The Gimbal of my phantom 4 is erratic after it fell 30 metres due to battery falling out.
When I turn it on it tries to center but just keeps jumping around until I adjust gimbal. But after adjusting gimbal the camera parks on an angle. I tried adjusting ICU, compass and gimbal but no luck. The camera still works.

If I unscrewed the gimbal base from aircraft would I be able to see if there is an obstruction?
Any ideas greatly appreciated.



gimbal on an angle

I think that you may have more damage then you think. Did it fall 3 or 30 meters? Even from 3 meters (10 feet) you can have internal damage.
At the very least I would look at the cable to the camera but I think that you have more damage. Gimbals are delicate and a hard bump can damage them.

I think it's safe to say you have damaged one or more of the gimbal motors, they aren't that expensive to replace and if you've got any experience fixing thing they're not that hard to replace either.
Is there a high pithed noise or grinding noise coming from the gimbal, if so then it's probably missing some teeth in the gears of one or two of the motors, that's why it's jumping around. I had the same issue with mine about a month after a minor crash. There's a lot of weight in the camera when you compare it to the tiny gears on the motors that control it, a sudden bump can damage a tooth that will take some time to fail like in my case or it can fail straight away like in your case. 30 meters is a long way to fall and adds up to a lot of force on the gears and motors on impact.
Send in for repair is probably the best option so they can make sure there is no underlining problems that can cause a fly away or crash.

I would agree with the consensus that you've most likely incurred internal damage that would be best addressed by sending the unit in for repair.

mic75 Posted at 2017-3-22 18:21
I think it's safe to say you have damaged one or more of the gimbal motors, they aren't that expensive to replace and if you've got any experience fixing thing they're not that hard to replace either.
Is there a high pithed noise or grinding noise coming from the gimbal, if so then it's probably missing some teeth in the gears of one or two of the motors, that's why it's jumping around. I had the same issue with mine about a month after a minor crash. There's a lot of weight in the camera when you compare it to the tiny gears on the motors that control it, a sudden bump can damage a tooth that will take some time to fail like in my case or it can fail straight away like in your case. 30 meters is a long way to fall and adds up to a lot of force on the gears and motors on impact.
Send in for repair is probably the best option so they can make sure there is no underlining problems that can cause a fly away or crash.

why do you think it is a motor? it stops shaking if I adjust the roll, but then it points on an angle towards the landing gear. I was thinking it could be a bent gimbal arm.

is there a way to test the motors?

I was going to replace the entire gimbal and cover but there doesn't seem to be any in stock.

As DJI Jamie says send it in for repair. I had a P3A that had a fall of about 5 meters. At first I tried to repair it myself thinking that it was simple with just bad cable and a few other parts. When that did not work I then took a closer look. I found a partially frozen motor, and a cracked arm. when I split the outer skin I found a pair of connectors torn off the circuit board as well as the inner frame being trashed. Cost to repair this drone would have been more then buying a new Phantom 4.

kidsolo Posted at 2017-3-23 04:01
why do you think it is a motor? it stops shaking if I adjust the roll, but then it points on an angle towards the landing gear. I was thinking it could be a bent gimbal arm.

is there a way to test the motors?

I think it's probably a stripped gear on two of the motors because of the way it's moving, it's like it's trying to level itself but the gears keep slipping. If the gimbal arm is bent it will still level itself if there are no other problems.
Also mine was doing a similar thing. Mine cost about $230 to repair including postage, for piece of mind and compared to what it cost it's really not a lot of money. It's better to send it in for repair.

The gimbal arm is bent

The camera should still sit level even with a bent gimbal arm. It looks like it's bent on the inside as well as the obvious bend on the outside, I don't think it's an obstruction.

mic75 Posted at 2017-3-23 20:40
I think it's probably a stripped gear on two of the motors because of the way it's moving, it's like it's trying to level itself but the gears keep slipping. If the gimbal arm is bent it will still level itself if there are no other problems.
Also mine was doing a similar thing. Mine cost about $230 to repair including postage, for piece of mind and compared to what it cost it's really not a lot of money. It's better to send it in for repair.

Send it in for repair....mic 75 is correct

The battery fell out??  Is that a regular occurrence?