Lost radio signal (or not ?), after RTL Solo landed on the roof.

pete · Mar 21, 2016

Rich said:
Remember, the WiFi channels overlap. So if your home has WiFi signals on channels 1, 6 and 11, pretty much any of these may interfere with the Solo even if it's on one of the 'in-between' channels.

So it's not so easy to know if you are getting interference at all, and the Solo will see different conditions flying around vs you standing on the ground with your controller.

would it help to get better indication if I mount my Nexus phone somehow on the Solo in front of the GoPro (looking directly at the phone display) and then read the values from my iPad video feed ?

SPP · Mar 21, 2016

Pete,
If you do hang an Android under the Solo to do wifi check, you can use SCREEN RECORD Apps. So you do not need to use the GP Cam as ur eyes, anyway it cannot focus too close to your Android. I am at the moment use two types of SCREEN RECORDS Apps. On Samsung I use MOBIZEN ( for Samsung one ). On by Blackberry Android type the PRIV, I use AZ screen recorder.

Safe flight........

pete · Mar 21, 2016

SPP said:
Pete,
If you do hang an Android under the Solo to do wifi check, you can use SCREEN RECORD Apps. So you do not need to use the GP Cam as ur eyes, anyway it cannot focus too close to your Android. I am at the moment use two types of SCREEN RECORDS Apps. On Samsung I use MOBIZEN ( for Samsung one ). On by Blackberry Android type the PRIV, I use AZ screen recorder.

Safe flight........

I thought I had Nexus One but in fact my phone is Nexus S, anyway, Mobizen Screen Recorder is not available from my OS, it's running Android 4.1.2 which is the latest version available for this old phone.
Same reason I cannot install Solo App (Tower app installed fine).

If there is a specific Mobizen version for Samsung S then I cannot find it. I tried another app that was there - Scr pro 2, but it asks for root access, do I need to root my phone for any of these apps to work ?

Rich · Mar 21, 2016

Just learn to read the Solo logs. This should tell you if you lost communications. It doesn't tell you why you lost it, just that it occurred.

You already know you have many WiFi devices in your home, so if you insist on flying there, turn them all off first, or set them all to use the same one channel at one end of the range, perhaps channel #1. This will let the Solo choose another free channel and have a better chance of no interference from your own home.

pete · Mar 21, 2016

Rich said:
Just learn to read the Solo logs. This should tell you if you lost communications. It doesn't tell you why you lost it, just that it occurred.

You already know you have many WiFi devices in your home, so if you insist on flying there, turn them all off first, or set them all to use the same one channel at one end of the range, perhaps channel #1. This will let the Solo choose another free channel and have a better chance of no interference from your own home.

yes the logs tell me that I lost the radio signal, on both occassion it happened approximately in same area, 100m NE of my location and 120m in the air.
I'm sending logs for both flights to 3DR to see if they can tell me more.

since I got the Solo 5 weeks ago I made 40-50 flights around my property, this happened only in 2 of those flights, so my problem is even when I switch off all the routers and it works fine, then it'll be just another flight of those 40-50 where nothing bad happened.

these things are hard to pin-point.

soon I'll be heading to the remote outback for few months, there'll be zero interference, I'll have a better idea then if this issue disappears or happens again.

Maddog · Mar 21, 2016

pete said:
yes the logs tell me that I lost the radio signal, on both occassion it happened approximately in same area, 100m NE of my location and 120m in the air.
I'm sending logs for both flights to 3DR to see if they can tell me more.

since I got the Solo 5 weeks ago I made 40-50 flights around my property, this happened only in 2 of those flights, so my problem is even when I switch off all the routers and it works fine, then it'll be just another flight of those 40-50 where nothing bad happened.

these things are hard to pin-point.

soon I'll be heading to the remote outback for few months, there'll be zero interference, I'll have a better idea then if this issue disappears or happens again.

Hopefully the KP index won't be through the roof while you're there! Lol

Maddog · Mar 21, 2016

Would somebody please tell me the abbreviation for the wifi, radio parameters in Mission Planner?

While reviewing a log I am forced to guess, which ain't a great idea.

pete · Mar 24, 2016

the reason why it's not possible to recover lost radio signal even when Solo returns back to your location and you are just short distance from it, is because there is a firmware bug on the controller, they are working on it. this was response from 3DR support. they are working on it.
they say it doesn't happen all the time.

with this in mind it's better at the moment to always launch Solo with GPS lock and safe distance from any obstructions (to account for any GPS inaccuracies) because you would have zero control over Solo when it starts returning home after lost signal.