Doubts with the behavior of the gimbal

[juanca073]

Hi all.

I am a new owner of a Spark. I bought a used one. The previous owner bought it in January of this year in an official store and he assures me that he never had a hard landing neither a crash. The external state looks totally new, without marks.

When I rfeceived it, a few days ago, I turned on the Spark I saw that when I moved the drone to the sides, the gimbal moved with it instead of being horizontal. Vertical movement works well.
I turned it off and when I turned it on again, it worked fine. The camera records videos well.
This problem was repeated sporadically when I was testing it. He did not always.
When it locks up I see an error "sobrecarga en el motor del estabilizador" (Gimbal overloading) on the screen.

Yesterday on one of the flights, the message "Gimbal overload" appeared and immediately I lowered it to 1.5 mt. I saw that the gimbal was not horizontal. I landed it, turned it off and on again and made another flight without problems.

Is this a serious problem or is something that I can solve?
If this is repeated, can it damage something else in the drone?

The spark was bought in January in the USA and I live in Argentina, so I would like to know if there is anything I can do, because it would be very expensive to send it to the USA.

Thanks in advance.
Juan Carlos

 

[Andre Levite]

The Spark only has a 2-axis gimbal so when rotating horizontally (yaw) the video won't be as smooth as a Mavic. ..

You can recalibrate gimbal with DJI Assistant 2 program on a computer. If resetting the software doesn't fix it then you have hardware problem.

When the Spark is off the gimbal should be moveable with your fingers with zero friction.

"Gimbal Overload" means the motor has excess friction. Either weight (like a filter) or debris in the mechanism. The other possibility is damage from a crash.

 

[juanca073]

Dear Andre.

I appreciate your quick response very much.
I will try to recalibrate as you indicated.

If I toch the gimbal it moves freely. When it was blocked, I touched it gently and it seemed to rub against something. Since I did not know if I could touch, I did not insist. When turning on the motors I think that the vibration released him.
After that, with the battery on, I moved it laterally several times, gently, but I think more than I would in normal flight. Only in one occasion it was blocked. I turned off the equipment, touched the gimbal gently and it unlocked easily. After that, he did not do it until yesterday on a flight.

When I bought it, it included a Sandisk 128 GB UHS-1 Micro SDXC card. I know that the spark accepts cards of up to 64GB. Could this be part of the problem? Would it be fixed by formatting it?

Thank you very much again.

 

[juanca073]

By the way, is there any possibility to connect the spark without consuming battery to make settings on the cellphone or while downloading images from the card?

 

[nilanjan118]

By the way, is there any possibility to connect the spark without consuming battery to make settings on the cellphone or while downloading images from the card?

When the Spark is turned on and you are making changes in the settings before take off, not much battery is consumed. The maximum battery is consumed when users forget to change something and then try to correct it while the AC is still in the air hovering. For downloading images and videos, the best way is to remove the SD card from the AC and use a card reader. Most micro SD cards come with an SD card adapter which can be used to directly read the card on a laptop.

 

[juanca073]

When the Spark is turned on and you are making changes in the settings before take off, not much battery is consumed. The maximum battery is consumed when users forget to change something and then try to correct it while the AC is still in the air hovering. For downloading images and videos, the best way is to remove the SD card from the AC and use a card reader. Most micro SD cards come with an SD card adapter which can be used to directly read the card on a laptop

Thank you Nilanjan118

 

[juanca073]

The Spark only has a 2-axis gimbal so when rotating horizontally (yaw) the video won't be as smooth as a Mavic. ..

You can recalibrate gimbal with DJI Assistant 2 program on a computer. If resetting the software doesn't fix it then you have hardware problem.

When the Spark is off the gimbal should be moveable with your fingers with zero friction.

"Gimbal Overload" means the motor has excess friction. Either weight (like a filter) or debris in the mechanism. The other possibility is damage from a crash.

I checked the firmware with DJI Assistant 2 and had the latest version installed. I re-configured IMO and formatted the memory. Apparently now it works normally.

I made a flight without problems.

Later I powered on the drone and moved the drone to the sides, up and down many times and the gimbal seems to work perfectly.

Now, as you said, with the Spark is off the gimbal can be moveable with my fingers with zero friction.

Is it possible that it was an IMO configuration or memory card problem?

 

[Andre Levite]

I checked the firmware with DJI Assistant 2 and had the latest version installed. I re-configured IMO and formatted the memory. Apparently now it works normally.

I made a flight without problems.

Later I powered on the drone and moved the drone to the sides, up and down many times and the gimbal seems to work perfectly.

Now, as you said, with the Spark is off the gimbal can be moveable with my fingers with zero friction.

Is it possible that it was an IMO configuration or memory card problem?

I'm glad that worked for you.

Sometimes when troubleshooting my Spark I can't make sense of why a certain fix works. It can be a mysterious creature. Several times I've had to "go nuclear" and uninstall/reinstall the DJI Go app.

Fortunately most of the time "it just works".

 

[juanca073]

I'm glad that worked for you.

Sometimes when troubleshooting my Spark I can't make sense of why a certain fix works. It can be a mysterious creature. Several times I've had to "go nuclear" and uninstall/reinstall the DJI Go app.

Fortunately most of the time "it just works".

I´m really happy
Thank you very much for your support.

 

[juanca073]

I thought that my problem was solved but use the spark 3 minutes and I´m afraid that the problem continue (or is worst now).

The horizon move a lot.

I tried to re-configurate the IMO again, but the lines not appear in green colour.

I think that this is the reason of the problem with the image, but I is possible that the IMO have suffered a damage?

I reconfigurated the IMO far of any kind of metal or magnetic things


Have anyone any idea about what could be happening?

 

[Andre Levite]

I thought that my problem was solved but use the spark 3 minutes and I´m afraid that the problem continue (or is worst now).

The horizon move a lot.

I tried to re-configurate the IMO again, but the lines not appear in green colour.

I think that this is the reason of the problem with the image, but I is possible that the IMO have suffered a damage?

I reconfigurated the IMO far of any kind of metal or magnetic things


Have anyone any idea about what could be happening?

I have read on this forum that there is a setting within the DJI Assistant 2 program that allows for re-calibration of the gimbal. I have not had the need to do this myself but I suggest you look for the option and give it a try.

If that doesn't work I suspect a hardware problem that would require expert repair.

A used Spark that immediately has problems is suspicious for damage from crash or other misadventure --. regardless of what the seller told you.

 

[juanca073]

Dear Andre, thank you again for answering me.

It seems hat this time it was my fault. Among all the things that I did yesterday to try to solve this, I changed the option "tracking" to "FPV".

Luckily this afternoon I was accompanied by another person who has a drone and after seeing the behavior on the first flight, the first thing he did was verify that configuration. Only modifying the option to "tracking" (or following, I don´t remember the name) the problem disappeared. I made 3 more flights, making exaggerated lateral movements and the videos were totally stable. I had the same result making forward and backward movements. All the videos went well.

It was a beginner's mistake (luckily!)

 

[Simk1n]

I dont think you can use DJI Assistant to calibrate the Spark gimbal. I followed this video and it worked great

 

[juanca073]

Thank you Smink1n.
I have re-calibrated the IMU and it works well now.
I saved the video you have shared in case I need in the future.