Is it time to unload Solo?

Anttler · Jul 20, 2016

Been watching he slow decline of Solo. First the move to enterprise, then we had Android move out, 2.4 released with what smells of bugs, more layoffs including the guys who make "smart shots", the pace of bad news seems to be accelerating. Price is starting to lower. My concerns in the future include parts availability, mainly batteries and motors, fixes for the prior update, I use Andriod, and value of Solo now vs. a month from now.
I may have found a way to move over to the light side. Wondering if now is the time to unload the Solo and go down a different road. I sure had huge hope for the 3DR retail system and wish they would have rolled it out better, it's a product that could have made it big.

SteveReno · Jul 20, 2016

When your ready to "Unload" your Solo, Please let me know.

STMPNGRND · Jul 20, 2016

Anttler said:
Been watching he slow decline of Solo. First the move to enterprise, then we had Android move out, 2.4 released with what smells of bugs, more layoffs including the guys who make "smart shots", the pace of bad news seems to be accelerating. Price is starting to lower. My concerns in the future include parts availability, mainly batteries and motors, fixes for the prior update, I use Andriod, and value of Solo now vs. a month from now.
I may have found a way to move over to the light side. Wondering if now is the time to unload the Solo and go down a different road. I sure had huge hope for the 3DR retail system and wish they would have rolled it out better, it's a product that could have made it big.

And what would get to replace it? Assuming you use the smart shots and intelligent rewind functions there is no other platform that is comparable! Just fly it and have fun with it!

Anttler · Jul 20, 2016

STMPNGRND said:
And what would get to replace it? Assuming you use the smart shots and intelligent rewind functions there is no other platform that is comparable! Just fly it and have fun with it!

Rewind, and geofence is out since I have Andriod. I have no idea when the Pano and zipline will be available for me. Oribit, follow me, and even a type of MPCC is available with other drones. There are not only other drones comparable, the Solo is falling behind. This year at NAB I was hoping for a higher capacity battery maybe optical flow, instead I got a whole bunch of software updates that being an Andriod user I don't get to use. Investing in an Ipad mini does not sound smart as this there looks to be no further updates coming on that end either. The platform has such expandability I have enjoyed 3DR autopilots for many years, and held so much hope for this. Yet a 12 minuet practical mission plan and no further development looks to end this system. The only thing I find good about this system is how it interfaces with Mission Planner, and again the short flight time limits that.

RPM · Jul 20, 2016

Anttler said:
Rewind, and geofence is out since I have Andriod. I have no idea when the Pano and zipline will be available for me. Oribit, follow me, and even a type of MPCC is available with other drones. There are not only other drones comparable, the Solo is falling behind. This year at NAB I was hoping for a higher capacity battery maybe optical flow, instead I got a whole bunch of software updates that being an Andriod user I don't get to use. Investing in an Ipad mini does not sound smart as this there looks to be no further updates coming on that end either. The platform has such expandability I have enjoyed 3DR autopilots for many years, and held so much hope for this. Yet a 12 minuet practical mission plan and no further development looks to end this system. The only thing I find good about this system is how it interfaces with Mission Planner, and again the short flight time limits that.

I have been feeling the same the last few days especially. With no new developments (it looks like) for people outside of enterprise it will only be useful for existing low flight time smart shots and not for an actual survey tool which I had hoped.
$9300 US initial and $6000/year doesn't justify the limitations. I could buy 2 new Pixhawk RTF packages a year for that subscription. Haven't even bothered to look into if that includes the Autodesk subscription.

Still love flying the Solo but I will not be buying another and it will be for cool GoPro shots only.

Disclaimer: this is NOT a "the end is nigh" post. We should all know better than that by now.

SteveReno · Jul 20, 2016

Since you had to publicly bad mouth Solo for no real substantial reason, just hear say, your starting a downward trend on there stock today.
The CEO have committed suicide since he read your post, the board of directors are fight like dogs!
The School for little orphans had to close it's doors today, cause 3DR was it's benefactor!
So..... THE NEXT TIME YOU BAD MOUTH SOMEONE......ah forget... they'll be another one like you along in about 5 min. LOL...

pyrate · Jul 20, 2016

Aint that the truth

Anttler · Jul 20, 2016

I'm not really trying to bad mouth 3DR. I have loved 3DR for years (starting with Ardupilot back at the turn of the decade) I embraced the open source format, I looked at the capabilities of this little autopilot and saw the future. When Solo was announced I was beyond excited, this would be the drone future. Not sure if it was investor pressure to put a product out early, expenses higher than expected and a need for cashflow sooner than expected, or just inexperinace of a retail market, or maybe a combination of all these together looks to have forced some choices that have not worked out well for 3DR. I'm sad that I don't love Solo, as with a few changes (GPS that worked better, out of the box range increase, flight times equal to orignaly advertised, continued Andriod support) I would love it. Yet insteadof these changes coming and working to move the plaform forward the powers that be have decided it's time to cut losses and abandon this project. This is bad for everyone, 3DR and the folks who purchased the product. I would even say this is bad for the investors as long term this drone platform has only scratched the surface of what it is capable of. I hope that pixhawk2 works well for 3DR. My son who has worked on many fixed wing drones with me says "We should just use the solo body and make a good drone wth it." He has trhe vision that 3DR has had in the past, it feels to me like somone else is make making the calls with Solo.

RPM · Jul 20, 2016

^ Pixhawk2 will not be 3DR.

Pixhawk2

pyrate · Jul 20, 2016

Amen

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ChrisBird · Jul 20, 2016

Anttler said:
Rewind, and geofence is out since I have Andriod. I have no idea when the Pano and zipline will be available for me. Oribit, follow me, and even a type of MPCC is available with other drones. There are not only other drones comparable, the Solo is falling behind. This year at NAB I was hoping for a higher capacity battery maybe optical flow, instead I got a whole bunch of software updates that being an Andriod user I don't get to use. Investing in an Ipad mini does not sound smart as this there looks to be no further updates coming on that end either. The platform has such expandability I have enjoyed 3DR autopilots for many years, and held so much hope for this. Yet a 12 minuet practical mission plan and no further development looks to end this system. The only thing I find good about this system is how it interfaces with Mission Planner, and again the short flight time limits that.

Fyi, rewind is there. Its in the 2.4 solo firmware, you just cant configure the amount it saves. Is 30 secs not sufficient do you require more? I think that is the default.

I too dislike 3dr's push to give ios proirity. Note Chris Anderson has said we'll get geofence just not in 2.4, Android will still get new features just not first.

The 3dr smart shots are more refined that the other offerings but i give the others 12 months to catch up on them all.

Surveying with a modified lens gopro works fine with tower. Both ground and structure types.

Its a very capable machine. Can i do more stuff with my other pixhawk machines. Sure but id say i do things differently, not better not worse.

Lets dial down the doom and gloom. Take DJI camera offerings, you still have exactly the same post processing steps for video or photos. You have to level it, color correct, stabilize it and any other things you do with the GP. If you use a modified lens then its an even closer match. Switching to DJI you only gain in air iso change and shutterspeed. Iso you can do on the gp before taking off.

If you go custom be prepared for it to take time to configure. A basic iptv device that allows hdmi input will set you back around 175, then you need a companion pc to process it then you need to configure the receiving system. Oh you need to switch to switch your control freq to something other than 2.4 so you can do wifi or switch to 5.8GHz for wifi (more stuff and time). Then you need to write stuff for full control of the camera...... See where this goes....

Solo as it stands is a great platform. Could it be better, hell yes. 3dr hurry up and update the dev docs so we can add our own smart shots, our own gimbals and cameras.....

Chris

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Anttler · Jul 20, 2016

D

ChrisBird said:
If you go custom be prepared for it to take time to configure. A basic iptv device that allows hdmi input will set you back around 175, then you need a companion pc to process it then you need to configure the receiving system. Oh you need to switch to switch your control freq to something other than 2.4 so you can do wifi or switch to 5.8GHz for wifi (more stuff and time). Then you need to write stuff for full control of the camera...... See where this goes....

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You make this sound a lot more complicated than it is. Standard 2.4ghz RC system gets fairly good range. A BOSCAM attached to the gimbal holding the GoPro will give you FPV with enough range to get free flight shots. A RDF900 radio extends range far beyond legal limits (over 10K) that and a surface running MP and I can do waypoints without a problem, just drop waypoints to make a flight plan set it to auto it will follow. You have ROI through mission planner so you can track an point you want. This would be a very powerful setup, and I have all the parts along with an ardupilot v1, AMP2.5 and AMP2.6 and a few M7 gps's w/ compass in my basement already. I just like the redundancy on the Pixhawk 2. Multiple IMU's, baros seem to make this autopilot much more dependable than the older APM's.

SteveReno · Jul 20, 2016

Anttler said:
D

You make this sound a lot more complicated than it is. Standard 2.4ghz RC system gets fairly good range. A BOSCAM attached to the gimbal holding the GoPro will give you FPV with enough range to get free flight shots. A RDF900 radio extends range far beyond legal limits (over 10K) that and a surface running MP and I can do waypoints without a problem, just drop waypoints to make a flight plan set it to auto it will follow. You have ROI through mission planner so you can track an point you want. This would be a very powerful setup, and I have all the parts along with an ardupilot v1, AMP2.5 and AMP2.6 and a few M7 gps's w/ compass in my basement already. I just like the redundancy on the Pixhawk 2. Multiple IMU's, baros seem to make this autopilot much more dependable than the older APM's.

Soloing · Jul 20, 2016

SteveReno said:
Since you had to publicly bad mouth Solo for no real substantial reason, just hear say, your starting a downward trend on there stock today.
The CEO have committed suicide since he read your post, the board of directors are fight like dogs!
The School for little orphans had to close it's doors today, cause 3DR was it's benefactor!
So..... THE NEXT TIME YOU BAD MOUTH SOMEONE......ah forget... they'll be another one like you along in about 5 min. LOL...

Your post isn't any better. His post doesn't deserve you coming down on him like you did...

ChrisBird · Jul 20, 2016

Anttler said:
D
You make this sound a lot more complicated than it is. Standard 2.4ghz RC system gets fairly good range. A BOSCAM attached to the gimbal holding the GoPro will give you FPV with enough range to get free flight shots. A RDF900 radio extends range far beyond legal limits (over 10K) that and a surface running MP and I can do waypoints without a problem, just drop waypoints to make a flight plan set it to auto it will follow. You have ROI through mission planner so you can track an point you want. This would be a very powerful setup, and I have all the parts along with an ardupilot v1, AMP2.5 and AMP2.6 and a few M7 gps's w/ compass in my basement already. I just like the redundancy on the Pixhawk 2. Multiple IMU's, baros seem to make this autopilot much more dependable than the older APM's.

Sure if your just doing surveys you only need a cam pointing downwards with no downlink required like I have on my other pixhawk powered multicopters (or a analogue cam to the side for framing for normal videoing). If your happy with analogue 5.8GHz signal that I'm yet to have a crystal clear setup not to mention it's almost impossible to stay within legal EIRP levels here in Australia. A 25mW Tx can have a 0 gain antenna attached, tell me what antenna are you attaching to your Tx? I know all of mine have several dbi gain so it's not strictly legal, how far cam you fly on that setup that is legal? If your a business you want to be legal. I have several analogue setups but I have to say I like have the HDMI feed and camera control while I'm in the air. Yes I use CHDK on my canon cameras for Photogrammetry. I like the gopro control, able to turn a record on and off so I have a clip of the shot I need, not an additional 5 mins of useless footage. On my Sony A5100 I use a device to do this and it's great. But I dont have a feed of what the camera is seeing, I cant change setting on the camera, so down it comes every time I want to change a setting.

We have moved from the cobble it together and get basic functionality to now needing to have an efficient workflow, this way it reduces time spent stuffing around and more time taking footage, pictures, etc..... Try telling a TV producer or director that the 5.8GHz analogue feed is adequate..... That is why I'll be pursing the IPTV device to provide the higher res.

I agree I have a couple of the RFD900+'s at 1W EIRP can go quite a distance, throw it up a pole with some good directional antennas and you can go insane distances (more like 40+KM's). I agree on the PH2, cant wait till Philip gets them rolling. I use MP / Tower and autonomous missions often. I also have ODROID's and Raspberry Pi's that pipe a digital image from either the Pi cam or from webcam / security cams - with mixed results.

What I'm saying is that a custom job won't be a like for like comparison, but you can achieve something close if you spend the time and money or something a few rungs down quality wise if you dont spend the time and the money. I still fly my custom builds, its roughly a 50/50, and I have 5 custom builds (multi's and fixed wing) all on Pixhawk's vs my Solo (so I fly the Solo far more than any of my others).

SteveReno · Jul 21, 2016

Exactly, what did i do so bad?
I'm tired of the inconsiderate people that come here just to piss on a product that they bought & like/love,
Seems to me they love what they bought, but when something goes wrong, they come to bash, & when something good happens from 3DR, no praise, No comment, acting like 3DR owns them a life for buying there product.

Most here, want to contribute info. that will help anyone that just bought the Solo or trying to learn.

3DRpilots & it's members isn't BAR to hear your drunken problems 3DR is a community with over 5K members & most come here to learn, share & help other's with there problems related to Solo.

If they have a REAL Problem with 3DR, then tell us about it or tell them"3DR" about it, but just to mouth off with "A friend told him the sky is falling" Or 3DR is going down the tubes cause there is no phone service.

& since your "Soloing" playing referee here Anttler, He's a fine example of what i mean. he DM'ed me wanting to know how much i would pay for his Solo. He didn't like to hear half of what ever retail is?. He laughed at me, So a guy that raising all this shit "Unloading" his Solo was a lie, he just wanted to mouth off! & complaint. Ask him, or i can put up his DM to me from him, if you like?

where are all the constructive & considerate people gone?

Let's end this, I know i'm right on all points.
God bless America & to hell with all the complainers!

Anttler · Jul 21, 2016

SteveReno said:
& since your "Soloing" playing referee here Anttler, He's a fine example of what i mean. he DM'ed me wanting to know how much i would pay for his Solo. He didn't like to hear half of what ever retail is?. He laughed at me, So a guy that raising all this shit "Unloading" his Solo was a lie, he just wanted to mouth off! & complaint. Ask him, or i can put up his DM to me from him, if you like?

I said I probably wouldn't take $450, but I'd let you know. You mentioned that if I unloaded it to let you know. I very well might unload it. Here are the PM's for everyone to see since you brought it up. The proving my point was getting at if a fire sale happens I really end up having a drone with no market value, while it may work the value would be nothing. That's why I am looking at unloading it.

Anttler
"I have the Solo, Gimbal, 3 batteries, 4 used props, 2 new props, controller, extra body that I have drilled for weight reduction (it was an experiment to try and increase flight time.)

What's it worth to you?"

SteveReno
"Well, Let's see?
As your post noted, Solo is on it's way down the toilet. New can be bought for $599 + extras? " Landing Pads" + no tax
You have extra 2 used batteries... $75.00 a piece
Solo + all accessorys: Half of retail $300 + $150 for batteries $450 with Shipping.
No need for that experiment.."

Anttler
"Yeah, your post helps prove my point.... in a year the 1.6K is offered $450. In general with my toys I figure 18 months and 1/2 purchase value, I knew that I wouldn't get that offer. I am picking up a used white bird tomorrow, I'll let you know, but I probably wouldn't accept $450. It's odd, one of the only reasons I am considering keeping the Solo is the experiment.... hacker at heart."

Robert Rose · Jul 21, 2016

Anttler said:
Rewind, and geofence is out since I have Andriod. I have no idea when the Pano and zipline will be available for me. Oribit, follow me, and even a type of MPCC is available with other drones. There are not only other drones comparable, the Solo is falling behind. This year at NAB I was hoping for a higher capacity battery maybe optical flow, instead I got a whole bunch of software updates that being an Andriod user I don't get to use. Investing in an Ipad mini does not sound smart as this there looks to be no further updates coming on that end either. The platform has such expandability I have enjoyed 3DR autopilots for many years, and held so much hope for this. Yet a 12 minuet practical mission plan and no further development looks to end this system. The only thing I find good about this system is how it interfaces with Mission Planner, and again the short flight time limits that.

If you want to sell the Solo, I will snap it up. If you have not surfed into the DIY space, please do it right away. The Solo has an open source operating system. The hardware is essentially a flying Arduino with an open port (again, ask your kid brother or a college engineering undergraduate what that is) This is huge, and maybe not today, but soon we will see very awesome real accessories. I expect that we will start to trade right here on Python scripts to do specialized smart shots. Already there are projects underway to make retractable landing gear and larger batteries. I had an idea to use an ultrasonic Arduino sensor board to detect rising ground (e.g., mountains) and there is already data on the problem. Ultrasonic Sensor Operation on a Quadcopter Yes, this is DIY stuff, but look at Polar Pro; they are the first "off the shelf company" to market lights that use the accessory bay. There will be other companies that will convert the DIY projects to commercial products. So, stick around, it will be fun.

twitchyzero · Jul 21, 2016

OP, you can't criticize Solo and 3DR on here even if you give credit where due.

the-now knee-jerk response is "so tell me which platform is better" or "go buy a P4 then lol"

The diehards will say it's rock-solid after they dump tens of hours of DIY and hundreds of dollars into modifying it when they've already spent ~$2000 at the bird and camera at launch. I pretty much did just that, except I've realized that's about enough money I want to burn into the ship that looks to be sinking. Quirks? Sure I love DIY, but if it takes more time DIY than actually flying/filming then something is out of whack. A month ago, these same diehards were like "what's with the doom and gloom"...with the latest restructuring of the company seeing key people get sacked, t hey probably wished they respected all 3DR owners thoughts and experiences...may be the vocals ones here are not just out to tarnish 3DR's reputation and have legitimate reasons for being unsatisfied.

you also better watch yourself if you don't believe GoPro is a serious professional camera!

Anttler · Jul 21, 2016

Robert Rose said:
If you want to sell the Solo, I will snap it up. If you have not surfed into the DIY space, please do it right away. The Solo has an open source operating system. The hardware is essentially a flying Arduino with an open port (again, ask your kid brother or a college engineering undergraduate what that is) This is huge, and maybe not today, but soon we will see very awesome real accessories. I expect that we will start to trade right here on Python scripts to do specialized smart shots. Already there are projects underway to make retractable landing gear and larger batteries. I had an idea to use an ultrasonic Arduino sensor board to detect rising ground (e.g., mountains) and there is already data on the problem. Ultrasonic Sensor Operation on a Quadcopter Yes, this is DIY stuff, but look at Polar Pro; they are the first "off the shelf company" to market lights that use the accessory bay. There will be other companies that will convert the DIY projects to commercial products. So, stick around, it will be fun.

My basement is a DIY space and have been an aerial on for years. This is why I jumped on Solo. I just don't see much happening here until the flight time is increased, and I don't see that happening for this system. On the flight time from I believe that falsely stating that the Solo would fly as long as other quads, I now see the website has a more realistic flight times advertised. Right out of that gate I felt a little foolish for believing that a 4 pound quad would fly around for 20 minuets on that battery.
BTW I don't ask my son about Arduino, Raspberry PI, and open ports.. He askes me ;-)