It's dead, Jim

[Mark]

So I'm new to drones and the Solo is my first. I finally got it yesterday (pre-ordered it at the beginning of May) went ahead and charged everything up, updated it and generally got it ready for its maiden voyage.

I took it out this morning for a test flight, had a few mishaps but nothing major, shut it down and went to work. When I got home from work, I took it to the park for another flight, powered everything and got nothing from the Solo. No power, no sounds, no LEDs, nothing. Disappointed, I brought it home and tried several times to get it to power up to no avail. Finally, I tried Google and found this thread. Sounded promising so I figured I'd try it out. Did a factory reset on it, and was delighted when the LEDs light up. My joy was short-lived as motor #3 flared up (literally) and started smoking. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the actual flare up, I just removed the battery quickly, but here's the aftermath:

Needless to day, I'm a tad upset, and I've opened a ticket with support. I guess I'll have to wait and see what they'll say.

 

[rrmccabe]

Welcome to the site. Sorry you found us looking for troubleshooting help.

 

[Mark]

Welcome to the site. Sorry you found us looking for troubleshooting help.

Thank you, sir. I am disappointed about my issue, but I expected some issues with such a new product.

 

[rrmccabe]

Thank you, sir. I am disappointed about my issue, but I expected some issues with such a new product.

I think it will be OK and 3DR will get you fixed up.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Yikes sorry to hear about your experience so far as well. This is the first report I've personally seen of any type of fire. Seems 3dr has been doing a pretty good job getting other bugs or issues taken care of through support or sending new units out pretty quickly.

I'd say you probably got one that slipped through QC and probably had some solder between posts or a bad connection that came loose in shipping and shorted things out. Sounds like initially it went into a fail safe and shut down but the factory reset brought it back to life and poof. I'm sure they'll get you fixed up and wish you luck, 3dr did mention earlier too hold off on factory resets unless told to by support but without being here or on other forums there really was no way for you to get this info until it was too late and you came looking for help. Welcome hope you have better luck with the replacement I'm betting you'll be sent, this seems to be one of the best forums for info without digging through a bunch of arguing

 

[Mark]

Yikes sorry to hear about your experience so far as well. This is the first report I've personally seen of any type of fire. Seems 3dr has been doing a pretty good job getting other bugs or issues taken care of through support or sending new units out pretty quickly.

I'd say you probably got one that slipped through QC and probably had some solder between posts or a bad connection that came loose in shipping and shorted things out. Sounds like initially it went into a fail safe and shut down but the factory reset brought it back to life and poof. I'm sure they'll get you fixed up and wish you luck, 3dr did mention earlier too hold off on factory resets unless told to by support but without being here or on other forums there really was no way for you to get this info until it was too late and you came looking for help. Welcome hope you have better luck with the replacement I'm betting you'll be sent, this seems to be one of the best forums for info without digging through a bunch of arguing

Thanks for the welcome. I'm not overly concerned about it, from everything I've seen 3DR seems to be good at resolving issues. I certainly did learn my lesson to 'look before I leap' in the future with any other issues I might have.

 

[1013D]

You mentioned mishaps.....crashes I assume.

Perhaps a wire got kicked loose and shorted out the motor or speed control.

There are instructions for removing the motor pods in the main instructions for solo....might be worth a try to see what happened

 

[Mark]

You mentioned mishaps.....crashes I assume.

Perhaps a wire got kicked loose and shorted out the motor or speed control.

There are instructions for removing the motor pods in the main instructions for solo....might be worth a try to see what happened

Yep crashes, but nothing as severe as others have had. Still, a loose wire is always a possibility. I'll wait until I hear back from support before monkeying around with it any further at this point. I was just so excited to finally have it and try it out and I got a grand total of 15 minutes of flight time.

 

[Raybro]

sorry about your luck with the Solo. support will get you fixed up. Take it slow and easy once you get it in the air again.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Yep crashes, but nothing as severe as others have had. Still, a loose wire is always a possibility. I'll wait until I hear back from support before monkeying around with it any further at this point. I was just so excited to finally have it and try it out and I got a grand total of 15 minutes of flight time.

Yea totally agree until today I've had good luck but would have taken a lot for me to give in and wait until somebody got back too me the day I got it. I'd probably have done what I'd do with anything else and factory reset or tinker till I figured it out or exhausted my options.

That Said alls been great with mine until just now, and sadly now even at 11 or 12 satellites and a mid 30s Rssi solo will not arm period I've reset multiple times nothing, I can get it to go into stabilize and it would fly but if something's wrong with my gps I'd rather not test it so I'm going to take my battery out reset everything and try again tomorrow. I'm going to be pretty ticked if solo is dead for the Fourth of July. Sad enough my good vids going to have to come from the old p2 with no solo gimbal but I at least want to fly it if I can. Guess wel see what happens

 

[Adimuzio513]

Update

All is well now couldn't wait till morning, took gopro off and only used s6 before I swapped from 5s to s6 after powering up before flight, this time solo got locked as soon as I turned it on almost. Wifi on gopro was off so I think it's just coincidence but mentioning it anyway. Yea take me off the no fly list for now.

 

[Drone videography]

I posted a video showing how to confirm that only one pod burned out, and how to remove and replace the pod. The video is here:

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Unfortunately, 3DR doesn't seem to have a lot of pods on the shelf.

You also need to know which number pod (1-4) since 2 rotate CW and 2 rotate CCW.

- Mark

So I'm new to drones and the Solo is my first. I finally got it yesterday (pre-ordered it at the beginning of May) went ahead and charged everything up, updated it and generally got it ready for its maiden voyage.

I took it out this morning for a test flight, had a few mishaps but nothing major, shut it down and went to work. When I got home from work, I took it to the park for another flight, powered everything and got nothing from the Solo. No power, no sounds, no LEDs, nothing. Disappointed, I brought it home and tried several times to get it to power up to no avail. Finally, I tried Google and found this thread. Sounded promising so I figured I'd try it out. Did a factory reset on it, and was delighted when the LEDs light up. My joy was short-lived as motor #3 flared up (literally) and started smoking. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the actual flare up, I just removed the battery quickly, but here's the aftermath:

Needless to day, I'm a tad upset, and I've opened a ticket with support. I guess I'll have to wait and see what they'll say.

So I'm new to drones and the Solo is my first. I finally got it yesterday (pre-ordered it at the beginning of May) went ahead and charged everything up, updated it and generally got it ready for its maiden voyage.

I took it out this morning for a test flight, had a few mishaps but nothing major, shut it down and went to work. When I got home from work, I took it to the park for another flight, powered everything and got nothing from the Solo. No power, no sounds, no LEDs, nothing. Disappointed, I brought it home and tried several times to get it to power up to no avail. Finally, I tried Google and found this thread. Sounded promising so I figured I'd try it out. Did a factory reset on it, and was delighted when the LEDs light up. My joy was short-lived as motor #3 flared up (literally) and started smoking. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the actual flare up, I just removed the battery quickly, but here's the aftermath:

Needless to day, I'm a tad upset, and I've opened a ticket with support. I guess I'll have to wait and see what they'll say.

 

[Mark]

I posted a video showing how to confirm that only one pod burned out, and how to remove and replace the pod. The video is here:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Unfortunately, 3DR doesn't seem to have a lot of pods on the shelf.

You also need to know which number pod (1-4) since 2 rotate CW and 2 rotate CCW.

- Mark

Mark-

Great video, and very informative! I only wish I had seen it earlier .

Mark

 

[Mark]

Update.

Well, I opened a support case over a week ago and haven't heard anything back. Tried calling support yesterday and never got through. I'm really ticked now being that I'm still in the 30-day money back guarantee and a replacement wasn't offered to begin with. I've just spent another 45 minutes on support and still got no satisfaction. In any case, I'm done. Solo is obviously not ready and I'm sending it back.

I guess you can chalk me up as another Phantom convert.

Thanks for the help and the welcome, regardless.

 

[tesmithp]

Does anyone know what motors are used? Maybe they can be purchased elsewhere and replaced without replacing the whole pod?

 

[GoodnNuff]

Update.

Well, I opened a support case over a week ago and haven't heard anything back. Tried calling support yesterday and never got through. I'm really ticked now being that I'm still in the 30-day money back guarantee and a replacement wasn't offered to begin with. I've just spent another 45 minutes on support and still got no satisfaction. In any case, I'm done. Solo is obviously not ready and I'm sending it back.

I guess you can chalk me up as another Phantom convert.

Thanks for the help and the welcome, regardless.

Because it is much better wait 6 weeks for an RMA in order to return your drone to China for 2 months to have it repaired.

 

[Jubalr]

I believe I read that they are an 880kv. Could probably replace all 4 but would need to see if the mounting is pretty standard or proprietary to the Solo.

 

[Solo Joe]

Update.

Well, I opened a support case over a week ago and haven't heard anything back. Tried calling support yesterday and never got through. I'm really ticked now being that I'm still in the 30-day money back guarantee and a replacement wasn't offered to begin with. I've just spent another 45 minutes on support and still got no satisfaction. In any case, I'm done. Solo is obviously not ready and I'm sending it back.

I guess you can chalk me up as another Phantom convert.

Thanks for the help and the welcome, regardless.

Solo is definitely ready. Im sorry you were one of the few that had a defect and a subsequent bad experience. However, this is par for the course for any new product release (the defect, not the support issues) There are ALWAYS some people that have issues with every type of electronic that is released. There are Thousands of people that have had great experiences and a fully working solo. Unfortunately you drew the small straw and it just seems like there are a lot of issues because like yourself, whenever someone has an issue like this they come to a place like this to talk about it, While the majority of happy owners are too busy flying to post on a forum. Your situation is unfortunate, and 3dr has no excuse for their lack of response to people.They were unprepared for this and while it is not good it will take them some time to get more people on board and trained to be able to handle the volume. In the meantime, take a breath, either wait for the part or demand a replacement from a manager and enjoy your awesome machine once you get one that is working.

PS this happens over at Mac rumors everytime apple releases something new. If you read that forum last fall you would have thought that every iPhone 6 was a lemon and that no one was happy with them. Meanwhile it has been the highest selling iPhone for them yet.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Took a pod out the day I had the rough landing from gps tweak out, seems it's doable but somewhat difficult you'd obviously have to tear up all your pods in order to do it right or you'd have to permanently mod your bird anyway it goes I wouldn't want to but that's just me, since obviously your warranty would be toast.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Solo is definitely ready. Im sorry you were one of the few that had a defect and a subsequent bad experience. However, this is par for the course for any new product release (the defect, not the support issues) There are ALWAYS some people that have issues with every type of electronic that is released. There are Thousands of people that have had great experiences and a fully working solo. Unfortunately you drew the small straw and it just seems like there are a lot of issues because like yourself, whenever someone has an issue like this they come to a place like this to talk about it, While the majority of happy owners are too busy flying to post on a forum. Your situation is unfortunate, and 3dr has no excuse for their lack of response to people.They were unprepared for this and while it is not good it will take them some time to get more people on board and trained to be able to handle the volume. In the meantime, take a breath, either wait for the part or demand a replacement from a manager and enjoy your awesome machine once you get one that is working.

PS this happens over at Mac rumors everytime apple releases something new. If you read that forum last fall you would have thought that every iPhone 6 was a lemon and that no one was happy with them. Meanwhile it has been the highest selling iPhone for them yet.

All so very true and even being fairly new to quads this being my second just knowing electronics there was no doubt that we'd have some issues to work out. I'm riding it out regaurdless yea I've had some issues but I expected to. In all honesty I think they've done a good job with damage control and all the issues are brought up over and over I'd bet the percentage of actual solo caused crashes with more than prop damage is very small. My support tickets been a couple days but I assume they are pretty swamped and expect it to take a while. I'd bet if some tried through diy or Facebook they would recieve help and be back in the air unless parts are required. Any way it goes if you want the newest advances in tech you eventually have to have patience cause sooner or later you will probably experience some problems maybe even down time. If your happy with today's tested tech that's cool wait or buy a phantom 2 and still possibly have issues p3 has some too, but if you'd rather help to test and perfect tomorrow's with a warranty like this there's no way too lose, until 30 days past gimbal arrival your risking little if anything. That means 3dr will do their best to fix any and all issues fast as they can cause they're the ones losing at this point not us.
Issues or not I love mine and it's not going anywhere.
I just hope they keep up the good work and we see our gimbal soon.

All this said in the ops shoes I'd be anxious to get at least some answers I'm surprised a fire hasn't been a priority type issue. Have you tried the sites 3dr guys frequent at all Mark?