Bent Gimbal

[zryall3]

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On a recent crash, my gimbal was bent, but still works fine. Amazing how durable the Phantoms actually are. One casualty however, is that the camera is low slightly lopsided, just a few degrees off. When you view the gimbal on a level table with the camera leveled by hand, you can clearly see the vertical arm of the camera mount bent to one side. I followed the advice of the videos that show opening the back of the case where the circuit board is and trying to turn the axle back to the level position, but it will not budge. The pressure-fitted axle won't move at all and I'm afraid I'm going to snap it before it decides to rotate in the other end of the housing. I then thought I would try and bend the gimbal back but even very carefully trying to do so with two pair of pliers yielded no results. I'm avoiding the ribbon cable of course, but I can't seem to reverse the bend that was caused by the impact of the crash. The photos and video work fine and the camera is not hopping around as in some posts, but I'd like to straighten the horizon of the camera. Does any kind of calibration help, or are there any tips to getting that shaft to loosen enough that I can turn it as in the videos? I've attached a front an back photo to show the bend.

 

[rbhamilton]

I'd suggest living with it like this. You probably won't even notice it. BUT if you like there are some people in this forum who can repair these things, replace the arm, etc. The one I've used in past is on here under Hunch. There are a couple of others too.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27737

 

[zryall3]

Thanks RB. I'll see if it bugs me to have the little tilt. Otherwise, I may do just as you suggest and live with it.

 

[timschick]

Tilt sucks and horizon is everything. One of our +'s took a spill on landing (wind rolled it) and tilted the gimbal slightly as well. I always wondered why the P2V Assistant software had a screen under advanced for 'Gimbal' but when you plugged in a + that screen disappears. Now I know that screen was meant for the previous H33D gimbals.

I wish it was as easy as plugging up the software and slightly altering the horizon, but alas we'll now embark on the removing the back plate and physically correcting like I have seen videos for...

 

[RoyVa]

I have seen that piece for sale on eBay. A little pricey at $119.00. Have also seen that some users have disassembled and straightened the arm. Either way doable but not a simple task.