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Autel is charging huge restocking fees on Amazon

In my previous message I said I drove into the middle of nowhere, literally 40 miles from any civilization. Tried 2 Evo 2's (an 8k and a Pro). Did not expect less than 10% of the claimed range - who would expect something that bad? Pulled out my old drone and easily hit 20,000 feet with no forced return to home. My 3+ year old drone has literally 500% greater range.

In urban environments I was only able to achieve 5% the advertised range. It's just vastly less than advertised plain and simple. I think I would have been happy with 10,000 ft.
I think there are range tests of the Evo 2 showing it getting much more than 3,800 feet. Did you try contacting Amazon? I always email them and have gotten good results.
 
Are you in the US? How can you see your drone 3 1/2 miles away? Not sure what you would be doing that far out. Visual line of site is required as far as i know.
 
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Are you in the US? How can you see your drone 3 1/2 miles away? Not sure what you would be doing that far out. Visual line of site is required as far as i know.

Exactly... and here I am thinking I'm doing right by always flying my drone within LoS.

Never understood the infatuation people have with seeing how far away they can get their drone and don't feel sorry for them when something bad happens either.
 
I think your right Travis. My name is Tom and i'm over on the Olympic Peninsula in Brinnon, WA. I do most of my flying for a few fire departments over here in Jefferson Co.

I have a Autel Evo and a DJI Phantom 3. The evo is great for smoke investigations and fire ground overviews. Quick to launch.
Fly safe.

Tom
 
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i agree something is wrong with the drone, you did buy the first units off the shelf so issues should be exspected, just like cars, i will never buy the first model year of any vehicle, always issues... this is electronics, so i would have sent it in to AUtel for tune up. returning the item was the wrong choice. as Amazon cannot resell such a high valued item easily. and will have to get sent in for inspection, its alot of people who need to look at it and handle it, send it in to the manufactuer if its screwy

it should also be stated , not to use your personal phone with your drone, get a dedicated phone or monitor that doesn't have sim card, and set to airplane mode to minimize rf interference with the Autel radio tx..
 
Exactly... and here I am thinking I'm doing right by always flying my drone within LoS.

Never understood the infatuation people have with seeing how far away they can get their drone and don't feel sorry for them when something bad happens either.
Why in the world would you buy a $1800 drone for LOS when you can get a cheesy $500 drone that does that? I have a youtube channel for my drone flying (mostly for friends) and all my flights are not LOS. Honestly the Evo 2's are a joke and not worth anywhere near the price. Heck the $799 Air 2 has 500% greater range and the same camera as the 8K for $700 less money.
 
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it should also be stated , not to use your personal phone with your drone, get a dedicated phone or monitor that doesn't have sim card, and set to airplane mode to minimize rf interference with the Autel radio tx..
Why shouldn't I use my cellphone as my primary monitor?
 
Why in the world would you buy a $1800 drone for LOS when you can get a cheesy $500 drone that does that? I have a youtube channel for my drone flying (mostly for friends) and all my flights are not LOS. Honestly the Evo 2's are a joke and not worth anywhere near the price. Heck the $799 Air 2 has 500% greater range and the same camera as the 8K for $700 less money.
Are you Part 107 certified? Even if you aren't, you should know the answer of your question.
 
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Why shouldn't I use my cellphone as my primary monitor?
I already stated why.. no need to swamp the transmitter with your cell phones harmonics and blue tooth , cell rf, etc, etc... common sense stuff
 
Seems about normal for some places to charge a restock fee on returns with no implied defect. I think that was the issue. As for the range.. well, even with our M2P, and others the most we do is maybe .5 mile out while maintaining vlos. Just how it is for us. Even .5 mile is tough to have a good vlos at 400' alt without binoculars.

So far we love the E2's, and we have 2 E2P, and an 8K. The 8K got picked on, but that's a nice drone, and a nice camera. Evo 1 is still a great drone and camera as well. Sometimes I just like that extra wide FOV for our works.

I find with Autel that you need to point the antennas down. It just works better since the antenna direction is then facing upward. If you have the antenna up, and hold the controller flat, you lose range.
 
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Here is the "trick" with returning things bought on Amazon. When giving the reason, pick website description is wrong. Find something in the description that isn't right and you are golden. I find a lot of products write ups are not "exact". You will get a full refund. I buy a lot of items from Amazon, but don't return that much, since I try to pick wisely. I have also found using the customer support "chat" on Amazon works wonders, and they try hard to make things right for you.

I have both the Evo I and II pro 6k. I agree with mike9591...the Evo I is still a solid drone with a good camera!
 
Why in the world would you buy a $1800 drone for LOS when you can get a cheesy $500 drone that does that? I have a youtube channel for my drone flying (mostly for friends) and all my flights are not LOS. Honestly the Evo 2's are a joke and not worth anywhere near the price. Heck the $799 Air 2 has 500% greater range and the same camera as the 8K for $700 less money.

To answer your question... I wouldn't... and haven't. Quite happy with my Evo 1.

Glad we agree about the Evo 2 price!
 
Why in the world would you buy a $1800 drone for LOS when you can get a cheesy $500 drone that does that? I have a youtube channel for my drone flying (mostly for friends) and all my flights are not LOS. Honestly the Evo 2's are a joke and not worth anywhere near the price. Heck the $799 Air 2 has 500% greater range and the same camera as the 8K for $700 less money.

So how difficult was it for you to obtain a BVLOS (107.31)waiver? I have heard its difficult and could take months. Perhaps you can give us some pointers on how you perform this on a daily basis for your Youtube channel.
 
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