Battery Failure and one heck of a flight! This drone is rugged...see end of story..lol

jcommstudios · Jul 14, 2019

I haven't had the EVO out for a while so I put it up in my front yard which I have done numerous times. Got a weird magnetic interference notice them got a compass calibration notice. I shut down and rebooted the controller and drone. Everything looked OK so I popped up to get a shot of the sunset.
That's when things went to a very strange place....
I get a notice on my controller that the battery is defective change it. Tried to land but it wouldn't descend below about 4 feet then the Yaw shut down and unless I kept the stick down it wanted to ascend. I tried to get it over a grassy area but the control went absolutely bat crazy! The drone took off sideways and slowly hit a telephone pole. The battery popped off and as I walked over to it I expected to see the worse.

To my amazement the EVO was fully in tact. After inspecting it there was not a scratch on it. No gimbal damage...nothing! I put a new battery in and it flew perfectly for 20 minutes. Very bizarre! I guess it's time to check all of the batteries cell values. Can't believe this drone can take such a hit and have zero damage. I lucked out!

i will be contacting Autel and let them know of this oddity and perhaps they need to do a patch that will let you land after a battery malfunction. I put the battery that was bad back in to see what would show up and it gave me a notice the battery was indeed bad.
Can't believe there was no damage to the drone...at all.

macoman · Jul 14, 2019

Try to calibrate all the sensors next time and make sure you stay away from taking off from concrete or metal platform.

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 14, 2019

I wonder if any of these conditions kicked in and it was trying to raise up to for RTH or just got confused by the battery warning since you were already in the air when you got it?

A.
EVO continually calculates the required battery level for the aircraft to return to the home point. A notice on the Autel ExplorerTM app will appear when the battery level reaches the minimum level required for the aircraft to return to the home point. Failsafe will be activated, and EVO will automatically fly home. Again, you can regain control of the aircraft by pressing the Pause Button( ) during the Go Home process.
B.
When EVO’s battery level reaches the 25% threshold, you’ll receive a Low Battery Warning and Failsafe will be activated, after which the aircraft will automatically return home. If you retake control of the aircraft, when the battery reaches 15%, you’ll receive a Critically Low Battery Warning, and the aircraft will automatically land in its current position. In the case of an emergency, you may press the Pause Button( ) to halt the landing and fly it to the nearest possible safe landing site.

Ansia · Jul 14, 2019

To me, it sounds that one of the cells gave, causing your drone to RTH for safety measure. I have seen this happen with other drones as well.

Here is a video of a Phantom suffering from the same as you.

jcommstudios · Jul 14, 2019

Agustine said:
I wonder if any of these conditions kicked in and it was trying to raise up to for RTH or just got confused by the battery warning since you were already in the air when you got it?

A.
EVO continually calculates the required battery level for the aircraft to return to the home point. A notice on the Autel ExplorerTM app will appear when the battery level reaches the minimum level required for the aircraft to return to the home point. Failsafe will be activated, and EVO will automatically fly home. Again, you can regain control of the aircraft by pressing the Pause Button( ) during the Go Home process.
B.
When EVO’s battery level reaches the 25% threshold, you’ll receive a Low Battery Warning and Failsafe will be activated, after which the aircraft will automatically return home. If you retake control of the aircraft, when the battery reaches 15%, you’ll receive a Critically Low Battery Warning, and the aircraft will automatically land in its current position. In the case of an emergency, you may press the Pause Button( ) to halt the landing and fly it to the nearest possible safe landing site.

@Agustine The battery had a full charge. I have been flying the EVO for about a year and know it pretty well... no problems. The area I was testing in I have flown many times so that is not an issue. Thankfully I've been flying various pro level drones for over 5 years and did not panic. The pause button did absolutely nothing as I did hold it for over 3 seconds with no response. I sent the info to Autel and Derik has already responded with an email. Just one of those freak things!

jcommstudios · Jul 14, 2019

Ansia said:
To me, it sounds that one of the cells gave, causing your drone to RTH for safety measure. I have seen this happen with other drones as well.

Here is a video of a Phantom suffering from the same as you.

@Ansia Yep except he still had control of the drone. I figured it was trying to RTH but didn't trust it to come back to the home point. I put the battery back in and now it says "defective battery" although the cells all show as charged evenly. Sent the info in the original post to Autel. I got a response from Darik at Autel this AM and sent him the info he requested. I've got admit the service response is excellent.
I assume the weird compass and mag interference were symptoms of it beginning to fail since I fly from exactly the same place all the time with no issues. I am still amazed that there was no damage... at all.

jcommstudios · Jul 14, 2019

macoman said:
Try to calibrate all the sensors next time and make sure you stay away from taking off from concrete or metal platform.

@macoman Everything was properly calibrated prior to flight. The weird indications were part of the battery failing. Been flying these things for years and I am aware of the concrete/metal issues. It had nothing to do with it.