Almost lost my drone due to 15% force landing

Len · Apr 30, 2022

I've been flying my Evo II Pro for almost 2 years. I got so used to seeing battery percentage and never had a close call before today. I never let it get below 30%... Today I flew with smart controller for the first time. Without familiar battery percentage indicator (tiny icon doesn't count) and only guided by flight time I was surprised that it decided to return to home. I was coming back over the river (it was on the opposite bank) when I saw dreaded Battery Level Critical, Landing now. WTF Autel? My battery was at 15% at that time and it was more then enough to get back to me. Instead I almost had a heart attack guiding falling bird to the bank of the river. Luckily it just made it to the land not far from me and after short searching I found drone sitting on the ground... still at 13% battery. Is there any way to override this ridiculous limit? I understand landing at 5% but not at 15%...

kenautelevo2pro · Apr 30, 2022

"....when I saw dreaded Battery Level Critical, Landing now."

Sorry, did you say this was your first and only warning for that flight?

michael2002 · May 7, 2022

I actually did lose my drone to a tree because of that mode. I had plenty of battery to get back, but it took control and forced a landing.....into a tree. I had minimal control ie. could only control how fast it went down. I just needed another 10 feet to get over the branch but Autel would not allow me to make it go higher. I complainted to Autel saying that this mode is a huge issue. We are training Part 107 operators and when you take the control away from the operator like that, you get problems. They said it was a law requiring them to make the drone land at low battery.

If that is a law, I understand, but if I had control it would have turned out fine. Instead, since Autel would not repair it, I had to repair the gimbal, airframe, and arms myself.

G_G · May 8, 2022

michael2002 said:
I actually did lose my drone to a tree because of that mode. I had plenty of battery to get back, but it took control and forced a landing.....into a tree. I had minimal control ie. could only control how fast it went down. I just needed another 10 feet to get over the branch but Autel would not allow me to make it go higher. I complainted to Autel saying that this mode is a huge issue. We are training Part 107 operators and when you take the control away from the operator like that, you get problems. They said it was a law requiring them to make the drone land at low battery.

If that is a law, I understand, but if I had control it would have turned out fine. Instead, since Autel would not repair it, I had to repair the gimbal, airframe, and arms myself.

There is no such law, and the FAA very clearly states that the PIC must be in control at all times, not Autel Robotics' stupid suicide algorithm! My EVO 2 Pro also force landed itself, into a busy street! Luckily, I was able to retrieve it before it was run over! It was only 300 feet away from me, with plenty of remaining battery power to make it back to me!

VdoMemories · May 15, 2022

When suddenly due to battery going down the drone starts a “ RTH ” and before you know it or can react to the Yellow tiny “ Cancel ” box !
I have had near miss accident as the drone speeded up right in to the tree.
Need a much bigger, flashing “ Yellow Cancel Box.”
2 minutes warning time before " Automatic RTH "

Autel failed to give their much needed
" Flagship Drone EVO2 Pro " finishing touches !

**--** Been flying DJI Air 2 S lately and it happened twice but it gives 10 seconds warning enough for you to get out of the " Shock " then cancel RTH then manually quickly bring the drone back home. Usually its in my line of sight !

GeoDrone SRL · May 26, 2022

VdoMemories said:
When suddenly due to battery going down the drone starts a “ RTH ” and before you know it or can react to the Yellow tiny “ Cancel ” box !
I have had near miss accident as the drone speeded up right in to the tree.
Need a much bigger, flashing “ Yellow Cancel Box.”
2 minutes warning time before " Automatic RTH "

Autel failed to give their much needed
" Flagship Drone EVO2 Pro " finishing touches !

As long as I know you can set the warning value and RTH in battery menu !

Detritalgeo · May 26, 2022

If this happens to you, immediately enter settings and lower the critical battery value to buy you some time and stop the aircraft from force landing for a short amount of time.

I realize that this is not easy to do or to remember when in such a high stress situation but seemed to work for me.

BlairAir · May 27, 2022

You can set critical battery as low as 8%. This is up to you as operator to do, rather than blaming Autel, or the software, which you can ALSO set a warning/reminder as high as 25%, them get all the way to 8% before a forced landing will occur. As far as getting critical info, slide the info panel from the left side of the interface , allowing checking remaining battery and Controller battery percent. As far as signal strength, tap on the top status bar and a more detailed status drops down.

Whether these design choices are intuitive or not, they are all in the manual. Before complaining about situations, or assuming the fault lies in the stars, not in ourselves, RTFM.

Len · Aug 1, 2022

BlairAir said:
You can set critical battery as low as 8%. This is up to you as operator to do, rather than blaming Autel, or the software, which you can ALSO set a warning/reminder as high as 25%, them get all the way to 8% before a forced landing will occur. As far as getting critical info, slide the info panel from the left side of the interface , allowing checking remaining battery and Controller battery percent. As far as signal strength, tap on the top status bar and a more detailed status drops down.

Whether these design choices are intuitive or not, they are all in the manual. Before complaining about situations, or assuming the fault lies in the stars, not in ourselves, RTFM.

That's a critical battery WARNING. I have it set to 8% and Low Battery Warning is set to 25%. Yet drone still autolands at 15%

G_G · Aug 2, 2022

Len said:
That's a critical battery WARNING. I have it set to 8% and Low Battery Warning is set to 25%. Yet drone still autolands at 15%

See Post #4 above! It happened to me, too! However, it was at 8%, and unlike DJI, the forced descent could not be overridden, even with full up left stick!

kenautelevo2pro · Aug 2, 2022

G_G said:
See Post #4 above! It happened to me, too! However, it was at 8%, and unlike DJI, the forced descent could not be overridden, even with full up left stick!

you can only partially override a dji forced landing; you cannot fully override a dji forced landing.

G_G · Aug 2, 2022

kenautelevo2pro said:
you can only partially override a dji forced landing; you cannot fully override a dji forced landing.

I beg to differ. I know from experience. You can override it until the battery voltage can no longer sustain flight.

kenautelevo2pro · Aug 2, 2022

G_G said:
I beg to differ. I know from experience. You can override it until the battery voltage can no longer sustain flight.

i guess i never tried that. so you can keep flying the dji drone however you wish until the battery shuts off and dies and the drone falls to the ground (if you wanted to)?

G_G · Aug 3, 2022

kenautelevo2pro said:
i guess i never tried that. so you can keep flying the dji drone however you wish until the battery shuts off and dies and the drone falls to the ground (if you wanted to)?

Correct. However, below 10% remaining battery, the controls are far more whippy, and it will require almost full up left stick to fight the auto-descent, but you can actually still ascend, if desired, at full left stick, but only very slowly. Ideally, you plan on reaching the desired elevation to clear all hazards on the way back home before 10% remaining, so you can then fly back on a glide path of gradual, controlled descent, despite then auto-land. However, with the appropriate parameter settings, the DJI auto land function can also be completely disabled, giving you full normal control until the battery dies! When the remaining battery percentage reaches 0%, you still have roughly 2 minutes of flight left to recover your DJI drone. It has saved my bacon a few times, when returning over water, under a sudden head wind!