Just bought Solo and found out 3dr leaving drone world

nightram · Dec 10, 2016

If you buy it from a reputable store, they should give you 1 years warranty. Failing that..... insurance.

Newbie · Dec 11, 2016

I am feeling really good about purchase, everyone appears to really be very positive on Solo platform.The response to my concerns have been very reassuring. I hope people are willing to help me through my growing period, it will be one sided for a while but I hope I can be helpful going down the road. Talking about spare props and batterys how many do you keep on hand what is shelf time on batteries better left unused on shelf or rotated use? Where are the batteries $50 ect. Thanks to all and I am practicing on my little drone as we speak. P.S. GoPro is on its way,but I will practice without for a while.

Ed Beck · Dec 11, 2016

Batteries - don't store them with a charge, discharge them to around 30%.

The number of batteries depends on how long you want to be able to fly. Figure 15 useful minutes per flight (some shorter if it takes time to get to the location from which you want to shoot). Recharge time is about an hour and fifteen minutes. So to provide continuous operations you'd need 6 batteries and a way to recharge 5 while the 6th is in flight.

Chuck · Dec 11, 2016

Newbie said:
I am feeling really good about purchase, everyone appears to really be very positive on Solo platform.The response to my concerns have been very reassuring. I hope people are willing to help me through my growing period, it will be one sided for a while but I hope I can be helpful going down the road. Talking about spare props and batterys how many do you keep on hand what is shelf time on batteries better left unused on shelf or rotated use? Where are the batteries $50 ect. Thanks to all and I am practicing on my little drone as we speak. P.S. GoPro is on its way,but I will practice without for a while.

The more reading here that you do, and the more you become familiar with your Solo, the less one sided you will feel. I am no expert, and I just try to help out where my own experiences can help someone else. Personally, I have 8 batteries between 2 Solo's, and when not planning to fly, I keep them at 50% charge for storage. I never started keeping a log for how many charging cycles each battery has gone through (a lot of people on here do maintain that log), but I have each battery dated, and I rotate them when using them. As for props, I always carry an extra full set of props when going out to fly. My first Solo was purchased when Solo first became available, and it is still on the original set of props. I figure if I need more than 1 full set of spares when flying, I really need to pack it up and head home......

. Good luck to you, and safe flying.

Jeffer · Dec 11, 2016

This is a great forum, and some really great guys with LOTS of experience. Personally, searching and reading the forums and input BEFORE posting a question that is probably already out there is the best advice I can give you. You will likely find that support here is probably better than support from a manufacturer.

I already had a GoPro I use for activities. Did my research, bought full well knowing the company's future, and am happy I did. If you use the thing for a year under warranty and THEN decide to move, you are still better off...in my opinion.
Fly safe. Read the manual. Take advice from reading these forums. And post your experiences to help others.
Welcome to the family!

Newbie · Dec 11, 2016

Jeffer said:
This is a great forum, and some really great guys with LOTS of experience. Personally, searching and reading the forums and input BEFORE posting a question that is probably already out there is the best advice I can give you. You will likely find that support here is probably better than support from a manufacturer.

I already had a GoPro I use for activities. Did my research, bought full well knowing the company's future, and am happy I did. If you use the thing for a year under warranty and THEN decide to move, you are still better off...in my opinion.
Fly safe. Read the manual. Take advice from reading these forums. And post your experiences to help others.
Welcome to the family!

Thanks; am new to forum life and decorum. When I was a Graphic Artist we had user groups using phones relying on each other for our companies survival.I will learn how to search better and bother less and hopefully help

Newbie · Dec 11, 2016

Chuck said:
The more reading here that you do, and the more you become familiar with your Solo, the less one sided you will feel. I am no expert, and I just try to help out where my own experiences can help someone else. Personally, I have 8 batteries between 2 Solo's, and when not planning to fly, I keep them at 50% charge for storage. I never started keeping a log for how many charging cycles each battery has gone through (a lot of people on here do maintain that log), but I have each battery dated, and I rotate them when using them. As for props, I always carry an extra full set of props when going out to fly. My first Solo was purchased when Solo first became available, and it is still on the original set of props. I figure if I need more than 1 full set of spares when flying, I really need to pack it up and head home....... Good luck to you, and safe flying.

Thank you I will need help; brain, eye sight and coordination is going down this may sharpen them?

Jeffer · Dec 11, 2016

Sorry - hope you did not read mine as a slam to your questions vs. searching! That was not the intent. Just want to make sure you know there's great info here, all at the click of the search button. Probably 90% of the things you're going to ask at some point, and another 10% of the things you don't yet know you need to know.

Smart guys with way more experience than I have, and willing to share for the betterment of the hobby. Win/win.

Newbie · Dec 11, 2016

Ed Beck said:
Batteries - don't store them with a charge, discharge them to around 30%.

The number of batteries depends on how long you want to be able to fly. Figure 15 useful minutes per flight (some shorter if it takes time to get to the location from which you want to shoot). Recharge time is about an hour and fifteen minutes. So to provide continuous operations you'd need 6 batteries and a way to recharge 5 while the 6th is in flight.

Sounds good, you must have a great deal of stamina I hope to want to work up to that level. Thanx

Newbie · Dec 11, 2016

Jeffer said:
Sorry - hope you did not read mine as a slam to your questions vs. searching! That was not the intent. Just want to make sure you know there's great info here, all at the click of the search button. Probably 90% of the things you're going to ask at some point, and another 10% of the things you don't yet know you need to know.

Smart guys with way more experience than I have, and willing to share for the betterment of the hobby. Win/win.

No problem, all help is greatly appreciated I like to learn.

Ed Beck · Dec 11, 2016

Newbie said:
Sounds good, you must have a great deal of stamina I hope to want to work up to that level. Thanx

Everything I do is based on planning the shot, programming the shot, then making the shot. Which is exactly what I do in my photography business. I usually run through a battery or two programming the cable cams into Solo, then i use a battery and tell Solo to go shoot it.

In other videos I've spent days planning out the entire video, program it into Tower, creating my own updated maps for programming, then tell Solo to go fly it.

I'm very curious how you plan to use Solo in your artistic works. I'm a professional photographer and I use Solo to put a camera into a location I otherwise can't. I primarily use Solo to produce commercial images. The "artistic" images I've seen coming from Solo are mostly just people taking advantage of a different view to show a perspective most people don't get.

Something I consider more artistic is a person who was using Solo to light a landscape. He use an attachment light, and took a long exposure while Solo flew up and down the cliff face lighting it.

Newbie · Dec 11, 2016

Ed Beck said:
Everything I do is based on planning the shot, programming the shot, then making the shot. Which is exactly what I do in my photography business. I usually run through a battery or two programming the cable cams into Solo, then i use a battery and tell Solo to go shoot it.

In other videos I've spent days planning out the entire video, program it into Tower, creating my own updated maps for programming, then tell Solo to go fly it.

I'm very curious how you plan to use Solo in your artistic works. I'm a professional photographer and I use Solo to put a camera into a location I otherwise can't. I primarily use Solo to produce commercial images. The "artistic" images I've seen coming from Solo are mostly just people taking advantage of a different view to show a perspective most people don't get.

Something I consider more artistic is a person who was using Solo to light a landscape. He use an attachment light, and took a long exposure while Solo flew up and down the cliff face lighting it.

Yes ,yes and yes I was originally taken by the ability to get a perspective that I can not achieve any other way. Because of my Graphic Art Background I still do commercial work for other Artist friends to help in marketing their work. In the past a photographer as you would know conceived and created at the shoot and finished in the darkroom. Today with Raw and Photoshop all this can be done post-shooting,some would call this cheating but tools change with time.There are only so many Lines ,Circles and Squares only the tools change over time.To be truthful I am not sure but I have to learn this new tool and make a lot of mistakes. I always learn more from mistakes then succeses.

Thorsg1 · Dec 11, 2016

Ed Beck said:
Look at it this way, you've got a good quad at a good price. There's a lot of support here, and 3DR is still supporting for bad units (I think).

Eventually all of the quads flying now will go obsolete, Solo not as quickly though since third parties are writing code for it and there are third party add-ons,

If you decide to stay with it I'd stock up on spare parts. I've taken advantage of sales to stock up on propellers, I have a spare gimbal, and I've got a spare Solo that I use on flights that don't require a gimbal.

Also get a spare Gopro 3 Black + or 4 if you can. 3DR was replacing Gopro's as part of the warranty if needed but since Gopro has stopped making the Gopro 4 and the Gopro 5 won't work with the Solo, they made it official this week they can no longer do that. They are still fully honoring warranty otherwise.

pious_greek · Dec 11, 2016

Ed Beck said:
Batteries - don't store them with a charge, discharge them to around 30%.

The number of batteries depends on how long you want to be able to fly. Figure 15 useful minutes per flight (some shorter if it takes time to get to the location from which you want to shoot). Recharge time is about an hour and fifteen minutes. So to provide continuous operations you'd need 6 batteries and a way to recharge 5 while the 6th is in flight.

Ed, I thought 60% battery charge was ideal for storage, you sure on the 30%?

Newb, best buy has been liquidating 3DR solo accessories. I'm not sure if the sale is still current, but there were selling batteries $49.

Or you can try contacting Mrmiata1994. he's on the forum here too. 3DR Solo Brand New No Retail Box Set of 3 Batteries, Battery | eBay

Jubalr · Dec 11, 2016

pious_greek said:
Ed, I thought 60% battery charge was ideal for storage, you sure on the 30%?

Newb, best buy has been liquidating 3DR solo accessories. I'm not sure if the sale is still current, but there were selling batteries $49.

Or you can try contacting Mrmiata1994. he's on the forum here too. 3DR Solo Brand New No Retail Box Set of 3 Batteries, Battery | eBay

In my opinion and years with the batteries, it's not the exact science some will try to put on it. You couldn't 'store' a Solo battery at 100% if you wanted to, as it reduces charge all by it's self. If I don't use a fully charged battery, it will drain down 1-2 lights per week to 10 days. After about 3-4 weeks, when it gets to about 45-60% it will stay there for quite a while. And that's usually about what they read when you buy them new. And how long have they been on the shelf since manufactured?

Ed Beck · Dec 12, 2016

pious_greek said:
Ed, I thought 60% battery charge was ideal for storage, you sure on the 30%?

I got that number from attending @EyeWingsuit 's presentation.

Thorsg1 · Dec 12, 2016

pious_greek said:
Ed, I thought 60% battery charge was ideal for storage, you sure on the 30%?

Newb, best buy has been liquidating 3DR solo accessories. I'm not sure if the sale is still current, but there were selling batteries $49.

Or you can try contacting Mrmiata1994. he's on the forum here too. 3DR Solo Brand New No Retail Box Set of 3 Batteries, Battery | eBay

You don't have to worry about Solo batteries. They discharge on their own over time down to 50% and then hold there. That's one of the "smart" functions. I've purchased batteries that were on the shelf for a year going by the manufacture date and the LED's were still sitting at 50% out of the box.

Ethan Endres · Dec 12, 2016

Newbie said:
Thank you for you insite I am new to all this.I was a Graphic Artist in my past life and looking to use my expertise going forward . Money is a concern so buying another is a no go (for Parts).I have also looked at a DJI Phantom Standard Refurb $350 but I feel the 3DR is a better platform and more like my personality.I am handy and try to keep things going. I am attracted to the beauty of the images and looking at how they can be used to cover my costs. I am also looking at a refub GOPRO Hero Silver $250 I think this will work with soft and hardware? Thanks again it is helpful to know there will be others to help, I do not like being on a island alone.

I just want to let you know the GoPro Hero 3+ Silver is not Fully compatible with the Gimble, so I'd say that is a bad idea, you need a minimum of GoPro Hero 3+ Black.

Ed Beck · Dec 12, 2016

Newbie said:
In the past a photographer as you would know conceived and created at the shoot and finished in the darkroom. Today with Raw and Photoshop all this can be done post-shooting,some would call this cheating but tools change with time.

YES! I can't tell you how many times I've told people that we're not doing anything we didn't used to do in the darkroom or on the negative. The tools have changed, and the skillset is different, but the basics are the same.

My biggest problem with Photoshop is that people hear so much about it that they assume it's easy. Like there's a "FIX IT" button you can push and the image is turned into a work of art.

Some of my images end up with almost 100 layers and over 2GB in size. Funny thing though is what I consider my best image pretty much came out of the camera as is.

Heads up, in this photo the model is nude and I've composed the image so that everything most people would consider erotic is covered up.

Dropbox - 08-Invy-Hatchling-2012-02-15-0012.jpg