Anything new coming?

[Toiletbowl]

Beside the camera setup most of the parts on phantoms have been very similar if not identical for how many years now. All of the changes could be easily upgraded much cheaper than buying another bird. Phantom 3 is just a 2 with a few things added, they didn't even bother to change it cosmetically to rob folks out of more money.

People can have a ball buying a new bird every year and if one is eventually as good or better than solo I may join in. I'm not holding my breath waiting on that one though. Now instead of yet another quad I don't need in spring I'm putting that money toward upgrades after nab and a newer street bike since mines not as fast as I'd like. Thanks again 3dr

i agree, dji is digging customer pocket every year but they not even fix the massive software bugs as flyaway major issue in their aircraft and now jump another hardware version.

 

[SteveReno]

waiting to here about accessory options myself.

As far as the the white one, @UCLABruins, Law is set " LOS" is where 3DR had insight of this coming & built these birds with LOS being the defacto.

The white one came out with "Crash insurance" for the P3's today. $99 for 6 months & you must buy a new one for this offer to be available.
Lot's of crashing = "Crash insurance" LOL.

 

[Rycoh]

We just had some major updates without having to buy a new drone. The next major update will not require us to buy another drone. I guess "planned" is in the eye of the beholder...

I agree and also it wouldn't hurt if they produced a higher capacity battery

 

[Rycoh]

A working Optical flow sensor camera would be nice along with a higher capacity battery. I saw they had PX4Flow sensor on their site but its no longer there. Any ideas?

 

[Ian [P13]]

A working Optical flow sensor camera would be nice along with a higher capacity battery. I saw they had PX4Flow sensor on their site but its no longer there. Any ideas?

Once Arducopter Solo is merged with Arducopter putting optical flow on will be a relatively easy mod, so I could see people making these themselves if 3DR doesn't release it this year.

 

[J R]

Sorry if brand loyalty is a problem for you, twice you have waved your impartiality flag and sort of inferred that folks who like solo, (on a 3dr product site) have a hard on, a bit of a dig

Pyrate,

I just thought I'd see more and better 3rd party apps being developed for the Solo due to its open source. I also know some people are working on different accessories for the bay but haven't seen much hit the streets for the consumer.

Brand loyalty isn't a problem for me but beating on the other guys bothers me a bit. I fly different birds and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I understand this is a Solo site and therefore there will be a bias towards it.

I probably should be careful with my wording sometimes.

Jerry

 

[Adimuzio513]

waiting to here about accessory options myself.

As far as the the white one, @UCLABruins, Law is set " LOS" is where 3DR had insight of this coming & built these birds with LOS being the defacto.

The white one came out with "Crash insurance" for the P3's today. $99 for 6 months & you must buy a new one for this offer to be available.
Lot's of crashing = "Crash insurance" LOL.

So if you bought p3 before this week your sol? If so that's sad and kinda points toward Dji knowing the older 3s having issues. So they don't feel they should be accountable for their mistakes even for the 100 dollar "insurance" premium. Typical I guess, but still sad.

 

[SteveReno]

So if you bought p3 before this week your sol? If so that's sad and kinda points toward Dji knowing the older 3s having issues. So they don't feel they should be accountable for their mistakes even for the 100 dollar "insurance" premium. Typical I guess, but still sad.

"Sol" Owners of the p3's should check for them self's if older models are able to buy in? The commentator, said it's a ploy to sell more new p3's.
Also, the crash ins. Does not cover fire damage. So, electrical shorts or if user flies in to a "burning bush" then, "sol" again, you also may be "sol" from God. Lol "Burning Bush"

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[pyrate]

Pyrate,

I just thought I'd see more and better 3rd party apps being developed for the Solo due to its open source. I also know some people are working on different accessories for the bay but haven't seen much hit the streets for the consumer.

Brand loyalty isn't a problem for me but beating on the other guys bothers me a bit. I fly different birds and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I understand this is a Solo site and therefore there will be a bias towards it.

I probably should be careful with my wording sometimes.

Jerry

No worries, I get where you are coming from.
Some of us Solo owners who were around when the only discussion about solo was on the RCG thread endured months of bashing at the hands of DJI trolls
To me it is more of a sport poking them in the eye now that solo has matured.
I actually fly with a guy who owns a phantom and we laugh about the competitive banter all the time

Not sure what your visibility to development going on is.
But if you watch Github, and hang out on some of the platform facebook pages there is a lot going on.
Not gelling as fast as I want it to, but slow steady progress beats fast unstable process.

 

[BlackHawk]

My wish list is any of the following:

Optical Flow Sensor
Smart Battery 2.0
Free-fall Speed Reduction System
A "Follow Me Mode" wearable or ability to link to an existing wearable

 

[Adimuzio513]

My wish list is any of the following:

Optical Flow Sensor
Smart Battery 2.0
Free-fall Speed Reduction System
A "Follow Me Mode" wearable or ability to link to an existing wearable

Haven't tested it yet with mine, but doesn't pebble have the ability for follow me with pebble tower. It'd be nice if its included in solos app, but I'm pretty sure it's possible now. I'll test once the weather allows its rainy and windy today, maybe this weekend. I'm with ya on the others as well, hopefully nab brings some options.

 

[pyrate]

Vu said they would be at NAB with guns blazing
or something like that

 

[pete]

Personally, I would love to see a Solo scaled to about 20% larger, with 25+minutes air time and a gimbal for larger cameras. Same features and software.

3DR is still here and will continue to be here. We're working on some exciting HW and SW releases for 2016 for Solo. We'll be at NAB with guns blazing

this is interesting - exciting new HW but I can't see this happening without scaling the Solo up, new product would be required, or otherwise how do we increase the payload (upgrade motors + increase battery capacity) ?

on 3DR FAQs page it reads 450g max payload, with Gimbal+GoPro we only have 120g available for additional extras, additional mount/servo for the extra HW maybe 20-30g and we have 90g(3.1oz) to play with, that's not much (that's same weight as GoPro).
on another thread I was reading all the endless possibilities, such as rescue missions - dropping off medical supplies, 2-way radio and so on, how ? we only have 90g to carry (you still need gimbal and gopro when doing rescue mission).

I think Jubalr is right, need a larger copter to carry camera other than GoPro.
Even the smallest camera with micro 4/3 sensor (E1 from E1 Camera | The World’s smallest 4K ultra-high definition camera with an interchangeable lens system ) is already 200g with no lens, with lens probably 300g (same as small compact camera with built-in lens like Sony RX100) and with only 150g left there is no possibility of adding a gimbal (current GoPro gimbal is what, 240g ?).
To be able to carry a decent camera (1" or better sensor) with gimbal the payload would need to be increased to at least 600g or perhaps 700g.

So I'm really confused with all this talk about all the new possibilities and 3DR or other manufacturers maybe developing new camera/gimbal and other accessories, it's impossible with current payload limit.

Unless there is something that 3DR are not telling us, is the payload limit really only 450g ?
I've already seen 4 different versions of the payload limit :
420g - Solo Specs: Just the facts | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology
450g - FAQ | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology
500g - https://3dr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/v8_02_05_16.pdf
700g - https://dev.3dr.com/hardware-gimbalbay.html

what is it really ? anybody knows ?

 

[PdxSteve]

I think the limit is kind of subjective. Limit as in what? It can only lift it? Or it can lift it AND fly for x minutes? Or it can lift it and operate "normally" with x weight? I'm not sure a pure weight measurement means much. So if it could lift 1.5 lbs, but could only stay in the air for 2 minutes, does that count?

 

[pete]

I think the limit is kind of subjective. Limit as in what? It can only lift it? Or it can lift it AND fly for x minutes? Or it can lift it and operate "normally" with x weight? I'm not sure a pure weight measurement means much. So if it could lift 1.5 lbs, but could only stay in the air for 2 minutes, does that count?

1.5 lbs for 5 minutes (2 mins is too short) would be fantastic for photographers, that would allow to carry good camera on the gimbal for that one perfect shot, maybe even APS-C camera (Fuji X100T), maybe BlackMagic Micro.

for general flying and to have fun the GoPro is perfect for this drone and in combination with smart shorts you can take very decent video, for me this is ideal as I travel a lot around outback country and I travel "solo"

but occasionally there would be opportunity to take a great photo and GoPro just can't do the job, it has its limitations, can't shoot raw, small sensor, distortion, can't set aperture, shutter speed, well it's not really made for photography.

but do we really know it could lift 1.5 lbs ? just saying those variations in specs need to be clarified.

 

[Ian [P13]]

The Solo can lift another Solo, I've seen it done. So I think the specs. 3DR quote are underestimates, although they're probably made with flight time in mind rather than simply considering the maximum weight it can lift.

 

[pete]

The Solo can lift another Solo, I've seen it done.

seriously ? well then it can carry my full sensor DSLR with 20mm f/1.8 lens. the question is - will 3DR replace my Solo + camera if I crash

 

[Ian [P13]]

seriously ? well then it can carry my full sensor DSLR with 20mm f/1.8 lens. the question is - will 3DR replace my Solo + camera if I crash

NOPE they won't. I wouldn't lift a DSLR (eventually it'll go horribly wrong), if I was to brave something it would maybe be a Sony Cybershot.

 

[SteveReno]

I read somewhere that Solo has most powerful motors for it's size/class.
The UAVs that are made for DSLR's are several thousands of dollars.
I think 3DR's Solo fills the gap between amateur & prosumer well. "Cost/performance"

 

[PdxSteve]

3DR is releasing a new heavy lift quad this year similar to the solo. Might want to wait a bit.