Hi everyone.
So, this will not be a story with a happy ending. I got my new AUTEL EVO II 8K last Tuesday, close to lunch time, and spent the rest of the afternoon charging the batteries and remote, patching the aircraft to latest firmware, reading the manual (yes I do occasionally read them before I actual operate something ? ) and, shame on me, I even printed the Autel Explorer App manual, and registering myself on Autel website. After getting acquainted with most of the functionalities I went to the football filed across home and took it for a spin. I've never flown an aircraft with Obstacle Avoidance (OA) and I must admit I wasn't comfortable to rely on the machine to do the job a pilot is intended to do but it worked, at least most of the times. There were some situations where it seemed the sensors wouldn't detect some leafless branch trees so I took mental notice of it and kept trying all other functions: Dynamic Track,Parallel Track, Tripod Track, Viewpoint, Orbit, all of that worked seamless. Return to home works, although it land about a meter to the left from starting point. Decide not to try gesture mode as it's not something I was interested nor in Mission Planner and because I only had about 29% battery, took it to a short 500 meter run still under the 30 mt top high ceiling. About to end the flight, I got a 25% battery warning and brought it back to me.
Encouraged by the tests, went back home to replace the battery and because I live on the last floor on an apartment block with a big terrace decided to fly from there, as I've already done it before with other drones. This time went more boldly and took it further away and signal strength, maneuverability and aircraft performance were sublime. On of my neighbors saw the aircraft, we engaged on a conversation and took it back home and landed to show him.
Now for the ending story....
Re positioned the drone on the same spot as previously, but decided to fly in opposite direction, towards the football field. As I taking off and went over the building, I've noticed the aircraft stopped responding to my commands, made a left turn, increased speed and continue to fly without me being able to stop it. I just stood there, helpless seeing an expensive aircraft, making a wide left turn on, with increasing speeds up to 90 Km/h and o constant descent to doom. Any attempts I made to resume control weren't successful , joysticks comands, "Return Home" button, pause, nothing worked,
Here's a small video I captured from the Explorer App, as all your flights will be logged there, under Flight Records. This this piece of software came in handy, in order for me to discover where it crashed.
The result is: a total broken aircraft, as it surely plunged into the trees in speed of excess 90 Km/h (the Explorer App flight record says 94Km/h just before the impact)
I've reached for Autel Support team and I'm expecting to hear from them soon. Can't imagine what went wrong and what in hell happened for the aircraft to went berserk like this, but after flying with so many other "stupid" drones I wasn't counting on this. I know Tesla also had some problems with their autonomous cars but this is ridiculous
So, this will not be a story with a happy ending. I got my new AUTEL EVO II 8K last Tuesday, close to lunch time, and spent the rest of the afternoon charging the batteries and remote, patching the aircraft to latest firmware, reading the manual (yes I do occasionally read them before I actual operate something ? ) and, shame on me, I even printed the Autel Explorer App manual, and registering myself on Autel website. After getting acquainted with most of the functionalities I went to the football filed across home and took it for a spin. I've never flown an aircraft with Obstacle Avoidance (OA) and I must admit I wasn't comfortable to rely on the machine to do the job a pilot is intended to do but it worked, at least most of the times. There were some situations where it seemed the sensors wouldn't detect some leafless branch trees so I took mental notice of it and kept trying all other functions: Dynamic Track,Parallel Track, Tripod Track, Viewpoint, Orbit, all of that worked seamless. Return to home works, although it land about a meter to the left from starting point. Decide not to try gesture mode as it's not something I was interested nor in Mission Planner and because I only had about 29% battery, took it to a short 500 meter run still under the 30 mt top high ceiling. About to end the flight, I got a 25% battery warning and brought it back to me.
Encouraged by the tests, went back home to replace the battery and because I live on the last floor on an apartment block with a big terrace decided to fly from there, as I've already done it before with other drones. This time went more boldly and took it further away and signal strength, maneuverability and aircraft performance were sublime. On of my neighbors saw the aircraft, we engaged on a conversation and took it back home and landed to show him.
Now for the ending story....
Re positioned the drone on the same spot as previously, but decided to fly in opposite direction, towards the football field. As I taking off and went over the building, I've noticed the aircraft stopped responding to my commands, made a left turn, increased speed and continue to fly without me being able to stop it. I just stood there, helpless seeing an expensive aircraft, making a wide left turn on, with increasing speeds up to 90 Km/h and o constant descent to doom. Any attempts I made to resume control weren't successful , joysticks comands, "Return Home" button, pause, nothing worked,
Here's a small video I captured from the Explorer App, as all your flights will be logged there, under Flight Records. This this piece of software came in handy, in order for me to discover where it crashed.
The result is: a total broken aircraft, as it surely plunged into the trees in speed of excess 90 Km/h (the Explorer App flight record says 94Km/h just before the impact)
I've reached for Autel Support team and I'm expecting to hear from them soon. Can't imagine what went wrong and what in hell happened for the aircraft to went berserk like this, but after flying with so many other "stupid" drones I wasn't counting on this. I know Tesla also had some problems with their autonomous cars but this is ridiculous
