Killed my drone on first day of vacation.

[Dan_Solo]

Was watching a video where a 3DR rep was showing off a solo and got on the subject of the battery limits. Stated, as we know, that solo will attempt to return home at 10% which the pilot can override.

What I found interesting was that at 5% Solo will autonomously land wherever it happens to be, and the user cannot command otherwise. Its great the little thing won't just drop from the sky, but perhaps a good thing to know. The 3DR manual doesn't explain that part. (if it was accurate at all)

This is the video:

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[Pedals2Paddles]

It will not force a landing at 5%. I'm guessing that video was made before a production release of firmware and they wisely did away with that "feature".

 

[User Name]

The drone is smart - yes, but not smart enough to engage fly by itself mode on its own.

While your incident was almost entirely, if not entirely, operator error, I'll actually agree with you here. A valid argument can be made that a vehicle should not engage an autonomous flight if it lacks obstacle avoidance capabilities. What likely happened was that you hit your low battery failsafe while you were over the deck and it initiated it's usual Return to Launch, in which it climbs to it's set altitude, traverses to the launch coordinates and then lands. At one point, Solo was supposed to consider it's distance from the launch point and forgo the climb if it was close enough, but who knows if this is still functional - lots of changes were made to the firmware since then and the app has some pretty dangerous bugs (Return to Me).

But I have had other Arducopter quads do exactly this - battery low, I brought it back to land and within a few feet from touching down, the failsafe kicks in and it proceeds to climb to 150 feet, just to fly laterally 3 feet and descend.

I'm not saying that the failsafes and autonomous modes are wrong or should be changed or that they should only be present on vehicles with full 360 obstacle avoidance - as they stand they are the least worst options. They work just fine... so long as the operator fully understands what's going to happen in a given situation and is prepared to react instinctively.

There are people who will instantly and vociferously berate anyone who strays a single step from the long road of gradually building up experience on a number of products of increasing complexity (Hi Paddles!). On one hand, they're correct, but on the other, these things ARE being marketed as "So easy a monkey can fly them". And it's not just 3DR, they all tout how easy to fly, DJI boasts of all their sensors and obstacle avoidance. They also ignore human nature in expecting someone to fully read and totally understand the manual before the first flight. If this is someone's first remote controlled drone, there's a lot they won't fully grasp just by reading the manual. It takes experience, mistakes and mishaps to really learn what will happen in a given situation. It reminds me of Linux proponents, many of whom suggest one should know how to manually compile software to use a computer... but as software can only be compiled with a computer, it erects a circular exclusion. This is an exaggeration, but the point stands.

Anyway, sorry your Solo was damaged. If you repair/replace it, try to ignore the marketing and assume at any moment it can do something totally unexpected. The manual will cover most situations, but you still need to gradually build up experience to be able to handle them quickly and correctly. Best advice is to practice in a nice open field... a lot.

 

[Dan_Solo]

It will not force a landing at 5%. I'm guessing that video was made before a production release of firmware and they wisely did away with that "feature".

Thanks!

 

[nikono]

I usually flew the Solo back close to "home" when battery level was at 25% just to be safe then I hovered the Solo a little while until it hit 15% battery then I landed it manually.
For curiosity, in my backyard, 15 feet from the wall with some trees around, I re-created the OP's scenario to see what Solo's actually programmed to do. I hovered the Solo at 9ft to run down the battery. The selfie took 10-15% off the battery capacity easily depending on the preset elevation.
At 25% battery, the controller buzzed.
At 15%, buzzing and "RTH soon" message flashed on the controller. On the Solo, only 2 LEDs of the battery level indicator lit and flashed. The battery percentage on the controller display changed from white to red.
At 10%, constant beeping from the Solo could be heard. It initiated RTH, it took off vertically to begin the sequence. I think the OP's scenario was about to end here when RTH sequence occurred. He might have had guided the Solo to be under the "roof". He thought of "Fly" button, but didn't hit it. His Solo crashed into the "roof".
In my recreation, I hit the "Fly" button to take the Solo off automatic RTH. I hovered the Solo a few inches off the grass to run the battery down to 2-3% then I landed it. During the period of manual "Fly" to 2-3% battery, the Solo didn't try to do any landing or unusual move.

"It may be a smart drone, but it still doesn't know the surroundings."
I think the Solo is 50%-75% smart, it needs the pilot to watch over it to intervene when necessary.
The OP was right on with this
"I've learned my lesson the hard way. No more pushing past 25% of the battery."

 

[User Name]

I think the Solo is 50%-75% smart, it needs the pilot to watch over it to intervene when necessary.
The OP was right on with this
"I've learned my lesson the hard way. No more pushing past 25% of the battery."

Solo's "smarts" are really in how the companion computer can offload much of the actual flying so the operator can focus on framing the camera. People really need to be cautious in assuming "smart" means "it's conscious and will save itself from anything I try to do to it". I'm sure it's not the case here, but I have seen in other cases a tendency to engage in fairytale-level beliefs in how "smart" computer systems are. They're not. Not yet and, in all honestly, probably not for a long while still.

As for battery, yea, at 25 to 30%, I'm headed home and I try to be on the ground by 15%. No point pushing it. With batteries at $34, there's no reason not to buy some extras so you're not trying to wring every last electron out of each flight. Land, pop on a new battery, and off you go again.

 

[Oleg Filippov]

While your incident was almost entirely, if not entirely, operator error, I'll actually agree with you here.

Totally agree with you. I do understand the mistakes I've made. I believe I pushed the pause button, but was too late, since it happened unexpectedly and took me a second to figure out what's going on. (Definitely lack of experience here)

What I was trying to say, that automatic RTH feature is poorly implemented. If it would be me designing the system - at 11% I would make the remote sound like car alarm with the vibrator on and message to push the home button or land ASAP, and with all that going on if automatic RTH has to be launched little later it would not be as bad and unexpected. Or, to make it look like a smart drone, the remote could have said something like :"low battery, return to home will be initiated in 10 seconds" and back count from 10 to 0. Doesn't sound like too much, since all the technology already there, but probably solo designers thought that it is not needed.

Few bucks for new props (still waiting for them in a mail) + $7 for glue (J-B Weld PlasticWeld - recommend - seems like made a pretty strong bond) - will be back in the air this weekend. Everything seems to be working correctly.
Lost footage that I didn't make - priceless

 

[Eric Sheehan]

Smart drone, RTH, whatever. Flying that close to any building will have an adverse effect. That low of battery, can have adverse effect at any moment. Remember the battery life is not linear, and the controller/app screen have been wrong on many many occasions when quoting how much power is left.

Especially when saftey of yourself and others involved, don't ever trust a drone, Solo or other wise.

 

[User Name]

What I was trying to say, that automatic RTH feature is poorly implemented. If it would be me designing the system.......

I get what you're saying, but it's basically just "it should have warned me more" and "it should have RTL'd a little later", but those just push the problem down the line. Since it has to account for a climb to an altitude that might be in excess of 150 feet or more, it really can't initiate RTL too late otherwise it risks running out of juice before getting back down. As for the warnings, it did warn you - at 25%, again at 15%, with a buzzer and a message saying to RTH soon, and at 10% Solo itself starts a constant beeping... And you ignored all of it.

I do think a voice message and a count-down to the RTL is a good idea, not that it's going to happen since 3DR is no longer developing the app. The Tower app has voice alerts for battery status, mode changes and other things. A voice alert saying "Hey dummy, I've been warning you for the past 5 minutes to get on the ground, unless you do it in the next 10 seconds, I'm gunna do it myself... I'm warning you... 10... 9... 8...". But guaranteed, even then someone will have the volume on their phone/tablet turned down and say "it should have warned me more"

But that's why I said people have to be realistic with how smart these things are. It's still 100% on the pilot to make sure they don't exceed the battery and know how to handle the situation when something unexpected happens. Expecting them to handle more and more situations will jack up the cost, increase the complexity and failure points, and all be open to bugs or overlooked scenarios. At some point, it's just easier, more cost effective and just all around better for the pilot to accept that they need to know what they're doing.

Anyway, not trying to dump on you. Glad it seems you'll be back up in the air with minimal expense. Like I said previously, practice in a nice open field - run it down until it initiates RTL and make sure you know how to take it out of that mode and land manually. Practice all the scenarios you can think of.

 

[MrDroneNut]

Well, I have completely different opinion about it and, i guess, we can argue about it indefinitely. Not everybody was born as a professional drone pilot like you. And since you are soooo good at it even you probably don't need that automatic return to home feature because all you was saying is a workarounds about it. Once again, It is my opinion, that I believe many people will agree too, the drone is not smart enough to engage the RTH feature by itself. Let the pilot know about the situation and let him take actions about it. If bad suppose to happen that it would be his fault. And like with the car example - I'll give you one too: Please do not make the cars that will start driving to the gas station by itself when it was running low on fuel - let the operator know about the situation and let him handle it! Hey - that is how its been done and proved working so far.

I don't know about your Solo, but ALL the Solos I've flown have the remote vibrate Very Very hard when the battery is getting to the rth point. That is like your car dinging to tell you that the gas is low. At that point, it's the pilot/ drivers responsibility to either land/ drive further or land/ coast into the gas station. The Solo did EXACTLY what it is designed to do. If you choose to ignore the warnings, perhaps you need to buy a quad that you can program to read your mind. The Solo doesn't know that you are getting ready to land. It only knows to do what it is programed to do. At critical low battery it knows to RTH.

 

[Marich]

Totally agree with you. I do understand the mistakes I've made. I believe I pushed the pause button, but was too late, since it happened unexpectedly and took me a second to figure out what's going on. (Definitely lack of experience here)

What I was trying to say, that automatic RTH feature is poorly implemented. If it would be me designing the system - at 11% I would make the remote sound like car alarm with the vibrator on and message to push the home button or land ASAP, and with all that going on if automatic RTH has to be launched little later it would not be as bad and unexpected. Or, to make it look like a smart drone, the remote could have said something like :"low battery, return to home will be initiated in 10 seconds" and back count from 10 to 0. Doesn't sound like too much, since all the technology already there, but probably solo designers thought that it is not needed.

Few bucks for new props (still waiting for them in a mail) + $7 for glue (J-B Weld PlasticWeld - recommend - seems like made a pretty strong bond) - will be back in the air this weekend. Everything seems to be working correctly.
Lost footage that I didn't make - priceless

Well, I for one think the return home feature is implemented pretty much perfectly, assuming you've adjusted its return altitude.
May I ask exactly how many times Solo warned you about battery status? Did it warn you before you switched the GoPro to video at 25% power remaining to get that selfie?
Don't know about you but when my battery gets low my controller goes rabid - it yells at me to land, quivers, and shakes. I'm positive it would slap me across the face if it could to get some attention.
The feature you're complaining about has saved many, many Solos.
I'm surprised, in fact, that Solo allowed you to get as far as you did. But then you flew under a roof - kinda like walking under a ladder - and boom.
Please, people, read your manuals and watch plenty of videos. Invest in a toy drone to learn on.
Because one of these days someone is going to be critically hurt by a drone - and guess who'll get the blame?
All of us.

 

[Dan_Solo]

EDIT: meh. too much blabbing on my part. It is a simple to operate and super easy drone to fly, but I think like any new equipment, understanding how it actually works is pretty important.

With respect to the RTH feature, I personally also think it is as well executed as it could be given the hardware installed. It is designed to climb to an obstacle - clearance altitude which the user has specified for the flight, fly to the point of departure, then land.

 

[Goldie]

If the glue job doesn't hold, you can donate the carcass to me!


I'll even cover shipping!

 

[DrDan]

I have a related issue. I've been flying fixed wing airplane and racing drones for about a year and now I'm just venturing into the realm of GPS drones. I purchased a 3DR Solo and so far I love it but it (and another one of my GPS drones) has left with some significant "Trust Issues"!

The first time I flew my Solo - about 100 yards away at about 100' Altitude, it "Lost contact" with the drone which scared the crap out of me, only to thankfully hear it buzzing back to my location and landing. That built confidence in the Solo. THEN, my other GPS drone decides to "Fly Away" and I had absolutely no ability to stop it, or at least as far as I could tell. Luckily the battery was fairly low and it only flew away, rapidly, about 5 feet in altitude and stopped only a foot away from a brick wall. The next day, my Solo refused to RTH (I could feel the buzzing feedback" in the controller but luckily again, it was only about 50 yards away and I could manually bring it home. I may have been in a mode that locked me out of RTH?
SO,
My question is, Is there a way, when my 3DR Solo seems to get a mind of its own, that I can press a magic switch and it lets ME control it 100% (Manual Override) like I do my fixed wing planes and my racing drones. I hate these "trust Issues" lol

Thanks to all the experts out there!

Dan in Arizona