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Phantom 3 Gimbal Buzzing
18826 34 2015-5-14
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aksellsflre
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United States
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Ok so I have had some issues with jello in my camera. I just received the P3 yesterday and right out of the box had issues.
First I was not able to update the P3. After to speaking with a DJI Tech Guy on RC Groups he sent me a link to the correct update file. For some reason the one on the DJI website was old.

Second I updated the P3 and remote and then did a compass and gimbal calibration and this did nothing for the jello issue. So I then strated to changing the rubber dampeners without any luck. So after closer inspection I noticed a buzzing sound coming from my gimbal and each time it buzzed it created a vibration in the gimbal. Don't know if my gimbal is bad or not but if it is that sucks because I just got this thing yesterday.

Below are some videos of the issues I am having.

First Video is the first flight out of the box, no update or gimbal calibration:


Second Video after firmware update then compass and gimbal calibration:


Third Video is of the gimbal buzzing and showing the vibration:




Is anyone else having this buzzing sound coming from the gimbal?

2015-5-14
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danthun
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Flight distance : 14639 ft
Sweden
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I have the same sound from my! and I have problems with my. Watch my video.
2015-5-14
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aksellsflre
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United States
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Yea thats weird mine buzzes and vibrates and yours jiggles. Can you feel your gimbal vibrating like phone?
2015-5-14
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CapitAn
First Officer
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Canada
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When l first updated mine l had the same buzzing sound but l had 2 errors. One was a gimbal/MC data error and the other was that l had to do an IMU calibration. As soon as l did the IMU cal, and all the other subsequent calibrations: gimbal, remote sticks/wheel etc, the buzzing went away.
2015-5-14
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mike
Captain
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United States
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aksellsflre, where did you get the black rubber dampers? Perhaps they are causing that vibration.
2015-5-14
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dorn.michael10
lvl.4

United States
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^^ this may be the case if the black dampeners are harder than the white ones they could cause an issue. Also make sure to set your shutter speed at double the frame rate. This will reduce jello as well as an advanced calibration of both the gimbal and the copter. Hope this helps
2015-5-14
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DJI-JS
lvl.4
Flight distance : 48940 ft
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Hi aksellsflre,
Can you put original white damper back on the gimbal to see if jello still exists?

The black and white damper have different stiffness, and they should not be used together.

Thank you

2015-5-15
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alex.romo
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United States
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Hello aksellsflre,

Did you change the black dampeners to white? Is the camera/gimbal still vibrating?
2015-5-20
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Daninho
Second Officer
Flight distance : 70203 ft
Germany
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danthun Posted at 2015-5-15 02:59
I have the same sound from my! and I have problems with my. Watch my video.
https://www.youtube.com/ ...

thats definately not jello effect, there is something wrong with the gimbal or hefty vibrations going on, maybe something blocking the gimbal as well. I would do an advanced IMU calibration, Stick and gimbal wheel calibration and look if something blocks the gimbal. Maybe try the other pair of props if that doesnt help send it to repair. You really cant film anything with that problem
2015-5-20
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phimerito
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aksellsflre Posted at 2015-5-15 08:06
Yea thats weird mine buzzes and vibrates and yours jiggles. Can you feel your gimbal vibrating like  ...

Hi, did you solve the vibrating issue.
I have a similar problem with mine.
It is P3Pro, the gimbal cannot be calibrated.
2015-6-7
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Daninho
Second Officer
Flight distance : 70203 ft
Germany
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I have the exact same problem with my Gimbal. It produces pulsating vibrations every 2 seconds and it vibrates like a cell phone during those intervals. Those vibrations cause a jello effect in the video footage. You can test it easily by recording a video on the ground without starting the motors. As soons as you move the gimbal the pulsating vibrations will start and of course destroying your video. The interesting thing here is i also get "MC error" from time to time and the gimbal will hang down. Something is wrong with that gimbal, i saw P3's with flawless gimbals, no vibrations and smooth videos. In the end many ppl bought that quad for filming and this is not possible with those vibrations going on here.

I calibrated the IMU a couple of times without success and i also tested new dampeners. The props and the dampeners have nothing to do with it since the problem is on the ground as well without starting the motors. So it cant be because of props, wind or dampeners etc.. i also calibrated the sticks, gimbal and gimbal wheel.

My Phantom3 arrived back from the european service center with that problem! I hope anybody can help us since i get no answer from the service center and i fear i will get an unrepaired P3 back again and i cant actually use my 1400 euro investment.

At about 0:41 in that video the vibrations starts. You can feel the vibrations with your hands really good, no wonder it shows jello effect in the videos.



In the video it will look like this


I hope DJI can help us loyal customers.

2015-6-8
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kudlaty

Poland
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Yep! I do have a problem with vibrating camera exactly the same like you (and Daninho too). Welcome to the club of P3 owners with vibrating gimbals Take a look here - http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... id=16248&page=1 - do you find any similarities?
2015-6-8
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Daninho
Second Officer
Flight distance : 70203 ft
Germany
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kudlaty Posted at 2015-6-9 01:11
Yep! I do have a problem with vibrating camera exactly the same like you (and Daninho too). Welcome  ...

yes he had the same problems. I just hope somebody from DJI will contact us. My experience with the DJI service is not that good because they overlooked the scratching main motor of my P3. Now i fear that they wont see this problem as well. The only thing i do know is that this is not normal because there are thousands of P3 already sold without that problem. When i see all the smooth and vibration free videos i feel not good at all because i spend 1400 euro for it.

I did cold IMU calibrations as well and the fact that i get MC error from time to time like the other P3 owner is strange. I have the latest FW as well, the service center already installed it for me.   
2015-6-8
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Daninho
Second Officer
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Germany
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dorn.michael10@ Posted at 2015-5-15 12:11
^^ this may be the case if the black dampeners are harder than the white ones they could cause an is ...

That is not correct, with reduced shutter speeds you will only "mask" the real problem a bit but not eliminate the root of it. This wont help much as i tested it already. The endresult is a pulsating blurriness of the video. The dampeners have nothing to do with it at all because the gimbal motors are vibrating on the ground without starting the P3 main motors. So the dampeners can only smoothen the vibrations from the main motors but not from the gimbal motors itself.
2015-6-8
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Rimas_M
lvl.1

Lithuania
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Daninho,

any news on your P3 from DJI-Europe (un)support department?
2015-6-8
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jimcloud74
Second Officer
Flight distance : 1298317 ft
United States
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Have you checked to see if the cooling fan is damaged in the gimbal?
2015-6-9
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DJI-Autumn
First Officer

Hong Kong
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Daninho Posted at 2015-6-9 01:48
That is not correct, with reduced shutter speeds you will only "mask" the real problem a bit but n ...

Daninho,
Any update on your P3? Have not seen your video yet.
2015-6-9
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Daninho
Second Officer
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Germany
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DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-6-10 11:46
Daninho,
Any update on your P3? Have not seen your video yet.

I just came back from DJI Schondra, i brought them my Phantom3. They are nice ppl.

I posted the videos in my thread before.


At Minute 0:41 you can hear the vibration starting, its a strange noise. When you touch the gimbal slightly you can feel the vibrations. this is what produces the Jello effect in flight.


2015-6-10
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Daninho
Second Officer
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Germany
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jimcloud74@yaho Posted at 2015-6-10 11:20
Question....why do you have a black dampers installed? Did it come that way? Makes me think it was r ...

well, it is obvious that he had installed the black dampeners in the hope to reduce the jello effect that way. Normally on a quadcopter you have to reduce any vibrations going on, thats why ppl balance the props and thats why they test different dampening compounds. In this case it is the gimbal itself that vibrates, so it wont help much to use different dampeners.
2015-6-10
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jimcloud74
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Daninho Posted at 2015-6-10 19:51
well, it is obvious that he had installed the black dampeners in the hope to reduce the jello effe ...

Wasn't obvious to me. He didn't state that in his post. It is specked with white so I would not change them.
2015-6-10
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2015-6-10
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Daninho
Second Officer
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Germany
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jimcloud74@yaho Posted at 2015-6-11 10:15
Wasn't obvious to me. He didn't state that in his post. It is specked with white so I would not ch ...

Yes because its probably your first Phantom. The Phantom2 H3-3D for example arrives with 4 different rubber dampener compounds. The compound on the P3 would be comparable to the black super soft ones on the H3-3D. The H3-3D arrived with white dampeners (white medium hardness).
Thats why i guessed that he experimented with different dampeners against the jello effect
2015-6-11
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finprkl
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Finland
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Daninho Posted at 2015-5-21 01:57
thats definately not jello effect, there is something wrong with the gimbal or hefty vibrations go ...

My p3p started doing the same with the camera shaking as in danthun's video, seems like the stabilization not working properly and videos are totally unusable... Have done several calibrations and there doesn't seem to be anything obstructing the gimball or dampers. Definetly not the same problem in question as in this topic with the buzzing and jello. I think I should start a new thread for this problem.
2015-6-20
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NoOne3000

United States
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I have the exact same issue (along with cracked screw holes).

For those of you that had issues, how were they resolved by DJI and what was the turnaround time?  Did you receive a replacement?

2015-7-6
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fritz
lvl.1

United States
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I decided to try removing the sonar module as I don't use it and have turned off VPS. When I powered up I got the buzzing gimbal. Reattached it and the buzzing went away.
Maybe check the plug connection in the vps module.
2015-7-13
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john.grousehous
Flight distance : 575574 ft
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Australia
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Here is a little heads up - there is a small grub screw which holds the yaw arm in place on the yaw motor shaft.  It can come loose.  Even if you don't hear any buzzing please check that the yaw arm cannot slide at all on the yaw motor shaft where the small grub screw is. If it can slide, move it to a point where the arm is not touching the top and bottom and tighten the grub screw (preferably with some thread lock). Fixed my buzzing immediately.

Do not confuse this specific buzzing with the 1 second buzz people have reported as that appears to be a diagnostic code of some sort (which I am yet to dig into). Suspect that one is to do with the FW upgrade process or a failed FW upgrade.

Video showing the noise before the fix, the location of the grub screw and then the buzzing gone from the gimbal -

Only reason I went looking there first is that I make and sell my own gimbals so have had some experience with what can cause buzzing in brushless gimbals (www.grousehousetechnologies.com).

Hope that saves more people from being told to send their Phantom's back to DJI and not see them back for weeks. Staggering that DJI has not picked this up themselves and offered up the solution to fix it (as far as I can tell on all their own forums) instead of issuing RMA numbers.
2015-7-14
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REBELimgs
lvl.3
Flight distance : 46483 ft
United States
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john.grousehous Posted at 2015-7-15 06:45
Here is a little heads up - there is a small grub screw which holds the yaw arm in place on the yaw  ...

Thanks, man. That's a really good tip. Anything to help us from having to send our Phantoms out for repairs and being MIA for months at a time is awesome.
2015-7-14
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MarcoR
Second Officer
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Italy
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Defective gimbal, watch the final part of my video...



And here the replaced (work fine, with some roll issue, damn):


2015-7-14
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john.grousehous
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Australia
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MarcoR Posted at 2015-7-15 14:07
Defective gimbal, watch the final part of my video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw2BnTOqXws

Identical issue you had with your out of the box P3 that I demonstrated in my video.  Just a shame I found the fix after you had to get a replacement.  Hopefully that process did not take too long?  Some people have reported having to wait weeks to get a replacement from DJI.
2015-7-19
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john.grousehous
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Australia
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MarcoR Posted at 2015-7-15 14:07
Defective gimbal, watch the final part of my video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw2BnTOqXws

As you would have already discovered in the settings in the Pilot app for the gimbal you can set the roll offset if a fresh IMU calibration does not sort that roll issue out.
2015-7-19
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GHT
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Actually starting to think that it's the use of the gimbal motors to give audible feedback when updating the FW that is shaking that grommet screw loose.  It started after I performed the last FW update.  DJI may need to rethink using the motors as buzzers or just make sure that grub screw is held with threadlock.  
2015-7-19
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Energy man
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danthun Posted at 2015-5-15 02:59
I have the same sound from my! and I have problems with my. Watch my video.
https://www.youtube.com/ ...

Check the propellers. If you scraped them they could be out of balance.
2016-1-14
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Geebax
Captain
Australia
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Energy man Posted at 2016-1-15 08:12
Check the propellers. If you scraped them they could be out of balance.

You need to read all the later posts to get a handle on this problem, it occurs when the aircraft is on the ground with the motors off, the props have nothing to do with it.
2016-1-14
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denemorhun
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United States
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/UG5jVgrWgEs
Hi, just turned on my QC and my gimbal does not stabilize. I've done my updates, imu calibration, etc - should I be looking at a return here? DJI help has not responded yet.
Auto-configure gimbal failed.



2016-2-17
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yonexsp

Canada
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Mine does the same, watch from 21 seconds onwards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU2f33sEM4E&feature=youtu.be


2016-3-16
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