Cgo3 plus camera making grinding sound at startup and when rotating

WildcatDave · Apr 3, 2020

Hey guys haven't posted in awhile because things have been going just fine. Recently I noticed when I startup my typhoon H which has the cgo3 plus camera, the camera makes a grinding sound instead of going through its normal spin around orientation warm up procedure. It basically just sit still and makes this funny grinding sound at a consistent tone for about five or six seconds. Also while rotating it with the dial on the st16 controller it makes a similar grinding sound
It seems like something is not activating or the motor is not working properly. But it does rotate and it seems smooth just sounds bad. Any idea what might have happened or if this is something that can be fixed with a reset or firmware?

WTFDproject · Apr 3, 2020

~~Have you put it on the GUI and run the camera Calibration?~~ (Wrong GUI)

~~If that does not work,~~ a video with good audio may help.

With nothing more to go on, It sounds like one of the three motors is having a hard time maintaining position.

It should NOT spin around while initializing, or at any time other than when you tell it to do so. If I understand what you said, you may have been on the verge of an issue for some time.

Mechanic · Apr 3, 2020

Grinding noises inside a plastic geared anything is not good. Confirm what WTFDproject has suggested. But it may have some teeth stripped or at least ground down enough that it can;t engage the motor gear.

WildcatDave · Apr 3, 2020

WTFDproject said:
Have you put it on the GUI and run the camera Calibration?

If that does not work, a video with good audio may help.

With nothing more to go on, It sounds like one of the three motors is having a hard time maintaining position.

It should NOT spin around while initializing, or at any time other than when you tell it to do so. If I understand what you said, you may have been on the verge of an issue for some time.

Maybe I was mistaken, but I thought when first powered up it would go through a little left/right wake movement. It does not make the sound anytime except at startup for 5-6 seconds and then when using the rotate dial on the ST16. And it rotates just fine and seems to work 100%, just makes the consistent grinding sound (not very loud). I would ignore it, but I don't need a surprise on some shoot for a client. It has never been banged or damaged, just noticed it a few days ago. Also only has about 15 hours of total powered on time. I will run the camera calibration and see how she goes...

Steve Carr · Apr 3, 2020

No chance it's a fan noise? There is a fan in the CGO3+ and two fans in the ST6.

WTFDproject · Apr 3, 2020

Mechanic said:
Grinding noises inside a plastic geared anything is not good. ...……………..it may have some teeth stripped or at least ground down enough that it can;t engage the motor gear.

For what it's worth, there are no gears of any material in a CGo3+.

WildcatDave · Apr 3, 2020

Mechanic said:
Grinding noises inside a plastic geared anything is not good. Confirm what WTFDproject has suggested. But it may have some teeth stripped or at least ground down enough that it can;t engage the motor gear.

That's what I thought! However it works just fine. Noisy at startup and during rotation using the dial on the ST16.

Steve Carr said:
No chance it's a fan noise? There is a fan in the CGO3+ and two fans in the ST6.

Nope, definitely some kind of scratchy/grindy noise. Will check it more this weekend.

Mrgs1 · Apr 3, 2020

Have you had a hard landing previously?

WTFDproject · Apr 4, 2020

@WildcatDave,
Please note the correction to Post #2. Gimbal calibration is done from the ST16 on the Typhoon H.

WildcatDave · Apr 5, 2020

WTFDproject said:
@WildcatDave,
Please note the correction to Post #2. Gimbal calibration is done from the ST16 on the Typhoon H.

Thank you for the update. hopefully I'll have time tomorrow or Monday to do that and will report back

WildcatDave · Apr 5, 2020

Mrgs1 said:
Have you had a hard landing previously?

No it has had an easy life so far...

DoomMeister · Apr 5, 2020

I wonder if a piece of debris may have gotten into the area near the top mount where the dampeners are. It could scrape and cause noise. Something like a piece of leaf matter or plastic.

WildcatDave · May 13, 2020

Sorry for the inordinately late reply everybody. I haven't gotten out and shot much considering the situation we're all in. I did have two shoots in the last week or so and the camera did not seem to make any abnormal noise. I'm actually wondering if it was just part of its normal start-up noise and I was being overly worried. I did notice when you first turn it on it makes a little light buzzing wake up a sound. It seems to be normal and I think I hadn't shot in a while and was just assuming something was wrong. I stated previously the camera works fine in all of its movements and seems to have no problem. So this might have been one of those "somebody got too worried for nothing" situations.

If anything changes or it acts up I'll report back here. But I think we can say the owner was overly concerned about nothing

Steve Carr · May 13, 2020

WildcatDave said:
But I think we can say the owner was overly concerned about nothing

Buffing up my troubleshooting questions:

Does it have a temperature?
Does it have a persistent unproductive cough?
Has it been out of the country in the past month?