Newcomer gives honest account on the Solo Experience

[twitchyzero]

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Superb support 3DR...from the glowing reviews as a DIY backer to this.
and even better marketing. So easy a monkey can do it...that's the message it gave to photographers.

in before everyone says their five Solos are flawless (but admits to dumping hundreds in each of them and sits on RMA processes for few months).

What a tragic tale. What could've been amazing platform is marred by shortsightedness.

 

[Ian [P13]]

I've seen far worse stories everyday with people with other drones and I don't know any manufacturer that covers costs for international shipping.

So what you have here is a Solo with a faulty IMU, where the software correctly identified it, 3DR swapped it. Then the video feed on the second, which in fairness a crash or hard landing could have caused too, again 3DR sorted. The final issue was the drone going to manual from a poor GPS lock (it's lack of knowledge pressing pause for that). That happens on all drones as they all use GPS tech.

If he'd had issues with DJI for example, they wouldn't have shipped internationally so he'd have been grounded full stop, the RMA process likely would take longer and they send out refurbs, which can be a number of revisions behind and even in visibly poor condition in some cases.

 

[Jubalr]

@twitchyzero ; With all your posts here, I must say that you are at least consistent. Bottom line; you are an owner of Solo but love to find the negative and haters of Solo and/or 3DR. Over 60k Solos in the field and the vast majority flying great and loved by their owners. But you feel the personal need to find negative experiences (as is the case with every product from Mercedes to Whirpool to DJI) and post them when you find them. 3DR's failed marketing has been hashed and re-hashed here and every where else for the last year and half. But you must gain some sort of personal satisfaction by continuing to bring it up on an owners forum.

 

[SARDG]

@twitchyzero ; With all your posts here, I must say that you are at least consistent. Bottom line; you are an owner of Solo but love to find the negative and haters of Solo and/or 3DR...

Yes, agree... and t's getting very old...

 

[ChrisM101]

So a new drone user flys a handful of times and manages to crash once... seems typical of any drone. It also seems pretty much like the first several months with mine. But instead of whining on youtube, this guy needs to (A) Fly More (B) sell it to someone who would. Its frustrating to say the least, but if you have a good one and take the time to learn its shortcomings and abilities, then I feel like it can be operated very well.

 

[Marich]

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Superb support 3DR...from the glowing reviews as a DIY backer to this.
and even better marketing. So easy a monkey can do it...that's the message it gave to photographers.

in before everyone says their five Solos are flawless (but admits to dumping hundreds in each of them and sits on RMA processes for few months).

What a tragic tale. What could've been amazing platform is marred by shortsightedness.

This guy is known across the Facebook community for making videos of the negative sort. He searches high and low for an Axe and proceeds to grind it.
Not to be taken seriously... but with a grain of salt.

 

[SARDG]

This guy is known across the Facebook community for making videos of the negative sort. He searches high and low for an Axe and proceeds to grind it.
Not to be taken seriously... but with a grain of salt.

I don't take him seriously AT ALL; he has long-since lost his credability. But he just keeps cluttering the airwaves day after day, after day, after day... geez...

 

[Rusty Jones]

He did another 3DR Solo video about 2 weeks ago regarding the Forbes article.

 

[Freebird32]

Yeah, a negative guy. I told him to go find something he liked and do a positive video... he's a broken record.

 

[twitchyzero]

yep expecting international RMA is stupid. However, domestic RMA 2 months plus were common. Unacceptable.

This guy is known across the Facebook community for making videos of the negative sort. He searches high and low for an Axe and proceeds to grind it.
Not to be taken seriously... but with a grain of salt.

Did you actually watch this one? He didn't have to search high and low...major defect out of the box

@twitchyzero ; With all your posts here, I must say that you are at least consistent. Bottom line; you are an owner of Solo but love to find the negative and haters of Solo and/or 3DR. Over 60k Solos in the field and the vast majority flying great and loved by their owners. But you feel the personal need to find negative experiences (as is the case with every product from Mercedes to Whirpool to DJI) and post them when you find them. 3DR's failed marketing has been hashed and re-hashed here and every where else for the last year and half. But you must gain some sort of personal satisfaction by continuing to bring it up on an owners forum.

Yep. I've become very critical of 3DR. But I've also been giving them credit where due, have i not?

I'm an owner of multiple Solos. I have just as much of a right to talk about Solo and 3DR here as you do I wish as long as Im not breaking forum rules. If you find these threads tiring, you don't have to read them. I juse thought some content is better than no content...it's been kinda slow here lately other than deal threads.

 

[Nick F]

As you mention, this guy might be a "negative" one, but unfortunately he is not saying anything false...
As already explained in other threads I have had more or less the same experience with 3DR...
I understand that other customer services might be much worse than 3DR's, but this does not justify the fact of selling a really unreliable item which if it goes mad, you must wait several months before seeing it fixed/replaced. (...and in my case the refurbished one they sent was not working either because of an IMU drift issue...).
Pls do not get me wrong... despite all this, I still love this "thing": I bought a 2nd Solo too and I keep on spending money on them (better GPS boards, spare pixhawk2, parachutes...).
Nevertheless I do not find all this normal at all, especially when you purchase something new (and dear)!
We should not be supposed to make what the manufacturer should have already done at the beginning, it is like buying a car and having to change brakes because it does not stop when you want to.
Don't you recon it is a little crazy we "need" to buy 2, 3 sometimes 4 Solos in order to feel "safer" with spares and possible faults?
Before having a motor failure I used my Solo not more than 10 times and I was the happiest man on earth: super satisfied and very confident too! Now, I admit, I do not trust my Solos anymore...
We do not have to forget that a 2kgs black brick falling from the sky can kill...
I wonder if there is any Solo's owner which has been flying it for LONG without issues...

 

[Solo Keith]

As you mention, this guy might be a "negative" one, but unfortunately he is not saying anything false...
As already explained in other threads I have had more or less the same experience with 3DR...
I understand that other customer services might be much worse than 3DR's, but this does not justify the fact of selling a really unreliable item which if it goes mad, you must wait several months before seeing it fixed/replaced. (...and in my case the refurbished one they sent was not working either because of an IMU drift issue...).
Pls do not get me wrong... despite all this, I still love this "thing": I bought a 2nd Solo too and I keep on spending money on them (better GPS boards, spare pixhawk2, parachutes...).
Nevertheless I do not find all this normal at all, especially when you purchase something new (and dear)!
We should not be supposed to make what the manufacturer should have already done at the beginning, it is like buying a car and having to change brakes because it does not stop when you want to.
Don't you recon it is a little crazy we "need" to buy 2, 3 sometimes 4 Solos in order to feel "safer" with spares and possible faults?
Before having a motor failure I used my Solo not more than 10 times and I was the happiest man on earth: super satisfied and very confident too! Now, I admit, I do not trust my Solos anymore...
We do not have to forget that a 2kgs black brick falling from the sky can kill...
I wonder if there is any Solo's owner which has been flying it for LONG without issues...

I didn't buy my 2nd Solo to feel "safer"

 

[Freebird32]

Been flying my 1st solo for over a year 50-60 flights, no failures yet. I do a good preflight check, listen to the motors look for indications of potential issues. Periodically check temps. I don't fly over people, never did that with R/C planes either. You learn to mitigate risks. I've got multiple Solos too. They have all flown fine. I had a bad gimbal (periodic twitch) out of the box on one of them, 3DR sent me a new gimbal. I've gotten responses to every query I've ever sent to 3DR, no issues there. It is a very solid camera platform. I have multiples because Solo is well engineered and I couldn't pass up a bargain. They are electronics I don't expect they will last forever BUT I really like flying them. They will be surpassed in capability soon enough, enjoy it while you've got one that flies. I may end up using one for spares, but that's OK too. They are not making them any more. 3DR is trying to move into a market they can be successful in. The drone mfg business is cut-throat, it is tough to compete. To folks that haven't been in the R/C hobby they might be a fad, a toy, a passing hot topic. To others they are amazing machines one could only dream of a few short years ago. I got a foam/plastic U2 spy plane /catapult launch free-flight glider in the 60's because I thought it would be the coolest thing to be able to take photos from the air...Wow it wasn't as easy as they made it out to be. Now I'm taking 4K video _and_ I'm controlling it. It is worth the risk of crashing. I could keep them in a box for 10 years. I could wait until the next great wiz bang drone comes out and I've read all the 100% 5 star reviews (will never happen, some percentage of all of them have issues), but in the meantime, I think I'll use the ones I have like they were intended. Next best thing to flying (I am also a full scale pilot).

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return." - Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Nick F]

I am happy to understand that probably I am ONLY among the unlucky ones having had troubles with my Solos...
Let's hope the new/refurbished ones coming with Fedex will be flyable...

 

[nikono]

I think the honest video should come without the banner ad. Some people might be making money by talking negatively .

 

[Freebird32]

@Nick F - I hope your replacement works like it should. I've often thought refurbs got more scrutiny/tests & checkout than production line stuff, but just my opinion. I'm still running 2.4.1-6 software. I usually wait to upgrade in case there are bugs. I've got 3.0 on the Gopro too for that reason. I like the fact that it powers up and down with the Solo. I've also got a mRo M8N GPS in my oldest bird. Locks up fast. I got 19 sats @ 0.7 day before yesterday. Using an FPVLR antenna on controller too. Good Luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Soul Patch Films]

I have had my solo for about 18 months, I have had 2 crashes, 1 minor, 1 that resulted in damaged motors, both pilot error. I replaced all motors with T motors, and upgraded the GPS with M8. Other than that I have had no issues. I fly about twice a week, have made enough money to pay for my solo and accessories many times over. I also sold all of my DJI stuff.

 

[yt lee]

If you are using solo or any drone for business , you better have good supply of backup drone and parts. Depending on the job requirements, I fly whatever best and cost effective for the job. Solo has certain features that other still lacking. for example, for face recognition which use opencv as engine, I can put the opencv in the FC and transmitted the Harris features to radio for recognition. Hence reduce the bandwidth of imaged needed to transfer from camera to mobile device. Also, by splitting up the tasks, the mobile device is not overloaded.