From Pixhawk Developer and GPS hardware choice..

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I would like to share a recent post by Marco Robustini, someone I have a great deal of respect for in this industry. He does a lot of code writing for the Pixhawk/APM platforms and testing on various other platforms. Must of us here know this already, but like I have been saying about BB selling the Solo and customers buying on impuse, users must be able to fly in manual mode and not have to rely on GPS regardless of who makes the drone.
Marco is highly respected by his piers and lives in Italy (you can almost hear his accent in his writing). I recommend his you tube channel where you can see some of his work. https://www.youtube.com/user/erarius

by Marco Robustini 36 minutes ago


Greetings to all.
I can't leave you my feedback about "Solo" because at this round 3DR it decided to not send here a unit to do some tests, but i'am certain that this quad uses most of the "APM:Copter" code, which reached an incredible level of stability, i can safely say this.
Talking with Chris i told him did not like the choice of the "Neo 7M" gps because for over a year i've been usingthe M8N, certainly higher as performance and slightly more expensive (few dollars), my YouTube channel is full of videos showing his performace.
Regardless of all of this i believe that relying too much to automatic is dangerous, those who use these aircraftshould always know how to fly in "Stabilize" mode (with only self level enable) for recovery because the gps and barometer can fail, and the gps unit "series 7 and 8" are very "picky" when you fly close to buildings or major obstacles that can create annoying rebounds signal, tested and verified here a lot of time.Even with my "DJI Phantom 3 Pro" yesterday i had a "strange" behavior, i was in gps hold and began to flyawayto 4m/s with both sticks to center position (classic "flyaway" caused by gps glitch), i switched to ATTI mode (alt hold) and i regained control, switched still gps hold and the aircraft stopped as it should do.We should not consider these aircraft as toys, still require a fair amount of experience of driving, although theoretically can fly alone is said to be trusted too.
The perfect machine does not exist, and when you fly you have to know this concept, to be able to better manage any eventuality.
My two cents...

Bests, Marco
 
Much as that guy is an Arducopter expert, he's got the GPS model incorrect for the Solo, it's the Neo 7N (the 7M is the cheaper version).

The Neo 7N was tested against the M8N in the US, Europe and Australia, the results between the two in the Solo were negligible. The M8N uses a wideband antenna which picks up more noise, there were other issues two which 3DR have briefly gone through on Facebook.

Currently there's even an open bug with the M8N: https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2097

He's right about too much reliance on auto features is a concern especially when people fail to use common sense and film close to structures that limit their GPS.
 
Sorry to hear Marco is out of the development loop - at least as SOLO goes.
Now when the investors poured $64 millions into 3DR, nothing will be like before.
New developers, new testers, new team.
And sharp turn from open source to closed source, even if the closed source code is build from open source GPL components. This is the cost of venture capital.
 
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Sorry to hear Marco is out of the development loop - at least as SOLO goes.
Now when the investors poured $64 millions into 3DR, nothing will be like before.
New developers, new testers, new team.
And sharp turn from open source to closed source, even if the closed source code is build from open source GPL components. This is the cost of venture capital.
I don't believe he is out of the development loop and still assists with the code. He has just not received a unit for testing yet. The Solo still uses the Pixhawk II with certain parameters preset for the Solo only.
 
If you have not received one for testing 3 weeks after Tommy Jr can buy one at Best Buy you are either a) out of the development loop or b) 3DR is more disorganized that I think !

LOL
 
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If you have not received one for testing 3 weeks after Tommy Jr can buy one at Best Buy you are either a) out of the development loop or b) 3DR is more disorganized that I think !

LOL
I think it has more to do with him being overseas and they have not shipped outside the US. In addition, since the Arducopter code is open source they may not be sending units to every code writer.
I see his latest tests are on the P3P. Have you checked them out Rich? I haven't had a chance yet. I saw one title that his came out of the box with a broken gimbal.
 
My is just a point of view detected by thousands of hours of flight with these code.
I would say that you have read the sign, you did strike... :)
 
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Hi Marco, I'm glad to see you here. I'm great fan of you and really appreciate what are you doing for the Ardupilot community. :)
If you want to see something really interesting, take a closer look inside of the DJI's GPS PRO PLUS. I'll post more info together with real flight and static tests in various adverse situations later. Of course, it WILL be compared to SOLO.
 
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3DR imho has made the right choices, it's investing heavily on this product but is following policies completely different than once, i think Colin is taking upon herself the part relating "Solo", then some things have obviously changed.
Only the "flight" part of the code is a derivative of "APM:Copter" (inside there's the new "Pixhawk 2"), but there is also much more, all tx/rx control/video management is not open (i think).
So "Solo" is a commercial product "a little closed," as all the DJI product.
Look at the LiPO batteries, flies only with his.
I was lucky enough to be able to bring Chris in my city as part of an drones exhibition that i organized in March, this to me it's worth more than anything else, even a "Solo" unit... :D
 

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If you have not received one for testing 3 weeks after Tommy Jr can buy one at Best Buy you are either a) out of the development loop or b) 3DR is more disorganized that I think !

LOL
Don't know if you saw my post end of last week, but after waiting over two months in pre paid que at 3dr and getting nowhere with customer service I cancelled my order and purchased a P3..recieved it in less than a week...so far seems to b as reliable as my P2 whch I have well over 100 hours of fight time on without one glitch. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsC5NRn3QQb2Pm5D2bwiBrA
 
Thanks for the update Ken. So you don't have a Solo and are satisfied with your P3, that's great. But why the post here?
 
Thanks for the update Ken. So you don't have a Solo and are satisfied with your P3, that's great. But why the post here?

I think he just picked the wrong thread to post in is all.

Glad to hear it Ken. I could not be happier with my P3 either.
 
Hi guys

i am looking for GPS upgrade for my original 6H GPS from 3dr pixhawk.

any plug and play gps recommend? 7N better or M8N is better? where to buy is most reliable? please please advise. thx so much
 
If you're building a rig I'd personally have 2 7N's on there then one acts as a backup.
 
If you're building a rig I'd personally have 2 7N's on there then one acts as a backup.
so u mean 7N is better then use m8n right? i heard some forum some ppl said duo gps is not safe..it will go crazy when jump from gps 1 to gps 2 or the other way around...so.where can i get the reliable 7N gps? can u send me the link for it? i wonder if those from ebay is reliable..please let me know some of ur recommendation ...thx so so much
 
I get from Hong Kong sellers on eBay think there's only 1 or 2 selling the 7N.

There used to be a glitch a long time ago switching between GPS units but the last I saw that had been fixed, that was probably a year since.
 

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