Solex for Solo

Just had a chance to test a Solex (installed on June 26, 2019 + missions add-on + geo-tagging add-on) Survey mission using an Open Solo drone ( standard hardware) . It looks like the Solex app got updated on July 29, 2019.

I created 3 Way Points : 1= take-off, 2=Survey (altitude: 118.11ft, speed 24.45 mph, Gimbal Angle =0) , 3= RTL
Set Vehicle type = Drone
SetCamera = GoPro Black ( set to take a pic every 2 seconds)
Enabled terrain following.

As soon as mission started I noticed the Gimbal stayed at 90 degrees( looking forward) and speed was too low: 11 mph ( default mission speed). I ended up correcting gimbal to point down and was able to complete mission with one battery ( small area).

1-I am not sure why drone speed during the mission was not set to the speed defined under Survey and reverted to default value? Have I missed a step or a setting?

2- Will Solex control/trigger camera based on camera type, speed and altitude ( like Tower used to )?

Thanks!

Hi,

I can check on the survey speed. In my testing here, the speed specified on the Survey item itself always works to set the speed during that part of the mission. When you have a Speed attribute set on any mission item, it inserts a DO_CHANGE_SPEED command into the mission just before that item in the output, so it should change to that speed before executing the waypoint.

Yes, Solex will trigger the camera based on camera type/speed/altitude like Tower does(did), provided you have "Auto-start Camera" selected in the Survey item properties. The Survey item inserts a CAMERA_TRIGGER command at the start of the Survey with the longitudinal distance appropriate for the camera you're using, altitude, and overlap setting. This kind of makes me wonder if I ought to put something in place to show "footprints" on the map when the vehicle takes a picture like Tower used to. It would be handy for showing where it takes a picture.

As for gimbal angle, I've had the same thing happen with Surveys. I forget to insert a "gimbal angle" action on the Survey item and it shows up at that part of the mission with the camera pointing forward. What you can do is insert a Gimbal Angle action on the Survey with a value of 90 (down) and when it arrives at that part of the mission, it will angle the gimbal down. This is known as an "in-app" action, since it's using Solo's APIs from the app to angle the gimbal. So a connection between Solex and the vehicle is necessary for that. One thing I could do is add an option to surveys for auto-tilting the gimbal, which seems like a feature that makes sense.

Thanks,
Kelly
 
Kelly,

I have auto-start recording enabled and it worked with non-mission type flights, but I believe I also had to start recording this time.....not 100% sure though :)

Let me know if it will help to take a look at the logs... or anything that might help with testing/troubleshooting.

BTW, I noticed multi-battery missions is part of the July 29 release ( thanks!) . I wonder how it works? Is this option "visible" once you select a larger area to survey? Is it based on standard battery flight time or is it dynamic ( continues data capture from the point the mission was interrupted?

Thanks!
Lee
 
Kelly,

I have auto-start recording enabled and it worked with non-mission type flights, but I believe I also had to start recording this time.....not 100% sure though :)

Let me know if it will help to take a look at the logs... or anything that might help with testing/troubleshooting.

BTW, I noticed multi-battery missions is part of the July 29 release ( thanks!) . I wonder how it works? Is this option "visible" once you select a larger area to survey? Is it based on standard battery flight time or is it dynamic ( continues data capture from the point the mission was interrupted?

Thanks!
Lee

Multi-battery missions is something I thought about for a while before building it, because it seemed like it would be really complicated. The main reason for the complexity is because I was also thinking in terms of it being a visible option for larger missions. The question then becomes "what qualifies a mission as 'larger'?" It's hard to say, and I don't know what a visible option would really do in any case. "Push this button to do something different with this mission". I don't know what such a button would do. :)

It turns out, it isn't very complicated. The basic rule is this: If you end a mission of any length by switching out of Auto mode for any reason and subsequently land and disarm, the mission is considered "aborted". This can happen because your vehicle RTL's because of low battery (the most common case), you get concerned about it hitting something and switch to Loiter and land, you RTL manually because you're thinking it should have RTL'd because the battery seems low, etc. If you do any of those things and switch back to Auto, it resumes the mission normally. If you do any of those things and land/disarm, Solex considers the mission aborted. (Note that an RTL at the end of a mission doesn't count as an aborted mission; the vehicle is still in Auto mode even as it flies the RTL waypoint back to the launch location.)

If, at this point, you power the vehicle off and swap batteries while staying on the Mission Layer of the Flight screen in Solex, you'll hear Solex say "Connection lost" because the heartbeat signal from the vehicle has vanished. Stay on the Mission Layer of the Flight screen anyway. You can power the vehicle back on and Solex will resume the connection. Several seconds after regaining the connection, it will prompt you to ask if you want to resume the incomplete mission. If you answer No to this question, the mission is scrubbed and all is forgotten (except, of course, pictures you might have taken before aborting the mission, etc). If you answer Yes here, Solex will generate a new mission starting at one waypoint before the one it was headed to when the mission was aborted and upload it to the vehicle. If the vehicle is a copter or plane, it will start the mission with a Takeoff and the most-recent ChangeSpeed and CameraTrigger commands immediately after that before the resumed waypoint. Arm, launch and start the mission, and it will pick up where it left off. Continue this cycle until you've flown the entire mission.

You can also enable "Return to Me" and follow mission's progress across a large area. In that case, an RTL mode switch will cause a flight back to your new location rather than the initial launch point, potentially saving time and batteries.
 
solex does not see my solo

Would help having more details about this issue. Is the wi-fi enabled on the device you installed Solex on? If the wi-fi is enabled on your phone/tablet and you can't find Solo's wi-fi in the list of wi-fi networks ( listed when clicking on the Solex WIFI button) then I'd suspect a problem with your Solo controller/drone.
 
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.

When I click on the missions button and select a mission it does not bring up the panel containing "Send" and "Arm". What am I doing wrong? I have searched through the forum but haven't found any threads addressing this issue. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Love this drone.
 
Last edited:
I have looked through everything I can think of to find the answer to this question. Haven't found it so here I am. Question is, if I am flying a mission with a number of waypoints and there is an ROI that I want to circle is there a way to set that in solex or do I just set the circle and manually keep the solo pointed at the ROI while the solo flies its' programed mission? Tried setting this a number of ways but it never seems to work, so I must be doing something wrong. And wanted to say thanks for the earlier assistance. Everything is working great and with the exception of the circle/ROI all missions have been good.
 
I have looked through everything I can think of to find the answer to this question. Haven't found it so here I am. Question is, if I am flying a mission with a number of waypoints and there is an ROI that I want to circle is there a way to set that in solex or do I just set the circle and manually keep the solo pointed at the ROI while the solo flies its' programed mission? Tried setting this a number of ways but it never seems to work, so I must be doing something wrong. And wanted to say thanks for the earlier assistance. Everything is working great and with the exception of the circle/ROI all missions have been good.

Ah, so in Solex, I use ROIs a lot. The way they work is like this:

Suppose you drop 5 waypoints on the map, then drop an ROI. The waypoints will represent the path that the vehicle flies, and the ROI won't be included in that.

To actually use an ROI, click on the waypoint where you want it to become active. The details panel for that waypoint will appear. Find the "Actions" panel near the bottom and click "ADD". A selector will pop up with a list of actions you can add to that waypoint. One of the items in the list is "Set ROI". Click that, and you'll notice there's a "Set ROI" action in the action list, with "click to set" next to it. Click "click to set" and a selector will appear letting you select the ROI you want to use (you can have multiple ROIs in a single mission). Now it should have the name of the ROI you picked next to "Set ROI".

To clear the ROI and go back to flying normally, find a later waypoint and add a "Set ROI" action to it. Select "None (reset)" for the ROI in "click to set".

When you upload the mission, Solex will generate the appropriate DO_SET_ROI commands to take care of setting and resetting the ROI.

Thanks,
Kelly
 
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Ah, so in Solex, I use ROIs a lot. The way they work is like this:

Suppose you drop 5 waypoints on the map, then drop an ROI. The waypoints will represent the path that the vehicle flies, and the ROI won't be included in that.

To actually use an ROI, click on the waypoint where you want it to become active. The details panel for that waypoint will appear. Find the "Actions" panel near the bottom and click "ADD". A selector will pop up with a list of actions you can add to that waypoint. One of the items in the list is "Set ROI". Click that, and you'll notice there's a "Set ROI" action in the action list, with "click to set" next to it. Click "click to set" and a selector will appear letting you select the ROI you want to use (you can have multiple ROIs in a single mission). Now it should have the name of the ROI you picked next to "Set ROI".

To clear the ROI and go back to flying normally, find a later waypoint and add a "Set ROI" action to it. Select "None (reset)" for the ROI in "click to set".

When you upload the mission, Solex will generate the appropriate DO_SET_ROI commands to take care of setting and resetting the ROI.

Thanks,
Kelly

Thank you Kelly. One more question sir. If I put a circle on say a silo. With waypoints prior and after the silo. Will the solo look at the silo when it flies the circle around the silo? Just for clarification. And thank you again.
 
Thank you Kelly. One more question sir. If I put a circle on say a silo. With waypoints prior and after the silo. Will the solo look at the silo when it flies the circle around the silo? Just for clarification. And thank you again.

Yes, it should fly to the edge of the circle and then point at the center of it as it flies around it.
 
I've managed to get my self stuck in the vehicle pram mode and can't get back to normal settings the buttons where you change it is not there on my phone but I installed solex on another device and they are there I've even deleted the app on this device and reinstalled with no luck.
 
Hi, I'm a pretty big NOOB at Solex and OpenSolo.
Big fan too so far.
I've just not done much flying on the solo in the past couple of years.

I only currently own once single stock solo with stock cube and stock A-version GPS.
I just updated it yesterday to OpenSolo4.
It flies fantastic compared to How I remember stock flying.

My immediate question might be more of an Ardupilot question versus an OpenSolo question (I'm not sure).

It seems that there are some differences in the names of the flight modes:
What appears on the controller and what appears in the Solex APP (name of flight mode).

Today I was trying out and playing with some of the flight modes.
Is "Sport" (on the controller) supposed to be the same thing as ACRO?

I could tell that it did not have self leveling however when giving any more angle that a certain amount
It would take off at what felt like full throttle in that direction.

However the throttle (vertical climb speed) control remains VERY limited, slow and automatic.

It's like the angle is manually controlled fully but the vertical (throttle) is not manual at all and very slow/weak to respond.

Very weird.

Thanks I have some reading to do. but figured this would be fun conversation.
I'd love to try a full manual ACRO mode on the solo.
Far as I can tell "Sport" is not it.

:)
 
Found a good video that explained sport mode.
It did not mention if Sport mode was GPS assisted or not.
I'll have a read.

Weird mode.
Some kind of combo of "more angle for faster speed" but altitude hold still on.
And no self level.
 
Multi-battery missions is something I thought about for a while before building it, because it seemed like it would be really complicated. The main reason for the complexity is because I was also thinking in terms of it being a visible option for larger missions. The question then becomes "what qualifies a mission as 'larger'?" It's hard to say, and I don't know what a visible option would really do in any case. "Push this button to do something different with this mission". I don't know what such a button would do. :)

It turns out, it isn't very complicated. The basic rule is this: If you end a mission of any length by switching out of Auto mode for any reason and subsequently land and disarm, the mission is considered "aborted". This can happen because your vehicle RTL's because of low battery (the most common case), you get concerned about it hitting something and switch to Loiter and land, you RTL manually because you're thinking it should have RTL'd because the battery seems low, etc. If you do any of those things and switch back to Auto, it resumes the mission normally. If you do any of those things and land/disarm, Solex considers the mission aborted. (Note that an RTL at the end of a mission doesn't count as an aborted mission; the vehicle is still in Auto mode even as it flies the RTL waypoint back to the launch location.)

If, at this point, you power the vehicle off and swap batteries while staying on the Mission Layer of the Flight screen in Solex, you'll hear Solex say "Connection lost" because the heartbeat signal from the vehicle has vanished. Stay on the Mission Layer of the Flight screen anyway. You can power the vehicle back on and Solex will resume the connection. Several seconds after regaining the connection, it will prompt you to ask if you want to resume the incomplete mission. If you answer No to this question, the mission is scrubbed and all is forgotten (except, of course, pictures you might have taken before aborting the mission, etc). If you answer Yes here, Solex will generate a new mission starting at one waypoint before the one it was headed to when the mission was aborted and upload it to the vehicle. If the vehicle is a copter or plane, it will start the mission with a Takeoff and the most-recent ChangeSpeed and CameraTrigger commands immediately after that before the resumed waypoint. Arm, launch and start the mission, and it will pick up where it left off. Continue this cycle until you've flown the entire mission.

You can also enable "Return to Me" and follow mission's progress across a large area. In that case, an RTL mode switch will cause a flight back to your new location rather than the initial launch point, potentially saving time and batteries.

Hi Kelly!

I'm a new Solex user and thought I'd follow up on this. I'm trying to survey an area that takes a couple of batteries to complete. I read your instructions here on how to pick up where I left off on the survey after swapping out batteries. However, after I initiate RTL, I land manually (I've never let RTL do it's thang completely, does it land itself?), turn off, and swap battery. Does that essentially abort the mission? Is there any way to pick up where I left off after re-launching? Or a way to pick where in the mission to continue? My flight path remains on the mission layer of what's flown thus far so it doesn't wipe it clean. I just don't get a prompt to resume an incomplete mission. What should I do instead? Thanks so much for any advice and thank you for developing this amazing program!

Anne
 
Hi Kelly!

I'm a new Solex user and thought I'd follow up on this. I'm trying to survey an area that takes a couple of batteries to complete. I read your instructions here on how to pick up where I left off on the survey after swapping out batteries. However, after I initiate RTL, I land manually (I've never let RTL do it's thang completely, does it land itself?), turn off, and swap battery. Does that essentially abort the mission? Is there any way to pick up where I left off after re-launching? Or a way to pick where in the mission to continue? My flight path remains on the mission layer of what's flown thus far so it doesn't wipe it clean. I just don't get a prompt to resume an incomplete mission. What should I do instead? Thanks so much for any advice and thank you for developing this amazing program!

Anne
FYI Kelly is only here once a month or so. An answer might take a bit.
 
No posts questions or anything in almost a year? Really?
Am I totally in the wrong place now thinking I'm going to ask a question?
 

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