What do you think of your Solo?

[Lonewulph]

Happy with mine, I've had a few crashes due to connection loss, this is disconcerting. Thankfully the SOLO has proven to be quite resilient. My Hex would have been busted to pieces in a comparable crash. 3DR support has been above standard. I'm patiently waiting for the pre-ordered gimbal because cinema videography is a priority. Being a quad, I miss the piece of mind having the redundancy of the hex. Lose a motor or prop in flight on the hex and the flight computer compensates the other motors to maintain controllable flight.
Portability is nice and had much to do with me going with a gimballed quad. With my custom hex you need a degree in lipo batteries and charging, RF radio and antenna ops, downlink and bluetooth and so on, and a few separate work tables for giant chargers and brick sized batteries and all the other equipment.
With the SOLO I put a couple of batteries in the case with the quad and controller and I'm off.
However, while flying I'm constantly holding my breath that it just doesn't decide to take off and do it's own thing while I'm trying to get that shot. I have a Blade 350 quad with a GoPro4 black sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic, filming the fishes, because it just decided to scream up to about 150 feet and fly out away from the beach, then knife -edge right into the water way out beyond the breakers. I just stood there holding the controller dumbfounded.
I, therefore, now am very particular about where I fly SOLO, keeping it well within it's documented limitations, in LOS, away from people, trees, buildings, etc. Also waiting other systems for the expansion bay that could provide a parachute system, or optic flow sensor.

 

[TomWolves]

Well thanks for all the relies and comments guys. Didn't really read any real negative comments, so I aspect I will order a 3DR Solo, probably around mid July when the Gimbal is released. I do enjoy my Phantoms P2V+, and Phantom3 Advanced, but I do like the fact the Solo is upgradable amongst other things so I will add it to my fleet. Like rrmccabe I enjoy flying looking at country side. Flying waypoints with my P2 Vision plus is really awesome.

 

[rrmccabe]

Flying waypoints with my P2 Vision plus is really awesome.

I sold my Vision + yesterday. And hoping to order a P3 today. I have to admit I have been away from the DJI forum for a couple months. Has anyone releases anything for the P3 for missions?

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

I sold my Vision + yesterday. And hoping to order a P3 today. I have to admit I have been away from the DJI forum for a couple months. Has anyone releases anything for the P3 for missions?

Not that I've heard, I did order a P3 yesterday.......and once again everyone seems to be out of stock of the Pro and batteries

 

[rrmccabe]

Yea I am noticing the same. I can find Pro's around but not the battery.

 

[Dirby]

Not that I've heard, I did order a P3 yesterday.......and once again everyone seems to be out of stock of the Pro and batteries

DDM has the DJI Phantom Pro listed on there web site as being in stock.

1 866 368 1441 ask for steve.

 

[Marc]

Well Fishpick I wont bore anyone with all the details but in summary its pretty simple.

I am not a cinematographer so my flying needs are not the same as many. I am more of a cruising pilot that enjoys scenery from the air. That said I do like good video and pictures but I am not overly critical in that area.

I fly distance 90% of the time. Partly because I can take off from my home and go for a cruise while drinking a cup of coffee on the deck. Not unusual for me to fly a mile and half from home with my Vision + and enjoy the local lake, rivers and country side.

The Phantom works perfect and the P3 would work better (distance and camera quality) but I am seriously turned off by Wang at DJI. President, CEO or whatever he is. He is arrogant and rude to his people.

Enter 3DR with the Solo. Quite a bit more money, under performs in distance compared to the Phantom 3 (which is important to me) but I hear 3DR has great support and its a good company.

So I jump on the band wagon early and pre-order batteries, Solo, and gimbal, Buy a Hero 4 black, custom lens for it, dedicated tablet. Neck deep in stuff that will be used on the Solo only.

In the end I receive it over a week later than John Doe gets his by walking into the local Best Buy.

80% of ALL correspondence with 3DR during the time regarding order as well as other misc. issues has been incorrect. Their people are either uninformed or getting bad info from above.

They forgot to ship my extra free battery and still cant tell me when I will get it. I still am flying without a gimbal like everyone else and when I call to talk to support (super nice people) they are not capable of answering a question. They have to put me on hold and get an answer. Which leads to another question and being put on hold again.

The Solo has flown well for me except its painful to watch FPV. I have to let off the stick to level the aircraft to see where I am going as its hard to fly with the camera tilted towards ground at speed. This is of course a lack of gimbal issue and the aircraft has flown perfect at this point.

So my on the fence comment is more about lack of gimbal and customer support not giving me good info. I would like to think 3DR does in fact have good customer support but I am personally still waiting for that experience.

I think they just bit off more than they could chew and rushed this thing to market because of P3 release. I am sure they have commitments to their investors too.

Sorry that was supposed to be the short version

Last email I received from 3DR on the gimbal is that they expect to ship my pre-order direct from 3DR between June 22 and July 2. It's 4-5 days from the actual ship date to my door. Hope you get yours soon.

I finally took my Solo out to fly this morning after letting it sit in the box since June 18 - too many things going on to take her out. But I must say, I love the way she flies. I've been flying fixed wing, a smaller Hubsan and a Parrot Bebop for a while and decided to jump to the Solo.

This has been the best flying experience for me so far. I just have to get used to the extra weight and the turns needing a little more room than the Bebop. But otherwise, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase.

 

[rrmccabe]

Last email I received from 3DR on the gimbal is that they expect to ship my pre-order direct from 3DR between June 22 and July 2.

Marc, sorry lost me. What is supposed to ship between those dates? You already have your solo.

 

[Dirby]

Marc, sorry lost me. What is supposed to ship between those dates? You already have your solo.

i think he is talking about the Gimbal.

 

[rrmccabe]

That would be nice. I just bought a P3P because I have a charity thing to film mid July and did not expect Solo gimbal.

 

[Marc]

i think he is talking about the Gimbal.

Yup, I was talking about the gimbal. I received my Solo on June 18. The email from 3DR (received it on June 14) said that my gimbal order would be shipping between June 22 to July 2 with 4-5 days travel from the actual date of shipping.

So best case I would get the gimbal by next week or worst case by first week of July unless it gets pushed back. I'm guessing they have a pretty good idea of it shipping out in that time frame since this is the only email I got from them giving me an actual date range rather than "some time in July".

I'll post when I receive it. I just checked my account at 3DR and it still shows backordered.

 

[Marc]

Just found this on the 3DR website news page posted today. Gimbal expected to ship by end of July......still going through final testing in Guangzhou factory in China.

http://3drobotics.com/news-solo-gimbal/

Well this is a bummer. I was hoping to get some arial video of my nieces wedding on July 11 in Tahoe. Hopefully a miracle happens and they ship one out to me in the time frame they said as a "beta group". I wouldn't mind testing a beta gimbal as long as it gets upgraded to production specs.

 

[rrmccabe]

"Right, a most important question! We’re targeting the end of July, about a month from now"

Well based on my experience that means August.

Bummer.

 

[Dirby]

"Right, a most important question! We’re targeting the end of July, about a month from now"

Well based on my experience that means August.

Bummer.

sounds about right.
hurry up and wait.

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

"Right, a most important question! We’re targeting the end of July, about a month from now"

Well based on my experience that means August.

Bummer.

End of August LOL

 

[TomWolves]

I sold my Vision + yesterday. And hoping to order a P3 today. I have to admit I have been away from the DJI forum for a couple months. Has anyone releases anything for the P3 for missions?

Not that I know of, at least DJI hasn't. I hear in the clouds that maybe sometime in December DJI will have waypoints for the Phantom3. If you get the Phantom 3 you will love it. I just joined this forum a couple of days ago so I can learn the skinny on the Solo. I am also a member in the "phantom Pilots" forum.

 

[erikgraham]

I've had all the DJIs except the Inspire (and the P3). Tried 3DR's Iris+ and never looked back. I have barely touched my Phantoms since.

An Iris+ with Tower beats any Phantom. A Solo beats the Iris with its easy to use Solo app, AND the ability to use the more advanced (but clunkier) Tower app (or Mission Planer on a PC, APM on Mac).

Right now, it's kind of the dream quad. So yeah, I'm happy with it and I'd recommend it.

 

[TomWolves]

I've had all the DJIs except the Inspire (and the P3). Tried 3DR's Iris+ and never looked back. I have barely touched my Phantoms since.

An Iris+ with Tower beats any Phantom. A Solo beats the Iris with its easy to use Solo app, AND the ability to use the more advanced (but clunkier) Tower app (or Mission Planer on a PC, APM on Mac).

Right now, it's kind of the dream quad. So yeah, I'm happy with it and I'd recommend it.

Thanks for your input, but what is the Tower app and do you install that on a tablet or PC? My Phantom 3 is awesome much better than my P2V+ no waypoints with the P3 though. What is "mission Planner) does that install on the PC? Thank you for your help. As you can see I am trying to educate myself before I buy. Thanks erikgraham.

 

[Jubalr]

Tower and MP have similar functionality with Tower for Android and MP for the PC. I used MP on my other MRs but the newer versions of Tower give almost the same functionality from a tablet/phone. Use them for assigning waypoints and fine tune over 100 parameters of the MR. Very powerful stuff..

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

Thats cool but to tell you the truth I really don't have a need for waypoints. I would love to see orbit and cable cam for the P3.


How does "Tower" work? I take its an App that works with the Solo App?