Greetings all!
New to the forum and new Solo owner.
Equip: Solo, controller and using iPhone 6+ with app, gimbal and GP4 black.
I joined this forum in preparation of having questions several days ago but unfortunately hadn't spent any time exploring- boy do I wish I had come here instead of just watching the 3DR flight videos over and over and reading the literature provided with the unit.
After owning the Solo for a couple of weeks I finally had the opportunity to fly it today. Nowhere did I find in the 3DR literature that if I didn't shut off the wifi on my GoPro4 there was a risk of loss of signal that could result in partial loss of control and/or increased likelihood of crashing.
I would not have flown had I know the potential to destroy my investment before I even put it into service, if I had known there was potential to lose control of the unit within 25 feet of where I was standing. As much as I wanted to test fly the Solo I would have just waited until I could take a trip South to find an enormous field. I am not sure that would have prevented the crash but it would have minimized the chances for damage.
I do not live where I can find a football sized, mowed field with no trees for hundreds of feet in all directions. I also purchased the Solo to use it in exactly the type of flying environment I was in today. My intended use is to perform safety inspections for construction operations as well as aerial video of completed projects for marketing purposes. Today I just wanted to do a small test flight, basically up and down, to make sure that the newly installed gimbal was working and so I could see all of the features of the controller and app in action. I was planning to spend the long weekend logging some real flight hours and getting comfortable with flying and recording video.
First flight I did not install the GoPro in the gimbal. I powered up and got an 8 satellite lock in a very short amount of time. Took off and flew up to about 50' and above any trees and then played around with the controller to get a feel for responsiveness and reaction time between the solo and the controller. Everything worked fantastically and I was surprised how smooth the operation was and how well the Solo responded to the controller. I then landed manually, in a location about 20' from where I took off so I could see how that process would go should I encounter an issue and need to land manually. Took off again, buzzed left, right, back and forth in the open area at 15' off the ground, keeping the speed at the lowest setting. All good.
Second flight I wanted to see the features of the latest update for GoPro control so I hooked up the GoPro, went through the power up sequence, turned on the GoPro and all looked good so I took flight. The initial takeoff went smoothly as before but as I raised the Solo into the air further, somewhere estimated around 25' I was watching the Solo but glanced down and just caught something on the screen of my phone that said something about "manual" in big bold letters on the screen. Still looking at the screen to see if I hit a button by accident I caught the movement of the solo by luck or peripheral vision or whatever and looked up to see it in a speed drift to my right as if a gust of wind had caught it (however there was no wind). I figured out quickly that I had either lost GPS or something but unfortunately was within 6' of a tree by the time my brain processed what was happening and I realized that I had to stop the drift before I hit the tree. I didn't panic but with my limited time flying I made two very simple, but bad, decisions. Heading toward a tree to my right and about to crash- Left and Left on the controller sticks was my instinct and of course all this achieved was spinning the Solo to face me as I smashed it into the tree ever harder than it likely would have had I not tried to save it.
End result. It sheared at least one of the props off on the tree and then dove the 25'+/- drop to the ground then a 20' fish out of water flop while I stabbed at the land button (now panicking) trying to figure out how to turn the props off as the Solo flipped and bounced along an old stone wall on the edge of the clearing. All props destroyed, one bank of the rear LEDs smashed, the housing of the body busted open where the battery attaches at the front of the unit, bangs and scrapes on the body and plenty of dirt in the prop motors.
I was able to get the body snapped back together, albeit a bit deformed looking and amazingly the GoPro didn't get a scratch on it. The copper tinfoil looking stuff under the front of the battery compartment (I am assuming this is some kind of signal or magnetic shield?) was bent so I also smoothed that back out before reinstalling that cover. The gimbal appeared to have partially separated from the body of the Solo but all screws were tight so I loosened them and the plastic snapped back into place, seemingly good as new.
I am not sure if the unit will fly again as I only had the two spare propellers but I did clean and test operation of the motors without props on them and they seem to be in working order and they started and stopped smoothly and with no bad noises or smells. Hopefully this beauty will live to fight another day.
I do have two questions however.
1) The gimbal motor now makes a humming or buzzing noise when powered up (without the camera installed). I didn't note this before the crash and am wondering if this is normal or have I damaged the gimbal motor in the crash?
2) How do you download and read the flight logs to ascertain exactly what happened and to learn from the experience? It happened so fast that I'd really like to know the exact sequence of what occurred, for certain. Will it tell me that the GoPro wifi caused the loss of stability?
I will be seriously bummed if just not knowing that the GoPro wifi had potential to cause today's destruction was the cause. I chose the Solo specifically for the "smart" ability to have the unit hover in place while I was learning how to fly it and operate the camera (and I already owned a couple of GoPro cameras).
Looks like I'll spend more time on this forum then watching the flight school vids if my Solo still functions when the new props come in. Appears to be a lot of knowledge here!
New to the forum and new Solo owner.
Equip: Solo, controller and using iPhone 6+ with app, gimbal and GP4 black.
I joined this forum in preparation of having questions several days ago but unfortunately hadn't spent any time exploring- boy do I wish I had come here instead of just watching the 3DR flight videos over and over and reading the literature provided with the unit.
After owning the Solo for a couple of weeks I finally had the opportunity to fly it today. Nowhere did I find in the 3DR literature that if I didn't shut off the wifi on my GoPro4 there was a risk of loss of signal that could result in partial loss of control and/or increased likelihood of crashing.
I would not have flown had I know the potential to destroy my investment before I even put it into service, if I had known there was potential to lose control of the unit within 25 feet of where I was standing. As much as I wanted to test fly the Solo I would have just waited until I could take a trip South to find an enormous field. I am not sure that would have prevented the crash but it would have minimized the chances for damage.
I do not live where I can find a football sized, mowed field with no trees for hundreds of feet in all directions. I also purchased the Solo to use it in exactly the type of flying environment I was in today. My intended use is to perform safety inspections for construction operations as well as aerial video of completed projects for marketing purposes. Today I just wanted to do a small test flight, basically up and down, to make sure that the newly installed gimbal was working and so I could see all of the features of the controller and app in action. I was planning to spend the long weekend logging some real flight hours and getting comfortable with flying and recording video.
First flight I did not install the GoPro in the gimbal. I powered up and got an 8 satellite lock in a very short amount of time. Took off and flew up to about 50' and above any trees and then played around with the controller to get a feel for responsiveness and reaction time between the solo and the controller. Everything worked fantastically and I was surprised how smooth the operation was and how well the Solo responded to the controller. I then landed manually, in a location about 20' from where I took off so I could see how that process would go should I encounter an issue and need to land manually. Took off again, buzzed left, right, back and forth in the open area at 15' off the ground, keeping the speed at the lowest setting. All good.
Second flight I wanted to see the features of the latest update for GoPro control so I hooked up the GoPro, went through the power up sequence, turned on the GoPro and all looked good so I took flight. The initial takeoff went smoothly as before but as I raised the Solo into the air further, somewhere estimated around 25' I was watching the Solo but glanced down and just caught something on the screen of my phone that said something about "manual" in big bold letters on the screen. Still looking at the screen to see if I hit a button by accident I caught the movement of the solo by luck or peripheral vision or whatever and looked up to see it in a speed drift to my right as if a gust of wind had caught it (however there was no wind). I figured out quickly that I had either lost GPS or something but unfortunately was within 6' of a tree by the time my brain processed what was happening and I realized that I had to stop the drift before I hit the tree. I didn't panic but with my limited time flying I made two very simple, but bad, decisions. Heading toward a tree to my right and about to crash- Left and Left on the controller sticks was my instinct and of course all this achieved was spinning the Solo to face me as I smashed it into the tree ever harder than it likely would have had I not tried to save it.
End result. It sheared at least one of the props off on the tree and then dove the 25'+/- drop to the ground then a 20' fish out of water flop while I stabbed at the land button (now panicking) trying to figure out how to turn the props off as the Solo flipped and bounced along an old stone wall on the edge of the clearing. All props destroyed, one bank of the rear LEDs smashed, the housing of the body busted open where the battery attaches at the front of the unit, bangs and scrapes on the body and plenty of dirt in the prop motors.
I was able to get the body snapped back together, albeit a bit deformed looking and amazingly the GoPro didn't get a scratch on it. The copper tinfoil looking stuff under the front of the battery compartment (I am assuming this is some kind of signal or magnetic shield?) was bent so I also smoothed that back out before reinstalling that cover. The gimbal appeared to have partially separated from the body of the Solo but all screws were tight so I loosened them and the plastic snapped back into place, seemingly good as new.
I am not sure if the unit will fly again as I only had the two spare propellers but I did clean and test operation of the motors without props on them and they seem to be in working order and they started and stopped smoothly and with no bad noises or smells. Hopefully this beauty will live to fight another day.
I do have two questions however.
1) The gimbal motor now makes a humming or buzzing noise when powered up (without the camera installed). I didn't note this before the crash and am wondering if this is normal or have I damaged the gimbal motor in the crash?
2) How do you download and read the flight logs to ascertain exactly what happened and to learn from the experience? It happened so fast that I'd really like to know the exact sequence of what occurred, for certain. Will it tell me that the GoPro wifi caused the loss of stability?
I will be seriously bummed if just not knowing that the GoPro wifi had potential to cause today's destruction was the cause. I chose the Solo specifically for the "smart" ability to have the unit hover in place while I was learning how to fly it and operate the camera (and I already owned a couple of GoPro cameras).
Looks like I'll spend more time on this forum then watching the flight school vids if my Solo still functions when the new props come in. Appears to be a lot of knowledge here!
