new to me solo, first test flight=wtf!

[resurrection]

I picked up a new to me solo that has opensolo4 installed on a stock solo cube. I had a solo back when Best Buy was selling them for 299.00. flew great, loved her. put it up on the shelf for a few years, moved to northern California, and now she is in storage somewhere. so, I bought a used one for like 70 bucks. it has open solo4 on it. wasn't sure if installed correctly, everything seemed ok, but I didn't like the look of some of the parameters. could just be the opensolo4 new parameters. anyways, I reinstalled opensolo4, no issues. followed instruction to the T. went for a test flight (I took the gimbal off because I don't have a GoPro for it yet), all bad. started up fine, took off fine. at about 3ft off the deck she acted like a river raft in 15ft seas. rolled left, rolled right, rolled left continuously, completely out of control. max height was maybe 8-10 ft. managed to get her down without much damage. chipped a couple props because she landed upside down. if someone can take a look at my log and shed some light for me i would greatly appreciate you. or if you can point me in a direction to learn how to interpret the logs and what to look for, that would be just as awesome. when i try to upload the log, is says file extension not accepted. how do I get the log into a pdf? thank you for all the hard work you all do to keep this beautiful bird in the air.

 

[CharlieKeck]

I picked up a new to me solo that has opensolo4 installed on a stock solo cube. I had a solo back when Best Buy was selling them for 299.00. flew great, loved her. put it up on the shelf for a few years, moved to northern California, and now she is in storage somewhere. so, I bought a used one for like 70 bucks. it has open solo4 on it. wasn't sure if installed correctly, everything seemed ok, but I didn't like the look of some of the parameters. could just be the opensolo4 new parameters. anyways, I reinstalled opensolo4, no issues. followed instruction to the T. went for a test flight (I took the gimbal off because I don't have a GoPro for it yet), all bad. started up fine, took off fine. at about 3ft off the deck she acted like a river raft in 15ft seas. rolled left, rolled right, rolled left continuously, completely out of control. max height was maybe 8-10 ft. managed to get her down without much damage. chipped a couple props because she landed upside down. if someone can take a look at my log and shed some light for me i would greatly appreciate you. or if you can point me in a direction to learn how to interpret the logs and what to look for, that would be just as awesome. when i try to upload the log, is says file extension not accepted. how do I get the log into a pdf? thank you for all the hard work you all do to keep this beautiful bird in the air.

It looks like OpenSolo 4 did not install correctly. I'll assume you updated both the controller and the bird. A straight OS4 will fly perfectly, I've converted many here with zero issues. There is no need to adjust any parameters initially as they are "baked in" with the install.

Couple of questions: (more than a couple...)
-How did you execute the OS4 upgrade? What instruction set did you follow?
-Are you using an app, SOLEX or SidePilot?
-Are you sure you were in FLY mode (Loiter) or possibly hit the A or B button which changes the mode?
-Did you have a solid GPS lock, >6 satellites?
-After the OS4 install, did you upgrade the Arducopter version?
-Did you do your compass calibration outside, in the clear, with a solid GPS lock?

Again, a good OS4 install will fly perfectly without doing anything else!

Be aware that the original SOLO batteries are past end-of-life and dangerous (seriously!) to fly now as although they appear fully charged they can fail suddenly under heavy current draw. It's very possible your battery voltage suddenly sagged, triggering a Return To Home action while failing. If using an app, it will show you the current state-of-charge percentage while flying.

I experienced a similar crash some time ago-at 10' it went into RTH, and the battery totally failed while attempting to land, crashed with no power.

If you're familiar with Mission Planner (PC app), download the flight from the SD card, and check the "BCL" data, which shows the performance of each of the four battery cells.

After all this, please indicate which method you used to execute the OS4 upgrade for Solo and controller - there are several methods. We can go from there!

 

[resurrection]

Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll answer what I can now and the rest when I get home and on the computer.
Yes I updated both the solo and the controller via SidePilot.
I followed the instructions from github, I thought in the instructions it says you don’t need to update adductor as it does it when you upgrade the firmware in the solo. (I could be wrong)
At time of crash I was using the remote only. ( like I mentioned, no gimble at the moment)
I was just trying to do a short test flight to make sure she was stable and in a state to test her out. If all was good, flight would have been under a minute.
After the upgrade, I did the post install calibration, all of them. Restarting after each one. I had a lock with 8 satellites at time of launch.
I don’t think the voltage dropped. But I will check when I get home. The whole flight from take off to crash was maybe 10 seconds if that. I will post batter stats this evening.

I’ll do a reset ( the recovery partitions were updated to OS4also) if you think it didn’t install correctly. Thank you for you help.

 

[jonbrotherton]

Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll answer what I can now and the rest when I get home and on the computer.
Yes I updated both the solo and the controller via SidePilot.
I followed the instructions from github, I thought in the instructions it says you don’t need to update adductor as it does it when you upgrade the firmware in the solo. (I could be wrong)
At time of crash I was using the remote only. ( like I mentioned, no gimble at the moment)
I was just trying to do a short test flight to make sure she was stable and in a state to test her out. If all was good, flight would have been under a minute.
After the upgrade, I did the post install calibration, all of them. Restarting after each one. I had a lock with 8 satellites at time of launch.
I don’t think the voltage dropped. But I will check when I get home. The whole flight from take off to crash was maybe 10 seconds if that. I will post batter stats this evening.

I’ll do a reset ( the recovery partitions were updated to OS4also) if you think it didn’t install correctly. Thank you for you help.

It sounds like a calibration problem. From what you said it sounds like you did them right but I would do them again. Make sure the first position of the IMU calibration is very level and wait 5 seconds in each position before clicking Next.

Also, wait for the HDOP to be 1.0 or less, if you can, before you calibrate the compass and before you fly. You can see the HDOP in Solex or SidePilot.

 

[resurrection]

It sounds like a calibration problem. From what you said it sounds like you did them right but I would do them again. Make sure the first position of the IMU calibration is very level and wait 5 seconds in each position before clicking Next.

Also, wait for the HDOP to be 1.0 or less, if you can, before you calibrate the compass and before you fly. You can see the HDOP in Solex or SidePilot.

I will do the reset and recalibrate today and post back afterwards with an update. Thank you guys.