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.
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