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Anyone having issues with Freewell ND filters?

Noobnoobnoob

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Doing a little lunchtime flying today, very sunny bright day I popped on the freewell 32ND filter and before taking off I got a "gimbal motor overload" warning in the goggles, it soon went away and I took off flew a few minutes, then as I was landing moved gimbal down to more or less see landing site as I was landing moved gimbal up but it wouldn't budge and the warning reappeared. Anyone else experience this with the freewells?
 
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I haven’t experienced it yet with the FPV but am familiar with the effect. My MM and Spark sometimes gives me the same error when I use filters on them.
 
did you just get the warnings, or were the gimbals disabled or otherwise affected? I don't know if I'm giving them too much credit, but maybe they are smart enough to just release or disable the motors so as to not cause more damage. I'm just afraid it will damage the gimbal.
 
It's not going to damage anything, but the filters restrict movement so you'll get occasional errors.
 
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Its not the movement restriction that bothersome so much, its the fact that once the camera looks down it will not come up again. On the fpv there is only up and down the only movement restriction should be in terms of maximum extension top an bottom due to the width, but that the filter is putting so much weight on that it disables the camera is disturbing and feels like it could cause permanent damage. today I'll try the ND16, which didn't seem to bother it previously
 
Why is there a need to use ND filters with an FPV drone? This thing is not exactly meant for photography
 
Why is there a need to use ND filters with an FPV drone? This thing is not exactly meant for photography
Is a race or freestyle quad meant for cine/photography? Why is there a need for a GoPro on a traditional fpv quad? Why is there a need to use a ND filters on said GoPro? Yes this thing will get a lot of use doing video, whether for fun or for YT even if the camera is not as good as a GoPro and some of us are accustomed to using ND filters. Is there a "need"? Depends on what you want to get out of it.
 
Is a race or freestyle quad meant for cine/photography? Why is there a need for a GoPro on a traditional fpv quad? Why is there a need to use a ND filters on said GoPro? Yes this thing will get a lot of use doing video, whether for fun or for YT even if the camera is not as good as a GoPro and some of us are accustomed to using ND filters. Is there a "need"? Depends on what you want to get out of it.
So, not a photographer here, but I learnt this lesson the hard way as well. This gimbal is NOT designed for tacking on extra weight on it (something which is a standard with the Mavics line gimbals).

I too tacked on Freewell ND filters, and ended up with a borked gimbal. Symptoms were similar to yours. Searched online and found the thread here with gimbal errors however; my gimbal, filter or not, started getting stuck in the up-and-down positions as well and then would throw the “gimbal overloaded error”. Returned the drone to Amazon and a got a new one.

Promise I am not the filter police, but I realized that this gimbal, perhaps, is not designed to have any weight on it.

Sure, some of us are accustomed to using ND filters, but I don’t think this gimbal is designed for that.
 
Same issue with my filters, it seems to happen more with the nd32 and in S mode. You will find other comments in the DJI forums and other threads here.
 
Same issue with my filters, it seems to happen more with the nd32 and in S mode. You will find other comments in the DJI forums and other threads here.
well, that's that. Yeah I'm way past N, S is by b*ch now. Any word whether it happens in Manual mode also?
 
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well, that's that yeah I'm way past N, S is by b*ch now. Any word whether it happens in Manual mode also?
The gimbal does not move (relative to the drone) in M mode, thus, there are no warnings. Now I’m wondering if excess weight could cause long term issues regardless of warning messages...might just store the filters for a while.
 
Haven't had issues with my filters in M mode, but only flew a couple of times with them.
 
Dang it now this makes me reconsider buying those ND filters? Anyone with similar issue with the pgytech ones?
 
I think they'll be the same/similar - most seem to complain about hte ND32 which is heavier.

Ive got the (Freewell) ND4 on, and though it restricts movement, doesn't seem to give the overload errors others are getting with the ND32.
that said, Im was quite disappointed at how quickly you get errors in Sports mode with the ND on.

its a real shame - its very bright here, so ND filters make a big difference.
I was used to running an ND64 routinely on the Mavic Air without issue - though in fairness the MA was designed for it (had screw mounting on lens).

I can't see we are going to have any options... its the glass that is the weight, anything lighter will have likely be poorer quality.
 
hmm, little update on this...

I took off the ND4 that Ive had on for (2?) weeks, and I noticed that the camera was still not moving thru the fall range.
I turned it off and on a few times, and it seemed to improved - then took it up flew it in sports mode fast with a tilted angle., eventually I got back the fall range of movement.

I'm guessing it had knocked the gimbal calibration out of whack.... and turning on/off a few times allowed it to finally reset.
(I couldn't find an option in the menus to do a gimbal calibration)


so... a bit concerning, I think now Im only going to put the ND filters on for particular shots, then take them straight off again - just in case its place too much strain on the gimbal motor.
 
I had the same issue with my ND filters, found I was not seating it properly. I found if you leave a small gap you run the possibility of getting errors, however, when I closed the gap, no more errors. Though I'm not using the ND filters any more more out of caution than anything.
 

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