Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2016-5-9 11:20
Can we all dial this back a notch.  We are talking about two separate issues here.  One is the gimba ...

Am wondering if you have a way to rollback to a previous Firmware. It looks like some users did not have this issue before the latest firmware. Ed, can you post how to rollback if there is even a way?

sharpbirdy Posted at 2016-5-9 17:35
Latest firmware upgrad caused the issue with gimbal horizon...(in my case and many others)... and ye ...

I have read all posts here and Ed, the issue has started after the update to the latest firmware, the quality of dji service is really a hit and miss, on another forum someone sent it for this gimbal tilt and he got it service, guess what, his camera and gimbal did not even start up, id rather have a crooked horizon and fix it at every turn than having a non working bird.

jchooper12 Posted at 2016-5-9 12:53
Am wondering if you have a way to rollback to a previous Firmware. It looks like some users did no ...

if its a p4 connect to the assistant and it should give you an option to downgrade. Once craft is downgraded you must downgrade the RC as well. To do this click the academy icon on the home screen of the app (looks like a grad hat). You want to keep click and hold this for about 5-10sec. Once released you will be prompted to pick a FW to downgrade to.

visitkans Posted at 2016-5-9 12:56
I have read all posts here and Ed, the issue has started after the update to the latest firmware, t ...

Which issue? Horizon tilt or Gimbal cal fail?

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2016-5-9 23:38
Which issue? Horizon tilt or Gimbal cal fail?

Horizon tilt which happened to me after the firmware update, gimbal and imu calibrations succeed without issues and when i yaw the bird, the camera tilts and goes crooked again even after adding a gimbal roll correction

visitkans Posted at 2016-5-10 01:17
Horizon tilt which happened to me after the firmware update, gimbal and imu calibrations succeed w ...

You will need to redo the calibrations while the craft is cool. Sometimes it take 2-3 calibrations before you get a solid one that wont drift to bad. If you have a video example of this I could let you know if it's within spec or not.

There will always be a little drift, this is just part of the technology. The question is, is it within specs or not.

Here is some footage from the yuneec H,

As you can see the horizon is off by a fair amount.

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2016-5-9 18:38
if its a p4 connect to the assistant and it should give you an option to downgrade. Once craft is  ...

Is there any other way to rollback P4 firmware other than the Assistant 2 software? I have only gotten the firmware list to populate one time, hit the downgrade and it just sat at 0% forever.  All other attempts upon trying to load the firmware list shows failed to load firmware and the list never shows up again.

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2016-5-10 11:40
You will need to redo the calibrations while the craft is cool. Sometimes it take 2-3 calibrations ...

*****************************************Ed, please watch this video*****************************************
No one is talking about drift here. Here is the video of what happens. note, everytime the camera tilts quickly, that is the P4 doing it. The P4 auto tilt feature is at times 2sec, 11sec, 17sec, 24sec.  After the camera auto tilts I adjust the gimbal roll back to having a horizonal horizon.


Please tell me you can see what everyone else is experienceing in this video and stop calling it drift, there is a big difference.
It snaps out of place.  

I am trying to rollback but the Assistant 2 software will not load the firmware list. Any other way to do this minus sending it in?

jchooper12 Posted at 2016-5-10 17:14
*****************************************Ed, please watch this video******************************* ...

Perfect Jc, this is exactly what happens on mine, its not drift, every time you add a roll and then a yaw, tbe cam tilts which is a bit irritating.

I have done 3 calibrations for imu and gimbal, 2 of which are cold fridge calibs in the morning

Even their Assistant software is buggy. It took over an hour to get the downgrade version to download but now when it is trying to apply it, it gets to 10% and FAILS. I reboot the P4, try again, 10% fail, again, 10% fail. OMG  Is there a way to take the downloaded file and put it on the Micro SD to run the Upgrade?

jchooper12 Posted at 2016-5-10 09:11
Is there any other way to rollback P4 firmware other than the Assistant 2 software? I have only go ...

No I would recommend either moving closer to your wifi or if you have the option select 5.8. The Lightbridge kills most 2.4wifi. A hardwire connection to the router is the best.

jchooper12 Posted at 2016-5-10 09:14
*****************************************Ed, please watch this video******************************* ...

Correct that is not drift. Please reset gimbal and roll values. Then do a gimbal calibration. If that doesn't fix it that is hardware. As you said that isn't drift!

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2016-5-10 13:55
No I would recommend either moving closer to your wifi or if you have the option select 5.8. The L ...

I have the P4 connected using the usb cable and the downgrade downloaded but, during the upgrade process it gets to 10% than fails.  Then I got it to 54% once and failed.

or is there a way to do this from my ipad air 2

OMG, I finally got it downgraded. RESULTS ARE IN: SAME ISSUE UGH
App: V 2.8.1
Craft: V 01.00.0288
RC: V 1.5.80

Going to run the cold calibrations again, etc. One Last Time. If no work than off it goes.

TK-421 Posted at 2016-5-10 13:32
I have flown six different Phantom 4 units. Every single one of them has done this exact thing. Yo ...

Please if you can provide videos of these 6 units that would help too. I don't adjust my roll. I can usually get a solid cal and there is no need.

Have you turned off synchronized follow as well?

jchooper12 Posted at 2016-5-10 13:09
OMG, I finally got it downgraded. RESULTS ARE IN: SAME ISSUE UGH
App: V 2.8.1
Craft: V 01.00.0288

didn't think it was a fw issue.. please true not using roll adjustment and show the horizon after both IMU and gimbal calibration.

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2016-5-10 16:43
didn't think it was a fw issue.. please true not using roll adjustment and show the horizon after  ...

Refer to the Video I posted, that was after the IMU and Gimbal cal. DJI-BladeStrike, I am really glad your Phantom 4 works, why don't we just trade and you can have this brand new one and I will take your used one? You wanna trade and stand behind your product??? I think your test team should replace our drones as well with all the ones that are not having any issues, that would be a quick way to shut us up!

Just here to join the club... Tilted horizon and gimbal roll that doesn't work. Two of my friends that also have a P4 got the same problem. Pitty DJI doesn't seem to care...

I have the same snap issue with the manual gimbal roll adjustment...and had it also on the three replaced Phantom4. It seems to be a firmware fault of EVERY Phantom 4 ! Unbelievable they just don't test their products before selling them to the masses....

Hmmm... mixed emotions in posting here.  My new P4 does have a problem with the gimbal staying out of level, and this problem only showed up after the most recent firmware update.  Also, the squeaking sound appeared as soon as the firmware update finished.  (How the squeak, which has been proven to be a poorly engineered wrapping of the ribbon cable, only appeared after the firmware update for so many people, is a bit of a mystery).  I don't see that "Tick" problem, just that my gimbal won't stay level for long.  Not a huge problem since pretty much all of my work is 1080P, so I shoot 4k then rotate a bit in post.  But still, shouldn't be an issue and will hopefully be fixable via firmware.

REALITY CHECK time... (note: if you want to just stay angry and complain, don't bother reading on... )
I see that this thread is full of people who are really pissed, and in many ways, rightfully so.  But I have to say that some of the venting that is going on seems (IMHO) misplaced.  DJI is pretty much riding on the cutting edge of DOZENS of technologies required to make the P4 work.  Anyone on the cutting edge hits rough spots.  Extending that thought, we are all on the cutting edge with the P4 and we are all hitting rough spots.  

DJI appears to have a corporate culture that isn't great with customer service (by American standards), which is unfortunate.  But I have to say that some of the flame-outs that have happened in this thread toward the support moderators aren't right.  Maybe some of them could be a bit more professional, (which takes training) but in general, they said what they needed to say and some of the visitors to this thread weren't listening.

I agree with the moderator who said that this thread needs to take it back a notch in terms of personal attacks.  There is NOTHING positive that will come of attacking the people who are actually trying to help us. (FWIW: I have NEVER believed that "the customer is always right", that is a load of BS brought about by a bloated sense of entitlement. The customer is right when the customer is right, the vendor is right when the vendor is right.  Get over it.)

I ALSO have a problem with blind conjecturing about the DJI employees and engineers which is poisoning the message in this thread.  I worked at Apple for four years as a software engineer and I remember every insult that I read about how we didn't care, we didn't know what we were doing, we were releasing broken software and hardware because we were inept... none of this could have been farther from the truth.  We would have a million tech victories, but those few failures got all the press, and internally, we suffered those failures greatly.  Any company at the leading edge of technology is going to have countless missed steps because of the crazy amount of variables.  

I don't for one second believe that the people of DJI don't care... that is Ridiculous.  I can only imagine what kind of passion and intelligence it would take to create a flying remote control craft with a 4k camera that reaches out to up to 18 satellites, reads the terrain, communicates with a variety of manufacturers phones, tablets, computers and desktop operating systems (with a similarly wide variety of mobile OS versions), spews a real-time 720p video feed up to 3.5 miles, and on and on and on and on.  What an AMAZING and complicated piece of technology.

That said, I ABSOLUTELY believe that DJI needs to triple their efforts to figure out what is going on with this gimbal issue since there are too many of us that have the same complaint.   DJI's competition is heating up and if the public perception of DJI is that they are not putting their best efforts out there, DJI could end up just a footnote in the timeline of drone technology.  Social networking is pretty unforgiving of arrogance, no tech company can afford bad press... especially with competitors nipping their heels.

SO, if you want to get this problem fixed ASAP, don't flame out on the moderators!  Instead, help bring as many voices to this thread as possible. Some of you say that you know several people who have had the same problem, then it is on YOU to encourage them to add to this forum.  

Also, a few of you mentioned with great exasperation that DJI has replaced your P4 2 or 3 times (maybe more).  This is proof that DJI believes this problem to be intermittent, not widespread.  DJI has now lost money on you in an effort to help fix the problem and keep you happy.  Doesn't sound like a company that doesn't care to me, sounds to me like they are doing everything they can for now.... just saying.

I wonder how many P4s DJI has sold already?...  200,000?  300,000?  Even if it is only 10,000 the tiny (insignificant) sampling of people who are running into a gimbal problem (as evidenced in this thread) isn't worth DJI's time to try to research.  The number of people in this thread account for a minuscule percentage that can easily be considered a random hardware issue by DJI.. a bad batch.  

ALL tech companies need to see that a problem is widespread before they can justify the costs required to bring a remedy, because until they know a problem is widespread (and especially if they can't recreate it in the lab), nothing will immediately happen.  Doesn't mean they don't care, just means they are running their business correctly. Also in running their business correctly, there is no way in the world that any tech company is going to publicly acknowledge a potentially widespread issue unless it is absolutely confirmed to be a widespread problem.  If YOU all say there is a problem with the gimbal, so be it, you get heard here.  If DJI says there is a problem with the Gimbal, it makes front page news in all related tech pages and sales drop.  Don't expect them to publicly admit an issue unless it becomes so overwhelming that an admission is the only way to save face.  Short of that, they will fix the problem as quietly as possible.

I have no doubt that I will not get positive feedback from some of you, but keep in mind that I'm just trying to help get the problem fixed.  If you really want this problem fixed, it is less likely to happen if you are personally attacking the people who are trying to help you.

removed for profanity

same issue here... any update dji?

Out of interest...  I came across a video on YouTube with a tip on how to straighten P4 horizons.  It consisted of making sure the compass and IMU were accurately calibrated, then lifting off a couple of meters, hovering and then activating the 'Gimbal Calibration' routine from the DJI Go menu.    Because it's not on level ground where it's supposed to be, the calibration instantly fails, but oddly enough, the horizon goes straight.

I tried this.  My horizon did straighten out when the calibration routine was run even though a failure message appeared.  But...  When I yawed, the horizon tilted much more than it ever has. It was very bad.  What was interesting was when I flew in a straight line after the yaw, the horizon would level out and remain that way until I yawed again.  Below is a YouTube video I took today to show the result of flying right after trying a gimbal calibration test while hovering in the air.

Also experiencing this titled horizon. Also having some micro gimbal jumps when using yaw for panorama shots. Very disappointing indeed when this is supposed to be a 4K flying camera and those micro gimbal jumps just spoil your entire shot...logged an incident at DJI with video footage. Waiting for an answer.

jwt873@gmail.co Posted at 2016-5-26 05:30
Out of interest...  I came across a video on YouTube with a tip on how to straighten P4 horizons.  I ...

That is very interesting, it seems to cure it for a while.

Here is my tilt

This was my fix. . .

One of the DJI Rep's stated that the Gimbal uses the Compass to level.  This makes no sense to me. . . but I accept that as truth.  It also explains why the Gimbal Calibration while in the air is far more accurate than on the ground. . . since it would be using the GPS to stay level. . . and the "CALIBRATION FAILURE" occurs thus leaving the Horizon nice and level. . .  for a while. . .

Follow these (4) Four Simple Steps:

1. Let everything cool down.  1 or two hours.  No fridge or Early Mornings necessary.
2. Start up Everything. . . now LEAVE YOUR HOUSE and go Calibrate the Compass outside.  Inside the Kitchen or Living Room has too many magnetic Fields to work.
3. Use the COMPASS App on your iPhone (or equivalent on an Android) to be sure the surface is within 1 degree of perfectly level.4. Do the IMU Calibration.

I didn't even need to Calibrate the Gimbal... it just leveled itself.  I had been omitting Step #2 every time I tried this.  My bad.

This has worked for 3 days now (horizon off by less than 1 or 2 degrees... I can definitely live with that).  Hope it works for the next three days.

I hope...