Solo flyaway and impossible to turn off

image360 · Feb 17, 2017

A few days ago I was flying my Solo, purchased in Dec/2016 from BB (Deal!) with a standard mount, GoPro Silver, and a Kodak PxelPro 360 setup. Alll had wifi shut off. I did a short 5 minute or so flight and all was working well. I landed and turned the GoPro on as I had forgotten to turn it on so I could see the flight. I pressed the button to start the flight, take off and it immediately took off sideways instead of going up to 15 feet or so.

I saw that it was out of control so I was able to use the controller to crash into the ground to stop the fly off. But it would not turn off or stop the blades. I even tried turning the battery off but it would not stop or turn off. It only ended when the battery was depleted.

While it continued to run I tried turning the battery off, turned the controller off and on, and tried to reconnect to it;'s Wifi which it would not do.

Any ideas?

I'm going to test this again in a very large open field without the Kodak PixelPro. And check again that the GoPro Silver's Wifi is off, It was off, whenI've shot with this setup 4 times before without any issue.

Perhaps I pressed the A or B button by mistake? Would this cause a crazy fly off just after flight?

But why it would not turn off iis of real concern to me, is there a fail safe turn off?

Thanks,

Robert

andrew.baker.142 · Feb 17, 2017

I'm sorry you had this mishap. Not sure why, but sounds like it might be related to one of your cameras.
Please, please read the operators manual cover to cover. If you had you would know how to emergency stop the motors. Links all over this forum to the operators manual.
Also learn how to program the A or B button to manual flight and learn how to fly in that mode.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out for you.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

SteveReno · Feb 17, 2017

image360 said:
A few days ago I was flying my Solo, purchased in Dec/2016 from BB (Deal!) with a standard mount, GoPro Silver, and a Kodak PxelPro 360 setup. Alll had wifi shut off. I did a short 5 minute or so flight and all was working well. I landed and turned the GoPro on as I had forgotten to turn it on so I could see the flight. I pressed the button to start the flight, take off and it immediately took off sideways instead of going up to 15 feet or so.

I saw that it was out of control so I was able to use the controller to crash into the ground to stop the fly off. But it would not turn off or stop the blades. I even tried turning the battery off but it would not stop or turn off. It only ended when the battery was depleted.

While it continued to run I tried turning the battery off, turned the controller off and on, and tried to reconnect to it;'s Wifi which it would not do.

Any ideas?

I'm going to test this again in a very large open field without the Kodak PixelPro. And check again that the GoPro Silver's Wifi is off, It was off, whenI've shot with this setup 4 times before without any issue.

Perhaps I pressed the A or B button by mistake? Would this cause a crazy fly off just after flight?

But why it would not turn off iis of real concern to me, is there a fail safe turn off?

Thanks,

Robert

Hi Robert,

Before i would even try to start it up it again, I would make a ticket to Tech. Support & wait patiently till 3DR tech. Support gets back to you with a complete diagnostic of your Solo.
It's free, this is what i would do.

Hope this helps

User Name · Feb 18, 2017

Definitely submit a ticket to 3DR. It seems odd that the problem would immediately happen after you turned the camera on, but if you've flown with that setup before and you know WiFi was off on both cameras, it could be a hardware failure on the Solo.

As for not turning off, you say you weren't able to reconnect to it after the crash. It's possible the antenna or wifi card was dislodged in the crash. Not sure the power button on the battery is ever supposed to forcibly power off a powered-up Solo, it seems like it could be dangerous if any kind of glitch activated it in flight. Since you were trying the button, I assume all the props were sheered off? Not sure I'd want to be reaching in between spinning props to hit the button. But if they were broken, you could have just removed the battery as opposed to waiting for it to run down.

image360 · Feb 18, 2017

Thanks all for your good suggestions, will contact 3DR tech.

Only one prop was visibly broken, but all 4 are in the trash. I'll have to check the Go Pro as I have flown with this setup 4 times before and unless the GoPro resets the wifi back on it should have been off.

image360 · Feb 20, 2017

I can not find how to register or set up a new support account with 3DR. I have emailed them with this question, but have not gotten any response yet.

Does anyone have a link to register with 3DR for support? Submit a ticket? Etc.

Robert

Russ Knight · Feb 20, 2017

If you lose wifi, will pressing the a & b buttons, or any other control(s), do anything?

BigTulsa · Feb 20, 2017

image360 said:
I can not find how to register or set up a new support account with 3DR. I have emailed them with this question, but have not gotten any response yet.

Does anyone have a link to register with 3DR for support? Submit a ticket? Etc.

Robert

I don't think 3DR is taking new registrations for Solo consumer drones now.

Jubalr · Feb 20, 2017

Russ Knight said:
If you lose wifi, will pressing the a & b buttons, or any other control(s), do anything?

Might frustrate you is all. Loss of wifi, how would Solo know what you are pressing?

Russ Knight · Feb 20, 2017

My point exactly.

image360 · Feb 22, 2017

I just checked the GoPro and the Wifi setting is Off. I was also able to send a ticket to 3DR via the Solo App. Hopefully in a few days I will get some insight into what happen. It's possible I pressed the A or B button by mistake, but I think it might be the altimeter or GPS - not sure if Solo has a altimeter or just uses GPS - as the height data I think I was seeing after the crash seems to say the Solo was about 50 feet up.

I've seen some threads about better GPS systems, better props. Which if any are worth the expense and why? And are there any other upgrades that are worth the $?

Cheers,

Robert

User Name · Feb 22, 2017

image360 said:
I just checked the GoPro and the Wifi setting is Off. I was also able to send a ticket to 3DR via the Solo App. Hopefully in a few days I will get some insight into what happen. It's possible I pressed the A or B button by mistake, but I think it might be the altimeter or GPS - not sure if Solo has a altimeter or just uses GPS - as the height data I think I was seeing after the crash seems to say the Solo was about 50 feet up.

I've seen some threads about better GPS systems, better props. Which if any are worth the expense and why? And are there any other upgrades that are worth the $?

While you can get elevation information from GPS, multirotors rarely if ever use that. They rely on barometers to determine altitude by atmospheric pressure. Solo has at least 1, and might have 2 if memory serves. I think Solo has redundancy on most sensors.

On upgrades, there was a pretty thorough test of motors and props, and it was found that the stock Solo prop was actually a pretty good performer. Motor upgrades seem to offer modest flight time increases but mainly a lot more smoothness and less jitters getting into the video footage.

But best bang for the buck upgrades are the mRobotics GPS, at around $80, and Solex, at $30, to replace the stock Solo app. The new GPS gives a vastly more reliable position fix, and Solex duplicates everything the stock app did, and adds significantly more capabilities. Definitely the top upgrades.

Russ Knight · Feb 24, 2017

Solex is not compatible with the Apple OS, correct?

Pedals2Paddles · Feb 24, 2017

That's correct. Android only. The only thing Solex does not do is pull firmware updates from 3DR. We'll never be getting any new ones though. But you will still need it for a new Solo or if you have to factory reset to pull the latest firmware.

Russ Knight · Feb 24, 2017

Do you use Solex and if so, what tablet are you using?

Pedals2Paddles · Feb 24, 2017

I just use my phone. It's a Nexus 6P

BigTulsa · Feb 24, 2017

Russ Knight said:
Do you use Solex and if so, what tablet are you using?

The consensus among many users is Nvdia Shield K1 - I have Solex and this tablet and it works great with it.

Pedals2Paddles · Feb 24, 2017

Just note that the K1 does not have a cellular 3G/4G connection. It is WiFi only. I would never want a tablet for UAS operation that couldn't connect to a 4G network.

BigTulsa · Feb 24, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
Just note that the K1 does not have a cellular 3G/4G connection. It is WiFi only. I would never want a tablet for UAS operation that couldn't connect to a 4G network.

That's what bluetooth tethering is for. And Solex has the ability to download separate locations via Google Maps so it's not a necessity for me.