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There's a number of rumours kicking about that could effect Solo owners, this thread is for posting what's known to be fact from them.
I'm not 3DR staff as many of you know but I've always tried to pass on issues from fellow Solo owners to 3DR and to clarify facts when rumours have emerged.
I'm only told so much myself and if I'm told anything in confidence, naturally I can't repeat it, however, there's a few events taking place that concern me as a Solo owner so I figured it was only fair to share those as they're already in the public domain on the likes of RCG.
1) 3DR used to sponsor a number of Arducopter developers, at this time Solo runs on Arducopter Solo, which is a specific version of Arducopter tweaked for the Solo. The expectation has been that this version of code would be merged into Arducopter Master meaning that in future Solo could be firmware updated with new features as they arrive on Arducopter. To my knowledge this task isn't yet complete. To get future features like launching from a boat requires Solo Arducopter to be merged.
What appears to be happening.
3DR appears to be moving its future focus onto the PX4 flight stack which has its own flight software, this appears to be a move away from open source to closed source like DJI.
This needn't necessarily be an issue as long as 3DR's customer service and support remains to be the level it has to date.
Is there any reason to be concerned?
At this stage no, but the question that Solo owners will need to know is how does the future direction of 3DR effect Solo now, are 3DR going to see that Arducopter developers merge Solo onto Master? How will 3DR check complex issues on the flight logs without at least one developer with Arducopter knowledge?
2) The closure of Austin offices.
What appears to be happening.
There are credible rumours that the Austin office is closing, presumably with marketing staff moving to Berkeley instead.
Is there any reason to be concerned?
This is an operational issue for 3DR, it needn't have any impact on Solo owners. Admittedly though, the staff at Austin were part of the Solo community so if there are job losses there as a result that will be sad.
3) Support moving to Live Chat.
What appears to be happening.
3DR are using Live Chat as they're preferred communication.
Is there any reason to be concerned?
No.
Vu, 3DR's director of support has already answered this, Live Chat is preferred as they have a transcript from calls, it's better for international users and the cost of 24/7 phone support couldn't really be justified given the low volume of calls they had at some hours.
> I'll aim to keep this post updated as rumours emerge if you hear any yourselves that are credible, post them here and let's discuss them.
I'm not 3DR staff as many of you know but I've always tried to pass on issues from fellow Solo owners to 3DR and to clarify facts when rumours have emerged.
I'm only told so much myself and if I'm told anything in confidence, naturally I can't repeat it, however, there's a few events taking place that concern me as a Solo owner so I figured it was only fair to share those as they're already in the public domain on the likes of RCG.
1) 3DR used to sponsor a number of Arducopter developers, at this time Solo runs on Arducopter Solo, which is a specific version of Arducopter tweaked for the Solo. The expectation has been that this version of code would be merged into Arducopter Master meaning that in future Solo could be firmware updated with new features as they arrive on Arducopter. To my knowledge this task isn't yet complete. To get future features like launching from a boat requires Solo Arducopter to be merged.
What appears to be happening.
3DR appears to be moving its future focus onto the PX4 flight stack which has its own flight software, this appears to be a move away from open source to closed source like DJI.
This needn't necessarily be an issue as long as 3DR's customer service and support remains to be the level it has to date.
Is there any reason to be concerned?
At this stage no, but the question that Solo owners will need to know is how does the future direction of 3DR effect Solo now, are 3DR going to see that Arducopter developers merge Solo onto Master? How will 3DR check complex issues on the flight logs without at least one developer with Arducopter knowledge?
2) The closure of Austin offices.
What appears to be happening.
There are credible rumours that the Austin office is closing, presumably with marketing staff moving to Berkeley instead.
Is there any reason to be concerned?
This is an operational issue for 3DR, it needn't have any impact on Solo owners. Admittedly though, the staff at Austin were part of the Solo community so if there are job losses there as a result that will be sad.
3) Support moving to Live Chat.
What appears to be happening.
3DR are using Live Chat as they're preferred communication.
Is there any reason to be concerned?
No.
Vu, 3DR's director of support has already answered this, Live Chat is preferred as they have a transcript from calls, it's better for international users and the cost of 24/7 phone support couldn't really be justified given the low volume of calls they had at some hours.
> I'll aim to keep this post updated as rumours emerge if you hear any yourselves that are credible, post them here and let's discuss them.
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