My solo flipped and destroyed the propellers on my first attempt at flying it. Contacted solo .they wanted my logs I sent them 3 times and have been waiting for days to hear from someone at solo. After paying $1500.00 for the solo, I'm starting to get a little p'd. Can anyone tell me what to do?w
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well yes lol . IT has to be. Again find it so hard to believe its anything else since my DIY quad flies amazing... for 1 year..
Hah, three+ years and not counting anymore :-)
" It is impossible to make something foolproof, sooner or later you WILL run into a sufficiently talented fool "
Like the idiot in the video that unboxes a Solo, and does his first flight in a crowded city space.
Or the idiot that just stands there watching a flipped Solo beating itself to death.
I don't have a Solo, I would like one, but I can't afford it. I have an old 3DR kit build quad with APM 2.
It has never crashed, or done something stupid.
Yes, electronics is my trade, yes I have above average mechanical skills, yes I've been flying RC since 1980.
Did these idiots do a proper preflight test ?
Did they have good GPS signal ?
Do they have any previous RC skills ?
Electronic skills, mechanical skills, understand radio frequencies, GPS tech ?
etc, etc, etc.
Just wondering.......
I think your answer - and the answer to some of the other debated topics here (and elsewhere) depends on the company selling/marketing/making the unit and the "separation of church and state" as it pertains to consumer electronics.
When it comes to what is being discussed here - the Solo - it is 100% marketed to beginners, pros and everyone in between. Almost none of the marketing is geared toward DIY'ers, hobbyists, etc.
So whereas it may take 100's of hours of skills to do what you do (DIY, etc.), the consumer quadcopters are marketed toward those who have maybe a couple hours - and maybe no aptitude. This is not just a one-time marketing jingo - but repeated constantly like a drumbeat "I could take your sister or mother outside and in 5 minutes they'd be flying this and getting the shots".
So - are people idiots for assuming that what is marked on the box, in the literature and constantly repeated by the manufacturers....is at least 1/2 way true? I'd say no.
Not to say I can answer all your questions but the guy beating the props to death claims to have 100+ hours on his other Solos.
While some people may be idiots I don't automatically assume that everyone or most people are.
Rather I think that the idea of ALL modern consumer products is to somewhat protect us from ourselves. If it were not for this type of design people would be getting killed by the lack of proper grounding in their power tools daily (I know someone who died in their garage from a circular saw and a puddle...but this was before they improved both the house wiring codes and the building of the tools).
Again, "aerial robots" and "smart drones" are supposed to be smart and getting smarter. My Roomba is very smart. It won't suck up a power cord, won't head down the stairs and does lots of other things to protect it and me.
If we are/were discussing DIY that is an entirely different story! Granted a lot of this has gotten confused because of 3DR's evolution away from DIY to a corporate entity looking for general acceptance. But when you step into the ring of consumer products, you have to measure up to the consumers needs and wants as well as the generally accepted norms of how things should work.
Did you read or followup on any of your links? No, because you provide no statistical value to anything you say. Darius Jack is a malfunctioning Hal 5000; sounds impressive but complete garbled nonsense.
If you bothered to check even one of your links, a common problem is people do not calibrate the sticks. IOW, they don't follow instructions or read. Unless and until you break each entry down to the cause and effect level, nothing you say is worth reading. Come to think of it, nothing you say is worth reading regardless.
You've never owned a Solo, and don't know anything about Arducopter.
http://www.3drpilots.com/threads/brand-new-out-of-the-box-crashes-i...
Now bugger off to the rock you came out from under and analyze these
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1R4MaX8iZWRoyzKJ6rKr0U-p3x-6j0ZVm5a...
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=5945
https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Drone_DJI_Phantom_FlyAway
Or maybe do some "research" into the chronic cracking arms, untold numbers of flyaways, motors falling off mounts on all Phantom models, P3's and Inspires falling out of the sky even today, the failed attempt by DJI creating a working mission planner, how DJI completely screwed over their customers who paid several thousands of dollars for a system, then just left them dry http://www.dji.com/product/pc-ground-station
P.S. I've had two Solo's and did not have either flip over.
Perhaps the direction of the propeller is wrong?
Would be impossible.. Self locking props only fit in one direction. Otherwise they would get lost when motor is spinning up
Most of my landing and takeoff crashes have occurred because of GPS Doppler. This happens when a known good satellite is blocked and bounced off an object. You say so what. Well the satellite sends a time code with each signal and that time code is used to calculate your position on the ground. When it gets bounced it is delayed by several microseconds and when the GPS receiver gets this satellite signal it calculates a new position. This position is now several meters away from where it was, hence the flight controller responds by moving in the opposite direction sometime very quickly to correct for this position change.
After looking at some of my logs I have seen where the GPS position has changed by over 100 meters in one direction in a mater of seconds.
If I use a GPS mode I make sure it's in an open area.
@Michael,
GPS Doppler or GPS multi-path syndrome has been resolved 10+ years ago.
If your GPS still features multi-path error, try to replace it to one free from this syndrome.
3D vortexilation vs. 2D triangulation can offer multi-fix in parallel, if a number of satellites is above 5, since data from every 4 can be selected to calculated 3D fix.
Try to let your GPS to plot fix for 1-5 minutes, not moving it, using metal obstacles, to emulate multi-path to discover if your GPS is prone to multi-path syndrome.
Visit website of Ublox and read Ublox GPS manuals, technical specifications.
Flipping is generally due to Ground Effect ( described earlier).
Smart controller should pre-warm up every motor and every ESC (FETs) since msc control delay to one motor can easily flip your drone.
Take off is generally performed in VTOL mode, so GPS is not involved.
The same for landing (VTOL mode to avoid obstacles on the ground).
As in casse of professional helis, motors, electronics, ESCs should get pre-warmed
and propellers should idle freely on the ground to let pilot to detect monitored incorrect frame vibrations if any.
If you risk flipping, taking off at initial motors' RPM = 0, you can let motors to idle on the ground at RPM > 0 and then take off, as exactly in case of professional helis.
To avoid multi ESCs to be controlled in a loop, resulting in microsec trust / lift force delay on a particular motor/propeller on take off, every ESC should get timed take-off command as a single command (ESC clocks should be synced).
But pre-warming and motors idling before take-off should solve the problem of flipping
on take off.
On landing, if landing altitude is detected/ preset, drone should switch into Landing Mode, disabling GPS input and throttle should be controlled via IMU.AccelZ input,
to limit AccelZ and keep around > 0+ ( G offset), to deccelerate drone to land smoothly
Generally, a number of landing modes should be precalculated and preloaded to avoid Ground Effect ( landing on the grass, sand, asphalt ...)
Anyone who thinks GPS is a solved problem, clearly has not used GPS in real world applications.. Most of the techniques used in hand help GPS devices and on cars to improve the accuracy, fall apart when you fly in a 3D environment with vibrations and add EMI from other devices.
GPS by design is one of the least robust sensors we have on a UAS, and sadly the one we rely the most on.
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