Evo II Pro falling from the skies?!!!??

[andrew124C41]

While I understand the “practicality“ of avoiding flying over any bodies of water after 50 cycles on a battery. But then we’re talking about batteries that are $219 each MSRP and I would have no problems doing that if said batteries which are rated for at least 200 or more cycles(by the manufacturer themselves) within lower the price by 75% and should they make that recommendation of not flying over water after 50 cycles then I certainly wouldn’t/couldn’t argue with that.
Even sidestepping the “practicality“ approach to this dilemma, the manufacturers responsibility in just about every state of the United States (I have no idea about other countries) does require appropriate diligence on their side just as it requires diligence on the consumer side. (Consumer rights).
So in this thread where some of the initial responses questioned the wisdom (practicality?) Flying over any body of water, frankly since we are responsible for our aircraft as pilots in charge whether it be over a body of water, buildings, or other potentially sensitive infrastructure, people, etc. do we then limit flights over ANYTHING after 50 charges? In order to prevent potential damage to the craft as well as to the persons and/or structures on the ground? This is some thing that’s not hypothetical but it’s quite existential.
So if one applies that logic, with all due respect, then we shouldn’t be flying these craft with anything over 50 cycles. But then what is the remedy should this occur after 35 cycles, or in my case at 30 cycles?!

Again I appreciate what Autel has done to try to help when push came to shove, and offering reduced prices on replacement craft and accessories, I still shelled out any thousands of dollars and of course that was my choice and my choice alone. But I wonder about the myriad of other possibilities and problems despite safe and appropriate drone flying, that even win a conscientious and fully compliant 107 certified pilot performs yet these problems still exist and that does impart significant manufacturer responsibility. There is a mutual responsibility at hand from pilot and control to manufacturer, thus if “50 cycles“ is the recommendation of proceeds I realize it is not per the manufacturer) then this disconnect remains a problem.

Lithium ion batteries for RC aircraft if managed appropriately, offer far more than 50 cycles. They are meant to be used... Charged and discharged by use. Horizon Hobby now makes a smart battery which is more expensive than the regular lithium ion ones. However, they are nowhere near as expensive as what Autel is charging.

If they were smart, they would figure out a way to change to lithium iron phosphate... The nominal voltage is lower but I would imagine it is something they could do.

How often is this problem occuring.

 

[davshev]

Lithium ion batteries for RC aircraft if managed appropriately, offer far more than 50 cycles. They are meant to be used... Charged and discharged by use. Horizon Hobby now makes a smart battery which is more expensive than the regular lithium ion ones. However, they are nowhere near as expensive as what Autel is charging.

If they were smart, they would figure out a way to change to lithium iron phosphate... The nominal voltage is lower but I would imagine it is something they could do.

How often is this problem occuring.

It happened twice with me. The first time the battery failed and it crashed into water. It was still in warranty and Autel replaced it. It happened a second time, but I was over ground and was able to land it safely.

 

[cholpuch68]

I want to take the time to post my story because I believe it contains some very interesting information. I have experienced, on a single occasion, the same concerns that are being expressed here. While flying my E2V1 early in the year (FEB), and about 5 minutes into the flight, I received a very unexpected low battery warning, aircraft landing. I was flying within eyesight, above the treetops, when this occurred, but freaked out due to the distance between me and the UAV. As my craft decended out of sight, I grabbed my keys and drove over to where the drone we went down (grateful for the map feature).

I discovered my drone hovering in place, about 4 ft. above the ground!! The controller showed the battery was dead, yet here it was, props spinning and the craft hovering in place, 192' below take-off altitude!! Of course there was no response to controller input. I attempted to "hand capture" the craft but it resisted, trying to gain altitude. Finally I let go and it proceeded to rise about 3 ft., then land softly in the snow. I feel truly fortunate that this hadn't occurred where the drone could have been damaged or lost. Had this happen any place else, it likely would have ended in tragedy. Due to living in a hilly area, fate allowed my E2V1 to survive and fly another day. However, I have no confidence in the drone's ability to remain airborne. I have flown several times since, without issue, but remain skeptical... I have no interest in loosing my expensive drone!!

 

[DocFlyboy89]

Sorry to hear you lost your Evo2. Sounds like a shorted battery, perhaps? It's not simply the number of discharge cycles that determines battery health, unfortunately. Age and storage conditions are a factor. It's also encumbent upon the PIC to check for voltage drops between battery cells under load. Autel provisions for this with telemetry that measures cell voltage with 1/100V accuracy. Did you do this with the battery in question, before sending it out from shore? How long that particular battery was in service is a factor (you do have them numbered, right?) Was any swelling evident? High ambient air temp, RH, and altitude can also affect flight envelope, also. None of this is detailed in your report.

Personally, I wouldn't send an Evo2 out over a large body of H20 with any battery that showed any swelling, or voltage under load variance between cells of >.05V, or one older than 18 mos

Thank you for your comment. But as noted earlier in the thread, all battery cells according to telemetry were within or less than 1/100 of a volt difference between each of the cells. Also as I saw from a recent post the question of battery temperature. The temperature in Western Michigan on the lake shore was 70°F in the temperature of the battery was just 102.5°FAlso as I saw from a recent post the question of battery temperature. The temperature in Western Michigan on the Lakeshore was 78°F and the temperature of the battery was just under 85°F at time of loss of transmission when the battery and drone went under the water.

I genuinely appreciate all of the comments as many of them do have merit and validity and are quite constructive. But there simply remains unequivocal evidence and reports from too many different sources demonstrating a systems problem regarding the battery cells, battery management, battery firmware, software etc. Although I don’t make my living as either a drone pilot despite Bing flight 107 certified, I have practiced medicine and science for 3+ decades and if One just enters these data points under statistical analysis, we find A preponderance of data of evidence (P < 0.01 or less SD) just from the aggregate comments submitted in this email thread and others that points to a battery management problem. I have no idea what it is, and one can point to a variety of different causes, but if this were a new medication or a drug coming to market with this type of data spread, regardless of causation, this drug would not be approved by the FDA simply because the data points that are being continually reported are high enough and frequent enough when one considers the approximate numbers of drones sold in the United States (I had to obtain this data from sources that were quite conservative) but even that demonstrates that should this analogy be made this “drug“ would not be FDA approved which is merely a measurement of drug safety as opposed to drug effectiveness. The batteries in the battery management system seems erratic enough despite or irrespective of PIC involvement. This is a kin to a patient either taking medicines properly or even those that don’t take it properly still enough reports of these issues are being demonstrated to concurrently prove that there is a problem with reliability again completely irrespective of appropriate use, inappropriate use, following procedures, not following procedures. The statistical analysis just with those basic data points being very conservatively based demonstrate that this is a problem and the manufacturer while probably not legally obliged at this point, needs to recognize and perform their due diligence.

I can use all sorts of analogies but the data speaks for itself. Battery maintenance, policies and procedures, pilot error, temperature variations, cell discrepancies, humidity, all of these factor in but yet when there are this many incidences irrespective of cause what you still have is an unreliable occurrence.

This is not a “blame game“. It is necessary to identify the major contributing factors determining what can be controlled what can I be controlled followed by systematic correction of those systems that can be controlled or modified versus those that cannot. I see no evidence or data at least of which is being published?!

 

[andrew124C41]

I would highly recommend to deep cycle every 15-20 flights or over long periods of batteries sittings. This will help with state of charge issues! Think of it as a recal of the internal charge logic.

I would also recommend to watch voltages for the first few minutes of flight, any rapid drop you would notice and could take immediate action.

Once again I do apologize but an out of warranty craft is a hard stop.

You can reply back to Tom on his offer email and he will get back to you shortly.

I do this with RC batteries utilizing a charger that has such a capability but the only way I can think of doing this is to fly the drone, RTH, and then hover right over where you want to land it until the battery is at the lowest point that is safe. The charger or hub are not capable of doing this sort of thing.

 

[DocFlyboy89]

I do this with RC batteries utilizing a charger that has such a capability but the only way I can think of doing this is to fly the drone, RTH, and then hover right over where you want to land it until the battery is at the lowest point that is safe. The charger or hub are not capable of doing this sort of thing.

Maybe a inane question, but current auto logic goes into Forest Landing below a certain percentage of battery voltage capacity. Do you try to keep the drone hovering foot or two off the grass or somewhere safe until it is to “0%“? and then I assume once you’re at 0%“ a full long charge is an order once the battery cools down? Only reason I ask is that things that I read and the manufacturer states that to never fly below a certain percentage. FYI, I have the entire flight log of a recent flight of a battery with only 11 cycles on it that I bought new again in under 21 seconds went from 80% to Less than 15% while hovering with an ambient temperature of 73°F, battery temperature of 103.5°F and no winds in the early evening. It was testing I was doing in my driveway/property. Literally no warning and had I been over some thing that was unretrievable like water, or other private property, I would’ve lost my drone. But all parameters were normal, there was less than 0.01 V deviation between all cells of the battery, I looked at everything on the flight logs using Airdata, and the bottom line is that there still remains a problem with the battery firmware/software! There just is.

 

[andrew124C41]

Maybe a inane question, but current auto logic goes into Forest Landing below a certain percentage of battery voltage capacity. Do you try to keep the drone hovering foot or two off the grass or somewhere safe until it is to “0%“? and then I assume once you’re at 0%“ a full long charge is an order once the battery cools down? Only reason I ask is that things that I read and the manufacturer states that to never fly below a certain percentage. FYI, I have the entire flight log of a recent flight of a battery with only 11 cycles on it that I bought new again in under 21 seconds went from 80% to Less than 15% while hovering with an ambient temperature of 73°F, battery temperature of 103.5°F and no winds in the early evening. It was testing I was doing in my driveway/property. Literally no warning and had I been over some thing that was unretrievable like water, or other private property, I would’ve lost my drone. But all parameters were normal, there was less than 0.01 V deviation between all cells of the battery, I looked at everything on the flight logs using Airdata, and the bottom line is that there still remains a problem with the battery firmware/software! There just is.

To be clear, while I have a lot of experience with lithium ion batteries of various chemistries, I just purchased the Evo2 Pro V2 a few months ago so my experience is limited. I was speaking theoretically but should have made it clear never to run the battery down to zero percent.

The lipo batteries used for RC are usually stored at 3.8 volts per cell or for a 3S battery, 11.4 volts. I generally think in terms of voltage rather than percent.

I think running the Evo 2 Pro battery down to 4 to 5 percent would qualify as deep cycling. One would certainly not want to run the battery down to zero.... Meaning to the critical voltage per cell where damage occurs and the battery cannot be recharged.

I think the self discharging feature is an excellent one as it brings the batteries down to the proper storage voltage. If I am not going to use the drone for more than a week, I would let them self discharge to the storage capacity.

They hold charge fairly well. I built a lithium ion phosphate 50 amp hour battery that I rarely have to recharge. I use it for emergencies and amateur radio so I never bring it down to storage voltage. Lipo batteries are not as forgiving but they are are still pretty good.

 

[garycsan]

I am on two separate Autel drones. My recently lost drone was a Autel 2 Evo pro version one with a battery that was no more than four months old with 30 properly cycled charges on it.
I left it off after confirming fully charged battery and the version one remote controller connected to my iPhone 13 showed 31 1/2 minutes of charge/full charge when I left it off. I took off and sent it to approximate 200 feet AGL and Was flying over a small in the lake coming off of Lake Michigan to get some great pictures of both traffic and beautiful lake Michigan vistas. Unfortunately with less than 3 1/2 minutes of flight time gone by, I got a initial warning of “return home“ due to sudden decline in battery charge(???), followed literally one second later with the “forced landing cycle “while I was approximately at that 150 feet AGL but actually “ALL’ (above LAKE Level!) and desperately trying to get the drone over land. Unfortunately with zero battery showing I had no control of the aircraft and the aircraft “landed“ into 40 feet of water and has lost forever. This was last week August 27, 2022. I am mediately notified Autel with a customer service ticket and the first response was “retrieve your drone and if you can find it and get it back to us we’ll see what we can do“. I told them there’s no way I’m going to risk my life trying to find a drone in at least 40 feet of water on a navigable lake. I then got a response from a second person who apologize for the first hotel employees “disrespectful“ response, she asked me for my sign in a password so that they could look at my flight logs. I complied. Then a few days later I got a response from “Tom W.“ Who said that there’s nothing they can do, the drone was “out of warranty“. They may offer me a “small discount“ and well that’s quite helpful, the drone with my six batteries certainly was well over $3500 new not counting the enterprise hotel you go to pro 640T that I own with another six batteries and that’s I’m obviously A customer who has done business with this company!
I would understand if this was pilot ever. But it wasn’t. There’s something not right with batteries suddenly showing no charge when I confirmed all cells equally charged before this flight and a force landing cycle within three minutes of me taking off over a lake. I’m just glad it didn’t land on anyone or anything! This is a problem that other people are having and frankly they are choosing to ignore it or hoping I’ll go away!? But I do enjoy the hobby and need a drone and I dare not use my 640T especially given these possible firmware or software issues! I also am hesitant to buy Alltel because of these issues. I asked him if they could at least tell me what happened and there’s nothing but crickets. Finally I do often use drones on a lot of indoor office space work and there are at least two places in a NFZ where I can’t even fly my DJI equipment on an inside location of a warehouse for warehouse control inventory and insurance reasons. That’s a went with Autel because of the Geofencing if she would like me.
Does anyone have any advice as to why properly charged and essentially new batteries with less than 30 charges on them which suddenly go into force landing and suddenly lose all of their charge barely after taking off? The batteries as far as the cells in them are all balanced when I look at them under the explorer app or with my smart controller which is a version two controller for my 640T drone. I’m afraid to fly the damn thing because I can’t trust it especially this $8000 drone that I have left!
I told him that I frankly think that at the least 50% off of a new drone would be reasonable given that this was a no pilot error situation and a problem that is obviously firmware or software!? I don’t really think that they give a poop, but maybe that’s because there’s not that many people on this forum? I don’t know? I know that I visit this form often find it very helpful! Thank you all!

I recently had a similar experience with my E2P. I called Autel and they found that some of my batteries were not updated to the latest firmware. They suggested that I update my batteries (a real PIA) and calibrate the IMU and Compass. I did that and flew it today and it seems OK so far. I wish the battery update process were easier. I had to reload the firmware on the SD card for each out-of-date battery. It seems like you could just switch batteries when rebooting the drone after a firmware update and then it would update the changed battery, but no. The SD card gets formatted after updating the firmware so you must put the firmware on the card again for each battery.

 

[andrew124C41]

I recently had a similar experience with my E2P. I called Autel and they found that some of my batteries were not updated to the latest firmware. They suggested that I update my batteries (a real PIA) and calibrate the IMU and Compass. I did that and flew it today and it seems OK so far. I wish the battery update process were easier. I had to reload the firmware on the SD card for each out-of-date battery. It seems like you could just switch batteries when rebooting the drone after a firmware update and then it would update the changed battery, but no. The SD card gets formatted after updating the firmware so you must put the firmware on the card again for each battery.

How do you know if a new battery needs a software update? I thought you would get a notification to update everything when the new battery is out into service.

I just purchased 2 new batteries. Are you saying I need to put the firmware on the SD card twice and do a full firmware update to make certain the batteries are right.

Any way to check using Airdata or the Explorer App to see if the batteries have the latest firmware?

 

[Mastix]

Autel drones are just dangerous. Too many reports of these machines falling from the sky with no previous advice. My experience is that support usually will not deal with it a leave you by your own, at least in Europe.

I am in contact directly with after sales of an Evo Nano Plus that fell from the sky. To say that after 3 months the issue is still not resolved is an understatement, my drone is in Germany Autel repair facility and they do not accept to respect the European warranty. Legal proceedings is the only way left.

I just hope that the EU finally bans all Autel drones to fly the sky. Dangerous and the company does not adhere to european warranty rules.

 

[DocFlyboy89]

I am the OP of the Evo II Pro “falling from the skies”. Unfortunately, this is still a problem , even with brand new batteries, bought directly from Autel Robotics, latest firmware across the board, and documented flight logs confirming normal data, temps, balanced battery cells, normal voltages, etc etc. I have forwarded this to Autel and after much back and forth they did at least give me a “discount” on the purchase of a new Evo II pro 6k to replace the one that did fall from the sky into a lake I was filming in preparation for a client. But even after a brand new E26k AND brand new batteries purchased from Autel Robotics directly, I still experience unpredictable loss of battery performance from my new E2P6K and new battery. I have the flight logs showing degradation of new battery and my new drone going from 80% on my property and plummeting in 16 seconds to “forced landing” mode due to less than 15% battery charge left. 16 seconds, flying at modest speed of 250-300 feet AGL in no winds / very light winds, 70F ambient temps and battery temps less than 102F?!?! All battery cells less than 0.01v differential, etc. I luckily did this test on my property over grass and pasture.


The reason for this post is that I also at that same time of buying that replacement E2 P6K, I also bought a brand new nano + with brand new batteries and after confirming upgraded firmware the very first two flights of mine and I’ll + within three seconds of lift off from the ground on my property you know literally flew directly into my house on two separate occasions. The first occasion only broke a propeller and after replacement of that propeller second flight did the same thing. However Autel did stand behind the product and send me a new nano + only charging me tax for my state and the past 10 flights have been perfect.

The nano + does have problems with the gimbal sometimes getting stuck in an off level position, but otherwise so far so good!

I want to post this because I agree that the Nano+ so far with the recent upgrade of firmware is stable, battery life is as expected (24 minutes real world) and so far other than gimbal issues rarely and the first Nano + having some sort of hardware IMU problem, I trust my Nano, WAY more than either my E2P6K OR my Evo II 640T. Because of the Evo II battery problem. They still do “fall from the skies”. Not pilot error, NOT improper battery prep or maintenance, but as I have repeatedly stated there is some sort of battery manufacturer problem and/or firmware problem of battery management software/firmware.

 

[andrew124C41]

I am the OP of the Evo II Pro “falling from the skies”. Unfortunately, this is still a problem , even with brand new batteries, bought directly from Autel Robotics, latest firmware across the board, and documented flight logs confirming normal data, temps, balanced battery cells, normal voltages, etc etc. I have forwarded this to Autel and after much back and forth they did at least give me a “discount” on the purchase of a new Evo II pro 6k to replace the one that did fall from the sky into a lake I was filming in preparation for a client. But even after a brand new E26k AND brand new batteries purchased from Autel Robotics directly, I still experience unpredictable loss of battery performance from my new E2P6K and new battery. I have the flight logs showing degradation of new battery and my new drone going from 80% on my property and plummeting in 16 seconds to “forced landing” mode due to less than 15% battery charge left. 16 seconds, flying at modest speed of 250-300 feet AGL in no winds / very light winds, 70F ambient temps and battery temps less than 102F?!?! All battery cells less than 0.01v differential, etc. I luckily did this test on my property over grass and pasture.


The reason for this post is that I also at that same time of buying that replacement E2 P6K, I also bought a brand new nano + with brand new batteries and after confirming upgraded firmware the very first two flights of mine and I’ll + within three seconds of lift off from the ground on my property you know literally flew directly into my house on two separate occasions. The first occasion only broke a propeller and after replacement of that propeller second flight did the same thing. However Autel did stand behind the product and send me a new nano + only charging me tax for my state and the past 10 flights have been perfect.

The nano + does have problems with the gimbal sometimes getting stuck in an off level position, but otherwise so far so good!

I want to post this because I agree that the Nano+ so far with the recent upgrade of firmware is stable, battery life is as expected (24 minutes real world) and so far other than gimbal issues rarely and the first Nano + having some sort of hardware IMU problem, I trust my Nano, WAY more than either my E2P6K OR my Evo II 640T. Because of the Evo II battery problem. They still do “fall from the skies”. Not pilot error, NOT improper battery prep or maintenance, but as I have repeatedly stated there is some sort of battery manufacturer problem and/or firmware problem of battery management software/firmware.

This is really strange. There must be an explanation. I have been closely monitoring my batteries for one minute during initial hover to see if I can detect anything. So far no problem. I flew over water for the first time today... A bit nervously but without a problem.

I did notice while filming I did a slow counterclockwise yaw with even pressure, yet at some point.... It jumped. I did not change pressure.

I figure I am always going to have to use precision Intelligent Mode for this kind of thing.

 

[KANSAS KILLSHOT]

I have an autel evo 2 v1. Been flying it since Mar of 2021. I have 7 batteries all purchased at same time. Did the 2.6.22 and used virgin .bin and started up every battery so they all read v0.0.15.0. After this hearing about remote ID and issues with the firmware update after 2.6.22 I liked the firmware and decided to keep it 2.6.22. So I dedicated a tablet to my rc and only have the autel app on it and I disabled wifi and it has been in airplane mode for since then well over a year. I just use it only for flying my autel. So no background downloading and no surprises and no new features. I only use mine at night for locating coyotes. I use it once a week every week with no problems until last week... Few times I left my SD card in my gopro or my dji and when I had my autel out in the pasture I would use the on board storage. The storage got full and I would delete the last flight because I had a few flights from the oldest in storage that I wanted to keep so I always remembered to manually open up the video viewer in app and just erase that last video of my flight. Well last week I started working on a video on premier pro and I would make a folder on Dropbox to pull footage from and use that as a project folder for that video I'm making to keep things simple and all in one folder so I can easily drop in or find clips that I want to use for Adobe premier.

* Iast week before I took my drone out I turned it on and plugged it into my laptop that I use to create videos and I selected all and dumped everything on my laptop and unplugged my drone and transfered all the videos to Dropbox and I left with my drone to go hunt. I always hit the power button on each battery before I insert it into the drone it's a habbit. I always make sure it's 4 bars not 1 or 2 or 3. If i's not 4 I'll grab another battery that has 4 bars. Drone took off normally and like all of you guys I was in the air around 5 mins and screen had critical landing and I looked at the battery percent and it was 0%. I didn't quite understand what was going on but I turned it around and started heading back to me. I got it 50yards away and I decided to drop it in the field just incase if it decided to turn the motors off. Rc was still connected when I retrieved the drone. Went back to my vehicle and loaded another fully charged battery in it. Clicked it in made sure it was secure, made sure my marco polo tag was beeping red it was. So I took off again. Went back to the same area where I was heading to check some things out. Same exact thing I got critical landing on my tablet screen 5 to 7mins after take off. Then I turned it around and brought it all the way back to me and landed it on my hoof of vehicle since I knew the battery was fully charged. These two first batteries both read 1blinking bar as if it was completely dead, which I know they are fully charged. So I grabbed another battery 4 bars fully charged. Turned it on put it on my sunroof, turned the led lights off so you can't see it which pretty soon I'm going to regret.. took off and head north into the wooded tree area. I past the treeline then got into some thick woods and then I was out of the tree line on the north end of the woods. Took me about 3-4 mins to get over there and 20-30 secs of Ludacris to get over the wooded area and back out to pasture area. Soon as I let off the stick and hoovered It popped up again. Critical landing and it started dropping. I was about 140feet in height. And I was like wtf is going on here? I got it out of the trees and as soon as it was in the field with nothing but tall grass I disconnected the rc from my neck and placed on my passenger seat and drone over to the next field and unlocked the gate and when I got back into the Yukon I looked at my rc and it was disconnected from drone. Then it was starting to sink in that my drone has something going on and it's very bad. I didn't want to run over the drone with my vehicle so I parked it pretty far away from the area where I let go of where I let off the sticks as it continued to go down. I wished I never turned off my leds because I was looking for it for 20mins. Once I found my drone then I was walking around for another 30mins trying to find where I parked my vehicle... ridiculous..

My drone was fine never had an issue until I plugged it into my laptop to pull the internal footage off the flash memory. My laptop had the wifi turned on and I believe that autel started downloading crap to my drone and I put 3 batteries in it in less then 30mins and my drone was at high risk of crashing due to whatever firmware that was loaded on to it when I was transferring the flash memory on to my laptop. That's the first time my drone has touched wifi in Well over a year and now it's f-ed up.. I don't trust it and I and upset. This drone was awesome until last week.
Today I pulled my 3 batteries out of my case and looked at it for the first time since that night. 1 battery had 1 flashing bar. The other 2 batters had zero flashing bars. They were completely dead. I plugged all 3 batteries in my charger and the 2 that were non flashing immediately went to 3 solid and 4th flashing as if it was 90+% charged and almost done. The 1 bar flashing still had 1 flashing bar on the charger so it had 3 bars left that need to be charged up.

I'm upset but I can't be complaining too much as to a few of you lost yours in the water. And one of you was running dual lens which ain't freaking cheap. It's not the cell imbalance, its not the circuit board on battery going out, it's the firmware/software on your drone.

I'm going to install the virgin 2.6.22 .bin and repeat it 7 times for all my batteries. Luckily I have it stored in my Dropbox and moment's like this. Later this evening I'm going to take the 3 batteries that failed and test them tonight infront of me. No more pastures or woods until I can clear out this bug that's causing every battery to fail.

Evo2 critical drop recovered Nov 6th 2022

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Update: I just got home from testing one battery. I reloaded 2.6.22 on the three batteries everything seems like it's back to normal. I left my other 4 batteries alone incase i had to diagnose or rule something out i would have batteries untouched. I was in the air for almost 2mins and I decided to flim the test for whoever wants to watch the test flight. I'll post the link as soon as it is done uploading. Dropbox playback is downgraded i filmed in reg HD 30fps for the sake of upload time. So I recommend downloading it and then watch on your comp.

Batterytest flight .mp4

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[MNT DRONE SOLUTIONS]

I have a battery that is starting to do force land with a sudden drop in %'s. It has 30 cycles or so. I just don't use it. Have to recycle it.

 

[KANSAS KILLSHOT]

I have a battery that is starting to do force land with a sudden drop in %'s. It has 30 cycles or so. I just don't use it. Have to recycle it.

Try reloading your firmware in battery and drone. Doesn't take long to do just need a blank SD card. But kinda sounds isolated which points more towards a cell going bad. But it's worth a try.

 

[MNT DRONE SOLUTIONS]

bad cell

 

[KANSAS KILLSHOT]

bad cell

$219 for a battery pack and you'd think it you were buying premium quality. So rare to find quality these days. I use to do risky things with out care when I first got my drone. I bought a dji mini 2 for having fun and the autel is for serious work and no more taking risk. Especially never going over water.
It's like dating a girlfriend that cheated on you way back when the relationship wasn't serious, but now it is. Once a cheater always a cheater.

 

[yiyunet]

I am on two separate Autel drones. My recently lost drone was a Autel 2 Evo pro version one with a battery that was no more than four months old with 30 properly cycled charges on it.
I left it off after confirming fully charged battery and the version one remote controller connected to my iPhone 13 showed 31 1/2 minutes of charge/full charge when I left it off. I took off and sent it to approximate 200 feet AGL and Was flying over a small in the lake coming off of Lake Michigan to get some great pictures of both traffic and beautiful lake Michigan vistas. Unfortunately with less than 3 1/2 minutes of flight time gone by, I got a initial warning of “return home“ due to sudden decline in battery charge(???), followed literally one second later with the “forced landing cycle “while I was approximately at that 150 feet AGL but actually “ALL’ (above LAKE Level!) and desperately trying to get the drone over land. Unfortunately with zero battery showing I had no control of the aircraft and the aircraft “landed“ into 40 feet of water and has lost forever. This was last week August 27, 2022. I am mediately notified Autel with a customer service ticket and the first response was “retrieve your drone and if you can find it and get it back to us we’ll see what we can do“. I told them there’s no way I’m going to risk my life trying to find a drone in at least 40 feet of water on a navigable lake. I then got a response from a second person who apologize for the first hotel employees “disrespectful“ response, she asked me for my sign in a password so that they could look at my flight logs. I complied. Then a few days later I got a response from “Tom W.“ Who said that there’s nothing they can do, the drone was “out of warranty“. They may offer me a “small discount“ and well that’s quite helpful, the drone with my six batteries certainly was well over $3500 new not counting the enterprise hotel you go to pro 640T that I own with another six batteries and that’s I’m obviously A customer who has done business with this company!
I would understand if this was pilot ever. But it wasn’t. There’s something not right with batteries suddenly showing no charge when I confirmed all cells equally charged before this flight and a force landing cycle within three minutes of me taking off over a lake. I’m just glad it didn’t land on anyone or anything! This is a problem that other people are having and frankly they are choosing to ignore it or hoping I’ll go away!? But I do enjoy the hobby and need a drone and I dare not use my 640T especially given these possible firmware or software issues! I also am hesitant to buy Alltel because of these issues. I asked him if they could at least tell me what happened and there’s nothing but crickets. Finally I do often use drones on a lot of indoor office space work and there are at least two places in a NFZ where I can’t even fly my DJI equipment on an inside location of a warehouse for warehouse control inventory and insurance reasons. That’s a went with Autel because of the Geofencing if she would like me.
Does anyone have any advice as to why properly charged and essentially new batteries with less than 30 charges on them which suddenly go into force landing and suddenly lose all of their charge barely after taking off? The batteries as far as the cells in them are all balanced when I look at them under the explorer app or with my smart controller which is a version two controller for my 640T drone. I’m afraid to fly the damn thing because I can’t trust it especially this $8000 drone that I have left!
I told him that I frankly think that at the least 50% off of a new drone would be reasonable given that this was a no pilot error situation and a problem that is obviously firmware or software!? I don’t really think that they give a poop, but maybe that’s because there’s not that many people on this forum? I don’t know? I know that I visit this form often find it very helpful! Thank you all!

I am on two separate Autel drones. My recently lost drone was a Autel 2 Evo pro version one with a battery that was no more than four months old with 30 properly cycled charges on it.
I left it off after confirming fully charged battery and the version one remote controller connected to my iPhone 13 showed 31 1/2 minutes of charge/full charge when I left it off. I took off and sent it to approximate 200 feet AGL and Was flying over a small in the lake coming off of Lake Michigan to get some great pictures of both traffic and beautiful lake Michigan vistas. Unfortunately with less than 3 1/2 minutes of flight time gone by, I got a initial warning of “return home“ due to sudden decline in battery charge(???), followed literally one second later with the “forced landing cycle “while I was approximately at that 150 feet AGL but actually “ALL’ (above LAKE Level!) and desperately trying to get the drone over land. Unfortunately with zero battery showing I had no control of the aircraft and the aircraft “landed“ into 40 feet of water and has lost forever. This was last week August 27, 2022. I am mediately notified Autel with a customer service ticket and the first response was “retrieve your drone and if you can find it and get it back to us we’ll see what we can do“. I told them there’s no way I’m going to risk my life trying to find a drone in at least 40 feet of water on a navigable lake. I then got a response from a second person who apologize for the first hotel employees “disrespectful“ response, she asked me for my sign in a password so that they could look at my flight logs. I complied. Then a few days later I got a response from “Tom W.“ Who said that there’s nothing they can do, the drone was “out of warranty“. They may offer me a “small discount“ and well that’s quite helpful, the drone with my six batteries certainly was well over $3500 new not counting the enterprise hotel you go to pro 640T that I own with another six batteries and that’s I’m obviously A customer who has done business with this company!
I would understand if this was pilot ever. But it wasn’t. There’s something not right with batteries suddenly showing no charge when I confirmed all cells equally charged before this flight and a force landing cycle within three minutes of me taking off over a lake. I’m just glad it didn’t land on anyone or anything! This is a problem that other people are having and frankly they are choosing to ignore it or hoping I’ll go away!? But I do enjoy the hobby and need a drone and I dare not use my 640T especially given these possible firmware or software issues! I also am hesitant to buy Alltel because of these issues. I asked him if they could at least tell me what happened and there’s nothing but crickets. Finally I do often use drones on a lot of indoor office space work and there are at least two places in a NFZ where I can’t even fly my DJI equipment on an inside location of a warehouse for warehouse control inventory and insurance reasons. That’s a went with Autel because of the Geofencing if she would like me.
Does anyone have any advice as to why properly charged and essentially new batteries with less than 30 charges on them which suddenly go into force landing and suddenly lose all of their charge barely after taking off? The batteries as far as the cells in them are all balanced when I look at them under the explorer app or with my smart controller which is a version two controller for my 640T drone. I’m afraid to fly the damn thing because I can’t trust it especially this $8000 drone that I have left!
I told him that I frankly think that at the least 50% off of a new drone would be reasonable given that this was a no pilot error situation and a problem that is obviously firmware or software!? I don’t really think that they give a poop, but maybe that’s because there’s not that many people on this forum? I don’t know? I know that I visit this form often find it very helpful! Thank you all!

In order to avoid the loss of the drone, it is recommended to purchase the insurance of the Autel Robotics Care service when purchasing the drone equipment. It does not require much money, if the drone is lost within one year of validity, it can be replaced.

 

[KANSAS KILLSHOT]

For a dual lens I would find the most basic firmware with the tools you need to do the job. If you don't need the wide shots or automated tracking then don't put it on just go basic before v2 came out if your running a v1. Then once you find that firmware that doesn't have bugs and suites your needs then cut your wifi from your rc and make sure your drone never comes near and hooks up to a device with wifi and just stay off the grid. These devices like you pre install new updates without you knowing in the background without you knowing. That's the best advice I can give you and good luck with your dual lens. Just a matter of time til something happens.

 

[DocFlyboy89]

In order to avoid the loss of the drone, it is recommended to purchase the insurance of the Autel Robotics Care service when purchasing the drone equipment. It does not require much money, if the drone is lost within one year of validity, it can be replaced

The problem is that autel care wasn’t available for Evo two products until quite recently. It’s also not available for any enterprise Evo products and likely never will be. And that answer would be mostly OK except for the replacement isn’t free as it is significant deductible and you’re out of a drone for anywhere between 10 to 20 days on average. The answer is that the manufacturer either doesn’t know how to fix the problem, doesn’t care if they fix the problem or cannot fix the problem. They obviously know about the problem.

There are too many of these problems that are too similar happening too frequently!

These are not toys, and even forgetting the price, these drones that are utilized by 107 certified pilots and are registered by FAA are indeed unmanned vehicles/aircraft. With the frequency and incidence of this problem being as it is, One would assume this would want some sort of required recall, federally mandated fix, etc. Given that this is a licensed federally controlled aircraft (no it doesn’t carry passengers, but you tell me what you think will happen if one of these orange bricks falls from the skies and injure someone or causes a car accident or some other freakish occurrence!?) And the typical response that I’ve seen on these boards is “that’s why I carry insurance“. As a large business owner I can tell you that while insurance is mandatory, insurance doesn’t purchase you freedom from liability. It merely lessens the financial damages, but it most certainly doesn’t illuminate the liability exposure to your business particularly if your business requires other state and federal licensing, and exposure to not only others civil suits, and other penalties.

Those that respond with such quick answers, those that dismiss these issues so out of hand, I’m afraid to say are displaying basic liability ignorance.