Open Awesomeness

I'm a green cuber. Ran OS update via Solex. All good with my controller. It boots up with OS window. Solo not so much. Goes about 10 seconds into a boot and freezes. Won't pair with controller. I did rewrite the SD card per P2P's Problem Recovery Procedure to no avail. So now I have a Controller in OS and a Solo in some sort of purgatory.

I just got the Green Cube yesterday, installed today, and followed the Solex Install Process video above. It went smoothly and *nearly* the same as the video for me (the only difference is I never saw the gimbal go limp during my process). I hit the pair button on the bottom of the solo, then held down the A&B on the controller when prompted until it vibrated, and that was it.

I never got connected to the Solo and power cycle gets me the same three-tone-delay-two-tone that Michael demonstrates in his video. Resets on both do nothing. I even tried moving the GC to another Solo but same results.

Where can I find P2P's Problem Recovery Procedure that Michael mentions? I've got Linux, Mac, and Windows systems here, do I pop out the SD card from the GC and rewrite it or something?

Thanks,

- Bruce
 
Hello Bruce. Here's the link to Matt's Problem Recovery. documentation/recovery.md at master · OpenSolo/documentation · GitHub

I tried this but somehow messed up the SD Card when I removed it from the IM6 board. I *thought* I was careful but apparently not. Removing the white glue (what is that stuff anyway?) is tougher than I first thought. When I got the card out it would not read in any system (neither linux nor windows).

I took the IM6 board from my backup Solo and put it in the system with the GC. Now the controller complains that there is a version mismatch ('natch) and an attempt to reload the copter has the INSTALL greyed out (says my system is not compatible). Does this with both the GC installed and with the old cube.

Does this mean that once OpenSolo is on the controller there is no path to update an older Solo that I'd bind to that controller?

Also I tried to go through the whole process with the controller that goes with the backup solo but it has never been flown. So it comes up and says it need the initial update from 3DR. But it won't do it, even after a full controller reset. Argh.
 
I tried this but somehow messed up the SD Card when I removed it from the IM6 board. I *thought* I was careful but apparently not. Removing the white glue (what is that stuff anyway?) is tougher than I first thought. When I got the card out it would not read in any system (neither linux nor windows).

I took the IM6 board from my backup Solo and put it in the system with the GC. Now the controller complains that there is a version mismatch ('natch) and an attempt to reload the copter has the INSTALL greyed out (says my system is not compatible). Does this with both the GC installed and with the old cube.

Does this mean that once OpenSolo is on the controller there is no path to update an older Solo that I'd bind to that controller?

Also I tried to go through the whole process with the controller that goes with the backup solo but it has never been flown. So it comes up and says it need the initial update from 3DR. But it won't do it, even after a full controller reset. Argh.

Back at you! Hold the Presses. If you are part of the FB Mod Club and Beta Test Groups you know Matt has made a very important announcement with regard to a glitch (for lack of a better word) in how the process detects which Cube you are running. From what I gather (my pay grade is set at minimum wage) the OS upgrade will auto detect your hardware and proceed accordingly. What has happened on rare occasion is the standard cube FW is being loaded to the GG resulting in the Solo boot failure. Good news is he is developing a patch which may already be available as I write this.
 
I think I'm going to need some help.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, clearly something. I decided to try the process again with bits-n-pieces from a second solo. Basically I took the IM6 board and its Black Pixhawk cube and put it in my distressed Solo (the one I failed with the GC on the first go 'round). Then I:
  • Did the Solo pre-flight update (had an unbelievable amount of trouble getting the pairing to work)
  • Used Solex to install the IMX Python .zip file
  • Used Solex to install the wipe-pixhawk file
  • Powered off, swapped out the black for the green cube
  • Powered on
  • Wait-wait-wait for Solo to get done
  • Power cycle everything for good measure (Solo comes up fine, makes nice sounds)
  • Bring up Matt's video and start following along:
    • Install Open-Solo 2.5-RC1 Copter
    • Install Open-Solo 2.5-RC1 Controller
Everything goes just as in the video, multiple reboots on the controller & on Solo. Gimbal goes limp multiple times, etc. I wait extra long at the end before hitting the pair button. Hold A&B to pair, get the paring in progress message, and then (just as on the first time) it is gone, waiting for Solo forever and ever. Reboots don't help. Solo comes up with all-green lights and the three-tones-delay-two-tones just like the first time (and exactly as Michael Lione showed in his video). I am then unable to get to the post install because the Solo and Controller won't pair up.

I don't know where to go from here.
 
Back at you! Hold the Presses. If you are part of the FB Mod Club and Beta Test Groups you know Matt has made a very important announcement with regard to a glitch (for lack of a better word) in how the process detects which Cube you are running. From what I gather (my pay grade is set at minimum wage) the OS upgrade will auto detect your hardware and proceed accordingly. What has happened on rare occasion is the standard cube FW is being loaded to the GG resulting in the Solo boot failure. Good news is he is developing a patch which may already be available as I write this.
Oops: Posts crossed in the night! I look forward to a patch. ;)
Thanks for the notice.
 
I doubt that will do it, I think there needs to be an OpenSolo firmware update.

- Bruce

If not this one than one soon to follow. Trust me, I feel your pain! Be patient, I know Matt's is working on a fix. I shipped my botched Solo to a guy way higher on the pay grade scale to see what he could find just before the news broke about the random issue with the OS update. My guess is that at this point the Gurus are gathering some test data on the fix before it goes live.
 
I have noticed that the controller gets done doing its thing a lot faster than the Solo. I have successfully loaded open solo on both stock cube and green. If Matt is working on it, it will be corrected. I don't know why it would work with some and not with others though.
 
I have noticed that the controller gets done doing its thing a lot faster than the Solo. I have successfully loaded open solo on both stock cube and green. If Matt is working on it, it will be corrected. I don't know why it would work with some and not with others though.

The way I understand it the process looks to see which cube in installed and based on what comes back loads the proper set of files. Apparently with a small amount of cases the GC doesn't answer back in the alloted time written into the script and the install proceeds under the assumption that the vehicle has a standard cube and loads the standard file set on the green cube which results in the botched upgrade.
 
Here you are folks for those that aren't following the Solo Beta Test Group on FB Just posted by Matt-

OPEN SOLO 2.5-RC2 is out in Solex! I suspect Tom will have it in Side Pilot shortly too This update fixes some installation vulnerabilities that were identified by beta testers with Green Cubes. It was on occasion failing to detect the green cube, and trying to install the 3DR firmware on it, which is not compatible. The scripts are now much more robust. It now has three different ways to detect the cube. And in the unlikely event something is wrong and it still can't, it will not try to install any firmware on the cube so nothing gets locked up.

Please see the -RC2 release notes for full detail: https://github.com/OpenSo…/documentation/releases/…/v2.5-RC2

If you have already installed RC1, please do actually upgrade to this. It will fix the install vulnerability, whether you experienced the issue or not the first time around.

For the few of you who are currently stuck with a locked up Green Cube, instructions on rectifying that coming soon. Not enough hours in the day.
 
Great thread and a huge shout out to every one involved in this project it looks very exciting indeed for the future of Solo. A very excellent tutorial video also about doing the upgrade and every one appears to be singing praise for Opensolo. I am definately very interested in doing the upgrade, but before doing it is there a list anywhere that I might read to see what the advantages of doing it will be for a non Greencube Solo? At first I thought that it was only for greencube Solo's but now I see it will work with the stock unit also.

Thanks Bill
 
Great thread and a huge shout out to every one involved in this project it looks very exciting indeed for the future of Solo. A very excellent tutorial video also about doing the upgrade and every one appears to be singing praise for Opensolo. I am definately very interested in doing the upgrade, but before doing it is there a list anywhere that I might read to see what the advantages of doing it will be for a non Greencube Solo? At first I thought that it was only for greencube Solo's but now I see it will work with the stock unit also.

Thanks Bill

P2P posted a link above that pretty much lays it all out. Here's an excerpt specfic to advantages that apply to upgrading the stock cube-

STOCK SOLO SPECIFIC UPDATES: The following applies only to stock solo Pixhawk cubes and does not apply to Green Cube solos.
  • 3DR's last ArduCopter release, v1.5.3 instead of the old v1.3.1.
    • Distance based battery failsafe: Triggers RTH to be on the ground at approx 10% remaining. If you want to adjust this yourself, you can manually tweak parameter FS_BATT_CUR_RTL. A value of 22 gets you on the ground with about 10% remaining. A higher value will RTH sooner leaving a higher % remaining.
    • Improved landing detection: This greatly improves the solo's ability to detect it has landed. In the past, it could get confused by a rough, fast, or jerky landing. This results in it refusing to disarm or and sometimes flipping over. The new landing detection algorithm is greatly enhanced. You will notice it now takes and extra second or so to disarm once you're on the ground. And you may see a little twitch in the throttle. It is literally testing the ground. It works quite nicely.
    • Low battery thrust priority: If the battery is getting dangerously low, it will allow itself to sacrifice yaw (rotation) control to increase thrust to prevent a crash. This could give you the thrust you need to land softly rather than dropping out of the sky.
    • Smart shot altitude priority: Will not lose altitude by going too fast in Follow Mode! In Smart Shots, the solo will not allow itself to go "too fast" causing a loss of altitude.
 

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