Is Anyone flying their Solo with Stock GPS? Poll

[rcflyingaddict]

I've only had mine a couple months but I changed the GPS right away after having compass problems. I had a rev B but I have noticed an improvement with m8n GPS. More sats, ready to fly faster.

What was the effect of the compass issue on flight?

 

[jca]

What was the effect of the compass issue on flight?

I think the fly away I had was because of it. Showed magnetic interference while flying away...

 

[Solo_Maverick]

Rev A in one of them. Did not open the other yet.
No problems so far but only flew in very open areas with no other radio or interference nearby (offroad trails in the middle of nowhere). In my backyard tests I also did not have problems but those were just a couple 5 min test flights very close by.

 

[andreww]

My solo came with rev a board but within 2 weeks I bought a rev b much better sat lock times. I would love to buy the mro board but I'm in the UK so import and postage costs are too high to make it worth buying

 

[we the automata]

The Solo is somewhat unique in that if you were to ask this question in dji or gopro forum I don't think you would find too many that did a mod right off the bat that is so critical to flying the bird. I have read through these forums and it appears the majority have at the very minimum added the gps shield and the rest have done both the shield and the replacement gps. In addition I'm still not clear (after reading all that I could find in this forum) other than the color of the pcb what the difference is between rev a and rev b.

Hi rfa, I'm running two solo's stock rev a. - no mods - 7 days a week for 4 1/2 months.

7/8 arms broken but contrary to me, 40 meters of tape stopped the solo's moaning pronto. To summarize - crap pilot but fantastic stock solo's. Largest drop from 64 meters and still 4 months later the infamous gps soldiers on without missing a beat between the two of them. (probably doomed them both now, but they kept crying something about the sweet relief of death
my new Iris+ decided to commit suicide on fligh #2 in our local river after only breaking a single leg on the first flight. A move much condemmed by the solos, who wear their ever growing arnour of tape with massive pride. like one of them remarked - "that's was just a welcome to the family" - but he's the one with the one good arm so... Anyway to summarize - crap pilot but......, poul

 

[TurboGhost]

I got my solo a few weeks ago, flown it 10 - 12 times and had to wait more than a minute for the fly option to pop up only once. However i also lost sat lock on that flight making me manually land causing a roll over, nothing broken literally landed with momentum and a leg stuck in tall grass causing it to roll. I had just done some setting adjustments but nothing gps wise. After that i did the cardboard mod and never an issue since! The rev a is a rock solid gps, honestly if it were up higher itself it would probably help alot also. I might look into designing a mod for that tomorrow....

 

[we the automata]

I got my solo a few weeks ago, flown it 10 - 12 times and had to wait more than a minute for the fly option to pop up only once. However i also lost sat lock on that flight making me manually land causing a roll over, nothing broken literally landed with momentum and a leg stuck in tall grass causing it to roll. I had just done some setting adjustments but nothing gps wise. After that i did the cardboard mod and never an issue since! The rev a is a rock solid gps, honestly if it were up higher itself it would probably help alot also. I might look into designing a mod for that tomorrow....

top idea - placement thoughts?

 

[TurboGhost]

Just a bit higher than it is originally, apparently the issue is the fact that the little copper shield ends up touching the underside of the gps module. If we leave the shield where it is and put the gps on top of where the factory plastic exteruor shield goes we would effectively do the "cardboard" mod (creating a small gap between gps and emf shield) as well as getting the gps up above a big lithium (and electronics) wall for better view of the sky and we wont be stuck jamming our beautful solos full of recycled pizza boxes or sort drink containers.... Just a thought... If u look online at diy drone kits they always sell external gps units, and most come with a folding mast kit. I actually played with that when i built my first quad with a chinese clone apm 2.8 i wanted a streamline look so i put the gps on the arm near an esc.... FAIL! Move it to the center and up a few inches = GOLDEN! Im getting 14 sats n hdop of 0.7 on a neo6 and an archived clone autopilot! Lol, so a well designed decent spacer that does all that will work wonders! Ill try a design ive had kickin around my head for a couple days, mock it up in cad tomorrow after i change the oil and the brakes on my car and hopefully have a prototype by thursday night and good to test friday mornin if the suns out.

 

[we the automata]

Just a bit higher than it is originally, apparently the issue is the fact that the little copper shield ends up touching the underside of the gps module. If we leave the shield where it is and put the gps on top of where the factory plastic exteruor shield goes we would effectively do the "cardboard" mod (creating a small gap between gps and emf shield) as well as getting the gps up above a big lithium (and electronics) wall for better view of the sky and we wont be stuck jamming our beautful solos full of recycled pizza boxes or sort drink containers.... Just a thought... If u look online at diy drone kits they always sell external gps units, and most come with a folding mast kit. I actually played with that when i built my first quad with a chinese clone apm 2.8 i wanted a streamline look so i put the gps on the arm near an esc.... FAIL! Move it to the center and up a few inches = GOLDEN! Im getting 14 sats n hdop of 0.7 on a neo6 and an archived clone autopilot! Lol, so a well designed decent spacer that does all that will work wonders! Ill try a design ive had kickin around my head for a couple days, mock it up in cad tomorrow after i change the oil and the brakes on my car and hopefully have a prototype by thursday night and good to test friday mornin if the suns out.

think I'll try for a dead center placement of the antenna. might move some gear of a quanum venture and on to a solo. with more tape of course. should ease half the worry or relieve me of it, in effect doing the same. keep us posted with your approach please, will be looking forward to hearing them! cheers, poul

 

[TurboGhost]

Goodluck, im sure itll help a bit. Ill try to document how i do it and all but im horrible at remembering to shoot video and take pictures while im doing the work, i just get lost in the task at hand, but ill do my best.

 

[jerryn]

Yes.. I am flying with the stock GPS. 4 flights every weekend since June 2017. No issues at all.

 

[Elvis]

Yes, I fly my two solos with stock GPS. I always fly in open areas though. Once I did fly in a wooded area and had a problem. Open sky works fine. Will get a Here GPS soon.

 

[rcflyingaddict]

Hi rfa, I'm running two solo's stock rev a. - no mods - 7 days a week for 4 1/2 months.

7/8 arms broken but contrary to me, 40 meters of tape stopped the solo's moaning pronto. To summarize - crap pilot but fantastic stock solo's. Largest drop from 64 meters and still 4 months later the infamous gps soldiers on without missing a beat between the two of them. (probably doomed them both now, but they kept crying something about the sweet relief of death
my new Iris+ decided to commit suicide on fligh #2 in our local river after only breaking a single leg on the first flight. A move much condemmed by the solos, who wear their ever growing arnour of tape with massive pride. like one of them remarked - "that's was just a welcome to the family" - but he's the one with the one good arm so... Anyway to summarize - crap pilot but......, poul

Nice - that speaks well to it's longevity even if parts become sparse. That's a lot of flight hours - do you fly for fun or is it part of a business? I have a nice high hill area that I plan to maiden my Solo so I don't worry too much about the sat in that environment but would be nice to know that it will perform in a more 'noisy' environment as well. Looks like I'll take it up 100% stock first then see how it does, knowing that I'll likely do the shield type mod as a matter of 'why-not'.

 

[jerryn]

I fly for fun. I am planning to study for my commercial drone license. I am exploring how to earn money with it and how much liability insurance costs. If the cost is too high I won't.

 

[we the automata]

Nice - that speaks well to it's longevity even if parts become sparse. That's a lot of flight hours - do you fly for fun or is it part of a business? I have a nice high hill area that I plan to maiden my Solo so I don't worry too much about the sat in that environment but would be nice to know that it will perform in a more 'noisy' environment as well. Looks like I'll take it up 100% stock first then see how it does, knowing that I'll likely do the shield type mod as a matter of 'why-not'.

I quit the job as chief robotics dude in our national health care system (south) to see if rapid development could produce a solution to stop people in the rural areas from dying beacuse of long response times in relation to 911 calls. I know for a fact, that this now is possible. The technologies needed are ripe, so why should heart patients continue to die needlesly? the attempts previously made failed because of immature technologies and perhaps less than optimale approaches.

Basically the Solos will deliver proof of concept. Whether they want to or not, they will be instrumental in saving a substantiel amount of human lives. Besides even more survivors will have reduced the extent of body and brain injuries.

Guess you could call it something like a bit of a calling, but but that makes my toes curl up. It's more like guy sees opportunity to contribute something meaningfull to society and had the good fortune to fall madly in love with flying whilst doing it.

The resulting financial powerty (litturally starving 1-2 weeks per month) meant I've now lost 41 kg and don't have diabetes any more. Thank you solos.....

The two solos "know" this and also know that their job is to show me the edges of what is possible. I flew them in a real storm last night. I urge all to try it maybe just a little bit because it's flat out jawdroppingly impressive, broken arms and all.

It also makes me a little mad with 3dr (in a loving way of course) for making Solos whilst having to abandon them at the same time because of pevious sins. Aaaaargh, what could have been. It feels a bit like the one girl that got away . Happy flying, poul

Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using 3DRPilots Drone Forum mobile app

 

[tracer]

I fly for fun. I am planning to study for my commercial drone license. I am exploring how to earn money with it and how much liability insurance costs. If the cost is too high I won't.

Ran me about $750 annually here in KY for *one* bird. I did shop around to get that price. I'm pretty certain that next time I shop it will be lower. All the agents say that the drone insurance is still a new market, so it will take some time for the prices to come down.

 

[tracer]

I have 3 birds, all Rev B, all stock. In one I added the cardboard shield, the other has the new 3DR updated shield, and the third I left alone. No difference in time to fly. Power up to ready to fly in about a minute if the sky is open and clear and they can secure at least 9 sats. I am thinking about modding one with new GPS and maybe some other goodies.

 

[carpy]

Good discussion. If you guys haven't already, hop over here and upgrade your firmware.
https://3drpilots.com/threads/autopilot-firmware-upgrade-from-1-3-1-to-1-5-2.8819/

 

[RichWest]

Good discussion. If you guys haven't already, hop over here and upgrade your firmware.
https://3drpilots.com/threads/autopilot-firmware-upgrade-from-1-3-1-to-1-5-2.8819/

My apology, but how does your post regarding an alternative firmware relate to the conversation about which version of GPS hardware is being used? Does it improve the GPS performance?

 

[carpy]

My apology, but how does your post regarding an alternative firmware relate to the conversation about which version of GPS hardware is being used? Does it improve the GPS performance?

No you are right Rich, it doesn't.
I guess after reading this post, I was more worried about what happens to the Solo after they lose GPS. The new firmware has bug fixes pertaining to GPS glitches, which if you are running a Rev A IMHO you will most certainly experience at some point.