Finally it happened, lost my Solo today | edit : Found & Alive again

[SPP]

Pete,
Your logs has missing minutes.

mavlink_terrain_report_t from 2016-03-26T14:23:43.977 it jumps to 2016-03-26T14:26:49.462
Basically the entire log is missing those 3 minutes. The terrain report is just an example because I was tyring to collect GPS coordinate. To see on the jump on playback of Tlog in Mission planner, it is at 89.00% to 90.02%

Maybe what happen is you power off Solo but controller remains ON, so telemetry logs is still recording but without Solo drone being ON, it does not record new data...maybe. I suppose this is the last (3rd) flight you speak off where cordinate is seen as HOME or -33.5330765 by 151.3525895

Your RSSI is zero but REMRSSI is good.
2016-03-26T14:11:20.197 to 2016-03-26T14:28:13.863 RSSI stay zero.
If I read correctly, RSSI is the Solo's receiver. REMRSSI is the controller.

If you are looking for coordinates, convert the Tlog to CSV and you will be able to sort out cordinate data using these parameters :
mavlink_terrain_report_t
mavlink_global_position_int_t
mavlink_gps_raw_int_t

What I do not undertand is the coordinate under this parameter
mavlink_terrain_request_t
This coordinate do not change at all and it is in the sea ....LOL. Approx 226 degrees from HOME and 2,400ish meter away.
2016-03-26T14:11:21.772
2016-03-26T14:28:12.540
-33.5472465
-33.5472465
151.3337396
151.3337396

The last coordinatess I can get for your Solo are :
mavlink_gps_raw_int_t ...... 2016-03-26T14:28:13.396 .... -33.5343202 ... 151.3522398
mavlink_global_position_int_t ... 2016-03-26T14:28:11.270 .... -33.5343339 ... 151.3522285
mavlink_terrain_report_t ... 2016-03-26T14:28:13.523 ... -335343184 .... 151.3522406

Good luck finding it and please becareful because the slope looks dangerous.
If dangerous dont push it, take it as a learning $$.

 

[SPP]

More.......
.



This data is 14:27PM upwards or the last 60 seconds before Solo gone.
Guys, THROTTLE means the stick position and not actual motor power....yes ?


Attached the KMZ file .
.

 

[pete]

More.......
.
View attachment 2920


This data is 14:27PM upwards or the last 60 seconds before Solo gone.
Guys, THROTTLE means the stick position and not actual motor power....yes ?
View attachment 2922

Attached the KMZ file .
.

this is strange, this flight lasted only 35 seconds before I lost signal and this position shown on the other side of the Box Head (little peninsula) is not possible, never been that far. furthest I flown the Solo is to the end of the first beach (on 1st and 2nd flight) but 3rd flight was straight ahead from my launch point, about 100m before I lost it.

 

[Jubalr]

this is strange, this flight lasted only 35 seconds before I lost signal and this position shown on the other side of the Box Head (little peninsula) is not possible, never been that far. furthest I flown the Solo is to the end of the first beach (on 1st and 2nd flight) but 3rd flight was straight ahead from my launch point, about 100m before I lost it.

I saw that too, but appears that at least once you powered the Solo down and on again with the controller still on. This makes it look like one long flight, and during GPS acquisition would show GPS off a bit.

 

[pete]

just a short update.
I left early this morning in search for the Solo. it took over one hour to climb down the first cliff and then get through the overgrown plateau on top of the second cliff, I had to use machete to get through all the bush scrub, shrubs or whatever you want to call it. got on top of the cliff rock behind which last Solo position was transmitted but couldn’t see down, so I moved to the cliff rock to the right of it, from there I had better view on the trees below. I noticed some shiny reflection on top of one of the trees but couldn’t make up what it was, just knew that it doesn’t belong there. took few photos from different angles. also tried to fire up my controller to see whether I can get a signal from here, but no luck (not sure of battery would’ve lasted over night).
I couldn’t find a way down, the drop is about 30-40m and I couldn’t find a safe place to descend.

went back and climbed back the first cliff and onto the path that goes around the national park all the way down to the beach, from there I tried to access the base of the big cliffs heading North. it’s only 200-250m from the beach but nearly impossible to get through, I was cutting my way through inch by inch with the machete, it took me about 3 hours from the beach to get to 3/4 of the way before it started to rain quite heavily. on the way up to the cliff base going through this jungle where probably no human was before it’s actually much steeper than I thought, it’s quite an uphill and apart from cutting through the dense bushes and shrubs there are a lot of boulders and rocks, some 5m high that one needs to get over, once it started to rain and all became slippery I had few of those s..t moments that I decided to call it a day.

I spent 6 hours in total looking for Solo but in the end went back home empty handed. Once at home I looked up the photos I took from the top of the cliff where the shiny reflection was and at 4x magnification I can see the Solo on my computer. I didn’t see it when I was there except for the shiny dot. It’s at the top of the tree.

I think I could get there on a dry day but have no plans how to take it down. Perhaps shaking the tree or throwing something at it (rope over the brach and trying to break the branch), but certainly no way I would be able to carry chainsaw or a stepladder through that “jungle”. Trees in this area are about 15-20m tall and Solo seems to be sitting near the top.

View from the top of the cliff - shiny dot exactly in the middle of the photo :


After magnifying the the frame 4x :


That shiny reflection must be from the silver propeller center, also it seems the battery was dislodged.
What's amazing is that the location is to the inch perfect as retrieved from the controller logs. I think controller was receiving updates from Solo to the very moment when the battery got dislodged.

 

[Jubalr]

Wow Pete! Great photo and great eyes to pick that out. At least now you know were it is and can try to formulate a plan. I remember when this was posted a couple of years ago. What do you think?

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[pete]

Wow Pete! Great photo and great eyes to pick that out. At least now you know were it is and can try to formulate a plan. I remember when this was posted a couple of years ago. What do you think?

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I quite enjoyed that video !

it would be lot more difficult to execute with location of my Solo, and first I would need to find someone crazy enough to use his drone for this operation, never mind convincing that person to go with me to the top of that cliff, it's quite a mission just to get there.

what mechanism did they use to release the the rope with the hook ?
I thought the 2nd drone would be carrying down the stranded drone, but it only dropped the hook with rope and then they pulled it down

 

[Nerius]

Accordingly yours explanation, it could be a motor pod problem and if Solo is still under warranty, 3DR probably will replace it.

 

[SPP]

Becareful Pete, climbing to top of trees is a risk.
I used to be like a monkey when I was 14, but I once fell from a coconut tree.....LOL.
Not directly fell but I slipped and grab with all my might the coconut tree trunk chest as brake pad and got chest burned sliding down like 5 meters....

Some fun goggle earth first view attached. See 16:10 minutes upwards.

Almost forgot, your RSSI zero seems to be radio problem for the Solo, that must be properly investigated too.

 

[76woods]

I was flying up on a mountain at my friends property ..very high tree line and wasnt really paying to much attention? (Skimpy dressed female asking questions distracted me ) as i fly over the tree line , way out of site, kinda had a brain fart and could not get it back in view. And could not remember what i set my RTH altitude to.. So as im listening to it trying to determine what direction it was headed i hear a horrible sound ! My solos props hitting leave branches and whatever else..basically hitting a really tall tree..aaaaaaaaaa. I said what the hell and RTH button pressed.. And wow after 10 sec or so hear comes solo...
After later inspection 2 of my props had green stains on them..
Really should have lost it there!

 

[pete]

@emanresU
I don't think controller shows negative values, from my recollection it kept at zero when I went below the launch point altitude

@SPP
where do you find RSSI values ? can't seem to find it on AMP 2

@Adimuzio513
@Nerius
motors, I don't know, was looking more deeply into logs today.
at the point in time when Solo started to have problems it shows on graph that motor no.4 (black on the graph) is somewhat out of line (shortly before the RTL marker and continued after RTL). at the beginning of the flight all 4 motors are in check, but then no.4 has gone little bit off and values for motor no.4 went all the way out of this graph, not sure whether this is still within the norm or not :


checking for rollspeed and pitchspeed values on a separate graph, those were also consistent at the beginning of the flight and then gone "mad", more or less corresponding to the behaviour of the motor no.4 :



either way I don't have much hopes of recovering Solo in good condition after all that rain and it's supposed to be raining for 3 more days. hopefully I can salvage something for the spare parts once/if I'm able to access the site.

already made plans to travel to Sydney tomorrow to buy a second hand Solo cheaply from a guy who's selling his almost brand new one (he bought it to use it at his wedding and is selling it now, apparently never crashed, never hard landing, less than 10 flights in total), we will do a test flight first.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

The problem with trying to hook it with another aircraft, is you're just going to get it snagged on all the tree branches. Now you have a Solo stuck in the tree, and another one basically tethered to a tree until the battery dies. I might try it if I had a rope attached to an EPM gripper so I could jettison the rope.

 

[Jubalr]

The problem with trying to hook it with another aircraft, is you're just going to get it snagged on all the tree branches. Now you have a Solo stuck in the tree, and another one basically tethered to a tree until the battery dies. I might try it if I had a rope attached to an EPM gripper so I could jettison the rope.

I agree. I have seen other rescues using a hex or octo, but they had a servo release for the rope.

 

[SPP]

Hi Pete,
Your Solo Tlog can be converted with Mission Planner to become a CSV file , me dont use APM 2, so zero experience for me.
Choosing a Ground Station — Copter documentation

From there you need to do manual search for RSSI and do sorting excel way.
Look for column H , mavlink_radio_status_t
Sort by H and it should all pile up nicely.

I look at my own log, all RSSI is always zero too, only the REMRSSI has values...don't ask me why that is so.
I must ask 3DR where do I read Solo's radio signal strenght if only the REMRSSI has value. REMSSI supposedly is the Controller.
I attached for you yah the CSV.

Happy shopping for your pre-owned Solo.

 

[pete]

got the Solo back at home, it took one more nasty trip and little bit of macgyvering around the tree to bring her down.

shell is all good, no cracks, no visible damage anywhere, lost 3 props, battery is likely gone since it was lying down in wet ground for several days.

not sure about the gimbal until I power it up, but it's straight.

first quick inspection after removing the battery tray shows no visible signs of water inside, removed all 4 motor pods, seems alright, only wiring for motor pod no.3 was bit damped.

GoPro is in one piece, no signs of water in HDMI and USB connectors, MicroSD card is readable (going to look inside before powering up).

I'm now going to take Solo completely apart to have a better look and leave it to dry out if I find any signs of water.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I cannot believe you got this thing back from a tree growing out the side of a cliff to begin with, let alone that it is seemingly unscathed. Nice job!

 

[Jubalr]

Nice Job Pete! Glad to hear it. If you are able to let it dry completely, you should be able to pull the logs and see if there was any additional info after the controller logs ended.

 

[Vu.3DR]

Wow, great job on the recovery Pete! If you have any issues with your Solo, please let me know, [email protected], and we'll see what we can do to help you out! Double check the water damage on the batteries and/or the motors.

 

[pete]

Wow, great job on the recovery Pete! If you have any issues with your Solo, please let me know, [email protected], and we'll see what we can do to help you out! Double check the water damage on the batteries and/or the motors.

Vu, thanks for the heads up.
your guys from support were in touch with me every day since the incident, yesterday I was offered full replacement, I declined that but thanks for the gesture anyway, I knew I would retrieve the Solo eventually.

I have completely disassembled the Solo and after removing all parts, wiring and the main board I found no traces of water. I'll leave it like this for the next 24-48 hours just in case there is some invisible moisture on any of the electronic components.

As a precaution I'll replace all motor pods, I have 4 new motor pods in my spares package and I do have a spare gimbal if I need to replace it.

I was going to buy another second hand Solo to have a spare one for my upcoming trip to the remote outback but that deal didn't go through and when trying to order directly from 3DR then my order is getting cancelled, I tried already 4x and it got cancelled every time, maybe you can help me with that. It's just that I find it very funny while dealing with your sales department and trying to give you money for new Solo, they cancel it every time and promptly refund my credit card next day, but then at the same time different department of yours sends me random email offering me new Solo free of charge.

 

[Nerius]

Do you know a reason why Solo malfunctioned ?