Gimbal motor overload when you forget to remove the foam 😬

Thought it would be ok to add this here, not sure if many of you throw this away or keep it to hold your gimbal in place when trying to re attach the gimbal cover / protection,
I can only speak for the mavic 3 mind you, but i think this piece of foam comes with some of their later DJI drones or possibly other brands ?
Anyway, trying to get the original gimbal guard back on can be quite a fiasco ( unless you bought an after market guard / cover ) I’ve always wondered if the foam piece that came with it when I bought the drone was just for packaging & transit purposes but however, it makes things so much easier putting the cover back on as the gimbal sits in place when using the foam, downside because the colour is the same as the gimbal & drone it’s really easy to forget it’s there, many a time I’ve powered on the drone & shortly after seen the message ( gimbal motor overloaded ) & quickly had to turn the drone off & remove the piece of foam :grimacing:
So I came up with a little idea so it’s more noticeable when getting everything set up, it maybe useful to some or none but thought I would share, I just used some bright orange tape so it’s not over looked when setting up, which stands out & is now hard to over look or forget to remove !


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@Kirky I used to use it with the mini 3 pro Rich but not with the mini 4. Good idea though if you do use it. I might even put some tape on my pill box! :pill: :rofl:

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The old Phantom 4 gimbal used to have a piece of foam to hold the gimbal steady during transit, that had a bright orange sticker on it to remind you!

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I had done this last year, as I was forever forgetting as it blends in so well, I was meant to post it sooner just incase others may find it useful but forgot to post it sooner, I’m sure I’m not the first in forgetting this & probably won’t be the last,

I was more concerned about the drone being in flight with it, not sure how easy those motors take or if they fail / burnout quick & maybe it would be doomed by the time you got the drone back, if not my thoughts are the less load on the gimbal the better, hence why I should imagine it gives you that warning !

DJI probably changed the idea as they weren’t getting enough repairs :roll_eyes: :sweat_smile:

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@Kirky I’ve left mine on the mini3p Rich a few times, but pretty obvious straight away for me as I always hit record before TO and you get the overload warning virtually immediately. (usually on start up). Although it’s not a good idea to overload the gimbal this way it’s not a terminal thing in my experience but I guess you wouldn’t want to do it repeatedly.

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@D0c.Col col, yes that’s what I thought mate, not sure if keep doing it the motor would fail or get weaker eventually & don’t want to be the one to find out :grimacing:,

Also I note or know rather that we as pilots should do the old pre flight checklist on screen etc, visual inspection as well but I think sometimes it can be over looked if your rushing to get the drone up for that golden shot you don’t want to miss, then mistakes can or maybe happen, for me nowadays it’s a bit like the saying ( measure twice cut once ) check check & check again, maybe I’m a bit to thorough, but I then say to myself if your putting things into the sky ( knowing the risks ) then safety check is paramount.

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My mantra as a teenager Rich, but substituting ‘sky’ for something a bit closer to the ground! :flushed::grin:

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I chose my words carefully when typing but it came to mind :person_facepalming:t2::sweat_smile:

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I have glued a short length of red ribbon onto the foam pad, having made the same mistake in the past.

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My original plan was a long bright orange lace :smile:

Glue a strip from the foam to the cover, when cover removed foam comes with it :+1:

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