Hello All...I just signed up for the group today after finally getting some stick time on the Solo.
I hope I am not duplicating any information here, but I am cross posting my post that I just made to the 3DR Owners Group on FB. Hoping to get some feedback from other users and perhaps someone from 3DR.
Issues below...please read.
Hello fellow Solo Pilots. I finally received my pre-ordered Solo a couple of weeks ago and this weekend is the first time I've really had a chance to put it through its paces. It's been hard to keep up with all the posts and reports from people in the field due to this crazy schedule of mine during the last couple of months but here are my observations thus far along with some suggestions. If anyone has any input, please chime in!
First of all, let me state that I absolutely love the look of the Solo...and I love it its flying characteristics as well...especially in manual. I have several quads and this one is the most fun to fly. Once I receive the gimbal, I will definitely be doing a review for my website and YT channel, DronesInSC.
I posted and earlier and asked if there was a page for known issues with the Solo...haven't found anything like that yet, but if it exists, please let me know. As far as "issues" go, I did run into a few.
ISSUES:
1.) The biggest issue by far appears to be the GPS receiver in the Solo. I haven't opened it up, and I didn't see it listed in the specs, but from the behaviors I observed, I am assuming that the Solo has something like a U-Blox 7 in it. Most of the reports of crashes and control issues that I have seen thus far seem to be related to loss of GPS or GPS errors (high HDOP).
For a quad that is being targeted to new users (so smart a monkey can fly it), and for one that relies on GPS for all of the smart features available to it--it needs to have a rock solid GPS receiver. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we have that right now with the Solo. Even after several flights where the unit should have had good GPS almanac/ephemeris data on startup--I typically waited several minutes to get a GPS lock--and oftentimes did not receive one at all until flying around in manual for awhile. This was in a fairly open area.
As a precaution, I changed the "A" button on the controller to switch the flight mode to manual...you should definitely do this if you haven't already. On one of my flights, the Solo started to do an uncommanded flight in the direction of a tree...I quickly switched to manual and averted the collision. This happened because of an increasing HDOP and subsequent loss of GPS.
Another thing I noticed is that when I did get a GPS lock on the ground prior to take-off, my HDOP would rarely go below 1.9. Once the motors were started it oftentimes would climb above 2.5 which brings into question the shielding and/or positioning of the GPS antenna and receiver.
On a side note--I pulled out my original 1st run Yuneec Q500 that I purchased last year (so a generation behind the Solo). It was a cold start for the Q as I haven't flown it in several months. Taking off from the same place and flying the same pattern, the Q500 had a solid GPS lock in less than 20 seconds, and I never lost that lock on any flights. Compared to the Solo, which took several minutes to get a lock (if I got one at all), and lost lock several times when flying...well, I hate to say it, but there really is no comparison...the Q wins without a doubt.
SUGGESTION: The Q500 has a GPS/GLONASS receiver...while the Solo appears to have only a GPS receiver. With the Q I had 18 sats locked in a matter of seconds, with the Solo, I was lucky to get 9 or 10 after several minutes. Heck, my Phantom 3 (which is out for repairs) has a GPS/GLONASS receiver in it too and although that platform has its issues for sure, GPS ain't one of 'em.
The Solo is dependent on GPS for all the smart features--we need a better GPS receiver...one that does GPS and GLONASS. Why isn't there a U-Blox M8 in this thing? I think 3DR should consider switching to the M8, or something comparable, and offer an upgrade kit to current Solo customers. Additionally, better shielding or a mast mounted GPS antenna might be in order due to RFI from the motors and electronics.
2.) Solo App issues...I have a few of these (I am running the latest version of the app, released yesterday). First off, my tablet is a Nexus 7 ii...and I also have used my HTC One M9 as the mobile device. I know that programming for Android can be a PITA because of all of the fragmentation of the Android OS compared to Apple...but I hope these issues can be resolved. On both of my mobile devices, it doesn't matter which order I power up my equipment, I always have to exit out of and re-open the Solo app in order to get the telemetry to populate on my mobile device...even if I get the message on the controller that the device is connected to the Solo app, I still have to do this.
Follow-Me: Can't get it to work on the Nexus 7 ii at all. I have GPS positioning turned on with the device but the solo app is not commanding the GPS on the Nexus 7 to activate. I can trick it for a minute by opening a different app that turns on the GPS (such as google maps), but the moment I exit that app, the GPS turns off.
I was able to get follow-me to work on the HTC One M9 but almost lost my Solo when I tried it out. I had the Solo about 50 feet away and about 50 feet high. I selected "Follow". observed that my position and the Solo's position were correct on the map and then pressed the screen to activate follow mode. As soon as I activated follow, the Solo immediately made a full-speed beeline for some trees about 100 feet away. I applied opposite stick and nothing changed...I pressed the "A" button to switch to manual and nothing changed...I hit the pause button and it started to slow down but was now only a few feet away from the trees and drifting towards them (all this happened in a couple of seconds). All the while I was also going down on the throttle to try and avert a high altitude crash. At this point it was still moving backwards and hitting the ground and hopping back up. I finally regained control by changing modes on the touch-screen.
So what happened here? I guess it is possible that my phone was giving bad GPS information to the solo for a moment but it happened to quickly for me to notice...when I did recover, I immediately checked my phone and my position error was <5ft. More on this in a moment...
So, for my next attempt, I did it at high altitude...about 200 feet (so if it acted crazy it wouldn't be in danger of hitting any trees). I put it in follow mode and instead of following it started orbiting. Seriously? I'm fairly certain the screen said it was in follow mode but it was acting like it was in orbit mode.
Third attempt...finally worked right. One thing I did notice...in follow mode, the "A" and "B" buttons on the controller screen were blanked out..so apparently in follow mode if something goes wrong, you can't quickly change it to manual mode by pressing the "A" button. That definitely needs to be changed! Once out of follow mode, the modes I had programmed for the "A" and "B" buttons re-appeared on the controller.
SUGGESTION: If this had happened to a rookie pilot, it is likely they would have crashed their Solo. Not sure how the iOS version of the solo app is shaping up but it would appear that the android app needs some tweaking. Definitely need to enable the A/B buttons when in the camera shot modes...when milliseconds count it takes too long to take your hands off the controller and select a different mode on the touch screen and pause takes too long to stop an errant quad that is going full speed in the wrong direction.
Ok, so all of that out of the way...I still love the Solo. I truly want to see this product succeed...and no, I am not a DJI fanboy...lol. I hope someone from 3DR will take these suggestions...and if anybody has gotten follow to work with their Nexus 7 ii, let me know what you did!
I hope I am not duplicating any information here, but I am cross posting my post that I just made to the 3DR Owners Group on FB. Hoping to get some feedback from other users and perhaps someone from 3DR.
Issues below...please read.
Hello fellow Solo Pilots. I finally received my pre-ordered Solo a couple of weeks ago and this weekend is the first time I've really had a chance to put it through its paces. It's been hard to keep up with all the posts and reports from people in the field due to this crazy schedule of mine during the last couple of months but here are my observations thus far along with some suggestions. If anyone has any input, please chime in!
First of all, let me state that I absolutely love the look of the Solo...and I love it its flying characteristics as well...especially in manual. I have several quads and this one is the most fun to fly. Once I receive the gimbal, I will definitely be doing a review for my website and YT channel, DronesInSC.
I posted and earlier and asked if there was a page for known issues with the Solo...haven't found anything like that yet, but if it exists, please let me know. As far as "issues" go, I did run into a few.
ISSUES:
1.) The biggest issue by far appears to be the GPS receiver in the Solo. I haven't opened it up, and I didn't see it listed in the specs, but from the behaviors I observed, I am assuming that the Solo has something like a U-Blox 7 in it. Most of the reports of crashes and control issues that I have seen thus far seem to be related to loss of GPS or GPS errors (high HDOP).
For a quad that is being targeted to new users (so smart a monkey can fly it), and for one that relies on GPS for all of the smart features available to it--it needs to have a rock solid GPS receiver. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we have that right now with the Solo. Even after several flights where the unit should have had good GPS almanac/ephemeris data on startup--I typically waited several minutes to get a GPS lock--and oftentimes did not receive one at all until flying around in manual for awhile. This was in a fairly open area.
As a precaution, I changed the "A" button on the controller to switch the flight mode to manual...you should definitely do this if you haven't already. On one of my flights, the Solo started to do an uncommanded flight in the direction of a tree...I quickly switched to manual and averted the collision. This happened because of an increasing HDOP and subsequent loss of GPS.
Another thing I noticed is that when I did get a GPS lock on the ground prior to take-off, my HDOP would rarely go below 1.9. Once the motors were started it oftentimes would climb above 2.5 which brings into question the shielding and/or positioning of the GPS antenna and receiver.
On a side note--I pulled out my original 1st run Yuneec Q500 that I purchased last year (so a generation behind the Solo). It was a cold start for the Q as I haven't flown it in several months. Taking off from the same place and flying the same pattern, the Q500 had a solid GPS lock in less than 20 seconds, and I never lost that lock on any flights. Compared to the Solo, which took several minutes to get a lock (if I got one at all), and lost lock several times when flying...well, I hate to say it, but there really is no comparison...the Q wins without a doubt.
SUGGESTION: The Q500 has a GPS/GLONASS receiver...while the Solo appears to have only a GPS receiver. With the Q I had 18 sats locked in a matter of seconds, with the Solo, I was lucky to get 9 or 10 after several minutes. Heck, my Phantom 3 (which is out for repairs) has a GPS/GLONASS receiver in it too and although that platform has its issues for sure, GPS ain't one of 'em.
The Solo is dependent on GPS for all the smart features--we need a better GPS receiver...one that does GPS and GLONASS. Why isn't there a U-Blox M8 in this thing? I think 3DR should consider switching to the M8, or something comparable, and offer an upgrade kit to current Solo customers. Additionally, better shielding or a mast mounted GPS antenna might be in order due to RFI from the motors and electronics.
2.) Solo App issues...I have a few of these (I am running the latest version of the app, released yesterday). First off, my tablet is a Nexus 7 ii...and I also have used my HTC One M9 as the mobile device. I know that programming for Android can be a PITA because of all of the fragmentation of the Android OS compared to Apple...but I hope these issues can be resolved. On both of my mobile devices, it doesn't matter which order I power up my equipment, I always have to exit out of and re-open the Solo app in order to get the telemetry to populate on my mobile device...even if I get the message on the controller that the device is connected to the Solo app, I still have to do this.
Follow-Me: Can't get it to work on the Nexus 7 ii at all. I have GPS positioning turned on with the device but the solo app is not commanding the GPS on the Nexus 7 to activate. I can trick it for a minute by opening a different app that turns on the GPS (such as google maps), but the moment I exit that app, the GPS turns off.
I was able to get follow-me to work on the HTC One M9 but almost lost my Solo when I tried it out. I had the Solo about 50 feet away and about 50 feet high. I selected "Follow". observed that my position and the Solo's position were correct on the map and then pressed the screen to activate follow mode. As soon as I activated follow, the Solo immediately made a full-speed beeline for some trees about 100 feet away. I applied opposite stick and nothing changed...I pressed the "A" button to switch to manual and nothing changed...I hit the pause button and it started to slow down but was now only a few feet away from the trees and drifting towards them (all this happened in a couple of seconds). All the while I was also going down on the throttle to try and avert a high altitude crash. At this point it was still moving backwards and hitting the ground and hopping back up. I finally regained control by changing modes on the touch-screen.
So what happened here? I guess it is possible that my phone was giving bad GPS information to the solo for a moment but it happened to quickly for me to notice...when I did recover, I immediately checked my phone and my position error was <5ft. More on this in a moment...
So, for my next attempt, I did it at high altitude...about 200 feet (so if it acted crazy it wouldn't be in danger of hitting any trees). I put it in follow mode and instead of following it started orbiting. Seriously? I'm fairly certain the screen said it was in follow mode but it was acting like it was in orbit mode.
Third attempt...finally worked right. One thing I did notice...in follow mode, the "A" and "B" buttons on the controller screen were blanked out..so apparently in follow mode if something goes wrong, you can't quickly change it to manual mode by pressing the "A" button. That definitely needs to be changed! Once out of follow mode, the modes I had programmed for the "A" and "B" buttons re-appeared on the controller.
SUGGESTION: If this had happened to a rookie pilot, it is likely they would have crashed their Solo. Not sure how the iOS version of the solo app is shaping up but it would appear that the android app needs some tweaking. Definitely need to enable the A/B buttons when in the camera shot modes...when milliseconds count it takes too long to take your hands off the controller and select a different mode on the touch screen and pause takes too long to stop an errant quad that is going full speed in the wrong direction.
Ok, so all of that out of the way...I still love the Solo. I truly want to see this product succeed...and no, I am not a DJI fanboy...lol. I hope someone from 3DR will take these suggestions...and if anybody has gotten follow to work with their Nexus 7 ii, let me know what you did!
