Phantom 4 Gimbal Design Flaw, the Reason for Overload Error!

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Figured out how to reproduce the Gimbal Overload Error and discovered a pretty damning design flaw. You be the judge..
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Edit: And this is how the gimbal tilt happens during flight. I probably tilted the craft more than I needed to but you get the idea..
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I don't see it in your video.... bad lighting and dark picture.
Where is the fault?
 
So when the camera is tilting, it should be able to point straight down?
What is blocking the tilt? Motor bearings? obstruction? cable hanging up?
 
So when the camera is tilting, it should be able to point straight down?
What is blocking the tilt? Motor bearings? obstruction? cable hanging up?

Yeah video quality isn't that great. But it is good enough to see the problem, top right corner of the camera touching the round part at the top preventing the camera from moving all the way down, overloading the motors. Often it gets stuck for a moment in this position forcing the camera to tilt 45 degrees..
 
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OK I see that... it was dark in that area so it wasn't obvious.
Why is the camera gimbal tilted so much? Is that kind of tilt normal? Guess it could be if the quad was rolled at an extreme angle.
Since the gimbal CAN tilt that much, the corner of the camera should have been more rounded or lower so that wouldn't happen.
 
It happens when flying sideways from left to right and moving camera down at the same time. So far i had this happen 4 times while flying in sports mode (out of maybe 20 flights). Probably going to grind this corner down a bit to avoid the motors breaking..

Edit: Heres how it looks when it happens during a flight. Not my footage its a random one I picked from youtube, theres plenty to choose with the same thing happening ;)
At around 0:20
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I was thinking that grinding the corner down might work.
Depends on how much you have to remove though, as there might be a circuit board inside that is close to the case, and you don't want to damage the electronics.
Maybe see what is inside the camera case,and what is behind the gimbal pivot and take a little out of each?
Good find!
 
Doesn't look like you would have to take off very much at all, maybe just a "nick" of plastic?
 
Yeah its not much at all to grind down, maybe one milimeter. But do I lose the warranty if I do so? Or should I attempt to send it back, because its obviously faulty?
 
Watched the video.... I see the camera goes limp then resets... Yes the camera is hitting something, and that something is the gimbal like you said.
Strange that it wasn't designed better!
 
I would think that if you sent it back, you would get the same "problem" in the replacement.
Maybe you should call DJI and ask them about the problem and what you would like to do to fix it? and get the CSR's name when you do call for proof.
That is a touchy subject I think... but IS a problem for sure!
 
It almost looks like maybe the arm between the gimbal and the camera might be slightly bent, although I don't think the metal used bends... it breaks.
I don't suppose that your quad has had a hard landing or something has hit the camera? Just a thought....
 
I don't think you should try and bend the arm!!!!!
I would feel alot more comfortable just touching the corners where the camera hits the gimbal, lightly with a file... just enough to provide clearance between the two.
 
Nope, only soft landings and sometimes catching by hand. Also there are hundreds of videos with the 45 degree camera tilt so I don't think hard landing has anything to do with it. Embarrassingly its not just normal phantom 4 either. P4P suffers from this issue as well..
 
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Just a thought...
With a very thin file (like a finger nail file), put the file between the camera and the gimbal and manually move the camera to the interference point and drag the file while "pinching" it with the camera... not hard, but enough to make contact with both surfaces.
This would mark the two places that need to be "trimmed", then us a file and take a little off of each spot until they clear.
Just don't take too much off because I would think you want to keep the camera "sealed" and not break through the case.
 
Yes, I have seen a few other videos with the camera re-calibrate problem.
I didn't think it was from a crash as I didn't see any obvious damage on the camera, but wanted to make sure.
Sending it back for warranty replacement, i would think, wouldn't solve the problem as they all seem to have this problem.
Just "modifying" the camera and gimbal could throw a problem if you needed to get something else repaired in the future... that is why I suggested to call DJI and ask them... couldn't hurt I think.
 
Was just about to grind it down when I noticed the gimbal mount seems to be very loose. I cant tell if this is normal or not, the hole at the bottom of the craft is about twice the size of the gimbal mount and has some kind of rubber buffer inside so I assume this has to do with image stabilisation. But is the gimbal mount supposed to be movable like that?
 
Well I don't have a P4, so I cannot verify this BUT I would think the gimbal mount should be solid as a sloppy/loose mount would make the camera move around and give you shaky video.
Where is the "looseness"?
 
If the gimbal is loose, I would think the whole gimbal should move and not the arm between the yaw and pitch axis, if that is what you are talking about.
I would think the relative position of all axis should stay the same, and maybe the gimbal mounting inside the craft might have some resilient mount, shock absorption.
 

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