9 questions from a new user

[1tom2go]

1) When I landed manually on the last battery, the battery just turned to 10%, it started beeping in a repeat sequence until I turned Solo off. I have never heard this before and I have had it down to 10% before without beeping. I did just update to 2.4 1-6 so maybe it's new. Is this a low battery alarm?

2) Can you fly beyond 10% in any mode or are you always forced to land?

3) What happens if someone calls me while flying? What happens if your flying and the app is lost or crashes?

4) Why does the app say I have 00:00:00 flight time?

5) Can you test the motors with out the props or is that a bad idea?

6) If we want to store the batteries at 50%, what is the best method besides flights to 50%?

7) To fly indoors, what mode do you find works best?

8) Do most of you fly in Fly-Manual except during smart-shots?

9) Do most of the fly aways happen in smart-shots and/or during Fly mode with GPS?

I am having lots of fun with my Solo! Thanks for all the info you all provide.

Thanks! -Tom

 

[Gary Burch]

1 and 2. Yes that is a low battery warning. Bring your solo back at 20 to 25% to avoid damaging battery. Yes you can take calls while flying. If app crashes. Solo will return home. You can test motors without props on. I usually fly in manual gps mode. I have never had a fly away in good gps mode. Fly safely, not over 25 mph winds, always fly with a fully charged battery or your battery could discharge fast.

 

[RichWest]

5) Can you test the motors with out the props or is that a bad idea?
8) Do most of you fly in Fly-Manual except during smart-shots?

5) yes, but realize the lack of air flow over the motors can cause them to heat up faster and possibly hotter than during a typical flight. If you are on a PC you can connect via Mission Planner and control each motor individually.
8) FLY is my constant mode, Fly-Manual is a failsafe mode for me. You have to trust the equipment, but when it does fail you have to be able to control the craft safely.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

1) When I landed manually on the last battery, the battery just turned to 10%, it started beeping in a repeat sequence until I turned Solo off.Is this a low battery alarm?
Yes.


2) Can you fly beyond 10% in any mode or are you always forced to land?
You can fly to whatever % you want. You can fly down to 0%, then keep flying and crash. Use your brain. Think about how far away you are, how long it will take you to get back and land, etc. There a number of people who are misled by a pointless internet rumor that you have to land at 20-25% or you damage the battery. That's not true, and that's a waste of perfectly good battery. Landing at 8-10% is perfectly fine. The battery failsafe kicks in at roughly 10%. You can overrride that by pressing fly and taking over again. Flying down to 0%, or flying down below 13.5 does shorten the life span or possibly damage the battery.


3) What happens if someone calls me while flying? What happens if your flying and the app is lost or crashes?
Nothing. The controller will indicate the app is not connected. But you still have full control and can keep flying. It does not return home begin any other failsafe just because the app isn't there. You can fly without the app all day long if you want.

4) Why does the app say I have 00:00:00 flight time?
Where does it say that? Never seen that, at least not in the Android app.

5) Can you test the motors with out the props or is that a bad idea?
Yes. You won't learn much from it, but you can. Don't do it too long as there is no cooling without the props.

6) If we want to store the batteries at 50%, what is the best method besides flights to 50%?
You can just leave it powered on in the houses. It will run down the battery sitting on the table in a few hours.

7) To fly indoors, what mode do you find works best?
Fly:Manual mode will operate without GPS but still use the barometer to hold altitude. That said, it requires a lot more pilot skill and effort. You need hours of practice outdoors in manual mode to be proficient enough to try it indoors where you can hit things. And by indoors, I hope you mean a gym or something. Inside your house is not something you should even try. This isn't a $20 walmart toy that can bounce off the walls and furniture.

8) Do most of you fly in Fly-Manual except during smart-shots?
It all depends on what you're doing. Fly:Manual is fun for recreational cruising around, going faster, or want you want a shot that needs the aircraft to coast to a stop. But for most camera work, most people are likely using fly because it makes for a more stable video, and is much less work.

9) Do most of the fly aways happen in smart-shots and/or during Fly mode with GPS?
There aren't "most fly aways" to begin with. There was one bug in a recent past firmware that caused a few fly aways, but were not dependent of the mode. That's fixed. So other than that, it does not "fly away". If you're comparing to DJI which historically has a history of their Phantoms flying away to la la land, that doesn't happen with Solos.

 

[Dash Hewes]

Great reply by P2P, I second that. However on my newest SOLO from June I did have a RTH failsafe at 15%, of which it would not come back to my control.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Failsafe will kick in if it loses contact with the controller too. So that's probably why it was doing the RTH in the first place as opposed to battery.

Also, the battery failsafe is NOT based on percentage. It is based on MAH remaining in the battery. The default parameter for that is 520mah, which happen mathematically be 10% of the battery maximum capacity of 5200mah. That capacity can diminish over time, which will alter the % remaining that you notice the RTH kick in. The solo uses 280-330mah per minute. So if you do the math, that is a little less than 2 minutes of flight before it hits 0%.

 

[franknitty69]

#4 is a total flight time counter. it has been added in UI (where it displays you logged in and your serial #), but it has not been enabled yet. a shame because flight logs are important and i have been fighting trying to get that available in a ui since june 2015. same for battery cycle count.

#8 i mostly fly in fly:gps. between cable cam, zipline and selfie there really isn't a need to fly manual at all. i do fly in fly manual when gps is comprimised or i need to get a specific shot or if i just need to get something done very quickly.

 

[1tom2go]

Thanks everyone for the info and sharing your experience.