Another Solo bites the dust..

Belizario Montanez · Sep 17, 2016

I was flying last night, it was my 2nd flight, and right away I noticed solo lost connection , Solo failsafed rth , solo reconnected in the process of returning home,...So I took off for another flight , this time just doing a large ccw circle at around 75ft altitude,... So Im continuing the ccw circle and I get to 180° of my circle and solo drops out of the sky like a brick, its nite time and I notice Im not seeing any lights on as solo is falling ... unfortunately solo finds the very narrow cement walking path that is hard to find if you were actually looking for it, and crash lands on the concrete...Ive had this solo maybe a week...I bought it used from a friend that bought it a week before I got it from him(I was with him when he purchased it) He did have 1 crash where he hit some cable line and broke all his blades, everything else checked out fine,..but that was enough for him , and he sold it to me at a price I cant complain about..I have about 20 flights total on this bird and Im in ahhh over what might have caused this.. Now a lil about me,....I have more quadcopters than I can count with my hands and toes, from micros to phantom2, vision +, 3 standard, 3 pr0 x2, qav250 x2, hk h4, aee turok ap10, and Ive fixed almost every wrecked unit that has come my way, I also work for ThynkDrones, in san jose ,ca.. Now this is my 1st 3dr that Ive ever flown, so Im new to 3dr any insite would be loads of help, cuz Im gonna rebuild it, just because I gotta try...thanks in advance for any help I get from you guys/girls...Im all ears..now to research how to get those flight logs...sorry if i posted in the wrong area, Im new.to this posting thing, I read alot but never really ever post anything..

Ron380 · Sep 17, 2016

Sorry about the crash.

I'm brand-new to the Solo myself, but the first thought that comes to mind would be a motor failure. One of the motors may have been damaged in the cable strike, and then failed this time up?

Good luck with the repairs!

Belizario Montanez · Sep 17, 2016

Yeah I was thinking that maybe a motor could of been the cause, but usually if one motor goes out , the bird flips over right away, this thing just dropped like a brick actually hitting the ground llanding gear first, blades were new and still dont have a scratch, unfortunately the shell is in a few separate pieces now..amazingly only one connector has separated from the board, and it looks like a staight forward simple solder job,.. but I still need to inspect alot more so we will see..the question now is , do I repair the shell or do I do a frankenquad with a totally different frame...?

Ron380 · Sep 17, 2016

So it completely shut off? There may have been internal damage to the board, connector or battery?

I know zilch about working on one of these, but I'd be afraid to trust the battery or internals after a crash like that.

Mountain Flyer · Sep 17, 2016

The only time I have ever experienced anything similar was a total power loss. In my circumstance it was caused by a hawk attack ripping loose a power wire from the battery on a 450 flamewheel. If you lost all motors and lights at once that is where I would begin my search. When I had my solo apart to install the GPS shield I noticed that the power block is just sandwiched between some parts in a few slots. This may have been damaged or moved before in the previous crash and on this particular flight lost connection for some reason. Hard to say without seeing the bird but it sounds like a complete power loss from your post. If that area is damaged now it might be hard to determine if it is new damage or old but I would look at the battery and it's connection to solo first.

Perry Lawrence · Sep 17, 2016

Check out your tlogs. They should give you some insight as to what was going on before the crash. Check also the log of the flight just before the crash flight.

pyrate · Sep 17, 2016

If all the lights went out, you most likely had a power loss

User Name · Sep 17, 2016

After any moderate crash, I think I would probably do a complete teardown to check everything inside and out. Just replacing props, taking it up and thinking "well, everything seems fine" is a recipe for... well... another crash. After checking it over thoroughly, I'd probably spend a battery or three gradually testing things at 5 to 10 feet before building up the confidence to take it higher.

But I tend to be overly cautious, especially when there's the prospect of significant loss, property damage and/or personal injury. I might throw some caution to the wind with one of my little micro quads, but the Solo is a heck of a mass if it were to fall from the sky.

Belizario Montanez · Sep 18, 2016

User Name said:
After any moderate crash, I think I would probably do a complete teardown to check everything inside and out. Just replacing props, taking it up and thinking "well, everything seems fine" is a recipe for... well... another crash. After checking it over thoroughly, I'd probably spend a battery or three gradually testing things at 5 to 10 feet before building up the confidence to take it higher.

But I tend to be overly cautious, especially when there's the prospect of significant loss, property damage and/or personal injury. I might throw some caution to the wind with one of my little micro quads, but the Solo is a heck of a mass if it were to fall from the sky.

I agree completely,...I did not mention it , but when I purchased the bird, I spent about a week going thru it, bench testing and so forth, then I flew it a good 6 or 7 times at about 10ft in the air for probably 1/2 a battery...So the crash flight was like my 3rd actual non test flight, it did loose signal and went into failsafe rth, regained signal, so I continued to fly,..shortly after about 5 to 10 min maybe, is when it went down,...i need to look up how to get the flight logs...is it a pain in the a _ _ to do...?