The Solo Saga

[Anatoli]

So . . . lo . . . it's been interesting reading all the various posts in this forum. I'm new to the 'drone' world . . . new to this forum. I pre-ordered the Solo with gimbal on the first day offered April __ . . . Like all of you I've waited and waited and finally got the Solo ( minus the gimbal ). I've been practicing flying the Solo without the gimbal although fun and thrilling . . . . really sucks without the gimbal . . . but I've gotten familiarizing fly time.

Now about the promises promises bull shit of gimbal shipping . . . next week next week next week next week etc. I've used up my 2015 calendar already and it's only September. I ordered through DSLRPros. no gimbal.

Then last friday the18th I saw a post about Best Buy having them in stock . . . "out of stock" , "store pick up only" , "none in this store" etc. Then I made a miracle happen all within a very short window of opportunity. Called my BB in Syracuse - none there.
Had them locate the nearest BB with the gimbal . . . Scranton PA. I bought it right then. As I was on the phone with the BB person, they were unloading 3DR products from the truck in Scranton. SO I DROVE TO SCRANTON PA and got it.
And now I have a gimbal with the original still backordered

Having read so many horror stories about the flaws and malfunctions . . . I was nervous about setting it up and actually flying a gimbaled solo.

I did. Took it out for an easy test drive . . . and it actually freakin' works ! Must have gotten lucky.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Mostly you'll see the problems posted about but not so many stories of it working, the percent of solos with problems probably isn't all that high. I think last I saw the poll we had there were plenty more working than not. Even if there are issues 3dr is fixing things pretty quickly in updates and honoring their warranty. I too am flying one that works great this far and I trust it much more than my phantom now and I've had the phantom much longer. People come here for help so most every issue will get a post, just fly and have fun, don't worry odds are in our favor I'm sure.

 

[Maddog]

Mostly you'll see the problems posted about but not so many stories of it working, the percent of solos with problems probably isn't all that high. I think last I saw the poll we had there were plenty more working than not. Even if there are issues 3dr is fixing things pretty quickly in updates and honoring their warranty. I too am flying one that works great this far and I trust it much more than my phantom now and I've had the phantom much longer. People come here for help so most every issue will get a post, just fly and have fun, don't worry odds are in our favor I'm sure.

I agree- people don't usually post when things are good and they don't need help.

Just curious- I know nothing about the Phantoms so what problems are you having with yours?

 

[Adimuzio513]

I agree- people don't usually post when things are good and they don't need help.

Just curious- I know nothing about the Phantoms so what problems are you having with yours?

For the past months it's been stability and drift, I've calibrated, leveled, balanced props and every other thing under the sun and it's just getting old most likley. It's been a good first quad, it's a p2 with an h3-3d and it served its purpose especially at well less than half the price I paid for solo. It's got much quicker acceleration than solo but not the top speed. That's not really good for filming, the gimbal controls are horrible on this version and it's just not nearly as smooth to operate. Reason I have trust issues with it beside all the fly always I've heard of, I had 2 seperate occasions at about 500 feet that it simply got a mind of its own and tried to fly away. Controller over head in a sprint after switching to atti or manual mode on solo I finally got signal and brought it in, it had no intention on RTH like it's supposed to and I always got far better range in the same area so no idea why. Ever since those two times it stopped being much fun, I just waited for it to fly away with my gimbal and gopro. Shortly after is when I ordered solo with the warranty and all the new features, I wanted to fly without wondering when my copter was going to fly south for winter and I was going to be out all that money.

I rarely if ever have used service or warranty on anything, much less electronics but it's nice to know if I do my pre flight all correct and fly normally I have nothing to worry about. P2 was fun but is basically a toy, it looks,feels and flies like one especially in wind even fairly light wind. I'm sure p3 is different in many ways but to me solo looks, feels and flies like I feel an ap quad should. It's built well smooth and gets great stabile video even in wind, and I'm pretty sure 3dr will make good on the claims not yet useable.

Just my opinion but both are fun setups, far as making a more professional quality video though I don't see any comparison with the two birds I own. Granted p2 is old and solos new so wel see how solo holds up comparatively, p2 was much more stabile in its younger days but I don't think p2 should be in as bad of shape as it is, never crashed and it's falling apart. Like my p2 still but love my solo at this point.

 

[Timmytimetravel]

I did careful cable routing, stick cals, level cal, compass cal, avoided 0 and 90 degrees, all updates, took off facing north all for my first gimbal flight anticipating issues. Flew two batteries fine. Next day, gimbal flops, rerouted gimbal cable from top view battery tray. All good so far. So I feel you. Just keep an eye on it. That footage though...,, so smooth

 

[Arthur Burke - N4PJ]

I agree- people don't usually post when things are good and they don't need help.

Just curious- I know nothing about the Phantoms so what problems are you having with yours?

As a Phantom 3 owner (and some other quads), I've learned, like many, to make sure I understand how to fly in manual mode. There appears to be many pilots who've saved their Phantoms because it went haywire and they went manual and were able to save their bacon.

Mine has never given any appearance of a "fly-away" but I have "skinned" it a couple of times. I'm an amateur radio operator (N4PJ) and I have a tower with a beam antenna and a wire antenna. Ran into the wire one day and dumped my Phantom on the roof. About a 20-foot fall and, fortunately, all it did was "skin" one of the arms. The second boo-boo was one of those "...I *knew* I had cleared that palm tree when I turned...."

That one was only about an eight-foot fall and the fall ended in some moderately tall grass. Got some green stain on one of the props.

From as honest a perspective as I can attain, it looks to me like the Solo folks aren't really doing any "worse" than the Phantom 3 buyers. I'm still tempted to buy a Solo - they really do look cool. On the one hand, the Phantom rollout was smoother (not at all non-bumpy!) and nothing quite like the agony of the "gimbal wait." However, I certainly wish the customer service side of DJI could emulate that of 3DR!

Art Burke - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL