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Replacing X5 Gimbal Ribbon Cable

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Hello Friends

I am having issues that others on here have had with my X5 gimbal ribbon cable. The design of the gimbal case lead to wearing of the gimbal cable to the point of failure. I have found the part online and I did a rough disassemble of the ribbon cable to see if I could replace this myself.

My question is, has anyone on here replaced this part themselves or have they sent it into DJI for repair. Im fairly savy with light tech repairs and this looks simple but if anyone has gone through this I would love to hear your advice.

Thanks in advance
 
I haven't done the actual replacement because when I needed one, there were not any ribbons available yet.
But, I do know one thing that you will want to keep in mind. The nut on the top of the yaw axis is magnetized. It's position determines the 'center' of the yaw. It needs to be indexed before removal so you can get it back in the same position. You will need to mark the shaft and the nut with a sharpie or some other means. The nut has a nylon collar to keep it where it is put. If this is oriented differently, the camera will not point straight ahead at the end of the 'gimbal dance'.
122327d8997ifujfxorr8g.jpg
 
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Has anyone replaced the gimbal ribbon for any camera? Even the X3? I'd be interested in hearing the process and details
 
Has anyone replaced the gimbal ribbon for any camera? Even the X3? I'd be interested in hearing the process and details
Hi, I am going to do that. Just ordered the parts today. (New yaw and roll arm + the ribbon cable) A mechanic from a premium dji dealer told me it was impossible to on your own, because there are chips inside that regulate the stability of the camera, and they have to be recalibrated by dji. I'm stubborn so I'll try to make a tutorial and post it here. Fingers crossed!
 
Hey Mistermf

Did you have any luck in replacing your cable? I had sent mine out for repair to fixnfly drones and lets just say it was a horrible experience. I am left trying to get the repair done myself again. I am having issues with the yaw screw it seems to not be indexed properly. Any advice is appreciate, or if anyone has any reliable recommendations for repair. Ive spent $300.00 so far and have had no luck.
 
Hey webeflyin,

Nope, it went terrible. The thread that holds the main motor and is connected to the main axle, broke off. It is now beyond unrepairable. I have to send it in. The cable was within this last and main motor impossible to replace yourself. From now on I do advice to NOT repair it yourself, because of this last obstacle. The previous main axle that I told you about is pressed into the main casing. The one that broke of. I'm sorry but you have to sent it in to dji. Have to notice the dji experience was great with another camera I sent in, they replaced it by a new one. It was guarantee. The yaw screw you telling about is magnetic and is used by the electronics inside to navigate. Once you're screwing this mark, you're screwed. It is impossible to find the right calibration by yourself, because the fine tuning is done electronically. There is nothing on the market I know that can do that. Only at dji it is possible.
 
Hey webeflyin,

Nope, it went terrible. The thread that holds the main motor and is connected to the main axle, broke off. It is now beyond unrepairable. I have to send it in. The cable was within this last and main motor impossible to replace yourself. From now on I do advice to NOT repair it yourself, because of this last obstacle. The previous main axle that I told you about is pressed into the main casing. The one that broke of. I'm sorry but you have to sent it in to dji. Have to notice the dji experience was great with another camera I sent in, they replaced it by a new one. It was guarantee. The yaw screw you telling about is magnetic and is used by the electronics inside to navigate. Once you're screwing this mark, you're screwed. It is impossible to find the right calibration by yourself, because the fine tuning is done electronically. There is nothing on the market I know that can do that. Only at dji it is possible.

I just completed a full ribbon cable replacement on an x3. Everything went fine... extremely tedious job. Don't remove the old ribbon (event if it's torn) as it is the best reference for replacement. Several times you need to fold the ribbon onto itself for the correct orientation. I even removed and reinstalled both the motor magnet and shaft into the new yaw arm.

Now what I didn't do, and didn't realize until it was done, was to mark the orientation of the magnetic nuts. On the x3 all 3 axis have these. It wasn't until I read the post above about indexing the nut with the shaft that I discovered this detail. Yesterday I repositioned the roll and pitch nuts and it realigned the gimbal orientation... better, not perfectly yet. A quick search last night came up with several who have successfully aligned this by trial and error so I'm optimistic. I'll get back into it later today.IMG_20161228_1826501_rewind.jpg
 
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Glad to hear you got it back together!
As you know, there is no repair manual for these. At least not one that we have access to.
I would suggest that you index the gimbal itself to see how much it is off center. Then index the nut and turn it by the amount needed in whichever direction to restore the 'center' point. I am sure that when they build these, they have some way of powering it up with the cover off to calibrate it, a bench jig of some sort. But, the hard part is done now. It just may take 2 or 3 try's to get it tuned in now.
 
Glad to hear you got it back together!
As you know, there is no repair manual for these. At least not one that we have access to.
I would suggest that you index the gimbal itself to see how much it is off center. Then index the nut and turn it by the amount needed in whichever direction to restore the 'center' point. I am sure that when they build these, they have some way of powering it up with the cover off to calibrate it, a bench jig of some sort. But, the hard part is done now. It just may take 2 or 3 try's to get it tuned in now.

It wasn't until I read your post on this forum that I realized the nuts were used as indicators as I replaced my ribbon after looking at the dji instructions video on this which gives no indication of the nut positioning.
.

I've spent the better part of a day working on positioning these nuts with little luck. On start up the aircraft doesn't perform the gimbal dance. There's a slight d-d sound with a twitch and that's it. Moving the gimbal to different positions by hand will sometimes get it to stabilize and offset aircraft movement but only for a few second and then either goes limp or spastic. The gimbal either requires these magnetic nuts to be in position to go into the gimbal initiation phase, or something else is wrong. If it was solely a matter of positioning them for centering the axis I'd be done, but there's more to learn at this point.
 
Hmm....... sounds like something else may be out of order. I wish I could be of assistance, but I never repaired mine. I sold it as is to someone and bought another. All of what I have learned has been second hand information. Might have to send it in to DJI.
 
What nuts do you speak of NJV? Have any pictures? I have a X3 and it's shows video but like you said it doesn't do the gimbal dance. It doesn't move at all
 
What nuts do you speak of NJV? Have any pictures? I have a X3 and it's shows video but like you said it doesn't do the gimbal dance. It doesn't move at all
Here's a couple of pics of the nuts and spring washers. The nut is actually a steel nut with a magnet cemented into it. As mentioned in earlier posts, make a reference mark on the shaft and nut before turning anything. The magnetic poles are sensed by a component on the back of the quarter size circuit board. After spending several hours attempting to overcome the issue by aligning theses nuts, I know believe there's something else not happening as indicated by the lack of the start up calibration dance. Perhaps a camera firmware loading issue? Does anyone have any recommendations on a dealer etc that would be the best approach to sending a camera in for diagnostics?
 

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Does your camera/gimbal act similar to mine then, where you have video/photo, but no power to the gimbal motors, and everything is limp? Does it beep 3 times (I think) when powered on? Those PCBs though have to be put in a certain way for the ribbon cable to fit and the steel nut is in the center. So when the nut is rotating on axis, what would trigger or sense magnet? Unless opposite sides of the nut are polarized differently, nothing moves in or out of plane with that magnetic sensor. Just thinking out loud, and brainstorming from the research you've already done.
 
Does your camera/gimbal act similar to mine then, where you have video/photo, but no power to the gimbal motors, and everything is limp? Does it beep 3 times (I think) when powered on? Those PCBs though have to be put in a certain way for the ribbon cable to fit and the steel nut is in the center. So when the nut is rotating on axis, what would trigger or sense magnet? Unless opposite sides of the nut are polarized differently, nothing moves in or out of plane with that magnetic sensor. Just thinking out loud, and brainstorming from the research you've already done.
That's exactly how mine acts. A few beeps on power up and limp after that. Video, file access everything else works through the camera like firmware updates etc. As the PCBs can only be mounted one way, the magnetic nut certainly gives indication of rotational position, but I don't believe controls the initiation sequence of the gimbal. For example, in a properly working system the initiation sequence doesn't require the gimbal to be centered. The purpose of the initiation, or dance, is to orient and center the gimbal. My attempt to move the nuts into position did nothing that changed the fact that my gimbal doesn't enter that phase. As indicated by AeroMirage, these nut positions in a properly functioning system function to center the axis.
My suspicion at this point is that there's a problem with the camera IMU.

Did your system suddenly start doing this or is it a result of trauma?
 
That's exactly how mine acts. A few beeps on power up and limp after that. Video, file access everything else works through the camera like firmware updates etc. As the PCBs can only be mounted one way, the magnetic nut certainly gives indication of rotational position, but I don't believe controls the initiation sequence of the gimbal. For example, in a properly working system the initiation sequence doesn't require the gimbal to be centered. The purpose of the initiation, or dance, is to orient and center the gimbal. My attempt to move the nuts into position did nothing that changed the fact that my gimbal doesn't enter that phase. As indicated by AeroMirage, these nut positions in a properly functioning system function to center the axis.
My suspicion at this point is that there's a problem with the camera IMU.

Did your system suddenly start doing this or is it a result of trauma?

I actually frankenstein'd one together from two partials. One was broken the other was functioning but wouldn't allow firmware updates and therefore wouldn't show image. I'm having a hard time with the concept of these nuts, maybe I'll have to take mine apart again. What I don't get is that the nut isn't magnetized in only one spot and it's holding that tilt axis together, so it just rotates on axis. What does that sensor see intermittently to cause it to know position/orientation?
I'm tempted to take apart my working one to see if I can get the non moving one to work.
 
The nut is magnetized across its face so as it turns with the axis, the poles move in relationship with the sensor chip on the PCB. I know this for fact as I checked this with a separate magnet. I don't think this is your problem.IMG_20170101_1822332_rewind_kindlephoto-195998740.jpg

Since you have gone into these and have several parts I would wonder if you can swap PCBs from the camera heads? The IMU would typically be on a horizontal board. This is a strong possibility in my mind.
 

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Hey guys this is the arm anybody have repair referral or would DJ I do this for reasonable cost 4E70D2FF-FB55-4CAD-B52A-97A668321E73.jpeg4E70D2FF-FB55-4CAD-B52A-97A668321E73.jpeg
 

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I’ve just broken the shaft on my x5 tightening the nut too, is it possible to get a replacement? Does anyone have one laying around? And a nut!
 

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