On top of the well reported issues of the gimbal motor overload error, shaky video/gimbal when yawing on the Phantom 4 Pro/P4P, I've now got this issue where the gimbal goes limp or fails to initiate properly during start-up. This is my 3rd P4P with gimbal motor issues and I put it to DJI that the motors they're using for the P4P aren't adequate in torque/power. I had occassional gimbal motor overload issues on my P4 but only in sports mode. Can someone from DJI please confirm if they are using the same gimbal motors in the P4P as they did in the P4? With the larger sensor and possibly more weight, it's obvious the motors aren't delivering enough torque/power to handle requisite G forces of the P4P and in this case, it looks as though the motors have finally burnt out in my 3rd P4P suffering gimbal issues.

The motors are more than capable there is a guy here that has a flir camera mounted (velcro) underneath the p4p camera and it works great I think you are just have ribbon cable problems

I dont think the motors have caused the initial fault tho they may now be damaged.
Has it been crashed, hard landed or ac turned on with gimbal lock in place?
Have you got the latest firmware updates?
If so and if still under warranty i would be sending back to dji for repair/replacement

Hellsgate Posted at 2018-5-28 19:04
I dont think the motors have caused the initial fault tho they may now be damaged.
Has it been crashed, hard landed or ac turned on with gimbal lock in place?
Have you got the latest firmware updates?

The motors have been dodgy since day 1. As were the gimbal motors on my original P4P. I already lodged a case for the shaky gimbal and gimbal motor overload. The motors don't have enough torque. After a regular flight they are super hot which means they're working too hard to try and keep the camera level.
Never been crashed. Always hand catch. Gimbal lock used during transport.
Yes, latest firmware.

How many times have you forgotten to remove the gimbal clamp ;)

gyrex Posted at 2018-5-28 19:54
The motors have been dodgy since day 1. As were the gimbal motors on my original P4P. I already lodged a case for the shaky gimbal and gimbal motor overload. The motors don't have enough torque. After a regular flight they are super hot which means they're working too hard to try and keep the camera level.
Never been crashed. Always hand catch. Gimbal lock used during transport.
Yes, latest firmware.

I would be contacting dji support and explain the situation to them

Hellsgate Posted at 2018-5-29 01:21
I would be contacting dji support and explain the situation to them

Yeh, I've already contacted them with the gimbal motor overload issues and I've got a repair case already but I've been delaying sending it off since I'm in the middle of a 6 month trip around Australia and need my drone. Last time I sent it in for gimbal issues, it took them 3-4 weeks to send a replacement and I missed out on some potentially spectacular shots. I've just bought a Mavic Air as a backup drone because it's painfully clear the P4P has some major gimbal issues and I have no doubt I'll be sending the replacement P4P back at some stage in the near future for gimbal issues - do a search on the forums here and you'll come across many other users struggling with the gimbal.

The gimbal on the P4 and P3 was more stable/better designed than the P4P. As you can see by my flight miles in my profile (>1.2 million metres), I use my drone a lot. To the other guy talking about FLIR - big deal if the P4P is sitting stationary taking stills, but as soon as you apply any G-forces to the roll motor during a video shoot, it fails which means that any panning/yaw shots which put load on the roll motor makes it fail almost every time with gimbal motor overload errors (in P-GPS mode, forget about sport - no chance). To give you an idea, I could pan in sports mode on my P4 and only on occasions would I get a motor overload error, on my P4P I get it in P-GPS often and can't pan in sports at all. What a joke.

Your preaching to the already converted here ive sent mine in twice now for gimbal issues.
On the second time they replaced the drone and its been working perfectly ever since (touch wood).
I wouldnt give up on the p4p its an awesome piece of equipment and many pilots have had no trouble at all since new.
Unfortunately we only hear about the things that go wrong not the many thousands that have been sold that are working perfectly, sounds to me like your having a run of bad luck hopefully this time around it will be fixed and no more issues.
Good luck

gyrex Posted at 2018-5-29 02:42
Yeh, I've already contacted them with the gimbal motor overload issues and I've got a repair case already but I've been delaying sending it off since I'm in the middle of a 6 month trip around Australia and need my drone. Last time I sent it in for gimbal issues, it took them 3-4 weeks to send a replacement and I missed out on some potentially spectacular shots. I've just bought a Mavic Air as a backup drone because it's painfully clear the P4P has some major gimbal issues and I have no doubt I'll be sending the replacement P4P back at some stage in the near future for gimbal issues - do a search on the forums here and you'll come across many other users struggling with the gimbal.

The gimbal on the P4 and P3 was more stable/better designed than the P4P. As you can see by my flight miles in my profile (>1.2 million metres), I use my drone a lot. To the other guy talking about FLIR - big deal if the P4P is sitting stationary taking stills, but as soon as you apply any G-forces to the roll motor during a video shoot, it fails which means that any panning/yaw shots which put load on the roll motor makes it fail almost every time with gimbal motor overload errors (in P-GPS mode, forget about sport - no chance). To give you an idea, I could pan in sports mode on my P4 and only on occasions would I get a motor overload error, on my P4P I get it in P-GPS often and can't pan in sports at all. What a joke.

I am sorry to hear about what happened to your aircraft. Our engineers will take care of your drone when it arrives, hope everything goes smoothly, if you need any assistance during this process, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I had problems with the gimbal ( 3 bad p4 pros in a row) and finally bought the p4 advanced. There have been no issues whatsoever with anything, it’s still on the firmware that came with it....

gyrex Posted at 2018-5-29 02:42
Yeh, I've already contacted them with the gimbal motor overload issues and I've got a repair case already but I've been delaying sending it off since I'm in the middle of a 6 month trip around Australia and need my drone. Last time I sent it in for gimbal issues, it took them 3-4 weeks to send a replacement and I missed out on some potentially spectacular shots. I've just bought a Mavic Air as a backup drone because it's painfully clear the P4P has some major gimbal issues and I have no doubt I'll be sending the replacement P4P back at some stage in the near future for gimbal issues - do a search on the forums here and you'll come across many other users struggling with the gimbal.

The gimbal on the P4 and P3 was more stable/better designed than the P4P. As you can see by my flight miles in my profile (>1.2 million metres), I use my drone a lot. To the other guy talking about FLIR - big deal if the P4P is sitting stationary taking stills, but as soon as you apply any G-forces to the roll motor during a video shoot, it fails which means that any panning/yaw shots which put load on the roll motor makes it fail almost every time with gimbal motor overload errors (in P-GPS mode, forget about sport - no chance). To give you an idea, I could pan in sports mode on my P4 and only on occasions would I get a motor overload error, on my P4P I get it in P-GPS often and can't pan in sports at all. What a joke.

I have had motor overload problems since the early days with my P4P.
Initially I thought it's only on hard left turns.
Meanwhile I figured the worst for the gimbal is flying sideways in one direction while yawing to the other direction.
Like what the 'Point of Interest' mode gives you.

It's a matter of speed. I should try if that happens in tripod mode as well.
I just think that my way of flying is sometimes too hard for the gimbal to deal with so I'm not too upset with it.

Here is a screenshot from a flight today:

Eric13 Posted at 2018-5-29 14:15
I have had motor overload problems since the early days with my P4P.
Initially I thought it's only on hard left turns.
Meanwhile I figured the worst for the gimbal is flying sideways in one direction while yawing to the other direction.

That's definitely not normal mate and the gimbal should be able to fly without the gimbal roll motor failing in P-GPS mode like previous generation phantoms. There's major design issues with the P4P gimbal as far as I'm concerned and I'd suggest that the motor's aren't powerful enough (especially the roll motor). I'd send it back. My gimbal has now failed completely and no longer works, I'm sending mine back.

DJI Natalia Posted at 2018-5-29 10:07
I am sorry to hear about what happened to your aircraft. Our engineers will take care of your drone when it arrives, hope everything goes smoothly, if you need any assistance during this process, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I'm not getting my hopes up since this will be my 3rd P4P and I believe the gimbal motors aren't powerful enough for the P4P camera. The 3-4 week 'repair' turnaround in Australia is pretty bad too so I've had to fork out more money for a backup drone (Mavic air) due to the unreliability of the P4P.

gyrex Posted at 2018-5-29 14:37
I'm not getting my hopes up since this will be my 3rd P4P and I believe the gimbal motors aren't powerful enough for the P4P camera. The 3-4 week 'repair' turnaround in Australia is pretty bad too so I've had to fork out more money for a backup drone (Mavic air) due to the unreliability of the P4P.

I am sorry for this inconvenience. That would be the best thing that we can do as of the moment. Rest assured that this issue on your drones will be checking and diagnose well. In order for us to avoid this kind of issue.

gyrex Posted at 2018-5-29 14:37
I'm not getting my hopes up since this will be my 3rd P4P and I believe the gimbal motors aren't powerful enough for the P4P camera. The 3-4 week 'repair' turnaround in Australia is pretty bad too so I've had to fork out more money for a backup drone (Mavic air) due to the unreliability of the P4P.

I am sorry for this inconvenience. That would be the best thing that we can do as of the moment. Rest assured that this issue on your drones will be checking and diagnose well. In order for us to avoid this kind of issue.

I was having gimbal problems and sent me in since I bought it less than 6 months ago. Turns out it had a bad pitch-axis motor and a bad yaw-axis motor.

DJI Natalia Posted at 2018-5-29 14:50
I am sorry for this inconvenience. That would be the best thing that we can do as of the moment. Rest assured that this issue on your drones will be checking and diagnose well. In order for us to avoid this kind of issue.

So what happens when the gimbal motors inevitably fail and start throwing gimbal motor overload errors on my replacement drone number 3? I think we can safely say at that point that the P4P gimbal isn't fit for purpose and/or not designed properly.

gyrex Posted at 2018-5-29 20:50
So what happens when the gimbal motors inevitably fail and start throwing gimbal motor overload errors on my replacement drone number 3? I think we can safely say at that point that the P4P gimbal isn't fit for purpose and/or not designed properly.

This will be taken note and rest assured that I will forward this concern to our Engineer Team. You will receive their feedback once they are done with the damaged assessment. I apologized again for this inconvenience.

Hi
My P4P Plus gimbal has started to act up. No problem retaining a level horizon when flying sideways but when I rotate the aircraft the gimbal goes all over the place. I have adjusted the IMU etc. Cant think of anything else to try to cure this problem.