Q500 4K Q5004K Not automatically binding

It's one of two antennae for the drone receiver. The other is routed inside the body. Some models routed it down the landing gear, some inside the body. Doesn't matter which, as long as it is layed out 90deg from the one that runs towards the drone nose. I put all mine inside to make it easier to take off the landing gear. Probably most folks do that the first time they take the shell off for something else.

 

@914pete,

I am working on a modified PDF of the motor arm post to include the steps you will need to align the motor arm. While working on it, something possibly important occurred to me;
The previous owner probably removed the gimbal board to make that solder repair. Part of board removal involves three very short, very delicate wires that go to the top (Yaw) motor position sensor (encoder). If he broke one or more of those wires, it could create the symptoms you are seeing.
Any broken wires should have revealed themselves by a “Beep code” during camera initialization. (see the “encoder beep code” section of the drawing in post #18 above).
Or you can also check the wires manually. If you carefully remove the four screws on the gimbal board, you should be able to lift it enough to locate and check the short wires that go to the Yaw sensor. They are connector "C" (Yaw encoder) on the drawing in post #18. The soldered ends are covered with black rubber sealant, which makes it hard to tell if any are loose under the sealant, which is where they break. Use some tweezers to tug each one (gently) to ensure they are still attached.

 

[QUOTE=" I am working on a modified PDF of the motor arm post to include the steps you will need to align the motor arm. [/QUOTE]
This is the modified PDF. The new stuff begins on Step 11.

 

Wow. That is a new one. I will take apart a working camera today to experiment, but I agree that it currently sounds like the Yaw encoder is bad, or the gimbal board itself is bad. (I have a bucket full of CGo3s with bad gimbal boards. The cost of repair is close to, or higher, than the cost of a new camera, with no guarantee of success.)
It will be much later today before I get to experiment. But I will post the results when I have them. Maybe something useful will show up.

 

Did you ever try the problem camera on the good Q500, or on a steadygrip? Not a lot of hope that would show a difference, but it would be good to completely eliminate the drone/controller as potential issues.

 

[QUOTE="I will take apart a working camera today to experiment, Maybe something useful will show up.[/QUOTE]


@914pete,
Nothing useful came of experimenting with a good CGo3. For what it’s worth, here is what I tried:

Deliberately misaligned the mounting screws: This did not reveal anything really new. The camera moved left until it hit the frame stop, and continued trying to move. The motor wasn’t making much noise, but if I listened real close, I could hear a little bit of sound. It did not line up perfectly when the drone was turned upside down, but it was fairly close. If I tried to align it by hand while upside down, it would try to hold a couple of different angles, but not straight ahead. These results were not much different from your description above.

I also disconnected Yaw Encoder wires one at a time. Again, did not result in anything more than expected. Gimbal board just failed to initialize, and sounded the Yaw Encoder beep codes.

 

Unless you bought it at Best Buy, many of them will not even accept it for return to Yuneec. But there have been random reports of some BB stores that will try to help. If Best Buy doesn't work out, Yuneec has two actual repair facilities that do the work for them. Be sure to get an estimated cost. Repairs and shipping are generally pretty much in the same cost range as a new camera.

 

Let us know if that turns out good. If it's just calibration and one or two of the smaller boards, repair would sound like a very reasonable option. All the cameras in my junk bucket have bad gimbal boards(at least) I think the gimbal boards are about $50, plus shipping and repairs, and anything else that might be wrong with the camera. New cameras show up for about $210 fairly often, which makes it too close for repairs to be an option for any I currently have in the bucket. I think I have 8 in there right now, including a couple that have parts missing. And not one good gimbal board in the whole bunch.

I'm east coast USA, Time Zone GMT-5. Where are you?