https://youtu.be/LGnkOmT3FBY

Maiden flight 3 days ago went well except a slight gimbal drift. Today before the second flight I went out to a wide open field and tried tried to calibrate the compass (hoping to stabilize the drift).


360deg horizontal went as usuall, however when I tilted the Phantom to carry out the 360deg vertical  cal the gimbal started to shudder. I half expected this (gimbals don't tilted drones) however looking back, it seemed more violent then usual now that I think about it. Anyway, after completing the rest of the calibration and placing her back down on the level surface I was greeted with the video above...

Tried a reboot, another calibration, gimbal calibration - no joy.  Back home tried to recal the IMU on a perfectly level surface - no joy. Can't reset back to factory settings because the new Assistant 2 (2.0.0 for phantom) doesn't have that option seeing as there is no new firmare released yet.

I do smell a slight acrid / plastic smell very close to the gimbal so it's possible one of the gimbal motors failed.

Out of 5 DJI products I've owned, 3 of them had issues so, regretfully, I'm now quite familiar with the RMA process (already started) - thankfully they haven't let me down yet ... However, before they get back to me anyone else have additional ideas?

Interestingly enough, I'm not getting any error messages on the Go 4 app. Also, Gimbal calibration completes at 100% without any errors...

Spirytus Posted at 2018-5-20 07:36
Interestingly enough, I'm not getting any error messages on the Go 4 app. Also, Gimbal calibration completes at 100% without any errors...

The only thing I would have suggested is to refresh the firmware but obviously you can't do that.
You could try a calibration of the RC. This calibrates the sticks but don't forget both the scroll wheels, one of which is the gimbal. It is a long shot.
Failing all that, some time back, there was a suggestion from DJI to do a gimbal calibration with the camera facing up. Just lean the drone backwards so it is resting with the camera facing up.

Jenee 2 Posted at 2018-5-20 22:28
The only thing I would have suggested is to refresh the firmware but obviously you can't do that.
You could try a calibration of the RC. This calibrates the sticks but don't forget both the scroll wheels, one of which is the gimbal. It is a long shot.
Failing all that, some time back, there was a suggestion from DJI to do a gimbal calibration with the camera facing up. Just lean the drone backwards so it is resting with the camera facing up.

Tried it, no joy. Gimbal is now making a screeching / grinding noise. After talking  with the service rep (who reviewed the video) it looks like one or more of the motors are done. Nothing else left to do except wait for my shipping label.


I guess my only consolation is that it happened early - I begin to wonder if this is something they should have picked up during QA but than again first flight went ok... I don't know,

I'm bummed ... Prime flying season (spring time here) and no drone (sold the mavic  to get this lemon).

Sorry to read your post. I've forwarded this to our engineers for review. We'll come back as long as there is an update.

Hi , it seems  there is some hardware problem occurred on your machine , please contact dji service

Just for your information #6 was a reply from one of the DJI engineers.
Best luck to you.

6# is the reply from our engineers, and we're sorry that you have to send the unit in for diagnosis. If you encounter any difficulties during the repair progress, feel free to contact us with your case number, we'll be here all the time.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-5-28 02:47
6# is the reply from our engineers, and we're sorry that you have to send the unit in for diagnosis. If you encounter any difficulties during the repair progress, feel free to contact us with your case number, we'll be here all the time.

Thanks Everyone,

Pretty much the same answer I recieved from the service rep; Hardware failure of the gimbal motor(s).

CAS-1821844-N8F4B5 : The Phantom was sent back to DJI repair station in Cerritos CA on Thursday. Should arrive there by June 1st (according to UPS).

I will not have it repaired. Since I'm within my 15 day period, I chose the exchange for a new unit. I will advise you if I run into problems but so far the process has been moving along fine.

Again this fault occured during the compass calibration procedure when the phantom was tilted vertically (and rotated 360 deg). From my experience, the gimbals never like when the aircraft is tilted/flipped/rotated during compass and IMU calibration. Maybe it would be possible to provide an option to power off or lock the gimbal in-place when compass / IMU calibration is taking place? Just a suggestion for the future revisions...

Thanks for your time,

I think you just had a dud buddy ....lots of people do Gimbal calibrations and sometimes you can feel the gimbal freak out but it should not die

Spirytus Posted at 2018-5-28 04:43
Thanks Everyone,

Pretty much the same answer I recieved from the service rep; Hardware failure of the gimbal motor(s).

Thanks for getting back to us. The local team will take care once the unit arrived. We'll keep an eye on the status as well.

So just to conclude my own thread; I received the  replacement yesterday. 22 days since I raised my ticket, not bad, considering I live in Canada.


For anyone wondering, it is a new unit - not refurbished.

Flew its maiden flight today and it's all good (knock on wood).

Thanks for the moral support everyone, thanks Susan for the follow-up and reassurance.

See you all in other threads.

Spirytus Posted at 2018-6-14 17:48
So just to conclude my own thread; I received the  replacement yesterday. 22 days since I raised my ticket, not bad, considering I live in Canada.

Thanks for your update and glad to know the issue was figured out in the end, we will keep improving our repair service and the time frame, happy flying.