ArduCopter 3.5 & Pixhawk 2.1 Green Cube Upgrade: Solo Remastered

[Pedals2Paddles]

You can take down your RIP signs and gravestones. The solo is no longer stale and dead. The Solo is up and running on ArduCopter 3.5.0+ with a Pixhawk 2.1 Green Cube. The community effort to keep the Solo alive has succeeded.

Photos by Andrew Emmett, Matt Lawrence, & Stephan Schindewolf

Read the blog post on ArduPilot.org that summarizes the project: The Solo Lives On

Please checkout the new official ArduPilot Solo wiki pages for all the details on this project and how to participate. It will most likely answer all your questions. Lots more to come on the Wiki too. It will become the place to read about all the quality mods and accessories for the Solo too.

Q: Does this void my warranty
A: Very much so.

Q: Does this give me boat mode
A: Yes

Q: Do I need to follow instructions carefully
A: Yes

Q: Can I put a GoPro 5 on my gimbal now?
A: Sure. Duct tape and chicken wire, should be fine.

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[carpy]

Well done Matt. Very impressive all involved.

 

[Doringtoon]

Awesome.

 

[David Boulanger]

Green Cube and mRO gps ordered for Solo #3. Your right about buying little goodies never ends. #3 was going to be a parts Solo but not now I guess. And 3 hours ago I voted on the survey " I am watching intently". That did not last long.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

LOL! Nice

 

[David Boulanger]

I'm laughing at myself. Why was I "watching intently" when I've been using Ardupilot since 2012 when the code was 2.9 and the APM 2.5 was the latest thing. Thanks for your, and the other developers, hard work. I love 3.4.6 on my pixhawk 1 equipped F450. This can only be better.

 

[pyrate]

Solo is nice on Master, and the door is wide open again for people to make cool toys for it

 

[pyrate]

I am patiently awaiting canbus ESCs

 

[reckless]

Is Throw mode available after upgrade?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Is Throw mode available after upgrade?

Yes it is! If you're brave enough to use it, it will work.

 

[xman4242]

YAY YAY YAY

 

[David Boulanger]

While I'm waiting on my green cube to arrive I thought I would ask a question for those already running 3.5 on their Solo. Has anyone tried autotune? Just wondering because different weight payloads and prop combinations could benefit from this. I'm asking this because when I autotuned my F450 it came up with parameters I would never have imagined and it flies great.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Yup. Part of what we had to do was completely retune everything. Not having the stupid slew rate throttle handicap makes it a whole new animal. The old tuning was no good. There has also been a lot of change to ArduCopter's PID handling since the stock Solo firmware was forked. So a bunch of us did both manual and auto tuning several times to dial it in.

You shouldn't need to retune for something deminimus like master airscrew props for example. But if you swap out to different motors or bigger props, definitely.

 

[xman4242]

Does the lack of the slew rate thingy improve battery life? Or does it Increase the top speed?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

No and no. However it is more responsive to control input because the rate of throttle change is not being limited.

 

[David Boulanger]

O.K.. So it sounds like your saying the Solo parameters on Solex Firmware updates are dialed in pretty good for a stock Solo.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Yep. It flew like absolute crap using the stock PIDs.

 

[Lookin48197]

Did you just add the Green cube or did you upgrade to the Master solo conversion? What all did you change on your solo and what is the final cost? Thanks in advance.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Did you just add the Green cube or did you upgrade to the Master solo conversion? What all did you change on your solo and what is the final cost? Thanks in advance.

Please read the Wiki and blog links I posted. All of this is explained.

 

[David Boulanger]

My green cube is 35 miles away. Should get it tomorrow. Yee Haa