FIRMWARE V1.4.9 is now officially released!
- Thread starter Jagerbomb52
- Start date
Folks - Autel's (Alejandro) response on the gimbal reset and boat mode twitch:
I have reviewed this with my head repair tehcnician and we believe that this may be a pitch motor issue here that is not related to firmware necessarily. The only troubleshooting that we could go through for this kind of situation is a gimbal calibration, so at this moment in time we would highly recommend that this unit comes back in for a repair evaluation.
As for the slight twitching back and forth in Boat Mode upon start up, this is normal because you are increasing the tolerance of the camera and aircraft IMU components, upon take off you will not see this twitch back and forth.
Given that others are seeing it, it only started after the firmware update, and it does not happen in Boat Mode, I'm still convinced it's not a pitch motor issue and have declined the offer for return/eval. I don't want to risk new damage due to shipping or eval. I haven't had good luck with drone repairs. Please continue to open tickets with Autel on this to ensure the issue at least gets a fair shake when it comes to firmware development. My guess is that if enough of us report it, they'll give it some attention.
LP
I have reviewed this with my head repair tehcnician and we believe that this may be a pitch motor issue here that is not related to firmware necessarily. The only troubleshooting that we could go through for this kind of situation is a gimbal calibration, so at this moment in time we would highly recommend that this unit comes back in for a repair evaluation.
As for the slight twitching back and forth in Boat Mode upon start up, this is normal because you are increasing the tolerance of the camera and aircraft IMU components, upon take off you will not see this twitch back and forth.
Given that others are seeing it, it only started after the firmware update, and it does not happen in Boat Mode, I'm still convinced it's not a pitch motor issue and have declined the offer for return/eval. I don't want to risk new damage due to shipping or eval. I haven't had good luck with drone repairs. Please continue to open tickets with Autel on this to ensure the issue at least gets a fair shake when it comes to firmware development. My guess is that if enough of us report it, they'll give it some attention.
LP
Ansia
Well-Known Member
Hey! At least they wanted to repair your drone. All I got is a ok, now go away.
I tested on my evo and if camera is pointed all the way down it does that gimbal reset dance. No big deal as I never land with it all the way down (for fear of dirt/debris getting on the lens) but just thought I'd share. On DJI's kit, the Gimbal will normall return to the intial position when initiating a landing rather than face down.
Dare I say its a new bug/feature?
Dare I say its a new bug/feature?
I agree. I think I can live with it, but I would like to understand if it's intentional or not, especially since some folks are saying it doesn't happen with theirs....and it doesn't happen in boat mode. Also, my Mavics and Spark do not reset the gimbal to the initial position when I land. Maybe that's a Phantom or Inspire thing? Or do you use the land button? I've honestly never tried the land button on my DJI drones.
LP
Yeah. I'm starting to think we're not going to get any further with this one. I guess I should just relax and get used to living with the gimbal restart. 
I still say it's a bug, not intentional though.
LP
I still say it's a bug, not intentional though.
LP
Does anyone know if there is any way to do a factory reset on the Evo itself or to force a complete reflash of the firmware?
LP
LP
Spark/Mavic Air/Mavic 2. The Mavic Pro did not.
The Mavic Pro did have a bug in the FW though when you tried to do digital zoom while in 2.7k mode, the gimbal would reset mid-air. Telemetry showed the drone was very much still flying quite normally. Frightening at first as you thought drone had falled out of the sky but it was just the gimbal. Had to drop back to 1080p to use digital zoom without the issue.
Ansia
Well-Known Member
@LeafPeeper can you do a gimbal calibration? After mine finishes calibrating and is successful, the gimbal does an autorestart. You know it's about to start, because the gimbal looks a bit to the left, before restarting. It does the same when landing while looking down.
Yes - I've actually done multiple gimbal calibrations, and I've noticed the same as you. After the app says the cal is complete, the gimbal restarts just like it does upon landing in our case. However mine has always done a restart after a cal. My DJI drones do that as well.
FWIW, I'm getting feedback to my request that people try the test in the Facebook group and so far nobody else has reported having the issue.
I'm starting to wonder about the IMU. I can't find a way to calibrate it, but the comment from support that the IMU tolerance is adjusted in boat mode has me wondering about it. Since the restart does not happen in boat mode, I can't help but wonder if they are related. Maybe our IMUs are out of whack. I'm going to try calibrating the gimbal WHILE in boat mode to see what happens. I'll report back tonight after I try it.
LP
Ansia
Well-Known Member
Although I can't find IMU calibration either, it is to my understanding that the IMU doesn't have anything to do with the gimbal. I posted my videos to the public and someone is writing me about it. No idea who he is.Yes - I've actually done multiple gimbal calibrations, and I've noticed the same as you. After the app says the cal is complete, the gimbal restarts just like it does upon landing in our case. However mine has always done a restart after a cal. My DJI drones do that as well.
FWIW, I'm getting feedback to my request that people try the test in the Facebook group and so far nobody else has reported having the issue.
I'm starting to wonder about the IMU. I can't find a way to calibrate it, but the comment from support that the IMU tolerance is adjusted in boat mode has me wondering about it. Since the restart does not happen in boat mode, I can't help but wonder if they are related. Maybe our IMUs are out of whack. I'm going to try calibrating the gimbal WHILE in boat mode to see what happens. I'll report back tonight after I try it.
LP
As for the gimbal restart after calibration, I've never noticed that before.
So at this point my ticket with Autel is essentially closed. They have now confirmed via email that there is no way to reflash the firmware or reset the Evo to factory defaults. They have also said that there is no IMU calibration process as it is recalibrated every time the Evo is booted. Their only recommendation to me was to send my Evo back for repair evaluation, which as I said earlier, I'm not willing to do right now.
Although lots of folks appear to be experiencing the camera jiggle, I haven't seen anybody on the Facebook group confirm the gimbal restart issue. So far, it looks like very few of us. I guess I'm going to have to either accept it as is, or send it back sometime before my warranty expires. I think for now I'm going to let it ride - because over time more people may experience it and it could be fixed in the next firmware. I'm still not ready to blame the hardware for all the reasons state earlier.
Thanks to you guys for bearing with me with all my whining on this....
LP
Although lots of folks appear to be experiencing the camera jiggle, I haven't seen anybody on the Facebook group confirm the gimbal restart issue. So far, it looks like very few of us. I guess I'm going to have to either accept it as is, or send it back sometime before my warranty expires. I think for now I'm going to let it ride - because over time more people may experience it and it could be fixed in the next firmware. I'm still not ready to blame the hardware for all the reasons state earlier.
Thanks to you guys for bearing with me with all my whining on this....
LP
Just don't land with the camera pointing down? Make a habit of bringing it back to 0degrees as your holding the stick down to land.
LOL...sure. I will adapt. It's just the fact that only a few of us have the issue that bugs me...
LP
So I'm having a different issue. Tried pointing down, and no issues I could find.
It's when NOT in boat mode and landing with it pointing straight down right?
(I personally feel like that's asking for debris on the lens, but that's me paranoid)
But what I'm getting is when I try and zoom with the camera (more just to look, I hate taking ACTUAL pictures zoomed) I get an error message.
Then it will usually zoom at some point and jump all around. It happened on new pixel 3a, and on a pixel 2.
The other issue I have is that after I get that error message, I can't "view" the pictures on the drone, and then download the full res versions. It says failed to download information.
Anyone using a Pixel for this and having issues? I tried putting it in USB debug mode to see if that helped, and no luck.
Edit: maybe it's Android 9 related? I tried turning on USB debug, stop checking for bad behavior of app, etc tried different defaults for USB device, ("none" to file transfer, to pictures, to tether, etc. allthose behaved the same)
It's when NOT in boat mode and landing with it pointing straight down right?
(I personally feel like that's asking for debris on the lens, but that's me paranoid)
But what I'm getting is when I try and zoom with the camera (more just to look, I hate taking ACTUAL pictures zoomed) I get an error message.
Then it will usually zoom at some point and jump all around. It happened on new pixel 3a, and on a pixel 2.
The other issue I have is that after I get that error message, I can't "view" the pictures on the drone, and then download the full res versions. It says failed to download information.
Anyone using a Pixel for this and having issues? I tried putting it in USB debug mode to see if that helped, and no luck.
Edit: maybe it's Android 9 related? I tried turning on USB debug, stop checking for bad behavior of app, etc tried different defaults for USB device, ("none" to file transfer, to pictures, to tether, etc. allthose behaved the same)
Last edited:
Ansia
Well-Known Member
This problem can be more widespread that we realize, people just haven't come forward, haven't updated, or just haven't checked the right boxes to trigger it. Perhaps the gimbal restarting is a trade off for having boat mode and that is the reason why it doesn't happen while boat mode is activated. If you are like me, I like to point the gimbal downward when landing, because I like to see on my screen where the drone will land. I usually land the drone in front of me, but having a different perspective helps. Most people don't do this, so the probabilities of they knowing it, will diminish.
I agree completely. I'm the same way. I also generally use a landing pad so I don't have to worry about debris on the lens.
LP
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