LEDs while flying - right front white, left front red.

allen_993 · Nov 20, 2017

Interesting thing just happened to me. I was flying in FLY with both fronts white and both rears red...normal, all good. Was getting ready to do a manual landing (still in FLY) and noticed that Solo started responding very erratic/unstable to commands. I was about 6' from ground, trying not to crash, but was able to briefly look at controller to see I was still in FLY and GPS was locked in. While trying to get control so I could land, I did notice that both rears were red...the front right was white, BUT, the front left was red. I eventually moved over some grass, and had to make a hard landing...Solo tipped forward, but no damage due to being in grass. I powered Solo down and back up again and all is back to normal....any ideas?

IrishmanPDX · Nov 21, 2017

Solo uses four LED lights to indicate its status during startup and in flight.

Solid white (front) and red (back): Ready to fly, standard flight configuration
Pulsing white (front) and red (back) Solo is flying under autopilot control
Flashing red alternating front and back: Controller signal lost
Flashing rainbow: Update in progress
Solid green, then turning off one-by-one: Startup successful
Solid green without turning off automatically: Startup unsuccessful, please restart Solo

Possibly indicating that the controller signal was lost, could be that there was erratic wi fi interference in the area. Although from what you describe it sounds more like you had an iffy GPS signal. Remember, FLY mode is not manual control, it's more like GPS assisted flight. You should map either your A or B buttons to Manual control and be ready to take over control of your drone should you have "iffy" flight patterns.

I live in an area with very poor GPS signal. Once I take off and fly I'm fine, but when I'm coming in for landings my drone can act "erratically" (even though the controller will state I have full sat lock). This is simply because the GPS signal isn't all that accurate as I'm surrounded by tall thick tree's. As a result I always take manual control when coming in for a landing and this has solved my issues.

allen_993 · Nov 21, 2017

IrishmanPDX said:
Once I take off and fly I'm fine, but when I'm coming in for landings my drone can act "erratically" (even though the controller will state I have full sat lock). This is simply because the GPS signal isn't all that accurate as I'm surrounded by tall thick tree's. As a result I always take manual control when coming in for a landing and this has solved my issues.

My situation is exactly as you describe...once up and flying, all is great, but when I get close in for landings, I find the Solo acts pretty erratic about 50% of the time...and I too am surrounded by very big very tall trees. This cost me a full set of props yesterday

. I concluded then to go to manual when I get "close in" around the house...your message affirms that decision. And yes, I have BOTH A and B buttons assigned to MANUAL.

As far as that front left LED being red while the front right was white...not sure what that was about, but something was out of whack! Thanks for the response.

morris · Nov 21, 2017

Hi their it’s funny you posted this issue with your lights because the same thing happened to me except it happened after I changed the motor pod ,I didn’t have any issues flying but did have a red light on in my front of my copter while in flight and like you sure would like to know what that was about

IrishmanPDX · Nov 27, 2017

I'm actually currently testing 5 birds at the moment, 1 with a HERE system, 3 with MRO chips and V2 Shields and 1 with a Rev B board and the copper shield. When completed I'll post the results, but so far, I'm a little surprised at what I'm seeing.

allen_993 · Nov 27, 2017

IrishmanPDX said:
I'm actually currently testing 5 birds at the moment, 1 with a HERE system, 3 with MRO chips and V2 Shields and 1 with a Rev B board and the copper shield. When completed I'll post the results, but so far, I'm a little surprised at what I'm seeing.

Looking forward to your results. I'm not sure if I want to spend the $80 (ish) to upgrade my 2nd Solo GPS. I went from stock Rev.A no shield, to mRo w/ V2 shield...start up was much quicker, went from ~10-12 satellites to ~16-22 satellites. However, stock setup fly just fine and never really lost GPS once up in clear air space...and I generally fly MANUAL until I'm in clear air space., so not sure if it's worth the money for me.

BTW...I just removed the cardboard mod from my mRo w/ V2 shield install...no change in operation.

IrishmanPDX · Nov 28, 2017

allen_993 said:
Looking forward to your results. I'm not sure if I want to spend the $80 (ish) to upgrade my 2nd Solo GPS. I went from stock Rev.A no shield, to mRo w/ V2 shield...start up was much quicker, went from ~10-12 satellites to ~16-22 satellites. However, stock setup fly just fine and never really lost GPS once up in clear air space...and I generally fly MANUAL until I'm in clear air space., so not sure if it's worth the money for me.

BTW...I just removed the cardboard mod from my mRo w/ V2 shield install...no change in operation.

Good for you for removing it. I wouldn't want anything that absorbs moisture sitting in the drone.

Geography plays a big part in my GPS testing too, hopefully on the next clear sunny day I can gather the final set of data and post the results.