Gimbal is erractic and will not stabalize

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Hello all,

My spare drone that I had was undusted and sold on eBay but before I shipped it out, I tested it. The gimbal would not stabilize when powered on and would even rotate side to side and hit the ground. I swapped a known good gimbal from my other drone and it worked perfectly. So I sent that gimbal to the buyer and now I'm stuck with a seemingly broken gimbal.

I tried doing level calibrations, compass calibrations, resetting parameters, factory reset, made sure the gimbal was balanced correctly, it sits level when the solo is off but then goes haywire when its on.
The gimbal pretty much moves every which way but avoids being level.
I made sure the wires were ran correctly and didn't interfere with anything.

I have another new gimbal that's still factory sealed which I would like to keep sealed since they sell for $100+ on ebay.

So any tips? Sorry probably TMI
 
I assume this is the "drummer" syndrome that you are describing. Here are some things to look for that have been ID'd as a possible cause, beyond the efforts you've already made.

Roll and/or Yaw motor bells have loosened.
Bent arm(s).
Improper installed ball isolators.
Damaged ribbon control cable.

From my experience the problem follows the top board. The why is a mystery so far... I have 4 gimbals waiting on an answer.

If you are determined to resolve, there are several threads discussing their efforts to resolve the same syndrome. Not sure anyone has been successful, but worth a look around to read what others have tried. You may get lucky...
 
I assume this is the "drummer" syndrome that you are describing. Here are some things to look for that have been ID'd as a possible cause, beyond the efforts you've already made.

Roll and/or Yaw motor bells have loosened.
Bent arm(s).
Improper installed ball isolators.
Damaged ribbon control cable.

From my experience the problem follows the top board. The why is a mystery so far... I have 4 gimbals waiting on an answer.

If you are determined to resolve, there are several threads discussing their efforts to resolve the same syndrome. Not sure anyone has been successful, but worth a look around to read what others have tried. You may get lucky...
Yes that's a great name for it. I searched "gimbal drummer" and found a thread where twisting the back of the gimbal on the motor would realign magnets. I'm gonna give that a try.
 
Most that had a loose bell fail to mention they had a "minor" crash that caused the issue. With enough effort you can duplicate the same and destroy a motor. So don't get too carried away and create the symptom.
 
Most that had a loose bell fail to mention they had a "minor" crash that caused the issue. With enough effort you can duplicate the same and destroy a motor. So don't get too carried away and create the symptom.
This drone was my spare drone and I flew it once. It's been a couple years since I've flown it and has been in storage. Turning the motor bell seemed to fix it and I'm going to do a test flight to know for sure.
 
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Correct me if I am wrong...

But if one were to do this "adjustment" by holding the Roll Motor and turning the Roll Arm (or vice versa), wouldn't that mean that some thing is loose to begin with? If I am not mistaken, and I just took apart two Gimbals, the Roll Arm is secured the the Roll Motor by the Shaft and Grub Screws.

Am I missing something here?
 
The bell housing has been known to come loose from the motor shaft. The bell metal is fairly thin and when it breaks the weld it'll either tilt the bell or allow the bell to turn on the shaft. Just a few degrees off is enough to spazz the gimbal...
 
If there's a better way to fix it by taking it apart then I'd try that if anyone has an idea. But what I did seemed to fix it for now.
 
I've seen a video were someone used solder on the back of the Bell to hold it. I had a gambal with a broken HDMI port that I swapped out the top board on that did the dance of death afterwards. I got video but couldn't use the gambal so something on the top board must have been he problem.
 
Solder will not stick to steel unless tinned. Plus heat can loosen the magnets or even ruin the magnets...

I'd try epoxy or maybe some E6000...

@Russdadto5 the hdmi port can be replaced if the pads are not lifted...
 

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