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Anybody Ever See This Page Before?

Probably waiting to see if Autel survives the DJI lawsuit before investing more time. I think that's why Autel has been dragging their heels too.
 
A couple of days ago the law suit was thrown out of court. From the court records, "ORAL ORDER: For the reasons stated during the hearing on June 7, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that 54 MOTION for Preliminary Injunction filed by SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd., DJI Europe B.V. is DENIED. ORDERED by Judge Leonard P. Stark on 6/8/17. (ntl) (Entered: 06/08/2017)"
I don't have a direct link to it but like everything else it got posted on facebook LOL
 
One of the developers on that project vaugely mentions that it will be released with future autel products.... My guess is it is part of the kestrel platform. I even asked Tech Support about it and they played dumb ;-) My fear is that Autel will follow in the footsteps of 3dr and others and move towards an enterprise type business model.
 
Strange. The creation date on one of the documentation files is from September of last year. That seems a long time ago for it not to have surfaced yet. Perhaps it was intended to support the new unreleased firmware. I do, however, like what can be seen of its intent. Rather much like Litchi for that other sUAV!
 
It looks like a UX designer talking up their work. What's not clear is how functional it is - the page mentions three weeks work, which is certainly long enough to do all the UX research mentioned, but not really long enough to develop a comprehensive mapping solution.

It's also not clear who asked for this work to be done. It says "I was tasked", but not by who. It then says he had to research Autel Robotics. If he was commissioned by Autel, they would have told him what he needed to know, not wait for him to research it.

All a little bit odd...
 
All of this happened before the SDK was released so it HAD to be commissioned by Autel.....I suspect a non disclosure was signed. I reched out to one of the developers recently and received no response.
 
From Autel on May 29.........

Hello Ross
Thank you for reaching out to us. Unfortunately we do not know what the 3rd party apps are planning. Your best bet would be to contact them to see if they are in development for the X-Star. We did do a limited release of the SDK a couple of months ago. So I know there are 3rd party apps coming, but I'm not sure who exactly or what stage of development they are at.
If you contact the developers of the Hector App, and they are not looking at the X-Star, I would ask them to consider it or see if we are on their radar. I hope this makes sense and let me know if I can help with anything else!


Tim M
Customer Support
AUTEL ROBOTICS
www.AutelRobotics.com
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

later that day............

Hello Ross
Thank you for reminding me of that app. I have seen a different version used for other drones. I haven't seen much from Hector so I would assume it is not a priority at this time. I would look at Drone Deploy instead. I know that a lot of people want them to work with us.
Currently we use the built in waypoint mission planner. I know this does not offer the perfect way of setting up overlap etc. But I have still had great results using our waypoint planner, shooting in JPEG for the EXIF data and setting the camera to timelapse mode at 5 seconds. This may get you by until better 3rd party support is available.
I hope this helps and have a great day!
 
All of this happened before the SDK was released so it HAD to be commissioned by Autel.....I suspect a non disclosure was signed. I reched out to one of the developers recently and received no response.

Not really, the app only has to write the right format files for the Autel to fly a mission. My app for Yuneec drones was reverse engineered from the controller and runs entirely without using their SDK.

This may have been a pitch to Autel from a development group that never got beyond a demo. The customer support email from @4everaerial seems to support that idea. Drone manufacturers are perhaps being a little optimistic to think that app developers will take the risk of developing a new market on their behalf. It may work for some of the big brand names (like Drone Deploy) *if* they are concerned about not being seen to support everyone, but even they have to balance the cost of porting their app and supporting it against the small number of people who're currently using Autel drones for mapping.
 
From Autel on May 29.........

Hello Ross
Thank you for reaching out to us. Unfortunately we do not know what the 3rd party apps are planning. Your best bet would be to contact them to see if they are in development for the X-Star. We did do a limited release of the SDK a couple of months ago. So I know there are 3rd party apps coming, but I'm not sure who exactly or what stage of development they are at.
If you contact the developers of the Hector App, and they are not looking at the X-Star, I would ask them to consider it or see if we are on their radar. I hope this makes sense and let me know if I can help with anything else!


Tim M
Customer Support
AUTEL ROBOTICS
www.AutelRobotics.com
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

later that day............

Hello Ross
Thank you for reminding me of that app. I have seen a different version used for other drones. I haven't seen much from Hector so I would assume it is not a priority at this time. I would look at Drone Deploy instead. I know that a lot of people want them to work with us.
Currently we use the built in waypoint mission planner. I know this does not offer the perfect way of setting up overlap etc. But I have still had great results using our waypoint planner, shooting in JPEG for the EXIF data and setting the camera to timelapse mode at 5 seconds. This may get you by until better 3rd party support is available.
I hope this helps and have a great day!

This is kind of funny and it really goes to show you the people at Autel have no idea what the left hand is doing compared to the right hand. Just two days ago I spoke to Andrew from Autel. This is what he told me.
"
I have been informed that the SDK is tied to the new firmware so we should see some movement once the firmware is released."

So who is bulshitting who in that company?
 
A couple of days ago the law suit was thrown out of court. From the court records, "ORAL ORDER: For the reasons stated during the hearing on June 7, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that 54 MOTION for Preliminary Injunction filed by SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd., DJI Europe B.V. is DENIED. ORDERED by Judge Leonard P. Stark on 6/8/17. (ntl) (Entered: 06/08/2017)"
I don't have a direct link to it but like everything else it got posted on facebook LOL
Can you provide a source? I can't find any info confirming that. Infact, a new lawsuit seems to be in play filed last month. The first one was filed last year...

Screen Shot 2017-06-18 at 9.29.30 PM✨.png
 
DJI's childish actions have all but guaranteed that I will never purchase nor recommend their products. They have gotten "too big for their britches" as my dad would say.....
 
This is kind of funny and it really goes to show you the people at Autel have no idea what the left hand is doing compared to the right hand. Just two days ago I spoke to Andrew from Autel. This is what he told me.
"
I have been informed that the SDK is tied to the new firmware so we should see some movement once the firmware is released."

So who is bulshitting who in that company?


i saw this page recently...Work

and i asked where Hector was? she replied...

Unfortunately, I was only a contractor for Autel so I don't know what happened to the product once my contract ended. Many of the full-time employees that I worked with no longer work at Autel either so I don't have any contacts.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help!

so in 2016, with 6 people on the project, autel HAD the shell, if not the entire mapping program IN HAND...for the XSP....this is killing me not knowing WHY we dont have HECTOR for our Pumpkins! it just smells rotten.....i got this from Autel this week calling HECTOR just a "research project"....ha! it was a dji/drone deploy killer...

[email protected]

Once the SDK is ready which relies on the new firmware which is very near to completion there will be further announcements on the website.

As for HECTOR; is was not a real app but rather a research project and was never shared outside the company. Nobody, that I am aware of has been locked out (or included) and I'd be interested in learning where you heard otherwise.

Other than this, the firmware is the first priority, the SDK will follow shortly after but there are no specific dates for the releases at this time though we are very close on the firmware release.

If you have further questions, feel free to send them and I'll address your concerns as best I can.

Again...just smelly rotten.
 
Autel Robotics Drone Flight Planner App

I found this page with a Google search.

Really similar to the one you posted but with some different info.

"The prototype was completed in Axure, tested and iterated in multiple rounds with several potential users, and presented to a strongly positive response from the client; see the demo above."

"The actual app is currently being built for the Android platform and should be shipping soon."

Probably old info but you never know...
 
Autel Robotics Drone Flight Planner App

I found this page with a Google search.

Really similar to the one you posted but with some different info.

"The prototype was completed in Axure, tested and iterated in multiple rounds with several potential users, and presented to a strongly positive response from the client; see the demo above."

"The actual app is currently being built for the Android platform and should be shipping soon."

Probably old info but you never know...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

i did reach out to Brian Sasville from your post, he said Autel got the product but never released it.
I again asked Autel for the existing (old) SDK and got a reply from Ken Argo, who has written to this forum a few times. K en heads Autel Software development.
I recalled the name Ken Argo from some DJI forums a while back, and mapping software we are reviewing, since I also fly DJI P4P.
I cant tell if its the same "Ken Argo" that now heads up Autels Software, but a "ken argo" is the
developer of mapping software called ULTIMATE FLIGHT v1, v2, v3. Which is an advanced mission planner mapping software for DJI.

Could a dji mapping developer be heading up Autel Robotics Software? Im hoping good things come of this....
I asked him via email if he was the Ultimate Flight Developer...he did not return my email.
I dont mean to be stalker-ish, Im just noticing that the Head of Autel Robotics Software has the same name as the developer of the Ultimate Flight v3 mission planning app for DJI.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

i did reach out to Brian Sasville from your post, he said Autel got the product but never released it.
I again asked Autel for the existing (old) SDK and got a reply from Ken Argo, who has written to this forum a few times. K en heads Autel Software development.
I recalled the name Ken Argo from some DJI forums a while back, and mapping software we are reviewing, since I also fly DJI P4P.
I cant tell if its the same "Ken Argo" that now heads up Autels Software, but a "ken argo" is the
developer of mapping software called ULTIMATE FLIGHT v1, v2, v3. Which is an advanced mission planner mapping software for DJI.

Could a dji mapping developer be heading up Autel Robotics Software? Im hoping good things come of this....
I asked him via email if he was the Ultimate Flight Developer...he did not return my email.
I dont mean to be stalker-ish, Im just noticing that the Head of Autel Robotics Software has the same name as the developer of the Ultimate Flight v3 mission planning app for DJI.

Interesting investigation you've done. That does seem more than just a coincidence (what are the chances that two people working in a similar role for both companies would have the same exact name?). Good things certainly could come of this.
 

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