"No signal" in app, Gimbal non-responsive, Drone Still flies after rough landing.

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Hey everyone. I was chasing a polar bear a few days ago when the wind picked up almost immediately (God love the ocean) and I could not fly back with the amount of battery I had left. After a while I gave up on trying to fly back and decided to "crash land" on the sea ice. I did it, went home and got my snowmobile and retrieved it. It was upside down and all the props had smashed off. Other than that there was no physical damage.

So I got home and cleaned everything up. I went to power it up but I had a esc error (what a scare). Disappointed I put it away for another two days. When I took it out again, it fired up and flew! But my gimbal is not functioning at all and I get a "No signal" in the app. The light on the gimbal is green so there is indeed power going to it. Another weird thing that happened after the landing was when I turn the drone off, The light on the battery flashes red and the drone takes 5-10 seconds to shut off. What can I do?

Thanks!!
 
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The phone is connected to the drone, However, and all the connections are still good that I can see without major disassembly.
 
No signal when both RC and P3 are on means RC is not connected to P3. There is no connection established yet.

Try to relink using the App and see if you succeed.
 
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Possible "micro tear" in the flexible gimbal cable. Severing the connection to the data needed from the gimbal but allowing the power line to stay in tact. Thats speculation , but closely inspect the flexible ribbon cable that goes to the gimbal. It can also pull loose at its connection points and be at an angle that allows only certain connections.
 
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No signal when both RC and P3 are on means RC is not connected to P3. There is no connection established yet.

Try to relink using the App and see if you succeed.

I can still fly the drone with the remote. The problem is within the drone.
 
No signal, but it flies anyway? Polar bear? Snowmobile on sea ice? Self repairing ESC error? This should be an interesting thread. We're you able to do some ice fishing with the 4 holes the props made in the ice? If so, how big was the fish?

I see that you want to give me a hard time! I was in a hurry so the story did not reach it's potential. The app says "no signal", probably meaning there is no video feed signal. I still have control over everything but the Gimbal which appears to be dead. There was a polar bear, yes. I live on the south coast of Labrador and on my lunch break the bear was spotted so I forfeited my lunch and grabbed the drone to get a few pics. (CBC loves that stuff). Some parts of our bay freeze or pack full of ice and then snow over so that we can go on it. When it freezes it makes a 45 minute drive into a 10 minute ride to a neighbouring community. It's not completely froxen this year but there was enough for a polar bear and my sled. As for the ESC, I've heard a few stories of an "ESC error message" Displayed on the phone, and it working after a while of being put away. So it worked, weird, yes, but it worked nonetheless.

The props definitely made some nice holes there and I was able to haul up a 65ib salmon. Sorry but there are no pics 'cause the polar bear wrestled me for it... And I let him win.
 
It becomes easy for us to analyze your issue if we get more information.

Are you seeing both the signal bars on go app and still getting no signal message ?

Are you able to get telemetry but no video?
 
I see that you want to give me a hard time! I was in a hurry so the story did not reach it's potential. The app says "no signal", probably meaning there is no video feed signal. I still have control over everything but the Gimbal which appears to be dead. There was a polar bear, yes. I live on the south coast of Labrador and on my lunch break the bear was spotted so I forfeited my lunch and grabbed the drone to get a few pics. (CBC loves that stuff). Some parts of our bay freeze or pack full of ice and then snow over so that we can go on it. When it freezes it makes a 45 minute drive into a 10 minute ride to a neighbouring community. It's not completely froxen this year but there was enough for a polar bear and my sled. As for the ESC, I've heard a few stories of an "ESC error message" Displayed on the phone, and it working after a while of being put away. So it worked, weird, yes, but it worked nonetheless.

The props definitely made some nice holes there and I was able to haul up a 65ib salmon. Sorry but there are no pics 'cause the polar bear wrestled me for it... And I let him win.
No one wants to give you hard time. We all work together to solve each other's problems. Some are serious but others are fun loving but all are ready to help, that's why they are here.
 
It becomes easy for us to analyze your issue if we get more information.

Are you seeing both the signal bars on go app and still getting no signal message ?

Are you able to get telemetry but no video?

I am seeing full bars for both.

I am able to get the telemetry as well.
 
Don't worry about it! After re-reading the first paragraph, I can see where it might seem a bit odd of a tale, especially with you being from Florida and all. It is the advanced version.
Thank you!
 
I am seeing full bars for both.

I am able to get the telemetry as well.
This is very useful info. This clearly shows that both the communication channels are working. Something only has gone wrong with your gimbal. As a first step check the grey flat and cables. Are they sitting properly. Next step would be to minutely check those black ribbon cables for any tear or looseness.
 
I suggest you remove the camera & gimbal assembly, and carefully inspect the wiring. Btw, does the gimbal do the "dance" when you power on the bird, after powering on the RC?

I just checked everything and the wiring is not pulled out and seems to be intact. Even the band wire around the gimbal seems to be fine. The gimbal makes a few sounds and has the green light, but it doesn't do the dance and is completely dead.
 
Hard to diagnose any further here then. During the crash, there may have been something fried due to over current, hence the ESC error.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Is it worth taking the shell apart and checking connections inside the drone you think? Is there someone I could call for a bit of help that is experienced with these units? And where is a good place to send it so it doesn't need to all the way back to cali. I am after sending a vision back, this one once before, and I'd rather not go for a third.
 
I've just recently repaired my ripped off gimbal and with the cheap chineese flex cable the gimbal was spinning like crazy, losing video frequently, not working at all, crazy stuff was happening but when i bought genuine dji ribbon cable it was working like from factory. So check flex cable first beacause it's the gimbal you have problems with but don't mind checking inside of craft as well to make sure everything is ok.
 

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