Solo lost Wifi mid-flight. Now no connection

[SPP]

So I unplugged the battery for the controller and reset everything and it seems to be working. It's night so I haven't put the props on and flown yet but I'm a little relieved.

Now let me tell you why first and most important thing to try is always REMOVE the battery.
The switch on the controller is not a physical switch, I call it SOFTWARE switch. A real physical POWER OFF switch is when a a true battery total disconnect occured...hence remove the battery is the way to go.

Its the same as a GoPro or any smartphone ( where battery is removeable ) or any laptop, we need to remove battery at least for a while to totally able to boot the unit from zero. Some design has good capacitors and may hold charge longer than others. So unplug the battery for say 10 minutes and try to power ON, to really deplete everything on the unit motherboard.

In this age of advance electronic, battery unplugging seems a must do , as many device do not anymore use physical POWER OFF/ON switch.

 

[SARDG]

...I could return this and spend an extra 400 and get the phantom 3 pro with an extra battery back.

I just don't want to keep having problems and then deal with a product that has no support and limited parts availability. It would suck if a year from there's no factory replacement parts.

From what I understand, you could have been talking about the DJI (above) as well. Parts ARE still available for Solo, but I actually bought my 4th Solo ($499) to be used as a flying parts bin - with an extra battery. May never even really fly it. Heck, in a year you may have already crashed and burned anyway.

DJI was never on my RADAR. My second choice was Walkera. They at least had a GP gimbal flying, long before 3DR, and had retractable gear.

IF Best Buy still had the deal online, you could order a new one and simply return the old for a refund at the store. I see that BB does have a 'sale' on parts... batteries $99.99, props $9.99, backpack $99.99. They also seem to have other parts at regular prices. I've been trying to add a battery to my cart for 15 minutes and their site is 'spinning its wheels' on 3 of my devices.

ETA: Site was adding to my cart, just never returned to "shopping".

 

[PdxSteve]

I'm sure parts will be available for awhile. 3DR will take care of

Hardware, parts, and service for SiteScan are all based on the Solo Quadcopter, right? Meaning we should have those things available to us for a while?

I'd like to hope so. But, people who are buying the enterprise sitescan package aren't going to best buy to get it. They're buying directly from 3dr and get personal account reps and other perks. I'm sure 3dr will minimally have a private stash of parts available strictly for enterprise customers as that's where their income will be coming from now and going forward. Enterprise customers have a dedicated support number, like we used to have. They get much better and immediate support, which is in proportion to the product cost. I'm sure they will be well taken care of.

Who knows how much longer official parts will be available in big box stores or places like BHPhoto for the rest of us. They may be, they may not. Most seem to be trying to clear their stock which isn't surprising since 3dr is no longer in the consumer arena that these stores cater to, and some are even indicating that some items are no longer being manufactured (BHPhoto) and won't be coming back in stock. Some parts have already dried up. The shell package was available for about a year from many places then it was gone. Spektreworks recently had some to sell (ex 3dr people) but ran out. 3DR may no longer be producing any parts at all. We don't know for sure, but I don't see any indication that they have in the past. There aren't multiple batch numbers printed on the pcbs that I've seen or that others have reported and I have a few solos purchased at different times going back to just after the gimbal came out just about a year ago. All mainboards, gimbal boards, motor pods, etc, are from the same datestamp which indicates one production run - almost 2 years ago. The only thing that's received a revision that I know of is the gps board which they decided to not sell.

 

[Jb1314]

So was I stupid to go back into Best Buy and buy an extra battery and the backpack for 99 bucks each lol. I could still return it but figured when in Rome. If I get two years out of this thing I'll be happy


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[Jb1314]

From what I understand, you could have been talking about the DJI (above) as well. Parts ARE still available for Solo, but I actually bought my 4th Solo ($499) to be used as a flying parts bin - with an extra battery. May never even really fly it. Heck, in a year you may have already crashed and burned anyway.

DJI was never on my RADAR. My second choice was Walkera. They at least had a GP gimbal flying, long before 3DR, and had retractable gear.

IF Best Buy still had the deal online, you could order a new one and simply return the old for a refund at the store. I see that BB does have a 'sale' on parts... batteries $99.99, props $9.99, backpack $99.99. They also seem to have other parts at regular prices. I've been trying to add a battery to my cart for 15 minutes and their site is 'spinning its wheels' on 3 of my devices.

ETA: Site was adding to my cart, just never returned to "shopping".

I bought the backpack, extra battery and spare pros while its on sale. I have a Best Buy card so I get 30 days to return or exchange so I'll keep dancing for a little while longer


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[Aussie in AZ]

My procedure with a new Solo kit has been to fire-up the new controller with the new Solo (and gimbal - and a GP) to test basic system functionality within the 30 day warranty. At that time I download and update both controller and Solo, then put away the new controller. If they are sending you an entire new Solo kit, you can do that.

I wouldn't see it as a problem with initially mismatched FW anyway - I suspect it will automatically update the 3DR device that needs updating, and perhaps automatically update the 3DR device that doesn't need updating - or not, if the update checks versions first (which it should).

I will say, that I have a habit of trying 'stuff', and asking questions later - or at least if I am relatively comfortable that what I do won't make things 10 times worse. 2 or 3 times worse, is okay!

If you don't have any mods on the old Solo, I'd try the new Solo a few times and send the old Solo back. However, I have understood that warranty replacement Solos are refurbished, not NIB. I cannot personally confirm that.

SARDG,
I can confirm they are refurbished. I have sent 2 back and gotten both refub as a replacement. I'm a little ticked about it as my first Solo went bad within 3 weeks and after shelling out a hefty sum on a new one (back before they went on sale) I got a refurb replacement.

 

[PdxSteve]

Personally I'd rather get a refurb (as long as it's not all scratched up) that they've tested and is known to work within acceptable parameters than take a gamble with something new in a box that has been sitting somewhere for who knows how long. I'd hate to wait weeks for something and then have that one not work too and start all over shipping back.

 

[Aussie in AZ]

Personally I'd rather get a refurb (as long as it's not all scratched up) that they've tested and is known to work within acceptable parameters than take a gamble with something new in a box that has been sitting somewhere for who knows how long. I'd hate to wait weeks for something and then have that one not work too and start all over shipping back.

Funny you should mention that. I posted an EKF failuer and lost Solo on another thread. It was the refurb that replaced my new Solo that was lost. I got a new Solo, gimbal and Hero 4 Black under warranty. In theory, I agree with you but unfortunately in reality, at least for me, the refurb was worse than the new one. The original new Solo had a problem with the controller. I wish they had just replaced that.

All being said though, 3DR support have been outstanding.

Aussie