Need help troubleshooting my gimbal on a Phantom 3 Professional

yurezplace · Apr 14, 2016

A couple of weeks ago I crashed my drone into some branches in a tree and it fell down about 3 meters but got slowed downed by some branches. The fall was not hard at all but bent one of the arms on my gimbal. The arm is now replaced by me yesterday but the gimbal is still not working. When I turn on the drone and have the gimbal disconnected, the drone can fly without a problem, so this is only a gimbal problem. There are two cables connecting the gimbal and both two of those are changed too but I still have the same problem. The LED light on the front of the gimbal is flashing green and only green. I have not waited until the aircraft is warmed up to check if the light is changing, but I can do that if it helps.

When I turn on the drone I can clearly hear the normal beep sound and the drone is starting. The gimbal arm however is completely dead and is not responding to anything, not even the startup check. I'm wondering if the black ribbon cable is damaged but I don't want to buy a new cable if that is not the working solution. There is no visible damage on the cable what I can see either.

Do you guys have any troubleshooting tips for me regarding my issue? That would be really great!
Thanks

Bailey5 · Apr 14, 2016

Was it still working after the crash the camera if not then I would replace it with a new dji manufactured ribbon cable only.

yurezplace · Apr 14, 2016

Immediately after the crash, the gimbal flipped from side to side and was completely dead after I tried to start it later. Do you think that a ribbon cable is the fix? The DJI App says, "gimbal disconnected". I forgot to mention that before.

Bailey5 · Apr 14, 2016

Yup sounds like u need to replace the ribbon cable make sure u buy original dji brand ones. The others will not work

yurezplace · Apr 14, 2016

Bailey5 said:
Yup sounds like u need to replace the ribbon cable make sure u buy original dji brand ones. The others will not work

May I ask why cheaper ones wont work? I have one here that costs 1/8th of the cost from dji.com
Flexible Gimbal Flat Ribbon Flex Cable Part 49 For DJI Phantom 3 New F5

Bailey5 · Apr 14, 2016

Let's just say u get what u pay for. There really junk. Many people on the forum tried them and there just a waste of money and time and effort. Dji website sells them for 35$ but u can check out eBay u probably get it quicker. That's why alotta people buy original Dji ribbon cables it just works

yurezplace · Apr 14, 2016

I have now purchased a Ribbon Cable from F/STOP Labs. This was half the price compared to dji original but still good quality what I have heard.
Link to product: DJI Phantom 3 Ribbon Cable (Pro/Adv/4K)

Bailey5 · Apr 14, 2016

Good luck update us how it goes

yurezplace · Apr 14, 2016

Bailey5 said:
Good luck update us how it goes

Absolutely, I will do that. I will receive this in about 2 weeks since I live in Sweden. Thank you for helping me!

Bailey5 · Apr 14, 2016

No problem

yurezplace · May 8, 2016

Hello.
Sorry for the late answer but I have some progress video and some more questions.
The new Ribboncable that I bought from FSTOP-LABS is working really good. The old cable that I had was broken and I can now see a really shaky picture from the camera (More on that in a bit).

The problem that I have now is that I think that the "pitch" motor of the gimbal is broken. (Overloaded)
I have made a small video with quite horrible sound (sorry about that) that shows the problem.

Do you think that it's only the pitch motor that is broken since that is the only motor that gets REALLY hot only after 30 seconds.

Here is a picture of the correct terms for the motors.

Screen_Shot_2016-03-21_at_1.28.49_PM_82dc44de-6b8e-45ee-9202-f37b15184131_1024x1024.png

Please help me out so I can buy the correct parts.
Thank you!

Bailey5 · May 8, 2016

Undo the camera area and turn the rod 180 degrees and put it back together

yurezplace · May 8, 2016

Do you think that it is that easy? The camera is trying to rotate backwards I think... I will try that. Is there a rotation marker somewhere?

Bailey5 · May 8, 2016

It's a simple release the screw and rotate the shift and screw it back and u should be good it happens many people get it wrong the first shot

mdowney58 · May 8, 2016

I was one who got mine backwards, and mine acted exactly like that.

Bailey5 said:
It's a simple release the screw and rotate the shift and screw it back and u should be good it happens many people get it wrong the first shot

I was not able to get the screw out so easy though. The ribbon cable was in the way, and I had to remove the ribbon cable all the way up to the top, and start over.
Which direction does the screw go IN from, front or back?

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Bailey5 · May 9, 2016

It doesn't matter it can go in either or

mdowney58 · May 9, 2016

Bailey5 said:
It doesn't matter it can go in either or

While I agree that it "will work" when put in from either the front or the back, the camera side (female) where the screw is placed, has a round hole.
The shaft (male) is D shaped when looking at it from the end. So we have a D shaped peg, in a round hole.
Logic tells me that the screw should enter on the side (front or back) that is opposite the flat side of the motor shaft.
That being said, mine enters on the same side as the flat side of the shaft.
I had not paid attention close enough when removing the screw, and when it came time to reassemble, I watched a couple youtube videos and placed it the way they did.
Aftwards, I wished I had done it the other way.

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yurezplace · May 9, 2016

Thanks for all the answers. I haven't rotated the camera 180 degrees yet but I will try that in some near day. I have a lot of work to do at the office for the moment.