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Suffered a crash, gimbal making grinding sound
8035 12 2015-5-30
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Faken
lvl.3

Canada
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Well I guess it happen to happen eventually...  Was flying my Phantom 2 Vision+ around the park in front of my house and landed it on my front walk and shut down the rotors.  Without powering anything off in my setup, I restarted the rotors and the Phantom immediately went straight up full throttle and smacked in to an overhanging tree branch about 15 feet up and tumbled down, landing squarely upside down on top of the rotors.
I've changed the rotors and opened the unit, nothing appears to be loose or broken inside although I did notice one motor was crooked... so first question, are these units only supposed to have 2 of the 4 motor screws in place??  I didn't notice this till now but only the 2 INNER motor bolts are in on all 4 motors, the two outter bolts are missing and it was received this way.  This normal?  Anyhow, all I did was swap the bolts on the motor that was off kilter and it's fine now.

I also use a gimble saver, the gimbal did not break off in any way.

So I've started it back up and everything is working normal except I am getting a gimbal error in the phone app when I am in camera mode, saying gimbal error, check for something blocking the gimbal.  Now the gimbal is operational and moves up and down, and stabilization seems to be fine, however the up and down axis motor makes a slight grinding sound constantly while the Phantom is powered on.

Is there anything I can do or is the gimbal toast?  It's functional, but makes the noise and generates the error on the app.

And yes I'm an idiot for taking off near a tree, pretty sure I said "I'm an idiot" as I watched in tumble end over end in slow motion right after "WTF?!?!" when it took off straight up all on it's own.

Thanks in advance!
2015-5-30
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BazzaVMC
lvl.3

Australia
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You may have a bent shaft or debris in the gimbal motor?

Here's a handy page with just about everything you need, probably a good idea to bookmark it so you can refer to it at any time necessary...

http://www.phantomhelp.com/

Scroll down near the bottom of the page to the "How to's - Repair" section

Good luck
Edit: Here's a video on gimbal repair, it's lengthy, but comprehensive...
I hope this helps?


2015-5-30
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Faken
lvl.3

Canada
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BazzaVMC Posted at 2015-5-31 08:55
You may have a bent shaft or debris in the gimbal motor?

Here's a handy page with just about everyt ...

Thanks for the link!  Some great stuff... so far I haven't been able to find anything that shows me how to open the up and down motor side of the gimbal, only the rear side to side.  There's something loose inside, I blew air in to it and it made it worse like it was blowing something around inside.
2015-5-30
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BazzaVMC
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Australia
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Faken Posted at 2015-5-31 09:15
Thanks for the link!  Some great stuff... so far I haven't been able to find anything that shows m ...

Try the video at the bottom of my post, from about the 20 minute mark it shows how to remove the camera and gimbal motor, probably a good idea to watch the whole video as to properly remove the ribbon cable
2015-5-30
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Faken
lvl.3

Canada
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Thanks, I just took it all apart, cleaned it and now it's worse lol!  I think I might change to a GoPro Gimbal for my Hero 3.. seems like it will be easier than trying to figure this out.  I didn't see any debris or loose bits, I wonder if something is bent and I can't see it.  When I free turn the motor/shaft, it's smooth... but when powered up, grinding noise.
2015-5-30
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BazzaVMC
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Australia
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Faken Posted at 2015-5-31 10:18
Thanks, I just took it all apart, cleaned it and now it's worse lol!  I think I might change to a Go ...

Gee sorry to hear that mate, I was hoping to hear a positive result...

I'm still quite new to all of this, but I have read all my manuals cover to cover at least 3 times, I visit other forums and watch a lot of tutorial videos in preparation of an uneventful experience

I do hope that it all works out for you in the end with minimum expenditure

2015-5-30
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grangerfx
First Officer
Flight distance : 817713 ft
United States
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I had similar thing happen after my one and only crash. The "grinding" was caused by the gimbal arm sliding up the shaft of its motor spindle and making contact with the metal housing. I was planning to open it up following the YouTube videos until I realized that there is a small set screw on the opposite side of the arm from the ribbon cable. Use a small hex wrench to loosen the screw, slide the arm down about 1 mm and tighten again. No more grinding.
2015-5-31
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Faken
lvl.3

Canada
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Well, I ended up taking the entire thing apart, blowing the pieces with compressed air to remove and dirt particles and putting all back together and again in was grinding.  So I disassembled it once again to try and figure out what was going on and just couldn't find anything causing the sound.  Put it back together and now the gimbal goes crazy when you power it on, jerking all over the place.  Ugh...  Took it apart again, reseated all the cables and reassembled and again still going crazy.

So I've given up and off to DJI it goes for a repair inspection by people that know what they're doing lol!  I'm more of a motor and home repair kind of guy... tiny bolts and tweezers are just way too frustrating for someone with my lack of patience.  I now have zero flight data on the mobile DJI app, I'm assuming this is because the gimbal is totally disconnected.

Dan
2015-6-2
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dmb
New

Lithuania
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grangerfx, what size of hex wrench?
I have exactly the same problem after crash.
2015-7-10
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tomcoleman.ne
New
Flight distance : 856736 ft
United States
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this guy solved it. do this.


2016-6-11
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quanthonytrang
First Officer
Flight distance : 419980 ft
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Australia
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dmb Posted at 2015-7-11 00:13
grangerfx, what size of hex wrench?
I have exactly the same problem after crash.

I think its 1.5mm
2016-6-16
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fans34de3aa9
lvl.1

Canada
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grangerfx@gmail Posted at 2015-5-31 08:37
I had similar thing happen after my one and only crash. The "grinding" was caused by the gimbal arm sliding up the shaft of its motor spindle and making contact with the metal housing. I was planning to open it up following the YouTube videos until I realized that there is a small set screw on the opposite side of the arm from the ribbon cable. Use a small hex wrench to loosen the screw, slide the arm down about 1 mm and tighten again. No more grinding.
2019-3-25
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fans34de3aa9
lvl.1

Canada
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grangerfx@gmail Posted at 2015-5-31 08:37
I had similar thing happen after my one and only crash. The "grinding" was caused by the gimbal arm sliding up the shaft of its motor spindle and making contact with the metal housing. I was planning to open it up following the YouTube videos until I realized that there is a small set screw on the opposite side of the arm from the ribbon cable. Use a small hex wrench to loosen the screw, slide the arm down about 1 mm and tighten again. No more grinding.

it worked ! thanks Man You are the best !
2019-3-25
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