Solex for Solo

I feel like a nut. I cant figure out for the life of me how to initiate a smart shot from within Solex. I read the manual and watched at least 5 different videos and cannot find any way to do this. Can someone please fill me in.

Also can anyone confirm whether or not taking photos in mission works? It didnt appear to whem I tried my first mission with Solex this afternoon. Not sure if the camera should be set to photo mode prior. I wasn't recording at the time so at least there's that.
Everything you need to know about Solex in ay my sig, there are videos & his manual.
If you completely new to Solo, Then look at 3DR's website on all the smart shots, Solex is a update from Solo app, He takes it that your already familiar with Solo Smart Shots.
 
Everything you need to know about Solex in ay my sig, there are videos & his manual.
If you completely new to Solo, Then look at 3DR's website on all the smart shots, Solex is a update from Solo app, He takes it that your already familiar with Solo Smart Shots.

Nah I'm not new to solo. Just couldn't find where the smart shots were hidden in Solex. Someone pointed them out to me so I'm good. Would still like to get a confirmation on whether or not triggering photos works via the mission feature.
 
I purchased the mapping upgrade. Any future upgrades so we can map large areas so we can upload the geo-referenced photos to drone deploy for processing? Can we geotag photos?
 
Nah I'm not new to solo. Just couldn't find where the smart shots were hidden in Solex. Someone pointed them out to me so I'm good. Would still like to get a confirmation on whether or not triggering photos works via the mission feature.
I know Video works in a mission, & i would imagine Photos at certain intervals should be working? Logically speaking.
 
I have just installed a Green Cube in one of my Solos, and I am loading the firmware via Solex.

The instructions for installing the python package on both Solex and Github state that it has to be done prior to installing the Green Cube. Is this compulsory?

I have to ask because the black cube that this is replacing was bricked after a failed firmware update many months ago, so it can't be used. As a last resort I can transfer another black cube from one of my other Solos just for this step, but that might be opening a can of worms because I'll be mixing firmware versions. I'd like to keep my other Solos as vanilla as possible for now.

Any insight or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
I have just installed a Green Cube in one of my Solos, and I am loading the firmware via Solex.

The instructions for installing the python package on both Solex and Github state that it has to be done prior to installing the Green Cube. Is this compulsory?

I have to ask because the black cube that this is replacing was bricked after a failed firmware update many months ago, so it can't be used. As a last resort I can transfer another black cube from one of my other Solos just for this step, but that might be opening a can of worms because I'll be mixing firmware versions. I'd like to keep my other Solos as vanilla as possible for now.

Any insight or suggestions would be appreciated.
Did it boot up and connect properly after installing the green cube? If so, go ahead and install them now and count your blessings. Do it before any other firmware installs.
 
Cool. Load the imx package and power cycle. Then pick up where you left on the GitHub instructions.
 
I Think "Missions" is one of the best feature's that Solex has to offer. Since it's made for Solo, it's more intuitive & has more options then using Towers mission feature.

Found this article on FB. Made by the creator himself, Kelly Schrock

Missions

Missions in Solex are different from Tower. They're intended to have more capability, but be simpler to live with. They're loaded into the copter the same way, but if Solex is connected to the copter while it's flying, it can do extra things while the mission is being flown. Also the way a mission appears on the map is a bit different in Solex. Instead of things like "Set Speed" appearing as separate waypoints, waypoints themselves have speed settings that take effect when that waypoint becomes the current waypoint.
Mission Editor
The primary way to create and edit missions is in the Mission Editor, accessible from the main menu. The list of Missions you've created is seen from the Mission list (which appears when you click the "Missions" button on the left). The toolbar at the top lets you add or delete waypoints to/from a mission, or undo recent changes you've made.
First Mission
Click New Mission on the menu. (If you just opened the Mission Editor, this step isn't necessary.)
Setting a location
If you just opened the mission editor, it should be positioned at your current location on the map. (Unless you're on a Samsung device, which it doesn't seem to very often.) If you have a specific place you want to create a mission at, then select "Search Address" from the menu. (You'll need an internet connection for this.) Type in the address, ZIP code, etc. you're interested in, and it will show you a list of addresses matching what you typed. Pick one, and the map will pan to that location.
Dropping Waypoints
To drop waypoints into a mission, click the "+" marker in the toolbar, which will then turn green. To the right on the toolbar, there will be a drop-down list of waypoint types that you can drop. Pick Waypoint for now, and click in several places on the map. At each point, you'll drop a marker. (If you click too closely to another marker, it won't drop one. This is so you avoid dropping a bunch of waypoints at the same location.) (Tip: It's a good idea to drop a waypoint at the start of your mission and drop another one right next to it to serve as the first waypoint. Then change the first one to a Takeoff item.)
Spline Points
Spline points cause the vehicle to fly in a smooth path between them, without stopping abruptly. The vehicle does this by calculating a "spline path" between points, with extra waypoints in between. Solex represents this on the screen by generating similar splines. So you'll notice that if you draw a path with spline points, the line between the points will curve to them. It's important to note, however, that this line does not necessarily reflect the actual line your vehicle will fly on a mission. The algorithm that calculates the splines on the map screen is not the same one that calculates the path the vehicle will fly. So if you get the idea that you can use spline points to fly really close to something based on the lines you're seeing on the screen, the advice is don't.
Changing a Waypoint
Suppose you just dropped 5 waypoints, and you want the first item to be a takeoff point. Click either the first location on the map, or the first item in the horizontal list at the bottom. To your right, you'll see a panel slide out with a bunch of sliders on it. These are attributes of the waypoint that you can edit. The top sliders are common to most waypoints. The next set (under "Details") is the set of attributes specific to that type of waypoint. In the case of a Waypoint, you get delay, acceptance radius, yaw angle, and so on. At the bottom, you'll see "Actions", which are covered later.
Since we want to change the first item to a Takeoff, just click the top of the panel, and it will drop down a list of items. Click "Takeoff" in the list. The panel's contents will change to show just the relevant attributes for a Takeoff. It also disappears off of the map, because a Takeoff doesn't really have a defined point; it's just the location your vehicle is sitting when it takes off.

Here's something else to try: Click the second item in the mission and try to change it to a Takeoff. Notice how you can't. That's because it makes no sense to take off from somewhere inside the mission. In the same way, you can't change something in the middle of a mission to a Land or RTL point, because that makes no sense either.

But you can change an intermediate waypoint to something else. Try selecting "Circle" instead of Takeoff. Now you're looking at a Circle waypoint. You see attributes for setting the number of turns and the circle's radius. Mess with the Radius slider, and you'll see the circle's radius change on the map.

Now change it to Spline or something. Pretty straightforward.

Multi-Select
You can click the "multi-select" or drag-select tool on the toolbar and drag across a number of waypoints to change something about them as a group. There are some rules to how this works:
  • You can always edit the altitude and speed of the items you select as a group.
  • If the items you select are all of the same type, you can edit type-specific attributes for them. For example, changing the Yaw Angle on a group of Waypoints affects all of the selected Waypoints. The other attributes (delay, etc) are left as they are for each item. Only the items you change are applied to all of the selected items.
  • If you select a group of items that are the same type, you can change their type collectively. For example, selecting a group of Waypoints and changing them to Splines or Circle items is possible.
  • If you select a group of items that contains different types, you can only change altitude or speed. You cannot change type, or any of the type-specific attributes, since it would make no sense to do so.
That's about it.
Deleting a Waypoint
Click the trash can icon on the toolbar and pick something to delete, either by clicking the item on the map, or in the bottom list. It will disappear. If you didn't mean to do it, hit the Undo button, and it will re-appear.
To stop deleting things when you click them, click the trash can icon until it's not highlighted.

Changing Waypoint Order
You can change the order of waypoints in a mission by long-pressing them in the bottom list and dragging them forward or backward. Note that you can't do things like dragging a Takeoff forward, an RTL backward, etc. The idea is to restrict changes you make here to ensure the changes make sense.
Saving a Mission
Click "SAVE" on the title area, specify a name for your mission, and click "SAVE" again. There you go. Now your mission should appear in the list you see when you select "Missions".
ROIs
You might have gotten creative and changed the point to an ROI, and noticed that it got "broken off" from the other points in the mission. There's no line going to it. That's because ROIs aren't part of the path your vehicle flies; they're things for your vehicle to look at while it's flying around. So go ahead and change a waypoint to an ROI. It will have a name "reset". Change this to something else, like "Test". Now you have a named ROI in your mission. Drag it so it's positioned on something interesting on the map.
Actions
Actions are a lengthy topic, but you're probably wondering what to do with an ROI now that you've read about them.
Really the only thing you can do with an ROI is look at it. So, to tell the mission that you want to look at an ROI, select some other waypoint (or spline, etc) in your mission and scroll down to "Actions" on the side panel. Click "ADD". One of the items you'll see in the list is "Set ROI". Pick that. You'll see a new action in the Actions section called "Set ROI", with "click to set" next to it. Click "click to set", and you'll see a list of the ROIs currently in the mission. Click the one you created (Test), and hit OK. Now the action says "Set ROI Test". When your vehicle is flying a mission, it will turn and start staring at the ROI's location as is begins its approach to this waypoint.

At each waypoint in the mission, you can set a different ROI, making your vehicle look at different things as it flies along. To reset the ROI (so your copter just flies normally), add a "Set ROI" action to a waypoint and set it to "None (reset)". At that point in the mission, your vehicle will just fly normally.

That's basically how Actions work.

You could try adding another action to a waypoint, like "Start Video", "Stop Video", "Set LEDs", etc. At that point in the mission (actually, on the approach to that waypoint), Solex will perform whatever actions are defined for it.

Note that some of the actions occur in the mission itself (e.g. Set Servo, Set ROI), and others occur within Solex as it monitors the mission's progress. For this reason, it's a good idea to define in-app actions at a point in the mission where Solex has a connection to the vehicle. If you build some kind of long-range mission that takes it out of radio range (which you should not do anyway, for legal/safety reasons), none of the in-app actions will work although the mission will otherwise fly normally.

A note on "Set LEDs"
First of all, the TTS voice in Solex doesn't pronounce "LEDs" correctly. Secondly, there seems to be a conflict in the Solo where sometimes it will set the LEDs according to the action, and other times it will ignore the command and just keep pulsing the LEDs like it does when it's flying autonomously.)

Flying Missions
Flying missions, as you might expect, is done from the Map view in the flight screen. So when you go into the Map view, one of the layers is "Missions". Click that, and you'll see a list of missions.
Click one, and a panel containing "Send" and "Arm" buttons will appear. Click "Send" and the mission will be generated and sent to the vehicle. At that point, the Arm button can be used to arm the motors. Once you've done that: If your mission has a Takeoff point, you can click Start and the mission will start on its own. Otherwise, you can click Takeoff, and then Start. Alternatively, you can launch manually, and then click Start.

Skipping to items in missions
Once underway, you can click a waypoint on the map and you'll see a prompt asking if you want to fly to that location in the mission. If you click "Yes", your vehicle will stop what it's doing, fly directly to that location in the mission, and continue from there.
You can hit "Pause" to freeze the mission in mid-air. At this point, you can either hit "Home" to RTL, or hit the "FLY" button on your transmitter to take manual control and fly normally. "Land" lands the vehicle right where it is, which you'll most likely only want to do in special cases.

To edit a mission from the Mission layer, click the "Edit" button on the layer list panel. The currently-loaded mission will load into the Mission Editor, and it will appear. Mess around with it, press Save, and press Back. It should appear in the Mission Layer with the updates in place. You'll still need to send it to the vehicle manually.

Recording a Mission
The Map view has a "Flight Path" checkbox on the upper-right panel. Turning this on causes a green line to be traced wherever you fly. To clear or reset it, turn the check box off and on again. Once you've flown around a path you'd like to repeat, open the Missions layer after you've landed, and select "GENERATE MISSION". This will create a new mission called "Flight Path " followed by the date and time (you can rename it in the Mission Editor). The mission is created as all Waypoint items, and their altitude and location will match whatever your vehicle is at while flying.
Drawing a mission with lines
You can draw sequences of waypoints by drawing a line on the map. Click the little "wiggly line" icon and you'll see the view change slightly, as a cue that you're drawing. Draw a shape on the map. Waypoints of the selected type will appear in a line, reproducing the line you drew.
One thing to note about this. In order to avoid adding hundreds of waypoints from a drawn line, Solex filters out locations it considers unnecessary. So it decides on a minimum spacing between waypoints based on how much area the map is covering. You'll notice that if you zoom in so the map is covering a small area (like a back yard), the waypoints will be spaced about 10 feet or less apart. Conversely, if you zoom out so the map is viewing a really large area (measured in miles), waypoints can potentially be miles apart. So, zooming in/out lets you control how far the waypoints are spaced.

Also, if a line's path doesn't represent a significant heading change (< 5 degrees), Solex won't insert an extraneous waypoint. The idea is that only waypoints needed to replicate the path are added.

You can use line-drawn waypoints in conjunction with the Add button too.

Clearing a Mission's path from the screen
You might want to remove a mission's markers from the map so you can see a new flight path trace. Just click "CLEAR" on the Mission layer. This will remove all of the layer's markers, making it as if no mission is selected.
Console
The "console" is a little window that displays what's going on in the mission as it flies. You can click the little "cartoon bubble" icon in the upper right on the map view to see it. Click it again (or the "X" in the title bar of the console) to close it.
Mission-related Vehicle Settings
Vehicle Settings has two mission-related settings: Mission Speed and Default Mission Altitude. Mission Speed is the WPNAV_SPEED parameter in your vehicle, and determines how fast it flies a mission by default, although you can obviously override mission speed for each waypoint. Default Mission Altitude just controls the default altitude for a waypoint when you start a new mission in the Mission Editor. Note that if you change a waypoints altitude, all waypoints dropped after that one will have the same altitude by default.
 
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Yeah Missions is pretty great. Wish the up down buttons were a bit larger or supported manual input in addition to the sliders forheight, speed etc. Where do we submit bug reports/feature requests?
Also noticed some firmware updates. Are these specific to solo? Should we be upgrading?
 
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Also noticed some firmware updates. Are these specific to solo? Should we be upgrading?
Firmware updates are presently all only for those who have upgraded their solo to the ProfiCNC Green Cube to beta test ArduCopter master.
 
Yeah Missions is pretty great. Wish the up down buttons were a bit larger or supported manual input in addition to the sliders forheight, speed etc. Where do we submit bug reports/feature requests?
Also noticed some firmware updates. Are these specific to solo? Should we be upgrading?
How about on a 34" monitor Compare soles Jun 22, 11 05 05 AM.jpg
 
Decided to purchase Solex and see what all the fuss was about. I've been flying with the 3DR Solo app and Tower for a few months now and have had no problems with either of them. I find both of them to be solid and intuitive.

I realize that any new app is going to have a small learning curve to it, but so far Solex has left me little frustrated. My biggest problem at this point is that Solex occasionally jumps from "Connected to Vehicle" to "Looking for Vehicle" and I loose all data coming from the Solo. Hitting CONNECT on the home screen does nothing - it simply reports Already Connected.
I have two Solos with two separately paired controllers and have seen the problem with both. I switched back to the Solo app to verify that this problem doesn't suddenly affect it also. It doesn't.

I can duplicate the problem 100% of the time by disconnecting from the Solo Sololink Wifi while Solex is running. Going back into Solex, the Wifi: display on the Solex home screen will switch to my local Wifi link name. (the Solex app continues to say "Connected to vehicle").
Then I go back into the WiFi settings and reconnect to the SoloLink Wifi. When going back into Solex it immediately updates back to Wifi: Sololink again. The display will very briefly continue to say "Connected to Vehicle", but then quickly changes to "Looking for vehicle". At this point all data from the Solo is lost as far as Solex is concerned. It never finds the Solo again no matter how long I wait.
The only way to recover when this happens (either randomly, or as caused by doing the above) is to exit the Solex app and restart it. Doing this in flight is possible, but is clearly a very undesirable solution.
If I try to replicate the problem in the 3DR Solo app, I can't. When I disconnect from the Sololink Wifi it reports loosing both connections, but upon reconnecting to the Sololink Wifi, the Solo app reconnects to the controller and the vehicle instantly every time.
 
Decided to purchase Solex and see what all the fuss was about. I've been flying with the 3DR Solo app and Tower for a few months now and have had no problems with either of them. I find both of them to be solid and intuitive.

I realize that any new app is going to have a small learning curve to it, but so far Solex has left me little frustrated. My biggest problem at this point is that Solex occasionally jumps from "Connected to Vehicle" to "Looking for Vehicle" and I loose all data coming from the Solo. Hitting CONNECT on the home screen does nothing - it simply reports Already Connected.
I have two Solos with two separately paired controllers and have seen the problem with both. I switched back to the Solo app to verify that this problem doesn't suddenly affect it also. It doesn't.

I can duplicate the problem 100% of the time by disconnecting from the Solo Sololink Wifi while Solex is running. Going back into Solex, the Wifi: display on the Solex home screen will switch to my local Wifi link name. (the Solex app continues to say "Connected to vehicle").
Then I go back into the WiFi settings and reconnect to the SoloLink Wifi. When going back into Solex it immediately updates back to Wifi: Sololink again. The display will very briefly continue to say "Connected to Vehicle", but then quickly changes to "Looking for vehicle". At this point all data from the Solo is lost as far as Solex is concerned. It never finds the Solo again no matter how long I wait.
The only way to recover when this happens (either randomly, or as caused by doing the above) is to exit the Solex app and restart it. Doing this in flight is possible, but is clearly a very undesirable solution.
If I try to replicate the problem in the 3DR Solo app, I can't. When I disconnect from the Sololink Wifi it reports loosing both connections, but upon reconnecting to the Sololink Wifi, the Solo app reconnects to the controller and the vehicle instantly every time.
Hi, Maybe Kelly needs to ring in on this, But i never experienced anything like your describing. meaning it's not a bug that effect all users, So this means ether a settings or H/W problem or both.

Let;s start with settings:
Sometime my Device complaints about WiFi "This connection has no internet" & therefor, may disconnect momentarily if it finds a better connection. like Your other WiFi Solo #2 or any other WiFi available.
There is a setting that you can tell the OS to "All wayes connect" to This WiFi.

Also, Do you have or use the Solo App on that same device? Im sure you know it's a bad thing to run both apps at the sametime. Most user of Solo, have removed the Solo app & it companion Apps. If & when I need to use Solo app, then i install it, then uninstall it after its use, Solex don't need the Solo App. to do it's wonders
Hope this helps
 
Here is another Solex bug report. If this is not the appropriate place, where should I submit them?
If you go into flying locations on the main menu, and select one before it has time to load the global map, it will cause Solex to crash every time.
 
Hi, Maybe Kelly needs to ring in on this, But i never experienced anything like your describing. meaning it's not a bug that effect all users, So this means ether a settings or H/W problem or both.

Let;s start with settings:
Sometime my Device complaints about WiFi "This connection has no internet" & therefor, may disconnect momentarily if it finds a better connection. like Your other WiFi Solo #2 or any other WiFi available.
There is a setting that you can tell the OS to "All wayes connect" to This WiFi.

Also, Do you have or use the Solo App on that same device? Im sure you know it's a bad thing to run both apps at the sametime. Most user of Solo, have removed the Solo app & it companion Apps. If & when I need to use Solo app, then i install it, then uninstall it after its use, Solex don't need the Solo App. to do it's wonders
Hope this helps

Thanks for the response... I always get a message that my connection has no internet. I assume that is normal because Sololink, well, simply doesn't have an internet connection. I run on a ATT K88 tablet almost all of the time. That has been a recommended tablet in these forums.

Also, I never run both apps at once. But, I believe I have read on the forums here that many people have both the Solo app and Solex installed. That's almost mandatory because there are still a number of essential things that Solex can't do which the Solo app (and Tower) can do. Leveling and compass calibrations come to mind.
 
Thanks for the response... I always get a message that my connection has no internet. I assume that is normal because Sololink, well, simply doesn't have an internet connection. I run on a ATT K88 tablet almost all of the time. That has been a recommended tablet in these forums.

Also, I never run both apps at once. But, I believe I have read on the forums here that many people have both the Solo app and Solex installed. That's almost mandatory because there are still a number of essential things that Solex can't do which the Solo app (and Tower) can do. Leveling and compass calibrations come to mind.

Wow, sounds like you know a lot of things?
Do you know that most $49 tablets have shit for WiFi?

Solex asked it's user to talk a pole:
"Which device are you using with Solex that works well?"
Over 225 users responded & not one listed a ATT K88.
Try a better Device.

Small list of Device that works well Solex

upload_2017-6-24_20-49-44.png
 
Wow, sounds like you know a lot of things?
Do you know that most $49 tablets have shit for WiFi?

Solex asked it's user to talk a pole:
"Which device are you using with Solex that works well?"
Over 225 users responded & not one listed a ATT K88.
Try a better Device.

Small list of Device that works well Solex

View attachment 6518

Uh, maybe you know a lot of things mr. sarcasm... This tablet is on the list. It's also known as the AT&T ZTE Trek 2 K88 HD. I have the newest version. It has excellent WiFi.
See this thread or this thread or this thread,or several others before condemning something you know nothing about.

It's not the Tablet WiFi regardless. The problem can also be reproduced as I described on my Motorola G4 phone. That was one of the first things I tried.
 
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