First Flight With The $66 Solo!

Lon Denard · Jul 20, 2017

So I received my refurb yesterday and installed a gps shield, Alfa ant, MA props and removed the phone and camera holder from the controller and drone respectively. Programmed A to Sport mode and B to Acro.

A quick word on the Best Buy refurb, it looked brand new! Not a scratch on it and all the shipping stickers were intact. All the manuals, accessories, foam blocks, etc was all there as well. Not bad for $66!

Okay, Sport mode is nuts! Here's the thing, when you have less than $100 invested and you don't have a $400 camera hanging from it, your perspective changes! Hahaha! It's a whole different experience! I lost gps 3 times and didn't care. It may be my imagination but I swear it flies way better and it's way more fun when you're not worried about losing it or getting some stupid shot! I honestly recommend flying it without a camera or gimbal just for fun!

XevetS · Jul 21, 2017

Been there done that lol yeah its great until you crash it hard and your like "damn...I really liked my 66 dollar solo"
while it lasted......Oh and wait till you start sending it on autonomous missions that's where it gets real interesting, have fun man....The Solo rocks period!!

vic3rose · Jul 21, 2017

Hey! I want one, lol! Where may I ask are the $66 refurbs? That would be fun to play with! Thanks!

Lon Denard · Jul 21, 2017

XevetS said:
Been there done that lol yeah its great until you crash it hard and your like "damn...I really liked my 66 dollar solo"
while it lasted......Oh and wait till you start sending it on autonomous missions that's where it gets real interesting, have fun man....The Solo rocks period!!

Yea it's my 6th Solo...

taporter · Jul 22, 2017

$66 for a Solo! Where did you get this bargain?

Lon Denard · Jul 22, 2017

taporter said:
$66 for a Solo! Where did you get this bargain?

I posted a picture of the receipt. It's a series of happenstance that got it to that cost. I had an old Drone Guard 400 bag that I got as a gift last year. A 15% promo coupon from Best Buy for the month of July. I used that on the Mavic I ordered as well. By the time I was done with them, my cost was $66.

gnomad · Jul 23, 2017

All over eBay, I currently have 9 of them that fly like a dream. All I had to do was calibrate everyone of the customer returns since they apparently were too stupid to read the instructions.

Hope they have more fun with their DJI replacements that I would bet every single one of the dropped a grand on.

Lon Denard · Jul 23, 2017

gnomad said:
All over eBay, I currently have 9 of them that fly like a dream. All I had to do was calibrate everyone of the customer returns since they apparently were too stupid to read the instructions.

Hope they have more fun with their DJI replacements that I would bet every single one of the dropped a grand on.

Well, I hope no one gets one of my old drones after just a calibration...

As someone that owns the Karma, the Solo and soon the Mavic, I'm sure that I'll discover that they each have their strong points and their weaknesses.

For example,
the Solo has great autonomous shots, decent camera, open source, very stable but short range, weak stock gps and isn't very portable.

The Karma has better range, is more portable and versatile, zero props or legs in the shot, built in screen, awesome camera but very few autonomous shots.

The Mavic has awesome range, crash avoidance, is portable, can be flown with your phone alone, has good autonomous shots (supposedly) but had an inferior camera, fragile gimbal and is potentially over controlled by DJI.

As far as price goes, if you're going by current available prices, the Solo has them beat! A new Solo with gimbal, camera and bag will cost you around $700-800
.
The Karma is $1099

The Mavic is around $1100 as well depending on what bag you get.

The only negative thing I'll say about the Solo in relation to price is that I honestly believe that you should also do the shield/gps upgrade ($100) and the antenna upgrade ($30) which brings you up to around $900 depending on what deals you got on everything. Of course, I know that you can get a refurbished unit from Best Buy for $180 but it's hardly fair to compare used units to new.

jerryn · Jul 23, 2017

My alfa antennas doubled my range and the pair only cost $20.00

Lon Denard · Jul 23, 2017

jerryn said:
My alfa antennas doubled my range and the pair only cost $20.00

$20 or $30 what difference does it make?

RiverPilot · Jul 25, 2017

Got me a refurb from BB and added second solo to the drone family. Updated to MRO (small investment for the over all deal) Wife is quickly getting frustrated as I know will never see this much bang for the buck again and now have room full of SOLO’s and Batteries .

Last night attempted sport mode for whatever stupid reason. Up about 130' and I quickly learned a couple things.

A: I was an overconfident pilot. (I say "was" because "now" I know I suck)

B: How to get it back into “fly” mode should have been something I knew how to do before I put it into sports mode.

C: Without the “brains” of computer assisted flight I would plant these quads into the ground/Trees/Houses/ anything faster than you could give them to me.

Anyway, barely able to bring it back in manual mode (slight wind) and set it down in back yard drifting sideways and flipped it over. No damage except my pride. In short the preaching I read over and over again is “KNOW HOW TO FLY MANUAL” first before you ever fly it in GPS lock. Well for me loosing GPS far away if in wind I have maybe 40%-50% chance of getting it back. Losing the smarts of my SOLO is simply not an option. I have manual mode only set to A for last ditch effort if a fly away was to occur. If newbs like me out there that have 30 or so flights under your belt and begin to feel froggy and want to take the training wheels off be prepared. Should be in wide open field with 4 foot tall thick weeds/grass and half dozen spotters. DO NOT fly from your back yard over swamp.

This winter I will again attempt to learn how to fly indoors with a toy quad and will crash it multiple times & again and come to the same determination as previous year. I stink and I can only fly with computer assistance in wide open areas in the wilderness (Like over the River) where there are no humans or animals I can take out if my technology fails.

Lon Denard · Jul 25, 2017

RiverPilot said:
Got me a refurb from BB and added second solo to the drone family. Updated to MRO (small investment for the over all deal) Wife is quickly getting frustrated as I know will never see this much bang for the buck again and now have room full of SOLO’s and Batteries .

Last night attempted sport mode for whatever stupid reason. Up about 130' and I quickly learned a couple things.

A: I was an overconfident pilot. (I say "was" because "now" I know I suck)

B: How to get it back into “fly” mode should have been something I knew how to do before I put it into sports mode.

C: Without the “brains” of computer assisted flight I would plant these quads into the ground/Trees/Houses/ anything faster than you could give them to me.

Anyway, barely able to bring it back in manual mode (slight wind) and set it down in back yard drifting sideways and flipped it over. No damage except my pride. In short the preaching I read over and over again is “KNOW HOW TO FLY MANUAL” first before you ever fly it in GPS lock. Well for me loosing GPS far away if in wind I have maybe 40%-50% chance of getting it back. Losing the smarts of my SOLO is simply not an option. I have manual mode only set to A for last ditch effort if a fly away was to occur. If newbs like me out there that have 30 or so flights under your belt and begin to feel froggy and want to take the training wheels off be prepared. Should be in wide open field with 4 foot tall thick weeds/grass and half dozen spotters. DO NOT fly from your back yard over swamp.

This winter I will again attempt to learn how to fly indoors with a toy quad and will crash it multiple times & again and come to the same determination as previous year. I stink and I can only fly with computer assistance in wide open areas in the wilderness (Like over the River) where there are no humans or animals I can take out if my technology fails.

Yea I've done a few flights in sport mode now and it wasn't too crazy but I came from flying a drone without any gps assistance to begin with. The thing with sport mode that almost got me was when gps went out. Altitude is controlled by barometer in sport mode...but it went into an almost immediate nose dive when gps was lost. All I can say is A is set to sport and B is set to manual. Obviously, you can just hit the "FLY" button to get back provided you have GPS that is.

David Boulanger · Jul 25, 2017

Altitude is controlled by GPS in Sport Mode? Making false statements helps no one. Sport uses the Alt Hold controller with the rate controller of Stab Mode. Something close to that. Alt Hold needs no GPS.

andrew.baker.142 · Jul 25, 2017

Agree with DB, altitude is controlled exclusively by the barometer inside Pixhawk. GPS is not used for any altitude control in any flight mode with Solo.

David Boulanger · Jul 25, 2017

Ya. I think I'm right. There may be a part of the EKF that uses GPS altitude. But that is a super complicated formula to decide what the aircraft should do with the data it is given. Lon Denard, I will give you $100 for everyone of your bad Solo's. With a few conditions of course.

Lon Denard · Jul 25, 2017

David Boulanger said:
Ya. I think I'm right. There may be a part of the EKF that uses GPS altitude. But that is a super complicated formula to decide what the aircraft should do with the data it is given. Lon Denard, I will give you $100 for everyone of your bad Solo's. With a few conditions of course.

I might take you up on that! What are the terms? I've had 6 Solos so if you're offering me $600 to leave the forum I can live with that! Hahaha!

I apologize if I'm wrong about alt control utilizing the gps. I admit to that being an assumption. Well that and the noise dive after "lost gps".... I don't pretend to be a total expert, I merely read the manual which stated that altitude was held in sport mode. Sorry if I incorrectly thought that was a function of the gps module.

Lon Denard · Jul 25, 2017

andrew.baker.142 said:
Agree with DB, altitude is controlled exclusively by the barometer inside Pixhawk. GPS is not used for any altitude control in any flight mode with Solo.

Ah...my fault! Yeesh fellas, now at least I know how to get your attention if I ever want anything!

Lon Denard · Jul 25, 2017

I totally fixed it! Does that get me back into the Christmas card list?

andrew.baker.142 · Jul 26, 2017

Lon Denard said:
Ah...my fault! Yeesh fellas, now at least I know how to get your attention if I ever want anything!

Not trying to beat you on the head with facts. It is helpful to provide more details for anyone reading this post.

Lon Denard · Jul 26, 2017

andrew.baker.142 said:
Not trying to beat you on the head with facts. It is helpful to provide more details for anyone reading this post.

Nah, I was wrong and I don't have any problem admitting it. I used incidental evidence in place of actual causal evidence. I was flying in sport, lost gps, Solo nose dives, I mash manual to recover, ASSume it had something to do with gps lost, post out of my ass, got beat up, corrected. Luckily, I've only experimented with sport at higher altitudes to give myself plenty of room to react to any issues.