I've read everything I can find here and elsewhere, watched youtube vid's, etc. And I have had help from the company that sold me the parts, but I'm not understanding their last instructions and hope y'all can help.
Background (skip to asterisks below if you don't have time for this): Not my drone. My father's P3 Pro. Yeah...
He left it with me while he went on vacation because he couldn't get the aircraft to connect to the remote. He'd only flown it like 3 times and was ready to give up. A couple of hours later, thanks largely to what I learned on your forum, it was up and running. He was thrilled and told me to fly it because- and I quote- "You can do as well as I could."
He was wrong, apparently.
I was in a big open field being very careful. I'm still not sure what happened, but it got stuck wayyyy up in a tree. Seemed fine other than being stuck. Removal efforts crashed it to the ground where the yaw arm and ribbon cable broke :-(
I ordered replacement parts and have spent the week on an emotional roller coaster of hope and doom while learning more than I ever thought I would about the innards of a drone gimbal.
I took it apart and replaced the bad parts and reassembled using mostly these two videos:
The first time I put it all back together, the gimbal didn't behave properly. I figured out that I needed to align the hole in the yaw arm with the mark on the flat side of the main axle before putting in the set screw. Unfortunately, that time I also broke off the clip for one of the two attachments of the ribbon cable on the main board. I took it out and flew it, took some pictures, and then tried video only to realize it was showing a garbled mess on the screen.
So it came back apart, and I realized I hadn't actually gotten the black clip back on as I'd thought. This second time I used a magnifier to see better and was sure I reattached it. And the video worked- yay!
When I landed that first post-repair flight, I did the controls to bottom center after gently touching down, and the thing went berserk and flipped on its side :-( It's like only two blades stopped, and the other two went faster?? I'm not positive these last two problems I'm about to describe didn't exist before that happened- sorry.
*****SKIP TO HERE IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BACKSTORY****
Remaining problems are:
1. Camera points right. I have calibrated the gimbal with supposed success numerous times. The company who sold me the replacement parts is telling me to rotate the bell housing of the motor. But they're also saying I shouldn't have to dismantle anything to do so, and that makes no sense to me. The motor that controls left/right is between the body of the copter and the gimbal, so at the least, I'd have to remove those stupid drop pins again. And once I get to that point, I don't understand exactly what to do. Just force the yaw arm to center and then rotate the bell housing to accommodate that amount the other direction?? I can't imagine the shaft rotating that easily?? And I"m scared of breaking the little arm. Should I take the arm off and hold the axle with pliers??? This whole procedure makes me more nervous than taking it apart and putting it back together!
Related to this, the supplier has also asked me to confirm that an unknown number of "hall effect sensors" are still soldered to the flex-pcb cable. I'm assuming that's the ribbon cable? Neither my old nor the new have anything "soldered" to it, and I can't fathom how anything would be soldered to plastic anyway???
2. Camera gently flicks up and down constantly. I suspect this might have to do with the fact that the ribbon cable adhesive will not stick. If not, that is still a problem. Supplier has suggested superglue, but won't that create problems if I have to remove it for some reason??
This is NOT a horizon problem. I did make sure that the axle discussed in the video was parallel to the camera back. Ironically, of the 3 directions, all the info I see has to do with repairing the horizon. My issues are with the other two directions.
And Dad is on his way back home. Soooooo close!
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Background (skip to asterisks below if you don't have time for this): Not my drone. My father's P3 Pro. Yeah...
He left it with me while he went on vacation because he couldn't get the aircraft to connect to the remote. He'd only flown it like 3 times and was ready to give up. A couple of hours later, thanks largely to what I learned on your forum, it was up and running. He was thrilled and told me to fly it because- and I quote- "You can do as well as I could."
He was wrong, apparently.
I was in a big open field being very careful. I'm still not sure what happened, but it got stuck wayyyy up in a tree. Seemed fine other than being stuck. Removal efforts crashed it to the ground where the yaw arm and ribbon cable broke :-(
I ordered replacement parts and have spent the week on an emotional roller coaster of hope and doom while learning more than I ever thought I would about the innards of a drone gimbal.
I took it apart and replaced the bad parts and reassembled using mostly these two videos:
The first time I put it all back together, the gimbal didn't behave properly. I figured out that I needed to align the hole in the yaw arm with the mark on the flat side of the main axle before putting in the set screw. Unfortunately, that time I also broke off the clip for one of the two attachments of the ribbon cable on the main board. I took it out and flew it, took some pictures, and then tried video only to realize it was showing a garbled mess on the screen.
So it came back apart, and I realized I hadn't actually gotten the black clip back on as I'd thought. This second time I used a magnifier to see better and was sure I reattached it. And the video worked- yay!
When I landed that first post-repair flight, I did the controls to bottom center after gently touching down, and the thing went berserk and flipped on its side :-( It's like only two blades stopped, and the other two went faster?? I'm not positive these last two problems I'm about to describe didn't exist before that happened- sorry.
*****SKIP TO HERE IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BACKSTORY****
Remaining problems are:
1. Camera points right. I have calibrated the gimbal with supposed success numerous times. The company who sold me the replacement parts is telling me to rotate the bell housing of the motor. But they're also saying I shouldn't have to dismantle anything to do so, and that makes no sense to me. The motor that controls left/right is between the body of the copter and the gimbal, so at the least, I'd have to remove those stupid drop pins again. And once I get to that point, I don't understand exactly what to do. Just force the yaw arm to center and then rotate the bell housing to accommodate that amount the other direction?? I can't imagine the shaft rotating that easily?? And I"m scared of breaking the little arm. Should I take the arm off and hold the axle with pliers??? This whole procedure makes me more nervous than taking it apart and putting it back together!
Related to this, the supplier has also asked me to confirm that an unknown number of "hall effect sensors" are still soldered to the flex-pcb cable. I'm assuming that's the ribbon cable? Neither my old nor the new have anything "soldered" to it, and I can't fathom how anything would be soldered to plastic anyway???
2. Camera gently flicks up and down constantly. I suspect this might have to do with the fact that the ribbon cable adhesive will not stick. If not, that is still a problem. Supplier has suggested superglue, but won't that create problems if I have to remove it for some reason??
This is NOT a horizon problem. I did make sure that the axle discussed in the video was parallel to the camera back. Ironically, of the 3 directions, all the info I see has to do with repairing the horizon. My issues are with the other two directions.
And Dad is on his way back home. Soooooo close!
Any help is greatly appreciated.