Phantom 4 yaw motor broken! plz help

I am still confused. Maybe it is my age as I am approaching 100. I used the housing with the magnet from the old motor. The new motor when installed went to the left by about 20 degrees. If the magnet lost some zip or whatever why does it work so well compared to the new housing? Help me understand. I am actually typing this on a Smith Corona and by thought waves send it to the internet.
 
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I am still confused. Maybe it is my age as I am approaching 100. I used the housing with the magnet from the old motor. The new motor when installed went to the left by about 20 degrees. If the magnet lost some zip or whatever why does it work so well compared to the new housing? Help me understand. I am actually typing this on a Smith Corona and by thought waves send it to the internet.

You're making this all too much fun!! :} It's nice to see we are both able to learn something at our age.
It is my feeble understanding, (since we can't get any answers from DJI, "proprietary" and all), the magnetic ring in the body of all gimbal motors is what acts on the "rotor", or motor, where the windings are located. Impulses from the circuitry act on the motor in a feed back loop to the circuit board, where the signal is processed and received from the accelerometer to match the stabilizing feature the accelerometer produces. If we replace all the offending components, including the ribbon cable, and get the same results, the problem is either with the accelerometer or the camera's main circuit board. That's encouraging isn't it? We often think that the camera received damage from the crash, how about the condition of the drone's internal electronics? I have had several customers who think I sold them a bad camera. After extensive "coaching", they realize there is something wrong with their drone. Of course, they never bother to drop me a note to let me know that was the case.
The only way to determine which component is the offender(s), one would need a perfect working drone and a perfect working camera. This is what I have for my P2v+ Version 2 AND 3 and the P3 models. I have all 3. I just received a new P4 and will have to remove the camera and use it to test the gimbal. That means removing the camera and swapping gimbals. This way I can use the process of elimination to determine the source of the problem. I may even have to swap out component by component to narrow down which one is causing the problem. And then, sometimes it is more than one component. Ain't this fun? Many times I have had to go through this process to finally come up with a good working camera. Sometimes I get really lucky and notice that someone has installed a counterfeit ribbon cable and that is all that was wrong with a perfectly good camera.

So far, my limited experience with the P4 camera is in need of more experience, hence, I will be.............tearing down my new P4, but, that's why I bought it.:{ I'm a fixer more than a flyer.
Watch this spot.
Jim
 
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Well Jim, that pretty much sums it up. Sometimes it is just process of elimination. I too am more of a fixer than a flyer. In a former life I was an HVAC mechanic. I retired from that in 2004 after 50 years. Got bored a couple of years ago. I started on P3's and find them somewhat easy. The P4 will be the death of me.
 
Well Jim, that pretty much sums it up. Sometimes it is just process of elimination. I too am more of a fixer than a flyer. In a former life I was an HVAC mechanic. I retired from that in 2004 after 50 years. Got bored a couple of years ago. I started on P3's and find them somewhat easy. The P4 will be the death of me.

I was a plastics cavity mold maker in my younger days and that gave me a great background in working with these fussy DJI cameras. I was always in a repair type of hobby related business from antiques cars to racing sail boats as a rigger.

So much for nostalgia that a lot of our millennial Phantom Pilots aren't really interested in. :)

I put my new P4 camera on the "suspect" P4 drone and all worked well, so it isn't the drone internals. Tomorrow I will swap gimbals and go through a full test. More to come.
 
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I have several yaw motors i have been playing with. I put each one on the same camera. Each one gave different results. Either they point to the left or right. Every one was different. The only difference is the motor. I have to point out that all the motors are used
 
Okay, in my search for useful info about the P4 gimbal issue, this is very interesting.
About 100 years of experience can't fix the problem.
I guess it depends on luck, experience, patience and availability of parts?
 
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You're making this all too much fun!! :} It's nice to see we are both able to learn something at our age.
It is my feeble understanding, (since we can't get any answers from DJI, "proprietary" and all), the magnetic ring in the body of all gimbal motors is what acts on the "rotor", or motor, where the windings are located. Impulses from the circuitry act on the motor in a feed back loop to the circuit board, where the signal is processed and received from the accelerometer to match the stabilizing feature the accelerometer produces. If we replace all the offending components, including the ribbon cable, and get the same results, the problem is either with the accelerometer or the camera's main circuit board. That's encouraging isn't it? We often think that the camera received damage from the crash, how about the condition of the drone's internal electronics? I have had several customers who think I sold them a bad camera. After extensive "coaching", they realize there is something wrong with their drone. Of course, they never bother to drop me a note to let me know that was the case.
The only way to determine which component is the offender(s), one would need a perfect working drone and a perfect working camera. This is what I have for my P2v+ Version 2 AND 3 and the P3 models. I have all 3. I just received a new P4 and will have to remove the camera and use it to test the gimbal. That means removing the camera and swapping gimbals. This way I can use the process of elimination to determine the source of the problem. I may even have to swap out component by component to narrow down which one is causing the problem. And then, sometimes it is more than one component. Ain't this fun? Many times I have had to go through this process to finally come up with a good working camera. Sometimes I get really lucky and notice that someone has installed a counterfeit ribbon cable and that is all that was wrong with a perfectly good camera.

So far, my limited experience with the P4 camera is in need of more experience, hence, I will be.............tearing down my new P4, but, that's why I bought it.:{ I'm a fixer more than a flyer.
Watch this spot.
Jim

Interesting thread, thank you! I have a Phantom 4. The camera is always level, so I don't have the horizon tilt problem that a lot of people post about. I do have a problem with the camera always angled very slightly to the left. It normally isn't a big deal, but it makes it hard to follow a straight line using FPV. Is there a "simple" fix for this?
 
Okay, in my search for useful info about the P4 gimbal issue, this is very interesting.
About 100 years of experience can't fix the problem.
I guess it depends on luck, experience, patience and availability of parts?
That is about right. DJI keeps secrets but us old guys are patient and figure them out. I have a small lab attached to my walker
 
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It was my understanding that the motor housing which contains the magnet is calibrate at the factory. I am guessing the magnets are glued in but the poles will end up in different locations. Thus you need to calibrate each one. Otherwise the camera may or may not point straight. That is why you use the old motor housing. Just my two cents or less...I replaced my motor twice and they both pointed in different locations. Swapped the housing and problem solved.
 
It was my understanding that the motor housing which contains the magnet is calibrate at the factory. I am guessing the magnets are glued in but the poles will end up in different locations. Thus you need to calibrate each one. Otherwise the camera may or may not point straight. That is why you use the old motor housing. Just my two cents or less...I replaced my motor twice and they both pointed in different locations. Swapped the housing and problem solved.
u are correct. they actually calibrate the sensor on the yaw arm to the magnet s. .. I have found that by just swapping complete motors you can with luck find one that works. I have done this a couple of times when I did not have the original motor. To do this u would need about 10 new motors to play with and LOTS OF TIME ON YOUR HANDS.. LOL. I happen to have lots of time
 
Interesting thread, thank you! I have a Phantom 4. The camera is always level, so I don't have the horizon tilt problem that a lot of people post about. I do have a problem with the camera always angled very slightly to the left. It normally isn't a big deal, but it makes it hard to follow a straight line using FPV. Is there a "simple" fix for this?

JWH, Just logged on after some respite from "pilots" and noticed your thread.
Did you buy your P4 new? If so, have you had any minor crashes? If so, you could have scraped one of the sensors in the yaw motor. I have found very minor "abrasions" on one of the 2 sensors is not an issue, so long as it doesn't penetrate the black coating. If it is a scrape, the full width of the sensor, you will have issues with the yaw "centering". You can check the sensors with an eye loupe, (5X power), by looking across the surface in very good light. Of course you have to partially disassemble the camera down to the yaw motor. When I purchase "new" motors, (which really aren't new), I pull the drums off for a close inspection. Some sensors are deeply gouged, which is obvious. If the sensors are good, I wait until I have a camera repair that needs a yaw motor and put the old drum on the new motor, as mentioned in previous post. Old and new versions of the drum will work on the new motor.
It doesn't take much of a crash to flex the yaw motor shaft, just enough for the edge of the drum to scrape one or both sensors. DJI engineers think that the yaw ARM is still the sacrificial link in a crash. The only problem is, DJI changed the hardness of the aluminum in the P4 yaw arms. It is more brittle than previous arms and is easy to break when trying to straighten. The stiffer yaw arm transfers crash forces to the yaw motor shaft instead of bending the softer arms, as in the P2's and P3's. I never found a scraped sensor in any P2 or P3 yaw motor, because the arm absorbed most of the impact.
My last question; is your yaw arm slightly bent? If so, that could be why the camera points slightly off center.
In my previous, lengthy post, I mentioned the fact that there are NO "new" yaw motors being sold by anyone. They are ALL used and have been removed from damaged cameras by someone, somewhere and sold to eBay "sellers" as "new". The unsuspecting sellers have NO idea, in most cases, what a yaw motor even is and they certainly didn't "test" it as they say they do in the listing. My success rate is 50% with these used motors which makes it very difficult in processing returns.
Hope this helps. Ted4797 knows all about this chicanery with yaw motors. (I want to see a photo of his tool box on his walker though).
Cheers,
Jim
 
Now Jim. be nice
20171007_145817.jpg
 
Thank you for getting back to me. I learned a lot in this thread, even if I don't fix it. Nice setup, Ted! You have a portable work bench!

I bought the drone new and it has never been crashed. I am very cautious with it due to the cost. I have only used sport mode once. I don't think anything is bent, at least none detectable by outward appearance. There isn't a scratch on it anywhere.

I was hoping for a software fix. I read in another thread a while back that the update to DJI GO4 was going to include a yaw adjustment. I searched all through the screens and can't find it, if it exists.

It is only off center very slightly, so it isn't too big of a deal, except when flying FPV. I learned this when trying to fly the ridge on a roof. It is hard to fly a straight line when looking left.

I should have sent it back while it was still under warranty. I decided not to after reading that I could get a refurbished one back instead of mine.

Thank you for the detailed technical information. It is interesting learning how it works.

John
 
Thank you for getting back to me. I learned a lot in this thread, even if I don't fix it. Nice setup, Ted! You have a portable work bench!

I bought the drone new and it has never been crashed. I am very cautious with it due to the cost. I have only used sport mode once. I don't think anything is bent, at least none detectable by outward appearance. There isn't a scratch on it anywhere.

I was hoping for a software fix. I read in another thread a while back that the update to DJI GO4 was going to include a yaw adjustment. I searched all through the screens and can't find it, if it exists.

It is only off center very slightly, so it isn't too big of a deal, except when flying FPV. I learned this when trying to fly the ridge on a roof. It is hard to fly a straight line when looking left.

I should have sent it back while it was still under warranty. I decided not to after reading that I could get a refurbished one back instead of mine.

Thank you for the detailed technical information. It is interesting learning how it works.

John


Of course you calibrated the gimbal???? Are you using the current DJIGo4 app update? I just got hung up on that yesterday trying to test a P4Pro. No video, but good gimbal. Ran the update and video returned.

If you felt wild and crazy, you could remove the yaw arm and give it a little bend in the direction of the tilt.

I thought Ted was kidding. Well, now I have something to look forward to when my hips get bad.

Cheers,
Jim
 
Yes, I went through the calibration numerous times. It is level with the horizon. The yaw always winds up very slightly to the left. I don't think I will take it apart. Knowing my luck I will make a working camera inoperative! The only time it is an issue is when I try to follow a straight line using FPV. That is rare.
 
I'm about changing my yaw and roll motor on my friends P4 after a crash. I need some advice. When powered on the gimbal wobbles. It's running a new Gimbal cable just to make sure that wasn't the issue. I notice the yaw and roll motor gets hot when powered on and they start to wobble. I wasn't sure what motor exactly had the issue so I connected one at a time to the circuit board at the back of the yaw arm. Pitch works fine. Yaw keeps tilting left and right. Then tested roll only. It keeps tilting left and right. And then gets stuck. Where do I go from here? I doubt I'd have access to motors to try out till it works. And I can't send to DJI. Also, buying a new Gimbal will break pockets. Thanks.
 
Ok hello to everyone I hope someone here can help me I am middle of repairing or trying to repair a Gimbal on a phantom 4 I bent the your arm after inspecting it appears to be all that's damaged I also need to replace the roll mall motor after reading some of the posts in this forum it appears it's not that simple but I cannot find where to purchase an entire Gimbal but not the camera can anyone help me question mark. Perhaps I am wrong and just the roll motor can be replaced and fitted quite simply as the other one came off if this is so could someone please help me any details would be greatly appreciated
 
Ok hello to everyone I hope someone here can help me I am middle of repairing or trying to repair a Gimbal on a phantom 4 I bent the your arm after inspecting it appears to be all that's damaged I also need to replace the roll mall motor after reading some of the posts in this forum it appears it's not that simple but I cannot find where to purchase an entire Gimbal but not the camera can anyone help me question mark. Perhaps I am wrong and just the roll motor can be replaced and fitted quite simply as the other one came off if this is so could someone please help me any details would be greatly appreciated
Hello there! Yes you can buy just the yaw arm or roll motor and swap just that part out. You can find to buy on eBay although I order mine from aliexoress for my drone repairs and they have worked just fine.

Here US $19.99 |DJI Phantom 4 Gimbal Camera Roll Motor No1 (not phantom 4 pro )-in Milling Machine from Tools on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
 
Hello there! Yes you can buy just the yaw arm or roll motor and swap just that part out. You can find to buy on eBay although I order mine from aliexoress for my drone repairs and they have worked just fine.

Here US $19.99 |DJI Phantom 4 Gimbal Camera Roll Motor No1 (not phantom 4 pro )-in Milling Machine from Tools on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
You legand! Thanks and if I may ask with just the roll motor is it a simple old one off and new one on??
 

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