Storms

rrmccabe · Jun 20, 2015

I love flying on the edge of a Storm, but sometimes cut it a little close. Went up to take some photos of oncoming storms with P2V+ and almost got wet.

RichWest · Jun 20, 2015

Chicken.... I absolutely love flying storms. I've been popping up to 150' at 8PM over the last few weeks here and hovering/panning the storms as they rolled through. No lightning captures, but plenty of rolling clouds. I've flown in light rain with no issues other than water on the lens.

edit: spelling error

rrmccabe · Jun 20, 2015

LOL, Well I lost the V+ today after the storms passed. I forgot to turn the tracker on too and it was on a mission about 1/2 mile away towards my parents.

My daughter and I drove around hoping to see it in a field, yard or ditch but nothing. So we gave up.

Sat down on the deck with a cold soda pop and looked ad my mission again to see if there was anything wrong like a low way point or something. This is when I realized the 4th and final way point back home wasn't there. The last one was in a field behind my parents house. So the thing was just sitting there 200' in the air until it auto landed on low battery, Caught the edge of tree on way down and flipped upside down and popped camera off. No damage to camera but the main chassis plastic popped a screw on one arm and seam is slightly open.

So ordered a new chassis for $65.00 and a set of new props to be safe.

RichWest · Jun 20, 2015

Well at least it wasn't a total loss...live and learn, thanks for sharing YOUR mistake...

b52gunner · Jun 21, 2015

rrmccabe said:
LOL, Well I lost the V+ today after the storms passed. I forgot to turn the tracker on too and it was on a mission about 1/2 mile away towards my parents.

I just joined the forum because I'm thinking about ordering a 3DR Solo next week and thought I may pick up some knowledge about the Solo to help me make up my mind.

My only quad experience is with a limited to a small UDI 3D 2.4GHz 4 CH 6 AXIS Mini Nano Quadcopter with GYRO I got off Ebay. I do have experience flying R/C airplanes, but am definitely a NOOB with QuadCopters.

What is the tracker you mention in your post? Is it a 3rd party device or something that's included with either the Solo or the app used to control the Solo? Sorry if it's a dumb question.

Jubalr · Jun 22, 2015

b52gunner said:
I just joined the forum because I'm thinking about ordering a 3DR Solo next week and thought I may pick up some knowledge about the Solo to help me make up my mind.

My only quad experience is with a limited to a small UDI 3D 2.4GHz 4 CH 6 AXIS Mini Nano Quadcopter with GYRO I got off Ebay. I do have experience flying R/C airplanes, but am definitely a NOOB with QuadCopters.

What is the tracker you mention in your post? Is it a 3rd party device or something that's included with either the Solo or the app used to control the Solo? Sorry if it's a dumb question.

No sure which one Rich is using, but I studied them awhile before buying the Marco Polo a year or so ago. http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/
There are some other devices that have GPS tracking that you can monitor on your phone, but they require a cell signal to work. In my area there is a lot of remote locations to fly but have little to no cell service so they would do me no good when needed. If you get the Marco, be sure and get the modified RC version.

rrmccabe · Jun 22, 2015

Yep same

Jubalr said:
No sure which one Rich is using, but I studied them awhile before buying the Marco Polo a year or so ago. http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/

Yep, thats what I am using. Marco Polo.

b52gunner · Jun 22, 2015

Jubalr said:
No sure which one Rich is using, but I studied them awhile before buying the Marco Polo a year or so ago. http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/
There are some other devices that have GPS tracking that you can monitor on your phone, but they require a cell signal to work. In my area there is a lot of remote locations to fly but have little to no cell service so they would do me no good when needed. If you get the Marco, be sure and get the modified RC version.

Sounds like compared to the cost of the Solo, it's relatively cheap insurance that could help get your drone recovered.

b52gunner · Jun 22, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Yep same

Yep, thats what I am using. Marco Polo.

And this type of information from you and Jubalr is exactly why I wanted to join this form. I don't want to find out some good information to prevent problems after I have a problem. Thanks to both of you.

rrmccabe · Jun 22, 2015

If you don't mind it might not be a bad idea to start a tracker thread. There are pros and cons to everything (including the Marco Polo) and it would be good for others to see too. We can discuss it there

RichWest · Jun 22, 2015

Pardon my ignorance, but does the Solo even need a supplemental tracker? I assume all things Solo are written to the log file...

rrmccabe · Jun 22, 2015

If you lose connectivity it no longer logs things to the controller obviously. So if you were doing something like Tower (not supported yet by 3DR) then the fly away warranty does not apply.

Anything that is operator error is not covered on warranty. Nice to have a chance to find it. Cheap insurance.

RichWest · Jun 22, 2015

That makes sense, thanks for the clarification - lose connection, no log update to controller, bad...

rrmccabe · Jun 22, 2015

I will be interested to see if the Solo continues to log coords to the computer and syncs back up when its back in range. I currently run a Flytrex device on my Vision+ that I get telemetry from when it returns. Use it for a Dashware overlay. Have no idea how the Solo is going to work with DashWare. I assume I can get some sort of CSV file and create my own conversion.