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Frustrating

daws901

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Joined
Aug 9, 2019
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Location
Guernsey
I love my parrot, or did. Until it crashed at a lowly 8mph into a sapling tree. The impact, amazingly, managed to bend the gimbal L bracket just enough so that the camera couldn't freely rotate any more. Incredibly annoying because everything else works absolutely fine. I've found out the L bracket is made of an aluminum alloy that can't easily be bent back to its 90 degree angle.

I resorted to removing the casing around the camera which allowed the camera to calibrate on start up, but as you can no longer fit ND filters without the casing I needed to find a way to fit the front part of the casing on so that I could attach ND filters.

No matter what I tried I always ended up with too little clearance with the front case attached and had to grind it down at the edges to make more room, which worked....

Unfortunately during this process a back connector came free (see pictured) and of course now the camera doesn't work. The connectors has a tiny bit of plastic in the middle surrounded by lots of metal pins.

I feel annoyed I should have just stopped with the casing removed and left it as was but didn't think it would go this wrong... anyone any advice on what I should be able to do?
IMG_20190910_190951.jpgIMG_20190910_190224.jpg
 
The resiliency of these drones needs to improve massively. And if it is possible I would have thought having modular parts for easy replacement would be an easily monetiseable stream for them without having to do an entire replacement. I have heard that repairs for these drones are so expensive you might as well buy a new one >.<

That'll have me going straight to DJI , which I dont want to do, but spare parts need to be there!!!!!!
 
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Reactions: Zigzag84
Don't be afraid :
the connector with plastic is more stable as you think.
Put it gently on the other side of the connector and press it with feeling back to his old position. Maybe fix the plastic on the corner e. g. with a little hot clue after check the function
 
I've tried to use tiny amount of super glue to keep it down, which does the trick but the camera doesnt move, so clearly the pins aren't lining up or something else is going wrong. I dont want to proceed again before it gets even worse
 
The L bracket is the metal structure holding the camera out off of the drone body. you can see in the below image it is a little bend (inwards)


parrot gimbal.jpeg
 
hmm... I couldn't identify on the picture exactly if the L Bracket not in 90 degreed or the Mounting inside of the cam has moved for a few degrees....
 
hmm... I couldn't identify on the picture exactly if the L Bracket not in 90 degreed or the Mounting inside of the cam has moved for a few degrees....

Not a perfect demonstration but you can see what'bent ginbal.jpgs gone wrong.
 
In my opinion you would need to fully remove the bracket, which is not an easy job, to be able successfully straighten it. It appears to be an aluminium alloy which, from my motorcycling days and falling off bending brake and clutch levers, tends to work harden when it bends and is very difficult to bend back without it breaking. The addition of heat may make straightening it easier but it could all go wrong.
 
Is there any way to loosen the mounting screw and insert a small shim to tilt the "L" bracket back a bit to give the housing clearance for the initialization dance?
 
short of loosening the mounting, I dont think thats possible and that would likely make the situation worse I suspect. I've left the casings off, attached rubber bands (induction tape wasn't staying down) to keep the connections secured. Ordered another drone and will compare video feeds to see if theres anything else I need to do. I have observed that the video feed does appear to be pretty dark so there might be some inputs not quite matching up on the back of the camera connector
 

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