I have seen people putting zip ties on there phantom 3 gimbal where the vibration absorbers are, and I'm wondering if there's any way that the p3 gimbal can fall off if those vibration absorbers some how fall out... Thx

Correct me if I'm wrong but there are anti-drop pins on the vibration absorbers... So I'm pretty sure it will stay on.

If you pull hard enough, it will "fall" off

Notice the two plastic tabs - the "anti-drop pins". They keep it secure even if the dampeners should fail.

You should not worry abou this (as long as the two anti-drop-pins are installed).

FantomDK Posted at 2015-6-21 08:48
If you pull hard enough, it will "fall" off

Notice the two plastic tabs - the "anti-drop pins".  ...

Early on, I had a minor skirmish with a palm tree. The Phantom fell into the grass from a height of about five feet and the battery fell out. Nothing appeared damaged and everything appeared to work as expected.

Several days later, I clipped a wire (part of my amateur radio antenna system) and my Phantom fell on the roof. Broken prop, scuffed arm, a minor "pucker" on the body (fixed it the other day) and the gimbal *almost* came off. One of those clear plastic retaining pins tried to come off. The end opposite the little "washer" got shoved through the hole and a couple of the shock absorbers had been dragged through the hole.

Fortunately, about 20 minutes worth of effort got everything back together - no cable faults/tears that I could see. Fired everything back up, calibrated everything possible and been flying just fine ever since.

Kind of felt I learned a good lesson without a terrific expense, but, to be on the safe side, I ordered some extra props. Now I've got a treasure-trove of props - haven't damaged one in several weeks. Of course I've been giving my 50+ foot tower and wires a much wider berth!

Those retaining pins *can* come out, but I would expect there would be a lot of damage in the process. I'll bet the pins were designed to help keep everything intact in a hard/firm landing, not a true crash. Mine fell about 30 feet onto the roof. A few more inches and it would have landed on some patio stones - *that* would probably have been the end!

I hit a tree and my P3 hit the deck, resulted in broken gimbal and cables being ripped out of the plug that goes into the gimbal !!!

Manged to superglue the gimbal and reconnect the cables into the plug, all working again now, but have now zip tied the gimbal via the open holes.

Would you recommend zip ties? Anything bad about using zip ties? Would it affect the gimbal/camera at all? Thanks.

I always use 4 retaining pins instead of the 2 provided after my P2 once lost its gimbal after a small crash.

uhayat@hotmail. Posted at 2015-6-21 21:27
I always use 4 retaining pins instead of the 2 provided after my P2 once lost its gimbal after a sma ...

Does 4 retaining pins affect the gimbal? or camera performance? I would also like to try that.

Jack57 Posted at 2015-6-21 21:56
Does 4 retaining pins affect the gimbal? or camera performance? I would also like to try that.

Yes, four pins being used to hold the camera to the upper gimbal plate will effect the camera and the isolation mount system.

If you use the cable tie in the two holes that are empty, put the cable tie in and leave it lose so as to not interfere with the gimbal movement.

gregg1r Posted at 2015-6-21 23:16
Yes, four pins being used to hold the camera to the upper gimbal plate will effect the camera and  ...

How loose would you recommend it to be? And how short should the cable tie be? Thx

Victor7k Posted at 2015-6-21 23:21
How loose would you recommend it to be? And how short should the cable tie be? Thx

Leave about an 1/8 slack in each end. A 4" long cable tie approximately 3/32-1/8" wide will suffice.

What some people do is to use a pair of pliers and bend the tie 90 degrees, insert in the gimbal and bend another 90 degrees and insert into the lock. Clip off the excess material.

The tie should be able to float up and down freely if do did it correctly.

Victor7k Posted at 2015-6-21 23:21
How loose would you recommend it to be? And how short should the cable tie be? Thx

Check this thread out... : http://forum.dji.com/thread-22022-1-3.html

Use the 2 anti drop pins recommended by DJI.  Zip ties are for people who lost their anti drop pins and are too lazy to purchase replacements.  But zip ties may not work as well because the curl can interfere with the damping provided by the rubber mounts.

Using all four pins sometimes introduces jello. So, people use plastic zip ties instead.

Here's how I have mine attached:



It should be attached very loosely. When touching the zip tie, it should move freely.

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Phantom Help Posted at 2015-6-22 01:21
Using all four pins sometimes introduces jello. So, people use plastic zip ties instead.

Here's how ...

Thanks guys I'm gonna do this with my p3 today.

Wait how about fishing line? could that be better then cable ties? I mean I would be using some Strong fishing line.

Jack57 Posted at 2015-6-21 21:56
Does 4 retaining pins affect the gimbal? or camera performance? I would also like to try that.

The additional 2 pins weighed just 1.2 grams and no effect that I could notice.

Jack57 Posted at 2015-6-22 04:19
Wait how about fishing line? could that be better then cable ties? I mean I would be using some Stro ...

I have mine secured with a fishing line

FantomDK Posted at 2015-6-21 08:48
If you pull hard enough, it will "fall" off

Notice the two plastic tabs - the "anti-drop pins".  ...

I had a minor spill in the driveway with my Blade 350. Amazingly, although I didn't break any props, one of the anti-drop pins came loose - I lost the little washer that goes on the end of the plastic pin.

The anti-drop pins are very similar on the Phantom Vision, Phantom 3 and the Blade 350 - there are some apparently minor variations in size.

I contacted Horizon Hobby and they told me the pins were never meant to be sold as replacement parts. So I went snooping on the web. This was several weeks ago and there were hardly any P3 parts showing up at that time.

Eventually, I came to the Drone Nerds web site and there were a few parts here and there specific to the P3, but not these anti-drop pins. Since things were really inexpensive, I ordered some of the little rubber dampeners (the shock absorbers) that were designed for the Phantom Vision. They look like they're too big to fit my Phantom. Getting the things on and off is enough of a pain that I didn't try - yet.

I also found some anti-drop pins. These are designed for a Zen Muse gimbal and are identified as "...Zen Muse Damping Unit Secure Kit..." and they're essentially the same as those in the Phantom 3, but appear to be larger.

As an experiment, I installed one of them (they're sold for about $3 - $5 in a set of 10, so they're very inexpensive) on my Blade 350. The washer was pretty hard to snap on, but it fit without excessive restraint on the rubber "barrel." Then, continuing the experiment, I tried to take it off. I couldn't get it off - wow! I ultimately bent it and bent it and bent it and it still wouldn't come loose. I finally had to take a small pair of diagonal cutters and physically cut the shaft just inside the washer.

Haven't yet gotten around to trying one of these on the P3 gimbal. I guess if my Phantom ever lands hard enough to remove one of these pins there won't be very many large parts to salvage!

I guess the Horizon Hobby guys figured if you ever crash something hard enough to remove one of those holding pins, you would need the whole gimbal. Maybe in that case they'll come with a couple of new pins!