Auto return home crashed my Solo

Does 3DR have a presence here in this forum? I just don't understand why so many are against adding or altering a feature that may even save them if they are off their game one day something happens and they forced into a situation like mine. I really see great potential in Solo. I told myself a few years ago I would never buy a phantom. They just seemed like toys compared to what we were working with at the time. This is my only problem with the Solo. I'm not even really upset I had to upgrade antennas to get the range they said I'd get stock. I bought them with no problem. I'm not trying to get 3DR to accommodate my every wish. But this one thing could help avoid crashes for both new and experienced pilots. Thought people would be all onboard. I was upset when I wrote the first post. 3DR finally said they'd cover 15% of parts but it will take a month or two to get the bird back. I'm not even asking for a new gimbal. The place i bought this from shipped me 2 gimbals for some reason so i have a spare. I already mended the body crack and did a test hover. Seemed ok. I took it to 200 feet and stretched it's legs a bit going 20 mph and making it work to see if the repair would hold up. All seems good and no problems. Pretty amazing really for such a hard hit. I just asked if they could send the body to me at a 15% discount and I'll replace it myself. Now they aren't even replying back. I don't want to wait months for the turn around. I'll probably just get a replacement body from B&H or some place. But I bet if there is a flyaway they will reference my old claim and say that since they didn't put the body on themselves that they can't cover a fly away. Even if it's months from now with perfect flights in between. Hopefully I never find out. I might even test the fly button disengage RTH at 10% with fly manual at the ready. This time I will take off from my driveway where I always do without anybody around just like usual. Now that I know that it's an option I'd rather test it than just hope really hard that it works.

What you are missing is we dont want 3DR to change it.
We understand how it is supposed to work, and it does.
If you change it because someone just dont like it, then those of us who have learned to operate it as is have to learn your way.
Maybe the win win is make it configurable so people could use the default or change it to their preference... oh wait they do that already

If yours is not working the way it is described then that is a support issue and maybe yours is faulty
what did support say?
 
Most of you said you don't let the battery get below 25%. So this feature has never helped you.
 
"Research" for me does not involve pouring over the rants of the delusional.

Whatever it is you want them to change about how it currently works, pitch it to them. If enough people speak up, they will make the change. History has shown that. But you must also be prepared to accept that what you want changed may not be in the majority.
 
That said, in their next update they are adding the ability for the Solo to recognize when it is close to Home, and IF it is within this "Cone" over home, it will forego the rising first part, and come straight down into Home.

That does look like a good change, but it wouldn't have made any difference to the accident being reported here as the OP was not trying to land at the 'home' location.

I have a lot of sympathy for the OP as a few moments more and there would have been no story to tell, but the actual series of events viewed dispassionately form an unfortunate series of lets say 'poor choices' rather than pilot errors.

I think the one thing that think might make a useful difference in situations like this would be a quick easy way to disable RTL from the app.

You won't need it often, but when you do there aren't a lot of alternatives.

If the point at which 'home' is located becomes unavailable or unsafe at some point during your flight you would ideally take the decision at that point to neutralize the home point.

Once you have no home point then the problems that will cascade from trying to land with a low battery away from the home point all go away as well. Similarly all other problems that might trigger an RTL to a spot that you now consider unsafe are no longer going to result in an unsafe auto-response.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fenderbender
I still love my solo. I only want it to get better. I just checked the manual and here is what it says about disengaging return home and no one here mentioned this. press the fly button. Don't think any of you read the manual guys mentioned this. Guess even the elite haven't read or memorized the entire thing. Or does this not work when at 10% battery. Anyone tried this?

4.9.2 Regain Manual Control Keep the controller easily accessible at all times during flight, including during Smart Shots, and be prepared to regain manual control at any time. To return to standard flight during Smart Shots, Return Home, or Land, press the Fly button.
I asked this the other day. According to Killboy, the Fly and Pause buttons only work when in GPS mode.
 
I truly feel for you - you should post the video on YouTube - you will not get any simpatico in this forum - I've seen a guy post his problems in YouTube and seems to be getting a lot of his problems resolved.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
I asked this the other day. According to Killboy, the Fly and Pause buttons only work when in GPS mode.

No, only when you have GPS Signal. As long as you have GPS lock, you can hit them in any mode and they will work. The problem we're trying to make everyone new to this aware of, is that GPS signal loss can and probably WILL occur at some point for every flyer, and when that happens, you can't count on those buttons to do anything. You have to be ready to fly manually and maintain control. Practice flying manual as much as possible, and jumping in and out comfortably so you are ready when that loss of GPS does eventually happen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jubalr
I truly feel for you - you should post the video on YouTube - you will not get any simpatico in this forum - I've seen a guy post his problems in YouTube and seems to be getting a lot of his problems resolved.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

That guy is probably the most well known V-blogger in the Solo/drone community, and he actually has a legit, demonstrable problem, so yeah, they took care of him. What happened here with OP is way more debatable, and he should be thankful 3DR are taking any responsibility for what most of us perceive as pilot error in my opinion. Sympathy from me starts when people take responsibility for their mistakes, not blame it on the company or machine. Titles like the one in this thread do nothing but perpetuate a false notion that the Solo is a faulty product.
 
You set the RTH height to clear any obstacles in the area you are flying. Initially, Solo shipped with an RTH of about 50'. Needless to say it ran into a few things back then. When using the Solo app, RTH is set on acquisition of good GPS position (generally before you take off if you wait for the OK to fly). That doesn't change regardless of what you are doing. If RTH is triggered, it will climb to the set height and head for where it set the Home Point. The one way around that is to use Tower and enable the Return To Me feature. If RTH is triggered, it will go to the current position as reported by the phone/tablet you are using. But be careful, since many Apple tablets do not have GPS. In that case, it would return to the last known home point, which would be the original arm point or when home was established.

When using Tower's RTM feature, Tower will announce a new home point every few seconds as you move.

"What if you're flying under a bridge or overpass and it loses signal" You don't really expect Solo to know what is around/above it do you?

The answer is here...Its quite obvious the Solo app is for beginners and even though they don't warranty issues happening with the tower app at this point, the advanced users who understand, research and from what I can tell are confident, use tower. So asking them to change the software to more advanced features included in tower which is another 3DR suite seems like a waste of time. If you are so advanced in your flying and understanding, maybe its time you make the switch to Tower?

I for one ONLY fly the Solo app if I just want quick smart shots and need the shot asap because of time restrictions (sunset, moving object, etc.). 85% of my flying time is using tower.
 
I've built 3 craft with Naza FC and the first thing I did at setup was disable voltage protection and just made sure I kept an eye on my osd.
 
using tower does not void your warranty on solo. that has been covered in length and addressed directly by 3DR
the only thing that will void your warranty is messing with parameters simply flying with Tower will not
 
using tower does not void your warranty on solo. that has been covered in length and addressed directly by 3DR
the only thing that will void your warranty is messing with parameters simply flying with Tower will not
Well that I did not know. I just remember when I started using Tower, 3DR did not approve. But thanks for the clarification and that is excellent news.

Where has 3DR addressed that? I would love to read it.

Update: Found the post. Wasn't sure it was on this forum. For anyone wanting to read here it is. But what confuses me is flight techniques. I understand MR parameters cannot be changed but what is the definition of experimenting with flight techniques? Sounds like everything will void your warranty but its very unclear. You cannot even change the altitude of a point because if the logs show the crash as a result of a change you made, they won't cover it. Am I understanding this wrong? So from what I can tell any changes you make even in mapping a mission that results in a crash is chalked up to user error.

Tower App, Solo and Warranty. Answered | 3D Robotics Drone Forum
 
Last edited:
Fenderbender, buddy...sorry for your experience. You are now experienced. Now go outside and just fly. Go fly instead of posting. Really. That is how you will become a better pilot and enjoy your Solo. Crashing will happen. We all have taken licks but it's about flying. Seriously, the forums are good to help, but only so much, don't forget what the whole point is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J R
Just wanted to chime in on this thread. Sucks that the op had an incident but the fault falls squarely on his shoulders. With regard to reading the manual cover to cover....I've read it cover to cover more times than I can count all while Solo was still packaged neatly in the box I bought it in. I researched for months before buying and then again another month before I worked up the balls to fly it. You have to know what Solo will do when it encounters failsafe conditions. People have to do the leg work and read the forums and problem stories. I do blame 3DR somewhat for their whole "this drone is so easy to fly" ad campaign.

I also don't like the title of this thread since it implies that Solo malfunctioned. Makes all the DJI lurker trolls smile.

Sent from my SM-T237P using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: Acroduster and J R
Lots of great info in this thread. Has anyone considered making a sticky with do and don't tips for rookies? Wish I had all this info when I started to fly. I look back at what I did and kiss my lucky stars that my Solo is still alive.
Wonder what percentage of new owners don't bother to read the manual or only skim through it.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
13,093
Messages
147,741
Members
16,048
Latest member
ihatethatihavetomakeanacc