Phantom 3 or Solo

TheEdge · Sep 8, 2015

I am sure that this topic has been posted before, but I am about to buy my second quad, and I wanted to ask the experts a few questions.

I am currently looking at the Phantom 3 Pro and the 3DR Solo. I have been leaning to the Phantom 3 for a few reasons:
1) I have a Phantom 2 and really like it
2) I like the extended range of bird and the lightbridge technology
3) The Phantom 3 seems to be very good value for the money
4) The remote is well designed and can handle my iPad Air
5) I like the wired attachment for the iPad vs using WiFi
6) My adult son has one, and loves it

On the negative side for the DJI Phantom
1) Poor customer service
2) Not made in the USA
3) Closed architecture
4) Design issues that seems to result in stress cracks. This may or may not have been corrected, depending on who you talk to.

I really like the Solo..
1) Made in USA
2) Supposed to have better customer support. But with the gimbel launch.. That may be debatable.
3) Open design. Much easier to mod as time goes by
4) Very good construction
5) Great flight modes
6) I have a GoPro 4 Black

The biggest issue that I have with the P3 is the stress cracking problem. Is this overblown, or has it been corrected?

Vern Shurtz · Sep 8, 2015

I was in the same quandary last week. There are some other things to take into account.

P3P has the Vision Positioning system that allows flying in a large indoor space, ie warehouse or a factory, and they also use the Russian GPS satellites as well as US.
I have seen many mods, both software and hardware, for the P3P. The SDK makes it very open to developers.

With the release of the new firmware the goodies that the Solo had are now available for the P3P. Although the DJI Go app is somewhat nerfed with Autopilot (iOS) or Litchi (Android) you get quite robust functionality.

I decided on the P3P and it arrives tomorrow!!!

bobmyers · Sep 8, 2015

TheEdge said:
I am sure that this topic has been posted before, but I am about to buy my second quad, and I wanted to ask the experts a few questions.

I am currently looking at the Phantom 3 Pro and the 3DR Solo. I have been leaning to the Phantom 3 for a few reasons:
1) I have a Phantom 2 and really like it
2) I like the extended range of bird and the lightbridge technology
3) The Phantom 3 seems to be very good value for the money
4) The remote is well designed and can handle my iPad Air
5) I like the wired attachment for the iPad vs using WiFi
6) My adult son has one, and loves it

On the negative side for the DJI Phantom
1) Poor customer service
2) Not made in the USA
3) Closed architecture
4) Design issues that seems to result in stress cracks. This may or may not have been corrected, depending on who you talk to.

I really like the Solo..
1) Made in USA
2) Supposed to have better customer support. But with the gimbel launch.. That may be debatable.
3) Open design. Much easier to mod as time goes by
4) Very good construction
5) Great flight modes
6) I have a GoPro 4 Black

The biggest issue that I have with the P3 is the stress cracking problem. Is this overblown, or has it been corrected?

The stress cracking issues have apparently been resolved on later manufacturing runs, those that are popping up now on the forum appear to be earlier manufacturing releases.. I believe that DJI determined that the cracking may have been caused by over torqueing the screws. I have a first release model, and have had no issues with mine cracking. I had check the screws early on and hand torqued them myself.

IMO the 4K camera and the extended distance is a big plus. Over 1 mile with LOS and with the Antenna Mods, the is easily doubled and tripled along with better tree penetration when flying in wooded areas.

TheEdge · Sep 8, 2015

Vern Shurtz said:
I was in the same quandary last week. There are some other things to take into account.

P3P has the Vision Positioning system that allows flying in a large indoor space, ie warehouse or a factory, and they also use the Russian GPS satellites as well as US.
I have seen many mods, both software and hardware, for the P3P. The SDK makes it very open to developers.

With the release of the new firmware the goodies that the Solo had are now available for the P3P. Although the DJI Go app is somewhat nerfed with Autopilot (iOS) or Litchi (Android) you get quite robust functionality.

I decided on the P3P and it arrives tomorrow!!!

Thanks for you comments! I had forgotten about the Visin Positioning System. That is a major plus for flying indoors.

Vern Shurtz · Sep 8, 2015

TheEdge said:
Thanks for you comments! I had forgotten about the Visin Positioning System. That is a major plus for flying indoors.

Not only indoors. Take offs, landing, under obstructions like a bridge or tree canopy.

TheEdge · Sep 8, 2015

bobmyers said:
The stress cracking issues have apparently been resolved on later manufacturing runs, those that are popping up now on the forum appear to be earlier manufacturing releases.. I believe that DJI determined that the cracking may have been caused by over torqueing the screws. I have a first release model, and have had no issues with mine cracking. I had check the screws early on and hand torqued them myself.

IMO the 4K camera and the extended distance is a big plus. Over 1 mile with LOS and with the Antenna Mods, the is easily doubled and tripled along with better tree penetration when flying in wooded areas.

It's good to know that the stress issues has been addressed. The 4K camera has less fisheye than my GoPro 4 black. (Even though post production can remove it...)

sdharris · Sep 8, 2015

I seriously considered the SOLO even after buying the Phantom 3 but a bit of time spent on the 3drpilots.com forums convinced me that its too early days for the SOLO. Maybe in a years time but not know. Consider the issues:-

Awful GPS and really daft flight response to loss of GPS;
Poor signal;
Lack of gimbal for many including even now;
Amazingly people with the gimbal can't control the GoPro yet apparently, they can start and stop the video but the camera settings cannot yet be modified;
Apparently the warranty is not all that clear cut and some people have had problems claiming on it.

Andy Collins · Sep 8, 2015

This may sound crazy, but since it is manufactured in the USA, that could be considered a negative,,,not because of quality, but because the cost of labor is so much higher here, the cost of building anything in the USA is considerable more than in China....

Don't send me hate messages, I''m not saying the quality in the USA isn't better, it is,,but cost to build something here is considerable higher, and something made in the USA is still made from parts from China

Jeff48920 · Sep 8, 2015

You may want to consider the Yuneec 500 4K instead of the SOLO.

Vern Shurtz · Sep 8, 2015

Andy Collins said:
This may sound crazy, but since it is manufactured in the USA, that could be considered a negative,,,not because of quality, but because the cost of labor is so much higher here, the cost of building anything in the USA is considerable more than in China....

Don't send me hate messages, I''m not saying the quality in the USA isn't better, it is,,but cost to build something here is considerable higher, and something made in the USA is still made from parts from China

Let's bury the Solo built in USA right now.

More News about the Solo Gimbal! | 3DR | Drone & UAV Technology

http://3drobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/gimbal.png

Tony Perry · Sep 8, 2015

TheEdge said:
I am sure that this topic has been posted before, but I am about to buy my second quad, and I wanted to ask the experts a few questions.
I really like the Solo..
1) Made in USA
2) Supposed to have better customer support. But with the gimbel launch.. That may be debatable.
3) Open design. Much easier to mod as time goes by
4) Very good construction
5) Great flight modes
6) I have a GoPro 4 Black

I really wanted a Solo at first, then i learned more about it. I am a big DIY'er and I built a ton of multirotor craft on all the different flavors of flight controllers before I ever considered buying a ready-to-fly AP rig. I also used to be somewhat of a 3DR snob and thought DJI pilots were all idiots (even though I use a Naza M V2 on my heavy lift hexa). I have a couple flying buddies who work at 3DR here in Berkeley. I really like the company and believe in what they are doing so I don't really have an agenda here. I just think that the Solo is too little, for too much. I've also had some bad experiences with Pixhawks on various craft so i don't fully trust it outside of experimental use.

Lemme address your points.

1) 3DR is HQ'd in the USA but the Solo is made in china, all their DIY stuff is made in Mexico.
2) Go have a look at the reviews and comments on 3DR's facebook page concerning customer support, it's pretty bad.
3) The pixhawk is open source, but the "1 ghz Linux computers" that they advertise as being on the Solo and Solo transmitter are very much closed source.
4) *shrug* I can't comment on this. It seems pretty sturdy but I've never personally seen one after a crash.
5) As of the latest firmware, there isn't much a Solo can do that a P3 can't do, especially with the SDK and 3rd party apps.
6) Even if you are brining your own camera, you'll still spend $1400 for the Solo and gimbal, more than a P3P.

I can't really speak to the issues with fly-aways or poor range on the Solo so I'll just mention that these are issues that you may want to research.

On the plus side, they have a pretty robust warranty. If the Solo crashes and it's not your fault theyll replace it, along with the gimbal and gopro, The solo can also fly a lot faster than the P3P...around 50mph. It's no joke, that thing hauls ***.

Vern Shurtz · Sep 8, 2015

Tony Perry said:
I really wanted a Solo at first, then i learned more about it. I used to be somewhat of a 3DR snob and thought DJI pilots were all idiots. I have a couple flying buddies who work at 3DR here in Berkeley. I really like the company and believe in what they are doing so I don't really have an agenda here. I just think that the Solo is too little, for too much.

I soooo wanted a Solo. Really tried to convince myself and just couldn't do it.... Yet.

I would love to add a Solo to my rapidly growing UAV fleet and probably will soon. Just want to see a few more issues with it resolved. Until then I am in DJI Phantom 3 Pro heaven!! Or at least will be tomorrow when fed ex arrives.

dedstik · Sep 8, 2015

A flying buddy of mine has both a SOLO and an I1.

He is a very experienced multi-rotor builder and flyer.

He has struggled with his SOLO to get it to fly predictably.

His gimbal has yet to arrive.

I can chalk some of his issues up to the rush to get the SOLO to market.

Personally, I don't want to place my bet on a product that is rooted in an open source community.

DJI is far from perfect, especially on the CS side of things. My P3P has flown perfectly since day one. The latest FW / app updates have some nice stuff.

I'd need to see a much better "out of the box" product before I would consider buying a SOLO.

:harry

Wibble · Sep 8, 2015

Well I think my P3 is totally awesome. I wasn't so impressed with my Vision2+.
I now get 20 satellites locked on almost everywhere. I flew around our local docks - standard setup. It is almost in the city centre so wifi hotspots everywhere and yet signal didn't drop once. I flew further than I have before - maybe 6,000 feet at 140' and it was perfect would have gone further.
Battery life is at least 20 minutes - healthy drones reports 23 mins but wouldn't risk that.

___1___ · Sep 8, 2015

My take on the Solo is that it responds sloooooow.

Meta4 · Sep 8, 2015

There are only two areas where the Solo can't compete with the P3.
Price & Performance.
There's nothing else available that can come close.

IOIIOOO · Sep 8, 2015

I had a Solo. Within a week I had some rxerror issues and drifted into a tree. Returned it and got a P3. So much better and less expensive. The only thing the Solo had going for it was the flight modes and now doesn't even have that.

John Locke · Sep 8, 2015

I will never buy another bird that uses standard WiFi for the video link, like Solo. To me that's old hat, inferior imho. The tcpip in the WiFi protocol has way too much overhead with all the check sum two way handshaking going on. This results in less range, more latency, and reconnecting after losing signal takes too long. WiFi was never meant for long distance low latency video transmission. I hope to buy a solo someday, but it won't be with WiFi. I like 55mph, but it's no good without a good video link broadcast technology.

3DR needs to partner with Connex to provide zero latency 1080 video link in Solo, leapfrogging DJI lightbridge. Then I'd buy one!

GoodnNuff · Sep 8, 2015

Andy Collins said:
This may sound crazy, but since it is manufactured in the USA, that could be considered a negative,,,not because of quality, but because the cost of labor is so much higher here, the cost of building anything in the USA is considerable more than in China....

Don't send me hate messages, I''m not saying the quality in the USA isn't better, it is,,but cost to build something here is considerable higher, and something made in the USA is still made from parts from China

The Solo is manufactured in China, just like DJI products.