Who has more issues? The Phantom 4 or SOLO

[Bigskyflyer]

I'm still a Solo guy but I was amazed by my recent journey. I just thought I'd show you guys what it looked like when I first started to lose signal and began to turn around. I was quite shocked and surprised.

Jerry

View attachment 3319

Also like that satellite count of 18. That is pretty reassuring that it will make it back if you did lose controller signal.

 

[J R]

Damn Jerry, I don't think I would have guts enough to go out that far. I see you still had full controller and video signal, pretty amazing. I have only been out 11,000 ft and I must say I was a nervous wreck until it got back to me. I, like you live in a remote area and only have to worry about trees and brush if it goes down.

BigSky,

I just pushed it because I have been dealing with a motor issue on this particular bird and I sure as heck ain't getting anything warrantied with DJI. I wouldn't normally push it to this extent. If it would have gone down, it would have been done, most of the fields here were soaked, I also had to cross the Big Sioux River and a couple of creeks. I had heard of others doing these distance runs and wanted to see if they were for real. They appear to be.

Jerry

 

[J R]

Also like that satellite count of 18. That is pretty reassuring that it will make it back if you did lose controller signal.

It tried to RTH 3 or 4 times, I had to cancel or it'd slow it down too much.

Jerry

 

[J R]

And she goes too. I'm only posting this stuff in this thread but 56MPH ain't too bad either, with a little wind at my back of course.

Jerry

 

[Bigskyflyer]

BigSky,

I just pushed it because I have been dealing with a motor issue on this particular bird and I sure as heck ain't getting anything warrantied with DJI. I wouldn't normally push it to this extent. If it would have gone down, it would have been done, most of the fields here were soaked, I also had to cross the Big Sioux River and a couple of creeks. I had heard of others doing these distance runs and wanted to see if they were for real. They appear to be.

Jerry

The only dealings I had on warranty was a bad battery, emailed them the log with the bad battery and they got back to me via email. They told me to dispose of the bad battery and they would send me a new one. I thought here we go, that's the last I will hear from them. Eight days later I received two(yes two) new batteries, delivered by fed ex, and a letter apologizing for the inconvenience. Go figure.

 

[PdxSteve]

Can I have the bad one for experimenting?

 

[Bigskyflyer]

Can I have the bad one for experimenting?

Steve, that was 6 months ago, she is long gone.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

And she goes too. I'm only posting this stuff in this thread but 56MPH ain't too bad either, with a little wind at my back of course.

Jerry

View attachment 3320

I see you were in atti, also. I think you get more speed in atti.

 

[J R]

Can I have the bad one for experimenting?

Steve,

I'll keep you in mind, I've got one that's getting long in the tooth. I probably won't be using much longer. PM me an address and I'll ship it out when I'm done with it.

Jerry

 

[SPP]

My guess would be that it's using regular 2.4 wifi for control/telemetry. The video stream by far comsumes the most data, and if it's sharing wifi with control then there is a lot more opportunity for the packet loss/resending. So if you offload the massive video bandwidth to another technology, there is a lot less room for error using the wifi for only control purposes. This is entirely speculation, I don't know enough about how DJI works to know for sure, but it's an educated guess.

Yep, make sense Steve, thanks.
Also wifi needing hand-shake between Solo & controller is something which will slow down things in low signal condition, aside from low signal itself cant carry much data.

Until now I can't understand the 98% icon next to my wireless telemetry signal BARS ,which supposedly the % mean bad packets
Radio Strenght and % of bad packets

Let saya 3DR decided to create a special menu where we can can choose 480p video feed , instead of 720p for congested area, would you think that will help range ?

thanks again...

 

[Freebird32]

I could read in the Dji forum, that Phantom 4 has many issues.
Even with the last update, the thing gets worse.
Do you think that SOLO has such important issues as it has Phantom 4 ?
What issues are around SOLO, right now ?

First thanks to Jerry for reeling me in from a different thread/post I made on the Solo topic. In reference to the OP's question, I bought a Solo before Gimbals were available and was excited about the product. I think it is a well engineered bird but it has been a somewhat frustrating experience. I got the Gimbal shipped a few months later and I was excited then too. It functioned fine after installation. I bought a P3 Pro about 6 months after the Solo. For just going out and getting it in the air to shoot some video or a quick flight, P3 is SOOO much easier to get to the point where you hit the go button. I've been flying RC for over 45 years and have dabbled in scratch built stuff, electrics, also full size aircraft (pilot/mechanic), photography, and computers (built a few). So much for a quick background. My first quad was a Gaui 300 kit and I taught myself to fly quads using a Traxxas Alias - nice bird to get the basics down, I modded a Blade 350QX with an external GPS antenna, longer legs, coax receiver antenna mod, and added a Chinese gimbal for my Gopro. It made me want for more, hence the Solo and the P3.
The Solo is a science project to get into the air, no quick dash out to the backyard to video a flock of passing crows with this bird (but I did just that with the P3). I use a Nexus 7 (2013) with both my Solo and my P3. With the P3 I power everything up and the Nexus app automatically connects to the bird, every time. With the Solo, it is a crap shoot. I just did an update on the Solo firmware (I will give 3DR high marks for this operation, it is easier than P3 to update) and after it would not connect to my Solo App (this is typical). So I tried the iPhone and it connected OK. I use the iPhone as a troubleshooting tool, easy to determine it is the Android, not the Solo acting up. Typically the first thing I'll do after a reboot doesn't fix the connection issue is delete both the Solo app and the 3DR Services app off the Android and reinstall. Usually solves the problem. The other issue has been waiting on GPS satellite fix. Can be a few minutes, can be 10 minutes (especially if I've moved from the last flight to some other location). Now you see a clearer picture emerging, by the time I fuss with reboots, frequent connection issues, waiting on GPS, I spend a good portion of my Solo time standing around fussing with the equipment and the battery is at 90% by the time it is in the air.
The latest firmware from DJI, pretty much replicates the camera functionality that was a discriminator on the Solo when it was released. I use a GoPro 4 Silver with my Solo, but it pales in comparison to the 4K video from my P3. The P3 is rock solid, no shake and crystal clear compared to the Solo (and yes I have balanced the props). The props on the P3 were really good right out of the box. I shoot 1080p/60 fps on the GoPro and it isn't as shaky as the 2.7K/30fps setting (but it still shakes). Looking at the 4k video from my P3 is a wonderful thing on my 5k iMac. I am going to open up the Solo to make sure gimbal cables are not touching isolation balls and I will be doing the GPS insulator/spacer mod. I shouldn't have to do these things, with the price of these birds being what they are. Bottom line, if you like crystal clear 4k video and want ease of use P3 is the winner. Long term, I suspect the open platform Solo will get some upgrades and 3rd party attachments that will continue to grow it. The updates on the P3 are not quick to install, but I have found you can wait for everyone else to experience the bugs and get a later version, P3 will allow you to fly on whatever version you've got loaded. I've got a FPVLR antenna mod on the Solo controller and a pair of the parabolic copper antenna reflectors on my P3 controller. I haven't taken them to max range yet, but they have gone out of my visual recognition range without any issues (read that as I got it turned around and back home OK). I'm not as fearless as some who fly further. No crashes, no loss of signal yet. Sorry for the longish post, but both the Solo and P3 have their strengths and weaknesses and with the latest drop in prices on both are worthy of purchase. WRT my limited experience with 3DR support, they were responsive to the emails I submitted within a few days. I have no experience with DJI support yet. Have not tried the P4 yet, waiting for everyone else to find the bugs . Good luck, happy flying.

 

[Soloing]

Do what I did when I got into 1/8 scale buggies. Buy them all and see for yourself. Seriously.

Buy a Solo and a Phantom 4. Push both to their limits. Keep the one you like and sell the other. The couple of hundred bucks your lose will be worth the experience!