Q500+ Gimbal problem in cold weather

Hi,

I just bought a little used Q500+ here in Finland. It's from 03/2016 and in very good condition, only some 20 hour flown. All seemed to work fine but the first test couple days ago revealed that the camera gimbal (CGO2+) has issues in cold weather.

If I put the drone on indoors, everything works fine and I can fly it even below 0 C (32 F). If I go outside with the drone off and put it on, the gimbal will not start properly and level itself and the camera will start giving an error beep. The camera connects and can record but the gimbal doesn't work at all. This happens even in 5 C (41 F), which according to Yuneec should be OK. The previous owner says the gimbal worked fine in slightly below 0 C when the drone was new but he didn't fly it in cold weather since last spring.

When I take the drone indoors from cold, it takes 10-20 minutes until the gimbal can be reset succesfully. This is very annoying because it means I can only fly using one battery since the gimbal will stop working when battery is replaced. I know this model is not very good for below 0 C weather but not working at 5 C is too bad.

It there anything to do? Yuneec Finland says they can't do anything and the warranty period is over.

Thanks,

Markus

 

What is weird is that the gimbal doesn't even to try do the leveling if it's too cold. When the leveling should happen, it doesn't move at all and starts beeping. It's almost like there's a sensor or some other way how it knows that it's cold.

Also, sometimes I can get it leveling by tilting the drone at a right time of the startup sequence. Usually this doesn't work but I managed to do it a couple times.

 

my two cents worth.....gimbal worked fine in minus 2 here with a very cold wind so maybe more at the height of 120m which i flew....no probs at all....just a tricky gimbal i guess

 

Has anyone opened parts of the gimbal or seen pics of an opened one? I wonder where in there the problem is. It's really weird that it doesn't even try to stabilize in cold but if it starts in warm, there's no problem flying 15-20 min.

 

Maybe it could be possible to lubricate the bearing parts with silicone oil! I had no problems with mine around 0C.

 

Maybe I'm repeating myself too much but remember that my gimbal works fine in 0 C or even slightly below if I start the drone indoors when it's warm. Here's a video from yesterday.



Have you others started the Q500+ in cold when the drone has cool to ambient temperature?

 

It's certainly true that there are differences between cameras. I just wonder if the problem in mine is purely mechanical or something else or a combination. If the drone is too cold, nothing at all happens at the point when the gimbal should reset. No movement whatsoever.

It has also happened a couple time with a warm drone but then moving the gimbal and a second try helps, which is not the case with a cold drone.

 

Two day ago i was flying in -5C for about 30-40minutes (both batteries) and has no problems at all. Got nice video from my city in snow Only issue i have it was with battries - controler shows 10.7v so i landed but at home when i put batteries to charger (got Redox Aplha) it shows 11.2v but i believe its because of low temperature so no worries.