Phantom 4 Camera Stopped Working - Need Advice

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So I have been flying my phantom 4 around this first week or so and it has been great!

Though yesterday I had a minor crash and fall, I hit a tree at a fairly low height and speed. 1 Propeller broke others scuffed up, hit the ground landing gear first, and 1 side of the landing gear has a small crack and dent. All of this is no big deal to me. And the camera looks completely untouched and undamaged.

However, after cleaning up my drone and putting on fresh propellers. The drone can still fly great! But there is no video feed. And in the app there is an error "camera sensor error: hardware malfunction contact DJI for repair" So this is quite an issue because I can't record video or take pictures, or see where I am when flying.

So of course I can send it in for repair, but I am hesitant because I don't want it to be gone long and don't want to be charged a lot for shipping, and parts, and labor. Any one have experience with DJI repair? I may end up being charged a lot, and more may be replaced than necessary.

It's really hard for me to imagine the camera is broken. The gimbal still works great, I can adjust it manually, and with the auto gimbal thing.

I am guessing maybe a ribbon cable got damaged or pulled, or there is a connection issue somewhere from the camera to the drone. I took apart some of the connections some, but everything looks good as new. I am thinking of maybe replacing a ribbon cable, but I don't even know if that is the issue.

Anyone have any ideas? What could be wrong with it? ways to fix it? Please Help!

The error is "Camera Sensor Error" I don't know what that means, and I wish there was some documentation somewhere explaining what that error is.
 
warning should say bend over we are going to run up your card
 
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It means something has come loose and is no longer making contact. You'll have to look very closely at all the external connectors (ribbon cable) and probably have to take apart the lower portion containing the gimbal to ensure all cables are fully connected. At worse, it is a circuit on the top of the unit that has come loose. You'd have to open the entire Phantom to check for that. If there are no videos on how to do this, I'm sure they will be coming as your problem is a common problem with both the Phantom 3 and Phantom 4.
 
I also assumed something is not making contact, so I did take aprt the lower portion containing the gimbal and camera, I unplugged and re plugged in the cables. I did no examine the area inside the entire phantom...

though the gimbal is still moving, the camea. Like I can still make the camera look up and down with the dial on the remote. Is it possible, that a connection could be loose so that the gimbal motors are still connected but the camera image data is not?

thanks man
 
Hello,

I ended up fixing this by. Opening up the body of the bird. And there was a loose connection in there. The problem is that there is a board floating freely in the gimbal part. So if the gimbal gets yanked that cable gets pulled. But yea. It isn't too hard of a fix, take out the screws on the bottom of the bird, then there are a few more screws, look for a loose cable.

Let me know if you are still having troubles, and I'll send some pictures
 
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Hey I will be really happy to see some photos from you ... i ve been to a guy today .. it checked it and said that a cable is broken or camera ... he said that it is probably the camera so i will have to buy a new one ... he said to go again in few days there for another check.
 
Hay Matt? By chance do u or did u play hockey?


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Hello,

I ended up fixing this by. Opening up the body of the bird. And there was a loose connection in there. The problem is that there is a board floating freely in the gimbal part. So if the gimbal gets yanked that cable gets pulled. But yea. It isn't too hard of a fix, take out the screws on the bottom of the bird, then there are a few more screws, look for a loose cable.

Let me know if you are still having troubles, and I'll send some pictures

Hey man, I had pretty much same thing happen. Flew into some tree branches, feel through the tree, minor scratches, one prop broke, camera Gimbel works fine but no picture... I'd love to see your pics to help me out. Thanks
 
Hello,

I ended up fixing this by. Opening up the body of the bird. And there was a loose connection in there. The problem is that there is a board floating freely in the gimbal part. So if the gimbal gets yanked that cable gets pulled. But yea. It isn't too hard of a fix, take out the screws on the bottom of the bird, then there are a few more screws, look for a loose cable.

Let me know if you are still having troubles, and I'll send some pictures

Hi there,
do you have the photos available? could you please send them to me? [email protected]
kinds regards
Merrill
 
Hello,

I ended up fixing this by. Opening up the body of the bird. And there was a loose connection in there. The problem is that there is a board floating freely in the gimbal part. So if the gimbal gets yanked that cable gets pulled. But yea. It isn't too hard of a fix, take out the screws on the bottom of the bird, then there are a few more screws, look for a loose cable.

Let me know if you are still having troubles, and I'll send some pictures

Hi Mattew,
It seems I have the same trouble
I look into the gimbal part, unplug and replug some câble but nothing change...
You say you find a loose cable into the body of bird, could you send me some pictures please: [email protected]
Thank you
 
hei matthew ......I have to same problem with my p4 "camera sensor error".... all i think have done to do, update,downgrade firmware etc...but still have camera sensor error.... Do you have the photos available? and can you help me to fix it . You can send to me? [email protected]
Thank you!
 

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