I've been searching the internet but found no solution or many cases of my exact problem. I would like to know if any of you have experienced this and how you solved.

After having my Mavic stored for 3 months I tried to fly it for the first time but noticed the feed was shaky AF. Landed and discovered the gimbal was completely dead. Tried restarting the drone several times with no luck. Never crashed the drone or hit it with anything while stored. Gimbal was always protected with the plastic enclosure.

The thing is that the gimbal initializes correctly and it's not after the initial sound that it goes limp:

https://i.imgur.com/f88yOil.mp4

Other times the gimbal works just fine. This video was taken 5 minutes after the previous one:

https://i.imgur.com/u4Ild7b.mp4

No errors, Gimbal Status on the app is "Normal", gimbal calibration doesn't work when it fails but does when it has power.

I updated firmware and performed a factory reset with the desktop app, the issue persists. These are my theories:

A) Firmware issue.

Some file is corrupted and it cannot be fixed by factory reseting. Are there any ways of knowing this?

B) Gimbal cable is damaged.

First thing that came to mind but I don't believe this is the case as the drone has been flying great for 2 years and it has not crashes. Also it ALWAYS initializes fine and sometimes the gimbal works fine through the whole flight.

C) Something to do with the batteries (?).

I noticed when you turn off the battery, before the drone shuts down completely, the first thing that goes off is the gimbal (See video below). My basis for this one is that the only thing that I used while the drone was stored where the batteries to occasionaly charge my phone/camera with the USB adaptor.

https://i.imgur.com/w3qFkT3.mp4

Update:

Flew the Mavic today as it was working and there was a really cool sunset. All going well until 10 minutes into the flight when the camera started going limp and doing this movements: https://i.imgur.com/sDImY90.mp4

Hello there. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for providing this video links. Since you have done several troubleshooting steps to fix the said issue and still the issue persists. It seems that there might be an issue with the hardware of the said drone. 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 find out the reason of the said issue and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again, I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for your understanding.

Update 1:


I went ahead and performed some testing myself before sending it in.

I "refreshed" the FW 3 times with Assistant for Mavic yesterday, one for each battery just to make sure. Just to be clear, I had no "Insonsistent firmware" message with neither battery before, I did it for good measure.

Powered on the drone throughout the day and the camera worked every single time with all 3 batteries.

Fast forward to this afternoon, I went for a hike and when I reached the top I got ready to fly the Mavic and surprise, dead gimbal after calibration...

Hypothesis at that moment:
It's the cold weather which contracts some electric component
The movement of the backpack shifts a poor fited cable
So I arrived home, let the drone warm up, tested and gimbal still limp with every battery.

I then re-refreshed the FW one more time and just after it was done, gimbal works fine every time I powered it on again. The drone wasn't moved, it was updated on the same table where it was failing 2 minutes prior.

Hypothesis now:
FW issue that appears after a trigger (temp. shifts, movement, time powered off...) Is that even possible?

I'm going to keep testing.

Update 2:
After some testing for my hypothesis these are the results:

Base condition: FW refresh and the gimbal working propperly

- If the drone is left resting at room temperature, the gimbal works without any issues, no matter the time it has been standing idle. I cannot replicate the issue.
- If I put the drone outside in the cold for 15-30 mins the issure reappears. I've done this several times.
- After the issue reappears, an inmediate FW refresh won't work, the Mavic has to warm up first. Once it's warmed up for a while the issue is gone.
- When the drone is taken inside, a "warm" battery won't solve the issue either, so batteries are discarded as a culprit.

This is really interesting and it would explain why this issue has not appeared before last year, as I've mostly flown the drone in warm weather until now.

I've never seen anything like this before.

I will contact DJI support with my findins to see if it can be fixed with warranty. The issue appeared just two months after warranty expired (September), drone has never crashed, not bumped, always stored with plastic clamp. Again, this issue appeared after the drone was safely stored for 3 months and when I tried to fly in cold weather for the first time (November).

The connection of gimbal is made through a very thin wire...possible to be broken inside and when is cold, the cable constrict itself and stops making contact...this can be checked if you put it outside without battery, start it with a warm battery...if is doing this mess, remove battery, get it inside....leave it at 24-25 degrees for 3 hours, put battery and start it...if is going fine, is clear that is a wire that is shrinking at cold temp.
Also can be a bad glue of a contact on board and can act the same.
Use an ohm meter to measure the cable resistance at cold and warm environment, will give you a clue.

FB: GeoDrone4K Posted at 1-31 04:54
The connection of gimbal is made through a very thin wire...possible to be broken inside and when is cold, the cable constrict itself and stops making contact...this can be checked if you put it outside without battery, start it with a warm battery...if is doing this mess, remove battery, get it inside....leave it at 24-25 degrees for 3 hours, put battery and start it...if is going fine, is clear that is a wire that is shrinking at cold temp.
Also can be a bad glue of a contact on board and can act the same.
Use an ohm meter to measure the cable resistance at cold and warm environment, will give you a clue.

Just did that test. Indeed when de drone gets warm the gimbal works again.
I can accelerate the process if I turn on the drone for a couple of minutes and leave it idling.

Now the question would be where the actual component that is failing is. Is it the gimbal cable, a component on some PCB? I will wait on DJIs response to my request and act accordingly.

fanse267684a Posted at 1-31 05:52
Just did that test. Indeed when de drone gets warm the gimbal works again.
I can accelerate the process if I turn on the drone for a couple of minutes and leave it idling.

Hard to tell...but i incline to say is a contact that is not perfect or the cable...
DJI will give you this:
"We need to change all MB, it costs you xxxUSD" )))
Do you wanna bet? )))

FB: GeoDrone4K Posted at 1-31 06:39
Hard to tell...but i incline to say is a contact that is not perfect or the cable...
DJI will give you this:
"We need to change all MB, it costs you xxxUSD" )))

You called it.

I get that the drone is barely out of warranty but the lack of any kind of help when this is clearly a manufacturing issue is sadening. I offered to send the logs their way and they refused.

On the technical side I have now tested leaving the drone inside and next to the window (19 degrees celsius) and I can replicate the issue. Bring it to a warmer area of the house and it works again.

I will review my options but it would be great if DJI would collaborate with me a bit more.

fanse267684a Posted at 2-14 02:12
You called it.

I get that the drone is barely out of warranty but the lack of any kind of help when this is clearly a manufacturing issue is sadening. I offered to send the logs their way and they refused.

Hi,
As the drone is over 2 years old, there would be no warranty. If you bought the drone in Norway they may be able to repair it or send it to the authorised repairer some where in Netherlands. This is what would happened here in Sweden. I was told that they send drones for repair in Netherlands. You may find their name somewhere in DJIs web site or ask the local seller what they do.

Somewhere here in the forum is a video on how you can take the drone apart if you are handy and dare do it. The flat cable from the camera that goes in to the socket on the motherboard  may have come lose, as it should have been glued on. By just moving it out and back may solve the problem and put back some silicon.

If not, next step would be to re solder the back of the socket fixed to the motherboard in case it was a cold soldering joint. This would be on the other side of the motherboard.

If the problem is in the camera module itself, I would be stuck and would give the drone in for service or taking the chance purchasing another camera module.

Wish you good luck and if I find the video I will put it here.
This was not the one I saw here in the forum, but it shows how to take things apart and wher the ribbon cable and socket fits on to the mother board.
there are many more on the internet.

Leaving this here for anyone who stumbles with the same problem and for DJI to take note of this malfuction.
I ended up isolating the issue to the camera enclosure backplate, applying cold to it reproduced the issue.
I proceeded to get the backpate off as it seemed really easy:

See anything weird?:


A bit closer...


Aaaand there you go:


That connector has been barely held in place by the backplate. When I try to click it back in it won't stay, one of the latches is not possitioned propperly and won't click:https://gph.is/g/aNLyJA9



Easily fixable by getting something sharp (and prefferably plastic) behind it and pulling it a bit out so it creates more pressure against the connector.


And that's it, tested it in the cold and works perfectly fine.

I would like to reiterate that the drone has never crashed nor dropped nor been bumped against anything. Even so, this problem most probably wouldn't be caused by any of that as the cable would click back in. This is clearly a reaaaally small manufacturing issue where the latch was bent inwards by something prior to assembly, enough for the cable not to click in. The use and vibrations have been pulling the connector out more and more until it was only held in place by the backplate, in a way that barely made contact. Thus, when I tried it to fly in the cold, the metal contracted itself and broke contact, making the gimbal go limp.

Cheers to everybody that helped, really appreciated the guides and suggestions!

fanse267684a Posted at 2-19 12:25
Leaving this here for anyone who stumbles with the same problem and for DJI to take note of this malfuction.
I ended up isolating the issue to the camera enclosure backplate, applying cold to it reproduced the issue.
I proceeded to get the backpate off as it seemed really easy:

Congratulations to daring digging in to the gimbal and to have found the problem.  I will keep this to my list of tricks should it ever happen to me. Many thanks for showing the problem and the great clarities of the photos. Happy flying in the cold again.