Intermittent camera failure

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For about the last week, I have been having intermittent camera failures with my P3P. The camera will be fine when I take off but then I get intermittent image freezes and finally a black screen with the DJI logo. It isn't an out-of-range problem because the bird doesn't even need to be in the air. It can be right next to the remote.

Video is not saved to the SD card when the failures occur so that led me to believe the problem was somewhere between the camera and the SD card. But then I tried using the editor function of the DJI go app to access the SD card and I got the message "Cannot access the SD card. Camera disconnected."

The aircraft still flies correctly when there are camera problems and the GPS functionality works correctly. The green LED on the gimbal remains lit.

Does anyone have suggestions of how I can diagnose the problem? I'm not sure if it is likely to be the black ribbon cable, the multi-connector cable that attaches the gimbal to the body, or something else. Or am I better off forgetting DIY and shipping it to DJI for repair? How bad have their turn-arounds on repairs been lately?

Thanks!

Joe
 
Check that the grey ribbon cables coming from the body of the Phantom to the top of the gimbal are firmly seated in position.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I verified that the white ribbon cable was firmly seated to the top of the gimbal but problems continue.

Whatever is going wrong appears to be getting worse. Now I get a variety of symptoms. Sometimes the led on the gimbal alternates red and green but there is no beeping like during a firmware update. Sometimes the gimbal led rapidly flashes green for about 10 seconds then goes out for a couple seconds then back to the rapid green. Sometimes the DJI Go app gives me a gimbal disconnected message. Sometimes it says the gimbal status is normal. Sometimes I have video. Most of the time I don't. Occasionally the camera just hangs down, most of the time it behaves normally. What could be going on? Am I going to have to send it to DJI for repair?

Thanks.

Joe
 
Sorry..no further suggestions. The only thing I would point out is that there are 2 ribbon cables connected to the gimbal...in your post you say you checked "the" cable. I'm probably stating the obvious, but just in case you missed one!
 
Sorry..no further suggestions. The only thing I would point out is that there are 2 ribbon cables connected to the gimbal...in your post you say you checked "the" cable. I'm probably stating the obvious, but just in case you missed one!

Thanks. Not so obvious at all - I had missed the second cable. Sadly, I just now checked both ends of that one and my problem remains. :(
 
Thanks. Not so obvious at all - I had missed the second cable. Sadly, I just now checked both ends of that one and my problem remains. :(
If you are referring to the black ribbon cable, there is more to it than 2 ends.

There's multiple connections (4 on the pro?), plus it may be damaged somewhere along it's run.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
If you are referring to the black ribbon cable, there is more to it than 2 ends.

There's multiple connections (4 on the pro?), plus it may be damaged somewhere along it's run.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Thanks, no that is where I started. He was just pointing out that in addition to the black ribbon cable, I should check both of the white cables.

With two white ribbon cables and the black ribbon cable, how does one isolate where the problem is?

Thanks.

Joe
 
Thanks, no that is where I started. He was just pointing out that in addition to the black ribbon cable, I should check both of the white cables.

With two white ribbon cables and the black ribbon cable, how does one isolate where the problem is?

Thanks.

Joe
I gotcha. Sorry though. It is a bigger problem than I can help with.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 

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