Help, Solo vehicle is acting up

ryankmasuda · May 21, 2016

Hi everyone,

I'm a new owner of the Solo and I have yet to actually fly it. I received my solo the other day and was able to update it and turned it on. All four propellers were spinning and the gimbal was moving up and down from the controller. This morning I went to go fly it and when I pressed and held the drones battery the white lights on the battery lit up then the #3 prop did a slight twitch and the drone didn't complete powering up like it did the day before. The battery on the drone and controller is at 100% charge. According to the 3DR app the solo can't be found. Has anyone else had this issue? If anyone has a resolution it would be much appreciated.

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Burkeam · May 21, 2016

Could be a bad motor pod. Try unhooking the #3 pod and see if it powers up. Submit a ticket to Solo. If you want it fixed fast be willing to do a little work to help them debug it. The motor pod is really easy to take out and put in. Pop out the light cover and remove 4 screws, as it come out unplug the small plug and red + black wires. Try powering it up with this or all motors removed.

ryankmasuda · May 21, 2016

If a motor is bad will it prevent the UAV from powering up? I'll go give it a try, thank you.

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Burkeam · May 21, 2016

If the pod is in a shorted condition then yes. The Solo will try to power up but then shut off, maybe to avoid damage. Think of it as type of circuit protection.

I'm not sure how it would act if the communication plug is unplugged - thinking you could have a loose connection on a newly delivered aircraft. I would rather see that then a bad motor on a new bird. The other side of the red and black wire is soldered to the main board(under the battery tray) whereas the connection cable has a plug at both ends. There are teardown video on the web. Opening it up for inspection and troubleshooting will not void the warranty. It just give them more information.

They might want your logs from when you had the props spinning. The Solo is really cool where it save last 3 logs in your controller which you can access without the Solo being on. These logs will show the recorded motor amp draw for each pod while they were enabled. If the motor was going bad from the get go - they should be able to tell that because of a high current load.

It sucks you're having issues with a new bird but be assure 3DR will take care of you. You will have to deal with the frustration of not flying today but there is no reason why it shouldn't be ready to go by next weekend or sooner. When they send you a part it will come 2nd day air - at least request it of them.

Best wish

ryankmasuda · May 21, 2016

Thank you for the information, I hope it's a loose connection. How can I pull the flight log, it currently shows "0:00:00" for the flight log on the controller.

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Burkeam · May 21, 2016

ryankmasuda said:
Thank you for the information, I hope it's a loose connection. How can I pull the flight log, it currently shows "0:00:00" for the flight log on the controller.

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Heres the link to accessing all logs available.
https://dev.3dr.com/advanced-logs.html

Try to remember the time and date when you stopped the motor. Log for a tlog with a match time stamp. You can get MP -Mission Planner to playback the logs. There are a few resources on how to.

Burkeam · May 21, 2016

Solo’s “Black Box”: What flight logs are and what they mean for you | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology A good read on the logs at this link

ryankmasuda · May 22, 2016

I pulled my #3 motor and tried to power up the UAV and it powered up just fine. I had no issues connecting to the controller and I was able to get a live feed through the GoPro. When I removed the #3 motor I noticed the black wire had a slight gap in the connector and hoped that was the issue. After re-installing the #3 motor and making sure the connectors were snug the UAV did the same thing when I powered up. I'm guessing there is a short somewhere in the #3 motor, which is not letting the UAV power up.

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Burkeam · May 22, 2016

Good at least now we know what is wrong. Contact 3DR support and submit a ticket with your findings. Follow up with the Chat when it is open. They still might want the logs but maybe not since it was not a crash.

SurfnSkate81 · May 22, 2016

Burkeam said:
Good at least now we know what is wrong. Contact 3DR support and submit a ticket with your findings. Follow up with the Chat when it is open. They still might want the logs but maybe not since it was not a crash.

Good job @Burkeam another great example of how members of this community are willing to help other members and new Solo users joining the community.

@ryankmasuda Welcome and I hope 3DR get you fixed up and airborne soon.

Dandy James · May 29, 2016

Burkeam said:
If the pod is in a shorted condition then yes. The Solo will try to power up but then shut off, maybe to avoid damage. Think of it as type of circuit protection.

I'm not sure how it would act if the communication plug is unplugged - thinking you could have a loose connection on a newly delivered aircraft. I would rather see that then a bad motor on a new bird. The other side of the red and black wire is soldered to the main board(under the battery tray) whereas the connection cable has a plug at both ends. There are teardown video on the web. Opening it up for inspection and troubleshooting will not void the warranty. It just give them more information.

They might want your logs from when you had the props spinning. The Solo is really cool where it save last 3 logs in your controller which you can access without the Solo being on. These logs will show the recorded motor amp draw for each pod while they were enabled. If the motor was going bad from the get go - they should be able to tell that because of a high current load.

It sucks you're having issues with a new bird but be assure 3DR will take care of you. You will have to deal with the frustration of not flying today but there is no reason why it shouldn't be ready to go by next weekend or sooner. When they send you a part it will come 2nd day air - at least request it of them.

Best wish

I have not been able to view/call up my log files...any short lesson or video you know of? Thanks for all your great posts.