Geofencing on Autel Drones?

[scottlebor]

Hello,
Someone told me that Autel Drones do not have Geofencing built into them like the DJI line of drones do. I live near an airport, and even when I travel well outside the restricted area, I still have issues with geofencing and being able to fly my DJI Drone. Specifically, I'm most curious about the Autel Nano Plus, but am also interested in the comparison between Autel and DJI when it comes to this 'feature' called Geofencing.

Thank you in advance.
Scott

 

[Wghayek]

Hello,
Someone told me that Autel Drones do not have Geofencing built into them like the DJI line of drones do. I live near an airport, and even when I travel well outside the restricted area, I still have issues with geofencing and being able to fly my DJI Drone. Specifically, I'm most curious about the Autel Nano Plus, but am also interested in the comparison between Autel and DJI when it comes to this 'feature' called Geofencing.

Thank you in advance.
Scott

I have both the

Hello,
Someone told me that Autel Drones do not have Geofencing built into them like the DJI line of drones do. I live near an airport, and even when I travel well outside the restricted area, I still have issues with geofencing and being able to fly my DJI Drone. Specifically, I'm most curious about the Autel Nano Plus, but am also interested in the comparison between Autel and DJI when it comes to this 'feature' called Geofencing.

Thank you in advance.
Scott

i have both the DJI mini 2 and the Autel nano +. They’re both high quality quads, geo fencing with the DJI is a huge drawback! Nano offers great night photo/video (part 107 needed for night flying). DJI price point is better. Both great for light travel, hiking, easy access. I also have the Autel EVO II, dominates over both!

 

[mike9591]

Hello,
Someone told me that Autel Drones do not have Geofencing built into them like the DJI line of drones do. I live near an airport, and even when I travel well outside the restricted area, I still have issues with geofencing and being able to fly my DJI Drone. Specifically, I'm most curious about the Autel Nano Plus, but am also interested in the comparison between Autel and DJI when it comes to this 'feature' called Geofencing.

Thank you in advance.
Scott

Autel does not have Geofencing enabled in the USA. There is geofencing in countries where it is 100% required.
Nano+ is an amazing drone you can pretty much fly anywhere in the USA, but be mindful of the FAA regs. This also includes many state and local regs now where their additions mostly determine zones you can take off or land from. That's local jurisdiction.

 

[G_G]

Hello,
Someone told me that Autel Drones do not have Geofencing built into them like the DJI line of drones do. I live near an airport, and even when I travel well outside the restricted area, I still have issues with geofencing and being able to fly my DJI Drone. Specifically, I'm most curious about the Autel Nano Plus, but am also interested in the comparison between Autel and DJI when it comes to this 'feature' called Geofencing.

Thank you in advance.
Scott

All Autel Robotics drones already have geofencing installed. Currently, in the U.S., instead of prohibiting flight, they nag you to death with on screen warning dialog boxes over your FPV that cannot be removed. At any time, Autel Robotics could decide to change their currently advisory NFZ’s into compulsory NFZ’s. The mapping is already installed. DJI’s GEO was also initially advisory only, until it wasn’t! The handwriting is on the wall. You just have to read between the lines!

 

[Brock Inspector]

Autel is on the record, officially stating they will not institute geofencing anywhere it is not compulsory by law. (Currently that's like 3 countries worldwide: China, Japan, and maybe Malaysia?)

 

[G_G]

Autel is on the record, officially stating they will not institute geofencing anywhere it is not compulsory by law. (Currently that's like 3 countries worldwide: China, Japan, and maybe Malaysia?)

If you think that can be relied upon, you would be wrong. It is not a guarantee. DJI also stated that GEO would always be optional. Reread Post #4. It's already installed on all Autel Robotics drones in an advisory mode. They just have to flip a switch to make it compulsory. They are ready! Has Autel Robotics ever officially changed their minds about anything? Hmmmmm.

 

[davshev]

All Autel Robotics drones already have geofencing installed. Currently, in the U.S., instead of prohibiting flight, they nag you to death with on screen warning dialog boxes over your FPV that cannot be removed. At any time, Autel Robotics could decide to change their currently advisory NFZ’s into compulsory NFZ’s. The mapping is already installed. DJI’s GEO was also initially advisory only, until it wasn’t! The handwriting is on the wall. You just have to read between the lines!

And that's why I've continued to use FW version 2.6.22. with my E2P version 1.

 

[flyingfool]

And that's why I've continued to use FW version 2.6.22. with my E2P version 1.

please elaborate

 

[davshev]

please elaborate

This refers to the E2P v1. only. Starting with firmware v2.7.5, Autel began adding pop up warnings about NFZs and geo fencing. It didn't actually prevent the drone from flying into restricted areas, but I found all the warnings annoying. For that reason I decided to rollback the firmware to 2.6.22. It's also why I prefer the v1 to v2. It is not possible to rollback the firmware for v2. There are a couple of threads about this from last year: Firmware update 2.7.25. Any restrictions?

 

[G_G]

This refers to the E2P v1. only. Starting with firmware v2.7.5, Autel began adding pop up warnings about NFZs and geo fencing. It didn't actually prevent the drone from flying into restricted areas, but I found all the warnings annoying. For that reason I decided to rollback the firmware to 2.6.22. It's also why I prefer the v1 to v2. It is not possible to rollback the firmware for v2. There are a couple of threads about this from last year: Firmware update 2.7.25. Any restrictions?

Does FW version 2.6.22 support the 360° Panorama function, or was that only introduced after?

 

[davshev]

Does FW version 2.6.22 support the 360° Panorama function, or was that only introduced after?

No, I don't believe 2.6.22 does.

 

[gschulzuio]

Nano offers great night photo/video (part 107 needed for night flying).

As of April 2021 you do not need to be part 107 with a daylight waiver to fly at night, as long as you have either a) taken the TRUST if a hobbyist/rec flyer and have lights visible from 3 miles, and/or b) you are 107 and have taken new free online recurrent test and have lights visible from 3 miles. There can be limitations for hobby/rec flyers flying at night in controlled airspace.

 

[Ms.UAV]

Yes an older thread but exactly why I'm looking to purchase a Autel Evo Nano +
I've been flying since i had a DJI Phantom 1, Standard, Advanced 3, Yuneec, Mavic pro and love my current Mini 2
Can't stand the geo fencing. First time in years i can't fly out of my backyard
Had to do the approval thing in mexico where i've always flown before.
Anything new?
The nano + is twice the money but half the hassle

 

[Ms.UAV]

Guess not

 

[G_G]

Guess not

Yes an older thread but exactly why I'm looking to purchase a Autel Evo Nano +
I've been flying since i had a DJI Phantom 1, Standard, Advanced 3, Yuneec, Mavic pro and love my current Mini 2
Can't stand the geo fencing. First time in years i can't fly out of my backyard
Had to do the approval thing in mexico where i've always flown before.
Anything new?
The nano + is twice the money but half the hassle

All Autel drones are already geofenced. Currently, you are only warned, but they can and will change that to grounding you, whenever they decide to turn the warnings into restrictions, exactly like DJI did, when they came out with optional GEO, and then made it mandatory.

 

[XtraAxis]

I know this is an old thread, but for what it's worth, I know of geofencing that is currently active on atleast the Evo 2 platform.

If you fly in a zone that gets flagged as a "No fly zone" while flying. You are unable to use any of the "intelligent flight modes". Meaning, no active track, no orbit modes, or anything else accessable through the camera mode side of autel explorer. Your all manual all the time, so you'll get good at flying smoothly real quick.

When bladestrike was active, we spoke about this issue, and discussed how there was a potential for that to be fixed in firmware patches. But it's now been quite some time since his departure from Autel, and seemingly no interest from the current team to fix it.

The planned missions created in the mission side of Autel explorer still work. So no problems there.

I am in a unique situation of flying drones on an airport for work, so this geofencing won't effect 99% of the users out there.

Autel has no way of applying to remove this geofencing, so there is no work around available.

I'm pushing on to the next best thing and will be making the jump over to DJI. The geofencing might be overbearing, but at least there is a process for unlocking the full feature set of their drones for use over an airport.

 

[gschulzuio]

I know this is an old thread, but for what it's worth, I know of geofencing that is currently active on atleast the Evo 2 platform.

If you fly in a zone that gets flagged as a "No fly zone" while flying. You are unable to use any of the "intelligent flight modes". Meaning, no active track, no orbit modes, or anything else accessable through the camera mode side of autel explorer. Your all manual all the time, so you'll get good at flying smoothly real quick.

When bladestrike was active, we spoke about this issue, and discussed how there was a potential for that to be fixed in firmware patches. But it's now been quite some time since his departure from Autel, and seemingly no interest from the current team to fix it.

The planned missions created in the mission side of Autel explorer still work. So no problems there.

I am in a unique situation of flying drones on an airport for work, so this geofencing won't effect 99% of the users out there.

Autel has no way of applying to remove this geofencing, so there is no work around available.

I'm pushing on to the next best thing and will be making the jump over to DJI. The geofencing might be overbearing, but at least there is a process for unlocking the full feature set of their drones for use over an airport.

Here's a post from a different site from a few weeks ago talking about geofence and unlocks. Have not tried it yet, however here is the link for autelrobotics.com no flyzone unlock page.

 

[XtraAxis]

Here's a post from a different site from a few weeks ago talking about geofence and unlocks. Have not tried it yet, however here is the link for autelrobotics.com no flyzone unlock page.

I've previously attempted not this form but the original version. They have had something similar to this going since the update that included the geo zones.

I received a reply from Autel saying the unlocking services were only available to customers outside the US. And that they would not be unlocking the "intelligent flight modes" within no fly zones outside of the US.

My understanding is, there are countries where the Geo fencing is 100% enforced. And this unlocking process is only to remove the take off restrictions. Japan was a country given as an example in my conversation with support.

So my take away was... If you're hard locked from taking off due to the geofencing. You can DJI style apply to unlock the zone for take off. But your only going to be able to hand fly or fly survey lines. (Or whatever else you can cook up in the mission planner side of the app)