Foating solo. Flying over water

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

Put some floats on my solo today. Water tested in tub. It floats very well and is stable. I moved antennas up higher and compass. I will pit water proof housing on camera. It flies great. I will post some film from the bay area later. Very happy with results.

treesmokingdroneflyingguy · Jun 19, 2017

Silicone conformal coating will help keep your boards protected from posture and dust.
They sell if for $18 on Amazon.
I also took the waterproof housing for the GoPro, cut and chiseled at certain spots to get the feed cable to fit in and still put a really dense piece of foam around it to keep water out.

Best of luck to you

Greg Parker · Jun 19, 2017

Gary Burch said:
Put some floats on my solo today. Water tested in tub. It floats very well and is stable. I moved antennas up higher and compass. I will pit water proof housing on camera. It flies great. I will post some film from the bay area later. Very happy with results.

Are you planning on landing on the water? What is the scenario you are trying to protect against?

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

Great advice. Thanks

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

Yes I will land on water in an emergency.

treesmokingdroneflyingguy · Jun 19, 2017

I think you've come up with an excellent idea for emergency water landing. Now the only issue I see is trying to retrieve it.
Might be hard because the water isn't stable and the solo needs stabilization to take off, unfortunately.
But none the less. Very awesome idea.

XevetS · Jun 19, 2017

treesmokingdroneflyingguy said:
I think you've come up with an excellent idea for emergency water landing. Now the only issue I see is trying to retrieve it.
Might be hard because the water isn't stable and the solo needs stabilization to take off, unfortunately.
But none the less. Very awesome idea.

I agree, good job

treesmokingdroneflyingguy · Jun 19, 2017

Gary Burch said:
Yes I will land on water in an emergency.

Can you send dimensions and all that good stuff in case I attempt to do this myself?

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

These are 15 inch long cut pool noodles. Leave about 2 inches from front of noodle to legs. Cut out at an angle in front, so it will not interfere with camera. Put camera on medium mode. Use picture frame wire between legs. Tie foam on with plastic cable ties

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

Split noodle down one side to go over wire. Cut out about 2 inches out of bottom noodle to fit snug against upper noodle also. Place a wire in the middle for support.

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

Maybe we can take off from water if we install green cube

Gary Burch · Jun 19, 2017

treesmokingdroneflyingguy said:
I think you've come up with an excellent idea for emergency water landing. Now the only issue I see is trying to retrieve it.
Might be hard because the water isn't stable and the solo needs stabilization to take off, unfortunately.
But none the less. Very awesome idea.

Maybe we can install the green cube and take off from water..

EZL · Jun 20, 2017

Gary Burch said:
Put some floats on my solo today. Water tested in tub. It floats very well and is stable. I moved antennas up higher and compass. I will pit water proof housing on camera. It flies great. I will post some film from the bay area later. Very happy with results.

Good idea, no tip-overs too and it would make the Solo more stable landing on dry land too.

quicksupra · Jun 23, 2017

Nice job. May try something like this myself as most of my flying is over water or marshland.

banjopad · Jun 24, 2017

Gary Burch said:
Put some floats on my solo today. Water tested in tub. It floats very well and is stable. I moved antennas up higher and compass. I will pit water proof housing on camera. It flies great. I will post some film from the bay area later. Very happy with results.

Gary
I'll have to ditto the first reply.
From personal experience -- I did that with my Traxxas Aton. Worked perfect until I took off. I was in a narrow slip , tapped a pileing with one of the props and it flipped upside down. Saved the gimbel , but the camera and Aton were trashed. Atons don't like water and I'm not going to try it with my beloved Solo
Bill

OVERtheBITE · Jun 24, 2017

If you change the safety check to zero using tower it will launch again off the water even if it is rocking as long as it was powered up while stable. without safeties on you could have other problems that would cause a crash.

6" crab pot buoys work very well and have a plastic tube that will slip firmly onto legs which give you more standoff. I sprayed "fluid film" which is a anti corrosion product onto all circuit boards and motor pods to make them last longer around salt water.

Gary Burch · Jun 24, 2017

I flew today with no problems. I landed and took off from the water twice. The solo is very stable. I installed the waterproof housing on the camera also. I sprayed silicon conformal coating on all electronics. I will post video later. It is too windy today.

Gary Burch · Jun 24, 2017

Those crab pot buoys look very interesting. If I set my camera to medium, I do not get floats on camera view. Let us see if others may have some more ideas. Thanks for all the input guys. We are still inventing.

OVERtheBITE · Jun 24, 2017

Gary Burch said:
Those crab pot buoys look very interesting. If I set my camera to medium, I do not get floats on camera view. Let us see if others may have some more ideas. Thanks for all the input guys. We are still inventing.

I put several gopro mounts in series and have the camera sticks out past now to give a clear view now. mine is flown backwards in a sense since I am working on filming a good game fish strike on a lure. the float that is on the release clip is towards front to counterweight camera. post strike the plan is to just land it on the water. We have had vicious winds in the keys lately as well as the main focus of recreation has been on catching lionfish via scuba with my off time. im hopeful some drone time will line up next week.