My Phantom 4 had an unexpected gimbal failure while flying. This was a very scary moment. I was able to land it normally and after a while the gimbal worked fine again. Does anybody have an idea why this has happened and how to prevent it?
Phantom 4 Gimbal Failure
- Thread starter ReneVanDeHoek
- Start date
I've had it a couple of times and it's certainly interesting when you are out at a distance and you're not sure if it's plummeting to earth or not. I did read that either formatting the microSD card or rebooting the battery 'fixes' it. Worked for me but no idea what prompted the limp gimbal in the first place.
I've had my P4 for just over a year and have logged 280 flights. I've had the gimbal 'flop' and die on three of these flights.
It happened twice last summer and by coincidence, the third time was just yesterday.
As tevek says.. It's alarming when you're a distance out and you don't know if the drone is plummeting, or if the gimbal isn't working right. Fortunately yesterday, I was only 20 feet away and 10 feet up.
I don't think anyone knows what causes this. (I believe DJI is aware). Turning the drone off and and then on again has always cleared it.
It happened twice last summer and by coincidence, the third time was just yesterday.
As tevek says.. It's alarming when you're a distance out and you don't know if the drone is plummeting, or if the gimbal isn't working right. Fortunately yesterday, I was only 20 feet away and 10 feet up.
I don't think anyone knows what causes this. (I believe DJI is aware). Turning the drone off and and then on again has always cleared it.
Last edited:
I experienced this limp gimbal thing just today. My P4 has been flawless to date, otherwise. Very disconcerting. First time seeing it.
It was a few hundred metres away but I could visually see it and brought it back that way.
Like the other posts above, I turned it off (also the RC) and started it all back up again and it worked fine for the remainder of the battery.
On examination of the gimbal, I noticed the ribbon (the section that is horizontal) immediately behind the camera has a slight separation tear in it. Its about 5mm long.
It's like the ribbon has two layers glued together and it's beginning to peel apart.
I never noticed this separation type tear beforehand so maybe others here could post up if they too have a separating ribbon.
The gimbal motors are clearly getting some erroneous input signal.
Cheers.
It was a few hundred metres away but I could visually see it and brought it back that way.
Like the other posts above, I turned it off (also the RC) and started it all back up again and it worked fine for the remainder of the battery.
On examination of the gimbal, I noticed the ribbon (the section that is horizontal) immediately behind the camera has a slight separation tear in it. Its about 5mm long.
It's like the ribbon has two layers glued together and it's beginning to peel apart.
I never noticed this separation type tear beforehand so maybe others here could post up if they too have a separating ribbon.
The gimbal motors are clearly getting some erroneous input signal.
Cheers.
