Gimbal overheat message

Sndguy1 · Feb 22, 2017

A few weeks ago I was on a shoot with my I1 at a dirt race track. The director had requested a slow crane shot of the cars getting ready to take the green flag. He asked me to take a position about 15 feet above and behind the most rearward car looking forward toward the start line. The cars were idling but not moving at this time. All was well until I got a message warning me of the gimbal overheating. The craft had been flying several times already that day and experienced no issues of any kind. I landed and looked things over. I reset, tried again and shortly thereafter I got the same warning. Once again I landed, inspected the craft again, and found nothing to be amiss. I retook my position but a bit further away from the cars and this time I got no warnings.

Track temps were in the low 70s F and the winds were very calm.

My theory is that perhaps the large amount of low frequency vibrations coming off of the cars idling (you could feel the vibrations in your chest even several yards away) may have caused the craft to move more than normal and the gimbal to overheat due to all the micro adjustments it was making. Any ideas or opinions on this? To my eye the craft wasn't experiencing any issues holding still.

I went on to shoot for a couple more hours with no issues and haven't had the same experience since.

Thanks!

AeroMirage · Feb 22, 2017

Is this an X3 or X5?

Sndguy1 · Feb 22, 2017

Sorry... I left that out... X3

AeroMirage · Feb 23, 2017

Ok. Is it balanced? When turned off does camera stay where it is, or does it fall forward or backward?
(Adding heavy filters and lens hoods will cause this.)

Sndguy1 · Feb 23, 2017

Yes it is indeed balanced. I wasn't using a hood. I did have a filter on but it is very close in weight to the UV filter that comes with the X3 from DJI. I also need to mention that this configuration is exactly the same as what I've flown with hundreds of times before and dozens since the incident and I've never gotten that message other than this one time. This is why I can't help but think the problem had to be in connection with the particular shooting environment rather than the setup of the craft and camera.