Phantom 3 Advance quiet gimbal beep beep beep

[ibuprofen]

Greetings,
I just got a malfunctioning Phantom 3 Advanced. It will fly though I haven't tried yet.I tested motor function with no props and it seemed fine using the controller manually. The gimbal
does not "do the dance" at boot, but just hangs there and emits a quiet "beep beep beep". The sound is more
like a motor attempting to start although I cannot feel any gimbal motors actually attempting to move. I have upgraded both controller and drone to latest firmware. DJI app says "gimbal tilt error" and beneath that says
"hardware error call dji". The camera is sending a picture to the phone. I can see no other errors in the
DJI App. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[pwsl100]

Just curious, did you remove the foam shipping stop on the back of the gimbal? It is a piece of foam that restricts the movement and damage of the gimbal during shipping. If you haven't removed it, do so. If you have removed the foam, try disconnecting and then reconnecting the ribbon cables to the gimbal and camera to make sure they are properly connected.

 

[ibuprofen]

I purchased it used. The previous owner didn't want to deal with it. So no shipping stop. I have
taken apart the camera and gimbal to re seat the ribbon cables. No luck yet although that did restore the video. So everything works as it should except the limp gimbal.

 

[Alan Russel]

I had a limp gimbal today when i tried to fly my P3,(had video but no camera tilt) i tried a gimbal calibration but that did not help..got frustrated came home, while home i removed battery and reinserted battery and restarted bird and the gimbal worked perfectly..go figure i dont know
if this helps?

 

[ibuprofen]

Nothing I've tried so far has worked. If I were certain it was the gimbal I'd take the risk and purchase a new gimbal set up. I wish we had schematics or a way to be darn sure the problem
is not on the mainboard but completely due to a flaw in the gimbal itself. I guess today I'll disassemble the gimbal as far as I can and reseat the ribbon.

 

[crash1sttime]

Nothing I've tried so far has worked. If I were certain it was the gimbal I'd take the risk and purchase a new gimbal set up. I wish we had schematics or a way to be darn sure the problem
is not on the mainboard but completely due to a flaw in the gimbal itself. I guess today I'll disassemble the gimbal as far as I can and reseat the ribbon.

No one close by you can borrow one from?

 

[ibuprofen]

No one close by you can borrow one from?

No unfortunately. Even 2 repair places didn't want to "risk" hooking it up to their test platforms?!!
I wish there were schematics or flow charts to diagnose the problem. I used a stethoscope to isolate where the sound is coming from, it is the positioning motors. They do not move but the sound is like they are attempting to in some way. Visually they look perfect. At this point I'm thinking I may just part out the whole thing. Since the camera does work, I may do a couple test
flights with the camera secured in a fixed position. I don't really know if you can still take a decent
video without the gimbal functioning as a "steady cam". Perhaps it won't make much difference
in practice, that the gimbal is not functioning.

 

[quaddamage]

Note that the motors can be used to convey error information in case something is wrong. If the sound is "beep", then the driver circuits most likely do send the signal to motors so that they beep.

I can't know how the init procedure of proprietary gimbal work, so I'm speculating here:

The driver circuits near motors have their own micro-controllers (fact). At startup, they probably initiate UART and wait for instructions form the "main gimbal controller". If they receive instructions - they would just do what they're told; if they're beeping, it probably means no instructions were sent. The main gimbal controller didn't spoke to them, so they're hanging there lonely and don't know what to do. That's why they're beeping - they were waiting so long for instructions, that now they're sure something is wrong.

There is probably one UART (two copper wires on the flat cable) for all the arms.

If the above is true, then either:
- flat wire has the UART connection damaged, or
- main controller doesn't work

How to know which is true? Easy - the top most arm is connected to main gimbal controller without flat wire - if it's not beeping, and two other motors are - then it's the wire.

 

[ibuprofen]

Note that the motors can be used to convey error information in case something is wrong. If the sound is "beep", then the driver circuits most likely do send the signal to motors so that they beep.

I can't know how the init procedure of proprietary gimbal work, so I'm speculating here:

The driver circuits near motors have their own micro-controllers (fact). At startup, they probably initiate UART and wait for instructions form the "main gimbal controller". If they receive instructions - they would just do what they're told; if they're beeping, it probably means no instructions were sent. The main gimbal controller didn't spoke to them, so they're hanging there lonely and don't know what to do. That's why they're beeping - they were waiting so long for instructions, that now they're sure something is wrong.

There is probably one UART (two copper wires on the flat cable) for all the arms.

If the above is true, then either:
- flat wire has the UART connection damaged, or
- main controller doesn't work

How to know which is true? Easy - the top most arm is connected to main gimbal controller without flat wire - if it's not beeping, and two other motors are - then it's the wire.

Thank you! I was out of options and even ideas to continue messing with this drone. In the morning I'll take a shot
tracing and checking all wires/connections from the mainboard to the last gimbal motor. I did that visually
at the start however not in a way that I was looking for anything specific. I'll let you know if I find anything amiss.

 

[ibuprofen]

Thank you! I was out of options and even ideas to continue messing with this drone. In the morning I'll take a shot
tracing and checking all wires/connections from the mainboard to the last gimbal motor. I did that visually
at the start however not in a way that I was looking for anything specific. I'll let you know if I find anything amiss.

Used an automotive stethoscope this morning and found that all three gimbal motors are making the "initialization
beep". So I would guess it is indeed the circuit board in the top of the gimbal has a defect. I sure wish I could confirm that by installing the gimbal on a working drone. It does make total sense based on what quaddamge's
analysis stated. I am as convinced as I can be without a swap out. The unfortunate thing is however, that
circuit board has not shown up for sale anywhere I have thought to search. The small controller boards are
readily available so hopefully they will start showing up. I also found that the board also gets warmer than I feel
it should just while the gimbal is hanging there doing nothing. Perhaps that is another clue. I guess I'll start
looking for a used gimbal.