Taking off from a boat!

Zeitgeist · May 21, 2017

I was shooting some video of my buddies fishing the marsh. I had 2 successful flights from the actual land where I waded over and took off from hard ground. One flight attempt however, the controller never found the solo.

In the attempt I had the Solo set on the front bow, which was flat. We were actually anchored but the boat would sway marginally back and forth. Also, it was quite windy so there was probably a slight up and down movement.

Question is, did the drone never connect with the GPS because of the movement? Was something interfering like aluminum or fiberglass?

Thanks in advance!

andrew.baker.142 · May 21, 2017

In your first paragraph you said the Solo never connected with your controller, but your last paragraph you made it sound like it never connected with GPS, so I'm a little confused.
I could see the controller having some trouble getting a good enough WiFi signal from Solo if the Solo was sitting on an aluminum surface, or with lots of metal near it. The GPS still should have gotten a lock, assuming it worked well on the land.

pyrate · May 22, 2017

Solo will not take off if it is on a moving boat. it also may have issues with signal and gps depending on how the boat is rigged.

If you want boat mode, you are going to have to upgrade the Flight Controller and Firmware
work is underway to make this user friendly to do, but right now it is not for the faint of heart

jimloss · May 22, 2017

Zeitgeist said:
I was shooting some video of my buddies fishing the marsh. I had 2 successful flights from the actual land where I waded over and took off from hard ground. One flight attempt however, the controller never found the solo.

In the attempt I had the Solo set on the front bow, which was flat. We were actually anchored but the boat would sway marginally back and forth. Also, it was quite windy so there was probably a slight up and down movement.

Question is, did the drone never connect with the GPS because of the movement? Was something interfering like aluminum or fiberglass?

Thanks in advance!

You can't launch a stock Solo from a boat. The Solo must be perfectly still to initialize. The on-board sensors would detect movement when trying to launch. As I understand it, with the purchase of a new cube and software change, "boat mode" is possible, but you would lose the gimbal functionality.

pyrate · May 22, 2017

um no, you dont lose gimbal functionality on the cube and master
Yaw was broken but as of this weekend , smart shots are just fine on the cube and master

jimloss · May 22, 2017

pyrate said:
um no, you dont lose gimbal functionality on the cube and master
Yaw was broken but as of this weekend , smart shots are just fine on the cube and master

With the green cube and master all original functionality is now available plus the new features and a future?

quicksupra · May 22, 2017

Any chance of a quick rundown on "green cube and master". I'd love to be able to launch from my boat.

pyrate · May 22, 2017

jimloss said:
With the green cube and master all original functionality is now available plus the new features and a future?

YEP
Solex for even more

pyrate · May 22, 2017

Look for solo mod club on FB

Zeitgeist · May 22, 2017

Thanks for the help, makes sense to me. The message on the controller was waiting on Solo the whole time. In regards to the upgrades, if you only did one, which would you recommend?

Pedals2Paddles · May 22, 2017

Taking off from a moving vehicle (such as a boat) with a stock Solo is at your own risk. It may work if you're lucky, but the gyro calibrations may be seriously bogus. That can result some very exciting flight. But most likely it will simply not arm at all.

ArduCopter mater will safely arm and fly from a moving vehicle (aka boat mode). In order to run ArduCopter master on a Solo today, you need the Green Cube. It is currently experimental. But as @pyrate said, that experiment is going really well. The pile of destroyed solo parts in my basement hasn't gotten any larger in the last several weeks

.

mikeo · May 23, 2017

Hmmm, I've taken off from a boat multiple times without issues. I turn off the engine (reduce/remove EMI) and make sure the boat is in calm water (not moving; lake, not river). Maybe I've just been lucky, but so far so good. I do make sure to turn on the Solo in the parking lot before I launch the boat so that the GPS can get a more "local" position, I use my boat a significant distance (100+ miles) from where I usually fly so the cold-start GPS lock takes longer than normal.

Pedals2Paddles · May 23, 2017

The GPS has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it. It's the gyros and accelerometers. Did you leave it turned on after booting on dry land?

DavidPhillips · May 27, 2017

You need boat mode.

mike sember · May 27, 2017

Hey bud, I have been fighting this battle for well over a year since i bought solo. I got solo to mostly fly from a boat to film and soon realized it won't do it because of the pre arm check and gyro that P2P mentioned. They finally came out with the green cube that has boat mode in it, but as they said, it is experimental. I have the green cube and waiting to install, but I'm waiting till someone either does it or shows a video of using it from the boat. Im the meantime, i had to pick up a mavic this week for boat ops on the upcoming trips. I can't wait till solo can safely launch from a boat because it sweet. Here is the only video i shot with solo from a boat on the calmest day ever in the ocean and not moving at all.

Bowtech2 · May 27, 2017

mikeo said:
Hmmm, I've taken off from a boat multiple times without issues. I turn off the engine (reduce/remove EMI) and make sure the boat is in calm water (not moving; lake, not river). Maybe I've just been lucky, but so far so good. I do make sure to turn on the Solo in the parking lot before I launch the boat so that the GPS can get a more "local" position, I use my boat a significant distance (100+ miles) from where I usually fly so the cold-start GPS lock takes longer than normal.

Same here, i don't have any problems launching from a boat.I also calibrate on shore before flying from a boat.

mikeo · May 30, 2017

Pedals2Paddles said:
The GPS has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it. It's the gyros and accelerometers. Did you leave it turned on after booting on dry land?

Nope, I turn it off and put it in a case so my kids don't break it. The "big" boat is a 56' so it doesn't rock, but it pivots with the wind when moored; it's stable enough that the Solo thinks it's on land other then the blue background on the map. The "small" boat is 23' and can rock with just someone moving, I don't fly with more than just myself or 1-2 others on board for safety reasons. When I launch from the small boat typically everyone else is out of the boat (playing in the water or just somewhere else) so the boat is calm and stable.

I was planning to fly from the boat a lot more this weekend but got really sick late last week and was on quarantine at home while the rest of the family got to play. I will provide an update once I get more over-water flight time.