Solo Motors seemed to stop.

[Shaund]

Hii,

I notice on the forum that their appears to be issues with 2.4 and solo losing altitude. From what I can gather this is when take off is in FLY Msnusl and then when GPS acquired.

I have a different scenario, I am a newbie with less than 40 mins flying, I take off in FLY made and always wait for GPS lock. So any way I was flying SOLO and had a RTH instigated due to low battery. I'm aware this is correct.

At about fifteen foot high the battery was at 7% and the motors almost cut out but then picked back up and landed successfully. It was enough of a stumble to concern me and move further away until the land completed.

Is this normal, should I be concerned? Could it be possible that SOLS was thinking it was at ground level and then corrected itself?

I have not had chance to fly since as it always to be raining when I have chance to go out. I have started the motors without props, no real reason other than to see what would happen when trying to fly whilst stationary, I mention this because, are the logs stored on previous flights or is just the latest flight

ShaunD

 

[Chuck]

Hi Shaund, and welcome. I don't know if that is normal, but I never let my battery get that low in flight. A good rule is to always land with around 20% of battery left. The battery power drops super fast when it starts getting below 25%. I believe taking it as low as 7% could really be a potential problem. Also, discharging the battery to zero could cause permanent damage to the battery. Even though it cuts into an already short flying time, I try to land with 25% battery just to play it safe. I hope this helps, and safe, happy flying to you.

 

[RichWest]

I've read you should condition Li-Po batteries when new, at least through the first 5 to 10 chargings. During that period you shouldn't run below a critical point of say 20 to 25%...I believe it was mentioned to nothing lower than 30%

I've never conditioned my batteries properly, but I do tend to land at nothing below 20%. I look at it as a margin of error for the batteries since the drain rate percentage is faster as the battery depletes. YMMV...good luck!

 

[Maddog]

Hi ShaunD- welcome to the forum! I have never heard of the motors "stumbling" like you describe, even with a low battery. I doubt that Solo thought it had landed. You are correct about the 2.4 altitude loss issue. When you can get out, I would monitor the situation and see if it occurs again (without running the battery so low).

I've heard Solo keeps all flight logs but I think eventually the system must delete some of the older ones as it gets full. If you ever have to send in a trouble (support) ticket it will automatically send in the last 3 logs.

Just curious, but why do you take off and wait for a GPS lock while airborne? Did Solo, by chance, stumble at the same approx. altitude it was at when it got GPS lock? Solo does not use GPS for altitude determination but I wonder if there's a connection.

 

[Shaund]

Apologies for the confusion I do wait for gps lock before taking off.

I'll be more disciplined with the battery levels and report back should the rain ever stop.

 

[Maddog]

Apologies for the confusion I do wait for gps lock before taking off.

I'll be more disciplined with the battery levels and report back should the rain ever stop.

No worries! We just want you to get the most out of Solo.

By the way, what Chuck said about the batteries dropping faster when they reach about 25 percent is bang on. You can easily go from 25 to 10 in less than a minute, so just be careful.

 

[Chuck]

Apologies for the confusion I do wait for gps lock before taking off.

I'll be more disciplined with the battery levels and report back should the rain ever stop.

I will trade some of your rain for the heat here. It has been over 100 degrees every day this week, which means no flying for me.

 

[Maddog]

I will trade some of your rain for the heat here. It has been over 100 degrees every day this week, which means no flying for me.

Chuck, send us some of your cold weather- it's hot here, 110+ every day.

 

[Chuck]

Chuck, send us some of your cold weather- it's hot here, 110+ every day.

Very true. I have been seeing you are a bit warmer there than here. The difference is it is a bit humid here, while you get that nice, DRY heat.....

 

[Shaund]

Just checked the weather for here and outlook is dry with a max temperature of 70 on Saturday. Great British summer at its best.

 

[Maddog]

Shaun did you ever resolve this? Did it happen again?

 

[Shaund]

Hi,

Never managed to replicate, although I have never let the batteries get so low since the advice.

Strange the power just seem to drop for a spli second.

 

[bluesgeek]

Hi,

Never managed to replicate, although I have never let the batteries get so low since the advice.

Strange the power just seem to drop for a spli second.

I think I had the same thing once. I was flying at low height, perhaps 4ft. It is possible that it was me sticking down on the throttle so I didn't post about it, but I was only making fine adjustments at that height and it really did feel like a momentary motor cut.

 

[ZdroneZ]

As I posted on the Solo discussion board yesterday, my Solo's motors just stopped in the first 30 seconds of flight. Unfortunately the craft was about 120 feet off the ground. I've been flying this unit for 7 months withouta single problem. FW update a couple of weeks ago and now this. Total loss. Is it safe to say that this is a glitch in the firmware?