How susceptible has your SOLO been to the wind?

[pop]

I have had Solo for about a month and up till recently I felt SOLO was very good at handling wind using GPS modes. Recently however, I have been losing control of Solo in the wind (moderate winds up to 16mph). I have had Solo flipped on me about 6 times out of control. Is this normal given enough wind factor? Also how much can humidity affect? It's been very humid here lately.

I put in a ticket with 3dr since I've had several crashes already but also wanted to know people's experience dealing with wind. Am i expecting too much or is my solo defective?

 

[PdxSteve]

Are you sure it has a good GPS lock when this is happening? According to their FAQ | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology it should handle winds up to 40mph. I haven't had a problem in winds, and I've flown in about 30mph winds.

 

[Del]

I have had Solo for about a month and up till recently I felt SOLO was very good at handling wind using GPS modes. Recently however, I have been losing control of Solo in the wind (moderate winds up to 16mph). I have had Solo flipped on me about 6 times out of control. Is this normal given enough wind factor? Also how much can humidity affect? It's been very humid here lately.

I put in a ticket with 3dr since I've had several crashes already but also wanted to know people's experience dealing with wind. Am i expecting too much or is my solo defective?

Try doing a level and compass calibration ..

 

[pop]

Are you sure it has a good GPS lock when this is happening? According to their FAQ | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology it should handle winds up to 40mph. I haven't had a problem in winds, and I've flown in about 30mph winds.

I had a solid 14 satellites when it happened again today.

 

[pop]

Try doing a level and compass calibration ..

Yeah I did both yesterday and it flew pretty well after (although winds weren't as strong) but then today it went back to being very unstable in the wind and flipping over.

 

[Maddog]

Yeah I did both yesterday and it flew pretty well after (although winds weren't as strong) but then today it went back to being very unstable in the wind and flipping over.

Are you saying it flipped over while airborne?
Also, how did you measure the wind speed?

 

[Del]

Yeah I did both yesterday and it flew pretty well after (although winds weren't as strong) but then today it went back to being very unstable in the wind and flipping over.

If you did your level and compass calibration .. I don't think it's winds flipping your solo!
It sounds like your solo is getting disoriented from loss of GPS!.. It could be that the Solo dosint like the area your flying in.. Did you try flying in different areas and see if you get the same results ?

 

[Maddog]

If you did your level and compass calibration .. I don't think it's winds flipping your solo!
It sounds like your solo is getting disoriented from loss of GPS!.. It could be that the Solo dosint like the area your flying in.. Did you try flying in different areas and see if you get the same results ?

Or in manual mode?

 

[SteveReno]

I never flipped when in GPS mode! I tested in 15 mph with gust up to 28 mph several times. We always have high wind here 24hr per day. this is one of the reasons I won't fly in manual mode. a 20 mph gust will push my Solo so quick "in Manual" that, there isn't too much time to re-adjust.
I always tell other to check wind first, before switching to manual.

 

[pop]

I think it may be a GPS problem for me because Solo is much more stable in Manual/Stabalize modes at this point. It's only flipped (while airborne) while on FLY mode even though it showed GPS connection. I've tried it in different location and same behavior. In general now even with GPS connection the bird is always moving and unstable as opposed to locked in place as it should be in FLY mode (it used to lock in place fine before).

The wind speed reading on the controller is typically wrong so i usually have to search online or go by feeling. But i think if it was over 40mph i would know and the flipping would make more sense.

 

[Burkeam]

I have had Solo for about a month and up till recently I felt SOLO was very good at handling wind using GPS modes. Recently however, I have been losing control of Solo in the wind (moderate winds up to 16mph). I have had Solo flipped on me about 6 times out of control. Is this normal given enough wind factor? Also how much can humidity affect? It's been very humid here lately.

I put in a ticket with 3dr since I've had several crashes already but also wanted to know people's experience dealing with wind. Am i expecting too much or is my solo defective?

I'm curious what 3DR comes back with.

Yes,humidity does lower the air pressure. The airfoil and props are now less efficient as they have less air to work with.

16 mph is no problem for the Solo with everything performing well. How are your props and balances? At high wind the flight will have significant reduction of flight time due to the elevated amp draw. Even more so with less air to work with. A weak motor or bad prop would defiantly show up now. I would see value in knowing the current draw and RPMs on all four motors in the logs. Poorer performing props will be pushed faster. Your plane is not at a 100%. Issues with GPS or ?

Please don't reply "You think, Mr Obvious"

Please keep us update

 

[pop]

I'm curious what 3DR comes back with.

Yes,humidity does lower the air pressure. The airfoil and props are now less efficient as they have less air to work with.

16 mph is no problem for the Solo with everything performing well. How are your props and balances? At high wind the flight will have significant reduction of flight time due to the elevated amp draw. Even more so with less air to work with. A weak motor or bad prop would defiantly show up now. I would see value in knowing the current draw and RPMs on all four motors in the logs. Poorer performing props will be pushed faster. Your plane is not at a 100%. Issues with GPS or ?

Please don't reply "You think, Mr Obvious"

Please keep us update

Burkeam,
You were right on the money. 3DR Support got back to me and said the logs show a motor gone bad caused solo to flip. I will be sending it back for repairs... I will be counting the days until i get it back.

Thank you all for you input. Much appreciated.

 

[Maddog]

Burkeam,
You were right on the money. 3DR Support got back to me and said the logs show a motor gone bad caused solo to flip. I will be sending it back for repairs... I will be counting the days until i get it back.

Thank you all for you input. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the report Pop! Good to know what caused it and that it's going to be taken care of.

Let us know how it flies when it comes back!

 

[Flying Squirrel]

I have had Solo for about a month and up till recently I felt SOLO was very good at handling wind using GPS modes. Recently however, I have been losing control of Solo in the wind (moderate winds up to 16mph). I have had Solo flipped on me about 6 times out of control. Is this normal given enough wind factor? Also how much can humidity affect? It's been very humid here lately.

I put in a ticket with 3dr since I've had several crashes already but also wanted to know people's experience dealing with wind. Am i expecting too much or is my solo defective?

"Until recently" ... I've flown Solo in 10 knot winds - enough to make Palm trees sway, and had no trouble with Solo maintaining a position or loitering. I was actually "blown away" by Solo's performance in an ocean breeze.

I installed the most recent update and Solo seemed to behave oddly - stability was lacking and it seemed the wind was overpowering Solo's ability to loiter. At the end of a flight I lost control of Solo - no response to control inputs. I hate to even whisper (fly away) this but I had no control as Solo zipped away, ultimately crashing into a pole and then fell to the ground.

I'm waiting on a response from support - 6 days now.

 

[Lamda]

Ironically I read this thread before taking Solo out for a first flight since the 1.3 update. I had done a level calibration at home and I did a compass calibration at the site. All flying done in full GPS Fly mode.

Everything seemed fine until I took her home to land. Was flying pretty fast and pulled her down hard. But nothing out of the ordinary. About 50ft up she wobbled hard. Like floating on the water in a toilet bowl but no spinning. I left go of the throttle/altitude and she stabilized enough for me to land.

I sent in a ticket and decided to try testing stability at a low altitude - around 10-20 ft max. She seemed stable, hovering and spinning and doing circles around me. Flew for about 10 percent battery this way. Then decided to try bringing her hard down from a lower altitude. Got the wobble, but this time I wasn't high enough for her to recover. Crashed, chipped a prop and got her a bit muddy. Second ticket out. Will clean her up a bit later and to a more thorough check.

Either I've got motor problems too or the firmware is nice in the air but not as stable as before.

Will have to see what they say.

 

[Lamda]

Update: 3DR got back to me in less than 24hrs as has been my experience. Motor pod 3 is failing. Still runs smooth, but guess it's not keeping up when under load in flight.

 

[mecummings.cr]

Is there a way to check the performance of the motor pods? I had my No. 4 motor pod "fail slightly" which resulted in Solo sometimes flipping over typically on takeoff. There really should be an automatic kill switch when a crash is detected as that might end up saving a prop or overloading a motor pod that is trying to ramp up and make the drone "fly" after it has hit something.

Once my motor pod was replaced my drone flew perfectly again. I don't think you issue was the wind but Solo's flight controller over or undercompensating for a motor that was not behaving the way it should.

Does anybody know how to check the motor pods for performance levels... perhaps to identify a pod before it fails?

Thanks,
-Mike

 

[Maddog]

Solo is supposed to turn off 2 seconds after it flips over to save the props.
Don't know about testing to predict a future failure.

 

[mecummings.cr]

Honestly I am more concerned about the motor pods than the props. At $60 for each motor pod plus shipping from China, I would much rather lose an $8 prop I can get at Best Buy or just have an extra set available in my bag. As soon as Solo detects a crash those motor pods should shut down... you can do a lot of damage to a motor in 2 seconds. Even a setting on the config file would be helpful... perhaps it's there and I don't know about it yet. -Mike

 

[Burkeam]

Honestly I am more concerned about the motor pods than the props. At $60 for each motor pod plus shipping from China, I would much rather lose an $8 prop I can get at Best Buy or just have an extra set available in my bag. As soon as Solo detects a crash those motor pods should shut down... you can do a lot of damage to a motor in 2 seconds. Even a setting on the config file would be helpful... perhaps it's there and I don't know about it yet. -Mike

It would be nice to see a quicker reactive shutdown especially when the pod are prone to burning up so quickly.

I do really hate to say this and I mean really really really hate to but I had my phantom motors dead heading in a field for over five minute and they're still good. You could smell them burning and hot to touch. I was able to get them spinning quickly to cool them down. Now this is only the second time I was able to say something positive about my DJI experience.