Not sure what happened.. Slight crash

Operator74656 · Jul 9, 2015

This is totally preventable - and I have been suggesting it from day one. People need to be in fly: manual mode when flying in any situation where gps degrade is a possibility. I am not surprised that solo would make a correction as hdop decreased under the tree. Either put it into manual mode before going under the tree or switch it the second you see an uncommanded correction. Just my 2 cents

Jubalr · Jul 9, 2015

Adimuzio513 said:
Uh oh same type thing but nearly right above my home point and I've updated and had very little trouble with mine since I bought it mid June. At least thirty flights fine then today started moving erratically so tried pause as I held it away from the trees it wanted to trim and nothing then finally managed to take it down fast but was only from a few feet. After a few trying to get it stabil to land it did flash gps lost but seemed to be jumping from gps to manual and back so I dropped it down. Wasn't very fast but did say crash detected landed on all 4s then tilted back the oposite way it landed. Took a few seconds to power down but after a little work and recalibration seems ok again. Scary that after update and great record so far it lost gps less than 15 feet above home finally landed and flipped a couple feet from where I took off. I had the left veer the first days twice but perfect sense. No trees above clear view of sky I'm waiting to see what 3dr says even though I didn't really break anything. Gota go to sleep but I'll figure out mp and post logs tomorrow after work.

Guys, please remember..Any kind of loss of GPS, or any unusual flying behavior while in FLY mode; Do Not Hit Pause; It's the same as what you are already in and having trouble with. You will need to go to manual. Save GPS modes for brief moments to use the tablet of smart shots and fly mostly in the other modes, it's more fun being the pilot anyway.

Raybro · Jul 9, 2015

RyanG said:
Hahaha.. I will.. tomorrow. I had to reformat the PC today and still going through all my Lightroom and Photoshop catalogs and files.. Upgrading, etc.. UGH.. I am going to fly with the new firmware too.

Thanks again
Ryan G

Glad no harm was done and you're still in the air. Have not seen issues like this since the update.
Happy Flying Ryan!,

Ian [P13] · Jul 9, 2015

HDOP is a measure that if used in flight that by the time it's over 2 you'd already be in trouble, it's fine as a take off pre-arm check but with the latest firmware Solo reacts faster now, in flight as well as using its own EKF code, the Solo uses sAcc (speed accuracy) direct from the uBlox GPS, this is used in effect as an early warning that the GPS is going FUBAR.

So you will see the Solo now go to Altitude Hold potentially before even the controller registers a HDOP above 2, but that's a good thing.

RikMiddle · Jul 9, 2015

Operator74656 said:
This is totally preventable - and I have been suggesting it from day one. People need to be in fly: manual mode when flying in any situation where gps degrade is a possibility. I am not surprised that solo would make a correction as hdop decreased under the tree. Either put it into manual mode before going under the tree or switch it the second you see an uncommanded correction. Just my 2 cents

I'm in the same boat and I have yet to burn one battery.
Mine flipped above a tree, clear,sky, turtle mode, 10 sats, 1.7.

But I'm as newbie as it gets to anything RC.

What you said makes a lot of sense, after reading the manual twice.
I'm still not sure the quickest way to FLY manual.
Hit fly twice? Do I have to turn on advanced controls?

Please clue in an old/new guy before I break another prop...

Jubalr · Jul 9, 2015

RikMiddle said:
I'm in the same boat and I have yet to burn one battery.
Mine flipped above a tree, clear,sky, turtle mode, 10 sats, 1.7.

But I'm as newbie as it gets to anything RC.

What you said makes a lot of sense, after reading the manual twice.
I'm still not sure the quickest way to FLY manual.
Hit fly twice? Do I have to turn on advanced controls?

Please clue in an old/new guy before I break another prop...

Turn on Advanced modes then go to your assign A & B buttons page. Assign either one to manual. It will still hold altitude and maintain Solo level but will drift with the wind.

RikMiddle · Jul 9, 2015

Jubalr said:
Turn on Advanced modes then go to your assign A & B buttons page. Assign either one to manual. It will still hold altitude and maintain Solo level but will drift with the wind.

Thanks, seems like with all the GPS buggery they would have it default to that out of the box?

Doesn't seem like full on GPS mode is saving any of us newcomers.
Might even be the opposite.

Once I hit fly manual to bail out can I go back to GPS mode easily?
Are the smart shots disabled until I land?

Promise I won't ask anymore stupid questions...

Until I crash again...

Raybro · Jul 9, 2015

It should go back to standard fly mode as it is still getting GPS data in manual mode, it's just not using the data.

Rich · Jul 9, 2015

The other thing to do, when in the playback screen of MP, press the graph button, then you can look at a lot of the data. You can sometimes see interesting things in the graphs.

rrmccabe · Jul 9, 2015

Operator74656 said:
This is totally preventable - and I have been suggesting it from day one. People need to be in fly: manual mode when flying in any situation where gps degrade is a possibility. I am not surprised that solo would make a correction as hdop decreased under the tree. Either put it into manual mode before going under the tree or switch it the second you see an uncommanded correction. Just my 2 cents

I agree with this partly but keep in mind the OP was running the original firmware and its not a matter of FLY GPS or manual as there is some issues when switching over. Something appeared to be going astray during the switch

But yes, everyone should fly in manual often.

I have Mission Planner installed. But its not really working well for me as its not totally compatible. Are you guys just looking at the log data and nothing else?

Normy norm · Jul 9, 2015

RyanG said:
So. I went out tonight (first time at night), and kept it real close to home.. Like 15ft close.

I had 8 sats, 2.0 hdop it's a little less than the normal 10, but so I take off. I am at the corner of a totally NON busy street at the end of a dead end. I am about 12ft in the air and nothing around me and it starts to move left and right with me NOT touching the controls. So I fly it a little straight and then as I am going under a smallish tree Solo totally starts to veer off to the left (thankfully I had it in slow mode about 1/4 the way up towards rabbit) and as it's doing this it still says I have GPS, the controller didn't beep or anything to let me know it's in Manual.

I panicked so and saw the Solo headed toward the tree trunk so I cut the engine (meanwhile I am trying to land it by dropping it slowly and it's helping a little) but I cut the engine at about 2.5' and thankfully it didn't hit anything except the ground.

Solo IS ok, nothing even scraped up that I can see. But that was a little scary. No warning, no controller beeping to tell me manual mode or lost GPS. Just wondering what happened.

I am going to send the logs to 3DR. I saved them to my dropbox, which is a cool option if you don't have wifi signal out in the field.

Wondering what people think might have happened?

Ryan G

How did you cut the engine?

RyanG · Jul 9, 2015

Sorry to hear about your flight. I know what you mean. I was lucky I was really low to the ground and I was already suspect of it so I was trying to get it to land.. It was a little jarring for me, with so little flight experience, but I am going to go out today and give it another shot.. I just won't be flying over water today.

Ryan G

Earldgrayjr · Jul 9, 2015

Got it. Better to know and understand what the issues are now than when it is 300 ft high

SteveMyers75 · Jul 9, 2015

I would also like to add that if 3DR had held true to their advertising and released a true "Solo Flight Simulator", a lot of these issues could have been avoided.

I know that flying in manual mode with a Flight Simulator is not the same as in "Real Life", but it would go a long way to help those that have never flown a copter before to gain some crash time without actually crashing...

Jubalr · Jul 9, 2015

SteveMyers75 said:
I would also like to add that if 3DR had held true to their advertising and released a true "Solo Flight Simulator", a lot of these issues could have been avoided.

I know that flying in manual mode with a Flight Simulator is not the same as in "Real Life", but it would go a long way to help those that have never flown a copter before to gain some crash time without actually crashing...

I don't think any manufacturer supplies a flight sim but would have been great if Solo's would have been ready. But they are available from 3rd parties. This is something the R/C industry has been encouraging and dealing with for 60 or more years. Whether it is a car, boat or airplane/MR a few hours on a sim would and has saved customers a great deal of money and frustration.