Back on the fence

[Don H.]

Hello all,

I've got a question regarding the Solos being sold currently.
Does anyone know if they have the latest version of of GPS?

I probably shouldn't have returned my previous one without at least opening it.
In any case, I can get the BB sale for quite a bit less than what I previously paid.
I might pull the trigger today.

Thanks..

Don.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

No way to know. It's whatever the store happens to have in stock from whenever that store received their stock. If I were to venture a guess, I would say you're most likely going to get older stock or they wouldn't be having the sale in the first place.

 

[Jubalr]

Hello all,

I've got a question regarding the Solos being sold currently.
Does anyone know if they have the latest version of of GPS?

I probably shouldn't have returned my previous one without at least opening it.
In any case, I can get the BB sale for quite a bit less than what I previously paid.
I might pull the trigger today.

Thanks..

Don.

I just got my 2nd Solo on the BB deal. It has the original version GPS, but it got 8 sats and ready to fly in just over a minute inside our office building. I wouldn't worry about it. Too good a deal to pass up.

 

[Maddog]

3DR only made one production run of Solo, so those being sold now were manufactured last year. I imagine the GPS is the same.

If you're not happy with it you can replace with the M8N, which I did. (The procedure is available on YouTube and requires cutting and splicing wires.)

 

[PdxSteve]

3DR only made one production run of Solo, so those being sold now were manufactured last year. I imagine the GPS is the same.

If you're not happy with it you can replace with the M8N, which I did. (The procedure is available on YouTube and requires cutting and splicing wires.)

There is an actual new official Rev B GPS board out there. It's black instead of green, says "Rev B" and has a manufacturers date stamp of 08/2015. The configuration of the components are physically different. They improved/shielded the SAW filter and several other improvements.

They have been installing these boards on repairs for those that have been complaining about GPS issues. I don't know if anybody has purchased a "new" solo and had the Rev B board installed already though.

 

[Maddog]

There is an actual new official Rev B GPS board out there. It's black instead of green, says "Rev B" and has a manufacturers date stamp of 08/2015. The configuration of the components are physically different. They improved/shielded the SAW filter and several other improvements.

They have been installing these boards on repairs for those that have been complaining about GPS issues. I don't know if anybody has purchased a "new" solo and had the Rev B board installed already though.

Thanks Steve- I did not know that. It would be nice if 3DR made it available on their web site.

 

[PdxSteve]

Thanks Steve- I did not know that. It would be nice if 3DR made it available on their web site.

Here is more info, and pics: Solo GPS rev B. Is the mod still necessary?

 

[Rusty Jones]

3DR only made one production run of Solo, so those being sold now were manufactured last year. I imagine the GPS is the same.

If you're not happy with it you can replace with the M8N, which I did. (The procedure is available on YouTube and requires cutting and splicing wires.)

This brings up a question for me. how do we know there was only one production run of Solos? Did someone officially state that, or is it a guess?

 

[Maddog]

This brings up a question for me. how do we know there was only one production run of Solos? Did someone officially state that, or is it a guess?

Yes, the CEO said so in a media interview but I can't remember which media outlet.

 

[PdxSteve]

I believe they mentioned it when they closed production at the China plant just before announcing the "enterprise" venture. You can also tell by the datestamp on the PCB. They all have the same date and no one has seen any others. "official"? no, but they have admitted they built way too many solos and they didn't sell nearly as well as they were betting, so they closed the DIY portion of their business, terminated a bunch of employees, closed offices, closed phone support, quit funding a lot of open source projects like Ardupilot and went to a closed source model for Enterprise. So all of this tends to point to a single run. The new Best Buy quad I bought yesterday has the same datestamp as the one I bought last October. Surely after 8 months of sales they would have hit a different build by now if it were produced.

 

[Don H.]

Off the fence!!

After reading some more and consulting with some folks about this quad I dove in and bought one from Best Buy.
I also picked up a used Nexus 7 2013 for it.
I performed the upgrades and tried to do most of the preflight checklists.
However, I can seem to program "A and B" buttons to manual.
I only have 3 selections. Fly, orbit and I think it was cable.
I installed the gimbal and after a few tries it booted up and would hold position with the GoPro installed and proper weights attached.
I was able to upload the firmware in both the controller and Solo.
Everything comes up like it should.
I left the props off so I could test it out on the ground.

The GoPro doesn't work. It powers on but that's all. I can't get anything out of it. When I remove it I have to pull the battery to shut it off.

Here's where it gets a little interesting. In the house I was able to get 9 sats. I carried it outside and was able to get eleven. All is good.
I decided to test the motors. I need to read the manual cause the way this unit acts is not what I'm used to.
While running the motors outside of the house I showed a sudden GPS fault message. Something along the lines of reacquiring sats. After about 1 second it went away. At the point it showed that message I was showing 9 sats.
I would think that would be more than usable. I can see how this could cause folks to crash if their copter suddenly goes a bit crazy and can't control it.

Is this the bug folks are talking about with the GPS losing signals?

A couple of times while setting on the floor it shut down for a "crash detected " fault. It wasn't even moving. I was running it without props.

Like I said, I need to read the manual. But is it normal when you hold the fly button down to have the props spin up but not able to reduce the power below half way? Pulling the power all the down results in a shutdown of the motors which has to be reset by pressing the fly button again.

None of my other flight controllers act this way.

Anyway I never did fly it. I still need to debug the A and B switches and the Nonworking GoPro issue.

Thanks everyone for the support thus far.

Don.

 

[Jubalr]

You need to go into settings and enable Advanced mode. You will then be able to assign the A/B buttons to more modes. Assign 1 of them to manual mode, or with your previous experience Stabilize. In Stabilize mode it will operate similar to your previous MRs and you will have full control of throttle from idle to full power. After you turn everything on and it initializes, pull the throttle all the way down and hit the stabilize button. Pull it to lower right to arm and lower left to dis-arm.

 

[Don H.]

Awesome..thanks Jubair.

 

[fpvsteve]

There is an actual new official Rev B GPS board out there. It's black instead of green, says "Rev B" and has a manufacturers date stamp of 08/2015. The configuration of the components are physically different. They improved/shielded the SAW filter and several other improvements.

They have been installing these boards on repairs for those that have been complaining about GPS issues. I don't know if anybody has purchased a "new" solo and had the Rev B board installed already though.

.... the likely most overhyped thing around Solo these days....
There are no flight reports out there yet. But everyone seems to believe that this GPS board resolves world hunger.
If you hadn't any issues with your GPS so far you are good to go.

 

[Don H.]

Looks like it's almost ready to fly.

Take a look at my display and the number of sats. It is in the house but I'm curious why it is searching for sats when there is 7-9 showing? It was running just fine a couple of minutes ago.

 

[Jubalr]

Looks like it's almost ready to fly.

Take a look at my display and the number of sats. It is in the house but I'm curious why it is searching for sats when there is 7-9 showing? It was running just fine a couple of minutes ago.

A GPS lock is not dependent on # of sats or HDOP alone. There are speed and timing checks that have to be within limits as well.

 

[pyrate]

Man find some time to read the manual you will be so glad you did

 

[Don H.]

Thanks Pyrate,

Oh I know..I read into it last night for awhile and answered a few questions. I'm used to the older archaic FC and GPS. They didn't seem to be as sensitive as this one. Eventually I'll grow balls big enough to actually try flying this one. If nothing else it's caused me to get out my old 450 and fly it around the hood.

 

[Don H.]

Woo HOO..
It survived the first flight.
Actually, it flys really nice and is very stable. I need to go in and increase all of the angles. It's really slow. I read where I can customize all of those settings.
The GPS works great. It acquired 12 sats very quickly. They sure made it easy to fly. RTH landing is very close. Within inches.
A problem I used to have with the APM was straight away flights would tend to descend. This stays right there.
Made me wish I had another battery.
The only gripe I have is that I can't control the Hero3+ silver.
I get video but no camera control.
That will have to be a work in progress.

Thanks again guys for the support and help.

Don.