P4 Callibrating Gimbal, Stuck at 5%, 2-3 minutes then Gimbal Overload message, firmware current as of 12/13/18.

[markpovraznik]

After about a year of flying and over 250 flights I finally had an accident where I steered down instead of up and flew into my open garage. Two of the arms of the drones were a little bit buckled up but remarkably when I turned it back on I got all green lights, it thought it could fly. I purchased a new shell and started doing post-crash diagnostics and did not get any error messages as to the system. I then found out that I could purchase an entire brand new Phantom 4 drone minus camera and gimbal for a reasonable price. There was no visible damage to the camera and gimbal.

When the new drone arrived I just installed my existing gimbal and camera with the eight screws provided and began all my activation procedures and linked my Controller. I turned on DJI 4 GO and I then did all my EMU and Compass callibration procedures and was linked to 15 GPS sats and ready to fly. Picture is UP on the display The last thing I did was a gimbal calibration.

And that was and is the problem. I got to 5% on the gimbal calibration and the callibration is stuck at 5%. Stays stuck about 2 or 3 minutes qns then goes Gimbal Overload error message. I shut down and restarted several times and that's where I'm at...it goes to 5% gimbal calibration message and a couple minutes later I get the gimbal overload message. I am at a loss.

There is nothing physically interfering with the movement of the gimbal. I don't know why this is happening or how to fix it. Please help.

 

[PhantomFandom]

Hi,

Have you tried gimbal motion tests without going to gimbal calibration? The gimbal tolerances are incredibly small and any little thing can cause a gimbal overload. Even the gimbal ribbon cable could be binding and not visible to you.

What happens if:

• With the power off you manually move the camera through its full range of motion in all three axes? Do it slow and and try to sense if you feel any slight binding or friction.
• Without props, power on the craft indoors. Does the gimbal overload message appear with it just sitting there?
• Move the camera with your remote from top-most position to bottom-most position and back. Does the gimbal overload message appear, and if so at what point?
• Still with the power on, pick up the drone and manually move it in all three axes. Does the gimbal seem to work properly? Does the overload appear at any point and if so where?

Depending on what you come up with, you may be able to determine if something is binding and at what point. Then you can move on from there.

Also based on your message, can I assume that you were not getting a gimbal overload message with the crashed craft? Did you by chance do a gimbal calibration on the crashed craft? What were the results?

 

[markpovraznik]

Hi,

Have you tried gimbal motion tests without going to gimbal calibration? The gimbal tolerances are incredibly small and any little thing can cause a gimbal overload. Even the gimbal ribbon cable could be binding and not visible to you.

What happens if:

• With the power off you manually move the camera through its full range of motion in all three axes? Do it slow and and try to sense if you feel any slight binding or friction.
• Without props, power on the craft indoors. Does the gimbal overload message appear with it just sitting there?
• Move the camera with your remote from top-most position to bottom-most position and back. Does the gimbal overload message appear, and if so at what point?
• Still with the power on, pick up the drone and manually move it in all three axes. Does the gimbal seem to work properly? Does the overload appear at any point and if so where?

Depending on what you come up with, you may be able to determine if something is binding and at what point. Then you can move on from there.

Also based on your message, can I assume that you were not getting a gimbal overload message with the crashed craft? Did you by chance do a gimbal calibration on the crashed craft? What were the results?

Thank you for your response. As to your questions, I have now done gimbal motion tests without gimbal calibration.

1. When manually moving the camera around with the power off I feel no binding or friction at all when moving the camera around in all three axes.

2. When I power up the Drone and it is just sitting connected to DJI Go 4, all systems power up what's no problems with no gimbal overload message.

3. I moved the camera with my remote from topmost position to buy the most position three times in succession and received no gimbal overload message.

4. I've been picked up to drone with power on and all systems go and while looking at my display move to drone around in all three axes Sirius gimbal overload message does not appear at any point.

I did not run any tests when this Gimbal and Camera were on the crashed drone although I easily could put it back on the I haven't touched the crashed drone yet other than to remove the Gimbal and Camera.

The strange thing is the very last thing I did which is the last on the list if you go in order is to do a gimbal calibration did all the other calibrations first and this was the last one and it gets stuck at 5% and after a couple minutes I got gimbal overload. And now that I have it back on looks as if it is ready to fly and I can actually operate both still camera and video camera so if I don't run the gimbal calibration it appears to be ready to go. I'm going to do a check flight right now. Thanks again and I look forward to your next response

 

[PhantomFandom]

Hi,

Well from all the tests it would seem that you can successfully fly. Worst case is that the gimbal will bind during flight and you won't get any good footage but that won't affect the craft and you'll still be able to safely bring it home.

So it may be either a slight problem in the gimbal (which would become more prominent over time), or possibly even a firmware issue. People have seen all sorts of weird errors based on just firmware. In this case however I would tend to lean towards actual damage because of the crash. If you move it back to your old craft and get the same calibration error at 5% then you know for sure that it is something in the gimbal. You would need to have the same firmware version on both of them though to make an accurate comparison.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[markpovraznik]

Hi,

Have you tried gimbal motion tests without going to gimbal calibration? The gimbal tolerances are incredibly small and any little thing can cause a gimbal overload. Even the gimbal ribbon cable could be binding and not visible to you.

What happens if:

• With the power off you manually move the camera through its full range of motion in all three axes? Do it slow and and try to sense if you feel any slight binding or friction.
• Without props, power on the craft indoors. Does the gimbal overload message appear with it just sitting there?
• Move the camera with your remote from top-most position to bottom-most position and back. Does the gimbal overload message appear, and if so at what point?
• Still with the power on, pick up the drone and manually move it in all three axes. Does the gimbal seem to work properly? Does the overload appear at any point and if so where?

Depending on what you come up with, you may be able to determine if something is binding and at what point. Then you can move on from there.

Also based on your message, can I assume that you were not getting a gimbal overload message with the crashed craft? Did you by chance do a gimbal calibration on the crashed craft? What were the results?

Hi,

Well from all the tests it would seem that you can successfully fly. Worst case is that the gimbal will bind during flight and you won't get any good footage but that won't affect the craft and you'll still be able to safely bring it home.

So it may be either a slight problem in the gimbal (which would become more prominent over time), or possibly even a firmware issue. People have seen all sorts of weird errors based on just firmware. In this case however I would tend to lean towards actual damage because of the crash. If you move it back to your old craft and get the same calibration error at 5% then you know for sure that it is something in the gimbal. You would need to have the same firmware version on both of them though to make an accurate comparison.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[markpovraznik]

Well I just took it up for a flight. This is the first time I've flown the new drone and as far as flying is concerned it's great. As to the Gimbal and Camera though, the camera is not holding steady at all. As soon as I got up in the air the wobble was quite noticeable. It's just not holding steady. This is terrible. I live on Oahu and this is the big surf season on the North Shore and my primary use of my drone is shooting surfing videos.

 

[PhantomFandom]

Ugh, sorry to hear that. I would have been really amazed if the gimbal worked fine after that type of impact because of how sensitive that entire assembly is. Due to the price of that assembly, you would have most likely been better off just replacing the entire craft. Now you've got more money sunk into it so I don't know which way you want to go with it.