P4P+ Gimbal drift

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Hi Everyone,

I could use a little help.
I recently purchased a pre-owned pahntom 4 pro +.
the bird is flawless, except 1 problem.

I notice when the unit initializes, the camera is perfect dead on the horizon. after about 5 seconds, it drifts down a bit. no matter what i do this happens. indoors, outdoors, calibrate compass and IMU (as some suggested on youtube). im at a loss. the camera is facing perfectly straight, and not canted to the left or right. it is strictly the horizon drift down.

Im at a loss.
the 1st photo is after start up. the 2nd is after about 5 seconds after initialization

Thanks for any info.
IMG_7859.jpg
IMG_7860.jpg
 
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,okay,
one more thing i should add.
when it turns on and initializes, the camera aims up (as normal), then aims down, but goes past the normal 180 degree mark, then returns to normal even horizon mark. after a few seconds, the camera shifts quickly to the left, then droops down, returns to the center while still drooped down, and comes back up "slightly", but no where near where it should be.
 
Here are videos. I have no idea what to look for. Has anyone seen this before?

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Not an answer to your problem but if works every other way I wouldn’t sweat it; unless of course it constantly sags while filming a video... that would be problematic.

I overlook a couple issues my P4P + has... like I always take 2 pics of the first pic after turning on. The 1st is usually wayyyy over exposed.
 
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Not an answer to your problem but if works every other way I wouldn’t sweat it; unless of course it constantly sags while filming a video... that would be problematic.

I overlook a couple issues my P4P + has... like I always take 2 pics of the first pic after turning on. The 1st is usually wayyyy over exposed.

Unfortunately, it sags all the time. (As funny as that sounds)’
I had an idea, and swapped the working gimbal assy from my other phantom to this one. And “lo and behold”, problem solved (for one P4P at least). So I started to swap parts (pitch motor, control board, etc.). After 2 hours and a still erratic gimbal, I bought a used “guaranteed to work or return” gimbal from eBay for a few hundred bucks. If it works, I’m still way ahead of the game, and have 2 perfect drones. At least I know where the problem lies.
 
Hi Everyone,

I could use a little help.
I recently purchased a pre-owned pahntom 4 pro +.
the bird is flawless, except 1 problem.

I notice when the unit initializes, the camera is perfect dead on the horizon. after about 5 seconds, it drifts down a bit. no matter what i do this happens. indoors, outdoors, calibrate compass and IMU (as some suggested on youtube). im at a loss. the camera is facing perfectly straight, and not canted to the left or right. it is strictly the horizon drift down.

Im at a loss.
the 1st photo is after start up. the 2nd is after about 5 seconds after initialization

Thanks for any info.View attachment 116833View attachment 116834


Hello Vincent,

I have or should I say, HAD (hopefully) this problem until last night. It's a bit of a story so bear with me please.

I exchanged my previous drone (a Mavic) with a P4P+ that I had the chance of testing it thoroughly before getting it.
The drone was owned by a guy that was extremely careful with it physically and, being aware of such problems with the gimbal, I looked especially for that. The drone was fine while testing outdoors, turning it on and off many times. No drifting, no tilting, no weird noises (we were outdoors but on a field, far from civilization). Anyway. The drone behaved perfectly.

The guy told me he never updated his drone's firmware. Neither his controller's. I didn't ask why...

I got home, I connected the drone to my laptop, turned on DJI Assistant for Phantom and I saw he had a 1.03.xxxx (can't remember exactly) firmware version. I immediately updated to 1.05.300 then 600. These were the only versions appearing to me and I thought I had to put both of them, in order... Most probably it wasn't the case.

After the .600, the drone started to do this gimbal crap, identical to what's going on with yours.
If I wouldn't have checked it thoroughly with the old firmware, I would have said that the gimbal is broken, as many said in such situations (and maybe, in some of them, IT WAS broken, I dunno).
So I wanted to rollback/downgrade. DJI Assistant doesn't allow me to go back further than .300.
I went to Download-nolimitdronez.com and downloaded the NLD client. NOTE: the only reason I did this was because I knew their database had older firmware. Under no circumstance meddle with the settings and limits set in the drone or crack/patch the firmware.

I rolled back to 1.03.509 or the previous firmware version I think and the gimbal stuff stopped! Then I updated to each firmware after the one I just installed that the NLD software had in the Firmware Manager section, to see where it all starts to happen. It started at 1.04.602 I think.

Risking to make this an entire novel, I will shorten it to what I think helped, after 4 hours of experiments and going well into the night and being tired AF:

Pre-requisites - have your drone and your controller fully charged before all this, as it can take a while.
A:
1. Update the drone to 1.05.600 - latest! (it is my assumption that the firmware is NOT the culprit); if you already have this firmware, redo the update process;
2. Go here: DJI Phantom 4 Pro – Specs, Tutorials & Guides – DJI, scroll down to Firmware and download the "Phantom 4 Pro+ Remote Controller Firmware v01.04.01.00 "; unzip the archive and you should have a big-a** .bin file (1.61 GB or so);
3. Copy that file (GL300E_v1410_20180412.bin) unto a microSD card and place it in your Controller.
4. Activate the Wi-Fi on the controller, connect it to a local network and update the DJI Go4 App to the latest version;
5. Now the firmware. Go to Settings (the gear wheel on the welcome screen where it says at some point GO FLY), go to Update down the list and in the top right corner you have three dots.
6. Tap that and select "Local Update" - the app should detect the .bin firmware file you just copied on the microSD card and should tell you that you can update the firmware; the following steps should be easy and the controller will restart, install the firmware, then restart again.

B:
1. Restart your drone and your controller and check out if they are connected and the video feed is OK (sometimes it happens for it to be lost - if that happens, I found a solution online); IGNORE THE GIMBAL STUFF if it still happens at this point;
2. Do an IMU calibration of the drone on a VERY flat surface. I suggest this link but you can find others too: DroneZon
3. Do an Auto Gimbal calibration - it may get stuck at 50% like it did with me; just restart the drone (and the controller if necessary) and do it again, at some point it will work;
4. Do a Compass calibration somewhere outside, at least 10 meters (30 feet) from any cables, routers etc, anything that can mess it up badly;
5. Put the drone down, restart it and check the gimbal.

I did all this (plus a lot of downgrades and upgrades of drone firmware) and I believe this is the recipe that worked for me to stop that annoying gimbal drift.
It all works ok now after 2-3 drone restarts. The drift appears to be gone.
I will test it today, outside, to check the video while flying and will come back with updates.
I know you did a lot of similar things, if not all of these, but the order in which they are done might have a huge impact on the result.

Hope this helps. If you need anything, just ask here or PM me. But we should talk here as our discussion might help others too.

TL;DR - I don't think it is a hardware problem, rather a software problem that hasn't been fixed yet. My eyeopener was the fact that at the beginning, before all the firmware updates, the drone WORKED PERFECTLY. I will be back after my test drive today.

Cheers.
 
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Hello Vincent,

I have or should I say, HAD (hopefully) this problem until last night. It's a bit of a story so bear with me please.

I exchanged my previous drone (a Mavic) with a P4P+ ........................Cheers.
What a total Pain in the ***. Your persistence seemed to have paid off. Would think others with this issue would appreciate your work and the detailed posting of the resolution.
 
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That is some awesome stuff. I am very happy that you found a fix. Unfortunately I bought a used camera on eBay, and fixed the problem. If I were as persistent as you, I could have saved myself $400.
I certainly hope all of your hard work will be searched but someone else with the problem, and can be solved by your persistence.
 
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Hey guys.
Back after the tests. The gimbal works well. When I start the drone, it adjusts itself and then it doesn't drop or anything. In-flight, the camera is smooth and there are no vibrations so I guess everything is OK.
Thank you for your appreciation. I will try to post this solution elsewhere too, to be of help to some who cannot pay $400 for a gimbal, like me :)) I dreaded the idea of having to buy a new gimbal...
Here is a video sample of yesterday's test as proof, shot in D-Log and then using just a LUT over it (no other edit).
I even used an ND/PL16 filter which I saw online that it sometimes causes problems with a faulty gimbal. Some "Gimbal Motor Overload" error. Yesterday, using that filter, the status of the gimbal was "Normal".
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Nice video. Rock solid. I’m glad you were able to get that fixed. If anything, someone is going to do a search for that issue, and find your fix. And they would definitely owed you a debt of gratitude. At least $400 worth.
 
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Hi! I had the same issue with mine, the gimbal would level out on power up and then begin to drift aimlessly. No amount of calibrations and firmware flashes would fix it so I sent it to dji. Cost 125 bucks for everything and they fixed it

This is what they found
please notify cx able to replicate the issue with the gimbal, while doing DA found stress cracks on the landing gears as well,
Phantom 4 Yaw-axis Motor V2 malfunctioned, which caused the gimbal to rotate irregularly after powering on; Pitch-axis Motor malfunctioned, which caused the gimbal to rotate irregularly after powering on; Phantom 4 Roll Motor malfunctioned, which caused the gimbal to rotate irregularly after powering on; Left Landing Gear Module cracked, Right Landing Gear Module cracked.
 

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