My Solo Crashed HARD = Always keep an eye on that battery level, period!

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Well... My Solo crashed, HARD.

Solo will have to go back to the factory. Lost complete battery power at 0% at altitude and Solo flipped upside down and came spiraling down and landed legs up in a grass parking lot just behind a friends pickup truck.

Impact ejected the GoPro and landed about 30 feet away, GoPro also almost ejected SD card from the impact but was able to recover flight video, which stopped when the battery hit 0%. So, don't count on internal GoPro battery to continue video once flight battery hits 0%. Hope 3DR can fix that so it will switch over to GoPro battery to record the rest of the video.

Battery and GPS cover ejected along with two of the LED light covers. All 4 propellers destroyed.

Damage summary: Solo GPS will not work even after inspection, why I have no idea, Internal Gimbal HDMI connector ripped off. And to boot, for some reason the Controller now has a white/blank display with no data showing on it. I hope to be able to recover log files prior to shipment to 3DR.

Number 2 flight battery is shot = never run a LiPo battery pack to <10% capacity. It crashed with 0% battery and that on is now a paper weight.

So time to say goodbye to Solo as I send it back for repair. NEVER fly your battery lower than 25%, land it NOW, period!

I take the blame for being a stupid, lesson learned. Just glad no one or vehicle got hit. This is a real bummer....

Cheers
 

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Well... My Solo crashed, HARD.

Solo will have to go back to the factory. Lost complete battery power at 0% at altitude and Solo flipped upside down and came spiraling down and landed legs up in a grass parking lot just behind a friends pickup truck.

Impact ejected the GoPro and landed about 30 feet away, GoPro also almost ejected SD card from the impact but was able to recover flight video, which stopped when the battery hit 0%. So, don't count on internal GoPro battery to continue video once flight battery hits 0%. Hope 3DR can fix that so it will switch over to GoPro battery to record the rest of the video.

Battery and GPS cover ejected along with two of the LED light covers. All 4 propellers destroyed.

Damage summary: Solo GPS will not work even after inspection, why I have no idea, Internal Gimbal HDMI connector ripped off. And to boot, for some reason the Controller now has a white/blank display with no data showing on it. I hope to be able to recover log files prior to shipment to 3DR.

Number 2 flight battery is shot = never run a LiPo battery pack to <10% capacity. It crashed with 0% battery and that on is now a paper weight.

So time to say goodbye to Solo as I send it back for repair. NEVER fly your battery lower than 25%, land it NOW, period!

I take the blame for being a stupid, lesson learned. Just glad no one or vehicle got hit. This is a real bummer....

Cheers
Sucks Chip.

I've been petrified of that same possibility.
Been switching over @ just under 30%.
Usually @ 50% in case I'm gonna be grounded and Batt's will be out for more than a week.
Wasn't watching the KP index the other day took off from my usual spot in the wind (front of my house) got up to 80ft and lost GPS..
Damn thing blew right over my house and into the woods...

Ran out to the road, pointed my Alpha ATT into the woods and pushed RTH..
Came screaming back in the wind..
Went in the house and drank Gin....

came out later and caught some Berri's in my front yard.
skip to the 5 min mark for that days footage...

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Keep us updated, I got a feeling I'm gonna have an oops pretty soon myself and wonder how expensive it can get to fix these birds-

.rik.
 
I take the blame for being a stupid, lesson learned. Just glad no one or vehicle got hit. This is a real bummer....

Cheers

Thanks for the info Chuck and very sorry to hear of your destruction. For the record, no matter what, my bird is on the ground with 30%. Sometimes 28% but I always shoot for 30%. I don't care about my flight time (don't like it much) but heard too many horror stories regarding all of my birds, the "white" ones included, when the battery is beyond 30%. I know others will feel differently but (knock on wood) I haven't experienced a battery issue yet.

More importantly, thanks for Manning up about it. You might just save a few birds for some other folks!

Jerry
 
Sorry to hear of your loss. Expensive lesson learned I guess. :(

If you can, keep us updated on how 3DR handles the repair. Hopefully they will have a fast turn around for you.
 
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God Chip My heart bleeds reading about your accident .. I hope it dosint cost you to much to get everything fix and flying again..!!
They say ..you having learnt anything if you don't make a mistake !! We're all human Bro..!!
Keep us updated on your results..!
 
Sucks Chip.

I've been petrified of that same possibility.
Been switching over @ just under 30%.
Usually @ 50% in case I'm gonna be grounded and Batt's will be out for more than a week.
Wasn't watching the KP index the other day took off from my usual spot in the wind (front of my house) got up to 80ft and lost GPS..
Damn thing blew right over my house and into the woods...

Ran out to the road, pointed my Alpha ATT into the woods and pushed RTH..
Came screaming back in the wind..
Went in the house and drank Gin....

came out later and caught some Berri's in my front yard.
skip to the 5 min mark for that days footage...

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Keep us updated, I got a feeling I'm gonna have an oops pretty soon myself and wonder how expensive it can get to fix these birds-

.rik.
If you get an "oops" where you fly, you're probably going to need a submarine to retrieve it! I'm not brave enough and don't have enough confidence in Solo to fly over anything except solid ground.
 
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Well... My Solo crashed, HARD.

Solo will have to go back to the factory. Lost complete battery power at 0% at altitude and Solo flipped upside down and came spiraling down and landed legs up in a grass parking lot just behind a friends pickup truck.

Impact ejected the GoPro and landed about 30 feet away, GoPro also almost ejected SD card from the impact but was able to recover flight video, which stopped when the battery hit 0%. So, don't count on internal GoPro battery to continue video once flight battery hits 0%. Hope 3DR can fix that so it will switch over to GoPro battery to record the rest of the video.

Battery and GPS cover ejected along with two of the LED light covers. All 4 propellers destroyed.

Damage summary: Solo GPS will not work even after inspection, why I have no idea, Internal Gimbal HDMI connector ripped off. And to boot, for some reason the Controller now has a white/blank display with no data showing on it. I hope to be able to recover log files prior to shipment to 3DR.

Number 2 flight battery is shot = never run a LiPo battery pack to <10% capacity. It crashed with 0% battery and that on is now a paper weight.

So time to say goodbye to Solo as I send it back for repair. NEVER fly your battery lower than 25%, land it NOW, period!

I take the blame for being a stupid, lesson learned. Just glad no one or vehicle got hit. This is a real bummer....

Cheers
Pardon my ignorance-what is the yellow ball shaped object?
 
If you get an "oops" where you fly, you're probably going to need a submarine to retrieve it! I'm not brave enough and don't have enough confidence in Solo to fly over anything except solid ground.
Usually is Cos..
They only flood it to harvest the berries with about 2 -3ft of water once a year.
Sometimes when it's REAL cold they flood it and it's a giant Ice rink.
but yea, I'm scared every flight... $2k @ 200ft IS scary.
 
If you get an "oops" where you fly, you're probably going to need a submarine to retrieve it! I'm not brave enough and don't have enough confidence in Solo to fly over anything except solid ground.

Cos,

I fly over water more than anywhere else. I can capture a lot of stuff and I'm typically putting no one at risk in the event of failure. Just food for thought. I can fly far and wide without a great deal of risk, other than my own.

Jerry
 
So wait! You thought your solo would continue to fly with 0% battery left? BTW, the current setup forces GoPro to power off when the battery is turned off so that aspect of the crash is working as normal.
 
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So wait! You thought your solo would continue to fly with 0% battery left?

My thoughts exactly!!!

That is quite terrifying to fall out of the sky at 0%, but to be expected.
Is there a fail-safe or auto-landing that should occur at a certain threshold? say 5%-10%??
 
My thoughts exactly!!!

That is quite terrifying to fall out of the sky at 0%, but to be expected.
Is there a fail-safe or auto-landing that should occur at a certain threshold? say 5%-10%??

There is a fail safe that forces Solo to RTH when your battery reaches a certain low level and various haptic and audio alerts as your battery level is dropping; below 30%. Those things could have been turned off and the user flying in Manual Mode but ...... my opinions are better left untyped.
 
There is a fail safe that forces Solo to RTH when your battery reaches a certain low level and various haptic and audio alerts as your battery level is dropping; below 30%. Those things could have been turned off and the user flying in Manual Mode but ...... my opinions are better left untyped.

Solo was in GPS Fly mode. I don't care what model UAS you have or even an aircraft, battery goes to 0% and you a free-falling with NO CONTROL.... period. Lesson learned, big time...

Cheers
 
Sorry to hear of the mishap. Any idea why the battery fail safe didn't kick in? I have my pixhawk controlled 250 set to land when the battery gets to 10.4 volts, and it's done so on a few occasions. At some point, it's better to have it land itself wherever it is than try to make it back to the launch site and... not make it. I'll be very interested in the ballistic parachute once 3DR makes it available.

In scuba diving, you use 30% of your air out, 30% back, leaving you 30% reserve to handle any issues. Seems like a good rule to follow flying too.
 
Well... My Solo crashed, HARD.

Solo will have to go back to the factory. Lost complete battery power at 0% at altitude and Solo flipped upside down and came spiraling down and landed legs up in a grass parking lot just behind a friends pickup truck.

Impact ejected the GoPro and landed about 30 feet away, GoPro also almost ejected SD card from the impact but was able to recover flight video, which stopped when the battery hit 0%. So, don't count on internal GoPro battery to continue video once flight battery hits 0%. Hope 3DR can fix that so it will switch over to GoPro battery to record the rest of the video.

Battery and GPS cover ejected along with two of the LED light covers. All 4 propellers destroyed.

Damage summary: Solo GPS will not work even after inspection, why I have no idea, Internal Gimbal HDMI connector ripped off. And to boot, for some reason the Controller now has a white/blank display with no data showing on it. I hope to be able to recover log files prior to shipment to 3DR.

Number 2 flight battery is shot = never run a LiPo battery pack to <10% capacity. It crashed with 0% battery and that on is now a paper weight.

So time to say goodbye to Solo as I send it back for repair. NEVER fly your battery lower than 25%, land it NOW, period!

I take the blame for being a stupid, lesson learned. Just glad no one or vehicle got hit. This is a real bummer....

Cheers
OUCH Chip! Sorry to hear about the mishap. She's looking pretty rough.
Did you change your FS_BATT_ENABLE parameter or what could have caused that?
Hopefully you'll be back in the air in a few weeks. Good luck and sad to see that happen to your Solo.
 
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OUCH Chip! Sorry to hear about the mishap. She's looking pretty rough.
Did you change your FS_BATT_ENABLE parameter or what could have caused that?
Hopefully you'll be back in the air in a few weeks. Good luck and sad to see that happen to your Solo.

Thanks man. Well, I do not know how to change that parameter, I'm assuming using MP? To be honest, it sometimes appears Solo takes a little longer to come down in altitude that it does gaining it, or it could be just me. And, don't take a 'dare' from a friend that owns a P3!

Video now on YouTube. You can hear low battery alarm, motors slow down, Solo flips on it's back, then GoPro shuts down. Too bad, wish GoPro had worked all the way down, maybe 3DR can 'fix' that. So... GoPro is truly powered by flight battery only. Anyway, here it is:

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Sorry to hear of the mishap. Any idea why the battery fail safe didn't kick in? I have my pixhawk controlled 250 set to land when the battery gets to 10.4 volts, and it's done so on a few occasions. At some point, it's better to have it land itself wherever it is than try to make it back to the launch site and... not make it. I'll be very interested in the ballistic parachute once 3DR makes it available.

In scuba diving, you use 30% of your air out, 30% back, leaving you 30% reserve to handle any issues. Seems like a good rule to follow flying too.

A parachute would have been a welcome add on for sure. I used to SCUBA and your not kidding on that issue.

Cheers
 
UPDATE: Now I finally pull out my Controller from the backpack and the LCD screen is completely white and cannot access the WiFi to get the log files off of Solo! Now what!? Dang the luck....
 

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