Camera slowly pans down.

MacPhantom · Feb 19, 2017

My camera tilt wheel has always sticked at the bottom of the movement, which was annoying but usable.

Yesterday I noticed that my camera is slowly dropping down and I suspected the dial but needed a way to confirm.

Under the DJGo app I found that you can drop the camera tilt speed to 0 essentially disabling the tilt. When I do that, the camera stays put. Looks like I need a new controller so I will have to open up a case with DJi.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

MacPhantom · Mar 14, 2017

So, I opened a ticket with DJi to send my remote in to get fixed but they want the drone and remote. I have proven that it is the Gimbal Control Dial on the remote and due to the fact that my drone operates flawlessly and will go easily 1.5 KM stock without issue, I decided I don't want to send it back and risk getting someone else's dud drone so I fixed it myself.

Turns out the wheel mechanism only had grease on one side of the sliding surface it sits on. Move it past that and it would bind. The screw holding the assy. was also too tight causing the spring to fail in bringing the wheel perfectly back to center.

Greased the surfaces, adjusted the hub screw and voila, no more sticking and no more uncommanded gimbal drift. As a side note, now that I see that it is a stand alone part with a removable connector, If the problem does come back, I think I will just buy the part vs. shipping it and waiting for weeks for it to come back.

I for the life of me don't know why they don't offer an express exchange program secured with a CC like others do as I would have taken it in a heart beat. I am in the East Coast of Canada and I bet if I did send it, I would be shocked if it took less than a month to get it back.

kndll · Mar 14, 2017

if you have anymore problems in the future and are willing to pay for service , there's a new DJI store in Dartmouth Buy Drones for Sale in Canada - Best UAV Drone Source

120CCPM · Mar 14, 2017

Maybe you already did that, but I strongly suggest to do an RC sticks calibration, so the RC records the exact center position of the dial, now that you fixed it "mechanically".

nwcove · Mar 14, 2017

kndll said:
if you have anymore problems in the future and are willing to pay for service , there's a new DJI store in Dartmouth Buy Drones for Sale in Canada - Best UAV Drone Source

one of the guys at dr drone in dartmouth told me they were soon to be a dji warrantee repair center. i did ask....days weeks...or months ?, and was told not days, most likely months, but more sooner than later. hope the info was true !

kndll · Mar 14, 2017

Nice to have a local shop , hopefully you are right , I would not send my Phantom away and wait months to get it back !!

nwcove · Mar 14, 2017

kndll said:
Nice to have a local shop , hopefully you are right , I would not send my Phantom away and wait months to get it back !!

thats my issue also. im considering getting another phantom, but reading all the not so nice things regarding wait times etc, i think i will hold off on another expensive toy for now.

MacPhantom · Mar 15, 2017

120CCPM said:
Maybe you already did that, but I strongly suggest to do an RC sticks calibration, so the RC records the exact center position of the dial, now that you fixed it "mechanically".

Thanks for the info. I did the calibration but the minute you moved the wheel it would be out again because it was physically dragging. It would stick when down right out of the box new but it was just annoying. The problem later grew into the uncommanded roll down of the camera which now became more than just an annoyance.

MacPhantom · Mar 15, 2017

I hear you, I did not want to ship my remote off for a month for a simple fix. I also was concerned that they would just receive mine and then ship me out a "repaired" one that may have come in for something that may or may not have been resolved.

120CCPM · Mar 16, 2017

MacPhantom said:
Thanks for the info. I did the calibration but the minute you moved the wheel it would be out again because it was physically dragging. It would stick when down right out of the box new but it was just annoying. The problem later grew into the uncommanded roll down of the camera which now became more than just an annoyance.

I actually suggested that you do it now that you fixed the binding issue, to make sure the RC records the correct center position. But since you knew about stick calibration, I guess you already did it.

MacPhantom · Mar 16, 2017

120CCPM said:
I actually suggested that you do it now that you fixed the binding issue, to make sure the RC records the correct center position. But since you knew about stick calibration, I guess you already did it.

Good point. I didn't do it again because it doesn't appear to be drifting but you are right I should do it again.