New Gimbal - no compass

[slvrscoobie]

Hey Guys,
Just got a replacement Gimbal as after a crash, the guys said something was screwy with mine and wasnt worth fixing.
So I plugged in the 2 antenna and 1 block connector, fire everyone up and it says to calibrate.
So I calibrate. Nope, says 'strong electromagnetic interference'
Well thats odd. I try again and again. I do an IMU calibration and take it way away from my house and try again. Nothing
The weird part is that the compass values are all 0.
As I understand the compass is just the grey wire that comes out of the gimbal and does down the one leg. When mine crashed it cracked that exact leg. Could I have damaged the compass so that its reading 0, or is there something else im missing?

 

[slvrscoobie]

PS: I have a set of replacement landing gear with compass, but Im pretty afraid to try to open the bird on the P3 after watching some videos of how much work it takes. Seems like the compass connection could have been placed in a better location if the landing gear is nearly expected to be replaced

 

[Meta4]

So I calibrate. Nope, says 'strong electromagnetic interference'
Well thats odd. I try again and again. I do an IMU calibration and take it way away from my house and try again. Nothing
The weird part is that the compass values are all 0.
As I understand the compass is just the grey wire that comes out of the gimbal and does down the one leg. When mine crashed it cracked that exact leg. Could I have damaged the compass so that its reading 0, or is there something else im missing?

IMU is unrelated to the compass and wouldn't change a thing.
If you have zero for the compass values, your compass is disconnected or the cable is broken and it will never calibrate until you fix that.

 

[slvrscoobie]

As I figured, but thought Id try. How do I replace it with the new landing gear i have without opening the whole thing.

 

[slvrscoobie]

Took the compass out, one of the cold solders on the board broke, any decent way to fix it? tried to just solder it back but it breaks off the moment i touch it.

 

[Grant Peterson]

Unless you are an experienced solderer, I'd recommend taking it too a local hobby shop and seeing if they could solder it for you (I've had a similar experience and my local hobby shop had high-grade solder equipment and did a great job). Also, just for kicks and giggles, if there is ANY temporary way to complete the circuit, do that and then go back into the DJI app to see if your compass values are still 0. If so, then the solder connection isn't your problem. If it does work, then just find some way to commercial solder it. Good luck!

 

[slvrscoobie]

Im experianced with major repair stuff, and minor PCB stuff, but fixing cold solder joints (pad repair) is still beyond me. Since i have the spare, i figured i had no holds bar approach to the solder fix so Im trying to recover a trace to solder onto to get a reading across the 2 outside pins. They seem to connect on the new one, but not on my one attached so im guessing thats (one of) the faults.

 

[Grant Peterson]

Ok. Keep me updated with your luck. I've got to go for now, although I should be able to get on tomorrow to continue helping if you can't figure it out yet.

 

[slvrscoobie]

so after trying to slide the bare wires of the one that was from the bird into the connector for the new one, I decided for $12 to sacrifice the new gear connector and solder the wires together. Soon as I did that, the compass values kicked in, so i resoldered them with heat shrink of each wire, and a secondary over all the connectors. Only issue was I under estimated how long the cable was and now have a loop on the back leg from the extra cable. Oh well. Least it works and Im flying again.

 

[Grant Peterson]

Well at least you fixed it! Happy flying!