Anybody any idea whats causing the gimbal to do this ?

Mossie · Mar 5, 2015

Fairly windy conditions. When flying forward and the wind (fairly strong 20-25) at 90 degrees from the right, no problems.
When I turned to come back, this time the wind is 90 degrees from the left of the a\c , the gimbal appears to loose power and flop over to the right. Just wondering whether the strong wind is banking the a/c quite a bit and the gimbal is hitting the stops.

Mazz · Mar 5, 2015

No way. Recalibrate the gimbal. That is not right.

blade strike · Mar 5, 2015

Mossie said:
Fairly windy conditions. When flying forward and the wind (fairly strong 20-25) at 90 degrees from the right, no problems.
When I turned to come back, this time the wind is 90 degrees from the left of the a\c , the gimbal appears to loose power and flop over to the right. Just wondering whether the strong wind is banking the a/c quite a bit and the gimbal is hitting the stops.

Correct, this is not normal

catware · Mar 5, 2015

I had this problem frequently with the Zenmuse 3D-HD GoPro gimbal on my Phantom 2. Fast forward speeds caused the wind pressure to exceed the gimbal's capability to push back, and it would flop to the right and then correct, just like you're seeing here. Apparently this is fairly common on the P2. Switching to softer rubber bushings solved that problem for me.

I'd be interested to know if a recalibration alone helps you with the I1.

Mossie · Mar 5, 2015

Thanks for the replies.
I stupidly crashed the Inspire this morning by flying like a complete dumb arse ! Flying all three Phantoms for over a year without incident I was getting overconfident. The thing you've got to watch is that the Inspire being heavier than the Phantom takes a bit more distance to stop than the Phantom due to its momentum and I ended up crashing into a wooden post from about 12 ft high. One prop shattered completely and the plastic frame that holds the gimbal and camera in place broke in half. I was preparing to send it to DJI Germany for repair when I thought maybe I could fix it myself. A bit of superglue on the 2 broken pieces of frame , mud cleaned off and the grommets back in place and she seems to be as good as new.
That problem with the gimbal was as Mazz correctly diagnosed , requiring a Gimbal recalibration. That too seems to be Ok now....fingers crossed !

Mazz · Mar 5, 2015

wow, glad to hear you were able to repair yourself. That's great news. Also glad to hear the gimbal is back to normal.

PetePerrim · Mar 5, 2015

Mossie said:
Thanks for the replies.
I stupidly crashed the Inspire this morning by flying like a complete dumb arse ! Flying all three Phantoms for over a year without incident I was getting overconfident. The thing you've got to watch is that the Inspire being heavier than the Phantom takes a bit more distance to stop than the Phantom due to its momentum and I ended up crashing into a wooden post from about 12 ft high. One prop shattered completely and the plastic frame that holds the gimbal and camera in place broke in half. I was preparing to send it to DJI Germany for repair when I thought maybe I could fix it myself. A bit of superglue on the 2 broken pieces of frame , mud cleaned off and the grommets back in place and she seems to be as good as new.
That problem with the gimbal was as Mazz correctly diagnosed , requiring a Gimbal recalibration. That too seems to be Ok now....fingers crossed !

I kind of think of the difference in performance between the Phantom and the Inspire as being like the difference in performance between a 911 Porsche (Phantom) and a 5 series BMW. The Phantom is lighter and has a high power to weight ratio which enables it to perform quick turns, starts and stops really well. It gets off its arse very quickly and is quite nimble. The Inspire is powerful and smooth but I wouldn't try and do stunts with it or fly it at high speed anywhere near obstacles.