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A Bunch of Questions

Autelguy

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Hi Guys,

I was curious what Evo problems still remain. My biggest was the horizon tilt. It looks like that was fixed but can't tell if it's "just better than before" or 100% resolved.

Next is the other issue of the camera moving by itself - "the jittery effect". Is that also 100% resolved? Was it only on those Evos that were running the beta version of the FW? I saw the video when OriginalDobo had it on the ground and it was moving all by itself.

Stuttery footage when yawing. I've looked at a lot of YT videos and in many, you can see the video skipping or stuttering from frame to frame. It's as if someone had a slow SD card. I was curious if that's happening to all Evos.

Rear Sensors - Some are saying that in a specific mode, they will stop the Evo. Others are saying that it will never stop the drone. That the rear sensors were never designed to stop the Evo, only to beep and only when you're "very, very close" to an object. Could someone please give me the real and honest answer?

Fail safe question.. Is it true that when you get to 15% that the Evo will land where it is? That there is no way to nurse it to a safe landing spot?

I really hate the fact that you get props in the shot (upper left). That has bugged me even more that the tilted horizon. I knew that if they put more effort into the tilted horizon issue, it could be fixed with FW. Didn't they notice the props when they were testing? I'm assuming that no FW update ever could fix the prop issue. So do you agree that in order to avoid the prop you must point the gimbal down and that there is no other way around it? I saw a video that suggested that shooting in 24 FPS you don't get props - is that true?

Battery Life - Many have said you need to cycle the batteries about 10 times to get the most flight time. What's the longest you've been able to keep your Evo in the air without damaging your batteries? Is it anywhere near the 30 minutes Autel claims? Let's assume there was only one political party for the planet, the planets were perfectly aligned, the wind Gods were asleep, there was no such thing as stupidity, common sense was built into every human's DNA, pets could talk, money didn't exist and it was ok to fly drones any where as long as you respected others, there was no just thing as male pattern baldness (did I forget something???) - in other words - everything was PERFECT. Has anyone gotten close to 30 minutes?

Lastly, how many of you that already own one have any regrets?

Why Autel didn't have all these issues resolved before they launched is completely baffling to me. Nevertheless, I guess it is what it is.

I know these are a lot of questions and I will without a doubt buy one. I just wanted to wait until all these issues got resolved first. Not sort of resolved, but completely resolved.

Thanks guys
 
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No regrets.
Props are a total non-issue, if you tilt down 3deg they vanish. The Mavic has the exact same issue if you look at footage.
Battery life seems decent, Parrot is probably the only manufacturer to quote real battery life. I definitely got at least 20 min.
You can use throttle to override the auto-land, but it requires positive stick input continuously.
 
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Well, the farmers here love me. Because the day I got my Evo the drought ended. Lol.

Point is, I only got one good flight.
My yaw was not jerky.

But I'm hoping tomorrow to go out and try the dynamic tracking modes, including Orbit, which I already know is bad.

I'll report back.
 
Im not sure the EXP function works for control of rotation, I tried to set it to slow down first then speed up, but it still seems really sensitive. I might need more practice on the sticks.

I was also messing around with Waypoints this afternoon and couldn't get a saved mission to fly. I did it inside and saved it and then went outside to fly it and it just kept loading and wouldn't do anything. Maybe I missed a step or am misunderstanding the way it works. It will work when I set it up while flying, but won't load any of my saved ones.

Other than the few minor things I've noticed, this thing is rock solid. Battery run time on average for me is about 22-24 minutes with little to no wind and not flying too aggressive. This is my first real drone and have been enjoying it for over a month now and have no regrets whatsoever.
 
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Hi Guys,

I was curious what Evo problems still remain. My biggest was the horizon tilt. It looks like that was fixed but can't tell if it's "just better than before" or 100% resolved.

Next is the other issue of the camera moving by itself - "the jittery effect". Is that also 100% resolved? Was it only on those Evos that were running the beta version of the FW? I saw the video when OriginalDobo had it on the ground and it was moving all by itself.

Stuttery footage when yawing. I've looked at a lot of YT videos and in many, you can see the video skipping or stuttering from frame to frame. It's as if someone had a slow SD card. I was curious if that's happening to all Evos.

Rear Sensors - Some are saying that in a specific mode, they will stop the Evo. Others are saying that it will never stop the drone. That the rear sensors were never designed to stop the Evo, only to beep and only when you're "very, very close" to an object. Could someone please give me the real and honest answer?

Fail safe question.. Is it true that when you get to 15% that the Evo will land where it is? That there is no way to nurse it to a safe landing spot?

I really hate the fact that you get props in the shot (upper left). That has bugged me even more that the tilted horizon. I knew that if they put more effort into the tilted horizon issue, it could be fixed with FW. Didn't they notice the props when they were testing? I'm assuming that no FW update ever could fix the prop issue. So do you agree that in order to avoid the prop you must point the gimbal down and that there is no other way around it? I saw a video that suggested that shooting in 24 FPS you don't get props - is that true?

Battery Life - Many have said you need to cycle the batteries about 10 times to get the most flight time. What's the longest you've been able to keep your Evo in the air without damaging your batteries? Is it anywhere near the 30 minutes Autel claims? Let's assume there was only one political party for the planet, the planets were perfectly aligned, the wind Gods were asleep, there was no such thing as stupidity, common sense was built into every human's DNA, pets could talk, money didn't exist and it was ok to fly drones any where as long as you respected others, there was no just thing as male pattern baldness (did I forget something???) - in other words - everything was PERFECT. Has anyone gotten close to 30 minutes?

Lastly, how many of you that already own one have any regrets?

Why Autel didn't have all these issues resolved before they launched is completely baffling to me. Nevertheless, I guess it is what it is.

I know these are a lot of questions and I will without a doubt buy one. I just wanted to wait until all these issues got resolved first. Not sort of resolved, but completely resolved.

Thanks guys


Hey Autelguy...

I certainly don't have all the answers for you but maybe I can answer some and maybe others can fill in what I can't..

I've upgraded the firmware twice - once about two weeks ago and then again just a couple days ago. Not sure what the first firmware update version was but the current one is 1.2.3. I haven't been able to fly since upgrading to 1.2.3 (weather has been crappy here), but I do have a little information -

-For me, the horizon tilt was drastically improved with the prior update. I snapped a couple photos and the biggest horizon tilt I had on them was about 1/2 degree of tilt. What I did notice, however, is that it's taking longer for the camera to point forward after a turn - for example, you make a 90 degree turn from north to east and the camera (which presumably means the whole unit, I'm guessing) will still be pointing a bit north of east while the drone is heading straight east. Takes about 10-15 seconds for the camera to fully catch up. I've also seen this mentioned in a couple youtube videos (which also mentioned the horizon tilt issue is pretty much fixed). Again, haven't flown since upgrading to 1.2.3, I'll update you when I'm able to fly next.

-I did not notice the jittery gimbal after the first firmware update. I DID notice it after updating to 1.2.3, with the drone just sitting on my floor. It was pretty bad, actually. I did the gimbal auto-calibration in the app and it stopped jittering completely, at least while sitting on the floor. (Again, haven't been able to fly it.) Again, I'll update when I get a chance to fly.

-Props are usually in the field of view while you're accelerating forward unless you've got the gimbal tilted down 9 degrees or so. I believe the EVO has a wider field of view than most of the other similar drones so I guess this may be a side effect of that. I saw the video you were referring to, but I can't possibly see how filming at 24 fps would get rid of the props. Most of my videos have been at 30 FPS and the props have shown up if the gimbal is all the way up.

-Failsafe question - I've never gotten down to 15%, but that's pretty terrifying. I seem to remember in the options in the app the ability to change the percentages different alerts happen, so hopefully that can be changed too. I will definitely check on this next chance I get.

-Can't speak to battery life as I haven't come close to draining the battery yet. I'm often flying over Lake Superior so I'm a little paranoid about running low. Several YouTube videos I've seen have compared battery life hovering next to the Mavic Pro and it's been almost exactly the same as the Mavic Pro - around 24 minutes. This was before any firmware updates, but I don't imagine firmware has a huge effect on battery life.

- No regrets. I loved my X-Star but my Evo seems to be able to do everything my X-Star did but is way more portable and connection to the remote control is much more stable. (I was a little concerned about the low-light performance of the Evo vs the X-Star but after playing with it some more I'm reassured that they're very similar.) I do use it mostly for still photography so the issues with horizon tilt haven't been as big of an issue for me, but I'm very happy with it.

Hope some of that helps!
 
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Hey Autelguy...

I certainly don't have all the answers for you but maybe I can answer some and maybe others can fill in what I can't..

I've upgraded the firmware twice - once about two weeks ago and then again just a couple days ago. Not sure what the first firmware update version was but the current one is 1.2.3. I haven't been able to fly since upgrading to 1.2.3 (weather has been crappy here), but I do have a little information -

-For me, the horizon tilt was drastically improved with the prior update. I snapped a couple photos and the biggest horizon tilt I had on them was about 1/2 degree of tilt. What I did notice, however, is that it's taking longer for the camera to point forward after a turn - for example, you make a 90 degree turn from north to east and the camera (which presumably means the whole unit, I'm guessing) will still be pointing a bit north of east while the drone is heading straight east. Takes about 10-15 seconds for the camera to fully catch up. I've also seen this mentioned in a couple youtube videos (which also mentioned the horizon tilt issue is pretty much fixed). Again, haven't flown since upgrading to 1.2.3, I'll update you when I'm able to fly next.

-I did not notice the jittery gimbal after the first firmware update. I DID notice it after updating to 1.2.3, with the drone just sitting on my floor. It was pretty bad, actually. I did the gimbal auto-calibration in the app and it stopped jittering completely, at least while sitting on the floor. (Again, haven't been able to fly it.) Again, I'll update when I get a chance to fly.

-Props are usually in the field of view while you're accelerating forward unless you've got the gimbal tilted down 9 degrees or so. I believe the EVO has a wider field of view than most of the other similar drones so I guess this may be a side effect of that. I saw the video you were referring to, but I can't possibly see how filming at 24 fps would get rid of the props. Most of my videos have been at 30 FPS and the props have shown up if the gimbal is all the way up.

-Failsafe question - I've never gotten down to 15%, but that's pretty terrifying. I seem to remember in the options in the app the ability to change the percentages different alerts happen, so hopefully that can be changed too. I will definitely check on this next chance I get.

-Can't speak to battery life as I haven't come close to draining the battery yet. I'm often flying over Lake Superior so I'm a little paranoid about running low. Several YouTube videos I've seen have compared battery life hovering next to the Mavic Pro and it's been almost exactly the same as the Mavic Pro - around 24 minutes. This was before any firmware updates, but I don't imagine firmware has a huge effect on battery life.

- No regrets. I loved my X-Star but my Evo seems to be able to do everything my X-Star did but is way more portable and connection to the remote control is much more stable. (I was a little concerned about the low-light performance of the Evo vs the X-Star but after playing with it some more I'm reassured that they're very similar.) I do use it mostly for still photography so the issues with horizon tilt haven't been as big of an issue for me, but I'm very happy with it.

Hope some of that helps!

Thank you. All these replies and yours especially, helps a lot. There is no way I would buy a DJI simply due to 3 reasons. Their app isn't reliable with Android, customer service is up there with Comcast and NFZ. I've heard rumor that Autel might have a 1" ready but even at that, for the price, the current sensor is good enough. I'm just a hobbiest and not shooting professionally.

I doubt I'd even use 4k as I've heard post takes a hell of a lot longer. I just want to know that batteries will be around for a long time and that they will continue to upgrade their FW. I wish they would communicate better other than "We've forwarded your concern to our developers".

Thanks again for your replies.
 
I just found this video. I'm assuming he updated everything with the right FW. This is why I'm still holding off. I really wish Autel wouldn't release FW without testing it first. Autel needs to get all hands on deck and address these issues yesterday, not a month from now. All DJI has to do is to drop the price of Mavic Pros to $699 with extra battery and I fear that many who were still on the fence, would turn to the Dark Side. That would mean less sales for the Evo and move us even closer to a GoPro Evo. The Evo should never have been released with a tilted horizon in the first place. It's **** like this that has me very concerned. The 1k in my pocket is patiently waiting.

 
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Well, ...regarding the video above and a few other comments:

Opinions are like butts. EVERYONE has one! My opinion is that life is way too short. If you want to wait around until Autel's software engineers tweak the FW until everything is perfect then you will be missing out on the pure enjoyment that flying the EVO is for most of us. I know things will only improve from here on. When I look at video that I shoot I don't notice any horizon tilt because I am interested in the content of the video, not how perfect the camera moves or whether the horizon is perfectly level or not. And the darkness of any video in AUTO mode is because the ground is dark and the sky is very bright. Point the gimbal down lower and you will see the picture brighten accordingly. That's why they have adjustments available in the EV metering. Nothing in AUTO EV mode will ever work perfectly unless they offer spot metering which isn't very likely on a drone camera in the $1K price range. Starting the motors while the TX is beeping is because of the surrounding obstacles (trees) and it is a failsafe so you don't hit anything when lifting off. Move to an open clearing and no beeping from the TX and you will launch immediately the first time--every time.

I love the portability of the EVO over the XSP, which is probably why I haven't flown my XSP since the EVO has arrived. For all of Autel's faults that many here complain about in the launch of this new drone, I think Autel is doing quite well for a small company against the giant likes of DJI who I will NEVER buy from. For all those nit-pickers who want everything on this little drone to be perfect before they plop down their $1K then they need to stop their bitchin' and sit quietly by the sideline while the rest of us enjoy what we've purchased and help Autel rise their little orange David's to outfly (and someday outsell) the Goliath's of DJI.

Just my .02 cents. I'm not here to engage in any back and forth bickering with DJI trolls or Autel haters. I'll let the rest of you do that. Now that I am all charged up I will go fly my EVO for the rest of the day because life is just too short!!!
 
Well, ...regarding the video above and a few other comments:

Opinions are like butts. EVERYONE has one! My opinion is that life is way too short. If you want to wait around until Autel's software engineers tweak the FW until everything is perfect then you will be missing out on the pure enjoyment that flying the EVO is for most of us. I know things will only improve from here on. When I look at video that I shoot I don't notice any horizon tilt because I am interested in the content of the video, not how perfect the camera moves or whether the horizon is perfectly level or not. And the darkness of any video in AUTO mode is because the ground is dark and the sky is very bright. Point the gimbal down lower and you will see the picture brighten accordingly. That's why they have adjustments available in the EV metering. Nothing in AUTO EV mode will ever work perfectly unless they offer spot metering which isn't very likely on a drone camera in the $1K price range. Starting the motors while the TX is beeping is because of the surrounding obstacles (trees) and it is a failsafe so you don't hit anything when lifting off. Move to an open clearing and no beeping from the TX and you will launch immediately the first time--every time.

I love the portability of the EVO over the XSP, which is probably why I haven't flown my XSP since the EVO has arrived. For all of Autel's faults that many here complain about in the launch of this new drone, I think Autel is doing quite well for a small company against the giant likes of DJI who I will NEVER buy from. For all those nit-pickers who want everything on this little drone to be perfect before they plop down their $1K then they need to stop their bitchin' and sit quietly by the sideline while the rest of us enjoy what we've purchased and help Autel rise their little orange David's to outfly (and someday outsell) the Goliath's of DJI.

Just my .02 cents. I'm not here to engage in any back and forth bickering with DJI trolls or Autel haters. I'll let the rest of you do that. Now that I am all charged up I will go fly my EVO for the rest of the day because life is just too short!!!

Right on tell em like it is I really hate all the whining and there is a hellofa lot of it. Just look at Franlac's videos.
 
Right on tell em like it is I really hate all the whining and there is a hellofa lot of it. Just look at Franlac's videos.

Right on, tell it like it is? What are you a ninth grader? No one is whining, just trying to find out if the issues are resolved. DA
 
examples
I really wish Autel wouldn't release FW without testing it first. Autel needs to get all hands on deck and address these issues yesterday, not a month from now Whine
The Evo should never have been released with a tilted horizon in the first place Moan
other examples
this is unacceptable!
these people don't know how to run a business, if I was doing it!!
and on and on and on
I am still playing with toys so yah I guess I am still in the ninth grade:D
 
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I'll defend Autelguy here. I don't think he's a troll, $1000 isn't exactly chump change to most of us and he's got legit questions. The Evo still has some issues and he just wants to make sure they're going to get fixed at some point before making that investment. Very fair question, I think, given Autel's recent history of broken promises to X-Star users. I loved my X-Star, love my Evo, am a fan of Autel, but cmon.

@Autelguy I'm going to attempt to get out a little later today and if I can I'll let you know how it does with the 1.2.3 firmware.
 
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No, I never said or insinuated Autelguy was a troll. Just stating what many other whiners on this forum have been constantly complaining about when it comes to Autel's short-comings. Perhaps I should have stated my opinion in my own post. My bad...
 
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@Autelguy - I FINALLY got a chance to get out and fly for a bit and test the new firmware. Here are links to a horizon tilt test and an orbit test:



I realized afterward I probably shouldn't have done the horizon tilt test in such a hilly area, but to my eye it looks like the horizon tilt problem is fixed. The gimbal jitter also isn't there, either when holding steady or during a slow yaw.

The orbit video is still very jittery, unfortunately.

Hope this helps
 
@Autelguy - I FINALLY got a chance to get out and fly for a bit and test the new firmware. Here are links to a horizon tilt test and an orbit test:



I realized afterward I probably shouldn't have done the horizon tilt test in such a hilly area, but to my eye it looks like the horizon tilt problem is fixed. The gimbal jitter also isn't there, either when holding steady or during a slow yaw.

The orbit video is still very jittery, unfortunately.

Hope this helps

Thank you so much!!! So the jitter seems to only be there in Orbit. Hopefully enough people bring it to their attention that they get it resolved fiarly quickly. Your videos mean a lot. Very cool. Thanks again.
 
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I'm sorry but when I read that I just had to laugh.
Anyone who has been waiting for the orbit to be fixed on the X-Star will know why I am laughing.

I did some research on the same issue regarding the XStar and I see what you mean. I'm assuming this stuttering in the camera while in Orbit never got fixed for the Xstar? I'm assuming not, otherwise Autel would have used the same if not similar code for the Evo. Hmm, that's got me worried that it's not a priority. I really need smooth video on orbit shots. Is there a workaround? Perhaps a different mode? Two things I need before plunking down 1k are level horizon (fixed) and non jerky video when performing orbit shots. Thanks
 
theres been a couple guys on here saying firmware 1.2.3 fixed the stuttering for them.
 
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Excellent news!!! I just started a chat with Autel and this is what they said....

Hi! How can we help you today?08:13 AM
Hi is Autel working on fixing the jerky video while in Orbit mode?08:14 AM
Yes, this is of upmost priority and something we are including in our next firmware update!
08:15 AM
Too cool. This was the only thing holding me back. Thanks
 
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Hope you can hold your breath under water for a very long time. There is no fix as of yet for the orbit and if I had missed it please post one for all to see.
I say good luck with that one.
 

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