Phantom 4 or camera almost goes sideways. Cause?

jogforfitness · Oct 30, 2016

I was flying the Phantom 4 yesterday. It was flying a Litchi mission. As it was traveling along suddenly it appeared as if the Phantom was flying almost sideways or the camera/gimble was jerked sideways. Below is a video. Any ideas on the cause? The rest of the mission completed without incident. I was not sure if this was a wind gust or battery issue or a birdstrike? There were NO marks on the Phantom or camera indicating something had grabbed it.
The issue occurred near "I" on the map.

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mnewxcv · Oct 30, 2016

it looks more like the gimbal freaked out for a minute than anything else. Can't speculate why though.

eaglegoaltender · Oct 30, 2016

jogforfitness said:
Any ideas on the cause?

Hmmm - everything looks fine on the Healthy Drones info so not likely any kind of compass issue. Perhaps a loose "grub screw" (there is one at the top of the gimbal).

Or perhaps a rubber grommet at the gimbal is weak or damaged? I had a similar issue although not as pronounced as yours. I did an IMU calibration and also replaced the rubber grommets - been ok since then (fix or coincidence - I'm not sure). About all I can think of right now - good luck finding a fix.

MacCool · Oct 30, 2016

eaglegoaltender said:
About all I can think of right now - good luck finding a fix.

If a fix is required. Might just have been a one-off software spasm.

alokbhargava · Oct 30, 2016

If the camera is behaving jerky even now, there is definitely something loose somewhere but if it has recovered, that means an object sat on the cam for a moment.

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Mydrone70 · Oct 30, 2016

jogforfitness said:
I was flying the Phantom 4 yesterday. It was flying a Litchi mission. As it was traveling along suddenly it appeared as if the Phantom was flying almost sideways or the camera/gimble was jerked sideways. Below is a video. Any ideas on the cause? The rest of the mission completed without incident. I was not sure if this was a wind gust or battery issue or a birdstrike? There were NO marks on the Phantom or camera indicating something had grabbed it.

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The issue occurred near "I" on the map.

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

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More unlikely like a computer glitch with the Gimbel

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Ignacio Perez-Navarro · Oct 30, 2016

i ve been having the same problem since i upgraded to the 3.0 dji go app. not sure there is a correlation though. It seems that the gimbal try to reset its position as if it was trying to calibrate itself. I have tried several gimbal calibrations along with IMU calibrations on properly leveled surfaces. I have also updated to 3.1, i am hoping it will correct this issue as eventhough highly alarming while flying, i dont thing it posses any threat to the aircraft itself. Also, as reference, it only happened to me while flying sport mode over 30mph + and fighting some headwinds.

eaglegoaltender · Oct 30, 2016

Ignacio Perez-Navarro said:
Also, as reference, it only happened to me while flying sport mode over 30mph + and fighting some headwinds.

Think you have to take that into serious consideration for certain - especially trying to capture videos in "sport mode" - lol....

Ignacio Perez-Navarro · Oct 30, 2016

....i was not aware the gimbal is expected to act erratically while flying sport mode... hahaha

eaglegoaltender said:
Think you have to take that into serious consideration for certain - especially trying to capture videos in "sport mode" - lol....

ftttu · Oct 30, 2016

Similar problem thread: Can Someone Tell Me What This Is?

This is what I replied to that thread: "I had this problem out of the box. Back then, there was also a screeching sounds many were complaining about when the camera/gimbal were booting. That was finally fixed with software. My problem turned out not to have anything to do with the screeching gimbal problem but had to do with the ribbon cable being bowed outward and not running down the gimbal surface from the bottom of the bird where it was supposed to be. That bowing of the cable cause just enough pressure to cause the camera to flip to the side on windy days. I finally noticed the problem after seeing my camera hanging sideways when it was powered down. I pushed the cable inward to where it should have been and no more problems at all."

Also, I don't know if you had strong wind during that flight, but I bet some are having this problem when the bird is having to stabilize a strong side wind.

Erised · Oct 30, 2016

Flying sideways (panning) and moving at a good clip causes this to happen to me also, the wind causes more force on the gimbal and the gimbal motor just can't hold position. So far mine just resets and works fine afterwards.

jkers10 · Oct 30, 2016

I've encountered the problem only when operating in about 30mph gusts or at high speed in Sport mode. My conclusion was that the wind resistance was just enough to cause the gimbal to momentarily break over, because it self-corrected. Had it happen just yesterday, in fact. I'm not worried... yet.

ftttu · Oct 31, 2016

When I was flying with my cable bowed outward(still unknown to me), I was flying in high winds using point of interest high above a football stadium. Even though I was having that flipping gimbal/camera problem before in other flights, it was more pronounced since I was flying sideways, pointed towards the central point. I'm guessing the motors can only do so much.

kingkong90210 · Oct 31, 2016

Liek others i have got sonething sinilar when flying very fast in sport mode, i presume it means the bird has hit turbulance and is trying to right itself, i usually slow down and it stops

jogforfitness · Oct 31, 2016

I've come across some possible answers from the DJI forum. A contributor said:

"I believe this is what's happening. On windy days and sport mode, especially flying sideways, this will happen. You'll get a messsage about Gimbal End Point reached." See video below:

Also, from this forum:
Can Someone Tell Me What This Is?

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Stevie_UK · Jul 4, 2020

Happened to me a week or two ago, no errors, but camera made it look like bird was sideways. Quite scary, even though I could see the P4 well and *knew* she was flying as she should, I thought maybe it was falling, maybe I didn't see a bird, lots of maybes..

Drone in sight, no bird strike, very calm day, not in sport mode.

I'll inspect the cable further, but appeared okay on the day. Not calibrated in a long time as had no need.

Landing/power off/on fixed the position of the camera and didn't happen afterwards.