Angry, Frustrated and Disappointed

Tigger · Aug 23, 2016

I have owned my Solo now for two months.

I have never managed to have the first flight due to the faultiness of the system.

Support keeps copy-pasting me the same crap again and again and won't bother to read what happened with their advice on a previous round.

This is the worst ever consumer product experience I have had during my entire life.

I would just want to send the piece of **** back to 3DR and hope I never bothered.

So I came to tell this all here to see if anyone had the same nightmare or if there was some advice how to get rid of my Solo.

Pedals2Paddles · Aug 23, 2016

Well you haven't told us anything. So how about instead of just saying "they aren't helping me", explain what your problem is and maybe we can help. Also, if you just want to get rid of it, I will provide you with a pre-paid shipping label and take it off your hands.

Mountain Flyer · Aug 23, 2016

Fortunately I have not had to deal with support for anything yet. (Knock wood) I have found that when they stop arguing with each other the posters here are quite knowledgeable and helpful with problems. Perhaps there is a board member that lives near you that might be able to help you get flying. As far as selling it goes, if you tried craigslist etc people are going to want to see it work.
I found my own to be a little frustrating out of the box as well since the documentation provided by 3dr in the box is hardly adequate. I updated the solo and controller and fought magnetic interference for two weeks before resetting the parameter in tower as described here magnetic interference I then did level and compass calibration and have been flying happily since. I did have issues with calibrating too. It seems that not many agree on the right way to do it and the app pictures are kind of worthless I used this method and it worked very well and I believe it is what they are trying to convey in the app animation.
Picture north as 12 O clock and rotate it as if a rod passed through it from one hand to the other if both extended in front of you. With the nose at 12 and the body level to ground rotate it as if the imaginary rod passed through its center. Rotate the body still level until the nose points at 10:30 and rotate again as if that same rod passed through it from hand to hand. Turn to 9 o clock (east) and repeat, always rotate as though the imaginary rod went from hand to hand extended in front of you. Repeat these steps at 7:30, 6, 4:30, 3, 1:30 and back to 12. The green bar on the app should be full and compass calibration complete when you get back to the nose facing north again.
With any luck following these steps should get you flying. Then you can sell it on craiglist or ebay or maybe decide you like flying and keep it.

Tigger · Aug 23, 2016

I think consumer products should not be sold like they were "fly out of the box"-experience if they require that propeller hat hobbying like any of this "troubleshooting" presents. If I want to hack and tune with drones - thats a different hobby than flying them to film, which is what Solo is ultimately marketed for. Solo on my case is not delivering its promise - simple as that. One who disagree, just proves the point he probably bought Solo for hacking and loves playing with electronics, settings, etc.

Anyways. My latest Solo "experience" is when I got stuck with the "Level Error". This, after series of other errors dealt with numerous factory-reset-sw-update-rain-dances. This time, I cannot reconnect the app with controller in order to fix "level error". It seems the only way to get connected is to start with the factory reset process again, which last time enabled reconnect but created this "level error" (at that time I was trying to connect to fix "control stick error".

Its going circles.

Mountain Flyer · Aug 23, 2016

After a factory reset you need to pair the controller to the solo again. Pairing the Controller | 3DR - Drone & UAV Technology Try that and see if everything will connect afterwards.

aidanlou · Aug 23, 2016

If you're in LA I'd be happy to help in person (or video call or something if you're desperate)

It sounds like you're having a problem similar to the one I had when I got mine. Basically you never get all of the way through the update and initial setup stuff.

I solved this problem by finagling basically but after it worked the first time, I never had that problem again.

Mountain Flyer · Aug 23, 2016

I'm near Denver and generally drive a few hours each weekend to go flying anyway. If near me I'd be happy to help. All of these things are about the same as far as their out of the box readiness. I have had the same types of issues with DJI as well. They are precision equipment and need to be calibrated right for the location it will be flown in. They all make it sound like you just take it out of the box and charge it up but they all need a certain amount of jumping through hoops by the operator until they are happy with their calibrations. The dance changes with machines but they all want a little romance before they put out. Granted those parts aren't fun and take away from your time in the air, they also make sure that it comes back to you when you tell it to and operates in a safe and controlled manner while in the air. 3dr has sold a lot of these and there is most likely someone near you who can assist with the problems you are experiencing.

SARDG · Aug 23, 2016

The vast majority of these things will fly right out of the box, but people with one or 2 posts like to make those 1 or 2 posts a rant. Understandably, 3dr wants to update all SW/FW automatically and then calibrate - IF YOU LET IT.

Here are the Calibration Instructions:
Calibrations | 3DR - Drone & UAV Technology
Take your time, don't leave out any steps.

Sounds as though you have grander problems with only the basics so Stick Cal can come after you are connected and Solo is purring on the bench.

If you let us know EXACTLY what steps you are doing/have done AND what App version and 3DR Services version you are running, and what Solo & controller version, someone here can likely get you flying. Also... what device (tablet) and what version OS on that tablet. Also, tell us what boot sequence you are using... should be:

App - completely boot
Controller - completely boot
Solo - completely boot
Connect to SoloLink

Tigger · Aug 23, 2016

Mountain Flyer said:
After a factory reset you need to pair the controller to the solo again. Pairing the Controller | 3DR - Drone & UAV Technology Try that and see if everything will connect afterwards.

Thanks for all the efforts to help and explain!

I did this the latest:

1- Factory Reset | 3DR - Drone & UAV Technology
2- Pairing the Controller | 3DR - Drone & UAV Technology
3- First-Flight Update | 3DR - Drone & UAV Technology

Now I got to the point where after Step 3 update, new "level error" appears to the controls but I cannot get the controls to connect with the app to fix it.

aidanlou · Aug 23, 2016

When this happens is your phone connected to the controller wifi? Probably I guess but worth asking.

What I did when this happened was I pulled the controller battery and reinstalled the app. The next time it initialized the calibrations worked.

Pedals2Paddles · Aug 23, 2016

A battery pull on the controller does often make it snap out of whatever is messing it up.

Your phone needs to be connected to the SoloLink wifi. If you already have that saved on your phone, go to the phone's WiFi settings and "forget" the network. Then reconnect to the SoloLink wifi network and input the default password ("sololink") when it prompts you. Once your phone is connected to the Sololink WiFi, that app should work fine.

Mountain Flyer · Aug 23, 2016

I am at work and have limited resources to draw on here but I believe that a factory reset also resets the wifi pass back to stock. It might be worth it to have your app forget it's solo wifi connection and then find it again. Try logging on with Sololink as the pass.
As Aidanlou stated, once everything was calibrated and happy I haven't had any problems. I am pleased enough that I recently bought a second one for a spare from the Amazon sale. I fully expect to have to update it and calibrate at the very least level and compass. This next one is coming from Indiana and God only knows where else it has been. For all I know it was sitting next to a subwoofer somebody else ordered this weekend on it's way to me. I worked for UPS briefly and expect that it has also been thrown and tossed around in loading and unloading. My point is that I will be extremely surprised if it gets here and I can fly it right out of the box.
With that said I also understand the mistakes I made the first time. SARDG stated it well when he said "Take your time." I was impatient the first time and had to start over a few times before getting it right. I also expect the battery to be drained to around 80% if not lower by the time it finishes and if I had only one I would recharge it before flying. I can fully relate to your issues as I have been there. I agree that 3dr could have done a better job explaining all of this to customers but once it is done the equipment operates as advertised very well. The actual instruction manual is available for download. I'm not sure why it isn't in the box where it belongs but it is available. https://3drobotics.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/203316413/v9_02_25_16.pdf
Once it is happy Solo does get some very nice footage. This is from my 3rd, 5th and 6th flights with it. The horrible landing area was on my third flight but I had to have pictures of the view and it was the best spot available at the time.

SteveReno · Aug 23, 2016

Mountain Flyer said:
I am at work and have limited resources to draw on here but I believe that a factory reset also resets the wifi pass back to stock. It might be worth it to have your app forget it's solo wifi connection and then find it again. Try logging on with Sololink as the pass.
As Aidanlou stated, once everything was calibrated and happy I haven't had any problems. I am pleased enough that I recently bought a second one for a spare from the Amazon sale. I fully expect to have to update it and calibrate at the very least level and compass. This next one is coming from Indiana and God only knows where else it has been. For all I know it was sitting next to a subwoofer somebody else ordered this weekend on it's way to me. I worked for UPS briefly and expect that it has also been thrown and tossed around in loading and unloading. My point is that I will be extremely surprised if it gets here and I can fly it right out of the box.
With that said I also understand the mistakes I made the first time. SARDG stated it well when he said "Take your time." I was impatient the first time and had to start over a few times before getting it right. I also expect the battery to be drained to around 80% if not lower by the time it finishes and if I had only one I would recharge it before flying. I can fully relate to your issues as I have been there. I agree that 3dr could have done a better job explaining all of this to customers but once it is done the equipment operates as advertised very well. The actual instruction manual is available for download. I'm not sure why it isn't in the box where it belongs but it is available. https://3drobotics.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/203316413/v9_02_25_16.pdf
Once it is happy Solo does get some very nice footage. This is from my 3rd, 5th and 6th flights with it. The horrible landing area was on my third flight but I had to have pictures of the view and it was the best spot available at the time.

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SARDG is a Lady....

aidanlou · Aug 23, 2016

SteveReno said:
SARDG is a Lady....

tru

SARDG · Aug 23, 2016

SteveReno said:
SARDG is a Lady....

aidanlou said:
tru

You betcha... There are a couple of us on here...

Mountain Flyer · Aug 23, 2016

Gotcha. I'm working on getting the nieces interested in flying but they always seem to be busy looking for something called a pokemon.

aidanlou · Aug 23, 2016

Mountain Flyer said:
Gotcha. I'm working on getting the nieces interested in flying but they always seem to be busy looking for something called a pokemon.

I actually used a drone to catch Pokemon. Go figure

Endless Loop · Aug 24, 2016

Tigger
I had a similar experience about this time last year with my X8's. The tech just couldn't seem to follow the
email chain and/or answer any of the questions I had asked.
Back then you could still get phone support but I thought I read recently that it was discontinued.

You should try to escalate this issue and ask or demand to speak to a supervisor before it continues to get further out of hand as it did with me. If you have a new guy who's copy/pasting answers out of the training binder, it could go on for weeks and get you absolutely nowhere (trust me, I know).

My favorite answer (after a dozen emails) was while trying to get help about a crash and deciphering the Pixhawk log files, I was referred to a video link "that should help answer my questions". While it may have been informative to some, my reply back was "Thanks Gil, That's funny but I think I'm well beyond being able to unfold the arms and attach the propellers on an X8". I didn't take my own advice that time and eventually gave up because the answers he gave never corresponded to the questions I asked.
Even getting a supervisor may not get it resolved in a timely fashion. They've failed me once or twice also. You have to be very persistent. If you don't get a response from a real person within 3 business days, start calling or emailing right away.

I should also say that I have been on the other end of tech support as well with almost instant gratification in response and replacement of faulty components. Maybe it just depends on who you get to handle your case. Ask for someone else to help you.

Good luck

Tigger · Aug 24, 2016

aidanlou said:
When this happens is your phone connected to the controller wifi? Probably I guess but worth asking.

What I did when this happened was I pulled the controller battery and reinstalled the app. The next time it initialized the calibrations worked.

Thanks for all the help from everyone.

This time reinstalling the app helped.

Now it seems that I have managed to get everything else accomplished, calibrations, etc done but when pressing "FLY" on the controller, it initiates the green bar on the controller screen and then shows "Control stick error - contact 3dr support"

I tried to search a solution for this and found youtube film
Now I am stuck at time mark 0:53 of the film where I would need to place some password there? I don't get from the film what password is meant to be used there, and where to get it?

Tigger · Aug 24, 2016

Endless Loop said:
Tigger
I had a similar experience about this time last year with my X8's. The tech just couldn't seem to follow the
email chain and/or answer any of the questions I had asked.
Back then you could still get phone support but I thought I read recently that it was discontinued.

You should try to escalate this issue and ask or demand to speak to a supervisor before it continues to get further out of hand as it did with me. If you have a new guy who's copy/pasting answers out of the training binder, it could go on for weeks and get you absolutely nowhere (trust me, I know).

My favorite answer (after a dozen emails) was while trying to get help about a crash and deciphering the Pixhawk log files, I was referred to a video link "that should help answer my questions". While it may have been informative to some, my reply back was "Thanks Gil, That's funny but I think I'm well beyond being able to unfold the arms and attach the propellers on an X8". I didn't take my own advice that time and eventually gave up because the answers he gave never corresponded to the questions I asked.
Even getting a supervisor may not get it resolved in a timely fashion. They've failed me once or twice also. You have to be very persistent. If you don't get a response from a real person within 3 business days, start calling or emailing right away.

I should also say that I have been on the other end of tech support as well with almost instant gratification in response and replacement of faulty components. Maybe it just depends on who you get to handle your case. Ask for someone else to help you.

Good luck

Thanks for sharing the pain! That is exactly my experience as well. For two months I have not get anywhere with support. Its really annoying. I don't have that much free time in a month what it would take to get this solved with the support.

Luckily now with the help of people here I have made 100% more progress in two days than with support in two months! I just gave up the support as useless.

I am still stuck with the "Control Stick Error" which seems to be rather nasty one based on the writings that I found. I found a video about this but now I am stuck with next step (I described this on my other reply above).