dead gimbal

[Tyger Schnabes]

I was having trouble with the camera and my gimbal was dead. I could see it through the app but I could not move the camera up or down. It simply just did not move. I got an initial green and then a constant amber or orange light on the camera. I could fly but no gimbal. I tried everything. Updates and all of that BS. I had the camera apart and there was no heat damage on the circuit boards. I am not a dumb person, but what the problem was, makes me feel dumb as a rock. I hope this helps some people. Before buying a new camera to solve your problem, check the wire connector from the Phantom to the camera. After close examination, I noticed that one pins in the connector was not sliding into the harness properly. I used a magnifier to get a better look and sure enough, it was sliding above the harness and not connecting. The harness snapped into place correctly but that one male pin was above the female on the harness. What a dork. I used a stick pin to correct the malformation of the plastic on the harness and it was game over. Problem solved. It works like a champ.
I hope this helps. It also explains why you get the overheating error messages when updating. The fan was not running in the camera. Duh! The harness they use is of poor quality. Lesson learned here is to never give up. This bothered me for months.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Thanks for the post.

What wire that connects from the Phantom (i.e. Vision) to the camera? Do you mean from the Phantom to the gimbal? I think that's what you mean.

My gimbal stopped working a while back and it was because the harness that leads to the gimbal was slightly damaged, apparently due to the crash I endured on the maiden launch because of a bad battery. I was able to repair it fairly easily.

You also mentioned a fan in the camera. What fan? I have been inside my camera 3x and never seen a fan. I believe it cools itself with airflow from flying forward.

But there's something about this that I still don't understand and nobody has explained it. I posted about this once before:

The camera and its wifi capability appears to be completely independent of the phantom itself. Both the wifi module and the wifi antennas are in the camera. The only thing that connects the camera to the phantom is the power cord. That's it!

The gimbal, however, is controlled by the harness that leads from the Phantom. The gimbal is also independent of the camera. The gear turns and the camera will move, but the gear is obviously controlled from the bird since there is no wire connection between the camera and the bird or between the camera and the gimbal.

So if that's true, how is it possible that moving your finger on your monitor's screen will cause the gimbal to move and thereby make the camera move?

I don't get it.