Phantom 4 Pro Owned Since Release, Never Crashed, Never Dropped.

I use my p4p rarely but decided to dust it off and use it today and get back into regualar usage. After booting up and flying i noticed the camera would not go level. It would be drooping down about 10 degress. If i hit the trigger to face directly down it would go 90 degrees and face down and back so not face directly down, it would go 90 degrees from the droop down position.

If i turned on the mode to allow to look up 30" it would turn to level and then go up the full 30 degrees.

Then i would hit the trigger again to face down and it would go past th downward mark by about 10 degress (facing back toward the rear) and if i kept it in tht position the gimbal would wurl and slowly correct it self to face directly down. Then i would hit the trigger again to face straight and after a few seconds it would make a wurling sounds and start to droop down. If i manually lift the gimbal to the straight position it would stay put until i moved it.

It seeems like the gimbal does not know the zero position and i cant figure out why. I tried many gimbal calibrations and it doesnt do anything. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you

Aloha Chevelle,

     Have you tried an IMU calibration?  Try it and then try the gimbal calibration.  If it does not work, reverse the calibrations with the gimbal calibration first.

     Also, you can manually adjust the gimbal.  There are + & - options.  See if those are at zero.  Be sure they are at zero before you calibrate.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Hi. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused. With regards to the gimbal issue. As Cetacean advised at post #2 please try doing the IMU calibration then Gimbal calibration for the said drone, if issue still persists then try to manually calibrate the gimbal. Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

Cetacean Posted at 12-24 00:35
Aloha Chevelle,

     Have you tried an IMU calibration?  Try it and then try the gimbal calibration.  If it does not work, reverse the calibrations with the gimbal calibration first.

Thank you for the replay, I just did both calibrations in both orders and its still the same drooping camera with no change at all. Any thoughts?

Chevelle02 Posted at 12-26 12:43
Thank you for the replay, I just did both calibrations in both orders and its still the same drooping camera with no change at all. Any thoughts?

Aloha Chevelle,

     Did you try to manually adjust the gimbal.  There are + & - options.  See if those are at zero.  Be sure they are at zero before you calibrate.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 12-26 16:58
Aloha Chevelle,

     Did you try to manually adjust the gimbal.  There are + & - options.  See if those are at zero.  Be sure they are at zero before you calibrate.

there is no option to manually adjust the gimbal up and down, only Yaw and roll

Chevelle02 Posted at 12-26 18:26
there is no option to manually adjust the gimbal up and down, only Yaw and roll

Aloha Chevelle,

     Did you try the YAW and Roll manual adjustments?  Do they work at all?  This can indicate how extensive the problem may be.  You might also want to cycle the extra 30 degrees option for upward looking a few times.  

     When you did the IMU calibration, did the camera act like it was actually trying to calibrate or was it "wimpy" like it seems to be in your earlier description.  Did the camera perform in each of the different positions?

     Lastly, was the Gimbal Protector well seated over the camera lens while it was stored?  It clips tightly to the landing gear.  Were there any problems attaching and detaching the protector?

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 12-27 00:35
Aloha Chevelle,

     Did you try the YAW and Roll manual adjustments?  Do they work at all?  This can indicate how extensive the problem may be.  You might also want to cycle the extra 30 degrees option for upward looking a few times.  

Hey Cetacean, Thank you for continuing to try and help me. when i adjust the YAW and ROLL they function normally and i can go through the full range of motion. I also turned on the 30 degree movement and it will allow full rotation up and down but still wont center itself.

When i did the IMU calibration, it seemed to function like normal with no issues.

When ever i store the drone in the hardshell dji foam case i always had the gimbal protector on and it slides on normally as always

Chevelle02 Posted at 12-27 10:34
Hey Cetacean, Thank you for continuing to try and help me. when i adjust the YAW and ROLL they function normally and i can go through the full range of motion. I also turned on the 30 degree movement and it will allow full rotation up and down but still wont center itself.

When i did the IMU calibration, it seemed to function like normal with no issues.

Aloha Chevelle,

     You may have noticed that I do not give up easily.  In fact I have a P4 Pro and it is a really nice bird.  Do be prepared to have to send in your bird to DJI Support, but I will try everything to keep that from happening.

     It sounds like the motor has gone out of alignment.  It also sounds like your bird is out of warrantee unless you have the DJI Care service.  (In that case you might want to send it in.)  However, we can still work on this problem.

     When I start my P4 Pro, the alignment (auto-calibration) procedure has very limited horizontal effort.  Most of my aligning is in the vertical range.  It goes up to the plus 30 degrees and down to the plus 10 (15) degrees  you describe but does not go limp.  Each movement is robust and firm.  

     One thing that might help (shooting from the hip here) is if you repeatedly had your C1 (or C2) button set to horizontal and vertical swap so it will go back and forth by pressing the button.  You seem to indicate you are doing this with the "trigger".  If it is accurate, initiating this procedure repeatedly may realign the vertical "droop".  In this process, using compressed air (canned or otherwise, even breath) and blowing into the right alignment motor can help clear out any corrosion issues that might be contributing factors (we have a lot of that here in humid Hawai'i).

     Could you post a video of your start up alignment (auto-calibration) procedure?  Also any other interesting alignment issue you notice.  It may also help if you pulled out and reinserted each available cable you can access.  Remember, they all have locks (plastic lips).  When electronic products sit unused for periods of time, they can develop numerous issues.

     Let me know how it goes.

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 2019-12-27 14:07
Aloha Chevelle,

     You may have noticed that I do not give up easily.  In fact I have a P4 Pro and it is a really nice bird.  Do be prepared to have to send in your bird to DJI Support, but I will try everything to keep that from happening.

https://forum.dji.com/thread-192181-1-1.html

I posted regarding a very similar problem, is this common? Any idea on what may have failed?
Thanks for any help.

DLH Sean Posted at 1-13 17:10
https://forum.dji.com/thread-192181-1-1.html

I posted regarding a very similar problem, is this common? Any idea on what may have failed?

Aloha Sean,

     The grinding sounds on the videos on the link indicate that the unit parts are not centered properly.  The original firmware may have covered a broader arc.  The newer firmware, with a more narrow arc might be causing the grinding.  Do be aware that people do get upset when I say that.

     The grinding sounds are when you tilt it to the right extreme and I think up forward.  You might want to fine tune the locations when it starts to grind.

     We used to be able to center the gimbal motors manually with the P3s when they went out of warranty.  If you sent the P4A in to DJI support, they would probably have the correct tools and techniques to do a similar fix.  Still, depending on how much you paid for the P4A, you might want to send it in to DJI support.  There should be one in Los Angeles.

Aloha and Drone On!

Has anyone come to a conclusion to this issue? My P4P is doing the same exact as Sean is. It will go through another "calibration" after the gimbal centers from the power on self-calibration. It will also roll when I give it any type of yaw movement.

Im trying not to send this in if its something I can fix at home hardware related.