My Solo vanished

[charbait]

So, I had my solo for around 3 weeks. I spent tons of time researching the product before and after purchasing it. I've read all the instructions and of course watched all the flight school videos. Today after work I took my Solo out for it's third flight. The area I was flying it in was a seminary surrounded by forest. A couple minutes into the flight my Solo lost connection and the Go Pro footage was frozen. The Solo was currently flying over the forested area at this point. I waited 3-4 minutes minutes for it to return home (78% battery at this point). The Solo doesn't return home, I run towards the forest and I don't see any sign of it in the air so I stop the recording and reference the last few seconds of video the Solo shot to help me find where it possibly might of landed. I spent close to 3 hours search for it with no luck

I contacted 3DR but I doubt they'll do anything for me. I'm devastated, I've been saving for a Solo for a very long time. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this?

The photo attached is the last thing the Solo captured.

 

[Marich]

Chin up. 3DR has been good about replacing Solos that go AWOL, including the GoPro.
You'll need to send in your logs and let them figure things out.

 

[Jubalr]

So, I had my solo for around 3 weeks. I spent tons of time researching the product before and after purchasing it. I've read all the instructions and of course watched all the flight school videos. Today after work I took my Solo out for it's third flight. The area I was flying it in was a seminary surrounded by forest. A couple minutes into the flight my Solo lost connection and the Go Pro footage was frozen. The Solo was currently flying over the forested area at this point. I waited 3-4 minutes minutes for it to return home (78% battery at this point). The Solo doesn't return home, I run towards the forest and I don't see any sign of it in the air so I stop the recording and reference the last few seconds of video the Solo shot to help me find where it possibly might of landed.

I contacted 3DR but I doubt they'll do anything for me. I'm devastated, I've been saving for a Solo for a very long time. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this?

The photo attached is the last thing the Solo captured.

Post your log of that flight here if you can.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Yea sorry to hear about your day, but posting your logs here could very well be your best bet. We've not had many just flyaway yet, but those who have as far as I know have all found them with gps coordinates. Some days or even longer later, but I can't remember any that weren't eventually found aside from one at the bottom of a lake. If not all at least a very high percent have made their way home and as mentioned 3dr has been good about replacing the whole package if it's a problem on solos end. Most of these replacements were crashed that I've seen, but I'm sure they'll own up if solo was at fault here. Good luck and I'll be watching to see how things go.

 

[charbait]

Post your log of that flight here if you can.

Since i'm using Mac I can't download Mission Planner. Is there an alternative I can download to retrieve the flight logs from my controller?

 

[Jubalr]

Since i'm using Mac I can't download Mission Planner. Is there an alternative I can download to retrieve the flight logs from my controller?

Here is a link to retrieving logs, but from a PC. Not sure on a Mac. Can you run in Windows environment?

 

[charbait]

Here is a link to retrieving logs, but from a PC. Not sure on a Mac. Can you run in Windows environment?

I currently only have access to a Mac until tomorrow. The area it would of went down is frequented by joggers/ folks walking their dogs so i'm hoping I can somehow track where it went down tonight.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Wouldn't the info needed be on the 3 logs that you can send in app Jubalr?

If so just act as your sending a support ticket from the controller and tablet then change the email address to someone who can post or even open and post them. Sorry I'm not sure this will work, I've not used logs much, but just a thought maybe worth a try to get the info quicker for ya.

 

[PdxSteve]

SCP is a transfer protocol similar to FTP, but is secure. Just google "Mac SCP" and I'm sure something will pop up. It will basically just show you a split view of the filesystem, one for your mac and the other for whatever you're connecting to (the controller in this case). Just browse to the /logs directory on your controller and copy them to a folder on your mac.

 

[pete]

the other day I found this PDF document (attached) somewhere at "zendesk", looks like the document was prepared by 3DR (last step tells you to email the logs to help at 3dr.com).

I tried it and it worked on my MacBook Air


1. Turn On the controller and connect to the Solo WiFi
2. Enter “sololink” password (or whatever password you might have changed to)
3. On Finder, click “Go” and “Applications”
4. Go to “Utilities” and select “Terminal”
5. Change to Desktop directory with “cd Desktop” command
6. Create the “logs” folder with “mkdir logs”
7. Change to “logs” directory with “cd logs”
8. Copy the files from the controller running the command
“scp [email protected]:/log/* .”
9. Confirm the authenticity of the host answering “yes” to the question
10. Enter the “TjSDBkAu” password (it is case sensitive).
11. Wait for the transfer to complete
12. Click on “logs” folder to highlight it, go to “File” and select “Compress”

The resulting compressed .ZIP file you can post here for others to analyze (they'll be able to find the last know GPS location, or direction the Solo was heading before you lost connection)

 

[Raston Warrior]

This is really rare - you need to pursue the logs alright, they'll give you and 3DR all they need to replace it (assuming hardware failure, which sure sounds likely from what you describe) . The logs are in the controller, and indeed you can use SCP via Mac terminal to retrieve them.

Good luck and as said above, chin up - things are looking to be in your favor.
After you get the logs.

- R

 

[Jubalr]

Wouldn't the info needed be on the 3 logs that you can send in app Jubalr?

If so just act as your sending a support ticket from the controller and tablet then change the email address to someone who can post or even open and post them. Sorry I'm not sure this will work, I've not used logs much, but just a thought maybe worth a try to get the info quicker for ya.

A couple of updates back they removed the ability to change the email address to email yourself logs. I haven't tried it since I haven't ever needed to send in logs, but you may be able to check the 'out' box if your email after sending to 3DR.

 

[Stimmy]

I see you were recording for 11 min in the video, but you said your battery was at 78 percent? Did you start recording prior to takeoff?

 

[charbait]

I see you were recording for 11 min in the video, but you said your battery was at 78 percent? Did you start recording prior to takeoff?

Yes

 

[Adimuzio513]

A couple of updates back they removed the ability to change the email address to email yourself logs. I haven't tried it since I haven't ever needed to send in logs, but you may be able to check the 'out' box if your email after sending to 3DR.

Well that's kinda bs, wonder what their reasoning is for this. Guess I missed a few things when I wasn't on here much for a while.

 

[charbait]

Finally got a hold of the log files! Thank you everyone for the quick responses/help it means a lot.

Here are the log files:

 

[Jubalr]

Here is the last position it showed. Wasn't very high and it lost connection with the controller. I would assume it hit something going up maybe as it tried to RTH? Or it lost GPS at the same time and is in the vicinity of where it shows in the picture. But it shows good GPS signal at last contact.

 

[charbait]

Here is the last position it showed. Wasn't very high and it lost connection with the controller. I would assume it hit something going up maybe as it tried to RTH? Or it lost GPS at the same time and is in the vicinity of where it shows in the picture. But it shows good GPS signal at last contact.

That's really odd. its altitude was pretty high when I lost contact with the GoPro feed/Solo I searched that area for 3 hours yesterday, and 2 hours this morning with no luck. Is the green icon it's last position or the end of the black line?

 

[Cynthia Farr]

Chin up. 3DR has been good about replacing Solos that go AWOL, including the GoPro.
You'll need to send in your logs and let them figure things out.

My solo went haywire I am in Australia and it landed in a tree I was lucky to get it back so you are saying that 3DR will replace if it goes missing in flight

 

[PdxSteve]

My solo went haywire I am in Australia and it landed in a tree I was lucky to get it back so you are saying that 3DR will replace if it goes missing in flight

Yes. From their website on this page: Solo Smart Drone | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology

Note the last sentence.

ON THE SAFE SIDE
A drone that flies in your best interest. We give you industry-first safety features like a pause button on the controller, an adjustable preconfigured flight ceiling to keep Solo close while you learn, and in-app flight zone information and alerts. You can also watch tutorial videos in the app, from unboxing to Smart Shots and advanced flight. Fly with confidence from day one.

The dual built-in computers constantly monitor your flight — 500 parameters of flight data, 20 times a second. Not only that, this is the only drone that logs these data on both the controller and the copter, so no matter what happens to your drone, you’re covered. If you crash or lose connection, the app will immediately prompt you to create a service ticket, which you can submit instantly to our support team through your mobile device’s internet connection, wherever you’re flying. If the flight log shows that a system malfunction caused the loss of your copter — 3DR will replace the copter and the gimbal if one was installed, and we’ll even give you credit to buy a new GoPro.