Solo Startup Problems - Solid Green Lights

[Cumulus Granitus]

Hi,

Commercial (manned) pilot here, new to the world of UAVs but have been flying fixed-wing R/C since I was old enough to know they existed.

I've just acquired a second-hand but basically brand new Solo, and have had a few successful flights with just a minor issue. Yesterday though, I ran into bigger problems.

Solo wouldn't boot. I just got the startup tone, fixed green lights, and nothing. Gimbal appeared to be functioning normally. After a couple of attempts, I disconnected and reconnected the battery, and it started fine. Went through several more power cycles with no issue, so I put it down to 'just one of those things'.

Today... same problem. This time I tried power cycling well over 5 times, waiting several minutes at a time. The strange thing is, the controller connected to Solo, and it started acquiring satellites. I got the 'GPS available' tone, and the satellite status icon changed from red to white with 19 sats - but it still said 'waiting for GPS'.

I tried switching to manual mode, which was allowed, but (not that I'd have risked flying in any case) I still couldn't start motors. So, after a nearly 4-hour round trip to a lovely location, I achieved 0 minutes of footage of the fantastic sunset. A little disappointed!

Sorry I've managed to turn a simple question into a bit of a ramble, but I didn't want to miss out anything that might be useful!

So, any pointers would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Alex.

 

[David Boulanger]

What was the minor issue when it flew?

 

[Cumulus Granitus]

What was the minor issue when it flew?

Problem solved! After a lot of googling (clearly using all the wrong terms!) I discovered the mysterious SSWT button. Holding that while powering up seems to have done the trick.

To answer your question though: misreporting battery status. The first time it happened, I was no more than 200ft away with a good signal, and the battery level suddenly dropped from 80-something to 10%. Solo initiated RTH, but I was able to take manual control. Battery level then returned to a sensible level after a few seconds. The second time (different day, different battery), I was somewhat further away when the battery level indicated 0%. This time, there was no battery warning - the level indicator stayed white - and no RTH. Correct indication returned after around 20-30 seconds. So there's another little puzzle which I have yet to solve...

 

[Cumulus Granitus]

Update: Problem not solved!

I've just been flying. Battery issue still persists - both variations happened in the one flight today. Powered down to change battery, and now back to green lights again.

 

[3DR-KRB]

Do factory reset and repair with controller

 

[Cumulus Granitus]

Done. It looks like the weather will prevent any flying today, so I'll have to wait and see what happens...

 

[Cumulus Granitus]

Still no luck. Powered up successfully at home a couple of times following factory reset, but now the dreaded green lights are back!

 

[Cumulus Granitus]

Well... hopefully the final update.

I remembered a very similar problem I’d had with a Raspberry Pi project some time ago - it would crash on boot after every few power cycles, and then needed the OS reinstalling - the equivalent of a factory reset, I guess. The solution was a new SD card.

So, 2 new microSD cards later (thought I might as well do the controller at the same time), I installed Open Solo from images. Somehow I seem to have managed to put it all back together without breaking anything, and have now done 5 flights without issue.

Now just waiting for good weather to coincide with free time...