Solo Development Area

carpy · Jan 18, 2017

I can't find anything in the logs indicating an issue.
Maybe a combination of battery being on the lower end, added weight of prop guards, and prop guards lowering the efficiency? Which reminds me to take a look at the Solo battery's discharge rate...hmm.

carpy · Jan 18, 2017

Well, not sure my math is correct here. I'm coming up with a nominal discharge rate (continuous) of 3.85C and maximum burst discharge rate of 23C for the Solo batteries? If so, not much "punch".
Battery Charger Interface | 3DR Solo Development Guide

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

carpy said:
I can't find anything in the logs indicating an issue.
Maybe a combination of battery being on the lower end, added weight of prop guards, and prop guards lowering the efficiency? Which reminds me to take a look at the Solo battery's discharge rate...hmm.

Thanks again carpy, Just made two flights with no issues had a full battery no prop guards wind was a steady 10 mph here in northern florida, and the solo behaved as expected both in GPS Fly mode and manual mode. landings went smooth some deviation from wind but not bad. Also note I did not descend as fast and had the solo set between slow and medium speed mode. I'll keep you guys posted. im going to post the flight video when the solo went berserk..stay tuned

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

Did it try to climb too, or just made a seemingly random lateral move? A GPS position glitch is usually what cause lateral shifts like that. And glitches of that sort almost always occur at low altitude when there are lots of nearby trees or other obstructions. Switching to manual is the correct response. I'm guessing you have an M8N GPS in there if you had 14 sats when you took off? Those are much less susceptible

If it tried to climb too, that's perplexing. Altitude is monitored and controlled using the barometers, not the GPS. There very few things that would cause an uncommanded climb.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
Did it try to climb too, or just made a seemingly random lateral move? A GPS position glitch is usually what cause lateral shifts like that. And glitches of that sort almost always occur at low altitude when there are lots of nearby trees or other obstructions. Switching to manual is the correct response. I'm guessing you have an M8N GPS in there if you had 14 sats when you took off? Those are much less susceptible

If it tried to climb too, that's perplexing. Altitude is monitored and controlled using the barometers, not the GPS. There very few things that would cause an uncommanded climb.

Hello, I flew 2 flights back to back on the first flight it picked up on 14 satellites while in the air, I have the stock GPS unit It always picks up between 12~14 satellites within 2 minutes in my area I also get 9 satellites inside my house within a minute its a freak I quess?. Also It climbed just fine but when I noticed the battery was flashing with 2 led's I immediately came down at a rapid pace The solo was roughly 25-30 feet off the ground when it spun its motors up at high speed and shifted/tilted left, I hit my B switch (manual Mode) and got it under control and landed manualy. I've flown this way before and never had an issue. I'm loading up the onboard video now...

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

Did it by chance start beeping and say return to home when it took off to the left? Was to the left by chance heading in the direction of where you took off from? If you are low and close to your home location, it will not climb up to the RTH altitude. It will just make a lateral move to the home location, then land. There's a cone shaped zone in which it will not shoot up first as part of the RTH failsafe procedure. If your battery was low, I think this is probably what it was doing. It would be a very loud maneuver. Lots of motor power is required to arrest the high speed descent you were doing at the time, and it would simultaneously begin moving laterally towards home.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
Did it by chance start beeping and say return to home when it took off to the left? Was to the left by chance heading in the direction of where you took off from? If you are low and close to your home location, it will not climb up to the RTH altitude. It will just make a lateral move to the home location, then land. There's a cone shaped zone in which it will not shoot up first as part of the RTH failsafe procedure. If your battery was low, I think this is probably what it was doing. It would be a very loud maneuver. Lots of motor power is required to arrest the high speed descent you were doing at the time, and it would simultaneously begin moving laterally towards home.

I had started the solo in my house and walked out to my deck its roughly 20 feet forward and 10 feet to the right, the solo flew into the direction of when it first locked onto the satellites, you are onto something here As i had moved the solo after it GPS locked My mistake.

I uploaded the Tlogs for review, Im really thinking the movement of solo after GPS lock, the rapid descent and the polar pro prop guards were a contributing factor, it never gave me any warning other than the solo goin berserk..

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

I can't open them until I get home from work later. Just spit balling. I have done many high speed descents with the Solo and others, and never seen them do anything like that. They can get shakey since they're descending through their own wake. But a lateral move like that, never. The prop guards could contribute to shakeyness going through it's own wake. But I can't see how they would trick it into flying sideways.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

So here is the vid of the solo going berserk, at 49 seconds in. The video is stabalized so its hard to tell how unsteady the solo was it spun up the props like mad and turned/tilted sharpley to the left and was wobbling at the same time quickly hit the B button to regain manual control and it flattened out and I landed it...

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
I can't open them until I get home from work later. Just spit balling. I have done many high speed descents with the Solo and others, and never seen them do anything like that. They can get shakey since they're descending through their own wake. But a lateral move like that, never. The prop guards could contribute to shakeyness going through it's own wake. But I can't see how they would trick it into flying sideways.

Ok the log in question is solo.tlog.8... thanks in advance I recalibrated and leveled the solo took a few more flights and its rock steady now I also included a pic of my satellite GPS lock from my latest flight...

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

Well I see a problem on the video. Arming, taking off, and landing from the deck right next to the house, and surrounded by close in, tall, dense trees. That's the most efficient way to induce compass magnetic drift and GPS drift.

That said... I do not see anything wrong in the video or the logs. I see no erratic behavior, no lateral movement, not even a rough bumpy ride. The log shows a smooth and level descent, no move in any direction but down. I hear the motors whining to stop the descent, and I see the slight yaw to the left at the same time. Nothing at all like you described. In fact it appears quite stable laterally and vertically.

I'm not seeing what you described. So whatever happened, I would bet money it's because you're flying in the location that is not wise due to obstructions and structures.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
Well I see a problem on the video. Arming, taking off, and landing from the deck right next to the house, and surrounded by close in, tall, dense trees. That's the most efficient way to induce compass magnetic drift and GPS drift.

That said... I do not see anything wrong in the video or the logs. I see no erratic behavior, no lateral movement, not even a rough bumpy ride. The log shows a smooth and level descent, no move in any direction but down. I hear the motors whining to stop the descent, and I see the slight yaw to the left at the same time. Nothing at all like you described. In fact it appears quite stable laterally and vertically.

I'm not seeing what you described. So whatever happened, I would bet money it's because you're flying in the location that is not wise due to obstructions and structures.

Yeah right, that sucker was spinning out of control the video is stabilized on a gimbal look up at the prop guards they are fluctuating wildly, turn up the volume and listen carefully. It was far from smooth. And what do you mean nothing like I described? It was exactly what I described nothing more nothing less.

So you cannot take off from a deck or near trees?
check the pic I posted the solo is at 11 feet 14 satellite locks No magnetic interferance in this spot ever, I've never had this problem before. and it almost caught me off guard. perhaps the tlog is not from that flight, but it was far from a smooth descent.

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

You said it moved erratically to the left. You said spinning out of control. That simply did not happen. I think it seemed worse than it really was at the time. I don't see any lateral movement on the video at all. Referencing the trees and the ground, it never moves laterally in any direction. Stabilization in post or from the gimbal won't hide a lateral movement like you described.

I see a left yaw rotation in the video. And I see the prop guards to illustrate the rocking around. Neither of those are unusual a rapid descent through your own wake. I would be surprised if it wasn't like that. And those prop guards will definitely make that issue worse. But again, no big wild slide to the left. Just the bump descent and brief left yaw rotation.

The loud whining from the motors corresponds with the throttle increase to arrest the rapid descent. It stops as soon as the descent ceased. Again nothing unusual about that. It takes a lot of power to stop a rapid descent like that. And when it's bobbing around in own wake at the same time, it can be quite loud and disturbing.

The log doesn't show any of the bobbing around as you descended rapidly. And it doesn't show that left yaw rotation after the descent stopped. It also doesn't show you switching to manual (alt hold). I looked at all the other logs, none have any flight. Just the solo sitting around with no GPS, probably indoors. In fact, the #8 log, the only one with flight, shows it being powered on with no or poor GPS lock and meandering around for quite some time before you brought it to the back deck and armed for takeoff. Which looks like you may have even powered it on in the house.

NO, you should not be powering it on and taking off or landing immediately adjacent to structures or tall trees. That is text book bad for GPS and compass. And have absolutely no way of seeing that. All that obstructs the line of sight to sats, and you get multipath, which causes false GPS readings. It's the same reason you see a GPS location in your house, but it is a crap location. It also cause problems with the compass.

So in conclusion, the log and the video simply do not portray what you described. I don't think you're lying. But I think it may have looked and sounded way worse than it really was. Which is a good thing. And anything that did happen is to be expected. Rapid descent, prop guard sails, compass interference, and GPS multipath all combined. You're probably lucky it didn't end worse given all that.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

Wow just wow lol Thanks for the advice, its all good seems to be working fine now, I quess I need to be more cautious. One thing is I had back to back flights 2 of them and the tlog shows just the first one? I took off with 36% battery on the second flight am I reading the tlog wrong?

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

I get the feeling you either don't like the answer, or think I'm full of it. But this is reality. I've been looking at logs and flying drones with Arducopter for about three years. I know what I'm looking at because I've seen it and done it myself many times. Along with looking at other people's logs and experiences. The other guys on here with even more experience than me will tell you the same thing. If you think you should be perfectly ok flying next to buildings and trees, or that GPS multipath doesn't exist, or that magnetic interference doesn't exist, I'm sorry but you're mistaken.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
I get the feeling you either don't like the answer, or think I'm full of it. But this is reality. I've been looking at logs and flying drones with Arducopter for about three years. I know what I'm looking at because I've seen it and done it myself many times. Along with looking at other people's logs and experiences. The other guys on here with even more experience than me will tell you the same thing. If you think you should be perfectly ok flying next to buildings and trees, or that GPS multipath doesn't exist, or that magnetic interference doesn't exist, I'm sorry but you're mistaken.

Dude I do not think you are full of it I was looking for an answer and by the way its Tlog7 not 8 my mistake it was an erratic situation not sure what caused it?
magnetic interference GPS glitch whatever I was just concerned because it was the first flight after installing the AP 1.5.2 firmware I thought I somehow borked the install thats it, I guess it went ok Because it flew fine today. No worries and thanks for the advice I hear what you are saying but in one sentence you state there were no issues in the Tlog yet you state in another that It could have been interference, would that not show up in the Tlog? That was the first time i experienced the solo freaking out like that, It did and if I didnt react it would have crashed no doubt.

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

With just a tlog, it's impossible to tell if it is experiencing drift or not. It did not detect drifting. But that's the thing with multipath... It looks perfectly valid until it's too late. The bin logs contain 100x more data which can let you really see what each sensor was detecting.

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 18, 2017

But anyway, I don't think it was anything to do with the pixhawk firmware. In fact I just put it onto mine this evening too.

XevetS · Jan 18, 2017

I don't think so either mine seems fine now also, this is after I recalibrated and releveld Once again I appreciate the help

Ian [P13] · Jan 20, 2017

You shouldn't be flashing the Sitescan firmware onto a normal Solo, the Sitescan version uses different ESCs, there's a hard coded power limit in the normal Solo Arducopter so you risk removing that and only bad things will happen if that safeguard goes.

Wait for the official Arducopter Master to be available for Solo, that's far better anyway.