3DR Solo lost !!! Gutted !!

[c33fax]

So today I lost my 3DR Solo, had it for about 2 years and never had a problem. But today it had a mind of its own, and didn't return home. Only used it about 20 times as well!

Started off with acquiring its GPS position, then took off, and straight away it said GPS lost and switched to manual and started drifting slightly. tried to control it, but seem to have a mind of its own. I kept trying to hit the FLY Button, and Home, but it just didn't want to come back and started to fly all over and disappeared from site.

I was only trying to take some aerial roof shots of a friends house, it was a built up area too! but I had no intention of flying it around. It was meant to be a quick couple of minutes flight to look at his roof tiles. And to my horror it started flying all over the place and lost it.

I've download the logs from the controller and ran it through mission planner but cant find the drone at its last location.

I've uploaded the log file here:-
solo.tlog

Can some tell me what went wrong?

Thanks

 

[XevetS]

Sorry to hear that, if you lost GPS hitting fly or return to home would not of helped at all, you were at the mercy of the Solo and winds at that point, I'm sure somebody can help out with the log data...Good luck

 

[just_bruce]

Trying to use Mission Planner or Solex to locate it via GPS isn't going to work since it seems to have gotten bad GPS data (very likely multipathing given you were in a built up area).

Did you have the camera on? Camera roll being saved? You might be able to use landmarks to locate it.

 

[c33fax]

Trying to use Mission Planner or Solex to locate it via GPS isn't going to work since it seems to have gotten bad GPS data (very likely multipathing given you were in a built up area).

Did you have the camera on? Camera roll being saved? You might be able to use landmarks to locate it.

camera was set to picture mode, so wasn't recording. When I play the log file through Misson Planner it says it has a GPS fix the whole time it was flying.

 

[c33fax]

Plus its last GPS location shown on Mission Planner was roughly where I saw it last.

 

[c33fax]

If Mission Planner said it had GPS Fix at its last recorded entry, would it of tried to hold positon until the battery died?

 

[carpy]

The log indicates it landed. Are you in Canada? Wait, I see you. Are you thinking it was last at Lat 53.1486804 and Long -1.1639982?

 

[c33fax]

The log indicates it landed. Are you in Canada?

No UK. I noticed it said it landed. but I also noticed whilst playing the data back through Mission planner that it tried to land 3 times, but never did... dont' quite understand.

 

[carpy]

No UK. I noticed it said it landed. but I also noticed whilst playing the data back through Mission planner that it tried to land 3 times, but never did... dont' quite understand.

Right, sorry about that I had Long wrong.

Well, the log jumps all around but that's kinda expected because it can't find your solo...interesting looking at your log with Google Earth:

 

[Dirtybob]

Had the exact same thing happen to mine. Except it landed in the middle of a lake....

 

[Bradley d]

So today I lost my 3DR Solo, had it for about 2 years and never had a problem. But today it had a mind of its own, and didn't return home. Only used it about 20 times as well!

Started off with acquiring its GPS position, then took off, and straight away it said GPS lost and switched to manual and started drifting slightly. tried to control it, but seem to have a mind of its own. I kept trying to hit the FLY Button, and Home, but it just didn't want to come back and started to fly all over and disappeared from site.

I was only trying to take some aerial roof shots of a friends house, it was a built up area too! but I had no intention of flying it around. It was meant to be a quick couple of minutes flight to look at his roof tiles. And to my horror it started flying all over the place and lost it.

I've download the logs from the controller and ran it through mission planner but cant find the drone at its last location.

I've uploaded the log file here:-
solo.tlog

Can some tell me what went wrong?

Thanks

Did you have a stock GPS?

 

[c33fax]

Did you have a stock GPS?

Yes, stock GPS

 

[c33fax]

What are the chances of 3DR replacing it ?

 

[just_bruce]

camera was set to picture mode, so wasn't recording. When I play the log file through Misson Planner it says it has a GPS fix the whole time it was flying.

The receiver will calculate a position and report a fix even if the incoming data is bad (especially with multipathing which can cause signals to arrive with a crucially detrimental time delay but with an intact data stream)

Plus its last GPS location shown on Mission Planner was roughly where I saw it last.

The only problem being that said fix can be up to 30 meters off with typical multipath situations. And when you're attempting to locate a bird that is just about 1/2 a meter from tip to tip diagonally inside a 750 m^2 area, well....

<public service> FLY:MANUAL on either A or B button folks, it'll let you take control if the GPS environment fails you </public service>

 

[Bradley d]

What are the chances of 3DR replacing it ?

I would say not a chance of replacement. If they do post it here.

 

[CAMXPOSURE]

What could have prevented this -???

 

[Bradley d]

What could have prevented this -???

Fly mamual

 

[carpy]

Agree, Fly manual to stop the flyaway.

Because GPS does not seem to be the issue here, I would look at compass interference. In the US we use steel rebar in our concrete sidewalks etc. and if you are lucky enough to put that leg with the compass on the sidewalk when taking off...you will be in for a hell of a ride.

 

[IrishmanPDX]

Started off with acquiring its GPS position, then took off, and straight away it said GPS lost and switched to manual and started drifting slightly.

When you're in Manual mode, all the GPS assisted features are disabled. Therefore your drone will drift with the wind and be buffeted by gusts. You need to compensate for all of this manually. If you've not had much practice, it will seem like the drone is being erratic and moving about by itself.

tried to control it, but seem to have a mind of its own.

.
See above point.

I kept trying to hit the FLY Button, and Home, but it just didn't want to come back and started to fly all over and disappeared from site.

.
That's because when you hit "Fly" and "Home" you were re-enabling the GPS assisted features, but since you had already lost GPS lock, hitting these two buttons was a bad choice. You should have stayed in manual mode as this gave you the most direct control over the drone. Also, since you had "lost" gps lock, hitting "home" will only result in the drone flying to the last place it established GPS lock. So if the drone was in the air, 50 metes to the left, it loses GPS lock and then re-establishes lock, the new "home" position is 50 meters to the left. Since you had no GPS lock, hitting "home" was probably like playing the lottery.

I was only trying to take some aerial roof shots of a friends house, it was a built up area too!

.
So there was probably a lot of buildings in the area affecting the GPS lock (tall buildings will do that). Plus with the "stock" GPS, your drone probably gets a fairly terrible GPS signal anyway. One of the first recommended upgrades to the solo is actually the GPS.

Can some tell me what went wrong?

.
Operator Error with the manual mode confusion (switching back and forth between manual mode and GPS assisted flight modes during GPS signal loss) + lack of experience flying the bird in manual.

You might as well contact 3DR, you've nothing to lose, but doubtful they will replace the bird (but hey, you may get lucky!). IF you get another bird, seriously, upgrade the GPS (especially if it's a Rev A) and then practice flying in manual mode in a large open field. Heck, buy a cheap foam drone for 20 pounds, fly it around your living room with a room fan turned on. It's just like flying the real thing in manual in windy conditions.

Sorry that you lost your bird, but don't give up looking for it. With the short flight time, it's possible that it's nearby. Probably in someone's garden. Offer a reward for it's return. Best of luck!

 

[David Boulanger]

I looked at the Tlog. There are numerous pre arm failures. Bad gyro health, Accel health and another possibly. The EKF is going into the red extremely frequently with horizontal position and speed estimates. Add a HDOP of 1.7 at best into the mix. May have been a combination of all.