Autel Evo II downgrade issues? DH has a solution!

Ansia · Sep 4, 2020

To all of those who have done the firmware downgrade. Try to calibrate the Compass/Gimbal and please post if you were successful or does it fail like mine.

I still have a few things I can try, but right now I'm at work and left my Evo at home.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

The question is, has anyone been able to downgrade their Evo 2 to FW 2.3.3?
Yesterday afternoon/night I tried several times to downgrade, all unsuccessfully. Sometimes just sleeping on it helps.
This morning on the first 3 tries, twice I got to 99% then I got the same picture on the remote as in post #22.
Third try it froze at 98%.
4th try I used the original 2.3.3 that I downloaded on July 5th and went to 99% and then the picture on post #22.
5th go I tried to install 2.5.0. It started unpacking then installed up to 99% and then started unpacking again.
Why doesn’t Autel step up to the plate and help us out? I just don’t feel like taking a chance and flying my Evo 2 right now with all the attempts downgrading. No telling what is messed up inside.

Tufargon · Sep 4, 2020

Ansia said:
Sad fase is because you don't own an Autel drone anymore. Lucky for you, Autel has a Trade-In program, where they will give you cents to the dollar for that Mavic Air of yours. ?

They ain't gettin' it. And it's Mavic Air TWO! lol

RetArmy · Sep 4, 2020

Mine is 2.3.3 now. I've not been able to do test flight yet. You have to make sure that file has no file extension when you put it on the SD Card. I think thats what is hanging some folks up. The 99% hang has happened to some even on normal upgrades of the firmware. Seems like some birds just have issues flashing. Make sure its a fully charged battery on the bird and the controller. Disconnect the controller from any phone/tablet as well would be another thing I would suggest. If you have the Live Deck, then you have to pair the RC to the aircraft and THEN do the firmware. After that you can then pair the Live Deck to the aircraft again as well, and you'll be back and working.

Also, do ALL calibrations after you touch the firmware and check ALL settings on the app after doing the firmware. I still think what caused some goofiness in the 2.5.0 was mismatch to the app, meaning there were some new things in the firmware intended for the next app version that confused 1.1.6.6 version of the app.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

RetArmy said:
Mine is 2.3.3 now. I've not been able to do test flight yet. You have to make sure that file has no file extension when you put it on the SD Card. I think thats what is hanging some folks up. The 99% hang has happened to some even on normal upgrades of the firmware. Seems like some birds just have issues flashing. Make sure its a fully charged battery on the bird and the controller. Disconnect the controller from any phone/tablet as well would be another thing I would suggest. If you have the Live Deck, then you have to pair the RC to the aircraft and THEN do the firmware. After that you can then pair the Live Deck to the aircraft again as well, and you'll be back and working.

File extension? Does .bin qualify as a file extension? Some have said to look out for .txt. If it is .txt it is invisible to me. I know I’m sounding like a smart a$$ but I’m beginning to question my sanity. This is NOT rocket science.

Bigdz · Sep 4, 2020

I only had time to test the stick calibration. I couldn't access it via the app. I would tape the button but no response. So then I decide to try to do it manual by pressing the RTH/take off /land- button and the power button (simultaneously) and I was able to calibrate the sticks succesfully.

@Ansia I was also able to do a gimbal cal successfully!

Ansia · Sep 4, 2020

skipper1 said:
File extension? Does .bin qualify as a file extension? Some have said to look out for .txt. If it is .txt it is invisible to me. I know I’m sounding like a smart a$$ but I’m beginning to question my sanity. This is NOT rocket science.

The only bin file you should have is the firmware itself. The downgrade firmware file should not have any type of extension. it should not read either txt or bin.

RetArmy · Sep 4, 2020

Ansia said:
To all of those who have done the firmware downgrade. Try to calibrate the Compass/Gimbal and please post if you were successful or does it fail like mine.

I still have a few things I can try, but right now I'm at work and left my Evo at home.

I was able to do compass, gimbal, and remote calibration. In case of the gimbal I even had an ND8 freewell filter on at the time.

Ansia · Sep 4, 2020

I have the latest Explorer app installed on my phone. Perhaps I should downgrade my app to 1.0.1.45 and try again.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

Ansia said:
The only bin file you should have is the firmware itself. The downgrade firmware file should not have any type of extension. it should not read either txt or bin.

Thank you, then I have been doing it incorrectly. I will delete the “.bin” and try again.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

Ansia said:
The only bin file you should have is the firmware itself. The downgrade firmware file should not have any type of extension. it should not read either txt or bin.

Stupid iPad Pro 2018 won’t allow me to rename the file. It automatically puts “.bin” on it. Screwed again.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

OK, put the sd card with the 2.3.3 file in my PC, you can rename it leaving off “.bin” on a PC. Put the card in the Evo 2 and got the same on my remote as post #22. Is all this a joke?

Ansia · Sep 4, 2020

skipper1 said:
Stupid iPad Pro 2018 won’t allow me to rename the file. It automatically puts “.bin” on it. Screwed again.

I recommend a computer. Either Mac or PC is fine. It will be easier for you.

Ansia · Sep 4, 2020

skipper1 said:
OK, put the sd card with the 2.3.3 file in my PC, you can rename it leaving off “.bin” on a PC. Put the card in the Evo 2 and got the same on my remote as post #22. Is all this a joke?

The 2.3.3 firmware has to have the bin file extension. It's the file from drone hacks that can't have an extension.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

Ansia said:
I recommend a computer. Either Mac or PC is fine. It will be easier for you.

See above.

skipper1 · Sep 4, 2020

Ansia said:
The 2.3.3 firmware has to have the bin file extension. It's the file from drone hacks that can't have an extension.

That is the one I renamed and left off “.bin”, doesn’t work on my Evo 2, mine must be special.

parkgt · Sep 4, 2020

Bigdz said:
This helped! I only put the bin file on the SD Card(not both bin and force upgrade file) When I first attempted to do...and it failed. I'm happy to report it successfully downgraded from 2.5 to 2.3.3. Time permitting tomorrow, I will test...

Thanks! @Quad808

Are you sure it actually downgraded? Since you can't actually see a primary firmware number you have to go by the sub component firmware numbers to see it any of them actually rolled back.

With out this hack you can load the old 2.3.3 bin file on a card and do the update successfully but it has not actually rolled back any of the sub components. One has to check the sub to see!

RetArmy · Sep 4, 2020

parkgt said:
Are you sure it actually downgraded? Since you can't actually see a primary firmware number you have to go by the sub component firmware numbers to see it any of them actually rolled back.

With out this hack you can load the old 2.3.3 bin file on a card and do the update successfully but it has not actually rolled back any of the sub components. One has to check the sub to see!

I validated mine with the list on page one of this post. They are correct for 2.3.3. I wouldnt downgrade anything that had a battery update. 2.3.3 and 2.5.0 had the same 0.12 battery version.

Ansia · Sep 4, 2020

RetArmy said:
I validated mine with the list on page one of this post. They are correct for 2.3.3. I wouldnt downgrade anything that had a battery update. 2.3.3 and 2.5.0 had the same 0.12 battery version.

If you put a firmware with a previous battery version, it will simply flash it to that version.

Quad808 · Sep 4, 2020

Guys...the file from DH FORCES the drone to flash all components firmware to the version in the firmware that is on the SD card. The Autel firmware is just like DJI firmware, meaning...there is an overall firmware # like 2.5.0, but that firmware is made up of several firmware components for each separate hardware piece, so when doing this make sure to match the versions from the app to what was in the firmware release notes.
I wouldn't anticipate any issues going to earlier firmware, especially just one version earlier, UNLESS you had existing issues on that firmware. Those issues you had on that firmware would still be present.
As skipper1 says...this is not rocket science.
It is a good idea to do calibrations again though, then test fly. As long as you get the message from the RC that the flash was a success, you should be good to go after you validate the versions in the app.

If you are getting the screen as in post #22...this means that your SD card is not setup correctly with the drone-hacks file, because the drone is doing a firmware check and not reading the extra file from DH that tells the drone to not check the versions, but flash the firmware on the card.

**The biggest question is....has anyone who had drift issues on 2.5.0, rolled back the firmware to 2.3.3 and now those issues are gone? I have NOT had the time to test my drone, but hope to later today, weather permitting.