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Autel Announces Discontinuation of Support, Parts, and Batteries for the Evo 1

@Eagle928 That is ridiculous that they will discontinue batteries. The EVO 1 is still a valid drone. The batteries aren't as "smart" as they say. I bought the EVO 1 when it came out. I have replaced 5 batteries with 3 still in use for a total of 8. Hopefully they will authorize a 3rd party to build replacements. I use the EVO1 over a couple of other drones I own because it is so quick to setup and get into the air. More will be revealed I guess. Geez they did this to the XStar users as well. Probably not the best marketing move they could make. Makes me leery to go with the 2Pro at the moment.
Things like this are why even as a dyed-in-the-wool libertarian, I hold my nose and support "right-to-repair" laws in this instance. If a manufacturer decides to discontinue support, they should be required to publish the tech specs to allow other manufacturers to produce aftermarket replacements.
 
I've only had my EVO for about a year and a half and think of the people who may have bought one in the last six months? Autel supposedly had better customer support but I have yet to experience it. My next drone will be DJI.
Think about the people who, not having seen the notice, will be buying one in the NEXT six months! I think all EVO I drones sold from this point on should have a big orange warning sticker on the box informing the customer of what they are buying! I've have mine for a little over 14 months but a damaged landing gear - and my unwillingness to give Autel $200+ to replace a $10 part- has grounded it for 2 of those. I was debating buying an EVO 1 "Display Shell" off ebay for $150 but this announcement has helped me make my decision
 
Things like this are why even as a dyed-in-the-wool libertarian, I hold my nose and support "right-to-repair" laws in this instance. If a manufacturer decides to discontinue support, they should be required to publish the tech specs to allow other manufacturers to produce aftermarket replacements.
They should have a big orange sticker on the box of any EVO I sold from this point forward!
 
But as an owner, I have the choice to load said firmware.

My biggest issue is one place I like to fly is an overlook we get to on our SXS. I can send it up and it can follow us for miles on top of an old strip mine. Hard for it to do that in the woods so this is a treat.

But this place is close to an old abandoned airport that DJI still has as a no-fly zone.
Right, the owner has the CHOICE. I have 5 acres that is bordered on 3 sides by National Park Service property. If I were to fly west for about a kilometer and a half I would be directly over Camp David - aka the "Presidential Retreat" aka "The White House In The Woods Of Maryland". A friend of mine brought his DJi and he couldn't fly on my property. We ended up having to drive almost 3 miles to find a place to fly!
 
I'm starting to think that DIY is the only sustainable option if you want more than a few years of grudging support. Then you can use a standard form-factor battery and just replace it as needed, forever if you like.

I was hoping that the drone fork of the electronics industry would be less corrupt than the rest with regard to planned obsolescence. Obviously I was wrong.

That's okay. I built my first RC aircraft more than 50 years ago. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
 
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Unfortunately the only real options here are DJI and Autel. DJI's geofencing force landed my Mavic Pro into the ocean even though I was not in a NFZ; before that experience I had never heard of Autel or the EVO. I still have a DJI P4 which never leaves the ground unless absolutely necessary because I feel like the same thing could happen to it one day; except next time it could be over traffic or people; so until Autel implements forced geofencing there is no way I am going back to DJI.

I think what a lot of people don't realize is that Autel will never have the type of aftermarket and replacement support that DJI has because they simply do not have the volume. Most of the replacement parts that you can get from 3rd party vendors is because enough owners of DJI drones are out there to make it profitable to stock those niche parts for nearly every DJI model. You can literally still get recycled batteries for the P2 if you look hard enough.

Autel on the other hand sells miniscule volume compared to DJI and no vendor is going to bother with the expense of making 3rd party batteries, recycling Autel batteries, or making replacement parts when there would be no volume to support the expense. I know the situation is very much not ideal, but I've been saying all along, the only way to make sure you aren't left holding the bag when Autel pulls the plug is to sell your current gear and buy the next model when it comes out.

If you use your drones for commercial use then the expense is justifiable (and tax deductible), but for hobbyists it really is a no win situation. This is also why my philosophy is don't buy anything beyond the minimum because it will be a complete waste of money to get a SC, ND filters, CP filters, more batteries than you need, etc. etc. only to have an unsupported ecosystem in 3-4yrs.

I tend to make do with only 4 batteries, iPad mini (which is transferrable to any other drone ecosystem), rugged case, and tablet holder; nothing more. Sometimes only 4 batteries is cutting it close for longer jobs, for those I bring along the P4 and a charger but unless I can write the cost of additional batteries into a services proposal that the customer will pay for I make do with just 4 batteries.

I'm starting to think that DIY is the only sustainable option if you want more than a few years of grudging support. Then you can use a standard form-factor battery and just replace it as needed, forever if you like.

I was hoping that the drone fork of the electronics industry would be less corrupt than the rest with regard to planned obsolescence. Obviously I was wrong.

That's okay. I built my first RC aircraft more than 50 years ago. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.

I think for hobbyists that could work, but not for professional work. The level of control over the camera settings, the fast setup, simplicity in operation, etc. can't be matched by the DIY builds that I have seen. I've done RC heli builds and did some hybrid DIY work with the earlier DJI drones when you still had to build your own FPV system and mount your own GoPro and the modern drones and integration between the camera and app that is available today is light years ahead of all of the DIY stuff. Not to mention the fiddly battery chargers, problematic multi-cell LiPo batteries, etc. that come with DIY drones. No way would I fly a DIY drone for most of the projects I've had to complete where reliability and consistency were everything.
 
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Unfortunately the only real options here are DJI and Autel. DJI's geofencing force landed my Mavic Pro into the ocean even though I was not in a NFZ; before that experience I had never heard of Autel or the EVO. I still have a DJI P4 which never leaves the ground unless absolutely necessary because I feel like the same thing could happen to it one day; except next time it could be over traffic or people; so until Autel implements forced geofencing there is no way I am going back to DJI.

I think what a lot of people don't realize is that Autel will never have the type of aftermarket and replacement support that DJI has because they simply do not have the volume. Most of the replacement parts that you can get from 3rd party vendors is because enough owners of DJI drones are out there to make it profitable to stock those niche parts for nearly every DJI model. You can literally still get recycled batteries for the P2 if you look hard enough.

Autel on the other hand sells miniscule volume compared to DJI and no vendor is going to bother with the expense of making 3rd party batteries, recycling Autel batteries, or making replacement parts when there would be no volume to support the expense. I know the situation is very much not ideal, but I've been saying all along, the only way to make sure you aren't left holding the bag when Autel pulls the plug is to sell your current gear and buy the next model when it comes out.

If you use your drones for commercial use then the expense is justifiable (and tax deductible), but for hobbyists it really is a no win situation. This is also why my philosophy is don't buy anything beyond the minimum because it will be a complete waste of money to get a SC, ND filters, CP filters, more batteries than you need, etc. etc. only to have an unsupported ecosystem in 3-4yrs.

I tend to make do with only 4 batteries, iPad mini (which is transferrable to any other drone ecosystem), rugged case, and tablet holder; nothing more. Sometimes only 4 batteries is cutting it close for longer jobs, for those I bring along the P4 and a charger but unless I can write the cost of additional batteries into a services proposal that the customer will pay for I make do with just 4 batteries.



I think for hobbyists that could work, but not for professional work. The level of control over the camera settings, the fast setup, simplicity in operation, etc. can't be matched by the DIY builds that I have seen. I've done RC heli builds and did some hybrid DIY work with the earlier DJI drones when you still had to build your own FPV system and mount your own GoPro and the modern drones and integration between the camera and app that is available today is light years ahead of all of the DIY stuff. Not to mention the fiddly battery chargers, problematic multi-cell LiPo batteries, etc. that come with DIY drones. No way would I fly a DIY drone for most of the projects I've had to complete where reliability and consistency were everything.
Do you do any mapping with the Evo?
 
I think for hobbyists that could work, but not for professional work. The level of control over the camera settings, the fast setup, simplicity in operation, etc. can't be matched by the DIY builds that I have seen. I've done RC heli builds and did some hybrid DIY work with the earlier DJI drones when you still had to build your own FPV system and mount your own GoPro and the modern drones and integration between the camera and app that is available today is light years ahead of all of the DIY stuff. Not to mention the fiddly battery chargers, problematic multi-cell LiPo batteries, etc. that come with DIY drones. No way would I fly a DIY drone for most of the projects I've had to complete where reliability and consistency were everything.
You may well be right, but there are some promising open-source flight controller projects out there, I agree that controlling the camera would be a lot harder to do precisely, however. I may pore over the code of some of the projects when I have the time to get a feel for how far along people already are in that regard.

The ideal solution would a be to come up with an instruction set for users to safely and (relatively) easily retrofit their orphaned drones to use easily-available, standard batteries, without having to replace the flight controller systems. I may just set my mind and my electronics experience to doing that, and then publishing a HOWTO.

First I have to find out how far along others are, however. No point reinventing wheel and all that.
 
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Six months warning to stock up on spares (eg batteries and propellers) seems more than adequate notice for a tech product-- especially a device dependent upon smartphone operating systems, and particularly since the Autel Evo 1 has been out in the marketplace now three years, and virtually nothing interchanges with the current model. It's not an automobile, it's a consumer level drone. What I see is Autel falling over themselves with this gracious announcement (likely due to the Evo II versions 1 and 2 debacle of late) and getting trolled by some of the usual suspects here
 
Six months warning to stock up on spares (eg batteries and propellers) seems more than adequate notice for a tech product-- especially a device dependent upon smartphone operating systems, and particularly since the Autel Evo 1 has been out in the marketplace now three years, and virtually nothing interchanges with the current model. It's not an automobile, it's a consumer level drone. What I see is Autel falling over themselves with this gracious announcement (likely due to the Evo II versions 1 and 2 debacle of late) and getting trolled by some of the usual suspects here
You know what I see? Money hungry companies and idiots lining up to follow them..
 
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I think what a lot of people don't realize is that Autel will never have the type of aftermarket and replacement support that DJI has because they simply do not have the volume. Most of the replacement parts that you can get from 3rd party vendors is because enough owners of DJI drones are out there to make it profitable to stock those niche parts for nearly every DJI model. You can literally still get recycled batteries for the P2 if you look hard enough.
I don't disagree. But the problem starts way before that. The problem starts when manufacturers decide at the design stage to make something proprietary that could be done with a generic part. It's not exclusive to Autel, nor even to drones. It's been going on forever.

Remember typewriter ribbons? They were all basically the same: a ribbon of cloth or film with some sort of ink on them. Yet there were a bazillion different cartridges and packagings, most of them identical save for some notch, tab, or peculiar cartridge shape intended to prevent you from using any other than the one specifically designed for your machine.

Printer ink and toner cartridges are another example, except they're a bit more sophisticated. They contain chips, optical indicia, or other logic designed to prevent you from using third-party cartridges or refilling OEM ones.

And then there are phone batteries. Before I switched to iOS, I would watch teardown videos of the phones I was considering before buying one, specifically to learn how much of a bother replacing the batteries would be. The lengths to which some manufacturers will go to make that impossible is astonishing, to the point of a technician having to risk his or her life to use a heat gun to melt the glue they use to guarantee that the original battery can never be removed.

They use methods bordering on intentional homicide to guarantee obsolescence. And yet people keep buying their phones.

As an aside, that also was a secondary reason why I switched to iPhone. Although Apple also takes actions to prevent the use of third-party batteries, they'll replace the battery in any iPhone with an OEM one, for a reasonable price, until the phones are obsolesced by other factors (for example, new RF bands). I had the battery in my granddaughter's iPhone 6 replaced at an Apple store for less than USD $50.00 while we shopped the rest of the mall.

There are only a handful of battery chemistries, with Li-Po being the most suitable for high-draw devices like drones. All of these batteries have standard, generic form factors that are chemically and electrically identical. Using anything other than a standard battery, and then removing that battery from the market, is planned obsolescence.
 
Do you do any mapping with the Evo?

No I only use it for video and photography work, in my area its simply not profitable unless you have a lot of experience in it and contracts lined up with big customers.

Six months warning to stock up on spares (eg batteries and propellers) seems more than adequate notice for a tech product-- especially a device dependent upon smartphone operating systems, and particularly since the Autel Evo 1 has been out in the marketplace now three years, and virtually nothing interchanges with the current model. It's not an automobile, it's a consumer level drone. What I see is Autel falling over themselves with this gracious announcement (likely due to the Evo II versions 1 and 2 debacle of late) and getting trolled by some of the usual suspects here

My only problem with stocking up on batteries is that they do not last no matter how carefully you take care of them; at least not the DJI batteries. I followed every recommendation to the letter on battery care for my DJI P4 yet they still swelled and overheated within 1yr of use; not sure yet if that was just a DJI thing, maybe Autel batteries will be better. I had so many go bad that I had to raise my prices slightly to start covering the cost of the batteries but at least with the P4 I can still get new or recycled batteries on Amazon.

I don't disagree. But the problem starts way before that. The problem starts when manufacturers decide at the design stage to make something proprietary that could be done with a generic part. It's not exclusive to Autel, nor even to drones. It's been going on forever.

Remember typewriter ribbons? They were all basically the same: a ribbon of cloth or film with some sort of ink on them. Yet there were a bazillion different cartridges and packagings, most of them identical save for some notch, tab, or peculiar cartridge shape intended to prevent you from using any other than the one specifically designed for your machine.

Printer ink and toner cartridges are another example, except they're a bit more sophisticated. They contain chips, optical indicia, or other logic designed to prevent you from using third-party cartridges or refilling OEM ones.

And then there are phone batteries. Before I switched to iOS, I would watch teardown videos of the phones I was considering before buying one, specifically to learn how much of a bother replacing the batteries would be. The lengths to which some manufacturers will go to make that impossible is astonishing, to the point of a technician having to risk his or her life to use a heat gun to melt the glue they use to guarantee that the original battery can never be removed.

They use methods bordering on intentional homicide to guarantee obsolescence. And yet people keep buying their phones.

As an aside, that also was a secondary reason why I switched to iPhone. Although Apple also takes actions to prevent the use of third-party batteries, they'll replace the battery in any iPhone with an OEM one, for a reasonable price, until the phones are obsolesced by other factors (for example, new RF bands). I had the battery in my granddaughter's iPhone 6 replaced at an Apple store for less than USD $50.00 while we shopped the rest of the mall.

There are only a handful of battery chemistries, with Li-Po being the most suitable for high-draw devices like drones. All of these batteries have standard, generic form factors that are chemically and electrically identical. Using anything other than a standard battery, and then removing that battery from the market, is planned obsolescence.

I agree 100%.....some of my biggest pet peeves are how manufacturers deliberately make parts slightly different just to ensure you cannot use them in a different manufacturers device. It irks me daily now just the sheer number of charging cables that I must keep around because even now when you buy a brand new consumer product you don't know if the charging port will be microUSB, USB C, mini USB, etc. For example; why did the EVO II come with a USB C port in the drone yet it uses a microUSB port in the controller? I get it; the controller was older, but they should have at least updated the port on the controller before repackaging it with the EVO II.

Another huge pet peeve of mine is in the camera world. Every single camera it seems like takes a different shaped battery, tripod mounts are literally a mm difference from a different brand to ensure you need to buy both the mount and the receiver from the same brand, the pins in the cameras hotshoes are different between brands to ensure you need to buy their brand of flash triggers, lets not even mention lens mounts, etc. etc. And lets not forget the DVD format wars or the ridiculous patent that RED has managed to defend which to this day stifles innovation for camera makers and forces us all to use suboptimal compression like H.264 and H.265.

Another byproduct of all of these "planned incompatibilities" is the enormous waste that it generates which ends up in landfills or worse as consumers have no choice but to throw away or try to recycle the things they no longer can get support for.
 
Another byproduct of all of these "planned incompatibilities" is the enormous waste that it generates which ends up in landfills or worse as consumers have no choice but to throw away or try to recycle the things they no longer can get support for.
My town's transfer station station won't even take batteries (except lead acid) anymore, nor most devices that contain permanent batteries, because no one will take them upstream. They're too dangerous and unprofitable to recycle. They tell residents to take them to the County landfill and recycling center, which is roughly an hour drive each way.

The County will take the batteries because they have to, but they just pile up. I'd be surprised if any batteries other than lead acid car batteries have left that facility in the ten years I've lived here. They just pile up, a massive fire waiting to happen.

But that's not the worst part. How many residents don't bother making the trip and simply wrap the battery in something to disguise it, and put it in the bag with the garbage? So they wind up in the landfill where either the heavy metals leach into the aquifer, or the batteries create a fire or explosion risk when they short-circuit against something (like a bulldozer blade moving the stuff around).

In my opinion, it's downright immoral that manufacturers do this and are allowed to do this. Batteries should be standardized and replaceable, and manufacturers required to accept the old ones for recycling.
 
No I only use it for video and photography work, in my area its simply not profitable unless you have a lot of experience in it and contracts lined up with big customers.



My only problem with stocking up on batteries is that they do not last no matter how carefully you take care of them; at least not the DJI batteries. I followed every recommendation to the letter on battery care for my DJI P4 yet they still swelled and overheated within 1yr of use; not sure yet if that was just a DJI thing, maybe Autel batteries will be better. I had so many go bad that I had to raise my prices slightly to start covering the cost of the batteries but at least with the P4 I can still get new or recycled batteries on Amazon.



I agree 100%.....some of my biggest pet peeves are how manufacturers deliberately make parts slightly different just to ensure you cannot use them in a different manufacturers device. It irks me daily now just the sheer number of charging cables that I must keep around because even now when you buy a brand new consumer product you don't know if the charging port will be microUSB, USB C, mini USB, etc. For example; why did the EVO II come with a USB C port in the drone yet it uses a microUSB port in the controller? I get it; the controller was older, but they should have at least updated the port on the controller before repackaging it with the EVO II.

Another huge pet peeve of mine is in the camera world. Every single camera it seems like takes a different shaped battery, tripod mounts are literally a mm difference from a different brand to ensure you need to buy both the mount and the receiver from the same brand, the pins in the cameras hotshoes are different between brands to ensure you need to buy their brand of flash triggers, lets not even mention lens mounts, etc. etc. And lets not forget the DVD format wars or the ridiculous patent that RED has managed to defend which to this day stifles innovation for camera makers and forces us all to use suboptimal compression like H.264 and H.265.

Another byproduct of all of these "planned incompatibilities" is the enormous waste that it generates which ends up in landfills or worse as consumers have no choice but to throw away or try to recycle the things they no longer can get support for.

You know what else is weird? Some devices only want you to use the USB cord that the manufacturer provided with the product. I've tried using other cords and the devices simply would not work. It's ridiculous.
 
I'm starting to think that DIY is the only sustainable option if you want more than a few years of grudging support. Then you can use a standard form-factor battery and just replace it as needed, forever if you like.

I was hoping that the drone fork of the electronics industry would be less corrupt than the rest with regard to planned obsolescence. Obviously I was wrong.

That's okay. I built my first RC aircraft more than 50 years ago. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
I think you're right. Do they have FPV kits with descent cameras. The EVO 1 batteries sucked. They are supposedly LIPO which should last for many years. I got 35 cycles.
 
I think you're right. Do they have FPV kits with descent cameras. The EVO 1 batteries sucked. They are supposedly LIPO which should last for many years. I got 35 cycles.

Well, since the Autel "smart" batteries discharge themselves purposely after a set amount of days, doesn't that shorten their life because you have to keep recharging them more often? If not, what's the reason they make them purposely discharge themselves?
 
I think you're right. Do they have FPV kits with descent cameras. The EVO 1 batteries sucked. They are supposedly LIPO which should last for many years. I got 35 cycles.
I don't know about FPV drones. I actually don't know much about drones in general. But I know quite a bit about aviation in general and I know about electronics: so there are fewer blanks to fill in.

LiPo batteries are energy-dense, lightweight, and can handle very high draw, which makes them ideal for aviation and vehicle applications.

Lifespan, however, is not one of their strong points. 100 - 150 recharge cycles is about the best you can hope for even with superb, textbook battery care. But even with ordinary care, I think you should have done better than 35 cycles.

Maybe the last use ran it down too low to accept a charge? There are ways around that if it happens, but there is some danger involved. You shouldn't do it yourself if you're not experienced. You probably shouldn't do it even if you are experienced; but sometimes that choice is taken away.
 
Well, since the Autel "smart" batteries discharge themselves purposely after a set amount of days, doesn't that shorten their life because you have to keep recharging them more often? If not, what's the reason they make them purposely discharge themselves?
That's not an Autel thing. Most LiPo batteries have smart circuitry to automatically discharge them to a safe "storage voltage" after a predetermined interval of non-use.
 
Well, since the Autel "smart" batteries discharge themselves purposely after a set amount of days, doesn't that shorten their life because you have to keep recharging them more often? If not, what's the reason they make them purposely discharge themselves?
I'm not sure but a normal lithium battery should give you 500 cycles. LIPO a lot more than that. There is a happy medium where you store your batteries. 100% is not good and less than 20% is not good. But even if. you did that you would slightly reduce the number of cycles. Anyway I'm done with Autel. They could at least keep making shitty batteries. I don't see how that would take valuable resources from R+D for their next overpriced underfeatured drone.
 
My town's transfer station station won't even take batteries (except lead acid) anymore, nor most devices that contain permanent batteries, because no one will take them upstream. They're too dangerous and unprofitable to recycle. They tell residents to take them to the County landfill and recycling center, which is roughly an hour drive each way.

The County will take the batteries because they have to, but they just pile up. I'd be surprised if any batteries other than lead acid car batteries have left that facility in the ten years I've lived here. They just pile up, a massive fire waiting to happen.

But that's not the worst part. How many residents don't bother making the trip and simply wrap the battery in something to disguise it, and put it in the bag with the garbage? So they wind up in the landfill where either the heavy metals leach into the aquifer, or the batteries create a fire or explosion risk when they short-circuit against something (like a bulldozer blade moving the stuff around).

In my opinion, it's downright immoral that manufacturers do this and are allowed to do this. Batteries should be standardized and replaceable, and manufacturers required to accept the old ones for recycling.

There's been a few articles that state even if you do all the right things and manage to make it to the recycling center there's still no guarantee that things will actually get recycled. Many times I wonder if sorting the recyclables is nothing more than a feel good exercise that is a waste of time.

I'm not sure but a normal lithium battery should give you 500 cycles. LIPO a lot more than that. There is a happy medium where you store your batteries. 100% is not good and less than 20% is not good. But even if. you did that you would slightly reduce the number of cycles. Anyway I'm done with Autel. They could at least keep making shitty batteries. I don't see how that would take valuable resources from R+D for their next overpriced underfeatured drone.

I have never owned a single drone battery that lasted that long. I don't claim to be a battery expert and I know on paper the batteries should last that long but I've been flying drones since 2014 and each iteration has gotten worse and worse battery life. The P2 had the longest lasting batteries for me and the Mavic Pro had the worst. The DJI P4's batteries might last 100 cycles if you are lucky; no idea yet how long the EVO II's batteries will last....I'm thinking 1yr at most.
 
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