3DR Solo Drone - My New Favorite Quadcopter
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,899 words · ~9 min read
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with how fast the quadcopter and drone Market is developing we might have to
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get used to hearing this but the 3D robotics solo is the most advanced
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flying machine we've yet piloted and is going to make a lot of enthusiasts happy
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just like the personal rig update 2015 project that I'll be kicking off this
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weekend drop a like if you're interested in seeing what kind of hairbrain scheme
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I come up with this time
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Corsair delivers real Mech or nothing with their new strafe mechanical
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keyboard featuring genuine german-made Cherry MX key switches click on this
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spot right here to learn more we're going to start with the tour of the
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remote actually much like the parrot bbop 3dr has opted for a controller with
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an onboard computer that acts as a Communications Hub so your phone or 7-in
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class tablet fits in the springloaded Mount at the top and connects via Wi-Fi
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to the solo link Wi-Fi network that is broadcasted by this then using a pair of
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antennas on the back of the unit it maintains a shockingly crisp and
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responsive video feed from the GoPro camera that is mounted to the front of
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the Drone now of course physics is a thing and out at 250 ft or so the
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Adaptive quality of the feed does go down and you will see some hitching but
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at that kind of range you probably shouldn't be piloting firstperson view
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through the tree Speeder Bike style anyway and it's definitely good enough
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to give you some idea of what the camera is seeing up there also back at the back
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of the remote is the micro HDMI output that can be hooked up to a head-mounted
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display or anything with an HDMI input and pan and tilt controls for the GoPro
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compatible 3axis gimbal Mount that's coming very soon and boy are we ever
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excited about that on the left is a plug for the included controller charger then
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we get to the business end here here the sticks do the usual things left for yaw
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and elevation and right for forward backward and strafing but then there's
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some cool stuff here too the A and B buttons can be bound through the app to
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various flight modes so we'll cover those later return home has a dedicated
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button that puts the drone at about 40 ft then slowly and very stably brings it
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back to where it took off pause solo acts as a virtual e bra power is pretty
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self-explanatory and fly handles automatic takeoff and Landing the app
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which I just mentioned is pretty straightforward and other than some flakiness with the live video feed that
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we think we've resolved by connecting to Wi-Fi first then launching the app on
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the phone seems to be stable on both iOS
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and Android right out of the gate unusual and impressive it allows you to
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see your GPS location overlaid on a map update the firmware record the videos
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transmitted from the solo to your phone directly to your camera roll adjust
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inlight responsiveness anywhere from you know the Drone barely moves when you
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push the sticks to wa it's a little fast for me I'm going to turn it back down to
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medium and even allows you to enable Advanced flight modes that don't lean on
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the drones onboard GPS to keep it where
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it's supposed to be but one of the things I actually like most about the
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both the app and the display in the middle of the controller is that you can
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find all the information you need like controller and solo battery life
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altitude air speed distance between the two units oh and on top of that it talks
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to you when something bad happens like if the battery is low absolutely
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fantastic all right so I haven't actually left much time to talk about
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the solo itself have I let's go quick then inside the really cool box that
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could easily act as a carry case you'll find the solo six propellers so you'll
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have one extra of each of the two types in case you crash the massive 5200
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milliamp battery that keeps this puppy in flight for over 20 minutes a charger
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for that and the GoPro Mount but to find
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the coolest things about the solo we have to look a little closer than the
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shiny and matte black top that I personally think looks great not that
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that matters when it's supposed to be flying above you anyway and check out
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the bottom each propeller ARM has colored LEDs for orientation assistance
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the landing gear is strong but flexible so it shouldn't snap very easily and
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there's not one but two mounts here for extra stuff one gimbal Mount and one
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accessory Mount which 3dr is encouraging developers to create products for some
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of the stuff in the queue is an LED flashlight and a parachute for safely
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flying over people sick all right so let's talk about flight now then she
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handles as well as 3dr says no flyways
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no unexpected Behavior the most stable desense I've yet encountered even what
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in what I would describe as very noticeable but not unpleasant gusts of
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wind and in spite of the weight of this puppy just generally very good behavior
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in the air as long as you don't do anything dumb like forget that you're
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set to the slowest possible turning speed or set it to orbit you when
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there's an obstacle in the default 20 M radius it managed to be effortless
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enough that Brandon having never flown an RC Airborne vehicle before was able
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to watch 20 minutes of 3drs Flight Academy videos which I recommend by the
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way and operated out of the box while also not being boring for someone like
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me who while I'm anything but an expert has logged dozens of hours in the air
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with quads and planes but let's talk about pre-programmed flight patterns one
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of the big selling points of the solo along with the fword which I never
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recommend counting on so here's what it does today a couple of the modes selfie
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and cable cam could be performed by a good drone operator in his or her sleep
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both are activated in the air selfie allows both an A and B point to be set
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with the default at 50 m so you activate it with the button and the Drone flies
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away backwards away from you then swoops back in towards you at a predetermined
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speed for a really dramatic looking shot
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and cable cam pretty much just goes from one point to another as though the Drone
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was operating on a cable you can control yah and if you had one you'd be able to
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control the gimbal but that's it two of
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the other modes would be difficult to impossible to do well for any but the
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most skilled drone operators orbit and
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follow both of these are also activated in flight and rely on the target being
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orbited or followed to carry the controller and the mobile device that's
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connected to it orbit worked as expected
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goes around you and keeps the camera pointed at you follow seems to have a 3
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to 4 second delay when the target changes Direction and some shakiness
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that would definitely benefit from stabilization but it's a very good start
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and on that stabilization note I guess we can make our way into the conclusion
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for this video where I will have to address the glaring Omission in the rest
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of everything that I've said quality of the inflight recorded video well thanks
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to the close partnership with GoPro even
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without a gimbal Our Hero 3 plus Black Edition delivered IMO better than that
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horrible bundled camera on the 350 qx3
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in spite of the fact that that one had a gimbal but that doesn't mean it's great
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or even really usable for anything other than real time monitoring or hey that's
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some cool footage thanks to its weight and advanced onboard Electronics solo is
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shockingly stable in flight but it's still in flight and the $400 gimbal is
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in my mind a required accessory if you want to get the most out of flight modes
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like follow and orbit or if you're using the solo for anything other than going
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out and flying for fun so expect to see
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a follow-up video Once that's available where we discuss its performance and
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whether 3dr has managed to deliver on the fword promise through the
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development of first and third party accessories and even perhaps through the
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availability of things like mounts for black Magic's new super tiny camera
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which it's rumored might be light enough to be pulled by this puppy as it stands
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now the solo is impressive in almost every way flight time performance build
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quality GoPro compatibility and the fact that you can get a live feed from the
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GoPro instead of some Goofy camera but of course that comes at a cost and with
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the gimbal this puppy is going to set you back well over a,
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us but what won't cost $1,000 is crunchy
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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
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click that little button in the top right corner to check out the video
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where I take gsync and freesync and test them with a high-speed camera to see
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which which one delivers the best responsiveness in gaming