Delayed Solo Release

[ken nielsen]

Ok UAS operators awaiting the release of the new Solo. I called 3DR San Antonio today, Thursday May 21 to check on my pre-order and was told that there was going to be a slight delay in the Solo's release. I was told that a press release would be put out by 3DR today but I have not received anything in my email box from them as yet. I asked if it was a gimbal issue and they would neither confirm nor deny, only to say there were a couple of issues they wanted to work out before actual release. So I asked, "please define delayed release" and was told It could be 1 week or several weeks, perhaps longer. I then asked to speak directly with Colin Guinn, of course he was unavailable. Personally I'm ok with the delay, just wish 3DR would be a little more transparent with us customers. Hey, if y'all are having technical difficulties, S%#@ happens, just let us know. Don't keep us hanging thinking the release is this month and then change that and don't tell anybody. Hey Colin, there are a lot of DJI operators out there that would just love to see the Solo tank. I for one am not one of them. I'm going to stick with y'all as long as it takes. Rather get it right now, then have problems first few flights. I believe 3DR is on to something with the Solo and is building a great platform for the future. But I hate it for new operators that held off purchasing the P3 in hopes of launching a Solo this spring. I'll just keep flying my Phantom until Solo arrives. . Viva el Solo....Viva 3DR!! .

 

[Ian [P13]]

It does sound likely an announcement is today, though other sources say the gimbal is delayed not the Solo, it's certainly manufactured as a 3DR staff member confirmed that on Facebook.

The 3.3 Arducopter software is still in testing though, so I've no idea if they're going to wait on that finishing (you'd imagine so). Release 5 of the code is going out tomorrow: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/copter-3-3-beta-testing

 

[rrmccabe]

Have to admit if this is the case its going to piss me off. Not so much the fact its delayed but the fact that 3DR has been telling me its going to ship end of month right up until last week.

This type of PR is part of customer service that everyone claims is "legendary". This is my first 3DR experience. Lets hope things pick up.

They have $1600 of my money not to mention I have a Hero4 black and tablet I have no other use for waiting for this quad. I don't fly in the winter so running out of opportunity this year.

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

Have to admit if this is the case its going to piss me off. Not so much the fact its delayed but the fact that 3DR has been telling me its going to ship end of month right up until last week.

This type of PR is part of customer service that everyone claims is "legendary". This is my first 3DR experience. Lets hope things pick up.

They have $1600 of my money not to mention I have a Hero4 black and tablet I have no other use for waiting for this quad. I don't fly in the winter so running out of opportunity this year.

I'm with you, as of yesterday morning my Solo, gimbal, extra batteries and case are still suppose to ship to me the end of the month......which is only a week away. If I get a call or an email next week saying its delayed a week a month I'm going to be one unhappy camper. I might have to bite the bullet and get a P3, the summer is almost here

 

[Buzz313th]

I understand the frustration those who preordered may feel, but if they need to polish it a bit before first impression, I respect that.

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

I understand the frustration those who preordered may feel, but if they need to polish it a bit before first impression, I respect that.

I don't. I'm a graphic artist with a larger American manufacturing company. Our products are "Polished" before anything is announced, promised or sold. Its not a done deal by any means, they still might ship on time.........if they don't it won't look too good and their going to be a lot of really pissed off people who just might say screw it I'll get a DJI or anyone of the 3-4 other products out there or coming out

 

[rrmccabe]

What I have no respect for is not sharing the delay. From the moment the unit is complete it needs to be boxed, shipped from China, received in US warehouse, reshipped to customers. That does not happen over night. If it ends up being delayed then 3DR knew this in advance.

Regardless of what the 3DR nut huggers say I still believe they rushed it to market because of the P3 shipping.

As I mentioned above this is my first 3DR experience.....

 

[ken nielsen]

PR snafu...perhaps? Reckon Colin felt he had to get the product out there in front of the media lights due to DJI's NYC release (which hasn't been flawless) and the Las Vegas show. Guinn stated in an interview at the Las Vegas show a few weeks ago that this was going to be a "defining moment" for 3DR, and I believe it is. However I'm not sure a delayed shipping on the Solo is going to cause that much chaos in the 3DR business plan. The Solo is a unique platform unlike any others in its price range and when it does get released it's real possible those of you who may decide now to jump ship and swim over to DJI may regret it in the long run....hey I could be wrong.

I'm happy still flying my Phantom vision + and look forward to the image capturing abilities of the Solo. Looking back over the past couple of years at all of the real estate video, car dealer commercials, and even golf tournaments we have captured with our Phantoms, if I'd had a tool in my hands like the Solo, it would have made those productions just that more attractive and certainly easier to shoot.

I feel for the first time UAS purchasers waiting for their Solo as I can imagine the frustration in chomping at the bit to get their first UAS in hand and see what new horizons are ahead of them. I grew up in western Michigan along the Grand Haven/Muskegon shoreline and completely relate to anyone working within the summer/autom window for outdoor activities. I now reside in Florida so I can fly year round and a month delay won't affect me.

Before any of you decide to abandon the 3DR ship and swim for the DJI ship you may want to hear what 3DR has to say over the next few days about a revised release date, it may not be that bad. If it's software/coding their tweaking that's Ok with me, if it's the gimbal, as has been portrait by DJI enthusiast on some of their blogs, that's Ok by me. I want to know that when I launch my Solo for the first time that 90% of the bugs have been corrected and I can wait for firmware updates after shipping to correct the other 10%.

Viva la Solo and Viva 3DR.

 

[Dirby]

i talked to one of the 3dr people a couple of weeks ago and he said they would be shipping on the 26 of may.
wonder what he will say on the 27 of may?

 

[ken nielsen]

What I have no respect for is not sharing the delay. From the moment the unit is complete it needs to be boxed, shipped from China, received in US warehouse, reshipped to customers. That does not happen over night. If it ends up being delayed then 3DR knew this in advance.

Regardless of what the 3DR nut huggers say I still believe they rushed it to market because of the P3 shipping.

As I mentioned above this is my first 3DR experience.....

Morning rrmccabe, if you allow this one incident ( possible shipping delay) to define your over all experience with 3DR, may I share with you the many negative experiences I have had with DJI over the past couple of years, but that didn't deter me from upgrading from the Phantom to the Phantom 2 to the Phantom Vision +, all of which had their very own quirks, some sever and aggravating trying to get serviced . I never expected the Solo release to be flawless, but I do expect 3DR to be more transparent with those of us who have pre orderd about it's status, I could care less about the line of newbies waiting outside Best Buy ,those of us who have put up the credit card need to know something. As for me, I'm still excited about the potential of the Solo platform and will just continue to launch my Phantoms until Solo arrives.

 

[3D_flight]

Everything "official" from 3DR (twitter, facebook, youtube etc.) still says shipping (no mention of gimbal) end of may. Even as recently as the 20th. There have been emails shown from resellers but nothing (that I've seen) from 3DR as a blanket statement about all orders or even the gimbal in all locations. We don't know if the delays quoted to some customers were due to factors that aren't clear (ie. gimbal delayed for pre-orders after a certain date? entire package delay based on location/time of pre-order?). There are a lot of specifics that we don't know. I wouldn't jump to conclusions until 3DR themselves issue a statement on where they stand. Especially if you look at the recent posts on YT, FB, Twitter etc. that still indicate end of may shipping. There's far more official posts stating an "on time" ship date than there are rumors to the contrary.

 

[Dirby]

you can talk to six different people at 3dr and u will get six different answers to the same question.
nobody will give u a stright answer.

 

[ken nielsen]

Everything "official" from 3DR (twitter, facebook, youtube etc.) still says shipping (no mention of gimbal) end of may. Even as recently as the 20th. There have been emails shown from resellers but nothing (that I've seen) from 3DR as a blanket statement about all orders or even the gimbal in all locations. We don't know if the delays quoted to some customers were due to factors that aren't clear (ie. gimbal delayed for pre-orders after a certain date? entire package delay based on location/time of pre-order?). There are a lot of specifics that we don't know. I wouldn't jump to conclusions until 3DR themselves issue a statement on where they stand. Especially if you look at the recent posts on YT, FB, Twitter etc. that still indicate end of may shipping. There's far more official posts stating an "on time" ship date than there are rumors to the contrary.

Hope your right, all I can refer to is the conversation I personally had with customer service in San Antonio on May21 when I called to check on my pre order from earlier this month. The service rep told me there was a delay in the Solo release and that he could not elaborate why or when a new release date would be set but that an official statement was coming that same day..it did not..nothing on the 3DR Fb page. Perhaps the rep lied to me, perhaps he was confused, either way I'll continue to fly my Phantom until my Solo arrives...end of May, next week, next month....

 

[ken nielsen]

you can talk to six different people at 3dr and u will get six different answers to the same question.
nobody will give u a stright answer.

Well they all may give you a different answer but at least the answer is in English, that's a plus as far as I'm concerned

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

Well they all may give you a different answer but at least the answer is in English, that's a plus as far as I'm concerned

Mine where in broken English, but much better than what I used to get back from DJI LOL

 

[3D_flight]

I'd suggest anyone considering bailing on the Solo take a little time to read through some of the posts on the DJI forums (on DJI's site/official forums). Especially the Inspire forum. Not even going to repeat or summarize, but reading from actual customers is a good way to get a feel for what you're getting into. Just sayin... I almost bought an inspire but decided to wait and see. I watched the DJI support forums and that was enough to convince me it was a bad idea.

 

[Ian [P13]]

We'll see when an announcement is made but my money is on it being a software issue, 3DR won't release software until it's OK'd for release by the likes of Randy, certainly with Arducopter and that's a good thing, the last thing you want is to be an unintentional beta tester with your own expensive gear.

3DR were bitten getting the Iris+ software out for a date (3DR did a branch just for the Iris which was equivalent to 3.2rc10) and the response from Vu read to the effect that would never be allowed to happen again. Basically one critical bug got through and although it was patched quickly there were at least a few crashes as a result.

Given 3.3 is still in testing and I suspect 3DR would have expected it have completed by now, it even makes me wonder if the Solo itself will have a small delay, otherwise it means 3DR might need to risk a parallel version of firmware again.

Time will tell. My view is it's better to have it right rather than rush to meet a date, especially if we're only talking weeks.

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

I'd suggest anyone considering bailing on the Solo take a little time to read through some of the posts on the DJI forums (on DJI's site/official forums). Especially the Inspire forum. Not even going to repeat or summarize, but reading from actual customers is a good way to get a feel for what you're getting into. Just sayin... I almost bought an inspire but decided to wait and see. I watched the DJI support forums and that was enough to convince me it was a bad idea.

Your lucky, I bought an Inspire. Ended with with a crooked horizon and wobble in the arms. I only owned if for about a week. They wanted me to pay for shipping back to them and 5-6 week to get to working on it LOL

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

From Dronefly's web site......

*** 3DR has informed us that the gimbal will ship approximately 30 days after the solo is delivered to you because of high demand. Orders placed for the Solo with gimbal before June 30th will receive a FREE EXTRA SOLO BATTERY.

DRONEFLY IS AN OFFICIAL 3DR LAUNCH PARTNER AND AUTHORIZED DEALER




Because of high demand? That makes no sense at all. You mean to tell me they thought only about half the people buying the Solo would buy the gimbal also. Something is not right.....

 

[Digital Dove]

From Dronefly's web site......

*** 3DR has informed us that the gimbal will ship approximately 30 days after the solo is delivered to you because of high demand. Orders placed for the Solo with gimbal before June 30th will receive a FREE EXTRA SOLO BATTERY.

If they think they can placate me with an extra battery.... they can! I'll roll with the punches and gladly take the extra battery to use when my gimbal finally arrives.