P4 Yaw motor issues

Droneted

Phantom 4 gimbal repair advice
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These P4 gimbals have been giving me nightmares. The yaw issue where it swings back and forth or just points to the left or right. I ordered several yaw motors and got them last week. I took one of the cameras and tried each new motor in it and got various results including one that centered the camera perfectly. makes no sense to me. I tried another camera that pointed left and did the same thing. After trying several motors I got it to center. I have been poo pooing the magnet theory. I am now rethinking it. I had assumed it was a sensor problem and it may be in some cases. I saw a YouTube video where a guy took his old motor apart and used the top half on his new motor. He kind of claimed that DJI adjusted each one. Or I took it that way.
Was I just lucky??? thoughts out there????
 
The sensor that you mention above, is it the one that attached on yaw motor or behind yaw arm?

I'm still trying to find out about this issue.
 
Yes. it is behind the yaw arm. 3 flex cable attach to it. One is the yaw motor and the other is the roll motor the third is the main ribbon cable ( from the side.)
 
I would like to understand this yaw problem better.

You said the camera camera points left or right, back and forth.

Are you saying the camera randomly rotates left and right with no stick input? If yes, approximately how many degrees left or right would you estimate the camera is turning at random? Are you seeing the landing gear through the camera view when this occurs?

Can you reproduce this problem while powered up but grounded so you can physically see this occur on the ground?
 
I am working on several cameras. Most of them point to the right maybe 30 degrees off center. It varies by camera. I had one the swings back and forth about 30 degrees each way. Believe it or not I have swapped yaw motors around between them and got a couple to center correctly. I bought a bunch of yaw motors to experiment with. There seem to be no rhyme nor reason to the results I get. Just dumb luck on the ones that work. I need some kind of explanation as to how the sensor decides to move the yaw. The P3 Advanced and Pro are very simple compared to these
 
My gimbal problem is like this
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The gimbal yawing right to left
 
My gimbal problem is like this
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The gimbal yawing right to left
That's pretty bizarre. Why not send it in for warranty repair? These birds have only been available for a year and two weeks. Is yours barely out of warranty?
 
Are there any solutions yet?
My P4 has the same problems, after two crashes I am the owner of two gimbal+camera units without any visible damage.
 
Yes there is. However u must still have the original yaw motor. It is rather involved but the short story is.... You take the casing from the old motor and use it in place of the casing on the new motor. It takes some careful workmanship. The casing on the old motor is specific to the settings on the yaw sensor ( that can not be adjusted) I have now done several of these with great success. It takes a couple of hours as you have to totally dismantle the camera. I am in Florida and I could help. PM me or email me at [email protected]
 
ted4797: you’re my new hero! Wish I had seen your explanation/video of these pre-calibrated magnets along with your photos of the damaged sensors months ago. You’re a genius among men. THANK YOU.
 
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ted4797: you’re my new hero! Wish I had seen your explanation/video of these pre-calibrated magnets along with your photos of the damaged sensors months ago. You’re a genius among men. THANK YOU.
I wouldn't go that far. I might add, I did not do this on my own. There is a guy on here, jiminyfixit,, that worked with me. We are both really old and good at tinkering. We will tinker until we find a way around a problem. It is in our blood.
 
Hi Gents,
I have noticed that the two Phantom 4's that I have with yaw issues of pointing off center have the following characteristics when compared to other perfectly working Phantom 4 camera gimbals:

When the P4 not powered, with the bad yaw center is leaned forward on its arms, the gimbal leans the yaw to either the left or right.

When the P4 not powered, with the good yaw center is leaned forward on its arms, the gimbal yaw remains centered.

With the P4's not powered, with the bad centering gimbals when the yaw is pushed left or right tend to stay left or right.

With the P4's not powered with the good centering gimbals when the yaw is pushed left or right tend to bounce to the center position. It almost seems like it is being held there by some magnetic field.

In my attempts to fix the bad gimbal centering, I have done:
1. The IMU calibration then gimbal calibration.
2. The "special" gimbal calibration when the P4 is stood on the back motors.
3. Repeated the gimbal calibration with FPV and Follow modes selected.
4. Manually repeated the power-off yaw twist to the stops, opposite of the off-center.
5. Replaced the yaw gimbal motor.
6. Swapped bad centering yaw, pitch, roll controller pcbs with known good ones.

In each case above the gimbals still had bad centering. All were 20 to 30 degrees off-center left and right. The yaw will still work in a limited way when in flight but the view is offset and annoying. The pitch and roll work normally in the gimbals I have with the centering issue. All have the latest firmware updates installed.

I will try the motor housing swap, but since I bought these used with this poor centering problem it could be that the yaw motors were already replaced.

Thought:
If it is a magnetized area of the motor housing as is suggested in this thread that the sensor is calibrated for at the factory, then there must be a way of magnetizing an area of a new motor housing? Perhaps by gluing a tiny molybdenum magnet in the best location on the poorly centering yaw motor housing would also work?

Note: In the P3 and Inspire gimbals there are definite magnets that can be reoriented to fix gimbals with poor centering.

Cheers to those who keep trying to fix this issue!
Jim
 
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So far, swapping the housing has been the best solution. When the housing is damaged, i have about 40 housings to try. I have always found one that centers. The bad news is that it takes about a day of trying.
 

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