Drone disobeys orders

[BravoPet]

Hi , I am new in this forum and I tried to look into this problem if it occurred in some other case, mentioned in this forum , but I couldn't find any.
So I do apologize if I missed it.

I ll try to be brief.
Bought an EVO 1 in December (brand new from Adorama), last year. Had it flown since begging of April only few times.
At the end of March, the drone started to act abnormally. Like , you would fly it with sensors on ,on a large field and the drone would periodically just stop by itself, even though it wouldn't have any obstruction near by.
Then at some moment (scary part) it wouldn't come back some 100 feet over a lake. Then , after trying few time, it would start to respond.
Anyways, tried and looked for some firmware update or any update that can fix the problem. I did find some , and installed them properly.
I was scared to fly it over the lake again, and I just took it over my house this time.
The battery was around 50% .... went over for a flight that not exceeded some 200-250 ft from where I stood, brought the drone back within some 60 ft away from me, at some 20 ft altitude (over a tree), with intention to take a picture of my house.
Took some photos when I got a warning to bring the drone back (15 %) , even though I never leave my drones below 20% (but this came at surprise), but anyway , easy deal, it was just at front of me. Guess what? The drone did not respond, and it kept hovering over the tree.
Tried the RTH button , didn't work ...tried the commands several times, didn't do anything. Out of a sudden the drone started to land in the tree underneath. Just to let you know, between the warning 15% warning and the crash took around not even a minute!

Sent the drone to Autel so they can inspect it. They got back to me that it was a "Pilot error". Asked me to pay around $160 to fix the motor of one of the propellers that got damaged , when the drone landed in the tree.

I have two problems here, so I would like to get advice please;

1. I don't think it was my error ,mistake, thus I shouldn't be held responsible for the repair. I do own a DJI Phantom 3 PRO and a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom. I mentioned this, just to get you an idea that I am not a novice in this game. I have never had any crashed with this other aircraft.

2. Let's say the drone got fixed. How I would know that it would not happen again?

I disclosed this two things that are bothering me to the Autel Customer Service team, but it seems like at no avail. I even let them have all the flight logs , including the final flight when it landed in the tree. I don't know why is so difficult for them to see that something abnormally was going on with the drone , before
it decided to land in a tree uninstructed.

I read that have excellent customer service, but I am very sorry to learn for myself , the opposite.


Please let me know what you guys think.

Thanks!

 

[Ansia]

I haven't finished reading your post, but the reason your drone stopped is caused by the sun’s reflection on the sensors.

 

[BravoPet]

I haven't finished reading your post, but the reason your drone stopped is caused by the sun’s reflection on the sensors.

Thanks for the replay, I do appreciate it.
Can you please elaborate this a little bit more for me? Is it a known problem? Does Autel acknowledge it?

Thanks again!

 

[DanielC]

Thanks for the replay, I do appreciate it.
Can you please elaborate this a little bit more for me? Is it a known problem? Does Autel acknowledge it?

Thanks again!

I have noticed and be warned in the Evo manual it has all sorts of fail-safe notifications that you should be aware of. It will land when the battery gets to a certain point. You can adjust the warning points in the app, but if it reaches certain point with the battery low it will just land and it doesn't care where it is. Please review the manual for detailed descriptions of this behavior. It's auto landed on me several times when I pushed the battery beyond where it wanted to go. Minor crashes ensued because of uneven landing zones.

 

[Tufargon]

A sudden battery drop is also a known issue if you didn't charge it or top it off within 24 hours of flight.

 

[BravoPet]

I have noticed and be warned in the Evo manual it has all sorts of fail-safe notifications that you should be aware of. It will land when the battery gets to a certain point. You can adjust the warning points in the app, but if it reaches certain point with the battery low it will just land and it doesn't care where it is. Please review the manual for detailed descriptions of this behavior. It's auto landed on me several times when I pushed the battery beyond where it wanted to go. Minor crashes ensued because of uneven landing zones.

Thanks for the reply.
That might explain, but still I am bugged , why the drone didn't obey the orders to get back within 5-60 feet distance?
I guess they are just different then the DJI products.

I do appreciate your response, but I ll have to go against the stupid Autel software. Why would they set a limit on 15% battery left , to just land automatically disobeying the commands?

That's just plain lame. The drone didn't react at all., and went down on 15% battery left?

Crazy.

Again, nothing against you, I am just mad at Autel if that's the case.

Thanks

 

[BravoPet]

A sudden battery drop is also a known issue if you didn't charge it or top it off within 24 hours of flight.

I suspect this issue right there, right then.
As I said I flew that craft few times and didn't have any problems with the battery at least.
That, last day, the battery seemed to discharge way to rapidly.

I do have two batteries, and I remember that I put one that showed decent amount of charge for what I was about to do.
Seemed like it discharged in a nick of few moments.

Still very mad that I could see my drone landing in the tree with 15% battery left, on only few yards away from me.

Very frustrating.

 

[Tufargon]

The parameters can be set differently for that.
One thing. Sounds like you maybe never updated the firmware or software. I would probably do that and with all batteries, calibrate it, make sure the batteries are full and try again. Maybe even clean the sensors after and even try turning them off when you have the issue of it not wanting to move so you can see if that's what it is.

 

[Ansia]

Sorry for the late reply. Life has me by the ? at the moment.

When the sun shines directly to the sensor or reflects in the water and then reflects on the sensor, the drone thinks it has an obstacle in front and will not obey commands to go forward.

As for the battery, like Tufargon said, never fly your drone if the battery has more than 24 hours since you charge it.

When Autel read the flight logs, they saw that the drone didn't respond, since it believed there was something in the way that prevented it's return, forcing the auto land feature. If you press the throttle, it will prevent the drone from landing, until it reaches 8%. Then you are screwed.

The same will apply to your Mavic as well. Also, make sure there isn't any debris or dirt in your sensors.

 

[BravoPet]

Thanks for the reply , to all of you guys, I appreciate it.

So bottom line, it seems like I am on my own, and Autel is going to deem this as my error?
Ok, I guess I ll have to burn $160 to get my drone back.

However, after all I read, you guys think it might have been the battery problem. It might make sense. I don't remember charging that battery right before it was used.

I guess I learnt this the "expensive" way .

Anyways, thanks again to everybody who reply.

Cheers!

 

[mixchief]

Similar issues occur with DJI's drones, if your battery has not been recently charged and gives you a reading below 100% (you should ALWAYS check the battery page before you fly) you will have problems, sometimes accompanied by warnings on the app, sometimes not. It is well known that "intelligent" copters react this way. Also, since you hadn't flown the bird very often you should monitor the charge on the batteries, my Autel batteries seem to discharge quicker than DJIs after reaching storage charge levels, I have one EVO battery that will hold storage charge for a week and then suddenly drop to one light while DJI's keep storage levels for a couple pf months even. Lot's of things to monitor and pay attention to with all these beasts, none are perfect.

 

[BravoPet]

Similar issues occur with DJI's drones, if your battery has not been recently charged and gives you a reading below 100% (you should ALWAYS check the battery page before you fly) you will have problems, sometimes accompanied by warnings on the app, sometimes not. It is well known that "intelligent" copters react this way. Also, since you hadn't flown the bird very often you should monitor the charge on the batteries, my Autel batteries seem to discharge quicker than DJIs after reaching storage charge levels, I have one EVO battery that will hold storage charge for a week and then suddenly drop to one light while DJI's keep storage levels for a couple pf months even. Lot's of things to monitor and pay attention to with all these beasts, none are perfect.

I got it. I mean, I didn't know , to be honest, I just learnt it few posts ago.
What is bagging me the most is that the battery read 20% when it reported "low" , and the drone was floating some 2-30 yards away from me, not obeying any orders to come back to me, and safely land.
Was hovering at the same spot for around a minute, while I was watching helplessly. Then decided to land in the tree beneath.

I am still confused why it didn't get back to safety, once it realized that its battery became low?

Why it didn't follow my orders at all?

I do appreciate everybody's response , but I am afraid I might have some additional problem here.

I am about to have it fixed, then , let see how it will behave.

P.S.

For sure that bird won't go over water again. I just don't trust it.

For more serious projects I ll stick to my Mavic Zoom.

Such a pity .. I really loved to like this drone.

 

[Ansia]

I got it. I mean, I didn't know , to be honest, I just learnt it few posts ago.
What is bagging me the most is that the battery read 20% when it reported "low" , and the drone was floating some 2-30 yards away from me, not obeying any orders to come back to me, and safely land.
Was hovering at the same spot for around a minute, while I was watching helplessly. Then decided to land in the tree beneath.

I am still confused why it didn't get back to safety, once it realized that its battery became low?

Why it didn't follow my orders at all?

I do appreciate everybody's response , but I am afraid I might have some additional problem here.

I am about to have it fixed, then , let see how it will behave.

P.S.

For sure that bird won't go over water again. I just don't trust it.

For more serious projects I ll stick to my Mavic Zoom.

Such a pity .. I really loved to like this drone.

I ask you, when the drone was at 20% and didn't obey commands. How far was it from Home Point? Drones won't RTH if they are within 10-15 meters from Home Point. They will land on the spot.

 

[BravoPet]

I ask you, when the drone was at 20% and didn't obey commands. How far was it from Home Point? Drones won't RTH if they are within 10-15 meters from Home Point. They will land on the spot.

The drone was some 20-30 yards away from me, at most 40.
Some 20 yards altitude.

Before I tried RTH, I tried several times to get it back to me , manually. It did not respond at all.
After that, I pressed the RTH , regardless , didn't work nither. I tried again the manual commands , didn't respond again.
This all happens within a minute as I mentioned before.
I do have a log stating the same. The log is sent to Autel customer service ...a week ago.
I sent them couple of emails in meanwhile , and one phone call. Still haven't got any response on those emails, however , when I talked to Alejandro , he told me , Dave still haven't looked at the logs
and that he'll remind him to do so. That was 3 days ago. Nothing.

Not that I lost trust in the bird, I am seriously doubting all that fame about the "excellent customer service" that Autel is providing.

 

[Ansia]

The drone was some 20-30 yards away from me, at most 40.
Some 20 yards altitude.

Before I tried RTH, I tried several times to get it back to me , manually. It did not respond at all.
After that, I pressed the RTH , regardless , didn't work nither. I tried again the manual commands , didn't respond again.
This all happens within a minute as I mentioned before.
I do have a log stating the same. The log is sent to Autel customer service ...a week ago.
I sent them couple of emails in meanwhile , and one phone call. Still haven't got any response on those emails, however , when I talked to Alejandro , he told me , Dave still haven't looked at the logs
and that he'll remind him to do so. That was 3 days ago. Nothing.

Not that I lost trust in the bird, I am seriously doubting all that fame about the "excellent customer service" that Autel is providing.

I wasn't there, so perhaps something happened that I am not aware of. I can only comment from what you have told us. I understand your frustration with customer service right now. You feel like you are being ignored and that they don't want to help you at all and you don't know what to do at this point, bug feel helpess. I am not defending Autel, but having experienced this with CS of other places, I can relate. Sadly, these are the times and everyone is working from home, with limited interaction with one another. Thing's flow smoother when you can say "hold on", walk down the hallway and ask Dave for the answer. Please be patient for the time being. If the drone is at fault, the logs will show this and you will get your warranty repair.

 

[mixchief]

Next time you fly it make sure you have biscuits in your pocket, might obey better with a treat

 

[BravoPet]

I wasn't there, so perhaps something happened that I am not aware of. I can only comment from what you have told us. I understand your frustration with customer service right now. You feel like you are being ignored and that they don't want to help you at all and you don't know what to do at this point, bug feel helpess. I am not defending Autel, but having experienced this with CS of other places, I can relate. Sadly, these are the times and everyone is working from home, with limited interaction with one another. Thing's flow smoother when you can say "hold on", walk down the hallway and ask Dave for the answer. Please be patient for the time being. If the drone is at fault, the logs will show this and you will get your warranty repair.

Yeah that makes sense.
It's just kind of weird that the communication kind of stalled the last week.
Before that, they were very punctual to at least get back to me with a simple "I got it, let me see what I can do" or such.

But you make point, it's sort of "unusual state" we live at this time.

Just this automated email they send to me every single Monday with the invoice attached to it kind of getting on my nerves. "Please do not reply to this email".

Thanks for soothing me , anyways man

Have a good evening

 

[Jsizzle*EVO*1_Alpha]

Thanks for the reply.
That might explain, but still I am bugged , why the drone didn't obey the orders to get back within 5-60 feet distance?
I guess they are just different then the DJI products.

I do appreciate your response, but I ll have to go against the stupid Autel software. Why would they set a limit on 15% battery left , to just land automatically disobeying the commands?

That's just plain lame. The drone didn't react at all., and went down on 15% battery left?

Crazy.

Again, nothing against you, I am just mad at Autel if that's the case.

Thanks

If the drone is within the 150ft of initial take off zone then it will not enable a RTH fail-safe and auto-land as stated before due to the critical battery limit being reached. If you set the limit to the lowest point of 10% that helps and try disarming the obstacle avoidance, you shouldn't need it if you aren't as novice to this game, considering real pilots don't rely on sensors or computers to calculate their abilities or movement,. we use our natural skills and hone in on our abilities naturally. Hope you've learned from this venture, as we all have at some point in our lives lol..

 

[robertmarcos]

Hi , I am new in this forum and I tried to look into this problem if it occurred in some other case, mentioned in this forum , but I couldn't find any.
So I do apologize if I missed it.

I ll try to be brief.
Bought an EVO 1 in December (brand new from Adorama), last year. Had it flown since begging of April only few times.
At the end of March, the drone started to act abnormally. Like , you would fly it with sensors on ,on a large field and the drone would periodically just stop by itself, even though it wouldn't have any obstruction near by.
Then at some moment (scary part) it wouldn't come back some 100 feet over a lake. Then , after trying few time, it would start to respond.
Anyways, tried and looked for some firmware update or any update that can fix the problem. I did find some , and installed them properly.
I was scared to fly it over the lake again, and I just took it over my house this time.
The battery was around 50% .... went over for a flight that not exceeded some 200-250 ft from where I stood, brought the drone back within some 60 ft away from me, at some 20 ft altitude (over a tree), with intention to take a picture of my house.
Took some photos when I got a warning to bring the drone back (15 %) , even though I never leave my drones below 20% (but this came at surprise), but anyway , easy deal, it was just at front of me. Guess what? The drone did not respond, and it kept hovering over the tree.
Tried the RTH button , didn't work ...tried the commands several times, didn't do anything. Out of a sudden the drone started to land in the tree underneath. Just to let you know, between the warning 15% warning and the crash took around not even a minute!

Sent the drone to Autel so they can inspect it. They got back to me that it was a "Pilot error". Asked me to pay around $160 to fix the motor of one of the propellers that got damaged , when the drone landed in the tree.

I have two problems here, so I would like to get advice please;

1. I don't think it was my error ,mistake, thus I shouldn't be held responsible for the repair. I do own a DJI Phantom 3 PRO and a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom. I mentioned this, just to get you an idea that I am not a novice in this game. I have never had any crashed with this other aircraft.

2. Let's say the drone got fixed. How I would know that it would not happen again?

I disclosed this two things that are bothering me to the Autel Customer Service team, but it seems like at no avail. I even let them have all the flight logs , including the final flight when it landed in the tree. I don't know why is so difficult for them to see that something abnormally was going on with the drone , before
it decided to land in a tree uninstructed.

I read that have excellent customer service, but I am very sorry to learn for myself , the opposite.


Please let me know what you guys think.

Thanks!

Hi Bravo Pet. I had nearly the same kind of accident the third time I flew my Evo 1, back in October 2020. It self-landed on a rocky hill and damaged a motor mount. Cost me $170 to have it repaired at Autel's facility in Washington state. Two new problems arose after it returned but I decided just to make due until I buy an Evo II Pro later this year.

Robert

 

[BravoPet]

Hi Bravo Pet. I had nearly the same kind of accident the third time I flew my Evo 1, back in October 2020. It self-landed on a rocky hill and damaged a motor mount. Cost me $170 to have it repaired at Autel's facility in Washington state. Two new problems arose after it returned but I decided just to make due until I buy an Evo II Pro later this year.

Robert

Thanks for your input Robert.
I am not glad that it happened to you as well, but hopefully Autel can finally understand that there's a problem on their end.
I was a little bit more fortunate then you, that, after I paid for my repair , my drone worked ok. Besides that the camera was a little disbalanced, it does ok.

However, I just don't trust Autel any longer.
Bought the Mavic Pro 2 Zoom, and have been very happy with it.

I just don't feel buying any more new Autel products at the moment.

Good luck!