P4 Gimbal Unresponsive Mid-Flight

bmaberry · May 27, 2017

This shows a routine flight with my DJI Phantom 4 and the gimbal failing while flying. The gimbal goes limp and is not responsive to controls. I was able to get it back down safely and after a reset, was able to take back off and continue with my flight. Just a pain. This has happened a handful of times now. Good thing I don't fly BVLOS

Check out the video here:

Has this happened to anyone else? If so, what was the solution?

Lefty63 · May 27, 2017

Following

tevek · May 27, 2017

It has happened to a number of others including myself. I posted on a similar thread last week that I had read that it was related to either or both the battery and the microSD card. I turned the battery off/on and reformatted the card and it flew fine again. No idea why that worked but it did and has occurred 2-3 times in the 10 months that I've owned it.

bmaberry · May 27, 2017

Thanks for the feedback. I immediately found your thread after I posted. This has been the first time I've caught this on camera, but like you and others, it's happened to me a few times now. I almost always reset my SD cards before flights, but this time I didn't. I'll have to keep this in mind and see if it's related. My batteries haven't given me issues at all. This was right after takeoff, maybe 30 seconds into my first flight.

tevek · May 27, 2017

bmaberry said:
Thanks for the feedback. I immediately found your thread after I posted. This has been the first time I've caught this on camera, but like you and others, it's happened to me a few times now. I almost always reset my SD cards before flights, but this time I didn't. I'll have to keep this in mind and see if it's related. My batteries haven't given me issues at all. This was right after takeoff, maybe 30 seconds into my first flight.

Certainly a mystery, I'm leaning more towards the formatting of the card trick as the last time it happened, I had forgotten to format it. I might have a look later to see if I can find the original thread from last year that was fairly detailed. Wouldn't surprise me if the next firmware update addresses the limp gimbal issue, unless the latest go4 update has already done so ( they may have snuck it in without telling anyone).

Lefty63 · May 27, 2017

Just took mine for a test flight. Formatted the SD card, with no improvement in gimbal stability. I hope you can find the original thread tevek.

bmaberry · May 27, 2017

As a note, I calibrated my camera/gimbal with DJI's Assistant software after the first time this happened. Didn't seem to help anything obviously.
@Lefty63, Is your gimbal hanging loose all of the time or does it just fail every time? I had an issue once where one of my ribbon cables was too tight and it wouldn't boot up correctly. As in normally, after it's powered on, it tilts the camera up, then down 90 degrees, then back to horizon level. Mine would never fully finish this boot up and would get stuck in a infinite loop, moving between the horizon (level) and tilted up position. I had to disassemble the gimbal a bit to get the cable free again and haven't had problems with that since.

Lefty63 · May 27, 2017

My gimbal moves freely before powering up. During calibration it doesn't move at all. After calibration, Go4 app says it's calibrated but the "Gimbal motor over loaded" error remains in the menu bar.
This is how out of alignment it is.

tevek · May 27, 2017

Found this thread relating to the intermittent gimbal going limp during flight.
Limp gimbal situation
There is a comment from @Riker that may be of interest.

bmaberry · May 27, 2017

hmmm... I don't guess it's as simple as this then.

Lefty63 · May 27, 2017

bmaberry said:
hmmm... I don't guess it's as simple as this then.

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No, I saw this earlier in my searches. Wish it was something that simple. I really don't want to send it to DJI. I have nighmarish stories about them.

Lefty63 · May 27, 2017

I'm guessing the transmission quality is due to the 37% charge on the RC, but you see how the gimbal isn't stable -

bmaberry · May 27, 2017

Wow! I've never had an image transmission problem like that! Even when my battery was in the single digits.

Lefty63 · May 27, 2017

bmaberry said:
Wow! I've never had an image transmission problem like that! Even when my battery was in the single digits.

Crap. Nothing's ever easy.

The Ghost · May 27, 2017

I had my camera on p4 act like this once but I did Imu & gimbal calibration & it hasn't happened since. Hope it never does again. I'll look at ribbon cable. Thanks

Lefty63 · May 28, 2017

bmaberry said:
Wow! I've never had an image transmission problem like that! Even when my battery was in the single digits.

It turns out I had the wrong frequency. I keep forgetting 2.4 GHz doesn't work for me in my area. Changed it back to 5.8 and the interference is gone. Now, back to the gimbal . . .

Robert P Stenerson PLS · May 28, 2017

Happened to me last week on a breezy day, I had been shooting some DB pano missions with no problems, but on my last site, late in the afternoon and windiest, this happened when just after I ascended up to pano height, and after my first nadir shot. So I could see how the camera could have gotten hung up on the ribbon cable with the winds aloft. My P4 didn't give me any "gimbal overload message", but it scared the crap out of me. I noticed the P4 was being controlled okay, so I immediately landed. I inspected the aircraft, didn't see anything note worthy, so I changed batteries and subsequently flew the pano with no problems.

Happy flights and safer landings,

DKG13CC · May 29, 2017

It isnt the SD card, I hardly ever format mine, but the only time this happened was a day that I had formatted. Mine went limp at the 20% battery warning. Slightly breezy day. Pissed me the F off. Same crap, turned off and on again, never done it since. I was recording at the time as well. I had foriegn individuals who were switching to Go4 for the first time, say that the issue never existed before Go4 (DJI forum). Many there are convinced its software.

Lefty63 · May 29, 2017

DKG13CC said:
It isnt the SD card, I hardly ever format mine, but the only time this happened was a day that I had formatted. Mine went limp at the 20% battery warning. Slightly breezy day. Pissed me the F off. Same crap, turned off and on again, never done it since. I was recording at the time as well. I had foriegn individuals who were switching to Go4 for the first time, say that the issue never existed before Go4 (DJI forum). Many there are convinced its software.

This isn't software related. Been using Go4 and Litchi without incident. I'm bummed.

DKG13CC · May 29, 2017

Lefty, I agree, you are experiencing a different issue. And you seem to be experiencing it consistently. What this particular OP and myself (and many, many others) are noticing is an abrupt loss of power to the gimbal, mid flight. Not the camera, as it will record, just the gimbal. Lefty, I would recommend researching drone nerds. I've not the slightest clue as to their prowess, but at least they actually send you YOUR drone back.