New Solo Owner near Charlotte NC

[shanmoon]

I'm a new solo owner in North Carolina outside of Charlotte (I live at Long Island Airpark on the northwest side of Lake Norman). Yep, I have already notified the airpark declarant about my drone flights as living on an airpark means my backyard is most definitely within 5 miles of an airport. (the declarant is my neighbor down the runway, lol).

Years ago I was heavily into RC helis and planes, but mostly gave up the hobby after getting my pilot license. This time of year the weather is not great for flying a motor glider or seaplane, so I have been toying with getting a drone.

I saw the 3DR Solo at Best Buy, got curious, and googled it. After realizing it runs Linux and has some development options (I am a computer scientist and software engineer), I decided to go ahead and buy it despite some of the range and GPS issues I saw discussed(I figure I can upgrade the GPS and add a WiFi extender based on the posts in these forums).

Looking forward to flying it and communicating with other owners!

 

[Chuck]

Welcome, shanmoon. I want to come visit you. I am a huge NASCAR fan, and a lot of the drivers live on Lake Norman. You live in the heart of the sport. Good luck to you, and fly safe.

 

[Anthony Price]

Welcome Shannon! I'm in North Carolina also, just south of Winston-Salem. Have fun with your Solo. They are a lot of fun to fly.

I went down to Charlotte last night to get one of the 3DR backpacks and extra props and baterries while they were still on sale at Best Buy

 

[shanmoon]

First flight today. Kept it simple, slow flying within 35-45 feet of me with no obstructions. Suddenly the drone lost connection and took off straight up about 65 feet before slowly returning home. Definitely a little frightening. Next test flights will be further away from the airpark. I had a moment of horror imaging the drone going straight up and passing 4000 feet and drifting into class B airspace before I realized it was returning home. Whew. Definitely ordering the gps and range upgrades asap.

 

[Buggen]

SO!!! I guess I started a new thread on the wrong thread...???!!!@#%$#$^%$ I'm just as new to forums as I am to this whole drone frenzy but I am very much looking forward to receiving my GoPro Hero 4 silver next week off ebay so I can get this pig up in the air and start filming. Very cool site we have here at our disposal. Awesome to see so many "Soloists" out in the world and especially here in Oregon where I am.

I will post results of my first flight when it happens next week sometime but until then, Hello from Hillsboro, Oregon and from a total newbie to all this.

 

[andrew.baker.142]

Solo is a great aircraft. Get out and fly it. If you want a quick and free upgrade, the cardboard mod has very high reviews.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Chuck]

First flight today. Kept it simple, slow flying within 35-45 feet of me with no obstructions. Suddenly the drone lost connection and took off straight up about 65 feet before slowly returning home. Definitely a little frightening. Next test flights will be further away from the airpark. I had a moment of horror imaging the drone going straight up and passing 4000 feet and drifting into class B airspace before I realized it was returning home. Whew. Definitely ordering the gps and range upgrades asap.

I am curious as to what you lost signal from the controller from only 35-45ft? Did you have your controller antennas positioned correctly? Were you facing Solo at the time? Unless there was a ton of wifi signals in the area, or some other unusual occurrence, that is odd. Also, remember to adjust your RTH altitude to the area you are flying in to clear all objects.

 

[Chuck]

Solo is a great aircraft. Get out and fly it. If you want a quick and free upgrade, the cardboard mod has very high reviews.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

True, the cardboard mod is free, but I think most us feel the 3DR v2 shield is a much better way to go. Cardboard has the possibility of degrading with constant temperature changes and in damp air. The ultimate setup would be the mrobotics M8N gps upgrade along with the 3DR v2 shield.

 

[shanmoon]

I am curious as to what you lost signal from the controller from only 35-45ft? Did you have your controller antennas positioned correctly? Were you facing Solo at the time? Unless there was a ton of wifi signals in the area, or some other unusual occurrence, that is odd. Also, remember to adjust your RTH altitude to the area you are flying in to clear all objects.

I am curiosu also! Yep, had the stock antennas positioned angled down as recommended and facing the solo. I did adjust my return altitude to 65 feet to clear my hangar and nearby trees (think I might bump up even higher),

However, yes there are a LOT of wifi networks in the area, 16 to 18 detectable at any time...that may have been a contributing factor.

If weather is decent tomorrow I will try more test parks in a large open field far away from my airpark. I plan to do the cardboard mod tonight, and have already ordered new wifi cards for the controller and drone, new Mr r GPS, longer range antennas, the 3dr gps shield v2, and a flat hdmi cable (routing the stock one when I installed the gimbal was a bit tedious).

 

[Chuck]

Sounds like the wifi traffic could have been the problem. With your list of goodies ordered, you should be as good as you can get. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Beefmastertange]

I am new to the Solo and live in Florence, SC so we are not too far away. I look forward to modding my solo soon but I may pick up another 299 bundle at BB to have a complete back up. I also ruined my live camera feed by hitting RTH with too low of a return height. I also learned that the joystick input doesnt respond immediately when trying to stop it from hitting trees at 38ft. Still flies fine after new props. I look forward to hearing more about your flights and most of all the mods you ordered. Good luck.

 

[shanmoon]

Wow, what a difference the gps upgrade makes. Instead of taking 3+ minutes to get satellites, it was more like just 30 seconds! After breaking my compass (snapped a wire) when I did the Wifi card upgrades, I was sitting grounded until I got the new compass leg Friday. I installed that yesterday and took it for a couple quick test flights on manual. Today I added the GPS and took a few more test flights on manual, and all went well (at least until I had my first crash due to it being very gusty and overcontrolling in ground effect, lol. No damage though). Tomorrow I will probably take it out and fly in standard mode once I calibrate the compass. Digging this little drone a lot!