Firmware and apps

[PdxSteve]

It would just be nice to have it as an option is all, not necessarily a hardcoded setting that can't be changed. Just like you can set it to RTH or RTM. I'd like Rewind+RTH as an option as well. It would come in handy in some circumstances, but not all. Yes, really all discussion on the software except for bugfixes is moot. It is what it is. I find rewind useful in some circumstances and am glad I can still trigger it manually. Since they're done with it, muscle memory will develop.

 

[User Name]

but what if that tree is actually a 251ft tall tower? Rewind during loss of signal RTL would have saved me...

Not if your rewind distance happened to run out right where you flew under an obstruction.

The point is it seems to leave the door open for an incident either way, just a different one. Failsafes by their nature should be as clear, predictable, consistent and uncomplicated as possible.

And as Steve said, everyone was free to join the beta and voice their opinion. The majority thought it wasn't worth the risk.

 

[jibcamera]

Not if your rewind distance happened to run out right where you flew under an obstruction.

The point is it seems to leave the door open for an incident either way, just a different one. Failsafes by their nature should be as clear, predictable, consistent and uncomplicated as possible.

And as Steve said, everyone was free to join the beta and voice their opinion. The majority thought it wasn't worth the risk.

just like i set my RTL altitude every flight as part of preflight checks (and especially because android app loves to keep resetting itself randomly), i would also set my rewind distance each flight...and if i was planning to fly under overhead obstacles (which i never would unless very close to bird and in FLY:Manual mode), i would also calculate and set the appropriate amount of rewind...oh well, maybe Solex?

 

[User Name]

just like i set my RTL altitude every flight as part of preflight checks (and especially because android app loves to keep resetting itself randomly), i would also set my rewind distance each flight...

But you never know where it's going to loose signal and trigger a failsafe, so you'll never know the distance between that location and possible obstructions you flew under. And the ability to estimate distance accurately in 3d space is virtually zero.

I get that it would be handy, but it also poses risk. I'd agree with PdxSteve, it'd be nice to have it as an optional RTL procedural, but not hardcoded.

 

[jibcamera]

The only time "hardcoded" would be a potential issue is when flying under obstacles....something that virutally NOONE does...and if they do, you can be sure they are either extremely competent and alert or are complete idiots who will have accidental crashes regardless...

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

lol. There is certainly no solution that will cover every circumstance. And when you factor in users that ignore every shred of instruction and common sense, well those will be beyond reasonable help.

Rewind as a failsafe to me would be very useful. If I go out of range, simply reversing X feet and re-establishing a connection gets me back in control and back to the shot I was working with minimal disruption. Whereas a traditional RTL throws off everything I was doing, climbing up to altitude and beginning to fly home.

BTW, now I know why I never knew about the pause thing. On the update screen in the app when prompted for 2.4.1-6, the line about using the pause button was below the cut off of the screen. There is no scroll bar, so all I saw was the line about "many new improvements". I just did a factory reset and scrolled that screen by accident with my finger.

 

[RichWest]

The only time "hardcoded" would be a potential issue is when flying under obstacles....something that virutally NOONE does...and if they do, you can be sure they are either extremely competent and alert or are complete idiots who will have accidental crashes regardless...

I'll fall on the alert sword. But sure give me the option to enable or disable the feature. Like setting Failsafe options or the RTH height. In any case, the more we take away the pilot's need to be situational aware, then they are less likely to survey the AO as completely as they should.

I'd like Simple and Super Simple flight modes, these would get more people out of trouble than much of what has been offered to assist the wayward bird and pilot.

 

[quick_dry]

(disclaimer: bear with me as I only pulled the trigger on Solo with the prime sales, so still waiting for it to land in Aus - I'm coming from Iris+ & other pixhawk beasties)

When I bought, I was actually under the impression it could be setup to do Rewind on signal loss until it regained a connection, or it reached the start point (or a dead battery). I do agree that rewinding a couple of hundred feet and then doing RTL would seem strange and be unpredictable. Hopefully all this can change once Solo is on AC master.

Is there a limitation on storing position points that meant it couldn't do full rewind? (e.g. if they went into RAM and not to bulk storage memory)

 

[User Name]

I would think it'd have to store the flight path with a fairly high resolution to truly make it "don't hit anything on the way in, it won't hit anything on the way out". A spline is drawn through MPCC waypoints, which is necessary for a nice smooth path, but probably not precise enough for a failsafe mode.

But all indications are 3DR is pretty much done with consumer Solo beyond maybe some bug fixes, and even that is questionable. Our best bet for new features at this point is Kelly Schrock's Solex. He's been doing a heck of a job on it so far with some pretty amazing capabilities. But I'm not sure how much rewind is handled in the app vs. firmware.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I would imagine that's why the rewind is limited to 350 feet or something like that. It has to store a LOT of points to make a nice high resolution reversing move.

I still don't get the "unpredictable" thing. It's exactly predictable. There is an on/off switch for the function, and a distance. It will do exactly what you've set it to do if it isn't full of bugs. I get that the beta testing crew found it unpredictable and undesirable. And I'm not saying they're wrong because I wasn't there. I just don't get it.

 

[User Name]

I think the unpredictable part would be knowing at what poiny it would reach the end of its rewind distance, where it would presumably initiate a traditional RTL. Since you never know exactly where you're going to loose signal, you can't predict where, say, 350 feet reversed from that is.

I do get that there are scenarios where it'd be valuable though. I'm going to make a point of testing it's current functionality. I waited until the official 2.4 was released, so I've been playing with all the other cool features.

 

[quick_dry]

I would imagine that's why the rewind is limited to 350 feet or something like that. It has to store a LOT of points to make a nice high resolution reversing move.

what is the onboard storage amount though and the current rewind level of resolution?
I imagine a rewind failsafe as running on the companion computer and just feeding mavlink goto commands to the PH2 (is there a repo with everything that the solo imx6 runs?). A log of 3D points taken 1 per metre for a 30km distance flight is small - mavlink uses uint32 for all 4 fields IIRC, or written out as text (e.g. -134.364114,-149.166022,5130\n) - both under 1MB for 30,000 points.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Yes, it's all done by the companion computer, which puts the pixhawk into Guided Mode. The pixhawk never actually knows the Solo lost signal.

 

[fpvsteve]

I imagine a rewind failsafe as running on the companion computer and just feeding mavlink goto commands to the PH2 (is there a repo with everything that the solo imx6 runs?). A log of 3D points taken 1 per metre for a 30km distance flight is small - mavlink uses uint32 for all 4 fields IIRC, or written out as text (e.g. -134.364114,-149.166022,5130\n) - both under 1MB for 30,000 points.

This is correct. The Artoo just feeds the path of the last <60 meters to the FC.
You can speculate why it's limited to that 60m - my take it's a safety reason. Purpose always was safety eg to be able to pull out Solo from behind an obstacle.
This is how I am using it.
It was never meant to be a "flight recorder and playback " device.

 

[User Name]

So I've since updated both my Solo's to 2.4 and tested everything out.

Rewind works in flight, seems handy enough, I know the disable setting in the app isn't functional, but I'm not sure there's any reason to disable it. It takes a purposeful long press of the pause button, so it's not likely to be triggered by accident.

Selfie seems to work, not sure what the glitch is, but I'll admit to not being one to use it often (or at all), so I may be missing something.

Return to Me, wowwa... this should have been disabled in the app. The phone I use with my Solo isn't even on a network (my old Nexus 5), and I have high-accuracy enabled, so one would assume it's using only GPS for location data. Good thing I expected this, because when I tested it just for the heck of it, Solo would climb to the set altitude and then take off... in the total opposite direction to where I was. Who knows where it was headed. I tried it several times, and was ready to put it back in Fly mode. For anyone reading and using Solo with Android... make sure Return Home is set to Launch NOT ME!!! Holy molly, it's scary that this made it into the official release.

Other than that, everything seems to work just fine.

 

[pyrate]

Yeah there have been several warnings about RTm in solo app. If you don't have iOS snag solex

 

[fpvsteve]

Hint: switch to map view and search for the blue location mark. This is the point where Solo would have headed to in case of RTM.
In the picture here about one mile away from me.
It's a known defect.