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EVO II Pro/RTK Rectangular Mission Comments

Shelby Griggs

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I was flying a rectangular mission a couple days ago and experienced the following:

At end of 1st line the UAV stopped and hovered, I ended up canceling the mission and returned to home and started over. Not sure why it went to a hover?

I was getting obstacle above warnings, but nothing above but light clouds and sky, I was at 300' AGL. I ended up turning off obstacle avoidance and I am wondering if the mission stopping was due to it thinking there were obstacles?

The next two items are similar and normal I think, BUT why? An image is acquired on each turn at end of each flight line, why? Secondly, there are images acquired while flying home from end of mission. I have noticed both of these previously but thought I would ask as it is kind of annoying.

This latest mission was a 50 acre flight for mapping (789 images acquired @ 80%/80%), fairly open western range land with brush and Juniper ground cover. I had about a 10 knot cross wind on the ground, probably higher at altitude (300') and the predicated flight time was around 39 minutes. I went through a partial battery up to aborting that first flight line and then two more complete batteries and part of a fourth battery. This was my largest mission since acquiring the EVO II about nine months ago, so maybe my battery usage in winds is normal, but it was probably about three full batteries for around an hour of flight.

ADS-B warnings were frequent. I was about four miles from the local GA airport and maybe 15-20 miles from the regional airport with lots of commercial traffic. Also observed many jets at altitude, but when the warning would show I was not able to get a visual on any nearby aircraft. Has Autel published specs on the proximity distance that triggers the ADS-B warning?

SHG
 
I've received the "Obstacles above you" issue before but it's never sent the drone back to me, I have had it sit and hover and refuse to land (without pilot input) do to obstacles near the landing zone though.
As for the taking an image at the end of each flight line, it probably gives you the extra overlap you'd need to cover the blue area outside the flight lines.
The line of images when returning home only triggers for me if I turn on "Elevation Optimization" which works well in some cases and causes processing hiccups in other cases.
Predicted flight times appear to be based on the length of the line and the speed you choose, but don't factor in wind-speed or stopping to turn. It also doesn't take into account the time that you'll spend returning to home to swap batteries but you can minimize this by flying from the edge of a polygon and only changing when the drone reaches the close side of the polygon/rectangle that you're mapping.

While the Evo-2 can take a hell of a beating wind wise, it'll definitely chew up your battery alot quicker than a calm day.
Can't help on the ADS-B warnings, I haven't had one yet.
 
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I've received the "Obstacles above you" issue before but it's never sent the drone back to me, I have had it sit and hover and refuse to land (without pilot input) do to obstacles near the landing zone though.
As for the taking an image at the end of each flight line, it probably gives you the extra overlap you'd need to cover the blue area outside the flight lines.
The line of images when returning home only triggers for me if I turn on "Elevation Optimization" which works well in some cases and causes processing hiccups in other cases.
Predicted flight times appear to be based on the length of the line and the speed you choose, but don't factor in wind-speed or stopping to turn. It also doesn't take into account the time that you'll spend returning to home to swap batteries but you can minimize this by flying from the edge of a polygon and only changing when the drone reaches the close side of the polygon/rectangle that you're mapping.

While the Evo-2 can take a hell of a beating wind wise, it'll definitely chew up your battery alot quicker than a calm day.
Can't help on the ADS-B warnings, I haven't had one yet.
On the first point, it didn't send the drone home, I initiated that because it seemed it was just going to hover forever. I decided to bring it home, change the battery and send it back out and it didn't have that issue again.

I will see if I had elevation optimization on, I didn't think so, but maybe.
 
Obstacle avoidance can be triggered by sunlight glare or reflections on the OA lenses. Unless you are operating in an area where a collision is possible, it's best to leave it off. The elevation optimization setting will have the drone fly from the last waypoint to the approximate center of the mission taking oblique photos and then RTH after reaching the center. If it is taking pictures on the way from the last waypoint to your home location, that is not elevation optimization. Unless of course your home point is in the center of the mission, then it probably is.
 
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I use an EVO 2 pro v1 for mapping (with a Topodrone dual freq gps) and I can tell you that although the EVO is a wonderful drone for mapping (camera is awesome), its ability to fly against a headwind is dismal. I have almost lost my drone a few times when mapping big areas when getting a little headwind on a long leg back. So the key is to always bring lots of batteries and be conservative if the wind is blowing. I find it strange that a 2 kg drone doesn't do better against the wind.
 
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I use an EVO 2 pro v1 for mapping (with a Topodrone dual freq gps) and I can tell you that although the EVO is a wonderful drone for mapping (camera is awesome), its ability to fly against a headwind is dismal. I have almost lost my drone a few times when mapping big areas when getting a little headwind on a long leg back. So the key is to always bring lots of batteries and be conservative if the wind is blowing. I find it strange that a 2 kg drone doesn't do better against the wind.
What was the altitude of the mission? Perhaps "a little headwind" felt at ground level was more than "a little" at mission altitude.
 

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