Well, so I got a Solo—plus an extra battery—in early June from Best Buy. I had a flyaway. The controller would lose signal at 700 feet. It was difficult to attain enough satellites to fly. So . . . I put the Solo on a shelf, decided a gimbal would be a waste of money, and instead flew a white thing that was also new.
But, I continued to periodically check in here to see if there was any news, and also because I have a tiny crush on Rich McCabe. Oh, and I received a third battery, for free from China, in the meantime. I suppose they tracked me down from credit card info obtained from Best Buy.
Anyhow, for whatever reason, I updated the Solo earlier today—I was two behind—to see what would happen. When the updates were complete, pressing “A” did nothing, and I had to mess with the battery to get things going again. Also, the controller still used metric rather than imperial, but that’s okay because that’s what I was taught in school. But . . . I began to think, “Ugghh, not much progress.”
Slam-cut to me at my regular flying field. The Solo picked up thirteen satellites pretty quickly, and up she went. I flew 150-feet high, did a few figure eights, and everything worked perfectly. I got a little braver. I flew the Solo away from myself, reached 1,000 feet with four bars, kept going, and still had four bars at 1,500 feet. There are still trust issues between me and the Solo, so I brought it closer and swarped around some more without incident.
The takeaway? 3DR is absolutely making the Solo better. And more reliable. I know they’ve taken heat, much of it deserved, but they didn’t give up, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe Solo will turn out okay after all.
I couldn’t get a video feed, and the GoPro LCD read “busy.” I don’t know what’s up with that, and didn’t want to waste a half hour of my life trying to figure it out. Maybe one HAS to use a gimbal with the new update, but I’ll worry about that some other time.
That would be all. There’s no punch line or exciting end of the story, but that’s the Solo, from my point of view.
But, I continued to periodically check in here to see if there was any news, and also because I have a tiny crush on Rich McCabe. Oh, and I received a third battery, for free from China, in the meantime. I suppose they tracked me down from credit card info obtained from Best Buy.
Anyhow, for whatever reason, I updated the Solo earlier today—I was two behind—to see what would happen. When the updates were complete, pressing “A” did nothing, and I had to mess with the battery to get things going again. Also, the controller still used metric rather than imperial, but that’s okay because that’s what I was taught in school. But . . . I began to think, “Ugghh, not much progress.”
Slam-cut to me at my regular flying field. The Solo picked up thirteen satellites pretty quickly, and up she went. I flew 150-feet high, did a few figure eights, and everything worked perfectly. I got a little braver. I flew the Solo away from myself, reached 1,000 feet with four bars, kept going, and still had four bars at 1,500 feet. There are still trust issues between me and the Solo, so I brought it closer and swarped around some more without incident.
The takeaway? 3DR is absolutely making the Solo better. And more reliable. I know they’ve taken heat, much of it deserved, but they didn’t give up, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe Solo will turn out okay after all.
I couldn’t get a video feed, and the GoPro LCD read “busy.” I don’t know what’s up with that, and didn’t want to waste a half hour of my life trying to figure it out. Maybe one HAS to use a gimbal with the new update, but I’ll worry about that some other time.
That would be all. There’s no punch line or exciting end of the story, but that’s the Solo, from my point of view.
