Evo 1 Controller will not Connect to Aircraft

[Berdman21]

Good Evening,
I haven't flown my aircraft in about 6 months, and today when I took it out, the controller will not connect to the aircraft. All batteries are charged to 100%. I tried to re match the controller to the Aircraft as well but it doesn't appear to have worked. Any suggestions? The rear lights on the Aircraft just blink Yellow. I can put the aircraft in matching mode, (green LED Blinks Rapidly) and the controller shows matching but then times out, and just goes back to connecting.

The controller also will not connect to the explorer app on my 14 Pro Max, which I saw people having issues with in the past. Not sure if that is still a problem as well.

I know this aircraft is a legacy model without support anymore, but its a $1,200 paperweight at this point...

Thanks

 

[moodman]

I feel your pain. I have two Evo 1's that still operate perfectly. I would sell them if I could (since they also have tons of accessories I bought to turn this into a business), but I have to weigh the price I could get for them against keeping them and just using them, since the Evo 1 is really a great drone.
However, not sure I can tell you what might be wrong with yours. My first thought is the antennas. Second idea would be controller batteries not putting enough signal out.
But I would really check into the antenna connections, both externally and internally. I put after market antennas on my controller and it isn't too hard to crack the controller case and look inside. Try that (what do you have to lose?) and see if any wires are loose inside. Then try connecting again.
Please report back and let us all know what happens.

 

[JayLay]

I kind of had a similar thing happen. The drone was sitting unused for a few months, then I took it on vacation with me, and flew it for about 5 minutes. The remote then lost connection, and it came back and auto landed (thankfully!) Since then, I've tried flying it a few times and the remote always looses connection after a couple minutes. Then it will take some random amount of power cycles to reconnect.

So as of now, I don't have a solution. I did start to disassemble it to check antenna connections, but haven't completed it yet.

 

[moodman]

My first guess, like yours, is the antennas. It COULD be sunspot activity (the Kp index), or some other EM interference. The only other thing might be a bad solder connection somewhere. BTW, I have two Evo1s, and they still fly fantastic. I love them, and they won't be affected by the upcoming Chinese firmware mandates.

 

[Berdman21]

I've been in contact with Autel Support, even though they are end of life and they provided me with FW 1.4.9 to try and offline update the aircraft. Doing that now. I'm not sure why the antenna connections would have broken, it's been in the case the whole time. Their directions on the offline update are sketchy at best, so we shall see how this goes!

If this doesn't help, maybe ill crack open the controller.

 

[moodman]

I've been in contact with Autel Support, even though they are end of life and they provided me with FW 1.4.9 to try and offline update the aircraft. Doing that now. I'm not sure why the antenna connections would have broken, it's been in the case the whole time. Their directions on the offline update are sketchy at best, so we shall see how this goes!

If this doesn't help, maybe ill crack open the controller.

I wouldn't worry about opening the case. It's fairly easy to do. But it might be simple corrosion. That does happen, especially in humid environments. Let us know if you get it fixed and good luck.

 

[Keith Fowler]

Good Evening,
I haven't flown my aircraft in about 6 months, and today when I took it out, the controller will not connect to the aircraft. All batteries are charged to 100%. I tried to re match the controller to the Aircraft as well but it doesn't appear to have worked. Any suggestions? The rear lights on the Aircraft just blink Yellow. I can put the aircraft in matching mode, (green LED Blinks Rapidly) and the controller shows matching but then times out, and just goes back to connecting.

The controller also will not connect to the explorer app on my 14 Pro Max, which I saw people having issues with in the past. Not sure if that is still a problem as well.

I know this aircraft is a legacy model without support anymore, but its a $1,200 paperweight at this point...

Thanks

I've had the same problem with mine.... the controller won't connect to the drone or my phone. I heard that it might be an update but I don't know how to download it and upload to the drone just as you I have a $1200 paperweight

 

[JayLay]

"Expensive paperweights" seems to be the theme with Autel owners; I have 2

 

[Keith Fowler]

I thought that I was making a good decision on my purchase of the Evo but it doesn't work and has never been crashed. That's saying a lot when it comes to drones we all know that. It's probably a manual update that I have been hearing about. I'm not sure what part of the process I'm doing wrong but something.

 

[Peter Goldwing]

I havent operated my Autel 1 in about 4 months It worked perfect back then
Now it does not connect to the controller. I doubt there is any problem with antenna or corrosion in anyone's drone
Looks like there is a software problem ( probably a time bug placed by Autel)
I hope someone can resolve and post it here

 

[RyanH]

I'm new to drones, been flying a couple budget drones for 5 or 6 months now, & kinda got hooked. Bought me an Evo 1 about a month ago at a good price I thought, crashed & needing a gimbal. So I bought a good used gimbal & put it on. Everything went well I thought and wasn't a real big job. Turned on controller & drone, everything powered up fine & the gimbal did its self check deal like it was supposed to. Video feed seems to be good. But the gimbal wheel on the controller won't raise it up or down, and I got fast blinking lights on the back legs, showing no connection i guess. Maybe I need to re-pair the controller? Any ideas would be appreciated but I really don't feel like tearing into the drone again anytime soon

 

[jefferson]

I have the same problem connecting to the smart control, since the last update I couldn't connect, I contacted support in January and they sent me a firmware that is not available on the website V1.1.1.3 and then it connected about 2 times in a row and Then it no longer connected, when I updated to the website version V1.1.54 it never connected with the control and in this current version V1.1.66 is also the same.