New and worried Solo owner

[erikgraham]

So ekf2 is not in 3.3.3?

Nope

 

[kakemann]

Thanks for all your feedback. I guess I'll stick with the Solo.

 

[fergsy]

I've had a Solo only a month, brilliant platform; however not sure why the TX/Rx RSSI drops so quickly, have suggested to support to look at using more redundancy bits in Tx/Rx, as even with 800mW cards (software mods as well) and 12dBi Omni / 14 dBi MPS antenna (on controller), the signal drops off so quickly. Not sure what encoding DJI use on the P4, to enable a solid data connection at low powers, and long distances.
I am awaiting a response back from support; once this is resolved I am sure more people will by Solos; it's just unfortunate 3DR have had so much unnecessary bad publicity.

As I said I wouldn't buy any other quadcopter, as this is rock solid; I admit I have had a few crashes with tree branches, but all the pods are fine (any other drone would have had burnt out motors as well as damaged blades).
Cardboard mod on GPS works a treat; rock solid; gets a fix very quickly; only in tall built up areas it may take a little longer.
Does anyone know when the Sony camera / Gimbal is coming out; otherwise looking to mod HERO 4 with RibCage for fitting other lenses?

 

[ChrisBird]

I've had a Solo only a month, brilliant platform; however not sure why the TX/Rx RSSI drops so quickly, have suggested to support to look at using more redundancy bits in Tx/Rx, as even with 800mW cards (software mods as well) and 12dBi Omni / 14 dBi MPS antenna (on controller), the signal drops off so quickly. Not sure what encoding DJI use on the P4, to enable a solid data connection at low powers, and long distances.
I am awaiting a response back from support; once this is resolved I am sure more people will by Solos; it's just unfortunate 3DR have had so much unnecessary bad publicity.

Dont expect much from 3DR on this. Difference between DJI's offerings and the 3DR Solo is that they are using different technologies. Both are 2.4GHz but DJI is using their lightbridge, this essentially is a send only protocol from what I understand (think like broadcast TV). I believe that both sides (drone and controller are using this for each direction). 3DR Solo uses your typical wifi connection (802.11). Advantages to both methods. Personally I've only had 1 RTL due to Tx dropping out and that was at 300m away from me and it was on the limits of being able to see it properly. My Solo is fine for my needs. I have other multi's and fixed wings for further out but to be honest I cant go much further without being not able to see it. For TCP to be ineffective it only takes a 15% packet loss.

Funny thing is that so many people say that they like the options that DJI has for it's camera but unless you buy their X5 your options are limited and have to go through the same issues as you do with the GoPro on the Solo. Although access to the GoPro ISO settings while flying would be nice but if you remember to set it before taking off you are fine.

Does anyone know when the Sony camera / Gimbal is coming out; otherwise looking to mod HERO 4 with RibCage for fitting other lenses?

As I understand it they are shipping sitescan offerings to people (that is with the Sony camera and gimbal). Crazily they don't appear to offer this option outside of the sitescan package, they have said that they aren't likely to do so either. Not sure what they are thinking over there, seems kinda stupid to me. They would have done a limited production run of X gimbals and cameras, my guess is that they still have a large number of that. Even if the gimbal and camera were $1500 I bet there would still be a large number of hobbyists who would buy it. I would suggest that they have sold less than 100 of the sitescan package. The issue I see is that the app may need to be modded to allow all the parameters of the camera changed, this might be why they haven't released it (guessing the sitescan app does have access to those options). If they hurried up and updated the SDK to allow us to interact with the Solo's companion computer then more custom gimbals and camera options would roll out......

For quality stills I'm moving to use my Sony A5100 on my Tarot 650 (using a Pixhawk but will likely get a PH2 when it's released). I plan to get an IPTV box and put it on a companion computer and have it stream live view down on a 5.8GHz wifi link. For video footage I find using GoPro's 2.7k fine (I use a modded Peau 3.97mm lens - did it myself - was very easy) on the Solo to be adequate for my needs (1080p on post, so I have some room to crop, image stabilise or zoom as needed - If I need more then I can shoot at 4K instead).

Chris

 

[fergsy]

Chris thanks for your succinct response, OK so DJI are using some sort of DAB (QPSK) or QAM.
There must still be a way to increase the hamming distance of TCP / UDP Datagrams to give better robustness to packet / frame loss (layer 1 is probably a card firmware update...).
Or could one install a "physical" intermediate base layer Tx/Rx between the Solo and the Controller?
In the same way you can get physical converters for serial (MODBUS / HART) over TCP/IP (to increase workable distance)
I didn't realise it was as low as 15% for data loss (surprising for OFDM), no wonder the RSSI drops off quickly.
Well when the Sony comes out; and as you mentioned they're talking about uploading data directly to the internet; they will need to look at this swiftly as otherwise the current system will certainly slow up the data transfer, especially with a 20MP camera, unless they expand to 2.4GHz and 5 GHz (but the packet loss will still be an issue).

I agree I think I'd still pick a sony lens and gimbal even if it was $1500 (ouch); and yes an SDK would be ideal and allow further development........open systems are becoming more and more popular in industry, as there is nothing worse than have equipment go down and you can't repair it as there isn't a service rep available.
The 3.97mm was the lens I was looking at as well; is the sensor protected or will it get scratch every time you change the filter?
The other advantage is filming in infrared; such a pity Kodak stopped the High Speed Infrared film (I've still got a spare speedi-brew development kit!). Don't feel like buying 5 Peau cameras , but can see the advantage for crop survey's.
I can also use the Hero on old canon 35mm glass with the Ribcage mod.

Fergus

 

[petermag]

Hi,

I just bought a brand new Solo a few days ago. I have only performed the preflight update process. Even though I had some issues with that, it worked out well eventually.

Because of my experience with the 3dr pixhawk and the different reviews I read I went out and bought this drone.
I have experience with NAZA V1, V2 and pixhawk from before. Never had any serious problems with these controllers.

After I picked up the package, I read the posts here, which now worries me.

It seems like there are some major issues with this drone which makes me uncertain If I should return it.

The main problems I found reading through these threads were:

1. GPS interference because of poor shielding (read about a different shield shich I found on 3DR website)
2. Serious issues with the last firmware 2.4.0
3. Problems with connection between the controller and the drone itself which causes random connection failure, resulting in crash or RTH.

The latest posts on this forum has made me wonder if I should return the drone to the store before taking it out for the maiden flight.

Is it worth going the solo way? Or should I go back while I still can?

Are there any good advice to minimise the risk of crashes or flyaways on this drone?

Thanks for any advice and input.

Despite my recent crash due to loss of power I'm still very optimistic with Solo. If anything, it has increased my confidence in the support of the product. The fact that I could get an analysis of my flight and a replacement agreed by 3DR within 5 days is a big plus.

Forums will unfortunately always skew towards the negative aspects and I'm probably an example of this. Apart from using this forum to research some aspects of the Solo I never really had much reason to post until I had my crash. All the other times I was happily flying my Solo with increasingly impressive results.

 

[ChrisBird]

Chris thanks for your succinct response, OK so DJI are using some sort of DAB (QPSK) or QAM.
There must still be a way to increase the hamming distance of TCP / UDP Datagrams to give better robustness to packet / frame loss (layer 1 is probably a card firmware update...).
Or could one install a "physical" intermediate base layer Tx/Rx between the Solo and the Controller?
In the same way you can get physical converters for serial (MODBUS / HART) over TCP/IP (to increase workable distance)
I didn't realise it was as low as 15% for data loss (surprising for OFDM), no wonder the RSSI drops off quickly.

If you jump on the Solo Mod Club you will find that there are some wireless settings that you can tweak to get more optimal settings. Do at your own risk though.....

They also use MIMO multi-antenna technology, so they're not using diversity.

Yeah I know the 15% thing caught me off guard too, I had been warned about it but it really showed itself when I was using some RFD900+ and keeping TCP services going was not easy when the packet loss went up (only had to go up slightly to get a high degradation. I switched most of my stuff to UDP where possible after that (still ran an SSH session which is TCP and it seemed semi stable).

Well when the Sony comes out; and as you mentioned they're talking about uploading data directly to the internet; they will need to look at this swiftly as otherwise the current system will certainly slow up the data transfer, especially with a 20MP camera, unless they expand to 2.4GHz and 5 GHz (but the packet loss will still be an issue).

I agree I think I'd still pick a sony lens and gimbal even if it was $1500 (ouch); and yes an SDK would be ideal and allow further development........open systems are becoming more and more popular in industry, as there is nothing worse than have equipment go down and you can't repair it as there isn't a service rep available.
The 3.97mm was the lens I was looking at as well; is the sensor protected or will it get scratch every time you change the filter?

QoS should be able to take care of it in terms not of impacting and overloading the wireless link. Just a case of getting the right settings.

The 3.97mm lens is great, no image correction in post, a slightly more zoomed in view, just a minor colour correction done in post (till I get their app to work on my PC, theres a few issues that they don't seem to think are a problem). The custom lens barrel can only be screwed so far in so you should damage it while swapping from custom lens to another unless you jam a long object in, or if you leave it upwards and allow dust to get in.

If you do it yourself then the sensor is exposed during the switch over from the stock lens to the custom lens. To save myself the hassle of 'cracking' the glue on the stock lens I bought a new lens holder. Made the switchover very easy.

 

[agd]

No reason to be concerned. Seriously.

1. GPS should be fine in the latest versions.
In case you experience long fix times (>5 minutes at a new location never flown before or >1 min after a battery swap at the same location) get the upgrade shielding from the 3DR web store. Worth getting it because it's a pretty good improvement anyway.
2. Simply not true. I am flying 2.4 since April as beta tester. No major defects to my knowledge. No reason to worry.
3. I never had a connection loss over more than 100 flight hours over the past 12 months.

If you have the experience with Nazas and Pixhawk you will be fine and love it
My Pixhawk drone has set dust, my Naza quad got sold 6 months ago since I own a Solo

Ditto for me too. Has performed as advertised.