DJI Ronin Epic Fail

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Thank God I didn't buy a DJI Ronin. Just got my Letus Helix. Hopefully I can get my C300 balanced on it. My DJI Phantom had suddenly plunged from about 60 odd feet to the ground like a rocket. I was so tensed, that I gave up flying a DJI. I was flying it for fun. Later I read that it can happen due to some software issue and others have had such things. So never again I will be an early adopter of DJI products.

[Dylan Couper]

All products can fail... Just because you bought a Helix or a Movi doesn't mean you won't have issues.

Find me any product in the world and I'll find you someone with a story like Derek's.

[Nick Hiltgen]

I'll speak to my experience.

I ordered a Ronin for a shoot, but unfortunately due to weather and my work schedule I was unable to have a proper training setup before the shoot.

We were flying an a7s and I experienced a very similar problem, shaking loud noise etc. I used it for two days and then scrapped it for the final day of shooting. A few days later I was able to take it to a rental house and really trouble shoot it. There were a few things that seemed to help out a lot.

1) the balance of the top bar seems to make a HUGE difference in the shaking problem. So if you roll it in towards the center you may have better luck with the lighter cameras. Obviously the other three axis' need to be balanced as well.

2) doing an auto calibration (not auto tune) after having the top bar balanced completely stopped my shaking problem

3) after that's done auto tuning is what you're supposed to do but I didn't really notice a difference with the auto tune.

I also had a little bit of an issue with my iPhone not linking up to the bluetooth in the ronin (it was finicky at best) but the bluetooth on my phone kinda sucks anyhow so I don't know if that was up to the ronin or not. One of the tech's at the rental house had a newer iPhone and it linked no problem to the ronin.

After I got the calibration done and the remote linked I also lowered the stiffness of the motors, but only down to 15 or 20 not to 0.

After I got this all setup the only time I had an issue for the next 3 hours of testing was when I tried to do a live move from "underslung" to "overslung" where the motors shut down and a restart solved the problem. I will say that when I attempted the move again the ronin worked without any issues (except the image was upside down, but I can't blame the ronin for that)

I never flew the Movi so it may be a better product but I think the fact the DJI is supposed to be so versatile means there's an extra level of tweaking involved.

Hope that helps, again this is only my limited experience with issues that sound similar to yours.

[Larry Secrest]

Derek, I'm so sorry about your experience.
Most reviews on B&H about the Ronin are great. I also checked Amazon, not that I'd bought from them, but I do trust their "verified purchase" icon, just to read reviews, and I must say that this product doesn't seem to fail more than anything else? One of the reviewer, who found the Ronin amazing, warns about using light cam on it.

[Chris Hurd]

Thread moved from Stabilizers to Flying Cameras.

[Noa Put]

Is that correct? I thought the DJI ronin belongs under stabilizers as it is not a drone that can fly?

[Chris Hurd]

No. That is not correct. Either I was just testing you, or I experienced a "senior moment" due to a lack of coffee.

[Noa Put]

I could imagine that if a Ronin would fail at the worst moment possible, as the threads title suggests, it might become a flying camera, maybe you had that in mind. :)

[Derek Reich]

Oh, trust me..... I was more than tempted to 'fly' it right out of our van somewhere between Mumbai and Bangalore.
To answer an earlier post about reviews, yes, this did have some good reviews. It's why I bought it too. One thing I have learned about B&H, they rarely post negative reviews (I have left some on other products as well as positive reviews, and only the positive reviews have ever been posted) I can't speak to Amazon, I've never posted there that I recall....

[Noa Put]

only the positive reviews have ever been posted

I think this is a approach of more online stores, I recently posted a negative reply about a product on a online videostore site and they also didn't post it but they contacted me to offer a refund.

[Derek Reich]

True enough.... and I don't mean to turn this into a discussion of reviews, but while I have found B&H to be hesitant to post negative reviews, I have never had a problem with them if I needed to return something. Their return policy and attitude is the best of any reseller I have ever dealt with. If I had bought this from them in the first place, I doubt I would have had to pay the restocking fee. Again, lesson learned!

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by Derek Reich

I have never had a problem with them if I needed to return something. Their return policy and attitude is the best of any reseller I have ever dealt with.

That matches my experience as well.

[Walter Brokx]

Originally Posted by Nick Hiltgen

............

I never flew the Movi so it may be a better product but I think the fact the DJI is supposed to be so versatile means there's an extra level of tweaking involved.

.......

FYI, I can fly my MoVI both underslung and overslung and it there is no extra level of tweaking required. Balancing and calibrating the motors as you always have to.
However, when flying overslung I balance it in overslung position with the camera in the right position so it won't shoot upside down ;-)

I'm curious in what aspect you find the Ronin more versatile :-)

[Robert Turchick]

Sorry but this seems like a case of user error.
I ran a C100 on mine without issue in several jobs. The initial setup which took a full day of tinkering and reading forums taught me a few things.

#1 make sure EVERY nut and bolt on the Ronin is tight!! Lots of people were having vibration issues until this gem got passed around. I found two loose bolts and several of the clamps had loose bolts. Anything that can move on the rig will amplify the smallest vibration and the oscillation begins.

#2 the weight is not as critical as the center of gravity. I initially mounted my C100 on a Manfrotto QR plate. This added height threw the whole system off. Once removed and just using the stock plate I was easily able to balance the camera and not have any vibration issues.

#3 the software tuning takes a bit of time. I spent several hours AFTER getting the balance correct fine tuning the behaviors and holding stregnth of each motor. I ended up with about 60-70% power which was enough to hold while shooting on a dirt road from the side of a minivan and shooting from the open door of a heli (until we reached 45mph...the motors couldnt hold at that speed.)

My only issue with the Ronin is the weight. An EasyRig solved that.

[Derek Reich]

I would have agreed with you had I not spent an entire week practicing my balancing and operating the Ronin prior to our departure. I set it up and worked it at least a dozen times, with no issue. I am completely certain that I set it up the same way.... what could have changed from over a dozen setups with no problem? The only thing which changed, is it traveled a significant distance, getting bounced around by baggage handlers and skycaps. Something got knocked out of whack which could not be corrected in normal balancing.
Maybe there was some correction that could have been made if I knew what was changed, but given that no amount of balancing and communication with the dealer could get it working. Bottom line is, who has time to spend on that if the thing can't handle being shipped? The whole point was having something quick to set up, not something which might need hours of tinkering to correct for getting bumped in transit.
No thanks.