Bad start for a newbie

[Tony Cowan]

Alext. I actually think it is fine. Only way to really know is take the bird out for s flight. Beginners level mode. Take s couple of video clips and see what is happening. Speculation can kill you.


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[AlexT]

Have you seen the video? Surely that doesn't happen to everyone?

Alext. I actually think it is fine. Only way to really know is take the bird out for s flight. Beginners level mode. Take s couple of video clips and see what is happening. Speculation can kill you.


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[scubasteve101]

Have you seen the video? Surely that doesn't happen to everyone?

No that's not what mine does. Wait about 2 mins and I throw up a video of what my gimbal does at startup

Edit: Here ya go

https://youtu.be/vVInl6iGval

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[Tony Cowan]

Ok. Just saw the video. I thought it was hitting table. But you are correct. I don't know what that is.


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[AlexT]

Hi
I mean the arm that holds the camera. I know that the camera moves but the arm that holds it should be parallel to the ground. Mine is angled down towards the ground.
I'm an engineer and I can tell it's not right.
I'm sure it is extremely unlikely, but it was like that out of the box a couple of hours ago so it seems I'm extremely unlucky!

You do realise that the camera is adjustable up and down?
It's extremely unlikely that your gimbal has been bent in shipping.

 

[AlexT]

Thanks everyone for the help and discussion, it's convinced me that it's not me doing something stupid and the thing is faulty/damaged. I'll pack it away and ask DJI to get me a replacement.

I'll keep you posted on my ongoing wait to get airborne!

 

[Meta4]

Hi
I mean the arm that holds the camera. I know that the camera moves but the arm that holds it should be parallel to the ground. Mine is angled down towards the ground.
I'm an engineer and I can tell it's not right.
I'm sure it is extremely unlikely, but it was like that out of the box a couple of hours ago so it seems I'm extremely unlucky!

Your words and still photos don't explain what the video shows.
That's not normal gimbal movement.
Take it back to where you bought it.

 

[mandalay]

If this works, I've uploaded a video to YouTube

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It's definitely not normal. Sorry that you got a bad unit.

 

[Illina]

It was only at this point that I realised that the gimbal protector was still in the box and hadn't been attached during shipping.

I've received a P3S and two P3p's and not one of them had the plastic gimbal lock still attached when I got them. Not sure why that's such a hard thing to do? It seems to stay on tight when I put it on. BTW...none of mine had any damage.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Looks bent to me. The back plate isn't even making full contact with the circuitboard & front. The gold "trim" you see at various spots around the gimbal is actually the edge of the various PC boards where they sandwich between the aluminum. You might try using the proper size driver to tighten up the back plate & see if if pulls flush & works better. Still think I'd be sending her back coming out of the box that way.

The back looks bent to me

 

[TheLightSpeedz]

It should never touch the table mate. Sorry about that


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[dannyboy75]

Thanks everyone for the help and discussion, it's convinced me that it's not me doing something stupid and the thing is faulty/damaged. I'll pack it away and ask DJI to get me a replacement.

I'll keep you posted on my ongoing wait to get airborne!

Bit of an anticlimax, but definitely for the best. I'm sure you'll have a shiny new (and working) one in a few days

And you couldn't use it in this shocking weather anyway so you're not missing much in the meantime.

By the way, dronesdirect.co.uk are doing the P3S for the same price (£449), but they also chuck in a free 32GB MicroSD card (in addition to the 8GB one that comes with the drone). That's where I bought mine from a couple of weeks ago.

 

[AlexT]

Just an update:
I've been in touch with DJI support and they have agreed that the unit is faulty and are arranging a courier to collect it (at their cost), and will be sending me a replacement. So, frustrating as it is, at least they are being good about sorting it out quickly.

Danny, yes I'm definitely consoling myself with the knowledge that if it had been working properly I'd be really frustrated by the weather now and still wouldn't be able to fly it anyway, so it's not so bad really!

I bought direct through DJI because I don't know anything about who were reputable retailers and what kind of support I'd get in the event of an issue (plus DJI gave 1% store credit for the purchase). But having an extra card would've been useful.

Thanks once again to everyone for the help.

 

[buford]

If you haven't sent it off to dji yet, you might check this. The one cover you can take off, the one with 5 screws in it, take it of, and check the shaft and circuit board it sticks through. These get off sometimes, actually pretty often, and the camera acts like yours. There are a bunch of videos on youtube about this. They call it yaw arm repair, or horizon level. If the shaft gets out of alignment you have a bad gimbal shake, the clicking you mentioned, and the gimbal gets hotter than hell. Just a thought.

 

[Womble]

I had a similar problem with mine on arrival. If you google gimbal clicking noise you should find a video. Basically the 1.5mm Allen key screw is not tight on the flat on the shaft so it is constantly trying to centre. It gets hot as well. Tighten the screw and you are on your way. My Gimbal guard was detached as well on arrival. A few have had this problem.

This was my problem, yours maybe different, mine was a uk standard as well. Only managed one flight so far, it's that American wind we are getting.....

[emoji6]


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[MikeK]

Just an update:
I've been in touch with DJI support and they have agreed that the unit is faulty and are arranging a courier to collect it (at their cost), and will be sending me a replacement. So, frustrating as it is, at least they are being good about sorting it out quickly.

[...]

Alex,

Because I empathized with your disappointment I'm relieved by DJI's action (good for them). The aggravation is almost over and you'll be flying your Phantom very soon.

On the up-side, it is said that bad luck is often a good teacher. In your example the hard part is over and you've learned from the experience.
Next time you open the box you'll be one up.

 

[Curt]

Hi all
I've just purchased a P3S after years of dreaming of having a P1/P2/P2V+, etc. With my birthday coming up and the price drop of the standard to £449 it suddenly came within reach. So I bit the bullet and ordered one on Sunday night from the DJI online store. Extremely excited!
Then this morning (much quicker than expected) the box arrived. It's been raining all day here so I wasn't in a rush to go out and so I calmly sorted everything out and charged the battery and controller. Once all that was done I thought I'd check for a firmware update. I turned everything on and noticed a clicking noise not dissimilar to an old PC hard drive. The firmware update continued, and so did the clicking. I then realised that the gimbal was jerking around and not levelling, and the clicking was when it was getting stuck. When I touched the gimbal is was very hot, and as I looked closer it appeared that the back of the gimbal was bent ever so slightly (whether this is meant to be like this I have no idea).
It was only at this point that I realised that the gimbal protector was still in the box and hadn't been attached during shipping.
It was then that my heart sank, and I realised that I must have been shipped a defective unit, or one that was damaged in transit.
Gutted. Absolutely gutted.

I've sent a message to DJI explaining the situation but have no idea what will happen now. My dreams of flying have been put on hold for the time being.
Anyway, I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience and whether DJI sorted it out quickly?

Thanks for reading my disgruntled first post.

Cheers
Alex (in the UK)

Your probably in luck because your phantom will not show any flight information, right. This will help to show that this how you received it. Your warranty should cover the damage. Box it up get your RMA and ship it. Shipping is at your cost, return shipping is their cost. Look for three weeks to a month from the time they receive it for it's fix and return.

 

[AlexT]

Thanks for the further replies.
Buford & Womble: I appreciate that I could have tinkered with it but I wasn't keen to start taking it apart because I think there was more to it than just the gimbal movement, I think there was something physically bent out of shape which would never have been fixable. I also don't have the experience or confidence to do repairs yet. I also didn't want DJI to say that I was somehow responsible if they found evidence that I'd removed parts, etc.
Mike, thanks. I've got over the initial disappointment and the upside to this is that I've had a lot more time to learn more by watching tutorials and reading forums, as well as messing around with my Syma X5C so I'm even more prepared than I was before.
Curt, as you say, they could check that it had never flown (or even had armed motors) so that wouldn't be a problem.
After sending them photos and the video DJI support classified it as DOA (which I think means Dead On Arrival?) so they are replacing for a brand new one rather than repairing the one I sent back. I think it helped that I bought direct from DJI as they know when I received it and I reported the problem on the same day.
They said they would ship the new one the same day that they receive mine back. Hopefully this means I'll have the replacement sometime next week.

Will keep you posted.

 

[AlexT]

So, my replacement P3S is "Out for delivery today" according to UPS.

I keep looking out of the window to see if it's here yet.

It's agonising.

 

[AlexT]

It's here! And first look at the gimbal is very different to the one I got originally, not bent and the camera doesn't hang near the table, so it's looking promising so far.