Solo Disappearance - Now RECOVERED

Jason C · Jul 29, 2015

Oh man, I feel sick right now. Here in central Iowa we have had crazy rain the past few days, so today I thought I'd take Solo out to look at the flooded Middle River near where I live. Flight went great for the first 10 minutes or so, until while doing a shot at around 40- 50 feet the Solo switched to Fly:Manual and then suddenly to Controller Signal Lost. Last image transmitted was tree branches. No sign of the Solo, no signal regained, nothing. Solo (which I've only had a week today) and new GoPro gone, presumably into the flood waters.

I sent the logs to 3DR, but I'm not holding my breath.

Earldgrayjr · Jul 29, 2015

Yikes... Not that it helps, but "line of site" is your friend. Also lower and far away means more chance of disconnect. Around (or under) trees means more chance of GPS loss... All three together... Well you saw that...

If you post your log files you can get the last known GPS location on a Google map. That along with info gleaned from video (or the memory of it) might get you close to where it is... It will also tell you why it went into Manual.

rrmccabe · Jul 29, 2015

Jason do you know if you had trees between you and the Solo when this happened. Was it possible it was heading for home?

Jason C · Jul 29, 2015

There were but it lost signal on the opposite side of the river from where the trees between it and home were.

I wonder if it had a GPS issue (which is why it switched to Fly:Manual) and moved into a tree.

Jason C · Jul 29, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
Yikes... Not that it helps, but "line of site" is your friend. Also lower and far away means more chance of disconnect. Around (or under) trees means more chance of GPS loss... All three together... Well you saw that...

If you post your log files you can get the last known GPS location on a Google map. That along with info gleaned from video (or the memory of it) might get you close to where it is... It will also tell you why it went into Manual.

I was actually right near line of site, but in this case I just missed it. Height wise it looked to be above the trees that were near it, until it wasn't I guess.

It's not like I was in a valley though. This is a small river surrounded by farmland.

Jason C · Jul 29, 2015

Video from the final flight. Note this was NOT right before the drone was lost.

Earldgrayjr · Jul 29, 2015

Jason C said:
There were but it lost signal on the opposite side of the river from where the trees between it and home were.

I wonder if it had a GPS issue (which is why it switched to Fly:Manual) and moved into a tree.

If you were around trees (or especially in them) GPS loss is somewhat normal. Keep in mind, these things need more/better GPS data than your phone does. At the point GPS is gone, the unit really doesn't have much choice but to put you in manual, which will hold altitude, but drift side to side, mostly based on wind... and it doesn't take mush wind to move something sliding on a cushion of air...

Hence the line of site. You really need to see what is going on (one way or another) to fly in that mode. If you have a bad Wifi connection also, you aren't going to be able to fly FPV (which is harder anyway) and so line of site is what is left. At that point you need to know the sticks, know thw orientation, etc. to get it in a position to land.

A good peice of advice (not universal) is... when in doubt... Go UP.... Not only are you more likely to have a radio and GPS signal..... It is hitting something (trees, ground, or otherwise) that actually causes problems, and going UP gives you more time.... You "could" be under branches etc. but if it is and you can see it, then you really are in trouble.

If you post the logs, myself or others (better than I) can figure out what likely happened... and that might keep it from happening again...

rrmccabe · Jul 29, 2015

Well for your sake I hope the logs show a glitch. But one thing that would have been good is a higher RTH height. Wouldn't help a GPS glitch. Just thinking in connectivity terms.

SteveReno · Jul 29, 2015

Lost connection twice "My fault" but each time, Solo was on it's way back "RTH"
How did you keep the center of bridge in frame while moving parallel to bridge? Thought one would need a gimbal to do it that smooth?

Raybro · Jul 29, 2015

Jason C said:
Oh man, I feel sick right now. Here in central Iowa we have had crazy rain the past few days, so today I thought I'd take Solo out to look at the flooded Middle River near where I live. Flight went great for the first 10 minutes or so, until while doing a shot at around 40- 50 feet the Solo switched to Fly:Manual and then suddenly to Controller Signal Lost. Last image transmitted was tree branches. No sign of the Solo, no signal regained, nothing. Solo (which I've only had a week today) and new GoPro gone, presumably into the flood waters.

I sent the logs to 3DR, but I'm not holding my breath.

Jason,
Sorry to here about your Solo. Hopefully you'll come out on top after all. Sounds like it had a glitch being that close.
Ray

Raybro · Jul 29, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Well for your sake I hope the logs show a glitch. But one thing that would have been good is a higher RTH height. Wouldn't help a GPS glitch. Just thinking in connectivity terms.

The default RTL is a glitch in itself.....makes no sense unless your in the desert.

rrmccabe · Jul 29, 2015

One thing that surprises me is 3DR could have fixed the 49' deal in about 3 clicks and rolled it out in that last GPS firmware.

Jubalr · Jul 29, 2015

rrmccabe said:
One thing that surprises me is 3DR could have fixed the 49' deal in about 3 clicks and rolled it out in that last GPS firmware.

Agreed! I don't understand the thinking of just 49'. Makes no sense.

Jason C · Jul 29, 2015

@Earldgrayjr: I get what you are saying, but it's not like I was in a forest. I was in an area with a handful of trees surrounded by cornfields. If you look at my video from earlier, the position I was at when it happened was just after going over the bridge towards the top of the screen. JUST after, not even further into the river. Losing GPS at that point seems frankly bizarre. And the tree happened after (or along with) the GPS.

@rrmccabe: I hope so too, for the sake of a replacement. It really sucks losing the Solo this way one week into owning it. I have a difficult time seeing how the loss was my fault - sure, if I was flying at 300 feet it wouldn't have happened, but I expect it's "normal" to assume you can fly at 40-50 feet, some distance from a handful of trees, and NOT have it suddenly go into them. PLUS I had it set to the "Very Slow" speed for the sake of the video quality without the gimbal so it's not like I blasted across the bridge and into a bunch of trees then.

@SteveReno: Cable Cam, parallel to the bridge, set the angles at the start and end, and had it flying on "Very Slow". I loved how it looked. That's actually insult to injury with the loss - I had some GREAT footage being captured to the GoPro, which is now lost.

@Raybro, @Jubalr, etc: I had the RTH over-rode to 150 feet after seeing issues about it being set to 49 feet. No RTH happened, though, maybe because it had lost GPS and switched to Fly:Manual?

BTW, I received word back from 3DR they need a couple of days to review my logs.

rrmccabe · Jul 29, 2015

Good luck. Take a walk after water goes down. Might be caught in something. Solo may be toast but SD card probably ok!

DattaGroover · Jul 30, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Good luck. Take a walk after water goes down. Might be caught in something. Solo may be toast but SD card probably ok!

How long does an SD card stay good under water? Say a Sandisk Extreme Pro?

rrmccabe · Jul 30, 2015

You know I cant answer that. I would say depends on brand and condition of the water. Salt water is not good of course. But there are SD cards commonly recovered from underwater with data.