ok so this is embarassing. had a little incident landing the EVO II Pro last week, wasnt even a real crash more like a rough touchdown on uneven ground and the drone kind of tipped over. it was fine or so i thought. flew it a couple more times since then and the footage looks ok but now theres this faint grinding or rubbing sound coming from the gimbal area when it moves, especially when it pitches down.

the image is still stabilized and i cant see any obvious physical damage but that noise is freaking me out a little. i dont really know if this is something i can fix myself or if i need to send it to Autel. anyone dealt with something similar? i've heard the EVO II gimbal can be a bit delicate but not sure if thats true or just people talking. dont really want to open it up and make it worse.

that grinding sound is almost definitely something small caught in the gimbal mechanism or a ribbon cable that got slightly displaced and is now rubbing. happened to a friend with his after a similar tip over. the good news is it doesnt always mean something is actually broken. id try powering it off, gently inspecting around the gimbal housing for any debris or tiny pebbles, and look closely at the ribbon cable connections. if nothing obvious shows up and the footage still looks good you might be okay for now but personally id still contact Autel support before flying it too much more just to have it documented.

Autel's customer support is actually pretty decent in my experience, way better than I expected. I'd just email them with a video of the noise and let them tell you if it needs to come in. They might have you do a gimbal calibration first through the app anyway, that sometimes sorts out minor issues after a bump. Definitely dont try to take the gimbal apart yourself if youre not sure what youre doing, those ribbon cables are fragile and a real pain to reconnect.