After spending many hours troubleshooting and waiting days for responses from support I finally took back my first Solo the was eventually deemed defective by 3DR for a number of issues. It took another 2.5hrs at the retailer to perform the exchange and a 5 day wait with a 3 hour commute to pick up Solo #2 at the nearest retailer with inventory.
I will say that I was quite excited when unboxing #2 as the whole process was extremely smooth compare the previous one. in less then 10 minutes #2 was updated to 1.05 and fully calibrated. It had 12-13 satelites registered and locked in seconds from startup. #1 took a minimum of 4-5 minutes if I was lucky to lock 6 for auto fly. Not to mention the controller showed full bars for solo connectivity and telemtry readings in the app were dead on.
With such good flight conditions before packing up the kids in the car to head over the field I decided to take #2 up and down just to confirm flight first. here is #2's first flight video 10 mins from coming out of the box.
Solo - $999
Gimbal(still haven't recieved) - $399
GoPro 4blk - $499
Xtra batterys - $597
spare parts - $80
40+hrs invested in troubleshooting/support and exchange of 1st Solo - $3000
Capturing this majestic first flight on video - Priceless!
Enjoy.
Replies
Can you please use the app to send the logs to tech support. They'll be able to diagnose and replace. Looks like a prop failed from the video, but we'd need the logs to be sure.
I have already taken back for the retailer to RMA. I did take it apart and put it all back together and was able to get it back to it's original physical state, minus the 3 broken props. This allowed me to reinsert the battery and power it up where complete the startup with out error's according to the LED's(2 white, 2 red), unfortunately the WiFi never came back on for the controller to see it. Even after a factory reset.
I can assure that at the very least one motor stopped if not more. As it descended I could see props not in motion and if you listen closely in the video you will will hear them cut off. It happened so fast but it looked like just one active prop just before making contact with the ground. The center of all of the props were tightly attached to the motor pods and all pieces were located at the scene of the crash.
Some are on Solo #3 or #4.
I have to question WHY you invested so much time and money in something which was not yet reviewed, proven and deemed reliable by 100's or thousands of users?
Surely you could have just ordered one of many models from Amazon or other vendors and saved a lot of time and money?
I'm sorry for your hassle, etc. but still scratch my head as to why people go through these chases
Some hobbyists enjoy hacking, breaking, fixing, building, modding and troubleshooting...so if that's the case, forgive my comments above. However, if you desire a real RTF camera/gimbal quad, look at models that have been out for months or years and are in stock complete, etc.
A general rule of thumb - if you are not familiar with the RTF hobby end - is to wait at least 90 days after a release and read unbiased reviews, etc.
Some companies, Parrot for example, took years to get their first model up to even their basic claims (released in 2010, still had problems in 2013).
Pioneers sometimes get scalped. There are a lot of down sides and almost no up sides except bragging rights.
If you want to hack around without a camera - get a good deal on an Iris+ or similar. If you want to fly a camera/gimbal quad and take good vids, etc get a Phantom 3, Yuneec Q500+ or Blade Chroma. If you want to race around and FPV, look at the $250 Walkera runner.
Be an educated consumer!
I will be on my 3rd one shortly, there are folks with fully functional Solo's, my neighbor was lucky enough to get one, I am on a quest. I early adopt many technologies often before they are released, my primary career is in R&D of emerging tech for fortune 500. I am very educated consumer and many months of research went in prior to me making this decision although I will admit my inner tech
I think what drew me in was the fact that 3DR was confident enough to put a $1000 price tag on the RTF and placed it in a big box store (BB). If the launch was kept to 3DR's on-line store and on hobby store's I probably would have held off until they marketed it to the everyday consumer. Only because I do not have the time Solo has required of me up until this point, but at this price point I can not justify leaving it broken in the box until I can deal with it. Based on my experience to this point, I feel like the RTF would be better suited on the shelves of a Brookestone.
I can only hope my 3rd Solo which I was told will arrive in 3 weeks, will truly be RTF for more then a minute...until then my cheerson cx-10 will make due.
Wow, that sucks. How was the battery voltage, first thing I thought of when I saw 10min out of the box. I hope that 3DR will quickly take care of this. Keep us posted.
What happend? A prop might have come off??
Sad...
Wow
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
of 6 Next