return to home accuracy of the solo 3dr
- Thread starter lougil
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you should be. Never set home to tight area, make sure home is wide open enough to not fight with that. I usually figure it will be with 10 yards. But I never let a RTH land my solo.
When it reaches home, vertically or before I take back control and land it
When it reaches home, vertically or before I take back control and land it
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The RTH accuracy is a direct relationship to GPS lock and number of satellites. The display shows the number of satellites and the corresponding HDOP or Horizontal Dilution of Precision. The lower the number the better. I've not gotten below 0.7 HDOP, but the last time I tried the RTH I had 14 sats/0.7 HDOP and it landed within about a 18 inches of the takeoff point. If your HDOP is 1 or less, it should put you within a meter. I agree with Pyrate, you should probably take back control and land it if possible for the best outcome (no surprises). Don't forget to set your return home altitude to clear any obstacles in your current flying location.
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If you are surrounded by close in trees, power lines, buildings, and other obstructions, those obstructions will prevent you from getting an accurate enough GPS lock to navigate those obstructions. Bad news.
If you want the 'party' line, from the Manual - which I know you've read...
"The autopilot saves the home position at the location where the motors are started only after achieving GPS lock. The location of the home position depends on GPS signal strength and is usually accurate to within one to two meters. To make sure Solo returns home safely, always take off from an open location with a clear path for the return."
I agree with the above however, you can improve the accuracy and it's ability to stay locked even with nearby obstacles substantially by upgrading the GPS module. The best GPS upgrade for the Solo is the mRobotics m8n:
mRo GPS u-Blox Neo-M8N / 3DR SOLO Upgrade
mRo GPS u-Blox Neo-M8N / 3DR SOLO Upgrade
but now with firmware updates and cardboard mod, is it worth upgrading the gps? $80 that's almost half the price of what i paid for the drone 
Yeah, it's a heavy lift when you look at percentages. If only the Solo wasn't so cheap.....but now with firmware updates and cardboard mod, is it worth upgrading the gps? $80 that's almost half the price of what i paid for the drone
but now with firmware updates and cardboard mod, is it worth upgrading the gps? $80 that's almost half the price of what i paid for the drone
That's a question only you can answer.
The Solo may be going for $300 these days in the US but it's not a $300 drone. I paid $1800 for mine originally and that's still what it's worth to me.
My experience is that I didn't really have much trouble stock though sometimes it would take two or three minutes to get a lock. But all my flying was in wide open spaces. I'm not a manual flying type of guy and rely heavily on GPS so as improvements came out I tried all of them. Each improved it slightly but the mRo upgrade was a quantum leap. Matter of fact, I already had the IMP isolation board and v2 shield installed and it was fine but the mRo module still improved the lock time, sat count and HDOP dramatically.
Now, other than quicker lock times, I didn't really notice a difference in my day to day use, however, I had a situation the other day that I'm pretty sure could have ended in disaster if I didn't have the mRo installed.
I went for a quick flight on a cold day (-20C windchill) and pushed the battery a little too far. It went into RTH and normally I'd let it get close then manually finish the landing but I was so cold my hands were shaking and where I launched from had a lot of of obstacles in close proximity, trees, the house, vehicles. So I decided to trust the Solo and the mRo module and let it auto-land completely without doing anything. It did beautifully. The floor mat you see at the end was what I launched off of so the landing was only off by 18".
This incident alone made the $80 worth it to me.
but now with firmware updates and cardboard mod, is it worth upgrading the gps? $80 that's almost half the price of what i paid for the drone
I think you have to look at the numbers in perspective - Solos selling for ~300 dollars is an aberration. They're only selling for that because of the mistakes 3DR made and the course the company was forced to take as a result.
Even if Solo's were selling for $80, to me it'd still be worth spending another $80 on the GPS because it'd make it that much better of a AP platform... which is the whole point of the Solo.
or for 600 bucks you could get the RTK soon to be released for PH2
accuaracy to within 1 centemeter
accuaracy to within 1 centemeter
My Solo always return to landing area within 1 meter accuracy.
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Mine did as well with the stock module in open spaces. Not in situations like in that video, though.
This is interesting, not available yet but it's always nice to see that the Solo is seeing development even after 3DR's exit from the market. I don't have the need for cm level accuracy, but that it's available is cool.
3DR SOLO RTK GPS (NEO-M8P)
$200+ is a little pricy, but in line with other RTK units. And this is only 1/2 the cost, because you need the base station too.
3DR SOLO RTK GPS (NEO-M8P)
$200+ is a little pricy, but in line with other RTK units. And this is only 1/2 the cost, because you need the base station too.
Granted, I haven't had the opportunity to fly a whole lot, maybe 30 times? I bought Solo because of features like RTH so I use it. I think it's cool to watch it do its job on its own, watching to see how close it comes to its takeoff point, it's always landed within 2 feet. It's especially fun watching it struggle to find its spot in a wind. I use no mods, only the leg extenders and the FPVLR antenna. Guess I'm just lucky.
I'd say you are probably the norm. People mostly turn to forums when they have problems so the posts here are weighted to people's issues with the Solo. I've got 4 of the things and have had no real problems with any I've flown.... yet...
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