Dying Slow Death?

Paul Emmert · Jul 10, 2016

Ok, just about have had it with Solo...patience has run out, sadly. Latest symptom is this:

Boot up Solo and controller, Solo boots up fine except that at the completion of the boot up, the gimbal goes limp for about 5 seconds, and then recovers to level. Subsequent flight is okay, LED lights all normal. After half a dozen power ups, same sequence, except the gimbal decides to go full face down after going limp for a short period, and Solo will not connect to the tablet or controller. The green pulsating light on the gimbal stays on and looks normal. Grounded.

A full reset of the controller and the aircraft apparently fixes the issue, except the limping gimbal/recovery still happens. Wifi connections are okay, aircraft flies normally. Chances are high this is going to keep repeating.

I've done the resets, all calibrations, swapped out the gimbal to a spare, all to no avail. Something is clearly wrong, and probably beyond my ability to fix locally.

DJI Phantom 4 is becoming more than just a possibility. Sad, what with the $$$ I've dumped into this machine.

Jubalr · Jul 10, 2016

Paul Emmert said:
Ok, just about have had it with Solo...patience has run out, sadly. Latest symptom is this:

Boot up Solo and controller, Solo boots up fine except that at the completion of the boot up, the gimbal goes limp for about 5 seconds, and then recovers to level. Subsequent flight is okay, LED lights all normal. After half a dozen power ups, same sequence, except the gimbal decides to go full face down after going limp for a short period, and Solo will not connect to the tablet or controller. The green pulsating light on the gimbal stays on and looks normal. Grounded.

A full reset of the controller and the aircraft apparently fixes the issue, except the limping gimbal/recovery still happens. Wifi connections are okay, aircraft flies normally. Chances are high this is going to keep repeating.

I've done the resets, all calibrations, swapped out the gimbal to a spare, all to no avail. Something is clearly wrong, and probably beyond my ability to fix locally.

DJI Phantom 4 is becoming more than just a possibility. Sad, what with the $$$ I've dumped into this machine.

Hey Paul, Just for giggles; have you done a stick calibration? It's fixed a variety of issues that I still do not understand, but it's something that 3DR has recommended for gimbal issues.
Sticks Calibration - For Mac
Sticks Calibration - For Windows

fpvsteve · Jul 10, 2016

The gimbal behavior you described is part of the initialization process during startup.
You wrote the subsequent flight was ok. So what is the problem?

pyrate · Jul 10, 2016

the limp on boot up is normal on 2.4 firmware and 2,4 android.
Mine does it every time since the update.
Does not impact flying.

Jubalr · Jul 10, 2016

I think it is this part he was referring to:
" After half a dozen power ups, same sequence, except the gimbal decides to go full face down after going limp for a short period, and Solo will not connect to the tablet or controller. The green pulsating light on the gimbal stays on and looks normal"

If I read that correctly, the camera stays face down and the solo will not connect.

pyrate · Jul 10, 2016

then that could be sticks like you said.
Or something as simple as pull the battery on the controller

Or grab a P4 LOL

Paul Emmert · Jul 10, 2016

Jubalr said:
Hey Paul, Just for giggles; have you done a stick calibration? It's fixed a variety of issues that I still do not understand, but it's something that 3DR has recommended for gimbal issues.
Sticks Calibration - For Mac
Sticks Calibration - For Windows

I'll give it a go, that's the only think I haven't done..

pyrate · Jul 10, 2016

it helped mine after the 2.4 firmware update
don't worry about the temp gimbal drop on boot up

Paul Emmert · Jul 10, 2016

fpvsteve said:
The gimbal behavior you described is part of the initialization process during startup.
You wrote the subsequent flight was ok. So what is the problem?

"After half a dozen power ups, same sequence, except the gimbal decides to go full face down after going limp for a short period, and Solo will not connect to the tablet or controller. The green pulsating light on the gimbal stays on and looks normal. Grounded."

As I originally posted, after a few normal boot ups, no connection can be established from the Solo...this has happened three times now within the last couple of weeks...always with the gimbal pointing straight down.

I just did a stick calibration, and booted up several times with no observed problems (except for apparently normal gimbal pointing correctly, then limping, then back up again..)

Maybe fixed?

Paul Emmert · Jul 10, 2016

pyrate said:
it helped mine after the 2.4 firmware update
don't worry about the temp gimbal drop on boot up

Ok, I thought that was abnormal and a contributing symptom. I've been able to restart several times now uneventfully, maybe just a temporary anomaly.

Paul Emmert · Jul 10, 2016

Jubalr said:
I think it is this part he was referring to:
" After half a dozen power ups, same sequence, except the gimbal decides to go full face down after going limp for a short period, and Solo will not connect to the tablet or controller. The green pulsating light on the gimbal stays on and looks normal"

If I read that correctly, the camera stays face down and the solo will not connect.

That's' right...but I haven't been able to repeat the behavior after the stick calibration....could that be it?

Paul Emmert · Jul 10, 2016

pyrate said:
then that could be sticks like you said.
Or something as simple as pull the battery on the controller

Or grab a P4 LOL

Did the battery pull from the controller, and the stick calibration, we'll see

Paul Emmert · Jul 12, 2016

So after another full reset, and at least 6 successful boot ups last Sunday, I put Solo away, until today (Tuesday) I decided to take it out and see what happens. Well, back to square one - boot up, gimbal wakes up, gimbal falls limp, gimbal wakes back up and promptly goes full down, followed by no connection to controller. This event was especially fun today because I got to listen to multiple "controller lost" chimes, and flashing/alternating red lights.

It appeared to be working fine when I put it through multiple start-ups, put it away, three days later it won't fly.

This POS is going to the dumpster...