Anyone had a broken dust cover?

[BradM75]

I received my brand new EVO II Pro a few days ago and when I went to open the dust cover for the USB socket, it popped off and landed on the floor. I picked it up and can clearly see the clear plastic that's meant to retain it is broken. I want to stress that I didn't do anything out of the ordinary like prying the cover with an implement. I just put my thumb nail into the little slot and popped it loose.

I wasn't sure how critical the dust cover was, so I reached out to Autel customer support and was helped by Evan. He indicated that yes, the dust cover is very important to prevent any dust from entering the USB port during takeoff and landing. When I inquired into either getting a new cover or simply replacing the bottom cowl, I was told they don't "sell" those parts (not that I would be buying it since this is clearly a warranty issue). I would need to ship the drone back to Autel for repair.

Has anyone else had a broken dust cover? It seems like this would be a fairly failure prone item not to have spares for or a method of consumer repair.

Brad

 

[Eagle928]

I'm wondering if you can use some small screws to hold the cover on or just use some gaffers tape. You can get new body panels but that's kind of a big job. Just takes the right tools and patience.

Because you were good enough to provide such a high resolution picture; I am able to see the cut in the plastic that is exactly the same shape as the hole it rests in. Might be a good idea for the rest of us to take a little file or exacto knife to that sharp edge on both sides.

 

[AirStag]

I never use the USB port, so if it happens to me I will simply cover that area with a piece of electrical tape. It is easy to remove if I ever need to use the port, and will seal it well.

 

[TN Drone Services]

The sd card cover on ours is barely hanging on. I called support and they said to try some glue to fully reattach the rubber to the cover.

 

[Eagle928]

Has anyone else had a broken dust cover? It seems like this would be a fairly failure prone item not to have spares for or a method of consumer repair.

Brad

Do you open and close this cover often. I'm curious if the SD card cover will break off as well since that's the one I open after a day's flights.

 

[pongnut]

Poor design. Mine was still attached, but stuck out slightly on my new unit. I was ok being without the quad for a few weeks, so sent it to Autel to fix, because I do use that port all the time.

 

[Cicero24]

I had to glue mine back on too.

 

[TN Drone Services]

Do you open and close this cover often. I'm curious if the SD card cover will break off as well since that's the one I open after a day's flights.

We open it after every flight to retrieve the files. I think if they had applied just a tad more adhesive this would be a non-issue. The other side of the rubber (that attaches to the orange cover) held strong without issue. Support just warned not to use anything that would eat away at plastic or rubber when reattaching.

 

[Eagle928]

We open it after every flight to retrieve the files. I think if they had applied just a tad more adhesive this would be a non-issue. The other side of the rubber (that attaches to the orange cover) held strong without issue. Support just warned not to use anything that would eat away at plastic or rubber when reattaching.

Like rubbing alcohol to clean/prep the surface?

 

[TN Drone Services]

Like rubbing alcohol to clean/prep the surface?

In the context of our conversation, he was referring to adhesives that are corrosive to plastic. So basically, he just wanted to make sure I read the label before applying something to reattach. I'm not really sure what adhesive is destructive when it comes to plastic.

 

[BradM75]

Some of you suggested that I use tape to hold it on, and that's actually what Evan@autel suggested at first. I know it's ridiculous that I'm all strung up over this tiny cover, but I just paid $2k and the second time I opened the cover it broke off. The only way to repair the defect is to either send the drone to Autel for repair or to put a piece of tape over it. For something that brakes this easily, My opinion is that the design engineers should've made the latch slightly more serviceable to the user. Unless you all know something I don't, I'm either opening the USB cover or the SD card cover after each flight to access the video and photos. So one of them is going to be get worn out and eventually brake off. Ugh.

Thanks for the replies and support. FWIW, this community is what convinced me to buy this drone.

Brad

 

[herein2021]

Some of you suggested that I use tape to hold it on, and that's actually what Evan@autel suggested at first. I know it's ridiculous that I'm all strung up over this tiny cover, but I just paid $2k and the second time I opened the cover it broke off. The only way to repair the defect is to either send the drone to Autel for repair or to put a piece of tape over it. For something that brakes this easily, My opinion is that the design engineers should've made the latch slightly more serviceable to the user. Unless you all know something I don't, I'm either opening the USB cover or the SD card cover after each flight to access the video and photos. So one of them is going to be get worn out and eventually brake off. Ugh.

Thanks for the replies and support. FWIW, this community is what convinced me to buy this drone.

Brad

I have the same concerns...mainly about the SD card holder, I am very careful with it and can definitely see it breaking off in the future. Even the gimbal holder doesn't feel like the tab is going to last very long.

I definitely don't think there is any excuse for a $2K drone to have a tab break off on the second use; instead of sending it in for repair, if I were you I would contact the vendor that sold it to you and see if they will do an exchange for a brand new one.

One thing though that I think a lot of people haven't quite come to grips with just yet is that any drone you buy has a very limited shelf life no matter what you paid for it. I expect to get 2-3yrs max out of any drone I buy and I sell everything and buy the latest version as soon as it comes out; not because I want to but because parts and repairs for the ones I own will immediately get harder to obtain and the batteries will become obsolete. On average I manage to recover 40% of my original purchase price which I put towards the new drone. I also don't buy a bunch of accessories like ND filters, monitors, additional spare props etc....its all money down the drain when it becomes obsolete.

 

[BradM75]

I'm following up on my original post. I just received my EVO II back from Autel today and upon inspection of the dust covers, it appears that Autel has changed the design. The covers are no longer two parts consisting of a hard plastic cover and a soft clear plastic back with tab. The cover is now one piece and is of a soft plastic. This should address the issue of the back delaminating from the hard plastic cover. I don't know if this addresses the problem that I had where the tab broke completely though. Time will tell.

 

[Deleted member 7285]

I received my brand new EVO II Pro a few days ago and when I went to open the dust cover for the USB socket, it popped off and landed on the floor. I picked it up and can clearly see the clear plastic that's meant to retain it is broken. I want to stress that I didn't do anything out of the ordinary like prying the cover with an implement. I just put my thumb nail into the little slot and popped it loose.

I wasn't sure how critical the dust cover was, so I reached out to Autel customer support and was helped by Evan. He indicated that yes, the dust cover is very important to prevent any dust from entering the USB port during takeoff and landing. When I inquired into either getting a new cover or simply replacing the bottom cowl, I was told they don't "sell" those parts (not that I would be buying it since this is clearly a warranty issue). I would need to ship the drone back to Autel for repair.

Has anyone else had a broken dust cover? It seems like this would be a fairly failure prone item not to have spares for or a method of consumer repair.

Brad

Attached is my Evo2 Pro. The SD card dust cover is slightly out of proportion and does not close all the way. But today if you look at the other photo. I was able to rectify it. Now it closes evenly the way it should.

 

[TN Drone Services]

I've had the orange hard plastic partially separate from the softer opaque rubber. I called support to see if I could use super glue and was told I could. I did and have had no further issues. That was about a year ago.

 

[Deleted member 7285]

Yep. You are correct. Thats how I affixed mine rubber piece back to the SD card dust cover closure. I used light amount super glue applied light pressure. About 30 sec. After 10-15 min wait. It held up closes / open fine.