Link to Solo lost then an odd catastrophic crash

[Bill G]

I was flying my Solo in a giant open field. It is actually a private airstrip and I had received owner permission. When the quad was about 100-150 feet away at an altitude of 50 feet I lost the link. She did just what she should have. She climbed to 100 feet and returned home. During the return the link was reestablished. I pressed fly and things returned to normal. About 2 minutes later, at about the same distance, I lost the link again and the Return Home function activated for a second time. This time I intended to let her come home and land. All went well until the copter got to about 5 feet off the ground at the home point, which it found perfectly. At this point the rotor noise changed dramatically and she took off at maximum speed in a very slow decent. After traveling about 100 feet she hit the ground. It was a nice grass field so the frame was okay but 2 props came off and the camera went flying. The camera HDMI port was trashed rendering the camera useless. I had only had the copter for a little over 3 weeks so rather than struggle with tech support I called B&H Photo and they happily agreed to exchange it.

I had flown her for about 20 minutes on manual prior to this failure with no problems. Up until this time, the only issue I was having involved loosing the GPS lock. When the lock was lost she would get pretty squirrelly when it reverted to manual flight. I had figured that when I was flying in wooded areas or around other obstructions it would be better to just start out in manual rather than have it revert without warning. The GPS lock seems to be very sensitive.

Would like to hear if anyone else has had communication or GPS Lock issues.

 

[Dash Hewes]

This morning ditto for me too. Exact same thing happened but no crash, very controlled descent.
I have three SOLO's, but only had one with me. Would of tried another had I had with me.

After my first flight doing what it did as you described, I drove 20 miles NW, set up again.

Flight two seemed fine. I flew for 7 minutes landed, rechecked everything, took off again. I'm always in manual, after 5 minutes I landed.

Flight three, Fresh battery, took off in manual, flew up to 350ft to frame a 2.5 acres lot, then switched to fly. Set up to orbit, center was fine, hit A to confirm and voice says lost comm with controller. I see RTH on the screen. I was about 250ft away but altitude 350, quad descended to 150ft, hovered and then started to land. At about 80ft I pressed manual, the quad stopped but I had no control. I then pushed RTH, the quad ascended to 150ft, hovered and then landed. I setup a trouble report and sent it to 3DR for review. This one will be grounded until 3DR can tell me what might of happened.

 

[SteveReno]

The only time anyone lost GPS that i read or know of, was while vehicle under something that would block GPS. All GPS gets blocked when installed in a moving vehicle that is under a tree, bridge, Large metal buildings, Towers ect, ect.. even near these structures can cause a interruption.
If the runway to this old airstrip is made of cement, then it has rebar in the cement, that's enough to cause interference.

Not to sound like, that Solo can only work in perfect conditions, it works greate in most conditions, just offering help to what may be the problem interference near you at the time of crash.

 

[Bill G]

The field I was flying at was a grass strip with absolutely no obstructions. I can see no reason for any loss of either control link or GPS. I don't actually think GPS was ever lost on the last flight but can not be sure because I had no data link to the copter.

 

[Troiano27]

I'm curious about B&H replacing for you? I'm planning on ordering from them myself. They don't seem to offetr the extended coverage for the solo. Just the other items I'm ordering.

 

[SteveReno]

Re-read your post, Seems GPS was working, if Solo initiated a RTH.
the GPS was working, If GPS wasn't working ten when lost link from contoller, Solo would go in to manual mode automatically.
Lost link is more common that GPS lost. But is that short distance, shouldn't happen?
B&H is the BEST! I buy all my equipment thur them.

 

[Bill G]

Re-read your post, Seems GPS was working, if Solo initiated a RTH.
the GPS was working, If GPS wasn't working ten when lost link from contoller, Solo would go in to manual mode automatically.
Lost link is more common that GPS lost. But is that short distance, shouldn't happen?
B&H is the BEST! I buy all my equipment thur them.

You are correct about B&H. Over the past several years they have accounted for more than $15k of purchases and I have never had any kind of issue.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

I was flying my Solo in a giant open field. It is actually a private airstrip and I had received owner permission. When the quad was about 100-150 feet away at an altitude of 50 feet I lost the link. She did just what she should have. She climbed to 100 feet and returned home. During the return the link was reestablished. I pressed fly and things returned to normal. About 2 minutes later, at about the same distance, I lost the link again and the Return Home function activated for a second time. This time I intended to let her come home and land. All went well until the copter got to about 5 feet off the ground at the home point, which it found perfectly. At this point the rotor noise changed dramatically and she took off at maximum speed in a very slow decent. After traveling about 100 feet she hit the ground. It was a nice grass field so the frame was okay but 2 props came off and the camera went flying. The camera HDMI port was trashed rendering the camera useless. I had only had the copter for a little over 3 weeks so rather than struggle with tech support I called B&H Photo and they happily agreed to exchange it.

I had flown her for about 20 minutes on manual prior to this failure with no problems. Up until this time, the only issue I was having involved loosing the GPS lock. When the lock was lost she would get pretty squirrelly when it reverted to manual flight. I had figured that when I was flying in wooded areas or around other obstructions it would be better to just start out in manual rather than have it revert without warning. The GPS lock seems to be very sensitive.

Would like to hear if anyone else has had communication or GPS Lock issues.

Contrary to what some here say, GPS is an issue with solo. Just type GPS in the search box. If you are in a very wide open area though you should not have a problem. My solo would take forever to lock and if I was flying in deep valleys or canyons I would constantly lose GPS.

 

[SteveReno]

Contrary to what some here say, GPS is an issue with solo. Just type GPS in the search box. If you are in a very wide open area though you should not have a problem. My solo would take forever to lock and if I was flying in deep valleys or canyons I would constantly lose GPS.

Well, It's good that Solo will not go in to FLY mode if GPS isn't any good, cause if you in the air in FLY mode, Then you lose GPS, then it would go it to MANUAL mode automatically, you must fly it home manual Mode or till it acquiring a GPS lock again.
The not acquiring GPS changes with time of day, location Sun activity, but most everyone's problems with Solo's not acquiring a GPS lock gets fixed, one way or the other. They fixed most problems with GPS locking, 2 updates ago.

If your still having problems with acquiring GPS, then hurry & send a repair ticket in, I'm most for sure they will fix it .

 

[Bigskyflyer]

Well, It's good that Solo will not go in to FLY mode if GPS isn't any good, cause if you in the air in FLY mode, Then you lose GPS, then it would go it to MANUAL mode automatically, you must fly it home manual Mode or till it acquiring a GPS lock again.
The not acquiring GPS changes with time of day, location Sun activity, but most everyone's problems with Solo's not acquiring a GPS lock gets fixed, one way or the other. They fixed most problems with GPS locking, 2 updates ago.

If your still having problems with acquiring GPS, then hurry & send a repair ticket in, I'm most for sure they will fix it .

I sent my first solo back before the update. This one does acquire much faster but is still very sensitive in areas with obstructions. Just the nature of the beast. When flying in tight areas I just use my other bird.

 

[SteveReno]

Or just fly manual, that's what I need to learn more of. Lots of great places worth capturing, but trees are going to interrupt my GPS for sure.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Bigskyflyer]

Or just fly manual, that's what I need to learn more of. Lots of great places worth capturing, but trees are going to interrupt my GPS for sure.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Flying manual is the ticket. It's not that hard, the wind makes it tricky though.

 

[Chip Luck]

Just FYI: when I first got Solo, mine would be doing fine most of the time in Fly mode. However, even in a fairly open field area I had 2 low level fly-away crashes - Solo was hovering fine then it just takes off on its own with no response from the Controller. In 'tight' treed areas, even with a HDOP of 1.5 ft, it did the same thing, just take off on its own and crash into the bushes. Like others say, I went to Manual and solved most issues. 3DR hopefully will fix this issue, loss of GPS on mine did not seem to to into Manual mode, seems Solo was going somewhere it thought it should be?

 

[Mark_T]

I was flying my Solo in a giant open field. It is actually a private airstrip and I had received owner permission. When the quad was about 100-150 feet away at an altitude of 50 feet I lost the link. She did just what she should have. She climbed to 100 feet and returned home. During the return the link was reestablished. I pressed fly and things returned to normal. About 2 minutes later, at about the same distance, I lost the link again and the Return Home function activated for a second time.

How do you have the antenna on the controller arranged?

If they are pointing up then you will get a loss of control when the Solo reaches the point where the antenna are pointing straight at it.

Also make sure you factor in the angle you hold the controller when setting the antenna, so you never end up with the antenna pointing at it.

For the problems while landing the logs will tell the story, it may have switched to 'Manual' on losing GPS or something else may have occurred, but it will be in the logs.