New Solo needs help.

[Zee Three]

Hello all. I bought a new Solo yesterday. Did updates and went into the solo app to calibrate sensors and it fails. I went ahead and did a little test flight and it seems to be behaving other than the female voice saying GPS lost constantly which makes me nervous. Anyway I launched tower and it was able to do the accelerometer calibration. Now I will see if it will do the compass.

My biggest question is whether the solo app is the problem or is it the bird? 3DR tech support through the app asked me to send the log which is what prompted me to launch tower so I could see if I could find a way to retrieve it and mail it off. Of course I would be inclined to just take it back to best buy and get another one if it isn't going to be right straight out of the box. I want to work with it now, not weeks from now. What would you do?

Is the Tower app a suitable replacement for the Solo app? I'm in the windows android world FWIW.

Looking forward to learning what can be done with autonomous flight after flying a Q500 in the past couple months.

Cheers!

Rob

 

[Zee Three]

Well, part two of the story goes like this. I went to a park and used Tower to complete the compass cali and the program said it was successful. It was making some clicking noises while I was doing it. Anyway it rebooted and I took off in the solo app and it wobbled erratically and flipped upside down amazingly not breaking any props! I managed to kill the motors eventually and was ready to give up and take it back to retailer. But I booted it all back up again and it flew OK sort of. It makes a whistling sound I have never heard outside of a turbocharger. I am reluctant to fly it any further than I can chase it down and bat it down out of the air at this point. I want to have confidence in this thing before I send it off autonomously.

It's still fun unless somebody gets hurt. What should I look for in the logs to see if what the problems are, if any?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[nightram]

Something does sound wierd man. Start from the begining.

- Remove gimbal if fitted
- ensure current firmware
- check motors secure and spin freely (also sound the same when twirled)
- check props are not bent/warped/twisted
- do an accelerometer calibration somewhere super flat like your garage floor.
- do a mag cal somewhere like a cricket pitch/park
- setup for a fly with no less than 12 sats locked

If that fails it is warranty/support time.

 

[Ethan Endres]

I was having similar problems with my sensors and stuff, nothing quite like yours, but I just did a factory reset and everything worked fine. Just look up how to do a factory reset, once I figured it out, it took me like one minute to do.

 

[pyrate]

the clicking noises are normal during compass calibrate
these two calibrations are key.
try again and slow down, rushing them can mess it up
Do not calibrate near concrete or buildings. get to a field if possible

 

[Zee Three]

Is it OK to use Tower to calibrate instead of Solo App?

 

[pyrate]

I personally would use the solo app

 

[Maddog]

Is it OK to use Tower to calibrate instead of Solo App?

No. Also, Tower is not anything like the Solo app. It is a ground control program that allows you to program autonomous flights for Solo to fly automatically.

Personally, I would just take it back to BB, unless it's far away, etc.
BTW, I've never heard any clicking noises during calibration. Can't imagine why anything would "click".

 

[Chuck]

My Solo's have always made the "clicking" sounds while rotating during compass calibrations. I don't know exactly what makes the sounds, but both Solo's have done it from day 1. Maybe Maddog has some sort of silencer or stealth mode in his......

 

[PdxSteve]

When solo is upside down, it disconnects the power to the gimbal to disable the motors which makes clicking noises. Othewise the gimbal will try to level itself which stresses the motors, which it obviously can't level when upside down.

 

[Zee Three]

Thank you all for the help. I am trying a factory reset to see if it solves the issue first.

As far as Tower goes that is the main reason I bought a Solo, for repeatable flight paths. Otherwise, I like to fly manually. Im sure the smart shots will be a good tool though. First, I need some confidence in its basic ability to not get all squirrelly like it did yesterday. And the constant voice nag about needing GPS is not helping. It looks like a chip upgrade and a shield will be next. And antennas...

 

[Chuck]

When solo is upside down, it disconnects the power to the gimbal to disable the motors which makes clicking noises. Othewise the gimbal will try to level itself which stresses the motors, which it obviously can't level when upside down.

That makes sense. I learned something new....Thanks, Steve.

 

[Zee Three]

I did a factory reset and it still didn't allow calibration so I took it back to retailer and swapped for another one.
This one has the same issue so it must be software related. Is there any other way to calibrate the sensors besides the obviously buggy Solo App? I say it's the app because Tower at least made a calibration whether it was good or not, it recognized the bird. Maybe I should try loading solo app onto a borrowed device and attempt cali?

UPDATE: nstalled Solo app on wife's phone and it won't calibrate either. Both are Samsung S4. Daughters iPhone not compatible with app. I guess I'll be flying without calibration.

 

[SARDG]

The S4 is now 3.5 generations (soon to be 4 full gens behind with the S8 intro in February) behind the curve, and you didn't even mention the OS version. Borrow an S5 (or newer) with Android 6.x and I can guarantee those will work with the Solo App.

That aside... are you following the Manual/3DR instructions explicitly and taking your time?
Calibrations | 3D Robotics - Drone & UAV Technology

 

[Zee Three]

Yes I am meticulously following the instructions. As far as my old phone goes, everything else in the app works. But it's Lollipoop. I hope this is the issue.
Thanks for the advice!

 

[Chuck]

I think we can pretty much guarantee that is the problem. Like SARDG said, you need a Galaxy S5 or newer to get the 6.0 os for the Galaxy line. I had a Galaxy S5 before I got my S7 Active, and the S5 worked great on the Solo app. I know upgrading your device probably is an added expense you didn't count on, but in this case it is required to make it all work correctly. If you can't get the latest device from whichever provider you choose, I would look for a good used Galaxy S5. There are S6's out there as well, but I think there are fewer bugs with the S5. I wish you luck.

 

[Maddog]

When solo is upside down, it disconnects the power to the gimbal to disable the motors which makes clicking noises. Othewise the gimbal will try to level itself which stresses the motors, which it obviously can't level when upside down.

Guess I need to get my hearing checked.

 

[Chuck]

Guess I need to get my hearing checked.

I thought you could hear forever in the desert.....

 

[SARDG]

Guess I need to get my hearing checked.

Likewise... I don't hear a thing!

 

[PdxSteve]

You can also always install a custom rom from xda-developers.com if you're comfortable with that. You also get rid all of the crappy carrier bloatware with custom roms at the same time (more room on your device) and don't have to wait for your carrier to come out with their version months after Android releases an update or new os. You can easily put v6 on an S4. The carriers just don't update 2 year old devices because they want you to buy a new one but it doesn't mean the device isn't capable of running a newer OS.

Here's Marshmallow v6 for your phone: [ROM][CM13.0][UNOFFICIAL] CM13.0 for Galaxy S4 VE (GT-I9515)