Last week i picked up my Phantom3 directly at DJI Europe in Schondra. They calibrated/repaired my Gimbal because of pulsating vibrations. My gimbal was so bad that it started to vibrate every 2 secs on the ground without turning on the motors. They kind of managed to made it better, now the vibrations are nearly gone on the ground. So i thought ok, lets test that thing in the air today and see if they really managed to solve the problem. What should i say, i was bombarded with "gimbal motor overload" messages during the whole flight and it was no wind at all and since this quad is new i moved it like on eggs, super slow. The jello is back everythime when i get the gimbal overload message. So lets be honest here, what should i do now? I drove hundreds of miles to them for nothing. For me i get the scary feeling that they dont know how to repair or calibrate the gimbal.

Another thing was the Phantom battery and the motors were really hot after my "soft" flight, this was also a bit scary.  

I'm so sorry to hear that...I have seen your posts around the forum and I knew you were waiting to get your vibrating gimble back, hopefully a fixed one too!

Such a shame that DJI have clearly done sod all to fix your gimble and instead probably simply calibrated the gimble, flew it around their test chamber, didn't look at the footage in any detail whatsoever, and handed it back to you. And to add insult to injury, you also personally drove to drop it off and collect it!

I would say it's time to try and get a full refund, then re-buy.

The EU should protect you since you're in Germany, check this out:
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citi ... antees/index_en.htm

Did you buy from a dealer or directly from DJI? I think either way, this EU law would work for you, but it will be easier to get it sorted if you bought through a dealer

Best of luck

Oliver Posted at 2015-7-6 08:59
I'm so sorry to hear that...I have seen your posts around the forum and I knew you were waiting to g ...

Ive orderd it from an online dealer in germany, a famous one. I would say i cant go this way because i made the mistake and contacted DJI directly to save time in repair. The online dealer is famous for its slow repair process but they said that i must send the Phantom to them, not to DJI. Anyway, i had the P3 like 4 days in my hands from 7 weeks. I think it will get winter when the gimbal is really repaired, i hope so otherwise i cant really sell it because the new owner will get mad on me.

The app worked without any issues but it was just one flight, i did 4 flights in total with this Phantom3 since i bought it which is a bit disappointing. Yesterday it was really hot here like 30 Celsius which is 86 Fahrenheit. The Motors, Motor screws and Batterie were hot like hell after the flight, i wont fly in this conditions anymore because that cant be good. There are ppl in desert regions and they fly like 3 batteries in a row, this must be a nightmare for the little machine.

I think they tested it, maybe they did not test fly it or not in combination with the app, they should just switch the complete gimbal, maybe this one is to bad and a calibration wont work. Maybe they dont have enough experience in calibration yet because the P3 is new but the vision+ should be similar.

Since it was to hot in the last days i did not used the P3 but i inspected it closely and i realized a crack in the phantom shell. The P3 spend 7 weeks at DJI overall and i used it 4 times. The strange thing is i hear ppl yelling gimbal problems? That must be 0,1% of ppl. I hear ppl yelling hairline cracks? only 0,1% of phantoms have that, most ppl are happy and dont post into forums. App Problems? dude, a minority have app problems, be cool man.

So why my phantom has all three of it? Could it be because others dont inspect their phantoms well enough or dont even care that the gimbal produces vibrations because they think its normal?  I dont know, i think i will need my 3rd RMA now. I guess next year i can really start to fly with an improved P3 revision and i could have saved my a lot of trouble and money.
It was definately the last time i preorderd a Phantom. I will buy 6-8 months after the release now and maybe enjoy a price release as well. But now i have to pray that my problems getting solved.  

Daninho Posted at 2015-7-8 20:19
Since it was to hot in the last days i did not used the P3 but i inspected it closely and i realized ...

If you say it´s there I believe you

020667@gmail.co Posted at 2015-7-8 23:10
If you say it´s there I believe you

Its in the screwhole which hold together the shell, not in one of the motor screws. The other screwholes dont look like that so it is a crack or a stressmark. Its the same you can see when you bend plastic a bit if you know what i mean.

To the others: DJI said they can change it but im not sure if i should send it in now because i think its a design flaw or material flaw. When they change it for me i will probably get the same cracks again after 4 flights. I asked them if i can wait two month or so, maybe DJI has an improved shell until then, who knows.

To the gimbal overload error: They just said its a bug in the app and the new App is coming soon without this error message. In my mind its not a fake message because i can hear the gimbal vibration when the overload message appears. So i guess they just deleted the algorithm responsible for checking gimbal status or raised the tolerance but it wont change the gimbal problem. Maybe i will accept the vibrations because its not permanent, its like every 10-20 secs, still annoying but better than it was before service.

Tonight i made the 5th flight and i am disappointed and devastated. They have done nothing at all to solve the jello problem. The footage was completely useless, tons of jello at shutter speed 1/120 in the evening sun. Now i dont know what to do, i made the mistake and send it directly to DJI, not to the online dealer. In germany there is a law that you will get your money back when the manufactor fail to repair the unit on the 3rd try. What should i do now? I cant use the P3 at all, the footage is totally useless for video editing. When i send it to my dealer, i will get it back in 10 weeks inlcuding repair time. After that im sure the problem is still there so i need to do this game again and again. It will be next year when i get my money back if i get it. When i sell the P3 on ebay the buyer will send it back to me because its obviously defective.
What i can do now? Its a 1400 Euro misconception. The gimbal noise is back again and i got MC data error, this thing is defective, i feel sick

A lot of people are getting the gimbal overheat warnings with the latest firmware 1.2.6 - 1.2.8.  So that may simply be a firmware bug.  The MC error might be the memory card being not correctly seated.  (It also may be a faulty memory card slot.)

However your jello issues are not normal.  The cracks are unacceptable.

DJI should replace your phantom or fix it.  (It's clearly not manufactured right and DJI needs to get you another one in my opinion.)
You deserve a better experience!

Fulgerite Posted at 2015-7-12 05:40
A lot of people are getting the gimbal overheat warnings with the latest firmware 1.2.6 - 1.2.8.  So ...

Yes the Gimbal overload warning is because of stricter tolerances but i got that warning without any pauses, it wsa permanent and everytime you have that warning the gimbal is vibrating, so its not really a bug. I switched to 1/60 shutter speed and there was still jello. Its like the service center did nothing or they did something but it came right back as it was before after two flights. The flight before i had the gimbal overload message every 15 secs but now it was permanent and it was no wind at all and super slow flying.

Another strange thing is the little arrow in the radar view is not working with my phantom, im not sure why but ok thats a small problem. The direction of the arrow is always wrong, when i point the p3 to the pilot, the little arrow pointing somewhere else in the little radar icon.

That pulsating gimbal noise came right back today after i calibrated the IMU, its now like it was before "calibration" at DJI. That calibration over there wasnt permanent it seems, dont know what the guys at the service center did.I guess that gimbal is just defective

I received my P3P today and updated the FW before the first flight as suggested by Pilot App. I got the "Gimbal Overloaded" message as well. I also noticed that the gimbal plate got very hot. Since this is my first DJI drone, i do not know if the gimbal plate getting hot issue is expected normal operation. It looks like the "Gimbal Overload" message is a bug but should I expected that the gimbal plate to get hot? I am considering to return the whole thing back to Amazon!!! Not a happy customer at this point... :@

tezgiden Posted at 2015-7-12 06:11
I received my P3P today and updated the FW before the first flight as suggested by Pilot App. I got  ...

gimbal overload message is not really a bug, you got that wrong. This message appears because the tolerances in the new app are tighter than before. There are thousands of phantoms without gimbal overload messages and those are surprisingly the ones without jello effect! The gimbal overload message will appear when your gimbal is vibrating. When you have that message only every 2 minutes for a sec. its not bad but when you have that message like every 5 secs. the gimbal is useless because it will produce jello effect and  ND filters will not help at all, i could see jello at shutterspeed 1/60 yesterday ! that shows hou much vibrating is going on there.

A "good" gimbal will not show overload messages. The strange thing i discovered is that the first flight of my P3 after they calibrated it was not that bad, i got overload messages every 20 secs. The flight after that was terrible, the vibrations are fully back like it was before the service center and also that strange noise.  

I discovered that MC data error appears always when you do a compass calibration and the gimbal make a "hang loose" during that. When you power off the Phantom and back on again it will show MC data error. I cant understand why DJI have a compass calibration that obviously is not healthy for the gimbal. My gimbal always makes poor noises and hang loose during that compass calibration.  Maybe another indicator that my gimbal is a lemon. They could have implemented an algorithm that shuts off the gimbal during compass calibration or increase the power slightly etc..

Its normal that the gmbal gets warmer, thats why there is a small van. How often you got the gimbal overload message? permanent or only once?

Daninho Posted at 2015-7-12 21:07
gimbal overload message is not really a bug, you got that wrong. This message appears because the  ...

Thanks for the reply. I got the Gimbal Overload message almost constantly. If this is not a bug as you suggested, than I got a lemon…

tezgiden Posted at 2015-7-12 21:43
Thanks for the reply. I got the Gimbal Overload message almost constantly. If this is not a bug as ...

it is not a good sign if its permanent because my first flight after repair center was almost without jello effect and that was when i got gimbal overload only every 20 secs. Now it is permanent again and the jello is back, same as it was before service center. So the repair attempt was useless and i wasted a lot of gas to drive there for nothing. I dont know why they cant repair my gimbal correctly, im not into it, they are the experts. Maybe the reason is the scratching phantom3 motor they never replaced. Maybe it creates vibrations but otherwise i get the gimbal overload message also on the ground from time to time, so it cant be the main motors i would think. They should switch the complete gimbal unit because i think every calibration attempt is useless.  

Phantom3 out of the box, status before it went to the repair center




Here is a video ive made after i picked it up at DJI Europe. Post repair status. Remember, this is at a slow 1/120 shutterspeed! So its comparable to a strong ND filter, in auto mode the shutter speed would be much higher and you would see even more jello going on.

To end the never ending story i want to tell you that DJI finally replaced the Phantom3 and the gimbal again. To sum it up my first P3 showed extreme jello, they chianged the gimbal and it was way better but still jello but this time only when hovering. Now the third gimbal is completely without jello, even in the brightest days and in heavy winds.

It is essential to get a good copy of that gimbal like it was before with the H3-3D. I can say now after 2,5 years that balanced props, dampening mounts or wind are not the main reason for jello effect in case of H3-3D and Phantom3 gimbal as you can see with my case here. I used the same unbalanced props than before, even full throttle, fast decents and high winds will not cause jello effect now at high shutter speeds. I dont have the gimbal overload message anymore, i can not trigger it at all. The two gimbals before showed the overload message, one of them only from time to time. Remember that one gimbal even showed jello effect on the ground before without starting the motors, so dampening rubbers, wind or props will not affect the gimbal on the ground at all.

The phantom3 works perfect now, only one small issue with the little radar icon in the pilot app but that must be a bug or something. A little bummer for me was that they swapped my brand new Phantom3 with probably 4 or 5  flights in total and perfect cosmetical condition against a what it looks like not cosmetical perfect phantom with strange marks and shiny spots all over it. It looks like somebody tried to sand the shell or clean the shell with an aggressive solvent. It left ugly marks all over the shell. I dont care to much about that since the Phantom is working good and its more of a tool for me. A shell is cheap and can be replaced but i still want it to share with you. Maybe i got a test unit from them, i dont know.