with how fast the quadcopter and drone Market is developing we might have to
get used to hearing this but the 3D robotics solo is the most advanced
flying machine we've yet piloted and is going to make a lot of enthusiasts happy
just like the personal rig update 2015 project that I'll be kicking off this
weekend drop a like if you're interested in seeing what kind of hairbrain scheme
I come up with this time
Corsair delivers real Mech or nothing with their new strafe mechanical
keyboard featuring genuine german-made Cherry MX key switches click on this
spot right here to learn more we're going to start with the tour of the
remote actually much like the parrot bbop 3dr has opted for a controller with
an onboard computer that acts as a Communications Hub so your phone or 7-in
class tablet fits in the springloaded Mount at the top and connects via Wi-Fi
to the solo link Wi-Fi network that is broadcasted by this then using a pair of
antennas on the back of the unit it maintains a shockingly crisp and
responsive video feed from the GoPro camera that is mounted to the front of
the Drone now of course physics is a thing and out at 250 ft or so the
Adaptive quality of the feed does go down and you will see some hitching but
at that kind of range you probably shouldn't be piloting firstperson view
through the tree Speeder Bike style anyway and it's definitely good enough
to give you some idea of what the camera is seeing up there also back at the back
of the remote is the micro HDMI output that can be hooked up to a head-mounted
display or anything with an HDMI input and pan and tilt controls for the GoPro
compatible 3axis gimbal Mount that's coming very soon and boy are we ever
excited about that on the left is a plug for the included controller charger then
we get to the business end here here the sticks do the usual things left for yaw
and elevation and right for forward backward and strafing but then there's
some cool stuff here too the A and B buttons can be bound through the app to
various flight modes so we'll cover those later return home has a dedicated
button that puts the drone at about 40 ft then slowly and very stably brings it
back to where it took off pause solo acts as a virtual e bra power is pretty
self-explanatory and fly handles automatic takeoff and Landing the app
which I just mentioned is pretty straightforward and other than some flakiness with the live video feed that
we think we've resolved by connecting to Wi-Fi first then launching the app on
the phone seems to be stable on both iOS
and Android right out of the gate unusual and impressive it allows you to
see your GPS location overlaid on a map update the firmware record the videos
transmitted from the solo to your phone directly to your camera roll adjust
inlight responsiveness anywhere from you know the Drone barely moves when you
push the sticks to wa it's a little fast for me I'm going to turn it back down to
medium and even allows you to enable Advanced flight modes that don't lean on
the drones onboard GPS to keep it where
it's supposed to be but one of the things I actually like most about the
both the app and the display in the middle of the controller is that you can
find all the information you need like controller and solo battery life
altitude air speed distance between the two units oh and on top of that it talks
to you when something bad happens like if the battery is low absolutely
fantastic all right so I haven't actually left much time to talk about
the solo itself have I let's go quick then inside the really cool box that
could easily act as a carry case you'll find the solo six propellers so you'll
have one extra of each of the two types in case you crash the massive 5200
milliamp battery that keeps this puppy in flight for over 20 minutes a charger
for that and the GoPro Mount but to find
the coolest things about the solo we have to look a little closer than the
shiny and matte black top that I personally think looks great not that
that matters when it's supposed to be flying above you anyway and check out
the bottom each propeller ARM has colored LEDs for orientation assistance
the landing gear is strong but flexible so it shouldn't snap very easily and
there's not one but two mounts here for extra stuff one gimbal Mount and one
accessory Mount which 3dr is encouraging developers to create products for some
of the stuff in the queue is an LED flashlight and a parachute for safely
flying over people sick all right so let's talk about flight now then she
handles as well as 3dr says no flyways
no unexpected Behavior the most stable desense I've yet encountered even what
in what I would describe as very noticeable but not unpleasant gusts of
wind and in spite of the weight of this puppy just generally very good behavior
in the air as long as you don't do anything dumb like forget that you're
set to the slowest possible turning speed or set it to orbit you when
there's an obstacle in the default 20 M radius it managed to be effortless
enough that Brandon having never flown an RC Airborne vehicle before was able
to watch 20 minutes of 3drs Flight Academy videos which I recommend by the
way and operated out of the box while also not being boring for someone like
me who while I'm anything but an expert has logged dozens of hours in the air
with quads and planes but let's talk about pre-programmed flight patterns one
of the big selling points of the solo along with the fword which I never
recommend counting on so here's what it does today a couple of the modes selfie
and cable cam could be performed by a good drone operator in his or her sleep
both are activated in the air selfie allows both an A and B point to be set
with the default at 50 m so you activate it with the button and the Drone flies
away backwards away from you then swoops back in towards you at a predetermined
speed for a really dramatic looking shot
and cable cam pretty much just goes from one point to another as though the Drone
was operating on a cable you can control yah and if you had one you'd be able to
control the gimbal but that's it two of
the other modes would be difficult to impossible to do well for any but the
most skilled drone operators orbit and
follow both of these are also activated in flight and rely on the target being
orbited or followed to carry the controller and the mobile device that's
connected to it orbit worked as expected
goes around you and keeps the camera pointed at you follow seems to have a 3
to 4 second delay when the target changes Direction and some shakiness
that would definitely benefit from stabilization but it's a very good start
and on that stabilization note I guess we can make our way into the conclusion
for this video where I will have to address the glaring Omission in the rest
of everything that I've said quality of the inflight recorded video well thanks
to the close partnership with GoPro even
without a gimbal Our Hero 3 plus Black Edition delivered IMO better than that
horrible bundled camera on the 350 qx3
in spite of the fact that that one had a gimbal but that doesn't mean it's great
or even really usable for anything other than real time monitoring or hey that's
some cool footage thanks to its weight and advanced onboard Electronics solo is
shockingly stable in flight but it's still in flight and the $400 gimbal is
in my mind a required accessory if you want to get the most out of flight modes
like follow and orbit or if you're using the solo for anything other than going
out and flying for fun so expect to see
a follow-up video Once that's available where we discuss its performance and
whether 3dr has managed to deliver on the fword promise through the
development of first and third party accessories and even perhaps through the
availability of things like mounts for black Magic's new super tiny camera
which it's rumored might be light enough to be pulled by this puppy as it stands
now the solo is impressive in almost every way flight time performance build
quality GoPro compatibility and the fact that you can get a live feed from the
GoPro instead of some Goofy camera but of course that comes at a cost and with
the gimbal this puppy is going to set you back well over a,
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and check it out thanks for watching guys if this video
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you've done all those things you're probably wondering what to watch next so
click that little button in the top right corner to check out the video
where I take gsync and freesync and test them with a high-speed camera to see
which which one delivers the best responsiveness in gaming