Has anyone else made this strange mistake?

[THECaptainKirk]

I got my new P4A yesterday and after all of the firmware updates and a little bit of uncooperative weather here in Denver today I just completed its inaugural flight. I was so excited and I had a little bit of an audience which was a little bit anxiety inducing - especially once I realize that the quad that had the firmware update but I had not updated the firmware on the remote so they all got to sit there and stare at me while that went through its paces. Anyway I get it up in the air and I can't control the gamble at all and I don't know why.... until I landed and looked at it. The padded soft styrofoam - kind of a soft rubbery stabilizer that fits behind the gimble, well - I missed it and failed to remove it. DJI seemed to go out of their way to make that piece of shipping foam almost the same exact color of the gimbal itself. There was a tiny little red sticker on there with an "!" saying in tiny print to remove before flight. But it was easy to miss it and I did. I wish DJI would make it stand out so you know it shouldn't be there. But, I also shouldn't have launched without testing my gimble movements first. Just thought I'd share my dumb mistake in an effort to prevent anyone else from doing the same thing. You know, the good ole "if it saves just one child" concept. [emoji38]

It's been pouring rain ever since I landed and I its about to clear up I hope everything works as it should. I'll report back. Any suggestions or advice I'm all ears.

 

[alokbhargava]

Don't get influenced by the audience, have your patience take your time. It's your drone and you got to take care of it.

 

[THECaptainKirk]

I appreciate the plethora of advice relating to the camera gimble. [emoji53]

I took it out for a 2nd flight and everything was fine - no gimble damage. And my audience for flight number two (which broke records in the area) - somewhere around 1,000 people were all cheering for me as I clearly demonstrated it was my drone and I just took care of it. I flew the $h** out of it, too. Makes my old P3A seem like a model A compared to a high tech current model Mustang GT500. It gives me great confidence and personally, I feel less limited by the lack of side and rear sensors. I'm going to enjoy this new model and I look forward to getting some epic aerials soon. But don't worry. I never let my audience influence me. I have total mind control over them and my loyal base of screaming fans grows with every whirl of my Phantom's blades. [emoji6]

 

[stones]

I appreciate the plethora of advice relating to the camera gimble. [emoji53]
....

I'm guessing you're disappointed by the lack of responses but, after re-reading your entire post, I don't believe I saw an actual question pertaining to the gimbal. Not sure what you're looking for.

 

[With The Birds]

I'm guessing you're disappointed by the lack of responses but, after re-reading your entire post, I don't believe I saw an actual question pertaining to the gimbal. Not sure what you're looking for.

He wanted to know if anyone else had made the same stupid mistake of leaving the transport foam on the gimble yaw arm, apparently. I was gonna respond and say yes but didn't want to offend anyone.

 

[Goof]

Stupid mistake number 2 was updating the firmware in the field, in front of 1,000 people no less.... Firmware updates are something you need to do at home, in controlled conditions where you can verify the craft behaves as expected. Run through the entire suite of settings and verify they are correct, wait for the craft to cool and do a cold IMU, compass and gimbal calibration. Insert a full battery and run it flat while testing every function still works as it did before the update.

 

[NoCoDrones]

Hey @THECaptainKirk, what ever are you doing where you have one thousand people cheering for you? I’m in Fort Collins, it might be worth the drive to come watch your show?!

 

[DaveP4Pilot]

You aren't alone in forgetting to remove the gimble guards. I removed the foam and decide not to use it for that reason and I figure the plastic guard will do the job. I did forget the plastic guard once and powered on but noticed it quickly and powered off with no damage. After that, I tied a red streamer to the guard so it would not go unnoticed so easily again. I see there other similar streamers for sale on the internet for that reason. I think the only time I will use the foam piece would be for shipping purposes.

 

[JWH]

To answer the original question, YES! I have done that. I was worried about damage, but it has been fine for many flights since then.

 

[Deleted member 68677]

1000 people cheering you on.. let me check the BS meter, yep just as I thought all the way in the red.

 

[Mike in Louisiana]

The padded soft styrofoam - kind of a soft rubbery stabilizer that fits behind the gimble, well - I missed it and failed to remove it. DJI seemed to go out of their way to make that piece of shipping foam almost the same exact color of the gimbal itself.

Just take a magic marker and change the color to what you would be more likely to see. And yes i am a member of the forget the foam club, but i am 75 so i have a excuse. LOL

 

[DroneVisionSA]

1000 people cheering you on.. let me check the BS meter, yep just as I thought all the way in the red.

A 1000 people? Are you the Pope perhaps?

 

[DroneVisionSA]

A 1000 people? Are you the Pope perhaps

 

[DroneGuyEd]

More than a few of us have missed the small foam part...

It's also good to keep the gimbal lock around, as its handy for transport in cars to keep all stable in that area.

 

[BCBasher]

I glued a piece if orange flagging tape hanging off min like those "remove before flight" orange covers the put on sensitive parts of real aircraft while parked. looks great sitting on my desk unused but if I ever go anywhere I won't forget it's on...

 

[Goof]

You can buy those, at least in Aus: Remove Before Flight Reminder Keychain for UAV Drones - Rise Above Drones, Australia Take the keyring part off and glue the tag to the foam

I'm sure you could get them in the states somewhere...

 

[ussvertigo]

Done it more than once, tied the DJI prop bag to it so no missing it. Talk about crowd anxiety, couple of years ago, at a park on weekend full of families, once I pulled my P2 out the kids were all over me. Took off to film a small river behind a dam 30' in front of me and immediately hit a limb on other side and into the water. I had to race around the dam to other side and go into chest high water to find with feet. Told kids that's how I video fish underwater and then got the hell out of there(on top of this, I had forgot to bring an sd card). Had to replace gopro and batteries only

 

[John Tarvin]

Just take a magic marker and change the color to what you would be more likely to see. And yes i am a member of the forget the foam club, but i am 75 so i have a excuse. LOL

Yippee! Another old f*rt that flies! But then, I'm only 73. I did that foam thing once, but the bubbles in the bathtub overflowed onto the linoleum. Haven't done it since. Safe landings and eat some crawfish for me.

 

[Ing Zimmerman]

I'm guessing you're disappointed by the lack of responses but, after re-reading your entire post, I don't believe I saw an actual question pertaining to the gimbal. Not sure what you're looking for.

Hey Stones. I had the same problem, even more so, it took me about 6 flights to find that Styrofoam thing. Never had any message until I updated the firmware (drone) yesterday and received numerous errors message of the type "gimbal overload". Then I had a close look at the gimbal an remove that piece of protection. Now at start up I am getting a new noise from the gimbal. I was wandering if I can go back to previous firmware version and then re-update, could fix that noise? I did get the error messages after an update so maybe re-updating it could fix it.
So here is a question for you.

Ing.

 

[smiller]

The gimbal is moved by current applied to a coil which causes a magnet attached to the gimbal bearing to move, moving the gimbal. If the gimbal is restricted from moving excessive current will be drawn by the coil which causes the "gimbal overload" message. Unless the additional current is sufficient to heat the coil to the point that damage occurs (extremely unlikely or impossible in this application) no permanent damage will be done. So bottom line, in all likelihood you have done no harm. The noise you hear may just be part of the startup calibration routine that you never heard before, simply because the gimbal was restricted.