New Solo- And down she goes!

[Goldie]

I see a lot of heat on new solo owners around here from time to time.

I want to preface by saying this is my second solo and I'm pretty familiar with building copters. I have 2 other pixhawk controlled aircraft that I've built. That being said, I still can't interpret crap from the logs. I've never had much reason to I guess.

I originally got rid of my first solo when they were first coming out and I got a really good trade on a pixhawk tarot Hex. Otherwise I would have kept it. It was one of those where the trade was way in my favor. I thought I'd always pick up another solo later.

Once I saw they were down to $400, I jumped on one about a week ago.

That day I took it out for a flight and it was fine.

Today I went out and tried to do a "follow me" and it wouldn't talk to the gps on my tablet. I landed and when I spun it back up, one motor didn't spin. I turned it off and back on and that seemed to have worked. Everything seemed ok.

Well, it apparently wasn't. I went up to about the height of the trees in my yard, maybe 50ft? Out of nowhere it got silent and fell straight down, powerless into the street and broke everything on it. Shell, battery, gimbal, 2 motors are bent and won't turn by hand without serious pressure. If it were a car, I'd call it totalled.

I played back the log and to my untrained eye, it looks like it had a bad gps signal??

I've attached the log. Can someone please have a look and tell me what it looks like happened?


What's the support system like these days? Will I be able to get anything done through 3dr? If so, how long does that take? I don't imagine I can walk in to best buy with a pile of parts and ask for an exchange?

I'm down in the dumps, but I have high hopes the logs will show what happened and I'll get it fixed or replaced for nothing.

Thanks!

 

[User Name]

Sorry to hear about your crash. Are you sure the log you posted is from the ill fated flight? It seems to not show any flight, it just sits at 0 altitude until 50% through, then appears to show the Solo being picked up and put back down - between 1 to 2 meters high, nothing near tree height.

As for the logs, I've never had much luck interpreting them outside the actual parameters they record. The fact is that they don't record any specific, objective data on the state of individual motors, or even all motors in general, so it'll be impossible to draw any specific conclusion. You might as well visit your local psychic and have her read your palm lines!

That said, if one motor didn't spin up, that would have had me really concerned and at minimum, I'd have done a few power-up ground tests, test hovers and some very low flying before taking it higher. Whenever there's a doubt, it should be investigated and thoroughly checked out

If it's that new, you should be pretty safe. I've read that BestBuy is pretty good at refunds, otherwise, 3DR's warranty policy should cover you. They've become more inclined to deny service, but since it still falls within the 30 day money back guarantee, I can't imaging they'll give you trouble unless they find clear user error, which doesn't seem to be the case from what you've described.

 

[Goldie]

I did play around with it after the motor stopped spinning. Enough to actu.ally want to go higher.


I attached a zip of all the logs from today.

After going through and looking at them, it really looks like the gps is glitchy. The gps tracks are showing traces of it flying behind my house and around. I never went that direction. Only in the street in front of my house.

On the last log, I was in my driveway when I took off and flew a bit up the street. The spot it shows is where it crash landed, yet it doesn't show where I took off from.......

I'm confused.

Sorry to hear about your crash. Are you sure the log you posted is from the ill fated flight? It seems to not show any flight, it just sits at 0 altitude until 50% through, then appears to show the Solo being picked up and put back down - between 1 to 2 meters high, nothing near tree height.

As for the logs, I've never had much luck interpreting them outside the actual parameters they record. The fact is that they don't record any specific, objective data on the state of individual motors, or even all motors in general, so it'll be impossible to draw any specific conclusion. You might as well visit your local psychic and have her read your palm lines!

That said, if one motor didn't spin up, that would have had me really concerned and at minimum, I'd have done a few power-up ground tests, test hovers and some very low flying before taking it higher. Whenever there's a doubt, it should be investigated and thoroughly checked out

If it's that new, you should be pretty safe. I've read that BestBuy is pretty good at refunds, otherwise, 3DR's warranty policy should cover you. They've become more inclined to deny service, but since it still falls within the 30 day money back guarantee, I can't imaging they'll give you trouble unless they find clear user error, which doesn't seem to be the case from what you've described.

 

[SteveReno]

I see a lot of heat on new solo owners around here from time to time.

I want to preface by saying this is my second solo and I'm pretty familiar with building copters. I have 2 other pixhawk controlled aircraft that I've built. That being said, I still can't interpret crap from the logs. I've never had much reason to I guess.

I originally got rid of my first solo when they were first coming out and I got a really good trade on a pixhawk tarot Hex. Otherwise I would have kept it. It was one of those where the trade was way in my favor. I thought I'd always pick up another solo later.

Once I saw they were down to $400, I jumped on one about a week ago.

That day I took it out for a flight and it was fine.

Today I went out and tried to do a "follow me" and it wouldn't talk to the gps on my tablet. I landed and when I spun it back up, one motor didn't spin. I turned it off and back on and that seemed to have worked. Everything seemed ok.

Well, it apparently wasn't. I went up to about the height of the trees in my yard, maybe 50ft? Out of nowhere it got silent and fell straight down, powerless into the street and broke everything on it. Shell, battery, gimbal, 2 motors are bent and won't turn by hand without serious pressure. If it were a car, I'd call it totalled.

I played back the log and to my untrained eye, it looks like it had a bad gps signal??

I've attached the log. Can someone please have a look and tell me what it looks like happened?


What's the support system like these days? Will I be able to get anything done through 3dr? If so, how long does that take? I don't imagine I can walk in to best buy with a pile of parts and ask for an exchange?

I'm down in the dumps, but I have high hopes the logs will show what happened and I'll get it fixed or replaced for nothing.

Thanks!

Sorry to hear about your crash.
To answer your question "Will I be able to get anything done through 3dr"
3DR is still 3DR, there just not in making the Solo as we know it, anymore,
I also just bought my second Solo, tested & it's fine So far.
Before i bought it, confirmed with 3DR full warranty in effect & bestbuy is also a option.
Let us know what was the probelm

 

[Goldie]

So if i take a heap of broken parts to BB, they'll let me exchange it?

I am getting close to that 15 day mark. i may need to jump on it if I'm going to try best buy. honestly s that would be my preference of its an option.
Thanks

 

[pyrate]

No but if submitted a ticket 3DR might

 

[Goldie]

For sure

 

[Cyberblitz]

Had a look at your log. To me it just looks like complete motor failure. Amperage drops rapidly then all hell breaks loose. Your roll/pitch/yaw poistion becomes completely asynchronous from what the computer is trying to adjust to.

I didn't find any problems with GPS: you had 9 SATs locked throughout. Not ideal but it can still fly with this amount.

 

[Maddog]

Had a look at your log. To me it just looks like complete motor failure. Amperage drops rapidly then all hell breaks loose. Your roll/pitch/yaw poistion becomes completely asynchronous from what the computer is trying to adjust to.

I didn't find any problems with GPS: you had 9 SATs locked throughout. Not ideal but it can still fly with this amount.

This has happened before but is rare.
@Goldie- call Best Buy and ask them if they will take it back. Or contact 3DR support via their website chat, M-F, daytime only.

If Solo freaked out on its own, they'll replace it, your GoPro, etc.

 

[SARDG]

This has happened before but is rare.
@Goldie- call Best Buy and ask them if they will take it back. Or contact 3DR support via their website chat, M-F, daytime only.

If Solo freaked out on its own, they'll replace it, your GoPro, etc.

To paraphrase 3DR's warranty... the retailer will take Solo back, up to 30 days after the sale transaction date - with an RMA # from 3DR. That should trump BB's 15 days. YMMV so if BB will simply take back a bag of parts within 15 days, so much the better.

 

[Maddog]

To paraphrase 3DR's warranty... the retailer will take Solo back, up to 30 days after the sale transaction date - with an RMA # from 3DR. That should trump BB's 15 days. YMMV so if BB will simply take back a bag of parts within 15 days, so much the better.

Show off...

 

[Goldie]

Your roll/pitch/yaw poistion becomes completely asynchronous from what the computer is trying to adjust to.

I can't read that sentence without hearing it in a c3po voice.



It sounds like I'll make a call.


Thanks for all the help .

 

[Goldie]

I see they dropped their package price to include the backpack for 399. i just ordered one for 50 yesterday.



You say that they'll replace my gopro? i was using a hero3. so do i get a newer model?

I can't read that sentence without hearing it in a c3po voice.



It sounds like I'll make a call.


Thanks for all the help .

 

[Goldie]

So I've tried chatting with customer service every day. They just say that the logs are being looked at by the team and to please be patient.

Today they emailed and wanted the past 10 logs. i don't think there are even 10 logs total.

I wonder if they're having trouble figuring it out? or are they trying to find a way to blame it on me?

I see they dropped their package price to include the backpack for 399. i just ordered one for 50 yesterday.



You say that they'll replace my gopro? i was using a hero3. so do i get a newer model?

 

[Crisp Rice]

Hahaha
You sound like me now ... of course they are trying to blame it on you!
They got me, even though the cause of the crash was equipment or software failure - because I didn't follow their guidelines. Good luck!

 

[Goldie]

Hahaha
You sound like me now ... of course they are trying to blame it on you!
They got me, even though the cause of the crash was equipment or software failure - because I didn't follow their guidelines. Good luck!

Are you serious?

What guidelines did you not follow?

Now you have me wondering if they'll try to nab me on something like that.

 

[Crisp Rice]

Are you serious?

What guidelines did you not follow?

Now you have me wondering if they'll try to nab me on something like that.

The whole saga is on this forum, but in a nutshell, I took off from a wooden dock on a still lake, on a calm day. 3DR can see that clearly from the logs and said that warrantee was denied because they detected movement during initialisation. They are right, I did that, mea culpa. Folks on here had already interpreted my logs and said I had ekf/compass errors unrelated and that they expected I would receive warrantee replacement. I was disappointed to say the least.

 

[Goldie]

I just took off from my driveway. hopefully they won't give me a hard time.

The lack of info is really driving me crazy though.

 

[BAR]

Hi Goldie,
Just following your thread, any luck with 3DR and warranty etc?
BAR

 

[Goldie]

They finally decided it was a brown out. But they wouldn't say more than that.

They're replacing the solo, but claim they'll do nothing about the Gopro.

I'm going on a month and they've had my crashed solo for a week, but won't tell me when they'll send me a new one.


Last time i tried to get an answer from their chat and lost my temper a bit.

I told them that hopefully they'll be able to get mine back to me before they shutter the company. I also told them they'd better start practicing to ask if people want fries with that. since they'll probably not have that job for very long.

After the fact i felt bad about it. I know that they're just doing their job and i make it a point to be nice. However after being given the same copy and paste reply several times in the same chat session, i lost it.

Maybe by Christmas I'll have what i paid for.