimbal assembly, when they do that for warranty work it is not uncommon for them to use "refurbished" parts. Have you tried a mid-air gimbal auto calibration? It will say it failed but that was the trick to fix the gimbal on my P3P, until it stopped working and I had to send it in.

 

[Serenity]

-I wound't mind the refurbished warranty parts as long as it worked, but I've sent it back twice and still off-center.

-I have not tried a mid-air gimbal calibration, appreciate the suggestion will try it tomorrow, thought I had tried everything.

 

[Serenity]

I tried the mid-air gimbal calibration, it did say it failed but it didn't help, the camera is 5 degrees or so off-center and just stays there.
I guess an off-center gimbal is an isolated issue, I'm going to try and get a couple of projects done then send it back to DJi again.
Yaw adjust would be cool.

 

[Sinisalo]

I tried the mid-air gimbal calibration, it did say it failed but it didn't help, the camera is 5 degrees or so off-center and just stays there.
I guess an off-center gimbal is an isolated issue, I'm going to try and get a couple of projects done then send it back to DJi again.
Yaw adjust would be cool.

Do you have the "Enable Synchronized Gimbal Pan Follow" checked?

 

[John Lo]

Do you have the "Enable Synchronized Gimbal Pan Follow" checked?

This one has to be enable in order to do the smooth panning shot while maneuver. Disable will help the off center issue but no good for awesome video shot

 

[NotARubicon]

Mine is also slightly off-center, to the left.. Searching on how to fix it here and on the Google Machine, it appears to be a common, as-yet unfixable problem.

 

[Picturehouse Studio]

Hi. I'm facing the same problem. Read all the threads related to this issue. Still can't work it out. Really hope DJI comes out with an update enabling users to calibrate the gimbal manually to the center.

 

[hunch]

i see these daily.. funny no one has posted a solution yet.
if your whole gimbal is "looking" left or right you need to take it off and grab the top (yaw) motor case (round silver on top of the gimbal) with pliers
and rotate the whole gimbal to the opposite side where it is facing.
so basically what you are doing is rotating the shaft inside the rotor part of the yaw motor so you counter it to where it is facing, if left, twist to the right, if facing right, twist to the left couple degrees until you find the perfect center.
be careful not to grab the silver rotor to hard as you can bend it, just enough so it holds when you rotate the yaw shaft it will actually move inside.

that's all... DJI at its best!

 

[Serenity]

i see these daily.. funny no one has posted a solution yet.
if your whole gimbal is "looking" left or right you need to take it off and grab the top (yaw) motor case (round silver on top of the gimbal) with pliers
and rotate the whole gimbal to the opposite side where it is facing.

Hello hunch, I missed this reply, I appreciate it and really wish I wouldn't have missed it. It turns out DJI is really jerking me around on this issue, and I wouldn't have sent it back and tried your fix nstead.

Actually I still might, I sent it back to DJI and they want money to fix what they claimed they fixed the first two times I returned it. They sent me lemon parts until my warranty expired. I've lost trust in their word as a company.

The bummer part is I really need a good copter and liked how theirs operated. I think I'm just going to have them return it and see if this fix works, and if not maybe move on. I don't know, it's frustrating.

Thanks for the input again, bummer I missed it before I sent my bird back to DJI.

 

[hunch]

that's too bad, i was reading through it the other day and the only reason i wanted you to try to calibrate the sticks is the day before i had a customer come in with similar issue and that's what solved his problem.
let me know if you need further help if DJI doesn't do the right thing. i've done 100's of these and know them inside out so if i can help you
get back in the air make sure you contact me.

 

[Serenity]

that's too bad. let me know if you need further help if DJI doesn't do the right thing. i've done 100's of these and know them inside out so if i can help you
get back in the air make sure you contact me.

No, DJI made clear they aren't doing the right thing.

I haven't had a chance to try your fix, DJI has my bird, I'm trying to cool off and take a minute to decide how I'm going to proceed.
Couple questions hunch if you have a minute-
1. when you say "calibrate the sticks", you mean physically turning the rotor like you describe above or a calibration on the computer?

2. You mean you repair these phantoms? Like send them to you and you send them back? I ask because my issue with DJI is a trust one, I don't think they'll do what they say they're doing. I'm considering getting it back and learning to repair it myself too. This mail across the country corporate con job is no way to go.

3. Do you suggest other quadcopter companies to try for similar aerial photography needs?

Thanks for any time you have, this thing does have me bummed out on DJI.

 

[hunch]

1. i mean in the GoApp while connected with the USB cord to the phone or whatever you are using as a viewing device and the Phantom being off click on the controller icon on the left and you can Calibrate the sticks there. basically you will be pushing them to all the max points and roll the gimbal dial all the way up and down.

2. yes i do, i did over 600 last year alone. check my fb page called UAV Repair Shop and join, there is about 1200 members there mostly customers from the past and you can see what i do there.

3. Autel is giving DJI run for their money that's for sure. very similar bird, little cheaper but very similar but DJI has been
very aggressive on the market and around a little bit longer.

 

[Serenity]

1. i mean in the GoApp while connected with the USB cord to the phone or whatever you are using as a viewing device and the Phantom being off click on the controller icon on the left and you can Calibrate the sticks there. basically you will be pushing them to all the max points and roll the gimbal dial all the way up and down.

Okay I thought you meant on the app just being certain. I don't think this is my issue but will try if I just get my bird returned to me without DJI messing with it anymore.

2. yes i do, i did over 600 last year alone. check my fb page called UAV Repair Shop and join, there is about 1200 members there mostly customers from the past and you can see what i do there.

Thanks for the info I will check out your page.

I'll take a look at Autel. I do like DJI's product and the app, if I can find alternate service like yours and not have to deal with DJI that could work.


/One other thing I don't understand is why they don't just offer a 'yaw trim" feature similar to the "roll trim". If I could trim to the right a few degrees I'd be okay. It felt like a flaw to me that there is no right/left adjust.

Thanks again, maybe see you in the fb shop.

 

[pwsl100]

Just another suggestion not as radical as hunch's. There is a set screw that holds the gimbal arm in place. Sometimes the set screw has been tightened so much as to put a small indent in the arm which it deep enough may shift the angle of the camera on the shaft. Try loosening the screw and repositioning the gimbal arm slightly and the retighten the screw and see if that helps. If that doesn't work maybe follow hunch's advise.

 

[hunch]

to answer your question about yaw control. that feature is available on birds that have the ability to raise the landing gear like Inspire, Yuneec H and similar.
i think from the design POV it wouldn't make sense to control the yaw arm if all you're going to move into is the shot of your landing gear.
that would be my explanation but could be a different reason.

anyone else has a theory?

 

[Serenity]

Just another suggestion not as radical as hunch's. There is a set screw that holds the gimbal arm in place.

I had been told about this along the way so I looked and it's not the issue, that screw is squared up normally.

to answer your question about yaw control. that feature is available on birds that have the ability to raise the landing gear like Inspire, Yuneec H and similar.
i think from the design POV it wouldn't make sense to control the yaw arm if all you're going to move into is the shot of your landing gear

Sure it doesn't make sense to move the yaw arm into view of the landing gear, but in my case and others whose gimbal is setting up just slightly off center, it would make sense to be able to move it slightly back to center wouldn't it?

I don't want to move it farther into the landing gear, I want to move it back to center. Like you said about moving it with pliers, but with app control instead of pliers.

 

[SnoozeDoggyDog]

i see these daily.. funny no one has posted a solution yet.
if your whole gimbal is "looking" left or right you need to take it off and grab the top (yaw) motor case (round silver on top of the gimbal) with pliers
and rotate the whole gimbal to the opposite side where it is facing.
so basically what you are doing is rotating the shaft inside the rotor part of the yaw motor so you counter it to where it is facing, if left, twist to the right, if facing right, twist to the left couple degrees until you find the perfect center.
be careful not to grab the silver rotor to hard as you can bend it, just enough so it holds when you rotate the yaw shaft it will actually move inside.

that's all... DJI at its best!

What he said! I had the other known gimbal tilt issues, I turned the shaft to the horizontal position but still I had tilt. It turns out I had to rotate past the horizonal to offset the tilt. Job done

 

[watermancpt]

i see these daily.. funny no one has posted a solution yet.
if your whole gimbal is "looking" left or right you need to take it off and grab the top (yaw) motor case (round silver on top of the gimbal) with pliers
and rotate the whole gimbal to the opposite side where it is facing.
so basically what you are doing is rotating the shaft inside the rotor part of the yaw motor so you counter it to where it is facing, if left, twist to the right, if facing right, twist to the left couple degrees until you find the perfect center.
be careful not to grab the silver rotor to hard as you can bend it, just enough so it holds when you rotate the yaw shaft it will actually move inside.

that's all... DJI at its best!

Hi there Hunch. I have this same problem with my P4P. So my p4p had an issue “no image transmission signal” and “camera sensor error”. Thought it was the gimbal flex but apparently not, it was according to these guys servicing my p4p the pitch motor that was bad. so they took another gimbal that was quite new but had a slight tilt to the left, took my gimbal yaw motor and put it in that gimbal. It works but now the camera is off center to the left, which is obviously not great as one would not be able to fly straight. Gimbal calibration obviously didnt fix it as the limit of the gimbal yaw is more to the left than the right. So now they are going to try a firmware update as they think that the new gimbal “doesnt know it has a new yaw motor” and they are hoping that it might fix the problem. From my experience in IT i doubt this would fix it, am I right? Another engineer told me that that if you replace one motor, you need to replace all. Is this true for the P4P or can one simply adjust the gimbal position as you explained above? Hope youre still around to answer this.
Thank you in advance for your time

 

[HarveyMS]

i see these daily.. funny no one has posted a solution yet.
if your whole gimbal is "looking" left or right you need to take it off and grab the top (yaw) motor case (round silver on top of the gimbal) with pliers
and rotate the whole gimbal to the opposite side where it is facing.
so basically what you are doing is rotating the shaft inside the rotor part of the yaw motor so you counter it to where it is facing, if left, twist to the right, if facing right, twist to the left couple degrees until you find the perfect center.
be careful not to grab the silver rotor to hard as you can bend it, just enough so it holds when you rotate the yaw shaft it will actually move inside.

that's all... DJI at its best!

I did this. No difference.