New to 3DR Solo

chewy1010 · Jan 2, 2020

Hey guys (and gals),
Brand new to the forum and need some help. Been flying drones for a while but I’m new to the Solo. I was just put in charge of my fire departments 3DR Solo drone. The Solo is my fire chiefs personal drone and it hasn’t been used much because the go pro doesn’t work and it has no video feed. He doesn’t really fly. Anyway, I brought it home and I’m trying to go through it and see how it flys. It flys fine but I can’t get signed on to it’s wi-fi. When I try and log into the drone through the 3DR app and I enter the sololink password my phone says the password is incorrect. Chief said he’s never changed the password. Basically the video feed is non-existent because I can’t connect my iPhone 7 to it. I need to get the video feed working and don’t have any idea where to go from here. Basically right now it’s just a fly by sight drone with no video or camera function. It has a hero 3 silver go pro that I can install on it, but it does absolutely nothing. Can I please get some help on how to get it functioning properly? I appreciate it a lot and any help would be great. Btw the forum is awesome! Thanks, Matt

Joe Horn · Jan 2, 2020

If you perform a "Factory Reset" on the Solo, it resets the password to "sololink". The procedure to perform a Factory Reset is detailed on page 78 of the Solo User Manual (version 9). If you don't have a copy, you can download it from HERE.

FYI, a GoPro Hero 3 Silver *can* be used, but you won't be able to start and stop recording remotely, so instead just push the physical record button on the GoPro itself before you launch.

Due to a bug in 3DR's Solo app for iOS, you will not get a video feed when the GoPro's video resolution is too high. If you don't see a video feed, try either reducing the video resolution on the GoPro, *or* try exiting the Solo app and restarting it right away (while the GoPro is recording... which is a tad unnerving, but easily done if you make sure the Solo is far away from anything that it might drift into), *or* both. I keep my GoPro at 1920×1080, and have no problem with the video feed. Anything above that, and my video feed goes black.

If you get serious about using the Solo, you will probably want to get a more recent and less buggy 3rd-party app to replace the 3DR Solo app. Several are available, but I don't personally have any favorites because I still use the 3DR Solo app on my iPad Mini.

Good luck, and happy flying!

chewy1010 · Jan 2, 2020

Awesome info Joe! Man I appreciate it. I got the Solo updated and the GoPro updated. Actually had a picture on the 3DR app! It started raining now so I couldn’t fly. I’ll be trying it as soon as the weather permits. Thank you so very much!!

chewy1010 · Jan 2, 2020

Btw, it’s a GoPro Hero 4 silver.

Joe Horn · Jan 2, 2020

chewy1010 said:
Btw, it’s a GoPro Hero 4 silver.

Cool! That'll let you have complete GoPro control (record start/stop, modes, etc) except automatic powering-on of the GoPro, depending on which firmware version it has. I like firmware 5.00 on my Hero 4 Silver because that version has "linear" FOV mode, which does a very good job eliminating the "fisheye effect" in-camera. But it loses auto power-on. A small tradeoff.

chewy1010 · Jan 2, 2020

Good to know. Have to learn a little more about the GoPro. Believe it or not I’ve never owned one! i gotta ask another dumb question. When I record where does the video go??

chewy1010 · Jan 2, 2020

And I think the batteries are almost shot. Only get a few minutes flight time out of them.

Joe Horn · Jan 3, 2020

chewy1010 said:
Good to know. Have to learn a little more about the GoPro. Believe it or not I’ve never owned one! i gotta ask another dumb question. When I record where does the video go??

Directly onto the SD card which you installed in the GoPro. You can *also* opt to record the live video stream on your phone or tablet, but I never do that, because it's of much lower quality than the video on the camera's SD card.