Anyone having Problems with getting the Go Pro to Update.

[George Kenner]

My Gimbal arrived today and I have been trying to for the last 5 hours to get the programs updated. My Go Pro Camera face says version 2 but all other indications are that is it is updated to a version that works with the gimbal.

This is of course frustrating. I was expecting a simple plug and fly type of thing.. and somehow the systems are not talking to each other.

Anyone else dealing with anything like this?

 

[Raybro]

You might reset the GoPro.

How to Reset the Camera to Factory Defaults

 

[George Kenner]

I called GO Pro again first thing this morning and got the update issue resolved. Now I am updated but I am still getting an error that says I need to be updated from the solo APP.. I have the Hero3+ Silver.... I will keep everyone else informed if they are having the same problem.

The GoPro was not updating automatically over wifi so I had to do a manual update. The GoPro TEC Rep told me that this happens more frequently that they would like, blaming it on the Cellular Networks.

 

[George Kenner]

MORE UPDATE: Back on the phone with Go Pro. They told me although the Hero 3+ Silver has an upload to a version "HD3.10.02.00" the display at the front of the camera still reads 2.0 they said this is part of the system.... (really?)

I called 3D and went through that with them and they prompted me to a few screens on the app and it says that only three cameras work with the gimbal. Hero 4 Black & Silver and Hero 3 black.... NOT THE SILVER like all of the 3DRobotics literature says it will.

I am waiting to hear back from the engineering department at 3D the person in Customer Service understood that the the system is supposed to work with a Hero 3 D+ version. I sure hope this does not mean I am frozen unless I purchase a new camera.

Solo Specs: Just the facts | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology this clearly says 3D+ But if you have a SILVER be very cautious right now... just like gimbal delivery everything 3D does is not clear.

 

[Steven Ackerman]

Well - that's just #$% sweet ! I bought a Hero 3+ Silver back in June to use with the Solo and fictional gimbal... Hope I don't have to dump another $400 down this very expensive rabbit hole...

 

[George Kenner]

Steven: I am working thru thing right now. I was told I would have an answer from Engineering in two hours.... but.... I am one min short of those two hours.... Something is not right in "River City" this is an issue that could come back and bite them. I am really thinking of just calling my credit card company and holding the sale and reporting it to the Attorney General.... one little thing.. whatever, mistakes are made but when every tree in the forest in on fire....if you get my drift.

They have to know this..... and are calculating the fall out...

 

[Steven Ackerman]

Guess that it doesn't say anything about Hero 3+ Silver...

 

[Jubalr]

credit card company and holding the sale and reporting it to the Attorney General....
They have to know this..... and are calculating the fall out...

Seriously? Just ask for a refund if you are not happy. AG is not going to get involved nor should they. 3DR engineer has already said that one of the delays in the Gimbal was that GP had made a recent change in the API that required SW modifications for the Solo. Any chance these API changes effected this issue?

 

[George Kenner]

Jublar: Selling a product, upon which the consumer has made reliance is an important issue. If a tire store sells you tires to go on your car and they do not fit.... the tire store has a problem. Same thing with the DRONES.... It was supposed to work with GoPRO 3+ and it does not. I purchased this before there was any information about it, other than their statement it worked. Even now 3DR has got the same information posted that I made the reliance on, so more consumers could make a decision based upon the same BIG RELIANCE, their statement it works.

Attorney Generals are the fear factors for companies that do this. Make a claim keep it. Know your wrong correct it. And at this point 3DR is still hiding from the facts. If it is like you said and they knew and did not tell everyone earlier, that is an ethical issue that will have a weight in the minds of the Attorney General.

According to Colin they expected to sell one Million of these in the year was first released. One million people mislead... that is reason to call the attorney general.

I am a business person. I have hours into trying to figure this out thinking I was doing something wrong... the only thing I did wrong was place a reliance upon 3DR doing the right thing.

If they knew this I had to give them my credit card number again to get it shipped. Why did they not ask what camera I planned on using it with...?

 

[Steven Ackerman]

Just received from 3DR support:

Hello, Steven.

I hope you are doing great!

Unfortunately, you are right, the Gimbal does not support the GoPro Hero 3+ Silver, only the GoPro Hero 3+ Black and later versions.

Regards,

Ivan.
Customer Advocate
3D Robotics
Mon-Fri 8am-5pm PST
Sat-Sun 9am-2pm PST
(858)225-1414(855) 982-2898

 

[Jubalr]

Jublar: Selling a product, upon which the consumer has made reliance is an important issue. If a tire store sells you tires to go on your car and they do not fit.... the tire store has a problem. Same thing with the DRONES.... It was supposed to work with GoPRO 3+ and it does not. I purchased this before there was any information about it, other than their statement it worked. Even now 3DR has got the same information posted that I made the reliance on, so more consumers could make a decision based upon the same BIG RELIANCE, their statement it works.

Attorney Generals are the fear factors for companies that do this. Make a claim keep it. Know your wrong correct it. And at this point 3DR is still hiding from the facts. If it is like you said and they knew and did not tell everyone earlier, that is an ethical issue that will have a weight in the minds of the Attorney General.

According to Colin they expected to sell one Million of these in the year was first released. One million people mislead... that is reason to call the attorney general.

I am a business person. I have hours into trying to figure this out thinking I was doing something wrong... the only thing I did wrong was place a reliance upon 3DR doing the right thing.

If they knew this I had to give them my credit card number again to get it shipped. Why did they not ask what camera I planned on using it with...?

OK, no problem. I stand by the fact that this is not an AG issue unless you want to try and argue Fraud, but fraud does not exist without intent. And they would also have to be unwilling to refund your money if you purchased for an advertised feature that is not available, as that is what your damages are.

Your argument is that well into design and prototype, all the while working with GoPro on API requirements of the GoPro Hero Bus port, they all sat around a table with marketing and said "let's increase our sales by saying a specific model camera will work, even though we know it wont". And they got GoPro to go along with it.

My belief is that while working with GoPro on the API, GoPro planned the required updates that we were all told were coming. But something in that particular model camera did not work as GoPro had planned and 3DR had relied. Now that this is a reality, their only obligation is that they refund any customers not happy with the situation. Should they refuse to refund, you then have an issue for the AG.

 

[George Kenner]

Jubalr: The really nice thing about court is there are always two attorneys present and one is WRONG. I spent at least 8 hours of my time just trying to figure out if I was doing something wrong with the system. My time has some value. Clearly Steve Ackerman (who commented above) and I believed the system would work, we placed a reliance on what was stated by 3DR and spent our money to gain advantage from the 3 D Robotics claim .

Until I saw Steve's post I believed I was doing something wrong. No one was honest. How could it not have been discussed between sales and engineering that their claim was hollow that the HERO 3+ system did not work!. The claim came from so where, and it does not in my opinion matter if it came from Sales or Engineering... it came from 3DR.

Where was Colin and the CEO? Asleep at the wheel or to busy talking about selling 1 million units in the first year of production? Would you like a the Youtube URL of Colin's interview with a major business news show. If that is true how many of the one million prospective buyers had a Hero 3+ that would not work? Given the number of people in the pool, I have a sense it is what is called a class! As in Class Action. The rule is, don't brag about the knowledge of the size of the market and then not present the promised result to thousands of people. Attorney Generals smell injustice and fines. Attorneys smell money in class action law suits.

Now when did 3D know that it would not work... and why did they say it would work? PROFIT..? . Are you an attorney and do you really know the statue of frauds in Ca? If you did I have a feeling you would be asking Steve and I to call you.

I bet more comes out of this in the near future. Discussion forums like this have a way of changing the direction of large corporations. Maybe you heard that this is a deep pockets venture... over 50 mil from Qualcomm alone.... And 3DR wants to now ignore, they made the claim they did not know which version of the Gopro would or would not work... Really? Don't put business people on the jury or 3D is cooked. (just my opinion, time will tell)

3DR Raises $50M in Funding, Extends Mobile Tech to Drones

Trust me I took the koolaid I loved the concept of the product and I love the claims, but they were in my opinion hollow. I have offered on the 3D facebook page to deliver my drone to the engineering department here in San Diego to make it work as promised and they did not respond.

Next stop "BEST BUY" do you think they really want to sell these products knowing the claims of performance do not meet expectations....at least according to what Steve posted in the thread above... looks to me like it does not work as was planned or promoted.

 

[Jubalr]

Jubalr: The really nice thing about court is there are always two attorneys present and one is WRONG. I spent at least 8 hours of my time just trying to figure out if I was doing something wrong with the system. My time has some value. Clearly Steve Ackerman (who commented above) and I believed the system would work, we placed a reliance on what was stated by 3DR and spent our money to gain advantage from the 3 D Robotics claim .

Until I saw Steve's post I believed I was doing something wrong. No one was honest. How could it not have been discussed between sales and engineering that their claim was hollow that the HERO 3+ system did not work!. The claim came from so where, and it does not in my opinion matter if it came from Sales or Engineering... it came from 3DR.

Where was Colin and the CEO? Asleep at the wheel or to busy talking about selling 1 million units in the first year of production? Would you like a the Youtube URL of Colin's interview with a major business news show. If that is true how many of the one million prospective buyers had a Hero 3+ that would not work? Given the number of people in the pool, I have a sense it is what is called a class! As in Class Action. The rule is, don't brag about the knowledge of the size of the market and then not present the promised result to thousands of people. Attorney Generals smell injustice and fines. Attorneys smell money in class action law suits.

Now when did 3D know that it would not work... and why did they say it would work? PROFIT..? . Are you an attorney and do you really know the statue of frauds in Ca? If you did I have a feeling you would be asking Steve and I to call you.

I bet more comes out of this in the near future. Discussion forums like this have a way of changing the direction of large corporations. Maybe you heard that this is a deep pockets venture... over 50 mil from Qualcomm alone.... And 3DR wants to now ignore, they made the claim they did not know which version of the Gopro would or would not work... Really? Don't put business people on the jury or 3D is cooked. (just my opinion, time will tell)

3DR Raises $50M in Funding, Extends Mobile Tech to Drones

Trust me I took the koolaid I loved the concept of the product and I love the claims, but they were in my opinion hollow. I have offered on the 3D facebook page to deliver my drone to the engineering department here in San Diego to make it work as promised and they did not respond.

Next stop "BEST BUY" do you think they really want to sell these products knowing the claims of performance do not meet expectations....at least according to what Steve posted in the thread above... looks to me like it does not work as was planned or promoted.

OK. No problem. I'm in court at least 3 days a week anyway. Proceed with your complaint and good luck to you. I'll be watching for your progress in the AG reports. Sorry it didn't work out for you. You should be able to get a P3 and have money left over.
Fly Safe..

 

[Toiletbowl]

im lucky im not a business person so my life is easy and happy no worries, no problem, no complain, no stress, no brain damage. i just want to buy solo soon to enjoy my self taking nice photos, videos and make my life happy, AMEN

 

[George Kenner]

Jublar: I am respectful or you and your comments but let me touch on one of them. And I quote you to ask these questions.

"Your argument is that well into design and prototype, all the while working with GoPro on API requirements of the GoPro Hero Bus port, they all sat around a table with marketing and said "let's increase our sales by saying a specific model camera will work, even though we know it wont". And they got GoPro to go along with it."

At some point 3DR went past "prototype" and into production. The promotion movie was done and released as was the date of the offered product, Solo with gimbal. The specs were written and offered with the product for sale and then delivered. That is just logic and seems to be impossible to argue.

But reality is the gimbal was not even finished so how did they make the movie? They made the presentation, it was done and gave the specs and release dates. Reality is they sold a theory! They did not have it fully engineer finished. They came out after shipping and said they had not even put the gimbal into production. At least I believed that is was only a shipping from China thing not that the product was still being engineered. Why issue specs on something that is not even made, if not to induce the public to buy? They made the claim it worked with the HERO3+ that did not come from the public.

As for GoPro, you theorize that they had to be complicit in this. Really? The Hero3+ was in public distribution and able to be tested with the 3DR software and controler and gimbal. If the software was not manufactured there had to be a discussion about going to market before everything worked. Right? The controller and the software is a 3DR product. All they needed was one GoPro to test it with. I think its a fair statement to say they never tested it and if they did it did not work, as it does not work now?

Might I also add that I have heard from GoPro Staff that they are working on their own drone. So at some level these to companies compete. GoPro spent hours on the phone with me trying to figure this out. If they had know it would not work they would have got me off the phone. Right? I had to hear it from Engineering at 3DR it would not work.

To compound this 3DR shipped the Gimbal to people like me without even asking if the change in their specs would effect us. Are we to believe they did not see this problem coming? Why take my money if they knew they were going to have to return it? Even today 3DR in knowing this has not addressed the issue on their Facebook page or a notice to buyers or on their web site. Why do this if not to profit?

I have a feeling as more of the gimbals arrive into the market this will be a more heated issue. We are doing no more than sharing with other interested parties what our experience has been and the opinions we have formed of the products and presentation.

The presentation I saw was take this completed product out of the box, stick your GoPro in it and take pictures and video. Reality was the engineering was not done nor was the product even finished. It was not even in production. And when it was made it did not meet the specs upon which the public had to make a reliance.

Unfair Trade Practice? Did this action create and unfair playing field for DJI to compete with?

 

[Jubalr]

[QUOTE="
At some point 3DR went past "prototype" and into production. The promotion movie was done and released as was the date of the offered product, Solo with gimbal. The specs were written and offered with the product for sale and then delivered. That is just logic and seems to be impossible to argue.[/QUOTE]

Busy, so I will be brief. Not really looking to get into a lengthy debate. I wished you well with your AG complaint and offered a popular working product as a purchase suggestion to at least get you flying and as happy as possible.

As President of a successful high tech products company I can assure you that your statement above is flawed and sounds like something from a conspiracy theorist. There is a very big difference in a working product and a PRODUCTION product. Something my company went through in just the last few months. We had a working design and actually sent samples to few testers to use (something I can assure you 3DR did as well). It was in the finished mold and looked every bit a finished product. And for many functions it worked well. We could have shown it at shows back in January and demonstrated key features. But like 3DR and the gimbal, it was not working the way we wanted it and I would not release it. I had promises from firmware and hardware people that XX feature would be done and available in XX days. Didn't happen. And as the changes were complete, they would often bring along a different issue to resolve. Again though, we let a few people use it, took there suggestions and improved until we released 2 weeks ago.

Bottom line; 3DR had a pre production gimbal that was good enough to shoot a few videos and show the promise. But had issues that needed to be resolved for PRODUCTION units. This involved not only the stated issue with wind, but FW issues and GoPro completing the GP firmware upgrades (we were also told of the need for that early on). The FW changes for the blacks came and there will probably be more. the FW for the silver will either be coming, or 3DR and GP ran into an issue on the silver they did not anticipate.

Regarding your statement on the upcoming GP drone? I would be surprised if it was not Pixhawk based. I'm sure that the relationship between GP and 3DR was based on 3DR gets access to the APIs for the Hero Bus and GP gets assistance with Pixhawk and specific features that may only be available to the GP drone.

Again.. Good luck with you AG complaint.

Take Care..
Jubal

 

[George Kenner]

Jublar: Your Conspiracy Theorist comment was great. Making this simple as I did is of course counter intuitive to a engineer or scientist but it is a well grounded principle. I am sure you have heard of Occam's Razor, the simple answer it most likely the answer. Their is another principle used in Law Enforcement... "Follow the Money" as most things in business are done for profit /gain.

Here is what I believe the public perception is.

3DR has a SOLO, the gimbal and all the cameras it says it works with sitting on a table, They put each of the cameras in the system them and test it, to confirm the specs. You know a typical quality control measure.

But that is not want happened before it went into production, and or distribution, as it does not work! The PUBLIC wants simple working products from companies who have been promised them.

Here is the damming point for 3DR even thou they knew / know it does not work, they are not telling their clients. They shipped the to the public and took the money when they had to know it did not work! NOT REAL SMART of 3DR to do this. Very bad public relations....

I am in San Diego, I have offered to take my drone to the 3DR Facilty here to make it work... that has not been responded to. They have also not called me from customer service, with a work around or any partial plan. I have a app that insists I have to update my camera to do anything when in fact my camera is not compatible.

 

[Steven Ackerman]

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Please do not use my posts in these forums to decide to withhold 3DR products or their support.

Despite the rhetoric in these forums I am not currently connected with, and do not plan to be connected with any class action against 3DR.

I design and manufacture embedded industrial controllers for a living - for the past 40+ years. I'm fully aware of the constant trade offs that must be made between management, marketing, engineering and production whilst bringing a new product online.

Am I disappointed ? Momentarily, sure. But this is the price that you pay to be on the bleeding edge of technology.

 

[George Kenner]

I loved that comment "bleeding edge". I was watching a review of the solo by a reseller and he was talking about Colin trying to bring this to the "Public" not the high tech crowd in what I think he called and "Applesque Manner"/ Although some techie guys are very forgiving Colin wanted to sell one million of these in the first year of production. That is a lot of techies....and some new people to the hobby that expect it to work, and as promised.

Class action is a long shot but I am 90% sure our AG has the ability to fine for things like this. That money just goes to general fund no one would get it.... that is the reason Companies need to be honest with consumers.

The average non techie guys figures they fly the sucker around with the equipment they say it works with. That is what I thought. I am no Techie... someone mentioned API earlier... I do not even know what an API is... I just care about the drone working as promised, and being fairly dealt with.

Still I have not seen a notice that this is a problem on their site or facebook page... thus the problem is only blooming larger.

 

[User Name]

I'd be curious to know the specifics on why the 3+ Black would work, but the Silver wouldn't. With the reported collaboration between 3DR and GoPro, you'd think they'd be able to work out what has to be little more than a software issue.

As for law suits and the involvement of the AG, it seems a little drastic, doesn't it? Many years ago, I bought a high-end (at the time) computer video card to use with a specific application. They had advertised it as supporting that application in an upcoming driver update. More than a year went buy with no driver update and they quietly dropped the application from official support. I approached the company for a replacement with an equivalent card that DID support my application and they ignored me. I ended up contacting my state's AG and within 2 weeks, the company contacted me to arrange an exchange of my card for a newer one.

The point being that while the AG can help, you're unlikely to achieve more than a refund. That being the case, why don't you just contact 3DR and request a refund, in all likelihood, they'll be happy to give you one. Especially in technology, these things simply happen, and surly 3DR didn't intentionally set out to defraud Hero 3+ Silver owners specifically. How would they benefit? If the person is unhappy, they loose a customer. If the person bites the bullet and buys a new camera, GoPro gains, not 3DR.

Given 3DR's replacement policy for lost/damaged Solos, they seem to be extremely customer focused. It's just hard to believe that's just a facade and their true intention is to sell incompatible products to people just to make a buck.