DJI needs more crash resistant gimbals!!!

[Mr G]

WAIT A MINUTE! As someone who has had several broken Mavic Pro gimbal assemblies and cameras as a result of some "moderate" crashes (even small tree limbs, etc), I am really hoping that DJI can make a more heavy duty and perhaps a much more "crash resistant" gimbal/camera assembly on all future models of their otherwise great drones! This would be even more important to me than new whiz-bang features, as none of these aren't much good if you can't fly it or must spend tons of money and time repairing broken parts, etc. My last gimbal repair cost me around $500! And yes, I've even repaired some gimbals myself, but not fun. And enough is enough!

 

[tml4191]

The new Mavic Air's gimbal is sturdier according to this test: DJI Mavic Air crash tests!

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Just what Drone are you flying........If its a P3S......you should have just bought a new one and kept the crashed one for many parts..! actually i find my drone a P3SE very hard to crash !

 

[WayneMHK]

....or perhaps you could learn to not crash.

 

[BigAl07]

....or perhaps you could learn to not crash.

If you fly enough you will most likely crash to some degree eventually. Only Hanger Queens never crash but even those get Hanger Rash. The Old Timers will know exactly what I'm talking about here LOL.

@Mr G crash resistance goes directly against light weight and easy to design/manufacture. Keep in mind our aircraft are designed to be semi-tough but they still have to be light enough to fly and fly longer than 5min at a time.

It's a very tough balancing act and even more so in a cost friendly option like the Phantom series are. Sometimes we can't have our cake and eat it too.

 

[Erised]

Having a more crash resistent gimbal would be nice but the fact that it broke is not because of the build, it's because of the pilot who smacked it. DJI needs better pilots and Ford needs better drivers. Ship happens but the majority of incidents is caused by lack of knowledge, temporary laps in attention or judgment and dept perception...etc (this can and does happend to many of us).

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

The Proper definition of : Crash Is :___________ and ______ and ________ ?

 

[Just_nick]

This makes little-to-no sense. Why would they build a robust design that would increase weight and decrease performance/battery life? Adding weight to the gimbal means you need a bigger motor for each axis, which means you need to place a bigger structure in there. That then means you need to change the design of the airframe so that you can support the added weight. This means you have to either reduce battery life or increase motor size and battery size to compensate. Now you have a huge drone with a huge battery. And, guess what? It'll probably still break, because now you have a larger mass hitting the ground. Part of the reason the Air, and smaller drones, are so durable is because they have less mass to them.

Crashing should be a rare event, not one that is common enough that you should be complaining about how durable the gimbal is. There are gimbal guards you can purchase if you feel there are issues, otherwise you need to learn to fly properly and accept that there is some risk to flying, but it is fairly low.

 

[N017RW]

WAIT A MINUTE! As someone who has had several broken gimbal assemblies and cameras as a result of some "moderate" crashes (even small tree limbs, etc), I am really hoping that DJI can make a more heavy duty and perhaps a much more "crash resistant" gimbal/camera assembly on all future models of their otherwise great drones! This would be even more important to me than new whiz-bang features, as none of these aren't much good if you can't fly it or must spend tons of money and time repairing broken parts, etc. My last gimbal repair cost me around $500! And yes, I've even repaired some gimbals myself, but not fun. And enough is enough!

I understand your frustration. And yes these are expensive toys.
But crashing is the nature of r/c aircraft. So are re-bulids, repairs, and in-the-field fixes to salvage a trip to the flying field. No one went without 5min epoxy and superglue in their kits.

As was eluded too by BigAl, the majority of DJI drone owners have no past r/c aviation experience. Thus they expect flawless operation and unrealistic durability/reliability.
There's a great deal of mechanical/physical stress which does not scale-down. On top of that they are so reliant on embedded processing to take most of the work away from you.

The designers are constantly battling weight, cost, size, materials, and such and have done a great job evident by DJI's success.

You'll get better but even then you'll have incidents. This is why it is important to mentally prepare that your next flight could be your last.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Many might laugh..about it....But i know several older drone owners that like me that also here on this site that have openly admitted it...... That they also started out with a "Toy Drone".....no auto take off No auto land No GPS.....No decent camera....only a five or less minutes flight time !. i had 9 batterys LOL......I flew that toy for near nine months and gained a whole lots of flying a drone experience ....when the day came that i purchased a P3 SE.....i had prior flight experience and after all when you take private flight training they never put you in a Lear jet first Do they LOL.....You take lessons in a mild ever day type of aircraft...and not a Stearman PT-17 LOL Of in all the nine months...Believe it or NOT....the only >>>"crashes" <<< i had flyn the toy drone was what i had to do to get it to the sides of the country road i live on because of a on coming car.......and i took the toy to the side and flat dropped it ASAP....a controlled crash from 10 to 20 feet up by pulling the power all the back in a instant... and LOL it never EVER messed it Up....cause it was a cheep FUN Drone toy that cost $54.00 ! You can't pull the power back on a Phantom drone at 10 to 20 feet UP and Not expect damage to the landing gear..props.."gimball" and whole craft !..The Phantom IS a very High tech drone and its "power to weight ratio" Is super tuned too ! --------> Drone Onnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Yall >
What a great post NO17RW.......Thank you.

I can almost imagine a new drone owner Thinks he or she has flew a few times and is Not wanting to be in "beginner mode" no more..he or she takes it out of beginner mode ! Then we all hear about a terrible C r A s H and see pictures that are sad of all the pieces in a pile and they wonder what caused that .

 

[FlashBuddy]

Yup, a gimbal arm that flexes instead of snapping off. Epoxy carbon fiber? Ribbon cables that unplug instead if ripping in two. Then instead of having to buy a whole new camera/gimbal, I could just buy the part that actually broke. Or better yet, just clip it back on and plug it in. That is if I were to crash - But I never do of course.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

WAIT A MINUTE! As someone who has had several broken gimbal assemblies and cameras as a result of some "moderate" crashes (even small tree limbs, etc), I am really hoping that DJI can make a more heavy duty and perhaps a much more "crash resistant" gimbal/camera assembly on all future models of their otherwise great drones! This would be even more important to me than new whiz-bang features, as none of these aren't much good if you can't fly it or must spend tons of money and time repairing broken parts, etc. My last gimbal repair cost me around $500! And yes, I've even repaired some gimbals myself, but not fun. And enough is enough!

My last gimbal repair cost me around $500! you say !.... well You can buy a brand new P3 Standard for what you repaired the "gimbal" for !

 

[Neon Euc]

You could also purchase this for a bit more of a safety net

It clips onto the camera itself and then clips on to the bit where you stick the SD card in on the P3A (no idea what that bit is called)

 

[FlashBuddy]

I have my DroneFly receipt right here in front of me.

Repair Service: 149.00
Phantom 4 Pro Gimbal Camera: $699.00
Phantom 4 Pro Shell: 70.00
Propeller Mounting Plate CE + CCW: 9.00
Total: 927.00

What could I have gotten for that?