Close calls, got any pics?

Morongobill · Nov 18, 2016

Turns out all the time on tech support the other day and the poking the bottom of the drone with the straightened out paper clip may have not been needed.

Looking at some papers I found out that I had changed the wifi password and forgot the new one.

In other words, I never could connect the other day due to a "senior moment."

And yes, I am flat out telling you that the drone got up in the air and back down without a wifi connection being made.

I was as shocked as anyone, and again when it was affirmed by tech support. His or her name was Gio.

There was no video feed to the controller, of course. I actually flew it a little way toward the nearby train tracks and back, about 30-50 feet.

The push button fly and land buttons worked well.

As far as my situation yesterday, who knows. I will tell you this. I really thought that I nailed the windmill video. I called a friend and told him that I couldn't be happier, that my problems with the drone were over. Then I got home and watched the video on my laptop. Three seconds, obviously taken in the middle of the video.

The long video actually was one of two made on the second battery flight. I landed after the first one and decided to do another with 52% battery left. Perhaps the Gopro shutoff. I didnot check it.

There were so many trains passing by until I got over there to film. Cold and windy, I sat there an hour before finally just flying and filming with my last battery. Of course, right when I was loading everything into the suv, two trains, coming from opposite directions finally showed up. Of course!

healthyfatboy · Nov 18, 2016

You can fly the Solo manually without a phone connected to the controller. It's only needed to see the live feed and use the smart shots. It's your typical quadrotor that will fly just fine with less situational awareness without the app running.

Stealth · Nov 18, 2016

Morongobill said:
Turns out all the time on tech support the other day and the poking the bottom of the drone with the straightened out paper clip may have not been needed.

Looking at some papers I found out that I had changed the wifi password and forgot the new one.

In other words, I never could connect the other day due to a "senior moment."

And yes, I am flat out telling you that the drone got up in the air and back down without a wifi connection being made.

I was as shocked as anyone, and again when it was affirmed by tech support. His or her name was Gio.

There was no video feed to the controller, of course. I actually flew it a little way toward the nearby train tracks and back, about 30-50 feet.

The push button fly and land buttons worked well.

As far as my situation yesterday, who knows. I will tell you this. I really thought that I nailed the windmill video. I called a friend and told him that I couldn't be happier, that my problems with the drone were over. Then I got home and watched the video on my laptop. Three seconds, obviously taken in the middle of the video.

The long video actually was one of two made on the second battery flight. I landed after the first one and decided to do another with 52% battery left. Perhaps the Gopro shutoff. I didnot check it.

There were so many trains passing by until I got over there to film. Cold and windy, I sat there an hour before finally just flying and filming with my last battery. Of course, right when I was loading everything into the suv, two trains, coming from opposite directions finally showed up. Of course!

Awesome!
Post some pics and video when you fix your Solo WiFi.

Marich · Nov 18, 2016

healthyfatboy said:
You can fly the Solo manually without a phone connected to the controller. It's only needed to see the live feed and use the smart shots. It's your typical quadrotor that will fly just fine with less situational awareness without the app running.

Oh heck yeah - I've flown without a phone or tablet lots of times. I'd figured he meant it was sort of a "Waiting for Solo" situation.

meik · Nov 18, 2016

Marich said:
Oh heck yeah - I've flown without a phone or tablet lots of times. I'd figured he meant it was sort of a "Waiting for Solo" situation.

I was wondering as well.

So he meant he had a connection between his controller and SOLO but no connection between his phone or tablet and controller. Made sense now.

SARDG · Nov 18, 2016

meik said:
I was wondering as well.

So he meant he had a connection between his controller and SOLO but no connection between his phone or tablet and controller. Made sense now.

Yes... Morongobill, you realize that you had to have a Wi-Fi connection between the controller and Solo to start the motors and fly? If they are previously paired and you turn them both on, you'll get the Wi-Fi connection - no App or password needed. Of course, you will always be "Waiting for Solo" for a bit, prior to control.

ETA: Your paper clip poking was probably for pairing, and likely NOT needed if they were successfully paired before and hadn't been reset.

Morongobill · Nov 23, 2016

For Stealth and other forum members interested, I went back to the windmills and did take a couple of flights, one for the windmills and one for a train shot. Unfortunately with the train, a level calibration required notice popped up and I missed half of the train going by before I got the drone to lift off and film. It took off without me doing the leveling, will get it next time.
Appears my laptop may not have enough horsepower to do video editing though, once done I will put up a different post on the forum with some of the video.

Stealth · Nov 23, 2016

Morongobill said:
For Stealth and other forum members interested, I went back to the windmills and did take a couple of flights, one for the windmills and one for a train shot. Unfortunately with the train, a level calibration required notice popped up and I missed half of the train going by before I got the drone to lift off and film. It took off without me doing the leveling, will get it next time.
Appears my laptop may not have enough horsepower to do video editing though, once done I will put up a different post on the forum with some of the video.

Will be glad to take a look when you post the video.

P.s. You did not say a word about filming the wind farms. Did you have some problems - magnetic interference, turbulence?

Morongobill · Nov 23, 2016

No turbulence encountered either day from the windmills. No electronic interference of any kind. No issues with my Gopro either this time around. Looking at these stills taken from the video, I definitely may have been over the fenceline here but it didn't appear that way from the ground. Good thing I didn't crash as there was an electric fence running 7,000 volts per the warning signs. No video coming right away as my laptop may not have the horses to process a video file of over 2 gig. I'll figure out something.

Morongobill · Nov 23, 2016

Thought I would throw in a shot of the train video as well.

JDaerial · Nov 23, 2016

Lost GPS as I was landing and a gust of wind took my solo 20+ft towards the deck. Luckily the first few days I had my drone were crappy so I played with the simulator A LOT, I reacted much faster than I thought possible even with the drone facing me. My hobbies rely on muscle memory more than most so I knew I had to train myself to do without thinking.
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Stealth · Nov 24, 2016

Morongobill said:
No turbulence encountered either day from the windmills. No electronic interference of any kind. No issues with my Gopro either this time around. Looking at these stills taken from the video, I definitely may have been over the fenceline here but it didn't appear that way from the ground. Good thing I didn't crash as there was an electric fence running 7,000 volts per the warning signs. No video coming right away as my laptop may not have the horses to process a video file of over 2 gig. I'll figure out something.

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Perfect shots!

Morongobill · Nov 24, 2016

JDaerial, could you tell this newbie a little bit about the simulator?

JDaerial · Nov 24, 2016

3dr came out with an app you can download, search 3dr simulator and you use your controller and cell phone/tablet to fly a "realistic" solo from the statue of liberty to a preset distance limit. It's basically how a drone would fly in super slow with no environmental variables and every control works except the smart ones, I wish they would incorporate those but it looks as though that was a future plan that got dropped. Your view can be from the camera or the ground and I believe you can even do live view to a tv but I have not tried. Really good resource for non flyers to learn how the drone reacts when facing different directions and saved my drone from impact on that occasion. 9 times out of 10 an inexperienced flyer would upstick to pull away and hit the deck even harder.

Morongobill · Nov 24, 2016

JDaerial said:
3dr came out with an app you can download, search 3dr simulator and you use your controller and cell phone/tablet to fly a "realistic" solo from the statue of liberty to a preset distance limit..

Great info! Got it dl'd and installed on my cell and will put it on my tablet as well!