Hello, I have a gimbal jitter/vibration problem in my Mavic 2 pro. This is happening since several months ago. Does anybody had or experienced the same problem? I calibrated the gimbal several times and the probles persists. Everything is up to date, software and firmware. I have here some video examples:



Thanks in advance.

Not sure if this is the gimbal, or something in the file itself.

Montfrooij Posted at 12-22 06:28
Not sure if this is the gimbal, or something in the file itself.

Thanks for the replay. what do you mean?

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 06:36
Thanks for the replay. what do you mean?

It could be there is an issue with the file(s) instead of the gimbal.
So not the gimbal that 'shakes' but the file that is not written correctly.
Do you experience this also when the drone and gimbal are not moving?

Montfrooij Posted at 12-22 06:41
It could be there is an issue with the file(s) instead of the gimbal.
So not the gimbal that 'shakes' but the file that is not written correctly.
Do you experience this also when the drone and gimbal are not moving?

Mmhhh, I don´t think is a file problem. If you see the movie  frame x frame, you can see motion blured frames, as the camera is vibrating quite fast. This problem is  random, sometimes is there and other times is not there. I didn´t experience this when the drone is on the ground, without the motors started. For me is a problem the gimbal is not working properly when the drone is moving

Do you have an example of a file where the drone and gimbal are not moving?
You could very well be right, but just to rule it out!

Montfrooij Posted at 12-22 06:56
Do you have an example of a file where the drone and gimbal are not moving?
You could very well be right, but just to rule it out!

Ok.
Next stop : try new props.
If they are not in balance, it can cause vibrations.

New props is one of the things I tried first. No luck
I don´t know if ther is any secret doing gimbal an other things calibration.... I did a lot of calibrations and also no luck

This looks like a framerate/shutter speed issue.  If your frame rate is 25 fps, and your shutter speed is higher, say 1/500, then the shutter is released 20 times per frame.  If nothing's 'moving' no big deal, but if the entire frame is panning you never finish a frame completely, so it's like a multi-exposure. Try slowing the shutter speed to 2x your frame rate. (This is where ND filtes come in). I see that it looks good before you zoom in, which makes me more sure that your shutter speed is too high.

Also, I still struggle with this, but slooooow panning is important.  I can't remember where I read this but with the MP at 25fps, you should never pan faster than 13 sec (ie replace the whole frame).  I'm sure there's a calculation using the 28mm focal length and 77 degree fov that uses the fps to come up with that number, but I don't know it - I just remember the 13 sec.

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 07:11
New props is one of the things I tried first. No luck
I don´t know if ther is any secret doing gimbal an other things calibration.... I did a lot of calibrations and also no luck

Ok.
I'm out of options.

Porktree Posted at 12-22 07:16
This looks like a framerate/shutter speed issue.  If your frame rate is 25 fps, and your shutter speed is higher, say 1/500, then the shutter is released 20 times per frame.  If nothing's 'moving' no big deal, but if the entire frame is panning you never finish a frame completely, so it's like a multi-exposure. Try slowing the shutter speed to 2x your frame rate. (This is where ND filtes come in). I see that it looks good before you zoom in, which makes me more sure that your shutter speed is too high.

Also, I still struggle with this, but slooooow panning is important.  I can't remember where I read this but with the MP at 25fps, you should never pan faster than 13 sec (ie replace the whole frame).  I'm sure there's a calculation using the 28mm focal length and 77 degree fov that uses the fps to come up with that number, but I don't know it - I just remember the 13 sec.

Thank you for the reply
I always (or almost always) shoot at 1/50 shutter speed with ND filters. The first 3 examples ars shot in that way. The fact is the drone were working very well the first 6 months until this problem arose.

I did tests using different exposure times and the problem was there at all speeds.

The problem for me is stabilitation in Y AXIS, always vibrating right-left. You can see the MB in the video examples below
EDITED:

Also, I thought it could be a problem of a bad attached filter and I did tests without the filters without luck.

Montfrooij Posted at 12-22 07:21
Ok.
I'm out of options.

Thank you. I´ll see if I have some response from technical service

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 07:33
Thank you. I´ll see if I have some response from technical service

Hope you get it fixed!

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 07:24
Thank you for the reply
I always (or almost always) shoot at 1/50 shutter speed with ND filters. The first 3 examples ars shot in that way. The fact is the drone were working very well the first 6 months until this problem arose.

Sorry to hear that.  It does look more like a hardware issue then.   

Have you tried locking the gimble whilst shooting or is it locked when shooting.?

RK7dronzy Posted at 12-22 08:26
Have you tried locking the gimble whilst shooting or is it locked when shooting.?

Thank you for your reply.
I think I´ve tried both in my tests.
What is the difference bettween locking and and unlocking?

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 08:34
Thank you for your reply.
I think I´ve tried both in my tests.
What is the difference bettween locking and and unlocking?

There are 2 gimbal mode operations. Follow mode (which I think is a locket mode) where the angle between the gimbals orientation and the aircraft's nose remains constant at all times.
The other mode is FVP mode where the gimbal synchronises with the movement of the aircraft to provide what they call a first-person perspective flying experience.
You can find this in the manual version 2.0 latest on page 37.

kyalami Posted at 12-22 10:26
There are 2 gimbal mode operations. Follow mode (which I think is a locket mode) where the angle between the gimbals orientation and the aircraft's nose remains constant at all times.
The other mode is FVP mode where the gimbal synchronises with the movement of the aircraft to provide what they call a first-person perspective flying experience.
You can find this in the manual version 2.0 latest on page 37.

Ahh ok. Yes, I know these modes. I always shot in follow mode.

I thought you were meaning to the setting located in the camera menu, "lock and unlock gimbal when recording".  I was reading about this and people use it when they are doing  long exposure pictures, for example 1 second exposure and is better to  set to "lock".

BTW, I think the video clips I posted  above the setting was in lock mode (camera setting, not FPV). I will test lock and unlock to see if there is any difference when recording video.

THX

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 10:56
Ahh ok. Yes, I know these modes. I always shot in follow mode.

I thought you were meaning to the setting located in the camera menu, "lock and unlock gimbal when recording".  I was reading about this and people use it when they are doing  long exposure pictures, for example 1 second exposure and is better to  set to "lock".

I think one thing is that it does not do this when the drone is on the ground, so therefore it has to be some unbalance in the drone when you fly it. It almost look like some beat frequency of some sorts, as it seams to come and go. Is this something that has started recently and how long have you had the drone for? Have you had any form of crash landing?
It would be interesting to hear comments from DJI about this and if the have any solution without having to send it in for repair.

kyalami Posted at 12-22 11:26
I think one thing is that it does not do this when the drone is on the ground, so therefore it has to be some unbalance in the drone when you fly it. It almost look like some beat frequency of some sorts, as it seams to come and go. Is this something that has started recently and how long have you had the drone for? Have you had any form of crash landing?
It would be interesting to hear comments from DJI about this and if the have any solution without having to send it in for repair.

No hard landings, I had a spark 2 years and learn to fly with it. I am very carefull flying in safe areas, no zones with  interferences from high voltage wires, etc.

The problem begun several months ago, 8 or 9. I dont fly too much, batteries are charged like 25 times.

I agree it has to be related with some problem when the drone flies. If the props are off and I take the drone and do some movements, even fast movements, the recording is ok.

I will keep informed here if I have any news from the technical service.

Thank you and I also hope is a settings problem, not a hardware nightmare.

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 11:41
No hard landings, I had a spark 2 years and learn to fly with it. I am very carefull flying in safe areas, no zones with  interferences from high voltage wires, etc.

The problem begun several months ago, 8 or 9. I dont fly too much, batteries are charged like 25 times.

This feels like a hard one understand what it could be. I will keep an eye open for and assistance from DJI. It would be very interesting to learn what the problem is. Wish you good luck

Hello there. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we also know if your DJI Mavic 2 Pro had a hard landing or a crash before this issue happened and since you have done several troubleshooting steps to fix the said issue but still the issue persists. I would recommend you contact our support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance. We have a team who would do their best to assess and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again, I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for your understanding.

ISAAC VFX Posted at 12-22 07:07
https://youtu.be/uKx8zoMl9ps

Where you show that the jitter does not happen when you place the drone on the ground, is the props running or not? If props are not running, try run the props, just to see if there is a difference.

kyalami Posted at 12-23 00:11
Where you show that the jitter does not happen when you place the drone on the ground, is the props running or not? If props are not running, try run the props, just to see if there is a difference.

Hello, There is no difference runing the prop or not whene de aircraft is in the ground.

Yesterday I got a replay from the DJI  and  I was told to send the aircraft to repair if the problem persists, so I opened a procedure to send it to the technical service. I did this morning another IMU/gimbal calibration and the problem is still there.

Thank you all the people here that gave me some possible clues to solve the problem.

And also DJI for the quick replay.

I will keep posting how it goes, as I am in Spain the drone travels to DJI Europe in Netherlands

So finally DJI sent me a brand new drone. Thank you so much DJI for tbe fast response and fast solving problem. It took like a week between sending and getting the new Mavic.

5 STARS FOR DJI IN THIS CASE

ISAAC VFX Posted at 1-24 06:26
So finally DJI sent me a brand new drone. Thank you so much DJI for tbe fast response and fast solving problem. It took like a week between sending and getting the new Mavic.

5 STARS FOR DJI IN THIS CASE

Great to hear that you got a new drone and thanks for coming back here and advice us. Now we know that it must have been a problem you could not fix yourself.