Solo Disappearance - Now RECOVERED

[ChrisM101]

End of control range? He was close.

well, using those factory nub antenna anything is end of range beyond a few hundred feet.

But it seems he had given input until impact, so who knows. I had mine take off with me literally feet from it due to GPS issues, but you could see my inputs where the reverse of the path it chose to travel.

I think the data protects both parties, and in this case probably 3DR.

 

[ChrisM101]

I'm still trying to figure out how/if the spike in rxerrors fit in. Look at how they spike right as I am passing over and past the bridge, right when I need the control the most?

View attachment 548

Alot of areas will pass their utilities with the bridges, its fairly common here to have Electric, water, phone, etc. run under those bridges, perhaps that caused the fluctuations you see. or maybe just the reflectivity of it being a hard surface, you could be getting late signal that bounced off of these surfaces.

See that caged in area...lower rt side of the bridge, probably flooding water level sensor that transmits via an antenna.

Chances are that you flew into the path of its Yagi antenna, which although very directional would also be a very high output of 25dbi.

 

[rrmccabe]

well, using those factory nub antenna anything is end of range beyond a few hundred feet..

You must have missed where he said

"I was not at the launch point, I was by the bridge at that point"

 

[ChrisM101]

You must have missed where he said

"I was not at the launch point, I was by the bridge at that point"

he was at the bridge?, but not LOS, didnt see it go down? Bridge to tree is LOS, would have seen it , shouldve had control. If he's anywhere in proximity to that monitoring station hes likely standing in a few data streams and not LOS.

Where is the pic showing his location at crash time?

 

[Jason C]

he was at the bridge?, but not LOS, didnt see it go down? Bridge to tree is LOS, would have seen it , shouldve had control. If he's anywhere in proximity to that monitoring station hes likely standing in a few data streams and not LOS.

Where is the pic showing his location at crash time?

At the bridge, that's part of why the whole thing was so shocking - admittedly my eyes were on the screen as opposed to looking at the drone as I was trying to get just the right angle (which is not easy without the gimbal), but the whole incident took me by surprise. It was like there one moment, gone the next, connection lost right after. And the height it was at, clipping the tree would have been near the top.

 

[ChrisM101]

 

[Jason C]

Well that would explain interference then most likely.

 

[Jubalr]

Hey Jason, The RxError range you show is pretty normal. I just looked at a flight of mine from last weekend and the graphed the same as your and just over 200 at one point. You have to remember this is in milliseconds and is similar to a few packets lost in a data transmission and is self correcting. Nothing unusual there. Sorry..

 

[Jason C]

Well that would explain interference then most likely.

Hey Jason, The RxError range you show is pretty normal. I just looked at a flight of mine from last weekend and the graphed the same as your and just over 200 at one point. You have to remember this is in milliseconds and is similar to a few packets lost in a data transmission and is self correcting. Nothing unusual there. Sorry..

I'm not sure how quantifiable its effect is. It's possible that it results in a delayed response that wouldn't be noticeable in certain circumstances but could make a big difference in a tight situation.

 

[Jason C]

BTW, if it was interference, I'm not necessarily putting the blame completely on 3DR either, but it shouldn't require a site survey to go fly your drone each time. And the idea that going "very slow" setting is a BAD thing is frankly bizarre. That drone was moving at walking speed.

 

[Jubalr]

well, using those factory nub antenna anything is end of range beyond a few hundred feet.

Hi Chris,

Plenty of people getting range in the 1000s of feet with stock antennas. Did you see my test of the stock vs FPVLR vs 6db Dipoles? Stock had the best signal at 1000'

 

[rrmccabe]

but it shouldn't require a site survey to go fly your drone each time. And the idea that going "very slow" setting is a BAD thing is frankly bizarre. That drone was moving at walking speed.

Hopefully 3DR will get that worked out. Honestly, I have never heard so much talk about WiFi and interference until I got a Solo. LOL

You can bet they are working on it

 

[Jubalr]

BTW, if it was interference, I'm not necessarily putting the blame completely on 3DR either, but it shouldn't require a site survey to go fly your drone each time. And the idea that going "very slow" setting is a BAD thing is frankly bizarre. That drone was moving at walking speed.

Understood and agree. Very slow setting would probably be fine in open areas, but not when you are trying to avoid something as you are limiting your ability to respond 'quickly' if needed. If you are up at 150' filming and nothing around, would probably be the ideal setting to have. I know you want to find something else as a contributing factor, and I hope you do. at least you have the logs to dig through.

 

[Jubalr]

Hopefully 3DR will get that worked out. Honestly, I have never heard so much talk about WiFi and interference until I got a Solo. LOL

You can bet they are working on it

Well let's hope so and can be done without HW mods.

 

[rrmccabe]

They will get there. They have a proven track record at doing it.

 

[Jason C]

Understood and agree. Very slow setting would probably be fine in open areas, but not when you are trying to avoid something as you are limiting your ability to respond 'quickly' if needed.

I just don't get that. I would think that a user-selectable "very slow" speed would be for airspeed and not diminish response. An object moving through the air at 3mph should require far less to respond to drift than an object moving through the air at 30mph, but I can't imagine the intention anyone would expect from a slow setting is slow overall responsiveness, just slow directional speed.

 

[Jubalr]

I just don't get that. I would think that a user-selectable "very slow" speed would be for airspeed and not diminish response. An object moving through the air at 3mph should require far less to respond to drift than an object moving through the air at 30mph, but I can't imagine the intention anyone would expect from a slow setting is slow overall responsiveness, just slow directional speed.

Sure, but remember how a quad is able to move. Let's say you want to move 'quickly' to the left, in order to do it quickly the quad need to lean or pitch an amount that would allow it to move quickly, which also translates to speed. To get a slow smooth response from the turtle mode of the performance setting, means that it takes a greater amount of stick to move, leaving less stick to continue to apply power and tilt to move quickly. Now if you know what you are doing, you could probably adjust the parameters to be more progressive, and apply a greater amount the more you move the stick. But you can;t do that with a turtle mode, as that is also designed for first time flyers that typically move the stick too much and over correct until they get the hang of it.

 

[Jason C]

Sure, but remember how a quad is able to move. Let's say you want to move 'quickly' to the left, in order to do it quickly the quad need to lean or pitch an amount that would allow it to move quickly, which also translates to speed. To get a slow smooth response from the turtle mode of the performance setting, means that it takes a greater amount of stick to move, leaving less stick to continue to apply power and tilt to move quickly. Now if you know what you are doing, you could probably adjust the parameters to be more progressive, and apply a greater amount the more you move the stick. But you can;t do that with a turtle mode, as that is also designed for first time flyers that typically move the stick too much and over correct until they get the hang of it.

Ok, but doesn't that follow a proportional curve? Meaning that an object moving faster would require a greater amount of stick to move, but an object moving slower would require a lesser amount? Or to put it another way, if an object is moving faster, more stick would be needed at a slower overall speed to compensate, but given the slower overall speed, the object isn't moving faster so the amount of stick required would be proportional?

 

[rrmccabe]

I just don't get that. I would think that a user-selectable "very slow" speed would be for airspeed and not diminish response. An object moving through the air at 3mph should require far less to respond to drift than an object moving through the air at 30mph, but I can't imagine the intention anyone would expect from a slow setting is slow overall responsiveness, just slow directional speed.

Jason, I think their response was lame. Normally they tell you to go slow. Sure speeding it up would make it respond faster but you really did not need fast response in your situation.

 

[Jubalr]

Jason, regarding RxErrors, I just found out from one of the developers that RxErrors does not having anything to do with controller to receiver, it is for the telemetry data only. Same analysis as above, but different system. Has nothing to do with the ability to control flight.