Is this gimbal issue that I'm having considered normal or should I send it for warranty repair?


It feels like the gimbal is trying to tilt left all the time. Sometimes it does it when just flying forward, but when rotating left it does it every single time. When rotating right there is no problem.

I have done:
-Couple firmware reinstallations
-Couple IMU calibrations
-Several compass calibrations
-Several gimbal calibrations
-Camera/gimbal calibration with DJI assistant 2
-Tried different propellers

Now I'm out of ideas.

After gimbal calibration it looks like this:
DJI_0181

After Gimbal Roll Adjustment +1.3 it looks like this:
DJI_0180

After the Gimbal Roll Adjustment there are still issues every time when rotating left and sometimes when flying forward

Have you tried placing your Mavic on an uneven surface and then doing the gimbal calibration?
Make that uneven surface adjustable until the calibration is what you want.

Sounds a bit weird way of "fixing" the possible hardware issue, but I guess I could give it a try tomorrow.

I would rather have this fixed before 1) Warranty is over 2) Any possible crash would end the warranty

I have the same issue. I am going to do the calibrations again.

Lay Posted at 2017-8-16 12:40
Sounds a bit weird way of "fixing" the possible hardware issue, but I guess I could give it a try tomorrow.

I would rather have this fixed before 1) Warranty is over 2) Any possible crash would end the warranty

Have you tried shooting something horizontal such as an ocean or a lake without any background or a group of buildings/houses?
Or fly the Mavic as high as possible and shoot the horizon.
Shooting nature as you did in your example could be an optical illusion.

MARSAN Posted at 2017-8-16 13:52
Have you tried shooting something horizontal such as an ocean or a lake without any background or a group of buildings/houses?
Or fly the Mavic as high as possible and shoot the horizon.
Shooting nature as you did in your example could be an optical illusion.

Set the Mavic on a level surface ( I use a bubble level app on my phone to make sure is level in this case my desk )
Go into your gimbal settings and adjust the Gimbal Roll feature until the frame is perfectly level, I have mine set at -1, I made a gerry rig, piecing 1" PVC pipe at the exact height of center camera, I place this on my desk about 3' from the camera and align the roll to the horizontal PVC, the calibrate the gimbal and see if the slant occurs again, if not all is good, if it does than probably a hardware issue.

DJI states that you can physically adjust the roll of the camera by turning a little past center towards the opposite direction of the slanted horizon, don't know if I would trust this method.

Anyway if you start with a perfectly level surface to place the drone on and have a perfectly level horizon fixture to align to, pretty sure the gimbal roll adjustment will work.
Looking at your pictures it doesn't seem to be out that much, mine was much worse.

Please make sure that you calibrate the IMU and gimbal on a level surface, that's really important. Besides, plus or minus 10 degrees for the Roll axis of the gimbal leveling is normal, you can adjust it manually back to horizontal.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-16 19:18
Please make sure that you calibrate the IMU and gimbal on a level surface, that's really important. Besides, plus or minus 10 degrees for the Roll axis of the gimbal leveling is normal, you can adjust it manually back to horizontal.

This time I adjustet my table to be 100% level.

20170817_084218

20170817_084206

I did IMU and gimbal calibrations per instructions. During the gimbal calibration, the gimbal stays level, but right in the end it tilts left

org_8433626db36861db_1502949247000

After gimbal roll adjustment 1.6+ it is level. The window is level.

org_bb98491570d847a5_1502949320000

If plus or minus 10 degrees is normal, then what about 16 degrees? I don't mind fixing it with gimbal roll adjustment, but still tilts left while flying.

Lay Posted at 2017-8-16 22:09
This time I adjustet my table to be 100% level.

[view_image]20170817_084218

Thanks for the feedback, also, our engineers are working on this case, and we will optimize it via the firmware. Please wait patiently.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-17 00:45
Thanks for the feedback, also, our engineers are working on this case, and we will optimize it via the firmware. Please wait patiently.

DJI NL Techical Support suggested that I send it for them for warranty repair.

I might just do that since the only purpose for me to buy Mavic Pro was to take/edit 4K video and RAW pictures together with my Canon 5D IV DSLR. 4K video with tilting horizon problem is a PITA when editing.

Case Number:  CAS-903245-K8C4L5

Lay Posted at 2017-8-17 09:28
DJI NL Techical Support suggested that I send it for them for warranty repair.

I might just do that since the only purpose for me to buy Mavic Pro was to take/edit 4K video and RAW pictures together with my Canon 5D IV DSLR. 4K video with tilting horizon problem is a PITA when editing.

That's alright. Hope you can get the drone back to the air soon. I'll help to keep an eye on it.

Little update:

Last week I sent the Mavic + Controller for a warranty repair. Everything went smoothly except after carefully packing everything I realized that I left the 64Gb SanDisk Extreme Pro memorycard inside the Mavic. About 15min and huge amount of packing tape later Mavic was packed without my memorycard.

Today I got this information:
After testing and diagnosing your product, DJI will provide you with the free repair service.
Remark：Warranty. Tilt on roll. doesnt stabilize itself to horizontal angle
They are going to change the Gimbal Control Board

So far so good DJI!

My Mavic was in mint condition, so hopefully they will repair it or send a mint condition replacement. Can't wait to get it back.

ps. In the end there was "Images of Damaged Parts" and picture of my whole Mavic.

Actually mine does the same thing.  During gimbal cal, at about 85% everything looks straight, but then right at the very end before the cal complete message, it tilts to the left slightly.  It drives me crazy and I can't figure out why it would happen.    Because of this, I always need a gimbal roll adjustment of about .7-.8 to keep the horizon straight.     When yawing fast it does tilt again, but pretty much restabilizes after the bird does.   I have no plans to send it in for repair because I don't want to risk getting one back with new problems.   

That said, this discussion does raise an interesting question.  How does gimbal cal work?   I always reset the roll to zero, put it on a level surface and hit cal.   Should I be keeping the roll adjustment as it is prior to starting the calibration?  Does the calibration depend on gravity & internal sensors, or does it actually use the camera image to look for horizontal lines?  If the latter, then that's where I've been screwing up - I never pay attention to what is in front of the cam when I hit calibrate.

LP

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-16 19:18
Please make sure that you calibrate the IMU and gimbal on a level surface, that's really important. Besides, plus or minus 10 degrees for the Roll axis of the gimbal leveling is normal, you can adjust it manually back to horizontal.

In the gimbal roll adjustment, does 1 equate to 10 degrees, or 1?   A roll adjustment of '10' seems REALLY high to me to be normal...but you guys designed the thing so you know best.   I was just wondering if I'm reading the roll adjustment wrong.

LP

Lay Posted at 2017-8-29 04:50
Little update:

Last week I sent the Mavic + Controller for a warranty repair. Everything went smoothly except after carefully packing everything I realized that I left the 64Gb SanDisk Extreme Pro memorycard inside the Mavic.  About 15min and huge amount of packing tape later Mavic was packed without my memorycard.

Thanks for the update.

I'm having the same issue with my Mavic Pro. It's not quite 2 weeks old and I didn't notice the gimbal roll tilt until I shot some horizon photos. I've done all the calibrations, IMU, Gimbal and refreshed the firmware and re-calibrated everything again but to no avail. I'm not buying that a 10 degree gimbal adjustment is normal. That excuse would be the same as saying that it's normal for a brand new car, right off the lot, to pull to the left. Seems like this would be an easy firmware fix so I'm trusting that DJI is working on it with a solution in the very near future.

Sunrise

I'm wondering what people are expecting.   Are they expecting the horizon to automatically be perfectly level after a cal?   If that were the case, why would DJI offer a roll adjustment?   The fact that it's there tells me that they expect that many times it will need an adjustment.   Maybe I'm being naive....

LP

I have calibrated my gimbal and adjusted the roll.  As soon as I get in the air it goes crooked.  I bring it down, re-adjust the roll so its level, take off and it goes crooked.  After dealing with this for many months I finally got frustrated and sent it back to DJI.  Figured since I purchased DJI Care Refresh I might as well us it since it will expire in November.  I have never crashed my Mavic or had it abused in any way.

Ok - I didn't get that.  Mine does go off a bit when I'm turning or moving fast, but after I stop, it slowly levels out.  Yours just stays crooked?

LP

I feel very lucky that everything seems to be working, however all the failures I've been reading about worry me,
I hope it's worrying DJI too, this is not acceptable for an expensive drone like this.

LeafPeeper Posted at 2017-8-29 19:36
Ok - I didn't get that.  Mine does go off a bit when I'm turning or moving fast, but after I stop, it slowly levels out.  Yours just stays crooked?

LP

Yes...once it goes crooked it stays crooked.

After blurry camera change i started to have this issue, hope that some update will fix it

It seems like I will be getting a different Mavic back. Not that I'm too surprised about that.

My original Mavic was manufactured on friday, June 16th 2017 and the replacement Mavic on thursday, February, 9th 2017

Mine seems to need a constant +0.3 offset regardless of how many times i calibrate.  Im guessing thats just hardware tolerance.

LeafPeeper Posted at 2017-8-29 05:24
In the gimbal roll adjustment, does 1 equate to 10 degrees, or 1?   A roll adjustment of '10' seems REALLY high to me to be normal...but you guys designed the thing so you know best.   I was just wondering if I'm reading the roll adjustment wrong.

LP

To one, for most of the cases, plus and minus 1.5 degrees for balancing the gimbal is normal.

Aerialbotic Posted at 2017-8-29 07:21
I'm having the same issue with my Mavic Pro. It's not quite 2 weeks old and I didn't notice the gimbal roll tilt until I shot some horizon photos. I've done all the calibrations, IMU, Gimbal and refreshed the firmware and re-calibrated everything again but to no avail. I'm not buying that a 10 degree gimbal adjustment is normal. That excuse would be the same as saying that it's normal for a brand new car, right off the lot, to pull to the left. Seems like this would be an easy firmware fix so I'm trusting that DJI is working on it with a solution in the very near future.[view_image][view_image]

You can try to adjust the gimbal roll to the balance position and then do the gimbal calibration then restart the drone again. I personally had done this way with my Phantom 3 Pro before and it worked, but don't know if it would work with Mavic Pro cause my Mavic doesn't have this issue and can not recurrence. If it still doesn't work, I think it would be better if you could send the drone in so we can get it resolved for you. Thanks for your kind understanding.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-31 22:53
To one, for most of the cases, plus and minus 1.5 degrees for balancing the gimbal is normal.

So then my Mavic needing an adjustment of .7-.8 is normal?   Am I interpreting that correctly?

Thanks Thor..
LP

LeafPeeper Posted at 2017-9-1 16:40
So then my Mavic needing an adjustment of .7-.8 is normal?   Am I interpreting that correctly?

Thanks Thor..

It is said normal. Had you tried to set the gimbal roll to center then recalibrate it again? I think you can try.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-9-4 02:42
It is said normal. Had you tried to set the gimbal roll to center then recalibrate it again? I think you can try.

Thanks Thor.  I have not tried it yet - mainly because it's pretty stable and level now at a roll adjustment of .7 - and I don't want to mess it up.  I will try a cal WITHOUT removing the roll adjustment the next time I calibrate.

I think if the intent is to adjust roll before doing the cal, it might be good to document that somewhere - either on the initial cal screen, or in the manual.   All along, I thought the intent of the roll adjustment was to fix AFTER cal.

Thanks,
LP

I finally got my Mavic back from the warranty repair. I did one test flight today and the gimbal seems to work way better now. This one needed a roll adjustment of 0.2 but the amount doesn't really matter at all as long as it stays level enough in the air.

Thank you DJI for the smooth and pretty fast warranty repair!

The ONLY complaint with this warranty repair is that this is no longer the Mavic that I purchased on June. It is now older (February) Mavic. Who knows how many flight hours or what kind of history it has. It looks good and seems to work as it should so I'm still happy overall.

Ferks Posted at 2017-8-29 21:11
I feel very lucky that everything seems to be working, however all the failures I've been reading about worry me,
I hope it's worrying DJI too, this is not acceptable for an expensive drone like this.

I'm with you Ferks ... like you so far mine works as it should but I dread the day it decides it doesn't want to work as it should.

Lay Posted at 2017-9-5 04:07
I finally got my Mavic back from the warranty repair. I did one test flight today and the gimbal seems to work way better now. This one needed a roll adjustment of 0.2 but the amount doesn't really matter at all as long as it stays level enough in the air.

Thank you DJI for the smooth and pretty fast warranty repair!

Do DJI keep a log of which drones come in for repair and which drones go out as replacements given they seem not to always send back the drone that the customer sent in?

I'm not sure I like the idea of getting back a used/refurbished drone given I have laid out in excess of £1000 only some months earlier. What is the warranty on the drone you get back? how many flights has it done? ... it raises more questions to me than it answers.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-31 23:07
You can try to adjust the gimbal roll to the balance position and then do the gimbal calibration then restart the drone again. I personally had done this way with my Phantom 3 Pro before and it worked, but don't know if it would work with Mavic Pro cause my Mavic doesn't have this issue and can not recurrence. If it still doesn't work, I think it would be better if you could send the drone in so we can get it resolved for you. Thanks for your kind understanding.

I have adjusted the gimbal roll and run the gimbal calibration but I didn't restart the drone. I'll give that a try tonight and see if that helps.

Bigga J Posted at 2017-9-5 05:34
Do DJI keep a log of which drones come in for repair and which drones go out as replacements given they seem not to always send back the drone that the customer sent in?

I'm not sure I like the idea of getting back a used/refurbished drone given I have laid out in excess of £1000 only some months earlier. What is the warranty on the drone you get back? how many flights has it done? ... it raises more questions to me than it answers.

Do they send a replacement drone without the owners knowledge? I hope that's not standard practice. If the drone is beyond repair, I would expect that someone from DJI would let the owner know before they send a replacement. This practice would raise the same concerns for me. Add to those concerns limited number of times the Mavic Pro arms can be folded before they give out.

Aerialbotic Posted at 2017-9-7 09:28
Do they send a replacement drone without the owners knowledge? I hope that's not standard practice. If the drone is beyond repair, I would expect that someone from DJI would let the owner know before they send a replacement. This practice would raise the same concerns for me. Add to those concerns limited number of times the Mavic Pro arms can be folded before they give out.

You will discover this after they have shipped the drone back.

You will get a message "Dear Customer,  Your item, the case number CAS-xxxxxx-xxxxxx has been shipped with UPS"

There is additional information about shipped products. This is the part where you discover that the serial number is not the same.

Product Name
Serial Number
Quantity

Before they shipped it back I got message saying "The repair is expected to be finished in 2 to 3 working days, then the product will be sent back to you." After this message you would think that they will actually repair YOUR product and send it back to you. There was allso the part that needed to be changed. "Gimbal Control Board".

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-9-4 02:42
It is said normal. Had you tried to set the gimbal roll to center then recalibrate it again? I think you can try.

I tried this today and it made no difference...I still need a gimbal roll of .7 to level everything out.  I'm good with that, but truthfully, I really don't understand the purpose of the gimbal cal.

LP

LeafPeeper Posted at 2017-9-10 17:55
I tried this today and it made no difference...I still need a gimbal roll of .7 to level everything out.  I'm good with that, but truthfully, I really don't understand the purpose of the gimbal cal.

LP

Yeah, I feel the same in your position. Please try the method I mentioned at 26#. Or you can send an email to support.us@dji.com to see if there is a further help. Appreciate your understanding.

Aerialbotic Posted at 2017-9-7 09:16
I have adjusted the gimbal roll and run the gimbal calibration but I didn't restart the drone. I'll give that a try tonight and see if that helps.

I followed the suggestion and there was no change. Like others here, I don't understand the purpose of the gimbal calibration. Honestly I could understand a 1-5 degree correction but 10 degrees is a bit much. (That's what I have set mine at to achieve a level horizon. Seems like a firmware update is in order.

Is anyone else having to correct the gimbal angle more than 5 degrees?

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-9-11 00:51
Yeah, I feel the same in your position. Please try the method I mentioned at 26#. Or you can send an email to  to see if there is a further help. Appreciate your understanding.

Hi Thor - thanks.  That's what I meant when I said I tried this today.  I followed the instructions in #26.  It didn't help.   Either way, it's not a huge issue as it works fine with the roll set to .7, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Thanks for the pointers though.   If you or any of the support team can explain what the gimbal calibration is SUPPOSED to do, that would help.

Thanks,
LP

LeafPeeper Posted at 2017-9-11 15:16
Hi Thor - thanks.  That's what I meant when I said I tried this today.  I followed the instructions in #26.  It didn't help.   Either way, it's not a huge issue as it works fine with the roll set to .7, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Thanks for the pointers though.   If you or any of the support team can explain what the gimbal calibration is SUPPOSED to do, that would help.

I personally think that your gimbal is recognized your current value as the balance (mid position) value which is not supposed to be, so when you calibrate it, it will also tilt instead of going back to the mid position, just a thought. So if I am right, this should be sent back for repair then, thanks for your understanding.