Future of Solo

countit · Aug 30, 2015

Newb here... Is it true the stock, out of the box, latest Phantom have the ability to fly indoors without he special hardware that Solo needs?

Justin · Aug 30, 2015

So for CHDK trigger we will need a board from here OSH Park ~ Solo 3DR Bus Accessory Connector Breakout

And the trigger cable from tuff wing to go from 3.3 to 5v. TuffWing Store

Is that correct? If so I will order the parts and post my results.

SteveMyers75 · Aug 31, 2015

countit said:
Newb here... Is it true the stock, out of the box, latest Phantom have the ability to fly indoors without he special hardware that Solo needs?

Yes, but it's a fixed piece of hardware with locked up hardware and firmware.

By the time we get done tweaking Solo, you should be able to play fetch with it indoors or out.
Think Pozyx centimeter locating ability, Kinect vision sensors, Custom grippers, Laser range finders...
The only limit is your imagination.

With Phantdumb, it is what it is.
With Solo, it is what you make it to be.

RichWest · Aug 31, 2015

SteveMyers75 said:
<Referring to Phantom> Yes, but it's a fixed piece of hardware with locked up hardware and firmware.

By the time we get done tweaking Solo, you should be able to play fetch with it indoors or out.
Think Pozyx centimeter locating ability, Kinect vision sensors, Custom grippers, Laser range finders...
The only limit is your imagination.

With Phantdumb, it is what it is.
With Solo, it is what you make it to be.

Pozyx centimeter locating ability = 10 cm accuracy, see: Pozyx - centimeter positioning for Arduino

SteveMyers75 · Aug 31, 2015

Justin said:
So for CHDK trigger we will need a board from here OSH Park ~ Solo 3DR Bus Accessory Connector Breakout

And the trigger cable from tuff wing to go from 3.3 to 5v. TuffWing Store

Is that correct? If so I will order the parts and post my results.

You will also need a TX24-30R-6ST-N1E to solder into the breakout board.

I accidentally ordered 3 of those non-mountable "OSH Part ~ Solo 3DR Bus Accessory Connector Breakout" boards when I ordered Prototypes of my new Full Control Mountable "Solo Expansion Port Adapter" SEPA3000 Rev.5 boards.
(I forgot to empty my cart before I ordered my Prototypes)

I can send you one of the small non-mounting boards if you like, I don't need 3.
It takes about 3 weeks to get boards from OSH...

Justin · Aug 31, 2015

That would be awesome if you could send a bored. It's too bad solo is such a challenge to do a chdk trigger on. There is no way to solder the wires tonthe board and have it trigger?

SteveMyers75 · Sep 1, 2015

Justin said:
That would be awesome if you could send a bored. It's too bad solo is such a challenge to do a chdk trigger on. There is no way to solder the wires tonthe board and have it trigger?

No worries. It'll be about three weeks for the boards to arrive.
PM me an address to mail one to and it's yours.

If you can't wait for the free board I will send you, I would advise against trying to solder directly to the pins on the connector. You could go ahead and solder to the backside of the connector if you are very good with soldering and are careful.
The connector is marked on the back side of the Solo's board.

SteveMyers75 · Sep 1, 2015

I will post-up actual photo's of my completed/stuffed Solo Expansion Port Adapter boards when they arrive in a few weeks..

What I did on the initial boards.

Standard I/O Ports connected to Solo
USB Port - USB Micro B Port (USB2)
CAN Bus - CLIK-Mate 4-Pin (H/L CAN Bus)
Serial #2 - CLICK-Mate 6-Pin (HW RS232)
Serial #5 - CLIK-Mate 6-Pin (SW RS232/Debug)
USART1 - CLIK-Mate 6-Pin (Full USART)

PWM#6 - CLIK-Mate 3-Pin (PWM, +5VDC, GND)
PWM#7 - CLIK-Mate 3-Pin (PWM, +5DVC, GND)
PWM#8 - CLIK-Mate 3-Pin (PWM, +5DVC, GND)

4 Mounting holes for optional Arduino Uno Module.
Power for optional Arduino is available on BATT1 or BATT2 ports.

Extra available I/O from Solo
--SPARE 1--
GND - PIN1 of 4 Position Pin Header A
BATT1 - PIN2 of 4 Position Pin Header A
GND - PIN3 of 4 Position Pin Header A
BLANK - PIN4 of 4 Position Pin Header A (Key)

--SPARE 2--
GND - PIN1 of 4 Position Pin Header B
BATT2 - PIN2 of 4 Position Pin Header B
GND - PIN3 of 4 Position Pin Header B
BLANK - PIN4 of 4 Position Pin Header B (Key)

--SPARE #3--
BUSID - PIN1 of 6 Position Pin Header C
GND - PIN2 of 6 Position Pin Header C
+5VDC - PIN3 of 6 Position Pin Header C
+5VDC - PIN4 of 6 Position Pin Header C
GND - PIN5 of 6 Position Pin Header C
3DRID - PIN6 of 6 Position Pin Header C

Shown below is mock-up with option Arduino UNO installed.

Justin · Sep 1, 2015

How will that work. What will it allow us to do?

SteveMyers75 · Sep 8, 2015

Justin said:
How will that work. What will it allow us to do?

It would be more like what couldn't you do with it.
Just Google "Arduino Projects" and start dreaming...

With just a minimal amount of coding to ArduPilot-Solo source code, you can have access to things like:
What to do if Solo loses all GPS?
How about triggering an Arduino start up a strobe light and fire up a loud Piezo to assist finding it.
(with increasing delay timers based on battery percentage so it can go on for days)

Or what if Solo loses a Motor/Prop mid flight?
How about shutting down all motors and deploying a parachute!

Or what about using an Arduino to control the scanning sensors from a XBox Kinect and making 3D scans of objects it's flying over. (Google "Arduino and Kinect")

Or use it to control a Solo mounted in-air Light Show

Or to control a Laser Range Finder like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYZVOF4ERHQ

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

The main reason for doing this with an Arduino is to not tax out the Solo and let it do what it was meant to do, Fly.
In the same token to let the Arduino do what it does best, everything else.

Cpt Tylor · Sep 8, 2015

SteveMyers75 said:
It would be more like what couldn't you do with it.
Just Google "Arduino Projects" and start dreaming...

With just a minimal amount of coding to ArduPilot-Solo source code, you can have access to things like:
What to do if Solo loses all GPS?
How about triggering an Arduino start up a strobe light and fire up a loud Piezo to assist finding it.
(with increasing delay timers based on battery percentage so it can go on for days)

Or what if Solo loses a Motor/Prop mid flight?
How about shutting down all motors and deploying a parachute!

Or what about using an Arduino to control the scanning sensors from a XBox Kinect and making 3D scans of objects it's flying over. (Google "Arduino and Kinect")

Or use it to control a Solo mounted in-air Light Show

Or to control a Laser Range Finder like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYZVOF4ERHQ

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

The main reason for doing this with an Arduino is to not tax out the Solo and let it do what it was meant to do, Fly.
In the same token to let the Arduino do what it does best, everything else.

Thanks for doing what you do. These types of projects are exactly why I bought a Solo.

One minor problem to note - the xbox kinect won't work in sunlight, it can't see its own IR signal. I'm testing 3D scanning with processing photos.

Ian [P13] · Sep 8, 2015

It's worth adding, lost copter alarm and parachute are already in Arducopter so both will make it to Solo, parachute obviously is planned anyway as part of the expansion bay options.

The optical flow on Solo will be better than the Phantom and at a hardware level so it'll have a few tricks DJI won't be able to copy in a future firmware.

Axidrain · Sep 8, 2015

are there any real life examples of these kinds of projects?

Ian [P13] · Sep 8, 2015

Here is someone using Lidar and optical flow on the Iris which is forerunner to the Solo. anything you can mod onto the Iris you can onto the Solo:

Here's an infrared camera being used to see a visual beacon for precise landing without GPS.

Want to fly a swarm of Solos? There's potential too as Arducopter supports that...

Axidrain · Sep 8, 2015

Ian [P13] said:
Here is someone using Lidar and optical flow on the Iris which is forerunner to the Solo. anything you can mod onto the Iris you can onto the Solo:

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Here's an infrared camera being used to see a visual beacon for precise landing without GPS.

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Want to fly a swarm of Solos? There's potential too as Arducopter supports that...

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Wow. Thats pretty impressive. I can see that this will open up a lot of doors for new tech and uses for drones

SteveMyers75 · Sep 13, 2015

Some progress being made.

I received my re-designed Solo Expansion Bay boards and assembled a couple.

Plugged one into the Solo's Expansion Bay and a USB to my Ubuntu Linux box and it popped up with a few new devices, including a new Gadget named "Linux 3.10.17-rt12-1.0.0_ga+gdc67983 with ci_hdrc_imx Composite Gadget (ACM + MS)"

I mounted that and it is the Solo's Log directory.

There's a few other new devices to explore when I get some more free time.
CDC Serial, another USB Storage Device and a Composite Device.

Justin · Sep 13, 2015

SteveMyers75 said:
Some progress being made.

I received my re-designed Solo Expansion Bay boards and assembled a couple.

Plugged one into the Solo's Expansion Bay and a USB to my Ubuntu Linux box and it popped up with a few new devices, including a new Gadget named "Linux 3.10.17-rt12-1.0.0_ga+gdc67983 with ci_hdrc_imx Composite Gadget (ACM + MS)"

I mounted that and it is the Solo's Log directory.

There's a few other new devices to explore when I get some more free time.
CDC Serial, another USB Storage Device and a Composite Device.

That's awesome. You think we will be able to trigger the camera with that board

SteveMyers75 · Sep 13, 2015

Justin said:
That's awesome. You think we will be able to trigger the camera with that board

There are 3 PWM Ports on the Expanstion Port, so I don't see any reason why not.

I ran them out to three 3-Pin CLIK-Mate connectors and added +5VDC and GND to them.
Marked as PW6, PW7 and PW8

What will be needed is to locate the fork of ArduCopter that Marco used to trigger the Canon's USB.