Lost GPS and CRASHED

[Lon Denard]

Last Solo I bought cost me $79 on eBay, so it is a cheap drone.

Hahaha! Yea last one I bought cost $160 so I'm with you on that one!

 

[Lon Denard]

Best advice on how to actually handle this situation so far, thank you. Your comment shows your experience. I will practise your advice.

Yea I took note of that as well! It was really well put and made perfect sense.

 

[Kamehameha1]

I believe return to me returns location of your device you're running app on

 

[Bob firewheels]

So, I fly Solo to get an aerial view of the buildings for my job. Normally I would use Tower to draw the path and send it out automatically. However, a couple of days ago the drone lost GPS almost immediately after takeoff. It went into manual as it should have, and I was able to bring it home and land.

I was a bit nervous to flight since then. Today I decided to test the drone on the beach. Probably was not a very good idea as I had sand and water on one side and quite a busy street on the other. Anyway, I made one run without a camera and the Solo flew perfectly. I put on the camera and decided to do another one. The drone lost GPS again almost immediately, went into the manual mode, and with the wind and a bit of panic I lost control. All I was able to do was to direct Solo away from the buildings and the water. It landed in the sand broke one propeller and totaled the gimbal. Here's the video of the crash.

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So I was wondering.

1. What causes it to lose GPS?
2. Can anything be done to prevent this?
3. When you go into manual mode and the drone is some distance from you what is the best strategy to bring it back? I was thinking about pushing both levers somewhat to the right, so that it flies in circle and can figure out which way it is directed. BTW, anyone selling gimbal?

Thanks

What is your gimble no longer doing that you need to replace it?

 

[banjopad]

Oh yea there's a ton of autonomous modes in the Mavic, they recently even included all of the Spark modes. What the Mavic won't do, I think, is incorporate gimbal movements, panning and flight into a autonomous move. I.E. fly to point A, pan up and left, then fly to point B, pan down and right, then fly to point C and orbit. You can program the Solo to do that over and over.

With the Mavic, I can program to different way points and then control up/ down/ left/ right with the controller.

They both have specific features the other doesn't. Fly by phone and gesture mode comes to mind immediately. If Mavic starts having MPCC, which is a software feature they could easily add. I'm not sure what will be left to say... Heck, the word is the next gen will have spherical obstacle avoidance and HDR or 8k video. If that happens and they maintain a similar price point, stick a fork in it for the other drone manufacturers in my opinion.

I have a Mavic too but it's not infallible. Got to fly safe and obey laws or u will have problems. Love my solo and my mavic.makes me cry when I crash them and it always seems to be because of my stupidity.

 

[olegred]

What is your gimble no longer doing that you need to replace it?

Yeah, had to get a new one.

 

[olegred]

I believe return to me returns location of your device you're running app on

Only if it still has a GPS lock.

 

[Lon Denard]

I have a Mavic too but it's not infallible. Got to fly safe and obey laws or u will have problems. Love my solo and my mavic.makes me cry when I crash them and it always seems to be because of my stupidity.

No one ever said that the Mavic was infallible. However it's given me zero problems, I give props when they are warranted.

Why would you assume otherwise? I always fly "legally" and obey every drone law here in the USA.

I've definitely made mistakes but most of my problems with Solo were hardware/software based.

 

[Solo Keith]

So, I fly Solo to get an aerial view of the buildings for my job. Normally I would use Tower to draw the path and send it out automatically. However, a couple of days ago the drone lost GPS almost immediately after takeoff. It went into manual as it should have, and I was able to bring it home and land.

I was a bit nervous to flight since then. Today I decided to test the drone on the beach. Probably was not a very good idea as I had sand and water on one side and quite a busy street on the other. Anyway, I made one run without a camera and the Solo flew perfectly. I put on the camera and decided to do another one. The drone lost GPS again almost immediately, went into the manual mode, and with the wind and a bit of panic I lost control. All I was able to do was to direct Solo away from the buildings and the water. It landed in the sand broke one propeller and totaled the gimbal. Here's the video of the crash.

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Accept third party cookies

So I was wondering.

1. What causes it to lose GPS?
2. Can anything be done to prevent this?
3. When you go into manual mode and the drone is some distance from you what is the best strategy to bring it back? I was thinking about pushing both levers somewhat to the right, so that it flies in circle and can figure out which way it is directed. BTW, anyone selling gimbal?

Thanks

It appears you had ZERO control from the get go.

 

[HelloPC]

Hahaha! Yea last one I bought cost $160 so I'm with you on that one!

You're missing the point, when a Solo falls from the sky it breaks, a 60$ practice drone not.

 

[pyrate]

if this did not happen when you took your camera off, your gopro my be causing this, or your GPS is not insulated well
leaky gopros cause a lot of issues

 

[User Name]

if this did not happen when you took your camera off, your gopro my be causing this, or your GPS is not insulated well
leaky gopros cause a lot of issues

I was going to say exactly this. The comment about the perfect flight just prior to adding the camera stood out. Make sure WiFi and Bluetooth is turned OFF on the GoPro. While on the Solo, all needed data will go through the port on the back, and the WiFi on the camera can interfere with the Solo's own radios and GPS.

I fly in urban environment, period. So, as much as I appreciate your advice, for me it defeats the purpose. I do think you are right about haviing more practice. I need to get better at manual flight.

Not meaning to bag on you, but I believe you missed Don's point when he said "until you can trust your drone to behave and you can trust yourself to control it."

I was cringing watching your video, seeing all the cars and people below that you only avoided damaging and injuring by chance. You may ultimately only fly in urban environments, but until you can do so safely, you have no business flying in such an environment. The responsible course of action is to find a vacant field or otherwise unpopulated area to build up the skills necessary to safely operate around people, and only then take to urban environments. It seems crazy to suggest otherwise.

Like I said, I'm not trying to dump on you, but if you hit someone, chances are high that you're going to get sued.

 

[Lon Denard]

I was going to say exactly this. The comment about the perfect flight just prior to adding the camera stood out. Make sure WiFi and Bluetooth is turned OFF on the GoPro. While on the Solo, all needed data will go through the port on the back, and the WiFi on the camera can interfere with the Solo's own radios and GPS.



Not meaning to bag on you, but I believe you missed Don's point when he said "until you can trust your drone to behave and you can trust yourself to control it."

I was cringing watching your video, seeing all the cars and people below that you only avoided damaging and injuring by chance. You may ultimately only fly in urban environments, but until you can do so safely, you have no business flying in such an environment. The responsible course of action is to find a vacant field or otherwise unpopulated area to build up the skills necessary to safely operate around people, and only then take to urban environments. It seems crazy to suggest otherwise.

Like I said, I'm not trying to dump on you, but if you hit someone, chances are high that you're going to get sued.

Who's "Don"? Hahaha! Seriously, that was exactly my point. I completely understand what he wants to do, I was suggesting what he should do. I love getting over the water shots, it's my thing but before I tried that I did a lot of flying in an open field. That way if I did lose it, at least I could recover and potentially repair my drone.

 

[Lon Denard]

You're missing the point, when a Solo falls from the sky it breaks, a 60$ practice drone not.

Hey I didn't miss anything, I was just agreeing with him. Go quote his post, Yeesh!

Although since you want to start something. A $60 drone won't have half of the feel of flying a Solo. I have several sub $100 drones and they are nothing like the Solo. I think you are the one missing the point, at $80 the Solo IS a cheap practice drone for OTHER platforms. That's exactly what I used it for.

 

[User Name]

Who's "Don"?

Ha!!! Sorry!! Yea, meant Lon, not Don... The D in Denard mixed me up!

 

[rcflyingaddict]

I fly in urban environment, period. So, as much as I appreciate your advice, for me it defeats the purpose. I do think you are right about haviing more practice. I need to get better at manual flight.

I would not fly your Solo in urban environments... for that matter I would not fly my Solo's ( I have 2) there either since it's probably the least reliable footage drone in my fleet.

 

[Lon Denard]

Ha!!! Sorry!! Yea, meant Lon, not Don... The D in Denard mixed me up!

No problem just ripping your sacks!

 

[olegred]

It appears you had ZERO control from the get go.

Yeah, more or less. GPS was lost immediately after the takeoff and we went for a ride.

 

[olegred]

if this did not happen when you took your camera off, your gopro my be causing this, or your GPS is not insulated well
leaky gopros cause a lot of issues

Yeah, I thought about it. Now I check gopro wifi every time I mount it. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

 

[olegred]

I was going to say exactly this. The comment about the perfect flight just prior to adding the camera stood out. Make sure WiFi and Bluetooth is turned OFF on the GoPro. While on the Solo, all needed data will go through the port on the back, and the WiFi on the camera can interfere with the Solo's own radios and GPS.



Not meaning to bag on you, but I believe you missed Don's point when he said "until you can trust your drone to behave and you can trust yourself to control it."

I was cringing watching your video, seeing all the cars and people below that you only avoided damaging and injuring by chance. You may ultimately only fly in urban environments, but until you can do so safely, you have no business flying in such an environment. The responsible course of action is to find a vacant field or otherwise unpopulated area to build up the skills necessary to safely operate around people, and only then take to urban environments. It seems crazy to suggest otherwise.

Like I said, I'm not trying to dump on you, but if you hit someone, chances are high that you're going to get sued.

First off, who told you that I did not fly A LOT in the easy environment. I did. My problem was that I lacked recovery skills. Although to be honest, not sure how well any of you would have done, the drone was wild. Otherwise, yeah, I need more manual flight hours, in the wind as well. I am doing it currently. I am also not flying above people anymore.