3DR Solo Crash

rrmccabe · Jun 26, 2015

Is in the menu on left of Solo app. The manual talks about it but the application walks you through the process step by step so you really don't need the manual.

aggravated... · Jun 26, 2015

DattaGroover said:
Is that calibration self-evident, or is it in some manual somewhere?

Page 40
http://3drobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/v3_6_24.pdf

Yes the app does a better job at explaining the procedure.

DattaGroover · Jun 26, 2015

aggravated... said:
Page 40
http://3drobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/v3_6_24.pdf

Yes the app does a better job at explaining the procedure.

Thanks.

DattaGroover · Jun 26, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Is in the menu on left of Solo app. The manual talks about it but the application walks you through the process step by step so you really don't need the manual.

Thanks. And pardon the dumb question, but where is the manual? I didn't see it on the 3DR website.

TheeRod · Jun 26, 2015

DattaGroover said:
Thanks. And pardon the dumb question, but where is the manual? I didn't see it on the 3DR website.

http://3drobotics.com/kb/solo/
located under downloads

DattaGroover · Jun 26, 2015

TheeRod said:
http://3drobotics.com/kb/solo/
located under downloads

Got it, thanks!

ZippyThePinhead · Jun 26, 2015

I've had a similar issue happen twice now within the past week. In the last incident, I started Solo motors and then hit 'fly' to to auto take off. I Once Solo was in a hover, I think I hit the 'fly' button and Solo took off and ran into side of house. Video at
Solo DOES NOT go into crash mode, such as my Y6 does, so it ate 3 of the 4 props and ruined the battery holder.

I filed a help desk ticket with 3dr and gave them the logs and the video.

With no replacement parts in stock, I guess I am grounded.

Rodney Johnson · Jun 26, 2015

ZippyThePinhead said:
I've had a similar issue happen twice now within the past week. In the last incident, I started Solo motors and then hit 'fly' to to auto take off. I Once Solo was in a hover, I think I hit the 'fly' button and Solo took off and ran into side of house. Video at

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Solo DOES NOT go into crash mode, such as my Y6 does, so it ate 3 of the 4 props and ruined the battery holder.

I filed a help desk ticket with 3dr and gave them the logs and the video.

With no replacement parts in stock, I guess I am grounded.

Just a question
Did you calibrate the compass around this area?, It looked like a GPS signal issue for sure.. it was hovering fine and then it decided it didn't like the weather and flew inside..
Please keep us up to date on 3drobotics findings.
Sorry
I will have mine on Monday so maybe you won't be alone... thanks for sharing this info..

Solo Joe · Jun 27, 2015

Rodney Johnson said:
Just a question
Did you calibrate the compass around this area?, It looked like a GPS signal issue for sure.. it was hovering fine and then it decided it didn't like the weather and flew inside..
Please keep us up to date on 3drobotics findings.
Sorry
I will have mine on Monday so maybe you won't be alone... thanks for sharing this info..

This does not make sense to me. I have been flying for a while. I have had Phantoms and I currently have an Inspire and a Solo. Why do you think that loosing GPS positioning would stop the bird form accepting input from the controller. I have NEVER had that experience. If GPS is lost you essentially have manual control but it should still respond to stick movement. You just have to fight the wind and such. These incidents are more than a GPS signal loss. If it is due to GPS loss mine will be packed up and brought back because I as a pilot can not always control that. GPS loss causing a catastrophic incident is not acceptable.

DattaGroover · Jun 27, 2015

Solo Joe said:
This does not make sense to me. I have been flying for a while. I have had Phantoms and I currently have an Inspire and a Solo. Why do you think that loosing GPS positioning would stop the bird form accepting input from the controller. I have NEVER had that experience. If GPS is lost you essentially have manual control but it should still respond to stick movement. You just have to fight the wind and such. These incidents are more than a GPS signal loss. If it is due to GPS loss mine will be packed up and brought back because I as a pilot can not always control that. GPS loss causing a catastrophic incident is not acceptable.

I think what can happen is the the GPS brain gets confused a as to where it is, and it wants to put your drone somewhere else, and quickly.

Solo Joe · Jun 27, 2015

DattaGroover said:
I think what can happen is the the GPS brain gets confused a as to where it is, and it wants to put your drone somewhere else, and quickly.

OK, I might buy that. But, that would be a malfunction of the device and not merely a loss of GPS signal as this Rodney Johnson implies.

1013D · Jun 27, 2015

Solo Joe said:
OK, I might buy that. But, that would be a malfunction of the device and not merely a loss of GPS signal as this Rodney Johnson implies.

Sort of....

The machine is Trying to stay in one spot....then the gps coordinates shift so it moves to the spot it shifted to.

It's doing what it is supposed to, but it is relying on the gps which is moving around.

Solo Joe · Jun 27, 2015

1013D said:
Sort of....

The machine is Trying to stay in one spot....then the gps coordinates shift so it moves to the spot it shifted to.

It's doing what it is supposed to, but it is relying on the gps which is moving around.

Then that is a malfunction of the device. The gps position is the position. The sats aren't feeding it contrary info. It's misinterpreting the info it is being given. In which case it is a malfunction of the device. Bottom line is this thing is still buggy. The bad signal is the worst. 10 min ago I was standing ten feet from it in the middle of a ten acre field and I had one bar which was around -82db. Between that, the fact that the app crashes every time you try to do a smart shot (and sometimes if you don't) and the gimbal being delayed until God knows when. I have decided to return it. It's unfortunate but I can say I tried and decided I don't want to ride the firmware train hoping for a decent product in the end. If and when they get this polished I will return.

1013D · Jun 27, 2015

Gps is not 100% perfect all the time.

But if the program assumes it is, that could be a problem. My point is that the machine is probably doing what it is programmed to do (stay at a certain gps coordinate) But that coordinate could shift if the gps accuracy HDOP is lost or degrades during flight.....but yes, it should be programmed to recognize that there is an error, and not zoom off somewhere.....no argument there.

I have never had an app crash, or gps issue during flight. And I am even using an unsupported device.....there are certainly some bugs.

Sarah B · Jun 27, 2015

This happened to me, for the first time, just this afternoon. I was in my backyard with my dog, and was flying only a few feet above the ground, just playing with the Solo and the app. All of a sudden, the Solo jerked right, then left, then made a beeline toward a fence.

It happened so fast, I don't know if I lost satellites or not. I DID pull back hard on the right stick, but the helicopter continued moving forward, and did a half flip--thankfully--into a bunch of irises. I punched the A/B/Pause buttons immediately, and no harm was done to the Solo.

I suppose what's pertinent, is I've been flying Phantoms for a year and a half, and instinctively know how to steer these helicopters. There was no pilot error. All control was lost, and I'm lucky I wasn't higher or further away. As someone said previously, even if I DID lose satellites, the Solo should have reverted to manual control. That's how it is with Phantoms, and I've never had a crash.

NYG · Jun 27, 2015

There has been discussion of a firmware update being released Monday. Among fixes and enhancements is a smooth transition from GPS to Fly:manual in the event of loss of GPS.

Bryon Trott · Jun 28, 2015

Solo compass calibrations
http://3drobotics.com/kb/solo-calibrations/

The Solo App UI should walk you through it.

Raybro · Jun 28, 2015

It seems most of these incidents are happening at low altitude and usually in hover mode. I've yet to see the typical DJI fall out of the sky from 200 feet, or take off to never be seen again. I've not had any issues yet.

Ramon Garcia · Jun 29, 2015

Good afternoon everybody. I hope I am posting this correctly. I apologize if I am not. This is an update to my Solo crash. I have been contacted by 3DR who reviewed the flight logs. They showed no issues or relevant data in the first two flights at the location of the crash. Then on the third flight, the Solo began to lose GPS position which caused the Solo to assume his right position in another random place. They recommend that I do not fly near urban environments which can cause blockage and to fly it in open fields as GPS multi-path issues could happen, to which they said they are currently working on that issue right now.

3DR said they will be providing me with an RMA # in 1-2 business days in order to provide a replacement Solo. I received their response over the weekend which was unexpected and very welcomed.

rrmccabe · Jun 30, 2015

Ramon Garcia said:
Then on the third flight, the Solo began to lose GPS position which caused the Solo to assume his right position in another random place. They recommend that I do not fly near urban environments which can cause blockage and to fly it in open fields as GPS multi-path issues could happen, to which they said they are currently working on that issue right now.

Thanks for the update.