2nd Flight- 3 Questions

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

I flew my Solo for the 2nd time yesterday, and noticed a few things. The first time I powered it on, got a satellite lock very quickly- 14 sats.
2nd time- no sats after 5 minutes (this is all in a totally open field). I restarted the Solo- nothing. Restarted the solo and controller and it finally worked- 12 sats this time.

Does that happen often?

2nd- the motor were hot after a 15 minute flight. Too hot to hold on to comfortably. Hotter than my Phantom 2 motors ever got. The Solo was in Grandma mode the whole time. Is that normal? I waited a good while for them to cool before putting it up again. No performance issues. I am at altitude (over 5k feet) so it is going to work harder, but like I said, comparing it to my P2 they run hotter.

3rd, I assumed that the Solo charges the GoPro (which means I didn't really think about the fact that it plugs into the hdmi port of the GoPro- not the USB/power port. Duh! But I'm assuming the Gimbal will power it, correct.

1013D · Jul 5, 2015

Gimbal will power it, non gimbal mount does not.

Motors being hot is ok. At sea level they get very warm, so hot at alttitude makes sense.

Satellite connection is always strange for me too...sometimes it's fast, sometimes not.

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

1013D said:
Gimbal will power it, non gimbal mount does not.

Motors being hot is ok. At sea level they get very warm, so hot at alttitude makes sense.

Satellite connection is always strange for me too...sometimes it's fast, sometimes not.

Great, thanks for that.

RyanG · Jul 5, 2015

I have had the same thing happen with the Sats. I waited 5 mins and then I just power everything off and start over and that usually does the trick.

Gimbal will power GoPro.

Have fun and be safe.. I haven't taken it out of Grandma mode yet.

Ryan G

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

RyanG said:
I have had the same thing happen with the Sats. I waited 5 mins and then I just power everything off and start over and that usually does the trick.

Gimbal will power GoPro.

Have fun and be safe.. I haven't taken it out of Grandma mode yet.

Ryan G

Thanks. That's something that may be addressed in future firmware- but who knows?
I have tried it in the performance mode. It is a bit faster, but probably would not beat a Phantom 3 in a race. I plan to get a faster drone I can use when I want speed. I got my Solo to be a camera platform, primarily.

Looking forward to the gimbal and hope that they are doing it better than DJI, quality-control-wise. I'd rather wait and have something good, but I won't be happy if I get the wait but not the quality.

RyanG · Jul 5, 2015

For me it's all about the video and photo capabilities. That is the only real reason I bought this. I want to be able to get some great panning shots for video purposes.

Speed kills.

jk.. Have fun with it.. I am not sure which would win in a race, but I turned mine on full speed and it was insanely fast for my preferences.

Good luck.
Ryan G

FlyGuy · Jul 5, 2015

Do

DattaGroover said:
Thanks. That's something that may be addressed in future firmware- but who knows?
I have tried it in the performance mode. It is a bit faster, but probably would not beat a Phantom 3 in a race. I plan to get a faster drone I can use when I want speed. I got my Solo to be a camera platform, primarily.

Looking forward to the gimbal and hope that they are doing it better than DJI, quality-control-wise. I'd rather wait and have something good, but I won't be happy if I get the wait but not the quality.

Don't know how fast the phantom is, but I got 51 out of the Solo today...

I bought my Solo to do both... Fly and Footage. That is what I love about this machine. I think it does both extremely well. We will see when the gimbal comes out!

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

FlyGuy said:
Do

Don't know how fast the phantom is, but I got 51 out of the Solo today...

I bought my Solo to do both... Fly and Footage. That is what I love about this machine. I think it does both extremely well. We will see when the gimbal comes out!

That's faster than I thought.

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

RyanG said:
For me it's all about the video and photo capabilities. That is the only real reason I bought this. I want to be able to get some great panning shots for video purposes.

Speed kills. jk.. Have fun with it.. I am not sure which would win in a race, but I turned mine on full speed and it was insanely fast for my preferences.

Good luck.
Ryan G

Very cool. Maybe I didn't have it up all the way! I'm really looking forward to trying it with the Tower App. There is a version out there now (from 3DR) that works, but they say if it crashes or flies away using Tower, the guarantee is void. The good news is that 3DR is working on a Solo-dedicated version that won't void the warranty.

Here are some of my videos if your interested (I have some I just took in Iceland that are on the way):
http://DattaGroover.com/Fun

Jubalr · Jul 5, 2015

FlyGuy said:
Do

Don't know how fast the phantom is, but I got 51 out of the Solo today...

I bought my Solo to do both... Fly and Footage. That is what I love about this machine. I think it does both extremely well. We will see when the gimbal comes out!

That was a great run FlyGuy! I think the specs say max 55mph so you were right there at it! Well Done..

rrmccabe · Jul 5, 2015

The Phantom flies roughly 30mph plus tail wind.I have ben about 80mph with a Phantom 2 Vision +

The Solo will fly 55 in manual plus whatever tail wind. I would have to go back and look but I have had the Solo up to to 74 approx. Like I said I need to check but it was low 70s.

As far as GoPro being powered, I think it will be the Hero port on the back of camera and not the USB port that powers it.

Raybro · Jul 5, 2015

DattaGroover said:
I flew my Solo for the 2nd time yesterday, and noticed a few things. The first time I powered it on, got a satellite lock very quickly- 14 sats.
2nd time- no sats after 5 minutes (this is all in a totally open field). I restarted the Solo- nothing. Restarted the solo and controller and it finally worked- 12 sats this time.

Does that happen often?

2nd- the motor were hot after a 15 minute flight. Too hot to hold on to comfortably. Hotter than my Phantom 2 motors ever got. The Solo was in Grandma mode the whole time. Is that normal? I waited a good while for them to cool before putting it up again. No performance issues. I am at altitude (over 5k feet) so it is going to work harder, but like I said, comparing it to my P2 they run hotter.

3rd, I assumed that the Solo charges the GoPro (which means I didn't really think about the fact that it plugs into the hdmi port of the GoPro- not the USB/power port. Duh! But I'm assuming the Gimbal will power it, correct.

Really don't notice the difference in the heat from my P2 and the Solo. They both get pretty warm.
Occasionally my Solo will take a little longer to get a GPS lock. I think it is due to the change in the HDOP. Mine will sit there with 7 or 8 Sats but won't get a lock if the HDOP is high. Mine will lock in at around 2.2 HDOP. Once I get in the air and with altitude I get 13 or 14 Sats with around 1.4 HDOP.

RyanG · Jul 5, 2015

Awesome stuff man. I tell ya.. Maybe one day, but right now I am happy at 16mph.

Ryan G

FlyGuy · Jul 5, 2015

RyanG said:
Awesome stuff man. I tell ya.. Maybe one day, but right now I am happy at 16mph.

Ryan G

Totally understand

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

RyanG said:
Awesome stuff man. I tell ya.. Maybe one day, but right now I am happy at 16mph.

Ryan G

DattaGroover · Jul 5, 2015

rrmccabe said:
The Phantom flies roughly 30mph plus tail wind.I have ben about 80mph with a Phantom 2 Vision +

The Solo will fly 55 in manual plus whatever tail wind. I would have to go back and look but I have had the Solo up to to 74 approx. Like I said I need to check but it was low 70s.

As far as GoPro being powered, I think it will be the Hero port on the back of camera and not the USB port that powers it.

I would call that pretty fast.