Keep losing controller connection

[gouillet]

Hi guys,

This is my first post on the blog. I am the owner of a 3dr solo since 2 months already and was happy until this problem happened:

I was flying around 80m (260 ft) high when the solo lost the connection. It started to come back to the starting point, as always, but when "landed", the drone kept crashing on the wall and I just couldn't do anything else. I didn't want my hand to be cut in sausage so I decided to turn off the controller. Bad idea, the drone kept turning and spinning and crashing... I finally could stop the drone by taking off the battery.

After changing the 4 propellers, I went for a flight again and it just keeps losing controller connection and the pairing process is really really long (5mins). So I decided to make a hard reset, but nothing changes... I changed my phone in the meantime and thought it would be the source of the problem but I tried w/ my old samsung and it still loses connection. I really dont know what to do. 3dr (as always) aren't answering and I am planning a trip soon and will need my drone.
The controller is always fully charged, up to date as well as my drone. I don't want to try to fly it in a manual mode for the moment in case I lose for good..


Please help me!!

Thanks to all of you

 

[pyrate]

you really need to read your manual
there is a emergency stop but if you lost controller signal it may not have mattered
the 1st thing you need to do is submit a help ticket from the app which will send the logs to 3DR
then follow up on chat.

THere are sooo many things we dont know
where you in a conjested area
Had it been working fine before at this location
where you near buildings

it is possible you have a loose antenna connection on your transmitter who knows

 

[PdxSteve]

How close to this wall were you when you took off? It sounds like you were way too close, and when landing the wall obstructed some GPS satellites and it couldn't get a good fix and freaked out. Always take off in an open area away from obstructions. The manual is pretty clear on this and a lot of other things.

 

[gouillet]

@pyrate I was on a rooftop so not in a congested area. It was working really fine before that day in this specific place. And some buildings are around there but it wasn't telling me "magnetic interferences"...
@PdxSteve I was around 2 meters from the "wall". I've put "" because the wall is a wood fence about 1 meter high and so not a big wall as we could imagine it.

 

[Mauiwind]

You guys are nice guys

 

[gouillet]

You guys are nice guys

 

[User Name]

I can't recommend any solutions to your connection problem beside opening up your Solo and ensuring no wires were jarred loose in the crash.

As for the crash... for future reference, if you're launching/landing in a confined space (and 6 feet away from obstacles is most definitely confined), it's best to take it out of RTL and perform the final approach and landing in either Fly or Manual mode. GPS is usually good to within a few meters (often better, but you should expect it can be off by that amount), so if you were 6 feet from your "wall", that was well within the margin for error.

You can also reposition Solo with the controller while it's landing in RTL mode, so if you saw it coming down right on top or very near your wall, you could have just brought it a little away from it.

As Steve suggested... the manual is your friend. All this stuff is covered in there.

 

[PdxSteve]

If it loses gps it goes into manual mode and will drift all over the place and the controls and solo don't act like they do in gps mode. Like if you tell it to move left and then let off the stick it won't stop there in that spot and hover like in gps mode. It will continue to drift in the direction it was heading in until you counteract it. It's also really best to practice flying in manual mode in a very large wide open area to get used to it. You WILL lose gps signal from time to time and best be prepared for that.

 

[gouillet]

I can't recommend any solutions to your connection problem beside opening up your Solo and ensuring no wires were jarred loose in the crash.

As for the crash... for future reference, if you're launching/landing in a confined space (and 6 feet away from obstacles is most definitely confined), it's best to take it out of RTL and perform the final approach and landing in either Fly or Manual mode. GPS is usually good to within a few meters (often better, but you should expect it can be off by that amount), so if you were 6 feet from your "wall", that was well within the margin for error.

You can also reposition Solo with the controller while it's landing in RTL mode, so if you saw it coming down right on top or very near your wall, you could have just brought it a little away from it.

As Steve suggested... the manual is your friend. All this stuff is covered in there.

Thank you so much for your answer. So you don't have solution to repair my SOlo? I can't fly it now!

 

[User Name]

Thank you so much for your answer. So you don't have solution to repair my SOlo? I can't fly it now!

A solution beyond opening up your Solo to check for wires that might have come loose in your crash? That would be a good place to start. If it's not connecting or continually disconnecting, it could be that the antennas or something else became loose.

Impossible to conclusively determine what the problem could be sight unseen, without any further information. It's called trouble shooting... have to start somewhere.

 

[gouillet]

Thank you so much to everyone.

Will check it out tmrw. Btw, do you know where is located the cable to the module that connects to the controller?

Let you know.

Thanks!

 

[gouillet]

Hi guys, I dismantled my drone and not any cable is loose or disconnected....

Don't know what to do.

Please help

 

[User Name]

Someone else could confirm, because I've never had mine disassembled that far (yet), but I believe the wifi card is on the bottom of the main board. Did you have it down to that? Check that the wifi card is seated in securely?

Were any of the legs damaged in your crash? Wrenched loose? The antennas run down the front right and rear left legs.

When you say it won't connect, are you saying the controller just sits saying "waiting for Solo", or does it connect but quickly disconnect?

 

[gouillet]

Hi "User Name"

I didn't have the wifi card down yet. It is still seated properly.
Not any of the leg has been crashed or wrenched loose. I saw the antennas and them look in good shape.

The controller connects to the drone after a while (3 mins) and straight after take off, it quickly disconnects and come back home.

Thanks!

 

[dml931]

i think either one of your wifi cards has failed, or you have a loose antenna connection in either the solo or the controller.

you say you get a connection, then right after it takes off, it looses connection and goes to RTL feature. things to try:
stand very far away 50'+ when you initialize the solo for take off and see if you're able to connect or not. if a great distance allows a connection still but still performs the RTL, then id suggest the card has gone bad. if you're unable to connect to the solo from a great distance then id first look at all 4 antenna connections (tx/rx in the solo wifi card and tx/rx on the controller wifi card) and if those all appear to be good (connected and the white glue is still in place) then id suspect the wifi card(s). hope this helps.

 

[Frank Foster]

Don't ask me where I just saw it, as I'm reading everywhere, but I saw where some Solo's had been found to have the antenna wires improperly installed, from the factory. I hate those iddy biddy things, it's hard for me to get them seated right. Then I do a drop of hot glue. I guess it could be possible for one of those wires to come loose from a crash, and even maybe appear to be connected, as 3DR uses some white silicone type stuff on them.

 

[gouillet]

Hi guys, and thanks to @Frank Foster and to @dml931 . In fact, an antenna wire in the controller was a bit loose. I've put some contact cement. I have reassembled all the drone as nothing was found loose inside andd waiting for the cement to dry.

Will let you know if this works. (I hope so )

Thanks to all

 

[gouillet]

Ok everyone, the issue has been resolved!!! That was one of the antenna cable in the controller that was loose as mentioned above.

Thanks for the help

 

[Frank Foster]

Another happy ending!

 

[Craig L. Johnson - USMC]

good trouble-shooting and good information.