Mission Planner Ground my Solo

countryboy · May 24, 2017

I have not been able to fly my solo after installing Mission planner. I have done factory reset on both controller and Solo, before read that factory rests was discouraged. Currently my drone continues to have a rapid hi pitch beep, and the controller is saying something like lower throttle before starting motors. I need advice.

Richard Nawara · May 24, 2017

Use MP or Tower or Solex to change the Flight mode to "LOITER" it's at AUTO/GUIDED thus this msg! Cheers

pyrate · May 25, 2017

People use Mission Planner all the time with solo.
But if you went in there and started pushing buttons that you dont know what they do you could have hosed your copter.

The throttle thing is normal, MP exepcts throttle to be all the way down, on solo it is centered.
How bout sharing what you did in MP and we might can help
Otherwise a complete factory reset is all I could recomommed

h8id · May 26, 2017

@pyrate ... I have been wondering with the green cube running master now... Solo things are appearing in Mission Planner. I resolved my gimbal issue in Mission Planner.. but if I am just running a stock Solo Im not sure how im going to figure out what i can touch. Is.it generally safe to modify parameters in MP or Tower?

andrew.baker.142 · May 26, 2017

You can modify Solos parameters if you know what you are doing. "Lets see what this does" is NOT a good idea since (unlike the 3DR app) there is nothing in place to prevent you from making the aircraft unflyable.
That being said, there is an easy way to reset all parameters back to stock. I don't have the parameter name at my fingertips but when set to zero it causes all parameters to go back to default.

Pedals2Paddles · May 26, 2017

A few things. Mission Planner is not installed on your solo. And Mission Planner didn't ground or break your solo. You pushing buttons in mission planner that you are unfamiliar with is why the solo is malfunctioning. Please don't do that.

You need to reset the pixhawk parameters to fix this. The Solo's factory reset ironically doesn't do that. See this: Parameter Reset — Copter documentation

DavidPhillips · May 27, 2017

The throttle is spring loaded and therefore at 50%. You can't start in stabilize mode at 50%, you just need to hold down on the throttle while arming it.

David Boulanger · May 27, 2017

People try to help but no comment from the one with the problem. Sigh

robotics · May 28, 2017

Mission planner is tricky, but have pretty much worked out how to fly grids, take pics at appropriate points (not on turns) and have put together some pretty good imagery using just a GoPro 4 Silver from 100m up by correcting for fisheye distortion and stitching pics using freeware.
The problem is that when using Mission Planner the wifi on the controller seems to be split ito of bandwidth between laptop and Solo and have issues with Solo then losing signal pretty quickly (<250m away) and constantly returning home i.e. I then cant fly the grid unless I disconnect the laptop wifi once launched. This means you cant see where solo is on your grid or monitor its progress - very frustrating. Has anyone else had this problem or can anyone maybe offer a solution?

DavidPhillips · May 28, 2017

How much separation do you have? I have flown 1 mile away with laptop in truck and controller outside.

I also use continue mission on lost signal.

robotics · May 28, 2017

Thanks - didn't know about 'continue mission on lost signal - will look for it.
Laptop is within 3m of controller. Maybe there is other interference, but cant be more than yours from inside of vehicle I would think.

DavidPhillips · May 28, 2017

robotics said:
Thanks - didn't know about 'continue mission on lost signal - will look for it.
Laptop is within 3m of controller. Maybe there is other interference, but cant be more than yours from inside of vehicle I would think.

I have the laptop audio connected to the vehicle so I can hear it outside. I stand outside pointing the controller in the direction of the Solo and keep an eye on the Solo, watch for planes, etc.

robotics · May 29, 2017

Ok thanks for that - will give it another bash and see how I go

countryboy · May 29, 2017

pyrate said:
People use Mission Planner all the time with solo.
But if you went in there and started pushing buttons that you dont know what they do you could have hosed your copter.

The throttle thing is normal, MP exepcts throttle to be all the way down, on solo it is centered.
How bout sharing what you did in MP and we might can help
Otherwise a complete factory reset is all I could recomommed

I wish I could walk you through all the processes I went through, lets just say I have been able to fix the issue by switching to Towers, and setting my prarameter back to zero. Not sure what other setting mission planner changed, but at least it is back flying. I am going to stay away from mission planners I believe.

countryboy · May 29, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
A few things. Mission Planner is not installed on your solo. And Mission Planner didn't ground or break your solo. You pushing buttons in mission planner that you are unfamiliar with is why the solo is malfunctioning. Please don't do that.

You need to reset the pixhawk parameters to fix this. The Solo's factory reset ironically doesn't do that. See this: Parameter Reset — Copter documentation

Thanks for the help, it did turn out to be the parameter where off, but I ended up switching to Towers for now. I used the set up wizard, and I think it ended up making some changes. I wouldn't advise anyone else to do that. Yes I agree that anyone wishing to use mission planner understand what changes they are making first.

DavidPhillips · May 29, 2017

countryboy said:
Thanks for the help, it did turn out to be the parameter where off, but I ended up switching to Towers for now. I used the set up wizard, and I think it ended up making some changes. I wouldn't advise anyone else to do that. Yes I agree that anyone wishing to use mission planner understand what changes they are making first.

Mission planner is the best for tracking and creating missions on a PC. There is no need to change parameters unless you know what you want and how to do it.

ChrisBird · May 30, 2017

robotics said:
Mission planner is tricky, but have pretty much worked out how to fly grids, take pics at appropriate points (not on turns) and have put together some pretty good imagery using just a GoPro 4 Silver from 100m up by correcting for fisheye distortion and stitching pics using freeware.
The problem is that when using Mission Planner the wifi on the controller seems to be split ito of bandwidth between laptop and Solo and have issues with Solo then losing signal pretty quickly (<250m away) and constantly returning home i.e. I then cant fly the grid unless I disconnect the laptop wifi once launched. This means you cant see where solo is on your grid or monitor its progress - very frustrating. Has anyone else had this problem or can anyone maybe offer a solution?

The distance you can fly should be the same if you fly manually or via a mission. The pc will connect to the wifi site which is hosted on the controller.

DavidPhillips · May 30, 2017

ChrisBird said:
The distance you can fly should be the same if you fly manually or via a mission. The pc will connect to the wifi site which is hosted on the controller.

In Auto mission you can fly as far as you want as long as you have battery and the GPS is locked. In other modes you will need to return as soon as the radio communication fails.

You don't need radio communications or a controller in auto mission if you configure it to keep going.

Program it to land at a point within battery range or program it to go out and return with enough battery to get back. Program it to land at minimum voltage because it can't come back without battery power. Some will program it to return home at a certain voltage. That's fine as long as you know the max distance it will be and how much it takes from there.

If using FPV you could take over and land if you wish.