H3-3D has gone completely insane

[Nath]

I have a P2 / H3-3D, so far it's been great. I had one quite nasty crash a few months ago which damaged the gimbal, so sent it to Heliguy (authorised service center) and had it repaired.

All was well until I tried to fly yesterday. Everything was fine through startup / warmup / GPS linking, but once in the air I noticed jerky camera movement and brought it down.

Every subsequent startup, the H3-3D is constantly jerking around within the 'yaw' axis. When I pick up the phantom and manually rotate/yaw, the gimbal gets really excited and makes a fun grinding noise while the metal motor at the top (connected to the phantom body) spins wildly. I've uploaded some video of the symptoms at

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- grinding and motor spinning from 0'02"-0'06".

As I mentioned, following the gimbal repair things seemed fine - on my last flight there was no problem. Then, yesterday, spontaneously, this started happening.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

[jason]

I have a P2 / H3-3D, so far it's been great. I had one quite nasty crash a few months ago which damaged the gimbal, so sent it to Heliguy (authorised service center) and had it repaired.

All was well until I tried to fly yesterday. Everything was fine through startup / warmup / GPS linking, but once in the air I noticed jerky camera movement and brought it down.

Every subsequent startup, the H3-3D is constantly jerking around within the 'yaw' axis. When I pick up the phantom and manually rotate/yaw, the gimbal gets really excited and makes a fun grinding noise while the metal motor at the top (connected to the phantom body) spins wildly. I've uploaded some video of the symptoms at

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- grinding and motor spinning from 0'02"-0'06".

As I mentioned, following the gimbal repair things seemed fine - on my last flight there was no problem. Then, yesterday, spontaneously, this started happening.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

Try to do a factory reset then calibrate the X1 in both RC and the P2 software and see if that doesn't take care of the problem. Do not forget to mount the GP before you calibrate.

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[Nath]

Thanks for the advice.

I've reset the gimbal... seems to have bricked it. Now it's just flopping about, and there's no option to re-install software / firmware in the P2 Assistant since the H3-3D doesn't show up in the Tools page any more.

I guess a dead gimbal is no worse than a crazy grinding gimbal! Any ideas on bringing it back to life?

 

[Marlin009]

I would try it again. Mine was at the point yours is now after a firmware update - unresponsive and no longer showing up in the assistant. Couldn't hurt at this point.

 

[Nath]

Thanks - I got it back to life! The trick seems to be NOT to switch the Phantom off after resetting the gimbal, but plug straight into the Assistant software (in case that little nugget is of use to anyone else down the line).

However, the problem persists. Here's another fun video following the reset / firmware upgrade.

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At this stage I guess it means another trip to the service center. Since the gimbal was only repaired four months ago I'm hoping it might still be under warranty. What a mess.

 

[jason]

Thanks - I got it back to life! The trick seems to be NOT to switch the Phantom off after resetting the gimbal, but plug straight into the Assistant software (in case that little nugget is of use to anyone else down the line).

However, the problem persists. Here's another fun video following the reset / firmware upgrade.

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At this stage I guess it means another trip to the service center. Since the gimbal was only repaired four months ago I'm hoping it might still be under warranty. What a mess.

Try a factory reset and see if that will correct your problem.

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[Nath]

Thanks Jason, I've done that.

 

[jason]

Thanks Jason, I've done that.

Did it work?

I also noticed that you used all the plastic pins on the gimbal you were only supposed to use two. When looking at the gimbal 1 pin in the left damper and the other in the right rear damper. Most of us just use loose zip ties instead the purpose of either zip ties or the pins is to keep the gimbal from completely coming apart in case of a hard landing but since it's so close to the ground to begin with ther will be damage.

 

[Nath]

No - didn't work unfortunately.
Thanks for the tip re the plastic pins. I bought the whole system pre-assembled from FlyBys.co.uk so that's how I received it.
I agree with you about the gimbal / camera being practically at ground level - is there an alternative landing gear I could use which will provide more clearance?

 

[jason]

No - didn't work unfortunately.
Thanks for the tip re the plastic pins. I bought the whole system pre-assembled from FlyBys.co.uk so that's how I received it.
I agree with you about the gimbal / camera being practically at ground level - is there an alternative landing gear I could use which will provide more clearance?

You can either buy longer landing gear or get snap on extensions. I use extensions myself as having longer gear would allow me to store it in my case. There's a company in the UK that sells 3D printed components called Rave but here in the US I use Shapeways but these got off ebay
.

 

[johnnyu]

gimble cal?

 

[jason]

No - didn't work unfortunately.
Thanks for the tip re the plastic pins. I bought the whole system pre-assembled from FlyBys.co.uk so that's how I received it.
I agree with you about the gimbal / camera being practically at ground level - is there an alternative landing gear I could use which will provide more clearance?

Nath check this set screw and make sure it is tight. With the camera turned to the extreme left you'll be able to see the set screw.

 

[johnnyu]

there is an extended landing system on the market. google it up.