Gimbal shake

jisajavier · Aug 10, 2018

Hello, this is my first post and english is not my native language, so I'm sorry if im not very clear.
I'm kinda desperate since this issue is appearing in almost every flight making many of my recordings useless.

This issue happened to me before but it wasn't frequent, nowdays it happens at least once in every flight, the problem the image is shaky, specially noticeable in the borders of the screen.

The example clips I posted are when flying backwards, but I've also experienced this problem when flying forwards (but its not even near as frequent).

There was little to no wind when I recorded this.

What I have tried to solve this problem:

Downgrade to previous version via DJI Assistant 2.
Upgrade to the lastest version.
Calibrate IMU.
Calibrate compass.
Calibrate gimbal.

I did all these calibrations with no success, the shaking just doesn't go away.

Is this a firmware problem? Or does it look like my gimbal hardware got broken somehow? What else can I try to fix it?

gastone360 · Aug 28, 2018

the shaking is visible at strartup on the floor or just in the air? For the second I suggest a good nd filter

Phil Tuggle · Aug 29, 2018

I started having exactly the same behavior today.

One possible clue(?) is that the camera position did NOT activate at startup; that is, the camera itself turned on but the gimbal did not activate at all. It stayed relaxed. The relaxed gimbal was back to normal when I shut down and then re energized the battery. Great, but then I saw the shakiness. Neither of these behaviors has ever happened before.

My shakiness is identical to that shown above by the OP. I've never had any accidents or mishaps, but could it be the ribbon connector??? How do I check the ribbon, which otherwise looks fine?

Following this thread for sure!
Phantom 3 Advanced (I know this is P4 thread, but the behavior is the same)

Kev727 · Sep 2, 2018

To confirm your statement, yes the behavior is the same on the P4P, I am experiencing the same behavior, and not sure what to do at this point either. IMU, Compass and Gimbel calibrations are no help! No mishaps and no crashes...this behavior appeared suddenly with no apparent reason.

Phil Tuggle · Sep 2, 2018

Kev727 said:
To confirm your statement, yes the behavior is the same on the P4P, I am experiencing the same behavior, and not sure what to do at this point either....

Wow - FIXED IT! You'd never believe it, but (and I found this hinted on YouTube somewhere - sorry no link) all you need to do is remove any dirt and dust. Even if it doesn't look at all dirty, do the following:

Remove the battery and flip the quad over on a tabletop in front of you;
the unpowered gimbal assembly will of course be very relaxed, so make sure the yaw swivel arm is free and touches no stationary part through its range of motion. Blow it off really well using anything except a powerful blower (of course, since it is delicate);

(Note: Make sure the yaw arm does not ride up and down on its shaft. Tighten the tiny allen screw if needed. If lose, that could be your root cause rather than just dirt and dust)

Now make sure the other two axis joints are clean as well - gently dry wipe or dry brush then blow off again;
IMPORTANT: Now, gently run all joints of the unpowered gimbal through their entire designed range of motion a few times - blow off again.

I know the above task is not technical and almost too simple. But guess what - it works. At least it did for me. Not firmware. Not the app. Not the compass. Not the GPS. Just dust you probably cannot even see (mine looked pretty clean to me...but must not have been).