GIMBAL TEARDOWN - SORT OF (and now with some rebuild)

[Cyberblitz]

This is not a thorough tear down but rather a glimpse into my experiences with taking apart the Gimbal.

History:
The Gimbal i took apart failed to work properly after a crash from a 2ft height following power failure; my fault, I left RTH too late before percentage of power reached 0 and it dropped heavy to the ground and it tipped over. It didn't think any damage occurred until i powered it back up and the Gimbal failed to respond, producing weird, high pitched sounds. So i purchased another Gimbal and decided to take this one apart to see what damage actually occurred.

Long story short, I found the cause of the failure. When Solo impacted the ground, so did the Gimbal. On doing so, the Gimbal was pushed into Solo forcing the yaw spindle to migrate upwards, moving it out of alignment causing the yaw L shape arm to rub against the Gimbal plate.

This picture shows how the Yaw Motor connects to the Spindle Clasp. This is where it moved. The screws holding it in place weren't strong enough and it moved inwards, moving the whole frame upwards allowing the yaw arm to scrape against the Gimbal Plate. I wish I figured this out before taking the rest apart; it would have been an easy fix. But i commenced tear-down from bottom up rather than top down.

Inside the Clasp is a sneaky screw i missed that secures the screw holding the motor, and upon removing the screw holding the motor i snapped it. Oops. These screws are easily replaced though, but its going to be a challenge removing the remainder from the Clasp.

I think the Yaw motor is damaged too; it doesn't seem to rotate all that smoothly. The Brush-less motors are made by Namiki (part No. S0BL23-1207). Looking at their website, it doesn't appear these motors are available to the consumer market.

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This image shows the scrape damage the Yaw arm caused.

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I also damaged a ribbon connector on the Gimbal Motherboard too, this is not so easily repaired (I'll have to find someone who can do micro-soldering repairs):

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A view from the top of the Gimbal Motherboard:

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I wasn't prepared to take everything apart, so these looks a bit messy:

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The GoPro Gimabal Cage with the pitch motor removed.

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I plan to put this Gimbal together again at some point, but I'm not convinced it will function as before; they may be unseen damage causing problems

 

[pyrate]

These things aren't made to service. I got one apart and doubt seriously if I could reassemble it

 

[RichWest]

It is interesting none the less. Thanks for posting the pictures.

You could have downsized the files and still had respectable resolution. Was that interlaced JPEGs, haven't seen that in a while?

 

[Cyberblitz]

I think to some degree they are servicable, particularly in this case if I'd known what I know now. I'm determined to put it back together but I need to get the right tools to do it; some of the alan screws are really small and delicate.

 

[hackbard23]

THX for that interesting view inside. So your problem was that the yaw arm scraped against the Gimbal Plate ? was it broken or deformed ?

 

[hackbard23]

motors are interesting as they look like three-phase motors, didn´t expect that in a gimbal.
Thought they were some sort of single-phased with a positioning potentiometer driven by a H-Bridge

 

[Freebird32]

I need to get the right tools to do it; some of the alan screws are really small and delicate.

I got a good set of tools that have the right tips from iFixit. (they have pics on their website and a list of what is in the sets) Handy for this type of gear and all the small fasteners I've encountered in Mac tear downs. Thanks for the pics. I bought some spare gimbals when they got down to 99, didn't figure there would be any repairs that could be done. Sounds like you could do some, but you might have to cannibalize other 'bad' gimbals.

 

[Cyberblitz]

I would thing they are single phase, not 3. All three motors fit through a potentiometer (you can see two of the potentiometers off of the GoPro cage and on the mainboard).

 

[pyrate]

Man I wan to see if you are able to get that bad boy back together.
The screws are so soft in the gimbal that they are tough to get out intact, that was the first reason I thought these things are just not meant to be serviced
kudos though

 

[hackbard23]

can you make some closeups of the IC´s on the MB to see what types they are ?

 

[Cyberblitz]

THX for that interesting view inside. So your problem was that the yaw arm scraped against the Gimbal Plate ? was it broken or deformed ?

The yaw arm was fine, it's was the fact the spindle on the motor moved inwards against the screw holding it, moving the whole gimbal upwards towards the gimbal plate. The yaw arm was then touching the gimbal plate scrapping it, creating resistance. This caused the high pitched sounds produced.

 

[Cyberblitz]

No, I was wrong, they are 3 phase motors with a potentiometer and ESC for each

 

[cynfab]

Thanks for the teardown and detailed pictures.
The big ic (three of them) are TMS320 DSP chips. The 3DR Gimbal is one hell of a piece of technology. I have one from a crashed Solo, that I took apart a while ago, mine will never go back together. one connector was ripped off the board. ;>((

 

[hackbard23]

i´m looking in particular for a IC that is supposed to be a 3-phase H-Bridge for the motors, as they normally should be controlled by a PWM Signal from the TMS320.

someone here in the forum asked for a signal to use for a flir tilt, maybe that could be of use for him

 

[Cyberblitz]

This is the Roll Sub PCB (not sure what else to call it)..
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Close up of some ICs

This one is on the Main Gimbal Board
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These next one is on the Sub-board
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This next one is on both boards.
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[Cyberblitz]

Commencement of reassembly:


Pitch Motor and Cage:

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Motor Reattached to GoPro Cage:

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More Components added to complete the GoPro Cage and Reattached motor wire to PCB:

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Pitch Arm Reattached, with the Alan key inserted into one of those elusive Screws:

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Naked Roll Arm:

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Roll Motor and Cage prior to assembly:

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Roll Arm, Motor and Sub-board reattached (the Roll arm isn't easily seen in this image, its directly behind the sub-PCB)

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Unfortunately, this is as far as i got. Until i can repair the ribbon connector on the main PCB, i can't continue, as the rest of assembly requires it to be in place.

 

[twitchyzero]

as a $400 gimbal...it should've came in aluminum

 

[Cyberblitz]

The arms are made from aluminum, the rest is plastic.

 

[hackbard23]

THX for the closeups, seems that if you want to engage another motor you have to solder 6 wires to the TMS DSP and connect them to an other DRV 8313 H-Bridge Driver IC for moving a 3-Phase BLDC Motor.
+ 2 wires for VCC and GND

looks like this could be done if you would know the right pins on the DSP

 

[pyrate]

If you hit a snag on the rebuild and need some parts I have mine laying around. let me know