Lidar or Optical Flow with Solo - costs and ?

Barney · May 27, 2016

What does it cost to put Lidar on Solo - or optical flow if that does the same thing? I need my solo to fly 40 ft above the terrain, all the time, for some vegetative mapping programs.

franknitty69 · May 27, 2016

Lidar is used for measuring altitude and optical flow is used for measuring speed/position. they both can be used at the same time for more precise flight as well as flight in gps comprised areas.

there is diy flow module that includes both lidar and optical flow. if you aren't interested in diy, i will be selling a complete kit in the next few weeks.

here is the info for optical flow on solo
Optical flow on Solo

pyrate · May 27, 2016

That is awesome Frank

fpvsteve · May 27, 2016

Here is a teaser how Lidar works with Solo.

LAK-USA · May 28, 2016

franknitty69 said:
Lidar is used for measuring altitude and optical flow is used for measuring speed/position. they both can be used at the same time for more precise flight as well as flight in gps comprised areas.

there is diy flow module that includes both lidar and optical flow. if you aren't interested in diy, i will be selling a complete kit in the next few weeks.

here is the info for optical flow on solo
Optical flow on Solo

Frank, I'm interested. Have you fixed on a price point yet?

Al Cab · May 28, 2016

fpvsteve said:
Here is a teaser how Lidar works with Solo.

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Nice work. Do you have anything else to share ? I would like to do the same on my solo ? Did you test it upon trees with leaves ?

mecummings.cr · Jun 3, 2016

franknitty69 said:
Lidar is used for measuring altitude and optical flow is used for measuring speed/position. they both can be used at the same time for more precise flight as well as flight in gps comprised areas.

there is diy flow module that includes both lidar and optical flow. if you aren't interested in diy, i will be selling a complete kit in the next few weeks.

here is the info for optical flow on solo
Optical flow on Solo

Very cool Frank.... I would be interested in purchasing this as an option for my solo... will it continue to work with the gimbal?

franknitty69 · Jun 3, 2016

mecummings.cr said:
Very cool Frank.... I would be interested in purchasing this as an option for my solo... will it continue to work with the gimbal?

yep. it was designed to fit in the accessory bay w/out obstruction the gimbal.

BAR · Jun 4, 2016

Awesome! How would this work on water?

franknitty69 · Jun 4, 2016

BAR said:
Awesome! How would this work on water?

the SF11 doesn't work well over water and surfaces that doesn't have patterns.

EricG · Jun 5, 2016

franknitty69 said:
Lidar is used for measuring altitude and optical flow is used for measuring speed/position. they both can be used at the same time for more precise flight as well as flight in gps comprised areas.

there is diy flow module that includes both lidar and optical flow. if you aren't interested in diy, i will be selling a complete kit in the next few weeks.

here is the info for optical flow on solo
Optical flow on Solo

Will you do an announcement here or in facebook when you start selling them? Definitely interested.

BAR · Jun 5, 2016

Thanks Frank, water seems to be a funny one hey...
Overall though it is a great functionality to have on the solo - Im interested.

perkele · Jun 5, 2016

franknitty69 said:
the SF11 doesn't work well over water and surfaces that doesn't have patterns.

How about the patterns made from air pressure when flying low? I'm dreaming of cruising a few meters above the water...

Dfyffe · Nov 27, 2016

Did this just dies on the vine?

pyrate · Nov 27, 2016

it worked on the buggy firmware from 3dr, when they rolled back the firmware it was no longer an option for solo.
The new 2.1 PH and Rebase might bring it back on line.

BTW latest news is Jordi is working on a version of solo link that will work with any flight controller.

Dfyffe · Nov 27, 2016

pyrate said:
it worked on the buggy firmware from 3dr, when they rolled back the firmware it was no longer an option for solo.
The new 2.1 PH and Rebase might bring it back on line.

BTW latest news is Jordi is working on a version of solo link that will work with any flight controller.

So 3DR messed this up? That is a real shame. It looked promising. The 2.1 is the cube that Philp Rowse is bringing out? If so, i may have to get one after all.

fpvsteve · Nov 27, 2016

Dfyffe said:
So 3DR messed this up? That is a real shame. It looked promising. The 2.1 is the cube that Philp Rowse is bringing out? If so, i may have to get one after all.

You don't need the new cube. For whatever stupid reason 3DR decided to go back to the stone age old firmware with their latest update.
Here is what you need to do to get it going again.
Lidar-based ground collision checking for 3DR Solo - Hackster.io

pyrate · Nov 27, 2016

that is Stephan one of the few folks that got this to work.
But to do that you have to go back to the risky solo firmware. That was the one that introduced a ton of EKF errors and caused a lot of crashes

fpvsteve · Nov 27, 2016

pyrate said:
that is Stephan one of the few folks that got this to work.
But to do that you have to go back to the risky solo firmware. That was the one that introduced a ton of EKF errors and caused a lot of crashes

I am on FW 2.4.1-3 since July, a version never released to public by 3DR. I can report zero issues with it. Link to download is in the Hackster blog.