If you got a chance to see the big 3DR area at NAB in Las Vegas last week, you'll have seen the new cameras and accessories for Solo first-hand (along with the new software features such as sense-and-avoid and smart rewind announced earlier). But here's a quick recap:
The new hardware:
The Sony UMC-R10C (above) for 3DR’s Site Scan enterprise solution. Available for preorder this summer.
Capture ultra-high resolution images with the gimballed Sony UMC-R10C. The large APS-C image sensor allows for exceptional low-light and low-noise performance. Automatically trigger 20MP stills that are ideal for high-resolution inspections and photorealistic georeferenced 2D and 3D models.
Kodak PixPro SP360 4K 360 cameras. An immersive 360-degree VR camera from Kodak, Made for Solo with custom stitching software. It ships this summer, either as a bundle with the vibration-isolated hard mount, or, if you have or buy the cameras separately, with the hard mount alone.
As if Solo wasn’t cool enough.
- Record 4k immersive 360 VR video from the air
- Vibration-isolated attachments for two SP360 4k action cameras
- Wearable remote control for synched recording
- State-of-the-art post-production stitching software customized for Solo
- Ships this summer
The Fiilex AL250 Light for Solo
Sky light:
- Dynamic set lighting from virtually any angle
- Detachable, for hand-held use
- Powerful enough for search & rescue and after-hours work
- Mount with a gimbaled camera
- 5600K CCT 2000 Lumen
- Shipping in the next few weeks!
The Hoverfly Tether for Solo
Endless flight:
- 150 ft-long powered tether (plugs into standard outlets)
- Set up a tripod in the sky: sports, events and job sites
- Pair with Fiilex light for scene lighting
- With Solo’s HDMI out, the perfect tool for live broadcast
A gimbal for the Flir Vue and the Flir Vue Pro IR cameras from RHP International.
Thermal imaging is here!
- Active 3-axis stabilized gimbal system
- Supports Flir Vue and Vue Pro thermal cmaeras
- Pan & tilt control from 3DR controller
- Video and image capture on integrated mini SD card
- Consolidated wire system
And lastly, some safety accessories from PolarPro: Prop guards and bright front/back LED lights, all Made for Solo.
PolarPro’s prop guards for Solo add an extra element of protection to your drone. They slip onto each Solo arm, with a retaining clip that locks them in place. Prop guards won’t prevent all crashes; however, they’re a great way to reduce the risk of damaging your drone.
The 3DR Solo LED lights from PolarPro securely mount to Solo for increased visibility while flying. The headlights are white and the taillights are red to allow pilots to determine their drone’s orientation in low light or at a distance.
Comments
Why did you take it to a local shop and not work with 3DR service?
something does not smell right
I too wish this camera was available outside the enterprise addition, hopefully someone can help fill that gap
I'm not happy about the Sony camera not being made available to non-enterprise customers, but all of our Solos have flown flawlessly out of the box. The last one took me less than 20 minutes to set up like our other mappers.
Sorry you've had a bad experience, Dronin. I'd opt to send it back to 3DR to fix the issues (and hopefully future issues) instead of a local repair shop, though.
Thats all great, but my SOLO still flies like shit and looses signal 20 feet away. I had a repair tech at local shop tell me that he opened up some SOLOs and found that some of the components such as the Antenna were not even connected. Plus these things shipped with default PID values giving me a super horrible flying experience. So all the fancy gear in the world wont change anything if the drone itself is so unreliable
That's a pitty.
Also, on the Vue pro- I'm guessing we don't have any control remotely over shutter and settings(or performing a FFC)? Live feed?
If these aren't available at release, are there plans to add those features?
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the comments, quite a good insight into the 4 prop argument, appreciate that.
Sorry Chris, don’t mean to be hijacking this discussion.
I still don’t think I can afford the risk of one of the props failing even if it is as small as you say. Other failures can come from bird strikes (I’ve had a number of near misses with Pigeons), clipping buildings (we do, do a lot of building surveys [I get you can put prop guards on but still…]) etc, etc. Yes we do need a bigger more powerful aircraft to carry a 35mm camera. The new DJI M600 is on our shopping list and it’s a shame 3DR doesn’t have an equivalent. I do have a number of Pixhawk powered aircraft but can’t transition them from R&D to commercial at this stage.
The UMC-R10C will only be available as part of the enterprise package, i believe.
Sony UMC-R10C looks interesting. Will it become available separately for use on other pixhawk airframes then the solo? Is there a complete spec list on the camera? Any idea on pricing yet?
Hi Greg,
I believe that is too simplistic a reaction.
Although it is true that additional motors can provide a backup recovery capability for a single motor failure, the fact is that is a relatively rare occurrence, and in a properly designed commercial quadcopter it is an extremely rare occurrence.
Much more common is a central system failure of some sort that results in total loss of control or in completely compromising control. Flight controller, GPS, flight RC radio or battery for instance.
And of course there the added props / motors don't help one whit, possibly compounding the problem instead.
On the Solo you have really good motors, ESCs and props and over a lot of flight hours, those have very seldom been an issue.
Assuming proper maintenance is done, it is much better to depend on the integrity of the whole system rather thasn to count on motor/prop/ESC redundancy to bail you out.
For a task within the reasonable load parameters of the Solo it is unlikely to be any less reliable or safe than any airframe with a greater number of prop motor units.
The main reason for wanting additional props in either a hex, octa or Y6 or X8 configuration is to enable carrying heavier loads.
It is a fact of the way multicopters work aerodynamically that motor size and prop diameter do not scale up well above certain prop diameters, because response rate in flying conditions suffers.
A multicopters flight characteristics tends to diminish with (non-variable pitch) prop diameters above 21" and becomes very problematic around 26 or 28 inches (regardless of number of props).
This community has been wrestling with the whole number of props issues for redundancy for several years and what has finally happened is really reliable motors, ESCs and props, kind of making that particular issue moot.
Get the best made multi you can for the weight you are going to carry and don't worry about wheter it is a quad or not.
Even for big loads under a lot of circumstances, a single rotor helicopter is a better solution than any multi as it's large rotor diameter is way more efficient than the smaller props found on multicopters.
But the only reason that works for helicopters is that they are variable pitch and the pitch changes on every revolution.
Reliability on hobby grade helis has been problematic in previous years, but current state of the art is quite possibly as or more reliable than multicopters (and that is what counts).
So if you really need performance, consider one of these:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/procyon-helicopter-demonstrates...
(Shameless plug for Rob and Bill)!Best regards,
Gary
But only 4 x rotors. Cool everything, but as a commercial operator I can't think about buying one (or more) because if one of those rotors fails you lose everything and or create disaster on the ground. I'm guessing the hexa / octa comes later this year?
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next