New update out to Support Gimbal

Del · Aug 21, 2015

CroquettRocket said:
"Be aware of your location: If Solo’s flying really far from your home point, it won’t be able to Return Home if you’ve only got 10% battery remaining." - 3DR News

So, RTH won't be smart-ish as The-other-company

I think that's just a little bit of common sense .. Just make sure you don't fly to far when battery is low...

CroquettRocket · Aug 21, 2015

Del said:
I think that's just a little bit of common sense .. Just make sure you don't fly to far when battery is low...

Yes, of course it's a common sense to not fly to far when your battery is low.
But RTH is a safe feature. And for the safety of my Solo, would have been nice to trigger RTH at 23% or 30% (and not only 10%) if my Solo thinks he will need all that power to return Home if I am too far away or if there is too much wind and the battery is getting low more fast than usual.

Earldgrayjr · Aug 21, 2015

Updated. 12 sats and 1.2 hdop in 32 seconds from the table inside my hotel... No mods...

Impressive...

Unfortunately, can't fly today....

Edit: Be aware that if you changed the A/B buttons to something else (such as Manual and Stabilize as I have) they apparently revert back to default on the update...

ChrisM101 · Aug 21, 2015

CroquettRocket said:
Yes, of course it's a common sense to not fly to far when your battery is low.
But RTH is a safe feature. And for the safety of my Solo, would have been nice to trigger RTH at 23% or 30% (and not only 10%) if my Solo thinks he will need all that power to return Home if I am too far away or if there is too much wind and the battery is getting low more fast than usual.

Well its getting smarter, not necessarily at its smartest yet... But I had figured it could do a calculation as such , perhaps they will get there...

aggravated... · Aug 21, 2015

CroquettRocket said:
Yes, of course it's a common sense to not fly to far when your battery is low.
But RTH is a safe feature. And for the safety of my Solo, would have been nice to trigger RTH at 23% or 30% (and not only 10%) if my Solo thinks he will need all that power to return Home if I am too far away or if there is too much wind and the battery is getting low more fast than usual.

I always get her home by around 20% just to be on the safe side. This morning after I did the update I took it up and was flying around some and had forgotten that I turned the performance down to turtle speed to test my gimbal.

So at around 15% (because I was not far out) I started bringing it home by just hitting RTH. Well with the new update the Solo raises x amount of feet now as a new safety precaution, no matter how high you are.

So then I start returning to home and it is going slower than a turtle. I try to be patient but I see the battery is dropping fast. This is because I have added the Tarot gimbal, extra wiring and extra battery to operate the gimbal. I decide she is not going to make it and I needed to take action. I tried to open up the settings menu, it wasn't opening correctly.... I have swiped several times and I'm about 200 feet still up in the air and I am at 5%.

I finally get the settings open (this wasn't an app issue but user issue as I was freaking out because I know I was going to see the Solo crashing in front of my eyes before I can get it down) and was able to turn the performance up and bring it down as quickly as possible without crashing. I think it was at 2% when I turned it off.

Afterwards I went in and changed my underwear! Damn that was close... If you want to avoid having to change your underwear I would suggest to my fellow flyers to try and be hovering over home with at least 10% on your battery.

Del · Aug 21, 2015

CroquettRocket said:
Yes, of course it's a common sense to not fly to far when your battery is low.
But RTH is a safe feature. And for the safety of my Solo, would have been nice to trigger RTH at 23% or 30% (and not only 10%) if my Solo thinks he will need all that power to return Home if I am too far away or if there is too much wind and the battery is getting low more fast than usual.

True enough...

aggravated... said:
I always get her home by around 20% just to be on the safe side. This morning after I did the update I took it up and was flying around some and had forgotten that I turned the performance down to turtle speed to test my gimbal.

So at around 15% (because I was not far out) I started bringing it home by just hitting RTH. Well with the new update the Solo raises x amount of feet now as a new safety precaution, no matter how high you are.

So then I start returning to home and it is going slower than a turtle. I try to be patient but I see the battery is dropping fast. This is because I have added the Tarot gimbal, extra wiring and extra battery to operate the gimbal. I decide she is not going to make it and I needed to take action. I tried to open up the settings menu, it wasn't opening correctly.... I have swiped several times and I'm about 200 feet still up in the air and I am at 5%.

I finally get the settings open (this wasn't an app issue but user issue as I was freaking out because I know I was going to see the Solo crashing in front of my eyes before I can get it down) and was able to turn the performance up and bring it down as quickly as possible without crashing. I think it was at 2% when I turned it off.

Afterwards I went in and changed my underwear! Damn that was close... If you want to avoid having to change your underwear I would suggest to my fellow flyers to try and be hovering over home with at least 10% on your battery.

wow..that sure sounds like a close one..! Glad you made it home safe at the end!
I still have mine on turtle speed.. And pretty comfortable at that setting Because I'm only in it for the photography and not the extreme trick flyer... But I think I'm gonna bring the setting up a notch just in case I get into some kinda trouble and have to bring it home quicker !
Thank you for Sharing your experience ...

Fly safe

sixshooterstang · Aug 21, 2015

Reinstalled stock neo 7 and updated. Still stops at 10 satellites sitting in my backyard with an hdop of 1.7.
Back to the m8n.

Sarah B · Aug 21, 2015

Apparently, results may vary with the update. Ten minutes in my backyard, and NO satellites. I'll try again somewhere else over the weekend.

Also, the controller didn't respond when it said to press A to continue after the update. Same thing happened when I bought the Solo more than two months ago. Someone here suggested removing the battery cover and jiggling the battery around for a few seconds, when I first bought the Solo and updated. Don't you know, jiggling the battery today brought the Solo out of its coma again.

I am still straddling the fence with this thing.

Andy Tomczyk · Aug 21, 2015

Richard Dowhan said:
says the app is available today... nothing on apple app store. 3DR has a habit of saying something is ready when it is not.

This is a firmware update with new App features. Check your settings in your current App. You should see Firmware Update Available.

Retired2Fly · Aug 21, 2015

Sarah B said:
Apparently, results may vary with the update. Ten minutes in my backyard, and NO satellites. I'll try again somewhere else over the weekend.

Also, the controller didn't respond when it said to press A to continue after the update. Same thing happened when I bought the Solo more than two months ago. Someone here suggested removing the battery cover and jiggling the battery around for a few seconds, when I first bought the Solo and updated. Don't you know, jiggling the battery today brought the Solo out of its coma again.

I am still straddling the fence with this thing.

Sarah did you update the solo app to 1.0.2 during the mid-July update? That update fixed the A lockup issue

tblog · Aug 21, 2015

aggravated... said:
I always get her home by around 20% just to be on the safe side. This morning after I did the update I took it up and was flying around some and had forgotten that I turned the performance down to turtle speed to test my gimbal.

So at around 15% (because I was not far out) I started bringing it home by just hitting RTH. Well with the new update the Solo raises x amount of feet now as a new safety precaution, no matter how high you are.

So then I start returning to home and it is going slower than a turtle. I try to be patient but I see the battery is dropping fast. This is because I have added the Tarot gimbal, extra wiring and extra battery to operate the gimbal. I decide she is not going to make it and I needed to take action. I tried to open up the settings menu, it wasn't opening correctly.... I have swiped several times and I'm about 200 feet still up in the air and I am at 5%.

I finally get the settings open (this wasn't an app issue but user issue as I was freaking out because I know I was going to see the Solo crashing in front of my eyes before I can get it down) and was able to turn the performance up and bring it down as quickly as possible without crashing. I think it was at 2% when I turned it off.

Afterwards I went in and changed my underwear! Damn that was close... If you want to avoid having to change your underwear I would suggest to my fellow flyers to try and be hovering over home with at least 10% on your battery.

You did everything right except the Underwear part Dammit .. Before changing your underwear, You should have run and plug in the damn charger to charge that battery.. you do know that 0% = Permanent Damage to your battery ???

Sarah B · Aug 21, 2015

Retired2Fly said:
Sarah did you update the solo app to 1.0.2 during the mid-July update? That update fixed the A lockup issue

Yes, I did. It makes no sense that shaking the batteries makes a difference, but what do you know ... ?

Earldgrayjr · Aug 21, 2015

Sarah B said:
Yes, I did. It makes no sense that shaking the batteries makes a difference, but what do you know ... ?

Do you have another battery? That would tell you if it was a Solo or battery connection issue. Which ever one it is, get an RMA and get a new one.

Retired2Fly · Aug 21, 2015

Sarah B said:
Yes, I did. It makes no sense that shaking the batteries makes a difference, but what do you know ... ?

Hmmm....weird. I would submit a RMA on that one. It sounds like some gremlins are living in your solo.

Sarah B · Aug 21, 2015

Well, but it's the controller battery, not the Solo battery. I'm sure there are people here who know what difference it makes to jiggle it, but not me.

I'm just someone who wants the Solo to function as advertised. I DID try again in my backyard, and the SOLO obtained six satellites after about ten minutes, but that's too few to risk sending it up. By contrast, the white thing never has less than twelve satellites in my backyard. (And I'm not a basher, for the record.)

Earldgrayjr · Aug 21, 2015

Sarah B said:
Well, but it's the controller battery, not the Solo battery. I'm sure there are people here who know what difference it makes to jiggle it, but not me.

I'm just someone who wants the Solo to function as advertised. I DID try again in my backyard, and the SOLO obtained six satellites after about ten minutes, but that's too few to risk sending it up. By contrast, the white thing never has less than twelve satellites in my backyard. (And I'm not a basher, for the record.)

Ahhh the controller... Didn't catch that. Not sure how that would effect GPS, but definitely not normal. I haven't seen or heard of that (or jiggling the battery on the Solo for that matter). In any case, jiggling anything to make it work is not good. If you don't have an extra to isolate the controller from the battery (just to see) I would just get an RMA, and send it in, or get a new unit.

RikMiddle · Aug 21, 2015

Sarah B said:
Well, but it's the controller battery, not the Solo battery. I'm sure there are people here who know what difference it makes to jiggle it, but not me.

I'm just someone who wants the Solo to function as advertised. I DID try again in my backyard, and the SOLO obtained six satellites after about ten minutes, but that's too few to risk sending it up. By contrast, the white thing never has less than twelve satellites in my backyard. (And I'm not a basher, for the record.)

with the new update???

I got 14 w/a HDOP of 1.7 in my basement under 15secs??!

was taking up to a couple of minutes to get enough to take off outside before 1.1.12.

You gotta have a gremlin... or 2...

Sarah B · Aug 21, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
Ahhh the controller... Didn't catch that. Not sure how that would effect GPS, but definitely not normal. I haven't seen or heard of that (or jiggling the battery on the Solo for that matter). In any case, jiggling anything to make it work is not good. If you don't have an extra to isolate the controller from the battery (just to see) I would just get an RMA, and send it in, or get a new unit.

I got one of the first Solos at BB, with an extra battery. The A button not working after the update was fairly common with others here. Like retiredtofly said, it was some sort of bug. A bug that's still squiggling around in my Solo, apparently. I'll try again in a more open area, this weekend. I live in an old neighborhood, with lots of big trees.

Or ... maybe I'm simply cursed. It would explain so much.

David Weston · Aug 21, 2015

I had to hit A about 5 or 6 times in rapid succession, then it "took"

Richard Dowhan · Aug 21, 2015

just got email back from 3DR about the app update on IOS. Seems we have yet another delay. What is it with 3DR making announcements they don't follow through with, e.g. solo launch, gimbal, free battery. Am I missing something else please add to the list. These announcements are getting really old. Maybe Solo Pro will be announced now just to make sure it will be ready in 3-6 months from now.