Are drones like coffee shops?

I loved the idea of Solo because from the promos it seemed almost like cheating :) And like I said, I know 50 people who own DJI gear but none who own a Solo. I really hope I can get mine working. You seem to have the magic touch. Want to trade Solos? :)
No thanks. Need both. I really don;t understand the trouble some people are having though. I have dealt with 4 Solo's. 2 of mine and 2 others. They all seem to work pretty much the same. One of mine gets GPS a little faster than the other, but other than that, I have to put stickers on them and the controllers to match them up and tell them apart. Functionally, they are identical.

I have the FPVLR, the spacer, and some sorbothane on the main board, and have balanced the gimbal (for my collection of filters). That's it... Oh and the herd of GoPro's...

What problem are you having?
 
I'll have to look for those on Amazon. Did you get the ever more elusive screen credit?
It is haphazard. I do on some, and not on others. I have also been an actor/extra in some, and the director/producer doesn't like using names twice... I then have a choice of which I want.

If you watch the series, you will see quite a few of the Solo shots toward the end, (when I got them) and just a few earlier from the P3P. I prefer the Solo, as it is a much smoother dolly
 
I always say they can skip my name in the credits as long as it's on the check.

I'll definitely check your show out. I hope one day my Solo will also be smoother than my P3P. I'm thinking it may involve a trip back to 3DR. Unless you have any more suggestions for what I'm missing. Pretty sure you've seen my whole chain of events.
 
I always say they can skip my name in the credits as long as it's on the check.

I'll definitely check your show out. I hope one day my Solo will also be smoother than my P3P. I'm thinking it may involve a trip back to 3DR. Unless you have any more suggestions for what I'm missing. Pretty sure you've seen my whole chain of events.
Probably seen it, but I have been slammed. Refresh me. Sounds like video? Post an example. Picture is worth a thousand words...
 
Shaky video. Like REALLY shaky. props are balanced. Gimbal is balanced. calibrations done and re-done. Gimbal taken off and re-installed 4 times, each time with additional tweaks to try to keep the hdmi cable from touching anywhere it shouldn't. This is in all conditions, windy and calm. I'll try it tomorrow with more cable routing tricks that I did today.

Here's video.

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The ultimate test - in the dark, in the rain

Jon,

I really hope it works for you this time! I will give you a great deal of credit, you have been very willing to get your hands dirty. I admire your conviction.

I just received two of the five cables I've been waiting to test out this evening. Neither is the ribbon cable which I think will have they best chance for success. However, my second choice, an "ultra-thin HDMI cable" (doesn't look ultra-thin to me but much thinner and more flexible than the OEM cable) has arrived. If I get a chance I'll try to install it tomorrow.

Unfortunately, my daughters laptop took a dump, so good old Dad will be pulling an all-nighter trying to remedy that crisis and will have to put the Solo tests on the back burner.

Good luck with your test and let's hope you don't even have a need to await my results!

Jerry
 
Jon,

I really hope it works for you this time! I will give you a great deal of credit, you have been very willing to get your hands dirty. I admire your conviction.

I just received two of the five cables I've been waiting to test out this evening. Neither is the ribbon cable which I think will have they best chance for success. However, my second choice, an "ultra-thin HDMI cable" (doesn't look ultra-thin to me but much thinner and more flexible than the OEM cable) has arrived. If I get a chance I'll try to install it tomorrow.

Unfortunately, my daughters laptop took a dump, so good old Dad will be pulling an all-nighter trying to remedy that crisis and will have to put the Solo tests on the back burner.

Good luck with your test and let's hope you don't even have a need to await my results!

Jerry
Laptop, shmaptop. Dammit man, get your priorities straight! :)

I hope I will have good news tomorrow.
 
Laptop, shmaptop. Dammit man, get your priorities straight! :)

Oohh, my priorities are straight. I've been married to the same woman for 30 years and I have a distressed daughter who needs her laptop. I have turned said wife's dining room and half of her living room into a mess of drones, batteries, chargers, tablets, computers, wires, tools and backpacks (3 of them). Wifey wants Dad to fix laptop? Laptop gets fixed. I learn the hard way but this road is one well traveled. Happy wife, happy life! (And my stuff all over the house). Unhappy wife and somebody is going to, all of the sudden, want her dining room back!

Jerry
 
But the real question is why do some Solos, according to their owners, work flawlessly while others have so many problems?

While anything mass manufactured will have failures, and I'm sure this has accounted for some of the issues, I think a bigger parts is the user's approach. Some people bought into the marketing, expected it to literally be so simple a monkey could use it, plunked down the money, charged the batteries, hit FLY twice and relied on the automation 100% to save their bacon.

Others came to it with experience, or gained experience very slowly along the way, and realized that there's only so foolproof something this complex can be made. Automation features are a plus, but not a total substitute for experience.

Biggest changeling for me was learning to fly in all orientations. It took me the better part of a year to get the hang of it, and I'm still practicing. If you don't have it down, you will crash when the automation fails. It's not intuitive.

For me, aside from a small gimbal issue, my Solo has worked perfectly every time I've flown it. Occasionally, it'll say searching for satellites as soon as I press fly. It still shows a 3d fix, but I still let the timer run out and the props stop, wait a bit, and try again. My point is that I assume the worst and will start over when something is in question, I won't just say "it's still showing a lock, so here goes nothing...".

It's just an example, but it's the mindset - every second I have the Solo in the air, I expect it to fall out of the sky or take off unexpectedly. Not because I don't trust it, but because I want to be prepared for WHEN it happens.
 
Oohh, my priorities are straight. I've been married to the same woman for 30 years and I have a distressed daughter who needs her laptop. I have turned said wife's dining room and half of her living room into a mess of drones, batteries, chargers, tablets, computers, wires, tools and backpacks (3 of them). Wifey wants Dad to fix laptop? Laptop gets fixed. I learn the hard way but this road is one well traveled. Happy wife, happy life! (And my stuff all over the house). Unhappy wife and somebody is going to, all of the sudden, want her dining room back!

Jerry
Sounds very familiar. 25 years married here. And yes, I too have completely commandeered the dining room. It is my photo studio, but is now also filled with drones and battery chargers. Between the Solo batteries blinking white and the Phantom batteries blinking green, I told my wife I'm just getting a jump on the Christmas lights.
 
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Drone pilots seem to have something in common - understanding wives!

I have a small CNC milling machine set up beside the living room couch. We live in a townhouse and don't have a garage or basement. When I'm milling, it spits chips all over the couch. I'll occasionally hear the vacuum cleaner turn on and go down to see my wife vacuuming the chips... from the piece I'm milling so she can check out the progress... NOT from the couch!

I'm a lucky, lucky man! :D
 
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Milling machine, you're kidding right? I brought up 3D printer and Momma said "NO, I'm putting my foot down on this one!"

I'm REAL lucky! And I'm Irish, so I think I've doubled up on the luck! :p

mill.jpg
 

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Shaky video. Like REALLY shaky. props are balanced. Gimbal is balanced. calibrations done and re-done. Gimbal taken off and re-installed 4 times, each time with additional tweaks to try to keep the hdmi cable from touching anywhere it shouldn't. This is in all conditions, windy and calm. I'll try it tomorrow with more cable routing tricks that I did today.

Here's video.

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That actually looks (and sounds) like "macro" vibration to me (rather than micro vibrations) that usually come from cables etc. Usually that means something big (like a bad motor) or less often one that is sevrely out of balance and could be balanced. Normally the wires touching cause the "micro" vibrations. Not always, but most often.

What "I" would do, is take a vibration analyser to it, to see where the vibrations are coming from. In this case, "I" might even hover the thing in front of me and gently feel for vibrations on each leg and arm, although that isn't for the faint of heart (or the slow). That would give you an idea where to start.

Have you had any crashes? If so, you might need to replace a motor, and you might even be able to see it. Look for dents and gashes...I have seen some motors (after crashes) that were so bad they couldn't be balanced. In that case, replace it. The bearings will go out on it anyway, and it is better/cheaper to do that on the ground.

In any case, I would aslo balance the motors. This is a thing I do instinctively (from decades with doing video and RC) but many people skip this. That is OK if you get lucky, but not if you don't. It can be more important than balancing props, as motors can be more out of whack. You can get lucky (and many people do) but it doesn't look like you did.

I now use an IOS app called Vibration to test for vibrations and balance. It is $5, and uses the accelerometers in the phone. You can use any vibration analyser, as long as you can start and stop it, keeping a "recording" over a period of time, and measure it against a set of numbers .

I use double sided tape on the back of my phone, to stick the phone to each arm of the Solo I also use soft foam blocks under the legs (pulled from other doodad boxes) to isolate the Solo from the bench.

Use this video as a guide.

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I then use the motor test function of Mission Planner to run a set of motors up and down to see the midpoint area that has the worst vibration, and to test each motor indivisually, and to balance them. The speed you are looking for is where your motors are likely to be running when you are filming. Typically that is about 50%, and balancing Solo motors seems to work well there. I start the motor for 30 seconds and record it, noting the highest vibration. I also use metal tape, as it is heavier, and tends not to get soft when warm.

To connect Mission Planner, connect the PC to the Sololink network, and after that follow this guide to connect. You only need to change the connection type to UDP and connect.

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I am not at the Solo right now, but at that point, I "believe" after connecting it, go to initial setup, and I "think" optional hardware, and then motor test. It could be somewhere slightly different, but close to that. In any case, there is a row of buttons,. The first 4 will be your motors Change the value to 50 and the duration to 30 seconds. and hit the buttons one at a time (1-4) to start each motor.

None of this is an an exact guide for Solo, but you should be able (as I was) to piece together what you need to balance the motors.

"I" would also take this opportunity to make a VERY close inspection of the Solo when the individual motors are running, feeling the motors, arms, legs, gimbal, camera, etc. for vibrations, and noting the worst, and how the vibrations are traveling. That is ultimately your problem. You can (as an example) swap motors, to verify that large vibrations go with the motors. I haven't seen it, but I have heard of people (on various copters) having "reasonant" vibrations on things like legs, where they act like tuning forks. In those cases, you can change the resonance by adding sorbothane. I have also seen people do this on GoPros and gimbals. I have done this on bike mounts etc.

In the end, if you think about it, Solo isn't really any different than any other multirotor in this regard. The gimbal will get rid of quite a bit, but can only do so much. It has four motors, and one or more of them is originally generating the problem, and then it is transmitting to the camera causing your problem. Obviously not all off them do it, so you know it "can" work, and your job is to find the vibration(s) find how itehya are transmitting. then get rid of them/it.

The tools above will help you find it/them. What you do to get rid of them depends on what you find/.

Good luck!!

PS: We might want to add this (or something like it) to the sticky guide. Or "maybe" an enterprising video person would want to make a Solo specific motor balancing video? Just a thought ")
 
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Oohh, my priorities are straight. I've been married to the same woman for 30 years and I have a distressed daughter who needs her laptop. I have turned said wife's dining room and half of her living room into a mess of drones, batteries, chargers, tablets, computers, wires, tools and backpacks (3 of them). Wifey wants Dad to fix laptop? Laptop gets fixed. I learn the hard way but this road is one well traveled. Happy wife, happy life! (And my stuff all over the house). Unhappy wife and somebody is going to, all of the sudden, want her dining room back!

Jerry
Soooo... True.....
 
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That actually looks (and sounds) like "macro" vibration to me (rather than micro vibrations) that usually come from cables etc. Usually that means something big (like a bad motor) or less often one that is sevrely out of balance and could be balanced. Normally the wires touching cause the "micro" vibrations. Not always, but most often.

What "I" would do, is take a vibration analyser to it, to see where the vibrations are coming from. In this case, "I" might even hover the thing in front of me and gently feel for vibrations on each leg and arm, although that isn't for the faint of heart (or the slow). That would give you an idea where to start.

Have you had any crashes? If so, you might need to replace a motor, and you might even be able to see it. Look for dents and gashes...I have seen some motors (after crashes) that were so bad they couldn't be balanced. In that case, replace it. The bearings will go out on it anyway, and it is better/cheaper to do that on the ground.

In any case, I would aslo balance the motors. This is a thing I do instinctively (from decades with doing video and RC) but many people skip this. That is OK if you get lucky, but not if you don't. It can be more important than balancing props, as motors can be more out of whack. You can get lucky (and many people do) but it doesn't look like you did.

I now use an IOS app called Vibration to test for vibrations and balance. It is $5, and uses the accelerometers in the phone. You can use any vibration analyser, as long as you can start and stop it, keeping a "recording" over a period of time, and measure it against a set of numbers .

I use double sided tape on the back of my phone, to stick the phone to each arm of the Solo I also use soft foam blocks under the legs (pulled from other doodad boxes) to isolate the Solo from the bench.

Use this video as a guide.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I then use the motor test function of Mission Planner to run a set of motors up and down to see the midpoint area that has the worst vibration, and to test each motor indivisually, and to balance them. The speed you are looking for is where your motors are likely to be running when you are filming. Typically that is about 50%, and balancing Solo motors seems to work well there. I start the motor for 30 seconds and record it, noting the highest vibration. I also use metal tape, as it is heavier, and tends not to get soft when warm.

To connect Mission Planner, connect the PC to the Sololink network, and after that follow this guide to connect. You only need to change the connection type to UDP and connect.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I am not at the Solo right now, but at that point, I "believe" after connecting it, go to initial setup, and I "think" optional hardware, and then motor test. It could be somewhere slightly different, but close to that. In any case, there is a row of buttons,. The first 4 will be your motors Change the value to 50 and the duration to 30 seconds. and hit the buttons one at a time (1-4) to start each motor.

None of this is an an exact guide for Solo, but you should be able (as I was) to piece together what you need to balance the motors.

"I" would also take this opportunity to make a VERY close inspection of the Solo when the individual motors are running, feeling the motors, arms, legs, gimbal, camera, etc. for vibrations, and noting the worst, and how the vibrations are traveling. That is ultimately your problem. You can (as an example) swap motors, to verify that large vibrations go with the motors. I haven't seen it, but I have heard of people (on various copters) having "reasonant" vibrations on things like legs, where they act like tuning forks. In those cases, you can change the resonance by adding sorbothane. I have also seen people do this on GoPros and gimbals. I have done this on bike mounts etc.

In the end, if you think about it, Solo isn't really any different than any other multirotor in this regard. The gimbal will get rid of quite a bit, but can only do so much. It has four motors, and one or more of them is originally generating the problem, and then it is transmitting to the camera causing your problem. Obviously not all off them do it, so you know it "can" work, and your job is to find the vibration(s) find how itehya are transmitting. then get rid of them/it.

The tools above will help you find it/them. What you do to get rid of them depends on what you find/.

Good luck!!

PS: We might want to add this (or something like it) to the sticky guide. Or "maybe" an enterprising video person would want to make a Solo specific motor balancing video? Just a thought ")
Wow! you put some time into that, and I appreciate it. I am not sure that I am prepared to go quite to the modifying lengths that you have, but I think you have helped me to identify the problem.

To start, I flew this morning after yesterday's gimbal re-install and meticulous cable routing. No improvement over last flight. Still shaking badly.

My solo has had no crashes or tip overs. No prop has ever come in contact with anything while spinning.

So I started it up on my kitchen counter in fly manual (with no props of course) and started the motors. I didn't use any kind of equipment to measure vibration other than my hands and putting each motor close to my ear. One motor is noticeably louder than the others. I couldn't hear it without putting my ear right by it, but it has a pulsating abnormality compared to the other 3. motors. Bearings perhaps?

I'm hoping this explains the shakiness as well as my Solo's struggle to hold a stable position while hovering. With hands off the sticks it will wander about 6-8 feet in every lateral direction.

So now the question is do I request an RMA to have 3DR work it out or request a replacement motor pod? I have heard that the motors are still hard to come by. I'm inclined to send the whole bird back for them to repair or replace it. I wonder about having issues down the line with warranty if I do repairs on my own.

Anyway, not the result I was hoping for today, but maybe on the path to a Solo that works properly. So I think I have gained some ground.
 

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