New Solo WIth Problems...

[kiomon]

Hi 3DR Pilots,

I am a new 3DR pilot but not new to drones. With the great prices and already owning a GoPRo we have jumped in.

With our first bird we are having some issues.

• On one of the first flights it flipped while landing using the fly button. It was about 6 inches off the ground. It said 'fly manual' quickly as it flipped. Guessing it lost GPS? Other than a little dirt on the blades it was fine
• While flying it has twice tried to land immediately on its own. It just starts descending. I can still control it but couldnt make it increase altitude. Luckily I just pulled it back fast to home and then when it was close I had full control. The signal strength was fine both times it did this (~50%) on the stock atennaes.
• Today was the most frustrating. When I was landing today, in FLY (GPS mode) but manually landing, the solo refused to power down and instead powered up. Battery was around 25%. I touched down and then it started to spool up and I manually controlled it back into the air. It did this THREE times, you can imagine I am starting to worry as I can't get this thing to stay down. And then the fourth time I tried to use the automated landing and it again touched down and then shot up and flipped over. Grinding propellers into asphalt (it ran for a couple seconds) . And then the pleasant lady tells me "crash detected"... umm thanks

I have sent logs off now to 3DR. Has anyone had issues like this? I have no programmed 'fly:manual' and 'fly:stabilize' as my A and B buttons and will land and take off in manual from now on.

Any thoughts on things we can try? Sending off to 3DR would be a tough option as I travel 90% of the time (currently in Panama) and my windows back home in the USA are so short.

 

[Mountain Flyer]

I think I have seen this post a few times already. There is always a new name for the thread starter but the post itself is nearly always identical.

 

[kiomon]

@mountainflyer so have you experienced this? Any help?

 

[Mountain Flyer]

Everyone that has tried to let solo land itself or does it in fly has experienced this at one point or another. Change your A button to fly manual is listed in every FAQ and beginner thread. As far as the trying to land itself are you sure you were not above your set height limit? Solo will go beyond what you set but then wants to get back under it as soon as you are not still telling it to go up. It is also possible that your battery was too low but you didn't state what the battery level was when it happened so just a guess. At the top of the page there is a magnifying glass and clicking that and typing landing problems will tell you what I just did and more. Your problem is not very unique and has been covered a lot in other posts.

 

[Perry Lawrence]

Wealth of info here:

Recognizing, avoiding, and responding to botched landings

 

[SteveReno]

Hi 3DR Pilots,

I am a new 3DR pilot but not new to drones. With the great prices and already owning a GoPRo we have jumped in.

With our first bird we are having some issues.

• On one of the first flights it flipped while landing using the fly button. It was about 6 inches off the ground. It said 'fly manual' quickly as it flipped. Guessing it lost GPS? Other than a little dirt on the blades it was fine
• While flying it has twice tried to land immediately on its own. It just starts descending. I can still control it but couldnt make it increase altitude. Luckily I just pulled it back fast to home and then when it was close I had full control. The signal strength was fine both times it did this (~50%) on the stock atennaes.
• Today was the most frustrating. When I was landing today, in FLY (GPS mode) but manually landing, the solo refused to power down and instead powered up. Battery was around 25%. I touched down and then it started to spool up and I manually controlled it back into the air. It did this THREE times, you can imagine I am starting to worry as I can't get this thing to stay down. And then the fourth time I tried to use the automated landing and it again touched down and then shot up and flipped over. Grinding propellers into asphalt (it ran for a couple seconds) . And then the pleasant lady tells me "crash detected"... umm thanks

I have sent logs off now to 3DR. Has anyone had issues like this? I have no programmed 'fly:manual' and 'fly:stabilize' as my A and B buttons and will land and take off in manual from now on.

Any thoughts on things we can try? Sending off to 3DR would be a tough option as I travel 90% of the time (currently in Panama) and my windows back home in the USA are so short.

You need to read the manual. You can hurt yourself or someone else...

To shut down Solo after you land manually, but still in GPS mode, you need to hold down throttle, then while Solo has landed Keep throttle down & then move throttle left, while still keeping throttle down, that will tell Solo your ending your flight & turns off motors.
Hope this helps....

 

[kiomon]

Thanks guys. I am not an idiot and did read the manual. Sorry if the post annoys some. Appreciate the help. Will keep searching and reading old threads. Cheers

 

[Maddog]

Klomon- welcome to the forum! Don't worry about annoying others. If you need help, ask. That's what this forum is for.

Regarding your 1st issue, it sounds like it might have lost GPS just prior to landing and switched to FLY: MANUAL. Bad timing I guess. Lots of folks will switch to FLY: MANUAL to land just to insure this doesn't happen.

Can you give us more details about the landing immediately issue? Altitude, distance away from you, flight mode, HDOP & # of satellites might help diagnose.

Hopefully the third issue was addressed by holding throttle full down until motors stop?

 

[SARDG]

klomon- you said you had about 25% battery when touching down. At about 15% Solo will initiate an RTH - even if you are already landing and close to the ground. Are you certain this didn't happen?

 

[RichWest]

Just a thought, check your controller's various buttons. Seems there was an issue in the past with stuck/stickie buttons. I would look at that first, then suspect other reason for why.

 

[Maddog]

Just a thought, check your controller's various buttons. Seems there was an issue in the past with stuck/stickie buttons. I would look at that first, then suspect other reason for why.

Thanks Rich! Your advice has saved many Solo owners a lot of grief, unfortunately I keep forgetting about this.

 

[SteveReno]

Thanks guys. I am not an idiot and did read the manual. Sorry if the post annoys some. Appreciate the help. Will keep searching and reading old threads. Cheers

A little girls arm got cut by a neighbors small drone. friend of my wife, I been upset about that.
Your not a idiot, but you have just indicated to all of us, you had several bad landings\crash in a short time.
To me, this sounds dangerous.
Ether you drone is bad or operator error.
If you care to upload your logs files here, there are several member that can tell you what's happening with your Drone & why it's doing what it's doing.

 

[miranda]

Before you try to fly first time, please make a calibration (level and compass). And wait until the message 'Hold to fly button". Then your Solo must be the very safe drone who will fly correctly and who will come back to home place.

 

[kiomon]

Thanks for all the help guys! And to be clear, when I was explaining the solo wouldn't land incident, it was one single flight where I couldn't get the bird to settle so we did repeated touch and goes until the flip. It wasn't 4+ flights.

Learned a lot though from a thread on how to anticipate a flip on landing and what to do about it. Been flying it manual for now and having a blast, even a little time in acro mode. About 10 more flights in, but still hesitant to go back into GPS mode.

3DR has logs now and taking a look. Until I hear back, will stay in manual and controlled spaces. Will report back when I get a verdict from them for posterities sake.

 

[Jhanley]

Kiomon: Ever get a response from 3DR? I own a 2 solo's. 1 has flown great for about 2 year - rock steady and (knock on wood) never any real problems. The other has never been stable, always get mag interference and had the same scary flip you describe on a couple of landings.

Let me know - I am interested.

Jim