I've damaged the gimbal on my Mavic Air 2, Mavic Mini or Mini 2, can you repair this? 

Well... sometimes.

If you damage your camera or gimbal assembly on your Mavic Air 2, Mavic Mini or Mini 2 in a crash, it probably can not be FULLY repaired by an independent repair shop. 

As a drone enthusiast, this is one of the most disappointing moves that DJI has made since they began back in 2006 (by making DIY drone kits I might add). Unlike previous or current top tier models, the Gimbals on these particular drones were designed to be disposable; replaced after a crash and not intended to be repaired (by anyone, not even the manufacturer). The Gimbals on these models are made from a composite plastic and the motors are press-fit at the factory and glued in to their plastic gimbal housings. The axis arms on the gimbal can not be removed without seriously damaging the rest of the gimbal, which makes spare parts harvesting and repair impossible. Sure, we can replace video transmission cables and gimbal ribbons but it's rare that a crash will damage only the cable. It's been my professional experience that a crash serious enough to damage your ribbon cable will often times damage the axis arms of the Gimbal, thus transforming your high resolution camera and gimbal into useless garbage.

Ok, so can you replace my Mavic Air 2, Mavic Mini or Mini 2 gimbal? Well technically yes, we can BUT your original Gimbal is serial locked to your mainboard and calibrated at the factory to a point specific to the gimbal board and stator positions of the axis motors. While we can tell the drone to run the calibration again and recenter the gimbal, there's a small chip on all of your gimbal's boards that hold a serial number. When your drone powers on it checks to make sure that all serial numbers match what they were originally issued at the factory and if they don't, it throws out error code readable in the DJI Fly App. This means that even if you replace this gimbal completely and calibrate it to your mainboard, it will show this error indefinitely or until its taken to DJI (I've heard of some DJI repair centers clearing this error for a small fee).

The cost of a new Mavic Air 2, Mavic Mini or Mini 2 gimbal will be close to what the current market value of your drone (in working condition) is worth. As of the writing of this post, a new Mavic Air 2 gimbal on Ebay is $300-$400 and a complete used replacement Mavic Air 2 drone is $360. If the crash resulted in other damage, the cost to repair it can easily exceed the drones value in parts alone! (especially if it was a Mini or Mini 2). If you happen to be in this situation with one of these models, your best option might be to just buy a used replacement drone and keep your broken drone for spare parts, or sell it to offset the cost.

If you'd like us to replace your Mavic Air 2, Mavic Mini or Mini 2 gimbal, please contact us directly at admin@fastdronerepair.com and we'll make sure it's the best option for you!