The Solo Ebay Bargains....

[Freebird32]

If anyone has other thoughts re: the above please post them, would love to know what your conclusions are from your experiences.

Having gone down that path, I agree with you. If you don't have spares you are better off with a B&H or BestBuy deal on a complete bundle. At the price plus a GoPro refurb, it is a much better drone than a P3, i.e., bang for the buck (I have a P3P too, and I like it for other reasons). I've not had any failures in flight from any of these drones (new or parts drones) and save for one bad gimbal which was replaced by 3DR without hassle, no other issues that required repair. I've got enough to be statistically significant and I'll keep racking up flight hours.
I was fortunate to have some spares I picked up mostly from Best Buy when the prices got really low. I mean a gimbal for 39, wow who could pass it up, not to mention the battery and prop sales.
I think I was lucky considering I got three parts drones in the last 6 weeks (60 each) that looked as though they had never been flown, stickers attached, no scratches, no odd behavior or noises, power up and link/connect just fine - You can't buy a spare motor for less than 40. They had not been taken out of the box and flown into a building or the ground by a noob who didn't read the manual. With my spare parts, they are now 3 complete and flyable 'spare parts' drones that I've added to the fleet. And don't call me a drone hoarder.

 

[just_bruce]

Drone retention...enthusiast?

 

[jbrunel]

Drone retention...enthusiast?

You're wrong hoarder is the correct term

 

[Frank Foster]

"Hoarder" .... I resemble that remark!

 

[IrishmanPDX]

I think "Drone Retention... enthusiast" describes someone who finds it fun to stop people shop lifting drones... Suffering from "Droneitis" would describe someone who is allergic to drones, "droneaphobic" ... that's my cat... Nah, I think you just suffer from drone addictive disorder... DAD!

 

[jetfueler]

got 2 more from "aotastore" on Ebay, after I had lost my primary flyer I had on sunday, with my gimbal and gopro hero 4 black, and I had a mRo GPS board on it to, found the gimbal at BH, and found a hero 4 black on Ebay for 219.00, and waiting for the solos to show up today to see if the well work

 

[IrishmanPDX]

got 2 more from "aotastore" on Ebay, after I had lost my primary flyer I had on sunday, with my gimbal and gopro hero 4 black, and I had a mRo GPS board on it to, found the gimbal at BH, and found a hero 4 black on Ebay for 219.00, and waiting for the solos to show up today to see if the well work

Keep us informed! Hope they are good purchases.

 

[Freebird32]

got 2 more from "aotastore" on Ebay, after I had lost my primary flyer

How did you lose your solo? Did you look for it or was it over water? The GPS track should show where it last was if you download the logs.
I had good luck with aotastore, got three that are all flying OK, no issues to fix.

 

[jetfueler]

lost my solo over a neighborhood, was using solex, and went to the GPS coordinates, and I also downloaded the logs off the controller, and used mission planner, and google earth, to see the flight path, looked again, and did not see my Solo anywhere (((( someone must have either picked it up?
or still in a tree i did not search in, or some bushes, well let you know how the 2 I get from aotastore work out

 

[jetfueler]

Hi the two that i got did a factory reset on one and got it to fly ))))) the other one did the same thing and got magnenet Interference, on the controler, tried compass calibration, and still the same, will try again, also on the first one of the motor pods has a squeal sound, I can't tell which one has my hearing is getting bad from to many years working on a Airport,

 

[RDA]

Hi the two that i got did a factory reset on one and got it to fly ))))) the other one did the same thing and got magnenet Interference, on the controler, tried compass calibration, and still the same, will try again, also on the first one of the motor pods has a squeal sound, I can't tell which one has my hearing is getting bad from to many years working on a Airport,

I would get some oil on the bearings and see if you can quit the squeal! !

 

[jetfueler]

yes well try that!! I also changed the compass leg on the other one and got it to work!! to spin the motors, the all spin up well try to fly it later after I oil the bearings

 

[RDA]

yes well try that!! I also changed the compass leg on the other one and got it to work!! to spin the motors, the all spin up well try to fly it later after I oil the bearings

I just received another 59 special, one motor would barely turn. Oiled the heck out of it... just brought her down from a flight. Got 4 flying solos now! Even have a video feed! Whoo hoo!

 

[just_bruce]

Well, it's official. 5/5 of my parts birds are fully functional. One is missing a motor pod (it donated before I tried fixing the poor bastard), but otherwise not a bad deal at around 59/ea, shipped.

I think I may have acute fixitis quaralis . I can't stop fixing things!

 

[hardhat068]

How did you lose your solo? Did you look for it or was it over water? The GPS track should show where it last was if you download the logs.
I had good luck with aotastore, got three that are all flying OK, no issues to fix.

Ugh. Same thing happened to me this past Saturday. Lost my Solo over a farm field.

How do you retrieve the flight logs from the controller? I have Mission Planner installed on my Windows laptop.

 

[Freebird32]

There are a couple posts related to reading the logs. You can search for some more. You have Mission Planner which you can load/open them with. https://3drpilots.com/threads/how-to-reading-solo-logs.412/#post-6029

Another more recent: https://3drpilots.com/threads/downloading-and-analyzing-solo-logs.9556/#post-102094

 

[hardhat068]

Woohoo!. I was able to retrieve the telemetry logs from the controller, and Google Earth gave me the GPS coordinates of the last waypoint before I lost signal. 48 hours after the crash, I found the bird intact. It looks like it will still fly. The footage from the GoPro is incredible. The damn thing kept recording for 17 minutes after the crash. I was flying too low and hit a canal bank.

 

[Freebird32]

I found the bird intact

That's great! You really have to know the terrain (and height of it) you are flying in. If you can't get there on foot, I typically won't fly over it. Seen a few stories here where folks couldn't get into marsh, thick brush, etc., glad you were able to locate.

 

[skyhax]

Woohoo!. I was able to retrieve the telemetry logs from the controller, and Google Earth gave me the GPS coordinates of the last waypoint before I lost signal. 48 hours after the crash, I found the bird intact. It looks like it will still fly. The footage from the GoPro is incredible. The damn thing kept recording for 17 minutes after the crash. I was flying too low and hit a canal bank.

Super glad you got it back but really surprised this fly away happened with that deluxe GPS unit. I really believed that would be a perfect fix for this otherwise amazing quad.

 

[hardhat068]

Super glad you got it back but really surprised this fly away happened with that deluxe GPS unit. I really believed that would be a perfect fix for this otherwise amazing quad.

Nope. It didn't fly away. I flew too low at high speed, hit the crops in the field, and it tumbled. Me being dumb.