Finally!

[Earldgrayjr]

My Solo finally arrived today.

I quickly unboxed it, charged it and the controller and set it up. All went well except the solo firmware didn't take on the first try. It gave me the option to try again, so I did and all went well.

Hooked up the GoPro in the house with no props and started the motors. It purred, had video, and a few satellites.

Decided to give it a try and realized that it is VERY sunny out now, so I made a shade out of cardboard and headed out the nearest open field. Set it back up in a couple minutes Satellites only took another minute, and I was ready to go.

In the end, Flawless. I kept it in "granny" mode for the entire first flight, and it was perfect. I got a feel for the controls and performed several manual take offs and landings in addition to testing the automated versions.

I flew around and checking out the video (which is perfect) and practiced arc"d turns etc. and took it up to 200 ft to do some preliminary range testing before the FPVLR arrives. It performs very smoothly and I had all bars at 200 ft up and 100 ft away.

Decided to try the "selfie" and it performed just as expected. Tried the "cable cam" and it was perfect also. I thought about "follow me" and "orbit" but the field I was in is very small and surrounded by very tall trees (Washington State) and I hadn't read up very much on the parameters of either of these, so I decided to leave it alone Until I have more room and additional info.

Took video looking forward, and also straight down. Adjusting the camera between landings. After picking up the unit to adjust the camera, I had to reaquire satellites, but it only took a minute. Al in all it was everything I expected, except for the gimbal.

Now to go look at the video

 

[Raybro]

Great!

 

[1013D]

Congrats.....enjoy.

 

[Jubalr]

Awesome Earl! Congrats.

 

[sgs182]

Glad your flight went well!

Haven't tried manual takes off yet. Does it shoot high up into the air or hover lower than auto take off?

 

[Jubalr]

Glad your flight went well!

Haven't tried manual takes off yet. Does it shoot high up into the air or hover lower than auto take off?

It's completely controlled by you and how much throttle you give. You can take off very slow and low or shoot it right up..

 

[sgs182]

It's completely controlled by you and how much throttle you give. You can take off very slow and low or shoot it right up..

Oh good. I will definitely try that this weekend. Thanks!

 

[Earldgrayjr]

Ummm... Looks like I spoke to soon.

I had my second flight yesterday afternoon after recharging, and that flight did not go so well....

I just got a new roof put on in preparation for solar panels, and decided to get a picture of it to boast on facebook I live in a "fairly" rural area and so have some room to move. As before, the solo found satellites quickly with no errors and was ready to go in less than 5 minutes.

I was going to just take video and grab a frame from that for my picture. I took off and made some passes over the house, when I realized I didn't hit record on the GoPro. I am on android so I don't have camera roll. I was going to bring it in, but wanted to see if I could tell if it was recording from the app (without the gimbal) and so I let it hover a bit at about 20 ft while looking at the app.

It was then Solo the solo just started tumbling. I saw it in the app and heard it at the same time. Sort of end over and and side over side all at once. It tumbled a couple times while falling almost straight down. Luckily it landed about 30 ft away in the bushes I was hovering over. I grabbed it and it (and the GoPro) didn't look any worse for wear. Not even a scuff. I had a battery backback on the GoPro and it didn't even fall off.

Not sure what happened but figuring I got lucky, at least from the outside (considering it could have landed on the asphault a few feet away) I took it back to my launchpad, pulled off the props and started to check it out. I restarted the Solo, and it wouldn't start.... NOOOooooo.....

When I hit the power button the LED's would animate, but it would then just turn off. After several tries I started to notice (it had happened earlier I just didn't catch it) that one of the motors "jumped" and clicked slightly when it was trying to start....

I tried over an over. I considered reseting the unit, but was wondering why the Solo tumbled, and thinking it could be a bad motor.. I also read (here) where a guy reset his Solo with similar conditions and the motor smoked, so I decided to be patient and wait for 3DR. I logged a trouble "email" through the app.

Being a "little" impatient, I called 3DR first thing this AM and worked with support. I was only on hold for 5 minutes and got a live person that seemed knowledgeable. They had me send the log files, and also disconnect the motor that was clicking. The motor came out surprisingly easily by removing four screws and a couple connectors under the LED lense. Took less than a minute That is pretty nice. FYI, the motor pod also includes the LED array....

That allowed the Solo to start up all the way (note to self) and confirmed that the clicking motor was at least the culprit stopping the unit from starting up. That made me glad I hadn't performed the reset, as I am betting I would have made fireworks.... and possibly burned up more than just the bad motor.

So... on day two... 3DR has my log files, and I have a bird missing a motor. They said the engineers were off today, and they would look at the files by Monday....

Hopefully it is just the motor, 3DR will get me a new one promptly, and I will be up and flying again soon... Time will tell....

I will keep you posted...

 

[prowler9]

Scary! Hope it all works out for ya.

 

[Raybro]

I'm sure that's what it is. Hopefully they get a replacement out quickly.

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[rrmccabe]

Thanks for info. Cant wait to see what the log files say.

 

[prowler9]

I am excited you can repair them like this..

 

[Earldgrayjr]

Update: 3DR tech emailed over the weekend, and asked me for a description of what happened...

I gave him this:

"This was the second flight. The setup went nearly flawlessly. I had an error updating the new firmware but it gave me an option to retry. I did, and it took.

The first flight went flawlessly. Auto takeoff and landing, some flying around. Several manual landings as well as "selfie" and "cable cam" smart shots.

The second flight is where I had trouble. I was going to take video of my roof, as it was just replaced and has standoffs for solar panels going in next week.

Set up went fine, as did takeoff. Made a few passes when I realized I hadn't hit record on the GoPro. I missed it as I was seeing live video. I got curious if I could see if it was recording since I had OSD turned on on the GoPro. I got it in a good spot and let it hover at about 20 ft over the street while I was looking at the screen.

Was doing that, when it just started to tumble down. It was making a noise like a mad bumble bee and just tumbling sort of side over side and end over end all at the same time.

The whole thing was over in a second it didn't last long as it wasn't that high. Luckily it landed in a combination of blackberry bushes and ivy about 3 ft deep. I ran over and got it and it wasn't touching the ground. It had already turned itself off.

It didn't have any scratches on it or outwardly visible problems, so I took it back to my launch pad, took the props off and tried to start it back up.

The lights would start to animate as normal, but it wouldn't complete the startup procedure. I tried several times. And decided the best path was to send a trouble report.

Took it to my shop and tried several more times under scrutiny. Considered reset, but had read on the forums of another owner resetting after a similar event and it booted, and then smoked a motor (that was probably bad).

I had noticed one of the motors clicking when it was trying to start in my shop. I called the next morning and Cynthia took me through the process of removing the motor pod that was clicking on startup. This allowed the Solo to complete the boot sequence. We didn't try anything further.

She had me get the log files and send them on. Unfortunately I am using Android and forgot to hit Record so I don't have video.

Hope this helps. Let me know how I can assist further. I would like to get this going ASAP but obviously want it to work. Thanks again for the help."

So far, very responsive... We will see what happenes today...

 

[RikMiddle]

Same here.
Welcome to the one batt, dead bird club.
Mine I think was caused by losing a prop.
But your description of " hover/bubble bee sound/tumble" is just what I experienced @ 65ish feet.
2 broken props, one ok, the other disappeared.

I really did not snug them up enough?

Hope so, ticket is in with logs... Waiting on 3DR and for props from BB.


My motors seem fine.

 

[Operator74656]

i wonder how much the replacement engine pods will be....

 

[Earldgrayjr]

i wonder how much the replacement engine pods will be....

Good question, though I am just hoping to get one quick. Not sure what kind of data is in the logs, but pretty sure they would take care of mine.

 

[Lonewulph]

Dont know if I missed it... just curious was the wifi on the gopro on when it started tumbling?

 

[Earldgrayjr]

No it was off. Very careful about that.

 

[Lonewulph]

Ok cool

 

[Earldgrayjr]

OK... Now I am getting mad....

After I posted hetre today I pinged 3DR via email to see what they came up with.... They did get back to me in a few hours (after 5:00 PM PST though) and this is what they said...

"Hello Earl,

I just finished reviewing the logs you sent.

There was no issue with your Solo, what happened was that the flight mode changed to ALT HOLD and Solo started drifting because of the wind.
It also looks like the pilot lost orientation and that's why it crashed.
Since Solo didn't malfunction we can't replace the motor pod, but we can offer you replacement for one motor pod for about 59.95 dlls +Tax.

Please let me know if you are interested on buying one motor pod so I can get that process started.

Ruben Jacobo
[Tech Support Engineer]"

Only one problem.... That isn't what happened. Not even close.....

There was virtually no wind, I didn't put the unit in ALT HOLD (assuming that is pause or panic) and it didn't drift anywhere. Drifting not only wasn't the cause of the crash, it just didn't drift at all.... As I described, it just.... Fell....... tumbling all the way down. It also landed in soft bushes, not even touching the ground, not leaving even a scratch on it.... And "coincidentily" has a bad motor...

I Sooo... want to like this copter... But Now I really don't trust them OR the Solo. I responded to 3DR, explaining what was proposed was not possible, and didn't explain what I was looking at< and I asked to speak to a higher authority, and have a second set of eyes on the logs.

Obviously, money isn't the issue (especially for $60) but now I am left questioning how the logs work, or how they are interpreted by 3DR, as what he is saying doesn't connect at all with what I experienced and what I saw happen.

I recall a site/program discussed here that can interpret the log files, but didn't save it (didn't think I would need it so soon) and I haven't ;learned how to search the site for it.

Can someone point me to the site/program? I don't like being in a position of not knowing how things work (not normal for me) and I want to get to the bottom of this, even if I do send it back...

.