Remote in refurbished Solo purchase from 3dr: no WiFi

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

I guess they missed the testing procedure before shipping it out or it was damaged during shipping. Hopefully they can replace it with a working one.

Edit: I just remembered that the Controller was in fact broadcasting just fine the first time I powered it on after getting the refurbished unit. I connected to it in my house and it was good. Second time though, for the (refurbished) maiden voyage, SSID is gone and it won't connect to Solo despite several reboots of each etc. Dang. I guess I'll be waiting a bit for a response to my submitted ticket and the replacement.

DMC5076 · May 20, 2017

SpartaHawk,

I am sort of having a similar issue today as well.

I have two Solos that for some reason neither are broadcasting the SSID's today so I cannot connect to either of them.

I purchased Solo #1 a couple months ago but had my first opportunity to fly it this past week. Today, I hooked up Solo #1 and ran preflight tests with controller, GoPro and Solo. I was able to connect to the SSID with my iPad Mini, control the GoPro with my Solo App and test recorded some video to ensure all worked. I then took it outside and was ready to launch but the iPad kept losing the Wi-Fi signal to the Solo. I had to reconnect twice. I thought it might be Wi-Fi interference but noticed my iPad was almost out of battery so decided to abort until battery was recharged.

After lunch I set everything back up on Solo #1 and during preflight noticed I could not see the SSID broadcasting on my iPad Mini, iPad Air 2, iPhone or laptop Wi-Fi. So being a techie, I rebooted everything and still no Wi-Fi SSID to connect. I thought well maybe the Wi-Fi card went bad which was why I was loosing connections earlier. So, I pulled out my Solo #2 that was a refurbished unit I purchased for spare parts directly from 3DR less than a month ago. I made sure to test it as soon as it arrived and connected the control to the Solo, installed required updates and everything was working.

Today, I pulled that out, fired it up and behold... no Wi-Fi broadcasting from it either... That is WAY to strange... I cannot imagine both of them would die today! I have not attempted the RESET process on both units but will do that as a last resort.

I am hoping it is something simple I am missing from lack of sleep or heat exhaustion.. (or anything else I can think of)

Anyone else having Solo Wi-Fi issues today??

(Note: I have been an IT network consultant and electronics tech with what I consider very strong troubleshooting and isolation skills for over 25 yrs so this is really puzzling... )

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

DMC5076 said:
SpartaHawk,

I am sort of having a similar issue today as well.

I have two Solos that for some reason neither are broadcasting the SSID's today so I cannot connect to either of them.

I purchased Solo #1 a couple months ago but had my first opportunity to fly it this past week. Today, I hooked up Solo #1 and ran preflight tests with controller, GoPro and Solo. I was able to connect to the SSID with my iPad Mini, control the GoPro with my Solo App and test recorded some video to ensure all worked. I then took it outside and was ready to launch but the iPad kept losing the Wi-Fi signal to the Solo. I had to reconnect twice. I thought it might be Wi-Fi interference but noticed my iPad was almost out of battery so decided to abort until battery was recharged.

After lunch I set everything back up on Solo #1 and during preflight noticed I could not see the SSID broadcasting on my iPad Mini, iPad Air 2, iPhone or laptop Wi-Fi. So being a techie, I rebooted everything and still no Wi-Fi SSID to connect. I thought well maybe the Wi-Fi card went bad which was why I was loosing connections earlier. So, I pulled out my Solo #2 that was a refurbished unit I purchased for spare parts directly from 3DR less than a month ago. I made sure to test it as soon as it arrived and connected the control to the Solo, installed required updates and everything was working.

Today, I pulled that out, fired it up and behold... no Wi-Fi broadcasting from it either... That is WAY to strange... I cannot imagine both of them would die today! I have not attempted the RESET process on both units but will do that as a last resort.

I am hoping it is something simple I am missing from lack of sleep or heat exhaustion.. (or anything else I can think of)

Anyone else having Solo Wi-Fi issues today??

(Note: I have been an IT network consultant and electronics tech with what I consider very strong troubleshooting and isolation skills for over 25 yrs so this is really puzzling... )

Wow, what the heck.

I sure hope they replace them! This is bizarre. Was yours refurbished by 3DR as well?

DMC5076 · May 20, 2017

Solo #2 was but Solo #1 was not and was purchased thru another vendor.

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

DMC5076 said:
SpartaHawk,

I am sort of having a similar issue today as well.

I have two Solos that for some reason neither are broadcasting the SSID's today so I cannot connect to either of them.

I purchased Solo #1 a couple months ago but had my first opportunity to fly it this past week. Today, I hooked up Solo #1 and ran preflight tests with controller, GoPro and Solo. I was able to connect to the SSID with my iPad Mini, control the GoPro with my Solo App and test recorded some video to ensure all worked. I then took it outside and was ready to launch but the iPad kept losing the Wi-Fi signal to the Solo. I had to reconnect twice. I thought it might be Wi-Fi interference but noticed my iPad was almost out of battery so decided to abort until battery was recharged.

After lunch I set everything back up on Solo #1 and during preflight noticed I could not see the SSID broadcasting on my iPad Mini, iPad Air 2, iPhone or laptop Wi-Fi. So being a techie, I rebooted everything and still no Wi-Fi SSID to connect. I thought well maybe the Wi-Fi card went bad which was why I was loosing connections earlier. So, I pulled out my Solo #2 that was a refurbished unit I purchased for spare parts directly from 3DR less than a month ago. I made sure to test it as soon as it arrived and connected the control to the Solo, installed required updates and everything was working.

Today, I pulled that out, fired it up and behold... no Wi-Fi broadcasting from it either... That is WAY to strange... I cannot imagine both of them would die today! I have not attempted the RESET process on both units but will do that as a last resort.

I am hoping it is something simple I am missing from lack of sleep or heat exhaustion.. (or anything else I can think of)

Anyone else having Solo Wi-Fi issues today??

(Note: I have been an IT network consultant and electronics tech with what I consider very strong troubleshooting and isolation skills for over 25 yrs so this is really puzzling... )

Also, similar to you, the controller signal worked fine the first time I pulled it out and turned it on in my home. SSID was visible from devices and it connected fine to Solo. But yeah yesterday I take it out for a (refurbished) maiden flight and the SSID is not showing up on my mobile device nor is it connecting to solo.

DMC5076 · May 20, 2017

Do you know anyone else with a Solo you can ask to see if they are having any problems? I cannot imagine it would be a Solo wide issue unless it was related to some DATE calculation in the operating system like the old Y2K bug issues.

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

DMC5076 said:
Do you know anyone else with a Solo you can ask to see if they are having any problems? I cannot imagine it would be a Solo wide issue unless it was related to some DATE calculation in the operating system like the old Y2K bug issues.

You mean to use their controller with my Solo? Yeah if this were a common problem we'd be hearing about it on this forum a lot. Maybe we're just unlucky or there is a bizarre shelf life to the soldering or something.

XevetS · May 20, 2017

Peer into your controller and make sure it has booted properly real simple.....

DMC5076 · May 20, 2017

Well, I just went through the boot up sequence (Turn on Solo, Turn on Controller, Search for Wifi with tablet) one more time and behold it is there.. I did this process at least 5 times so not sure exactly what happened and they all have fully charged batteries..

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

DMC5076 said:
Well, I just went through the boot up sequence (Turn on Solo, Turn on Controller, Search for Wifi with tablet) one more time and behold it is there.. I did this process at least 5 times so not sure exactly what happened and they all have fully charged batteries..

I would be pretty uncomfortable flying with a controller that is so flaky. Seems like it must be soldering that can have a good enough connection depending on physical state. Like temperature or giving it a bump. Scary to fly with that.

XevetS · May 20, 2017

look in to the controller into the vents underneath or through the side you can see led status one red one green and a blinking orange led this indicates a proper boot sequence, if not report what you see

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

XevetS said:
look in to the controller into the vents underneath or through the side you can see led status one red one green and a blinking orange led this indicates a proper boot sequence, if not report what you see

Thanks for expounding.

I also noticed that even after powering off the controller, there is a high pitched hiss I can hear if I put my ear near the back of it. Even a minute after it's been off.

XevetS · May 20, 2017

spartaHawk said:
Thanks for expounding.

I also noticed that even after powering off the controller, there is a high pitched hiss I can hear if I put my ear near the back of it. Even a minute after it's been off.

What is the status of the led's?

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

XevetS said:
look in to the controller into the vents underneath or through the side you can see led status one red one green and a blinking orange led this indicates a proper boot sequence, if not report what you see

I went to turn it on just now. It was at 50% charge last night and it discharged itself to zero overnight. I'll get it a bit of a charge and get back to you. Regardless there is apparently a problem. That high pitched sound must have been the sound of an active electrical current or other issue (despite being powered off).

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

XevetS said:
What is the status of the led's?

A red, a green and a blinking orange. No SSID being broadcast though.

XevetS · May 20, 2017

try to repair controller with solo

spartaHawk · May 20, 2017

XevetS said:
try to repair controller with solo

Huh. Now it happens to be working and connected to solo. Yesterday out in the field it wouldn't pair with Solo despite many reboots of Solo and the controller. Do you think there could be some flaky hardware in the controller that is beginning to fail? Seems like if yesterday it wasn't working and today it is, there is a problem.

Also, discharging itself overnight is a little concerning.

Maybe the battery was lower yesterday than I thought, and the low battery was the only issue. But it did look about 50% when I tapped the power button when it was off (to check the battery status).

Maybe the battery doesn't hold a charge and only works like this when it is plugged in. I might have to spring for a new battery, but it would be nice if 3DR would just send one instead of having me send the controller in.