so this has been driving me insane for the past week. updated the firmware on my bird and now the gimbal has this persistent horizon drift to the left, maybe 2-3 degrees, it's not huge but you absolutely notice it in footage especially on panning shots. i've done the gimbal auto calibration like four times and it corrects for maybe a day and then comes back.

im pretty sure this started right after the update but i also dropped it on a landing around the same time so i genuinely cant tell which is the culprit. the ribbon cable looks fine visually. the gimbal motors dont make any weird noises. its just this slow creep to the left that shows up after about 20-30 minutes of flying, like it gets worse as things warm up maybe? which makes me think its a mechanical thing not a software thing but i dont know

running a Ronin style setup integrated into the frame not a removable payload. any ideas before i send it in because im trying to avoid the downtime

the heat thing is actually a real clue. thermal expansion in the gimbal arm or a slightly loose roll motor bearing can absolutely cause drift that gets worse as things warm up. if you push gently on the camera housing with the gimbal powered on and see any play at all thats probably your answer. i had something similar and it turned out one of the tiny set screws on the roll axis had vibrated loose, barely visible, fixed it with a drop of blue loctite and it was fine.

firmware causing horizon drift isnt unheard of either though. id check the forums for your specific firmware version and see if anyone else reported it. sometimes rolling back fixes it instantly and that tells you everything you need to know about whats actually going on.

yeah i had drift issues after an update once and rolling back the gimbal firmware specifically (not the whole system) sorted it. the problem is DJI doesnt always make it easy to roll back selectively. might be worth checking if the IMU calibration is separate from the gimbal calibration in your app, sometimes people do one when they need the other and wonder why nothing changes