Autel Evo 2 Pro 6k Flyaway

[Sunny Skies]

I have an Autel Evo 2 Pro 6k.
On 11/16/21 I was flying it in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

About 10 minutes into the flight, it wouldn’t respond to the controls.
It drifted and then I invoked Return to Home.
It started flying straight back to Home.

Once it got about 300 feet from Home, I cancelled Return to Home. At that point it again didn’t respond to the controls, and invoking Return to Home didn’t work. It drifted and when it was near a baseball field, I pressed the Landing button.

It landed about 18 to 20 feet up in a pine tree.
I was able to retrieve it from a tall step ladder and a long pole with a painting roller on the end that I used as kind of a hook.

The drone looks intact.

I was able to upload its flight record to AirData.com
Here is the flight record on AirData.com
Nov 16th, 2021 11:26AM | General / Overview | Explorer log | United States | Airdata UAV

When I look at all of the analytics of the flight, no big abnormalities stand out. The battery had sufficient power, the signal strength was good throughout the flight. There was wind of 23 mph when Return Home was invoked, and the craft was able to fly home in that wind. If I had a do over, I would have had it land instead of cancelling Return Home. Hindsight is 20/20.

I have had this drone for about 11 months, and it has always performed well and has been a joy to fly. Now my trust in this machine has gone away. I am about to go try a short test flight in an open area.

What might have gone wrong?
What do I do going forward?

 

[GeoDrone SRL]

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

Look at your sticks...and the angle of drone...
Q1: When did you calibrated the remote last time?
Q2: Do you have Android 11?

 

[herein2021]

Did you take off from Cement/Concrete? Also, that wind is pretty high, no way would I have flown except directly overhead in wind that high.

 

[GeoDrone SRL]

Did you take off from Cement/Concrete? Also, that wind is pretty high, no way would I have flown except directly overhead in wind that high.

Seems from Phantom decoding log that his sticks (the right one) was not calibrated anymore. Something happened...

 

[Sunny Skies]

Since I made the original post, I have performed 2 tests flights of the Autel drone. It operated normally on a Manual flight and on an automated flight.

Since those flights I have taken Geo Dome SRL's advice and calibrated the controller and its sticks. Thanks for that tip.

The drone took off from a concrete sidewalk.

In terms of flying in wind, ~10mph as the average wind during the flight doesn't seem high to me. A gust of 23.8 mph can be a little concerning, but the drone was able to fly partly into that wind and successfully made a beeline towards the home point. Since I am shooting projects for commercial real estate clients, I fly in somewhat windy conditions in order to meet deadlines. Safety is important, a wind faster than the drone's top speed will surely cause problems, so I am mindful of that.

Fingers crossed that this flyaway was a one off. Next time if Return Home works I will let the craft return all the way to the ground.

 

[Sunny Skies]

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

Look at your sticks...and the angle of drone...
Q1: When did you calibrated the remote last time?
Q2: Do you have Android 11?

A1: Thanks for this tip. Have not calibrated the remote unless asked by it to do so. How often or under what circumstances do you recommend calibrating the controller?
A2: Flying with an iPad Mini 5th Generation with cellular connection. The LifThor Mjølnir EVO Tablet Holder is a great accessory. I've gotten them at Empire Drone. I just updated the iOS to the latest 14 version.

 

[GeoDrone SRL]

Well, in that log your right stick was acting crazy...I don't know if was the weight of Lifthor as is pretty heavy plus tablet and contracted the plastic from remote, or your stick was just out of calibration...
The remote is giving the signal, so iOS can block/freeze (I have experienced this with AE when updated to Android 11 and needed to change to Beta AE), but the drone must respond to sticks unless your signal is jammed by some powerful routers going on 2.4 Ghz.
If I was you, I would make a full calibration of drone and a full calibration of remote, and switch to Beta AE in order to see if you still have strange things.
Also be careful with battery, is a little out of balance...Use it up to 95-96% (remaining 3-4%), then take it to charger....also rewrite the firmware if still have unbalanced cells.
Cheers.

 

[The Autelian]

It could have been 5G interference ! Take the left stick and throttle up is the best solution for it to re connect!

 

[gschulzuio]

While windy and of concern, those wind speeds/gusts should not have been main concern, unless you saw something like your horizontal speed drop to about 4-6mph while applying full horizontal power (at which point try to get into ludacris mode, get to lower alt, try to fly at angle to wind etc.).

If taking off from concrete, unless it is covering a steel plate, the Autel's are a lot more forgiving than DJI, granted, if you dont have to take off from or on or near metal so much the better, however doable, however also pay attention to your compass, imu, gps info/status before flying.

Note have seen DJI aircraft have compass issues with no metal with several meters of the drone, other than the metal zipper on my jacket. Take the jacket off that has the metal zipper put it couple meters away and the DJI is happy, have not seen that happen with Autel.

GPS signal looked good, there was some orange initially, however that should be fine, saw this week in some areas where there only 8 GPS visible however was ok to fly, just needed to be aware and alert.

Also pay attention to if your app/device is in airplane mode, have seen autel more sensitive to that than concrete or metal (assuming compass and IMU are ok and given time to warm up).

Your upload/download signals generally look good, a bit of a drop towards end of mission, however not alarming, until at the end of the mission . However, looking at around 9 min 18 sec, your signal goes to zero (was 70%), aircraft at about 373 ft, horizontal distance of 1390'. Not sure what if anything was between you and the aircraft that might have caused the signal drop, however at 9 min 21s signal goes from 0 to 50%, and then back to 70% around 9 min 24s. At 9 min 27s signal drops from 70% to 30%, plus you hit max speed (wind? perhaps? something else? maybe?). At 9 min 32s signal drops again to 10%. Watch the signal strength as you start to land, appears could be combination of things such as signal strength (or interference), stick control (calibration) etc.

Something to watch out for is if there is a pine tree in your line of sight between app/dev/controller and aircraft.

Not to say that is always the case, however pine needles have been known to disrupt some RF signals more than other leaves, however that would be no more of an issue than flying out of LOS, or some other RF.

Sounds like stick calibration as mentioned above more of a concern. In addition to using the phantom log explorer mentioned above, with Air Data, select General -> Notifications -> you should see icon about under Overview tab that says HD Flight Player. Click that and you should see the replay of the flights with map, location, telemetry, sticks (lower right). Looks like about when aircraft drifted that due to calibration, or, stick physically stuck, aircraft drifting to northeast. Looks like aircraft responding to left stick, not right.

 

[elistechnology]

Today i've got great Autel expirence.
During mapping mission flight (5.5 completed/6 planed) i've lost connection between standard RC and aircraft. (300ft AGL, 200ft away, no obstacles). Reseting RC does't solve the issue. Drone hover at 300ft AGL not responding to anything. I reported the loss of control in the "droneradar" app, in which we report drone flights in accordance with Polish law. After a while, Cesna flew in, made a few circles around the drone at a similar height. My pants were full ... until now my knees are shaking. The drone returned home after the battery was discharged, after turning it off and then on, it was working normally. So far (~ several hundred flights) this has not happened.
Autel EVO II PRO V2 RTK fw2.1.61
AE android .93 beta