OK had my first real play with the Solo on android with firmware V1.3 and App at V1.3.
First of all once I got it going this thing is seriously stable and fun to fly. V1.3 fixes most of the shitty flight characteristics I had previously so Thanks 3DR and hope there is more to come.
Now for the reality.
Pros.
1) finally we have some GP control. I think there are a few more controls needed to complete this 'little' set. Others will list them over time but this is a good start.
2) obviously the stable flight (when GPS has lock) and even in manual this thing is fun to fly. I flew it through a giant fig tree in it came out the other side spitting leaves like a daemon and just kept going.
Cons.
1) GoPro only works in NTSC mode and using only NTSC settings. if the GP is set to PAL Solo does not recognize the camera. We need to use PAL settings as well and this needs to be added pronto.
2) constantly getting update firmware when I turn GP on for the first time. cycle GP and it goes away (most times). this is a bit annoying after several times.
3) video displays well on tablet until you go into a flight mode (selfe etc) then is distorts the crap out of the video on the tablet. not sure why this is - didn't do it before.
4) AND OF COURSE THAT SHITTY GPS that looses lock at the drop of a hat. Seriously, a bird flew past and it lost lock for about 5 seconds. It seams to me that a solution would be to place the antenna on top of the metal housing under the plastic cover. Also using an ACTIVE 32mm patch antenna with LNA Gain and a SAW filter (and possibly using the metal bracket as a solid ground plane to reduce multipath) AND moving to the uBlox M8N would provide a better solution. I speak from nearly 30 years of GPS/GNSS integration into consumer/survey grade systems. I have at least 50 GPS at hand and the only time I have seen a GPS behave like this is when either the antenna is faulty or the coax cable from the antenna to the board is faulty. 3DR needs to stop talking around this with nonsense PDOP/HPDOP blah blah blah and provide a physical modification to the current assembly - its just bad engineering. all this claptrap about the M8N being to sensitive is primarily due to crapy antenna. All my millimeter accurate Survey Grade GNSS use multi constellation and I have no problems - why, cause they have decent, well designed, antennas. Come On 3DR!
5) Not sure I like that the GP starts recording when you select a flight mode. I think I prefer to start it when I am ready to record after I have setup the flight characteristics.
6) In Follow me mode the GPS update rate from the tablet in the Solo App (i use an external blue tooth GPS for better accuracy) is too slow. it appears to update your position every 2-4 seconds. Again on an android tablet and at V1.3 this is the first time this feature has worked for me. Previously it could not see the tablets GPS even though other applications can. Also the other applications have a 1 second update rate or better. having a slow update rate means you have to move slowly or you will move out of shot. Also, the Solo is very jerky/twitchy in the Yaw when catching up to your current position. this is partially due to the slow GPS update rate but I think there needs to be some tuning to dampen the yawing to not be so jerky.
Will these are my first thoughts. This is kind of getting to what I expected to get when i bought this thing. but there is still a long way to go. 3DR did a seriously big sell before the release and now its catch up time!
First of all once I got it going this thing is seriously stable and fun to fly. V1.3 fixes most of the shitty flight characteristics I had previously so Thanks 3DR and hope there is more to come.
Now for the reality.
Pros.
1) finally we have some GP control. I think there are a few more controls needed to complete this 'little' set. Others will list them over time but this is a good start.
2) obviously the stable flight (when GPS has lock) and even in manual this thing is fun to fly. I flew it through a giant fig tree in it came out the other side spitting leaves like a daemon and just kept going.
Cons.
1) GoPro only works in NTSC mode and using only NTSC settings. if the GP is set to PAL Solo does not recognize the camera. We need to use PAL settings as well and this needs to be added pronto.
2) constantly getting update firmware when I turn GP on for the first time. cycle GP and it goes away (most times). this is a bit annoying after several times.
3) video displays well on tablet until you go into a flight mode (selfe etc) then is distorts the crap out of the video on the tablet. not sure why this is - didn't do it before.
4) AND OF COURSE THAT SHITTY GPS that looses lock at the drop of a hat. Seriously, a bird flew past and it lost lock for about 5 seconds. It seams to me that a solution would be to place the antenna on top of the metal housing under the plastic cover. Also using an ACTIVE 32mm patch antenna with LNA Gain and a SAW filter (and possibly using the metal bracket as a solid ground plane to reduce multipath) AND moving to the uBlox M8N would provide a better solution. I speak from nearly 30 years of GPS/GNSS integration into consumer/survey grade systems. I have at least 50 GPS at hand and the only time I have seen a GPS behave like this is when either the antenna is faulty or the coax cable from the antenna to the board is faulty. 3DR needs to stop talking around this with nonsense PDOP/HPDOP blah blah blah and provide a physical modification to the current assembly - its just bad engineering. all this claptrap about the M8N being to sensitive is primarily due to crapy antenna. All my millimeter accurate Survey Grade GNSS use multi constellation and I have no problems - why, cause they have decent, well designed, antennas. Come On 3DR!
5) Not sure I like that the GP starts recording when you select a flight mode. I think I prefer to start it when I am ready to record after I have setup the flight characteristics.
6) In Follow me mode the GPS update rate from the tablet in the Solo App (i use an external blue tooth GPS for better accuracy) is too slow. it appears to update your position every 2-4 seconds. Again on an android tablet and at V1.3 this is the first time this feature has worked for me. Previously it could not see the tablets GPS even though other applications can. Also the other applications have a 1 second update rate or better. having a slow update rate means you have to move slowly or you will move out of shot. Also, the Solo is very jerky/twitchy in the Yaw when catching up to your current position. this is partially due to the slow GPS update rate but I think there needs to be some tuning to dampen the yawing to not be so jerky.
Will these are my first thoughts. This is kind of getting to what I expected to get when i bought this thing. but there is still a long way to go. 3DR did a seriously big sell before the release and now its catch up time!