Software Update - Version 2.4.0
- Thread starter SurfnSkate81
- Start date
I contacted 3DR about the Android app, and they said to look for an announcement in the next few days regarding the Android update. Hopefully it is good.....
Now a question... Someone mentioned that a future update would include the ability to edit an existing cable cam, has anyone seen this yet?
Now a question... Someone mentioned that a future update would include the ability to edit an existing cable cam, has anyone seen this yet?
Anyone else experience this - I updated to latest firmware, all new smart shots, etc, etc- but when I try to FLY - the UP/DOWN controller controls the GIMBAL - and the GIMBAL trim does nothing!! This is serious BS. I had to JUMP to grab my Solo, and show my friend how to A+B+" to kill the motors. To add insult to injury, Solo itself didn't turn off, so when I got home, the battery still in the Solo was COOKING HOT. Seriously!? You can't build in a software failsafe that turns off the drone if it doesn't have spinning motors, and no connection to the controller??
- Joined
- May 24, 2016
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
- Age
- 51
sorry to hear that bro... not good... my flight went well, flew immediately after updating.
but.... i don't have a gimbal though, mine was defective so 3dr replaced.. it's arriving this week.
must test it once it gets here.
Yup, on my 2nd gimbal too as the 1st went all funky streaming to my ipad or iphone.. was really embarrassing, I'm down here in Mexico, wanted to get a nice group 'selfie' and end up having to jump to rescue it.. up/down - controlled the GIMBAL.. so ridiculous.
Are you sure it was in FLY mode, it's like it's in a smart shot still. As different smart shots will switch around what the controllers sticks and buttons do. Do you have the dataflash log from the incident? Will be easy to see what mode it was in.
Chris
It took off, and went up - did the 'selfie' shot, but upon return, wouldn't land when bringing the drone down. How is that operator error?
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2016
- Messages
- 3,920
- Reaction score
- 2,623
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2016
- Messages
- 3,920
- Reaction score
- 2,623
The other thin
It is possible I was still in selfie mode - I will verify tomorrow. My other point stands however, if you A+B+" it, and forget to power off the drone, it WILL NOT power itself off. And borderline cooks itself until the battery runs out.
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2016
- Messages
- 3,920
- Reaction score
- 2,623
A+B+Pause is motor stop. Not power off. Once again, operator error. Plus, you had to pick it up, pack it up, and do whatever you did. How unobservant do you have to be to not notice your drone is still on?? The lights are on. The gimbal is on. The camera is on. The battery lights are on or blinking. Seriously, you screwed up, A LOT. And congrats, you probably ruined your battery too.
I hope this was a sore lesson for you. Read the manual, watch the videos, and practice. Otherwise, you end yo making an ass of yourself in front of your friends.
Sure thing pal. I think 3DR make a great product, but is there room for improvement? Is it not possible that you might not turn off your drone for some reason? Or you swear you did, but it got knocked/bumped, and turned on? Is a failsafe bit of code to turn it off in the event of certain criteria so unfathomable in your elitist world you can't comprehend it?
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2016
- Messages
- 3,920
- Reaction score
- 2,623
Other than it crashing out of my reach, no. In which case, I would want it to remain on as long as possible for search and recovery purposes. Beyond that, I'm not blind, deaf, or oblivious to the word. It's very obvious when it is on. Not noticing it and leaving it on by accident is absurd.
There's a word for that. Mishandling. I don't know what you do with your drone when it's not in flight, but if something is pushing on the power button, you have bigger problems. Sounds like a far fetched excuse for forgetting to turn it off.
Yes. See my first point. Typically, in the world of aviation (both full size and model), an aircraft turning itself off is a terrible idea.
You screwed up. Learn from it and stop making excuses.
The only way is, if your pressed RTH, then the controls may not work, until you press fly or other user controllable function.
I was in a jack pot today, Pressed RTH & battery at 16%, Solo was only out about 200FT, but it was about 375 FT. up in high winds *35 gust"
It was too slow in commoning down to land, so i tried to bring it down quicker @ about 9% I pressed fly button, then bring it in for a landing @ 3%.
Before i pressed the Fly button, pressing the down on controller, didn't do a dam thing!. Had to press fly to again to get user control to land it.
Like i was saying earlier and Pedal2Paddles has said, when you change flight modes the controllers control change around. Have a good read up of the smart shots before using them, also be ready to hit pause or hit fly while it's doing the smart shots.
Out of curiosity is this your first drone? I came from the DIY route and fly both the Solo and my custom builds. Its always good to verify that you have powered down everything. Get a process happening, check items before using, check items before packing up.
You may want it to power down immediately if it's disarmed and no controller connected. Others of us may have reasons to keep it powered on. Just because we want something and think it's 'dumb' that it doesn't do it, doesn't mean that there isn't a good reason for it. No issue with discussing why it might be like that. On the battery side of things it's good practice to disconnect the battery, or in the solo's case remove it to prevent accidental powering up.
Also note that the Solo will power down once its smart battery hits 0% (so 10% of the LIPO from what I hear), not great for the battery but it will shutdown. Just takes a while at a 1A draw. Did you have it in an enclosed space and powered on? You shouldn't do that as it may have taken the Solo above it's max operating temps.
Please dont blame the hardware for things that you should have dealt with better. For this stuff start a process and stick to it. Is there room for improvement, sure, but maybe put posts forward in that light.
Chris
Out of curiosity is this your first drone? I came from the DIY route and fly both the Solo and my custom builds. Its always good to verify that you have powered down everything. Get a process happening, check items before using, check items before packing up.
You may want it to power down immediately if it's disarmed and no controller connected. Others of us may have reasons to keep it powered on. Just because we want something and think it's 'dumb' that it doesn't do it, doesn't mean that there isn't a good reason for it. No issue with discussing why it might be like that. On the battery side of things it's good practice to disconnect the battery, or in the solo's case remove it to prevent accidental powering up.
Also note that the Solo will power down once its smart battery hits 0% (so 10% of the LIPO from what I hear), not great for the battery but it will shutdown. Just takes a while at a 1A draw. Did you have it in an enclosed space and powered on? You shouldn't do that as it may have taken the Solo above it's max operating temps.
Please dont blame the hardware for things that you should have dealt with better. For this stuff start a process and stick to it. Is there room for improvement, sure, but maybe put posts forward in that light.
Chris
Last edited:
I applied the update yesterday and got the exact same result. Tried to pair the solo-no change. Tried a factory reset- now nothing will pair together and the LEDs stay green the whole time. I have a help ticket submitted. If I get any answers I'll let you know.
Simply try this: disconnect the battery inside the controller for a few seconds and then try again.
by any chance, you weren't in one of those smart shots when altitude is locked so your left stick has no effect ?
I flew with latest 2.4 update (iOS) over the last 2 days and did not encounter this problem.
however I found few other issues (or dangerous things that make no sense in this latest version that I'll describe in my next post).
so here are my observations after 2.4 update (iOS).
waiting for the new User Manual reflecting new fucntionalities, but from what I've experienced so far, it's not all as we expected :
(1) RTL
- as already discussed, in your settings you can now select
Return to launch point, or Return to Me and for each of these 2 options you can select action by Solo taken when it reaches given location : either Land or Hover.
part of the RTL settings is the "Rewind" function where you have options to Enable or Disable rewind and to if Enabled you set max distance for Rewind which is between 0m to 100m.
So now the bad things about these new extra options :
a) upon pressing "Return Home" button on controller, Solo goes always into Rewind mode even when that one is disabled in my settings, and even when disabled and with previously set Max Rewind distance to 0m, Solo still goes into Rewind mode for about 5-10 seconds before it finally switches to Return to Home mode.
I don't know why this is, but it can lead to some unexpected behaviour - for example, you launch Solo in the air and lets say you hover 5m above your launch point, then if you press Return to Home (even with Rewind function disabled and Rewind distance set to 0m), Solo starts "rewinding" back for 5-10s, meaning it will retrace its flight up that point therefore flying into the ground (where the launch point was). Bad !
b) When selecting in settings Return to Me and Hover as the action after Return, we all assumed that Solo would come back to last known location of the Controller/Tablet and we assumed that in this mode "My" location is being updated dynamically. This is not the case. Solo doesn't register "My" location dynamically, it only registers "My" location for return If and only If I press the "Return to Home" button, only at the exact point in time when I press "Return to Home" button, Solo will register your current location as the new Home and flies to that location, so if you have in the meantime moved somewhere else (ie. driving car because I was doing Follow me smart shot), Solo will not come to me, unless I stop the car and press Return to Home again (after it went to back to Fly mode).
And remember that every time you press "Return to Home", Solo starts its "Rewind" procedure as explained above, even when that function is disabled in settings. (it looks bit silly actually, as you can imagine, your are in Follow me mode, Solo is following you and you press Return to Home, Solo puts on "brakes" and starts flying in reverse direction because it's "rewinding for 5-10 secs" then it finally starts returning to you, but in the meantime you have moved somewhere else and it doesn't know your new location, unless you press Return to Home again in which case it starts reversing because it goes again into Rewind mode). Bad !
c) When choosing "Hover" as an action to take after arriving to Home location, I didn't know at what altitude it would actually Hover and what actions it would take for example during loss of signal, or when battery goes flat.
Now I know - it will simply fall from the Sky (it will not attempt to land). Bad !
Altitude at which it arrives to Home point is your current altitude, unless you were under your Return to Home altitude in which case it first goes to whatever your Return to Home altitude is set in the settings, and it just sits there until the battery goes flat and falls down from the sky unless you land it before that actually happens.
As an example - your Return to Home altitude is set to 40m, you are currently flying at 20m altitude and you hit Return to Home, Solo will go up to 40m and come above the location exactly where you press the Return to Home button and it will sit at 40m above that location and do nothing else even when you reached critical battery level (10%), it will not attempt to land, if you leave it like that the Solo will eventually fall down from the sky when the battery goes flat (I didn't actually run the test this far, but I waiting till 5% and Solo was still at 40m high up, not attempting to land even then and I waited until 3% battery and then had to bring it down myself and landed with 1% left).
Ok, fine, you are still in control and you can land whenever you want, however if you lose Radio Signal for whatever reasons (controller battery goes flat, wi-fi interference - both of which I have experienced in the past) then Solo will simply stay at the current altitude (in this example 40m) and will sit there until battery goes flat and then I assume will just fall down from the sky. Bad !
d) Failsafe, not working as we assumed it would be with the new Return to Me mode. I was not brave enough to take a chance and switch of my controller when in Return to Me mode with action selected as "Hover" for the obvious reasons described above, so I changed the action to "Land" but left "Return to Me" mode. I launched the Solo, took Solo some 100m away and 20m high up and I walked another 100m away from Solo. Then I switched off my Controller. Solo did NOT come to "ME", it returned to the launch point actually and landed because my action was selected as "Land". The reason being - Solo doesn't know your new location unless you press Return to Home on controller, but when you switch off the controller then obviously you cannot then press Return to Home button, so in this case, the function is actually useless, or simply it's not there.
So obviously I don't want to test what would happen if my action selected was "Hover" in this scenario, but I can all but assume that in that case Solo would come to original launch point (instead to my location) and it would hover there at 40m or higher and if I didn't manage to regain the signal then Solo would eventually fall down from the sky when battery goes flat. Bad !
e) Launching without GPS lock, again here we assumed we could now safely launch with no GPS as Solo would regain new home point for return because we assumed this is updated dynamically, well it's not. You can only create new "Home" by pressing Return to home button on your controller and not in any other way.
2) Zipline smart shot
not much to say here, it works as advertised, except the "Altitude lock/unlock" option does not work.
There are 2 options you can set in your settings for Zipline : you can lock or unlock your altitude (there is on/off option) but either selection makes no difference. I assumed when altitude is unlocked that while flying in line I could manually adjust altitude, this doesn't work (as somebody above me already pointed out).
second option is to lock your target with camera - when locked then camera is locked to your target as you fly by; when unlocked then camera is pointing where you last left it, and in this case you can control tilt and yaw.
You press "A" button to lock the direction (that's where the camera is pointing) and then same as with Orbit or MPCC you have get arrow to click (for "play") and then controls << || >> (fly forward, pause or fly reverse/back) appear on your screen.
3) Pano - I'm quite pleased with this new smart shot.
3 options :
a) Cylinder
- it takes 8 shots
- you can select under options your Pan Angle (default is 220 degrees) and more importantly you can specify under options FOV of your lens ! very good ! so if you have an after market lens then you are just fine
b) Hemisphere
- it takes 15 shots, there are no options to set/change
c) Video Pan
- it takes video as the Solo is slowly turning around
- under options you can select Yaw Speed and again you can specify your lens FOV.
for a) and b) above you need to be in Photo mode, for c) you need to be in Video mode.
It would be good if anyone could verify my observations so far or otherwise report if you find something new or contradicting to what I'm reporting here.
Due to the behaviour mentioned above, I think it may be the safest for now, to leave your Return to Home set to "Launch" point and definitely action taken after arrival to home point as "Land".
waiting for the new User Manual reflecting new fucntionalities, but from what I've experienced so far, it's not all as we expected :
(1) RTL
- as already discussed, in your settings you can now select
Return to launch point, or Return to Me and for each of these 2 options you can select action by Solo taken when it reaches given location : either Land or Hover.
part of the RTL settings is the "Rewind" function where you have options to Enable or Disable rewind and to if Enabled you set max distance for Rewind which is between 0m to 100m.
So now the bad things about these new extra options :
a) upon pressing "Return Home" button on controller, Solo goes always into Rewind mode even when that one is disabled in my settings, and even when disabled and with previously set Max Rewind distance to 0m, Solo still goes into Rewind mode for about 5-10 seconds before it finally switches to Return to Home mode.
I don't know why this is, but it can lead to some unexpected behaviour - for example, you launch Solo in the air and lets say you hover 5m above your launch point, then if you press Return to Home (even with Rewind function disabled and Rewind distance set to 0m), Solo starts "rewinding" back for 5-10s, meaning it will retrace its flight up that point therefore flying into the ground (where the launch point was). Bad !
b) When selecting in settings Return to Me and Hover as the action after Return, we all assumed that Solo would come back to last known location of the Controller/Tablet and we assumed that in this mode "My" location is being updated dynamically. This is not the case. Solo doesn't register "My" location dynamically, it only registers "My" location for return If and only If I press the "Return to Home" button, only at the exact point in time when I press "Return to Home" button, Solo will register your current location as the new Home and flies to that location, so if you have in the meantime moved somewhere else (ie. driving car because I was doing Follow me smart shot), Solo will not come to me, unless I stop the car and press Return to Home again (after it went to back to Fly mode).
And remember that every time you press "Return to Home", Solo starts its "Rewind" procedure as explained above, even when that function is disabled in settings. (it looks bit silly actually, as you can imagine, your are in Follow me mode, Solo is following you and you press Return to Home, Solo puts on "brakes" and starts flying in reverse direction because it's "rewinding for 5-10 secs" then it finally starts returning to you, but in the meantime you have moved somewhere else and it doesn't know your new location, unless you press Return to Home again in which case it starts reversing because it goes again into Rewind mode). Bad !
c) When choosing "Hover" as an action to take after arriving to Home location, I didn't know at what altitude it would actually Hover and what actions it would take for example during loss of signal, or when battery goes flat.
Now I know - it will simply fall from the Sky (it will not attempt to land). Bad !
Altitude at which it arrives to Home point is your current altitude, unless you were under your Return to Home altitude in which case it first goes to whatever your Return to Home altitude is set in the settings, and it just sits there until the battery goes flat and falls down from the sky unless you land it before that actually happens.
As an example - your Return to Home altitude is set to 40m, you are currently flying at 20m altitude and you hit Return to Home, Solo will go up to 40m and come above the location exactly where you press the Return to Home button and it will sit at 40m above that location and do nothing else even when you reached critical battery level (10%), it will not attempt to land, if you leave it like that the Solo will eventually fall down from the sky when the battery goes flat (I didn't actually run the test this far, but I waiting till 5% and Solo was still at 40m high up, not attempting to land even then and I waited until 3% battery and then had to bring it down myself and landed with 1% left).
Ok, fine, you are still in control and you can land whenever you want, however if you lose Radio Signal for whatever reasons (controller battery goes flat, wi-fi interference - both of which I have experienced in the past) then Solo will simply stay at the current altitude (in this example 40m) and will sit there until battery goes flat and then I assume will just fall down from the sky. Bad !
d) Failsafe, not working as we assumed it would be with the new Return to Me mode. I was not brave enough to take a chance and switch of my controller when in Return to Me mode with action selected as "Hover" for the obvious reasons described above, so I changed the action to "Land" but left "Return to Me" mode. I launched the Solo, took Solo some 100m away and 20m high up and I walked another 100m away from Solo. Then I switched off my Controller. Solo did NOT come to "ME", it returned to the launch point actually and landed because my action was selected as "Land". The reason being - Solo doesn't know your new location unless you press Return to Home on controller, but when you switch off the controller then obviously you cannot then press Return to Home button, so in this case, the function is actually useless, or simply it's not there.
So obviously I don't want to test what would happen if my action selected was "Hover" in this scenario, but I can all but assume that in that case Solo would come to original launch point (instead to my location) and it would hover there at 40m or higher and if I didn't manage to regain the signal then Solo would eventually fall down from the sky when battery goes flat. Bad !
e) Launching without GPS lock, again here we assumed we could now safely launch with no GPS as Solo would regain new home point for return because we assumed this is updated dynamically, well it's not. You can only create new "Home" by pressing Return to home button on your controller and not in any other way.
2) Zipline smart shot
not much to say here, it works as advertised, except the "Altitude lock/unlock" option does not work.
There are 2 options you can set in your settings for Zipline : you can lock or unlock your altitude (there is on/off option) but either selection makes no difference. I assumed when altitude is unlocked that while flying in line I could manually adjust altitude, this doesn't work (as somebody above me already pointed out).
second option is to lock your target with camera - when locked then camera is locked to your target as you fly by; when unlocked then camera is pointing where you last left it, and in this case you can control tilt and yaw.
You press "A" button to lock the direction (that's where the camera is pointing) and then same as with Orbit or MPCC you have get arrow to click (for "play") and then controls << || >> (fly forward, pause or fly reverse/back) appear on your screen.
3) Pano - I'm quite pleased with this new smart shot.
3 options :
a) Cylinder
- it takes 8 shots
- you can select under options your Pan Angle (default is 220 degrees) and more importantly you can specify under options FOV of your lens ! very good ! so if you have an after market lens then you are just fine
b) Hemisphere
- it takes 15 shots, there are no options to set/change
c) Video Pan
- it takes video as the Solo is slowly turning around
- under options you can select Yaw Speed and again you can specify your lens FOV.
for a) and b) above you need to be in Photo mode, for c) you need to be in Video mode.
It would be good if anyone could verify my observations so far or otherwise report if you find something new or contradicting to what I'm reporting here.
Due to the behaviour mentioned above, I think it may be the safest for now, to leave your Return to Home set to "Launch" point and definitely action taken after arrival to home point as "Land".
Similar threads
New Posts
-
Free Music / SFX Resource for Your Videos - Over 2000 Tracks- Latest: Eric Matyas
-
-
-
-
Members online
No members online now.