Lost 3dr solo

[Adamdrone]

first flight, gps took 5 min to connect, then started motors and began flight, instantly lost gps connection, kept flying and is now lost somewhere downtown!

What is the best thing to do now?

 

[pyrate]

Submit a ticket via the controller

 

[MachWun]

Did you read the manual? If so, what was your course of action when it began to fly away from you on its own?

Shh everyone else, interested in seeing his response

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[Adamdrone]

Did you read the manual? If so, what was your course of action when it began to fly away from you on its own?

Shh everyone else, interested in seeing his response

Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk

Pressed home a few times, tried to manually drop drone to wherever it was. Lost visuals and that's it. Been searching by walking around area, found nothing. Submitted ticket and says 24 hr response time. Also called and says isn't open until 8a Monday.

Do I just wait to hear from them? Literally first flight and it's gone. Gut is telling me it's long gone:/

 

[Adamdrone]

Pressed home a few times, tried to manually drop drone to wherever it was. Lost visuals and that's it. Been searching by walking around area, found nothing. Submitted ticket and says 24 hr response time. Also called and says isn't open until 8a Monday.

Do I just wait to hear from them? Literally first flight and it's gone. Gut is telling me it's long gone:/

Just got on parking garage and found it across street on another bldg! Don't see direct access so will have to wait to contact building maint on Monday I guess.

 

[Jubalr]

Pressed home a few times, tried to manually drop drone to wherever it was. Lost visuals and that's it. Been searching by walking around area, found nothing. Submitted ticket and says 24 hr response time. Also called and says isn't open until 8a Monday.

Do I just wait to hear from them? Literally first flight and it's gone. Gut is telling me it's long gone:/

Sounds like you lost GPS and it drifted in Manual mode, which is why Home button and pause will not work. Post you log as soon as you can here. Let us take a look at what happened. There are a couple of threads on here about retrieving logs if you need them.

 

[Chuck]

Hopefully you will get it back, and it will be intact. You may want to invest in some sort of tracker to attach to your Solo. There are quite a few threads on here about them as well. Good luck.

 

[Ian [P13]]

Power will remain for hours after landing for telemetry so turn off the controller, turn it back on and head in the direction your Solo was going, with luck you'll connect again.

If you can post you .tlogs here we can help you find its last location and heading.

 

[Rusty Jones]

Just got on parking garage and found it across street on another bldg! Don't see direct access so will have to wait to contact building maint on Monday I guess.

On the odd chance, was it right side up? any visible damage??

 

[nuggetz]

Sounds like you were flying it amongst buildings. You said downtown and parking garages. First you probably shouldn't be flying in those areas. Second, GPS can easily be lost with solo hovering near a tree yet alone near buildings. I'm making assumptions of your surroundings based on what you wrote.


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[Ian [P13]]

If GPS and radio was lost, Solo should go into land mode, so hopefully it will have simply landed so that being the case is should be undamaged. Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Adamdrone]

UPDATE

Drone was found on a rooftop, inaccessible by me and will be contacting building manager first thing tomorrow.

Drone is upside down, and the GoPro doesn't appear to be in the gimbal :/ One 'arm'/motor is completely off the Solo, red and black wires hanging out of it. All props are nowhere in sight either.

I see downtown drone footage all the time, how is that possible if flying the drone anywhere near tall building doesn't work?

Why would the Solo continue to drift away and upwards and not just drop/land? The controller kept saying GPS lost use manual mode, NONE of the controls would affect the movement of the Solo. It was literally out of my control.

Lastly, and most importantly, is this all covered under a warranty? Solo, Gimbal, and GoPro was purchased just a few days ago. This literally was my first/test flight. And I really was just trying to test the controls over a very small area.

Really bummed that the Solo was not able to land or come back on its own, even if GPS was disconnected.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

 

[nuggetz]

If GPS is lost then it's simply not possible for it to come back home as it no longer knows where home is or where the solo itself is.

Most likely this was due to operator error. Post your logs here and someone can take a look. By now most issues have been ironed out with Solo and there are fail safes in place that you can read about in docs. Sounds like your first flight was a bit ambitious and perhaps maybe some more reading/research could have mitigated the loss.


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[Adamdrone]

If GPS is lost then it's simply not possible for it to come back home as it no longer knows where home is or where the solo itself is.

Most likely this was due to operator error. Post your logs here and someone can take a look. By now most issues have been ironed out with Solo and there are fail safes in place that you can read about in docs. Sounds like your first flight was a bit ambitious and perhaps maybe some more reading/research could have mitigated the loss.


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I do agree, seems a bit ambitious. This is my main argument though...

GPS takes 5 minutes to connect, once connected, I move the controls for only a few seconds, GPS disconnects and Solo takes off like a bat out of hell. Does it really matter where I started the flight (in a very open parking garage rooftop, not very close to other buildings)? The demo video on the flight school shows several tall trees in the area, I believe my location was even more open than that.

I've submitted the logs to 3dr support. Sorta' crawling out of my skin waiting to hear back if any of this gear is covered, as it's obvious the Solo is in pieces, and the GoPro is missing.

 

[User Name]

GPS disconnects and Solo takes off like a bat out of hell. Does it really matter where I started the flight (in a very open parking garage rooftop, not very close to other buildings)? The demo video on the flight school shows several tall trees in the area, I believe my location was even more open than that.

I'm sorry you crashed/damaged your Solo, but you really did violate pretty much every rule in the book, so to speak. Buildings vs. trees - yes, it batters. Buildings are far more solid than trees, so it would take fewer buildings to block GPS than trees. Residential areas are far more likely to have wifi interference. How many satellites did you have when you took off? I believe 6 is the minimum, but it should be obvious that if you're in an area with potential reception issues, you should wait for a few more satellites to give yourself a safety margin. I try to never take off without at least 8, and I've never had so much as a GPS loss or glitch of any kind.

More generally, in the instructions and videos, it's *always* recommended to make your first few flights in a wide open field or area somewhere. A parking garage roof in a city environment isn't one of these. Personally, I made my first few flights without the gimbal or camera. Then I added the camera for a few, and finally added the gimbal.

It just seems crazy to me to put the entire thing in the air, for the very first time, in close to the worst possible environment. Money must come far more easily to you than it does to me!

 

[Acroduster]

Let's not be too hard on him, guys.

The biggest thing I see here is our general advice to set Fly:manual mode to your A and/or B buttons. Had he done this, he could have hit the button, regained control, and brought it back.

I think after seeing this one (among others), I'm going to move the button assignment tip to the top of the FAQ.

Adamdrone: I sincerely hope you were able to recover your drone and that it is repairable. Hopefully, you also searched around and found your GoPro as well.

 

[Adamdrone]

Let's not be too hard on him, guys.

The biggest thing I see here is our general advice to set Fly:manual mode to your A and/or B buttons. Had he done this, he could have hit the button, regained control, and brought it back.

I think after seeing this one (among others), I'm going to move the button assignment tip to the top of the FAQ.

Adamdrone: I sincerely hope you were able to recover your drone and that it is repairable. Hopefully, you also searched around and found your GoPro as well.

Thanks, Acroduster. The Fly:manual mode assigned to A/B buttons is a great idea. Assuming I get another Solo, I will consider doing this.

Drone is still on a commercial roof, which I don't have access to. Waiting for their window washer to get it. Who knows when that will be.

Currently in conversation with 3dr regarding the crash, will post the outcome here.

 

[erikgraham]

It's pretty simple. New user ignored warnings about flying around buildings or in a populated area. Ignores advice about flying in an open field (especially for first flight!). Crashes drone on first flight. Can't understand why. Next time you drop over a grand on a new toy read the fking manual.

And yes, it's possible to fly in and among buildings, but with the new rules and all the bad press because of pilots like this, you better a) have permission first, and b) be an experienced pilot, with a properly configured set of parameters, who knows what to do if GPS glitches.

 

[Adamdrone]

It's pretty simple. New user ignored warnings about flying around buildings or in a populated area. Ignores advice about flying in an open field (especially for first flight!). Crashes drone on first flight. Can't understand why. Next time you drop over a grand on a new toy read the fking manual.

And yes, it's possible to fly in and among buildings, but with the new rules and all the bad press because of pilots like this, you better a) have permission first, and b) be an experienced pilot, with a properly configured set of parameters, who knows what to do if GPS glitches.

Thanks for the helpful advice/post Erik. You must be a real pro.

 

[Adamdrone]

It's pretty simple. New user ignored warnings about flying around buildings or in a populated area. Ignores advice about flying in an open field (especially for first flight!). Crashes drone on first flight. Can't understand why. Next time you drop over a grand on a new toy read the fking manual.

And yes, it's possible to fly in and among buildings, but with the new rules and all the bad press because of pilots like this, you better a) have permission first, and b) be an experienced pilot, with a properly configured set of parameters, who knows what to do if GPS glitches.

Also, it's users like you who prevent new droners from coming to these forums for help. Especially in the Thread titled "Help". Perhaps you could save these comments for a 'Troll' thread?