Pause/Airbrake Acting Strange

lil boss · Nov 3, 2016

Good Day All !!

I just received my 3DR earlier this week, and I like it. There are, however, a few issues I have, and I'll deal with them one at a time.

The first is the Pause, Air Brake feature. If the drone is moving and I press the Pause/Airbrake button the 3DR does stop. However, after it stops it backs up a few feet

. Not just once, but everytime. Do they all do this ? Is there an adjustment somewhere. The only thing I can think of is, while the drone is moving fast, when I hit the button, the GPS takes the drone back to the exact spot where the Air Brake button was pressed.

Any thoughts or comments ?? Thank you.

Acroduster · Nov 3, 2016

You are correct - the drone is returning to where you told it to stop.

As a side note, I strongly encourage you to practice flying in manual mode and set your A button to this mode as well. Should you lose GPS signal or signal strength, it can save your bacon.

lil boss · Nov 3, 2016

Acroduster said:
You are correct - the drone is returning to where you told it to stop.

As a side note, I strongly encourage you to practice flying in manual mode and set your A button to this mode as well. Should you lose GPS signal or signal strength, it can save your bacon.

I'm sorry, I thought the "Fly" mode returned the drone to Home if and when it lost signal, or I decided?? What am I missing ?? Besides making me a better pilot, what is the advantage of using the "Manual" mode?

PdxSteve · Nov 3, 2016

Well for one thing, when solo loses gps (and it will), it automatically switches to fly:manual. If you don't know how to control it without gps stabilization, you will most likely crash. It behaves totally different. The home button returns to home, not the FLY button. Best to be prepared for the inevitable so you don't lose your quad/camera

lil boss · Nov 3, 2016

PdxSteve said:
Well for one thing, when solo loses gps (and it will), it automatically switches to fly:manual. If you don't know how to control it without gps stabilization, you will most likely crash. It behaves totally different. The home button returns to home, not the FLY button. Best to be prepared for the inevitable so you don't lose your quad/camera

Ahhh... your suggestion sounds like a winner. I will change the A and B switches a little later tonight or tomorrow before I go flying.

Sorry I didn't explain my comment correctly.... I meant that in the Fly mode, you hit the Home Button.

Thank you sir !!!

Steve Langford · Nov 4, 2016

PdxSteve said:
Well for one thing, when solo loses gps (and it will), it automatically switches to fly:manual. If you don't know how to control it without gps stabilization, you will most likely crash. It behaves totally different. The home button returns to home, not the FLY button. Best to be prepared for the inevitable so you don't lose your quad/camera

I am reading and watching videos before I pilot my Solo. How often does it lose GPS?

Mountain Flyer · Nov 4, 2016

Steve Langford said:
I am reading and watching videos before I pilot my Solo. How often does it lose GPS?

It isn't frequent but sometimes there are things blocking or interfering with the signal(stray wifi signals). Residential areas have a router in almost every house but fortunately the range on most is not very far. When that happens you lose GPS and the quad switches to manual as stated above. Find yourself a nice soccer field and practice flying in manual on a day with very little or no wind. As you get better at it try on windier days to get a feel for how much wind moves it around and how to compensate. Just stay somewhat low so if you need to you can drop back to the ground quickly. While learning to do this I would also remove the gimbal and use the hard mount instead just in case you need to do some fast, hard landings. The static camera mount and camera should be close to the same weight,and feel about the same as the gimbal as far as flight characteristics.

Hansolo808 · Nov 4, 2016

It's the rewind feature on the 3DR solo - if you press and hold the pause button it will rewind on your preset distance. Meaning it will follow the path that it flew back.

Acroduster · Nov 7, 2016

Actually the biggest problem with GPS is not the loss of signal, but the scrambling of the signal. If GPS is truly lost and Solo goes into Manual mode, it will just sit there, drifting with the wind. This can be nerve wracking, and will require some skill to make sure you get it back in one piece, but it happens in a relative slow motion to the next scenario.

Scrambling of the signal is much worse, and from what I've seen, happens to many GPS stabilized quads. If the receiver gets signals that aren't quite right, the on-board computer can believe that it should be 20 feet or 200 yards from where it is right now. It will then automatically seek to get over to the location it thinks it should be as quickly as possible. To the user, the quad has the appearance of a mind of its own.

To combat this, if you set your A and/or B buttons to Fly:Manual mode, then should this happen, and if you're quick about it, you can save your quad from one of these anomalies, a.k.a. "fly-aways." Quickly hitting your A button will then switch off your GPS, but now the quad is still drifting in the direction it took off in. Here's where your practiced skill comes in. You must counteract this drift and bring it home.

All of this happens in just a few seconds, so muscle memory needs to kick in. If you do not regularly practice in Fly:Manual mode, things may not end well...