Phantom 4

I think anyone whose been on these boards for awhile knows where I stand with respect to 3DR vs DJI.

But I have some fundamental concerns about the Solo and where it is headed. I expected optical flow from 3DR by Christmas. I expected a lot more accessories from 3rd parties by Christmas. I did not expect, but I hoped for third party gimbals that would fit on Solo and carry better cameras.

Instead, all we've really seen from 3rd parties is some lights and prop guards. There just isn't much of an ecosystem around the Solo. I thought the open source nature of the software and hardware would mean faster innovation. Meantime, companies like Uneec and DJI have standardized things like optical flow and moved on to introduce obstacle avoidance, and in DJI's case, CV based object tracking. If they bothered to add something like cablecam it would render the Solo completely obsolete.

It makes me question whether 3DRs approach is worthwhile, and whether they can survive while others innovate more quickly.
 
I think anyone whose been on these boards for awhile knows where I stand with respect to 3DR vs DJI.

But I have some fundamental concerns about the Solo and where it is headed. I expected optical flow from 3DR by Christmas. I expected a lot more accessories from 3rd parties by Christmas. I did not expect, but I hoped for third party gimbals that would fit on Solo and carry better cameras.

Instead, all we've really seen from 3rd parties is some lights and prop guards. There just isn't much of an ecosystem around the Solo. I thought the open source nature of the software and hardware would mean faster innovation. Meantime, companies like Uneec and DJI have standardized things like optical flow and moved on to introduce obstacle avoidance, and in DJI's case, CV based object tracking. If they bothered to add something like cablecam it would render the Solo completely obsolete.

It makes me question whether 3DRs approach is worthwhile, and whether they can survive while others innovate more quickly.
I'd have to agree Erik that innovation and 3rd party support has been slow coming to the Solo. I think that NAB will be 'make or break' for Solo in some respects, but they say they are coming with several introductions and 'guns blazin' with new products.

But I have also been following the major Phantom 4 thread and it appears that in the early tests there have already been issues with object tracking (couldn't track a man in a bright jacket alone in a field) and object avoidance (apparently, the bigger the object, like a mountain, the better).
 
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I know my next copter will have a pixhawk2
and since we don't know what the next copter will be that runs a pixhawk2 that is exciting to me.
My solo will hold me until that happens
If you have a Pixhawk based quadcopter now the chances are that your next quadcopter will be what you have now with new software or a new attachment plugged in. This is like the early days of the PC, when we added new cards or new programs, and when faster processors came about the early ones were plugin upgrades. PC upgrading changed from yearly to every few years. For my Macs I am on a 4 year upgrade cycle. That is one of the reasons I like being on a Solo. That, and the fact I am buying American.
 
I looked at the Phantom 4 and sure it has some nice new features. But in my business I won't use any of them. Collision avoidance? Nice but I avoid things now. I don't fly into a forest. Indoor flying? Nice, but I don't fly indoors. Here is my wish list: faster GPS acquisition, more reliable GoPro performance, more dedicated buttons on the controller so that I don't have to look at the iPad, a pair of glasses that has the FPV on a heads, so that I can keep the Solo in line of sight while glancing at the FPV.
 
If you are interested in avoidance, then take a look at Ping, an ADS-B transponder being developed by uAvionix to bring a ‘sense and avoid’ functionality to ArduPilot based drones. That would include the Solo. uAvionix Announces Collaboration with the Dronecode Foundation - sUAS News It is perhaps good to remember that Solo is an outgrowth of Dronecode, and the business model is more like a fork on open source than traditional competition between proprietary firms.
 
I looked at the Phantom 4 and sure it has some nice new features. But in my business I won't use any of them. Collision avoidance? Nice but I avoid things now. I don't fly into a forest. Indoor flying? Nice, but I don't fly indoors. Here is my wish list: faster GPS acquisition, more reliable GoPro performance, more dedicated buttons on the controller so that I don't have to look at the iPad, a pair of glasses that has the FPV on a heads, so that I can keep the Solo in line of sight while glancing at the FPV.
Well, you can get the glasses from Epson. Bt-200 or bt-300.
 
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Nice Find Robert. It looks like the BT-200 is in stock and ready to ship though.
I'll step in here and take the credit for myself having pointed Robert to them. (please read that line with the humor intended)

Yes, the BT-200s are available now. They've been out for a couple years.

The big problem with the Bt-200s and probably the BT-300 is that aren't just goggles. They include an Android device - which is not supported by 3DR for the Solo app. You *may* be able to side load the Solo app, but there are no guarantees it will work. A year ago it was possible to load DroidPlanner onto the BT-200s, but since then 3DR has changed DroidPlanner to Tower and made numerous changes and upgrades. So who knows if it will still work.

The obvious work around is to simply use the Bt-200s android device to pass through video from the HDMI out on the controller. That should be fairly trivial to get working.
 
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Have to agree since solo 3dr has been slow to add and innovate, but let's not forget solo itself was one hell of an innovation that the rest are just now catching up to. Hopefully now that 3drs caught up with production and streamlined service I guess, now they'll have time to do some important additions.

They can simply skip obstacle avoidance and cv tracking for me, fine for new guys though I guess, but I would like to see some evidence that their planning to try to keep up with and hopefully pull in front of the pack innovation wise.

That said most of what I'd like now is simple like bigger battery packs and op flow for now, really I just want to see they have some focus on adding to the platform and their minds are at least set on some of what we're hoping for. As fast as competitors and new guys are moving its a tall order, but if they want to take some dji customers they've gotta move fast.

By the comments most are past solo being innovative now and frustrated with the timeline of made for solo and I can see why. Solos lights and prop gaurds aren't going to keep anyone from buying a p4. Hope Nab goes well, I'll still love my solo either way, but it is make or brake like Jubalr said if they want to start competing with dji share wise eventually.
 
I would definitely be interested in these if they were on the market. Seems like it is just in a developer mode. Epson Moverio BT-300 and BT-200 Smart Glasses - Epson America, Inc.
Something like these geared toward solo would be a great innovation, but probably not very likely. These sound great, but for the cost I'd have a tough time dealing with the issues folks mention in the reviews. Thanks for the link though, I hate even wearing my fat sharks any more and if they did some more work on these they sound perfect.
 
All DJI did was rip off these guys (almost exactly lol), who have had this kit for DJI (and 3DR Iris) for a long time. You just take the shell apart and add this little device which contains the sensors and then reassemble the shell. It just adds a bit to the middle section of the quad. They're supposedly working on a version for Solo
eBumper4

Here's a better video (at the end of this article): eBumper4 sonar system can be retrofitted to popular drones to avoid collisions
 
hello

how to tap the button inside this wearable glasses?
The BT-200 ships with a little touchpad that you hold in your hand. On screen you get a cursor to select icons, buttons, etc.

But you wouldn't use the BT-200s that way, even if you can get Tower or Solo app running on it. You would simply hook up the HDMI feed from the controller and port that straight through to the goggles. Since the goggles are see through, you'll still be able to see and interact with the Solo app (or Tower) running on your tablet.
 

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