3rd replacement, more time down than up. What to do....

[Pedals2Paddles]

I love the Solo. I know what the bugs are and I'm ok with living with those things since everything else about it is (should) be great. BUT, I am now about ship this thing back for my 3rd RMA replacement. My first solo died of an IMU failure less than a month after I bought it new in March 2016. Solo #2 (first RMA replacement) died of an identical IMU failure less than a month after I received it. Solo #3 (second RMA replacement) is going back now because it can't level the gimbal. Something is wrong with the attitude information it is sending to the gimbal. That problem began the day I took it out of the box in June, so technically it lasted 0 days. I've just been living with it and troubleshooting for 2 months. So this will be my 4th solo / third RMA replacement.

At this point, it has spent more time being replaced than it has being flown. And I have spent more time screwing around with it, troubleshooting, dealing with support, and shipping/receiving it than I have actually piloting it. When it isn't being replaced, about half my flights are cut short due to wasting 20-30% of the battery trying to get the video to work, HDMI cable problems, or trying to get the Solo to connect, or rebooting over and over, or the GoPRo freezing, MPCC bombing out, or until recently, waiting for a GPS Lock. Entire important family events were missed. Great sunsets and planned shoots were missed. Hours of driving to a shoot only to find it DOA. And several times, it has just been a total personal embarrassment when I had an audience of friends/family and it any of the above problems ruined it. An entire audience thinks it's crap, and thinks I'm a fool for owning it. And the failure wasted all their time to coming to see it. What do I even say to that? "Well they have a great warranty!" Just today alone, I spent 4 hours trying to get it to factory reset and pair. I had to open it up, wipe the pixhawk, and only then did it reset and pair. Then back together, outside to calibrate and test. Still has the same gimbal problem. The entire day after work is gone and I got absolutely nothing out of it.

I want to love this thing. I want to keep it for what it is supposed to be now. And I want to enjoy what it may become in the future. I've always flown Arducopter and don't want to fly anything else. So what the hell am I supposed to do with this mess. I don't know what to even think anymore. All I can think is "gee, I wonder what mess #4 will be". And what happens in March 2017 when I'm on my 6th or 7th RMA replacement and it fails again? "Sorry, the product we stood behind for a year that never worked is your problem now?" If I cut my losses and sell it, I'll recover only a fraction of what I paid thanks to the firesales driving the cost down. But that is money I could put into a new DIY rig that will actually work. But the whole reason I bought this was to have polished product that just works and isn't a flying experiment. My brain hurts.

I guess part of this is looking for advice. And part of this is just needing to vent.

 

[jibcamera]

#soloshame haha , i feel your pain..hopefully #4 is the charm.

re: the warranty period, I purposely bought my Solo kit with a credit card which doubles (or sometimes triples) the original manufacturers warranty. With all the 3dr news over the last 6 months, I am very interested on how that might possibly go down if ever needed...

 

[RichWest]

Sorry to hear Pedals, you never came across having endless issue. Can't blame you if you sold off Solo and went back to the DIY route... I'd rather be flying, rather than trying...

Still would appreciate hearing of your adventures and still appreciate your lack of doing math on Mondays. It's all good.

Shelve Solo #4, sell your batteries and GoPro...and then get started with your new bird with what money is made. I think Solos will increase in value over the next year and will be a collector's item within ten...hoping at least...

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I posted about the first IMU failure. The second I may have only mentioned in passing. I was trying not to be negative about it since it was frustrating enough as it is. The crooked gimbal failure on this one, I've posted about in the FB group but probably not on here. Lots of suggestions regarding calibrations and resets, all of which I had already tried.

I find much more enjoyment posting about anything other than this topic. But today, I'm reaching my wits end. And it's made worse by several people who point out they've had theirs since day 1 when it was released without a single issue.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Ian tagged Vu in the facebook group about this. I'm hoping he has some input on this to help later today.

 

[twitchyzero]

you've spent more time tweaking/waiting on your Solo than actually enjoying it?
pretty much just summed up the entire community here

as an early adopter it was growing pains, but with 3DR withering away it can be called dying pains

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

When it works properly, it works better than any other COTS consumer drone out there...

Customer Service agreed with my request to replace it with a new one rather than a refurb. BUT, they say they are out of stock on new ones and I would have to wait "a few weeks" for a new one. I don't have a few weeks to wait, and I also don't have any faith in "a few weeks" given how long they've been out of stock with no answers on gimbals. I asked if they can just give me a $499 gift card to Best Buy so I can go get one the next day. I'm sure that will be a no though.

 

[Steven Ackerman]

... I asked if they can just give me a $499 gift card to Best Buy so I can go get one the next day. I'm sure that will be a no though.

No 3DR in the Best Buys here - just Yuneec and Parrot...

 

[Nick F]

I share the exact sentiments of Pedal...
I love this "bird" despite all troubles it causes and I bought a 2nd one too.
I also understand the difficult of creating and optimizing such a complex drone, this is why I can accept the problems all this process can cause!
Having said this, in order to keep the customers happy, I recon 3DR should be MUCH quicker to ship a replacement.
If this was the case, all RMAs would not cause much problems...
But if we must wait for months before having our Solos replaced, this becomes really hard to support...
My RMA has been pending for 2 months now because of the famous "Gimbal shortage...", at this rate 3Dr will have in stock more Solos to repair than the ones actually flying...
A good customer support cannot answer: "sorry we do not have a clue about when the Gimball will be available"....
What are we supposed to think...?

 

[Version3]

I was in that waiting pool Nick... I told 3DR that it's past time that 3DR reaches for a shelf unit and makes me whole. They agreed and shipped my order a few hours later. I just got it the other day, and flew it for the first time last night.

But on the issues at hand...

Nick, contact them again. Tell them you shouldn't have to wait, their world class customer service is failing at "logic". It's past time they take care of you and get you in the air, so ask for that escalation.

Pedal,

I'm less knowledgable than many, but I identify with you completely. I'm only one my first RMA unit. But so far my time waiting is greater than my time (elapsed) in the air. It was frustrating to have it happen at all, because I actually thought it was my fault for hitting that tree. The logs told the story much clearer, so lucky me. But, I worry that shortages, frequent replacements, varying behaviors from different units in similar conditions, a history of delays and big bugs aren't really a big deal when faced with not having a product targeted at most of us anymore.

Sure, the great support is supposed to continue, but in the face of 4th, 5th and 10th replacements, we shouldn't underestimate the lawyers abilities to lay that warranty our most of our feet and just walk away before they expire. But even in the case that they continue it, that just means that maybe they built in enough acceptable loss to run out the clock on all of us. And there is my problem.

I didn't buy a 1 year product, I read and researched for a drone that let me learn to be a decent enough pilot, but let me focus on what I really wanted... capturing video from a perspective that was never available to me before; completing camera moves that were impossible for me before, and being able to repeat all of it. Solo was the obvious choice. And then I was an owner.

I have buyer's remorse big time. Maybe with some more time in the air and some footage I can use for something other than "figuring it out" or "testing for a problem" I'll feel differently. But right now, I kinda wish I'd spent my money on a DJI product, waited for a magical GoPro product (teehee) or just saved my $900 and left things in my imagination where they never let me down.

So that's my vent in parallel.


In my advice, here's what I'd say. What do you like about flying drones? If you at all enjoy the process of the DYI (not just because you CAN do it, but because it's what you enjoy), then you should at least put your effort and continued resourced toward it. If you really love it, then your answer it clear, take the hit and make the move. But if you have only done DYI in the past as a means to an end, I'd say keep working the free replacement channel while you can, and maybe see if there is a way for you to split your attention. Because even IF 4th time is the charm, you know from the 3DR climate, flying your Solo isn't going to last forever anyway.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Update: Customer Support recognized the absurdity of my failure rate. I had asked if they could send me a new one instead, and they agreed that would be fine. But the new stock for this type of thing is not the same as the new stock for web orders. Don't ask me why. It makes no sense, and I'm sure there is no logical process behind why one can't support the other. None the less, customer service has no means to take from the new order stock and send me one. It would be an unknown amount of waiting time, which I cannot accept. If I wanted to wait, they would send me a new one, otherwise it's a refurb as normal.

Anyway, I told them I have things coming up where I "need" the drone and can't wait for a new one. As such, I guess I don't have a choice but to take a refurb. But knowing the hell I've been through, they shipped my replacement refurb Solo immediately today. No waiting for the broken one to be received and evaluated first like usual. So my replacement Solo will actually be here next week, probably before the broken one even arrives back at 3DR. While this isn't perfect (a new one 2 day shipped to my door would be perfect), it is a good outcome and they did the best they could to accommodate the circumstances.

Now, will the 4th time be a charm? We'll see. I really hope this one works the way it should/could and I can love my solo. If this one is dud, I might trade it for a donkey on Craigslist.

 

[franknitty69]

i guess i'm the minority here in saying that my two solos are perfect. actually i'm lying...i've had one issue since june 2015. i filled up the sd card on my pixhawk from flying too much. but i've not had any issues with gps, no issues with landing, no issues with the gimbal, no issues with the video feed, no issues with updating firmware, no issues with wifi not showing up. i just don't get it how/why so many people have issues. its frustrating for me and i don't even have any issues.

 

[pyrate]

normally that is a sign of poor quality standards
you get a good one or a bad one.

I had a battery come off a GPS board
Had one battery go bad
They made both right

I will fly mine until they fall apart. Don't see buying anymore
we may very well have seen solo peak

 

[fpvsteve]

i guess i'm the minority here in saying that my two solos are perfect. actually i'm lying...i've had one issue since june 2015. i filled up the sd card on my pixhawk from flying too much. but i've not had any issues with gps, no issues with landing, no issues with the gimbal, no issues with the video feed, no issues with updating firmware, no issues with wifi not showing up. i just don't get it how/why so many people have issues. its frustrating for me and i don't even have any issues.

Same here. 14 months now with my first Solo, except a gimbal failure after 5 months in operation, which got immediately replaced by 3DR, I had Zero problems with the hardware.

A lot of problems reported here and elsewhere have to do with mods like messing with 3rd party HDMI cables or improperly assembled wifi cards, with unbalanced props which eventually results in a wear out of the HDMI connectors and other failures due to vibrations over time, crashes which created a disconnect of the built in SD card by the impact, resulting in a freeze of Solo at the next update or factory reset, and so on and so on.

I will not dispute that there are very valid claims raised due to manufacturing problems here and there, but I am always wondering when this happens over several RMA'd Solos in a row.

In my view, 3DR support issues way too fast an RMA, w/o analyzing further the root cause of a support incident. It is probably cheaper for them since they still sit on a pile of inventory.. ;-)

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

And it's you two (@franknitty69 and @fpvsteve) that make be sad!

 

[Chadbobb]

you've spent more time tweaking/waiting on your Solo than actually enjoying it?
pretty much just summed up the entire community here

as an early adopter it was growing pains, but with 3DR withering away it can be called dying pains

What do you mean by "withering away" - Are they closing up shop?

I have had mine for about a week. I got maybe 5 solid flights in before the controller stopped producing wifi and connecting to the vehicle. Started yesterday. I can sometimes get it to work but not reliably. Did I buy the wrong drone?

 

[bluesgeek]

What do you mean by "withering away" - Are they closing up shop?

I have had mine for about a week. I got maybe 5 solid flights in before the controller stopped producing wifi and connecting to the vehicle. Started yesterday. I can sometimes get it to work but not reliably. Did I buy the wrong drone?

Your SD card on the Controller may be loose. Contact support.

 

[bluesgeek]

Your SD card on the Controller may be loose. Contact support.

Perhaps first try disconnecting and reconnecting Controller battery.

 

[Chadbobb]

Perhaps first try disconnecting and reconnecting Controller battery.

I am new to drone and 3DR but not electronics. I tried that already, with many other combinations including pairing, factory reset, etc.

3DR suggested I return to Amazon. Amazon is sending me a replacement. Fortunately for me this issued started within the 30 day return policy.

 

[Nick F]

As suggested by Version3, I wrote to 3DR to send me a new gimball if they do not have a refurbished one...
I have been waiting for nearly 2 months since I sent my solo back on RMA...
let's see what comes up