Goodbye my dear Evo

[Madhungarian]

There is a trick with the Bebop 2 that gives you unlimited altitude, the only thing is that it has to be an automated flight- you have to set a way point, go back in and edit that waypoint, and instead of using the slider just type in whatever altitude you want. Test low first, and remember at a certain height you'll loose controller connection, so remember to end your flight plan with the proper waypoints. It's great if you need to go higher than the allowed altitude and you already know where, and how high you need to go.

I also believe you can do it with 3rd party software. The Bebop 2 is a excellent drone for the money. The range however is not too good in even light urban environments. I did buy the way point feature just never used it outside of testing since I like to enjoy my flight in real time. The whole concept of sending your drone out on mission and hoping it comes back is not my cup of tea.

 

[Apollo11capcom]

I also believe you can do it with 3rd party software. The Bebop 2 is a excellent drone for the money. The range however is not too good in even light urban environments. I did buy the way point feature just never used it outside of testing since I like to enjoy my flight in real time. The whole concept of sending your drone out on mission and hoping it comes back is not my cup of tea.

I had a lot of fun with mine. I liked the Flight Plan, all except the video programming page deal, it wasn't well thought out, I never knew exactly what I was doing with that. But that drone had a lot of great features- drone locator, pre-load maps, bank turns, fully programmable buttons on the remote, etc. It's range was just terrible. Still, it was good enough to have a place in many peoples drone arsenal. Mine was sent with the wrong parts and there was no replacement available so I got my Autel sooner than expected.

 

[Madhungarian]

A couple months back, I had to take a family member to a procedure which I had some time to kill so I brought along my Bebop 2. I did a little under the bridge flying.
Another great feature of the Bebop which EVO cant do is hand launch.

 

[Bulldoggboyz]

When you get that Mavic 2 keep us updated on your comparison with the Autel. I am curious on what is better on the DJI that made you buy one? I know the range is the best but I heard some stories with the new controller that range is pretty bad, maybe they fixed that by now. If you live near any airports or if you have the opportunity to fly up a hill or mountain starting from the base without any issues that would be a great selling point for me.I cannot seem to find any videos of a Mavic or DJI product flying from 0 feet to 1800 feet up a hill/mountain. I tried this with my Bebop 2 and the software did not let me go higher up the hill. I really do not plan on hiking up a hill anytime soon(to launch), so your input would be great. I do know the VR head tracking is smoother and that panning is available but its very disorienting when you have panning enabled. Thank you.

No doubt I will report back and give my opinions and findings. My first thing is the difference in it's active track capabilities. For my needs, the fact the M2P can track subjects that aren't carrying the RC is big for me. The fact it will also fly around, over, or even under objects while following is also big. I have since flown with a guy who has one, and the geo-fencing is not as bad as many make it out to be. (unless you really want to fly illegally) it lets him fly in all the same places I fly, and it even let me fly at my house, which is within 5 miles of a busy non commercial airport. I'm surrounded by limited/NFZ's at my house, and can only legally fly 100' right on my street. Add the fact it will switch between 5.8 and 2.4 Mhz as needed, has better more refined autonomous features including the ability to map, has a proven better low light camera, better battery life, and has a HUGE aftermarket for accessories, as well as the fact I can buy factory parts and replace/repair as needed. I will definitely still be on this forum and I think enough of the Evo to keep it in my family rather than sell it. But for my needs/uses the M2P/smart controller combo is a better choice right now.

 

[Bulldoggboyz]

There were not errors on the screen or warnings... Flew numerous times same way with big container ships, never an issue, took off with GPS locked. Flew away or mechanical it's what most likely what happened. The screen went black and lost communication immediately.

You have flown that Evo long enough and around those ships, that I personally don't think it was pilot error Macoman. It is highly likely that the ships' sonar, radar, or even anti drone technology signals got your Evo. While it is merely conjecture at this point, those container ships do sail all over the world, and would benefit greatly from some sort of drone jamming apparatus. Piracy of ships is defintely a legit threat, and I can see where pirates could use drones for recon missions of ships, dropping tracking devices on board, etc. Remember those ships are literally carrying millions of dollars in cargo, including not only small retail goods, but automobiles and anything else that comes from/made over seas. I'd suggest keeping a good distance away next time. I'm not going to suggest you never fly over water, as that takes away one whole avenue of fun/film making. I fly over the Delaware river often, and it's a great scenic place to film. Just get the State Farm insurance on your new Evo, then if something bad happens, call Jake from State Farm. LOL! ?

 

[macoman]

You have flown that Evo long enough and around those ships, that I personally don't think it was pilot error Macoman. It is highly likely that the ships' sonar, radar, or even anti drone technology signals got your Evo. While it is merely conjecture at this point, those container ships do sail all over the world, and would benefit greatly from some sort of drone jamming apparatus. Piracy of ships is defintely a legit threat, and I can see where pirates could use drones for recon missions of ships, dropping tracking devices on board, etc. Remember those ships are literally carrying millions of dollars in cargo, including not only small retail goods, but automobiles and anything else that comes from/made over seas. I'd suggest keeping a good distance away next time. I'm not going to suggest you never fly over water, as that takes away one whole avenue of fun/film making. I fly over the Delaware river often, and it's a great scenic place to film. Just get the State Farm insurance on your new Evo, then if something bad happens, call Jake from State Farm. LOL! [emoji106]

I film also on the Delaware river, are you from the Philly area?

 

[Fly-a-holic]

Dang! That DOES suck! Please keep us informed as to what Autel says. All of our drones controllers need a Go Fund Me page for when crap like this happens.

 

[Bulldoggboyz]

I film also on the Delaware river, are you from the Philly area?

Yes Sir....Born and bred in Philly. I'm the one who knew/commented that was the Commodore Barry Bridge you filmed during the winter. ?

 

[macoman]

Yes Sir....Born and bred in Philly. I'm the one who knew/commented that was the Commodore Barry Bridge you filmed during the winter. [emoji106]

I am in a drone Meetup group from South Jersey, we meet monthly. Here is the link if you would like to join us: South New Jersey Drone Meetup (Sewell, NJ)

 

[Jerry Normandin]

Sad but there are several reasons why the controller cut out.. also it's odd that RTH wasn't triggered upon losing signal with the controller.
Reason why the controller cut out, Cargo Ships are huge and made of metal. If you were flying close to the ship the Evo's signal to the controller
would be blocked and will lead to a disconnect of the controller. Also the cargo ship will be using RADAR. If you fly too close to the ship and enter the path of the RADAR signal, the connection would be dropped.

By default RTH is enabled. I bet the Evo got hit by RADAR.. caused the Evo to reboot and that's why it dropped out of the sky. If the controller signal was lost, and the Evo was ok, the Evo would execute a safe RTH.

 

[Moto67punk]

Bro, I’m feeling for you. I have been very happy with my Evo besides the fact of random problems like this as of you “wam she’s out the sky” . I’ve had a few instances of my own where it dropped out of the sky, the main one causing damage to my evo and meanwhile was in the middle of a forward control problem. I sent my evo back to autel and they fixed the forward control problem by saying it was a simple setting on my remote. Frankly up until that point I did thee latest firmware updates including on all batteries. I calibrated my evo/controller/gimble all correctly thus leaving nothing left. Infact they fixed my damaged gimble from that crash but I had to pay for it. They said they checked my flight records and there was no problems when it randomly dropped from the sky. Frankly I have no idea, I just enjoy flying and there customer service has been top notch to help, besides giving me a legit explaination of the flight records and making me pay for damages I feel we’re completely out of my control. If I would give any advice from what I’ve learned: always fly through the autel explorer app. Always wait till your evo gets into “ GPS” mode and then go into general in settings and click Me or Aircraft to set your home point When doing so I haven’t had any problems at all. Unfortunately these are the thing trial/error you have to learn. If I were todo it over again I would of just spent the few hunnie extra and got the DJI. Either way now at this point my money is into Autel and I’ve stuck with them.. Hoping they remember the small guys who have stuck thru it all with them into making the large scale consumer drone sales a reality for most everyday working man..Just they have provided “us” the opportunity!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I had two questions I wanted to ask Autel about the process of the replacement of the EVO when a fly a way happens.

First was about the returning of the left over components as some on here thought the RC holds telemetry and can give answers to what happened. This is not true. They will look at the RC if it malfunctioned but thats about it.

Second question was about a one time replacement, this is also not true. Your replacement is also covered.

One final take away from reading over the email is the EVO is not new to fly aways and sounds like it has happened before to other customers.

Here is the actually email answering my questions.


"
Thank you for reaching out to us at Autel Robotics Support. I am not sure of the member of your forum that you are referring to, but you are correct. The Evo's remote controller holds no flight records, no recorded telemetry, and/or any recorded stick movements. We will always ask for a customer's leftover components (RC, charging cables, OTG cables, etc.) when going about a replacement. Sometimes customers like to return their remote controllers ahead of time for us to check and see if the remote itself was faulty and had a malfunction in general that could have contributed to the flyaway. From my knowledge of these cases, the remote controller has not been found to be the source of any flyaway.

Again, I am not sure what this specific customer mentioned about his replacement, as I am sure you know, people can openly choose to include or omit anything that they post in a forum so I always like to tell forum users to take any information posted with a grain of salt.

Here at Autel Robotics we always strive to come up with what we believe to be the best possible outcome for our customers, some times that does involve an outright replacement of a unit. In cases where we cannot definitively verify that a lost unit was a legitimate "flyaway", we may or may not offer customers what we like to call a "one time courtesy" replacement. This means that we cannot confirm that an Evo legitimately had a malfunction but we err on the side of the customer to get them back in the air as soon as possible enjoying an Evo again. Please keep in mind that with every reported issue on Evo we do a very thorough investigation, so we do not come about making these decisions lightly and this is not going to happen to every customer that reports a lost Evo.

While I completely understand that you may question this "policy", what that forum member stated is not entirely accurate. We will not only replace one Evo. As you mentioned, there are plenty of other issues that may occur on an Evo, not just a "flyaway" or lost drone. If we can definitively prove that your replacement Evo has a malfunction of some sort, then of course we will take care of you as best as we can. But again, we take any allegation of a malfunction on our product very seriously so we will always heavily investigate these cases.

I hope that this email has shed some light in regards to the questions you asked, and please feel free to approach us with any more questions or concerns if you have any. In the mean time, please enjoy the rest of your Sunday and happy flying!

Best,

Alejandro R.
Customer Support
AUTEL ROBOTICS"

 

[xspwhite]

I had two questions I wanted to ask Autel about the process of the replacement of the EVO when a fly a way happens.

First was about the returning of the left over components as some on here thought the RC holds telemetry and can give answers to what happened. This is not true. They will look at the RC if it malfunctioned but thats about it.

Second question was about a one time replacement, this is also not true. Your replacement is also covered.

One final take away from reading over the email is the EVO is not new to fly aways and sounds like it has happened before to other customers.

Here is the actually email answering my questions.


"
Thank you for reaching out to us at Autel Robotics Support. I am not sure of the member of your forum that you are referring to, but you are correct. The Evo's remote controller holds no flight records, no recorded telemetry, and/or any recorded stick movements. We will always ask for a customer's leftover components (RC, charging cables, OTG cables, etc.) when going about a replacement. Sometimes customers like to return their remote controllers ahead of time for us to check and see if the remote itself was faulty and had a malfunction in general that could have contributed to the flyaway. From my knowledge of these cases, the remote controller has not been found to be the source of any flyaway.

Again, I am not sure what this specific customer mentioned about his replacement, as I am sure you know, people can openly choose to include or omit anything that they post in a forum so I always like to tell forum users to take any information posted with a grain of salt.

Here at Autel Robotics we always strive to come up with what we believe to be the best possible outcome for our customers, some times that does involve an outright replacement of a unit. In cases where we cannot definitively verify that a lost unit was a legitimate "flyaway", we may or may not offer customers what we like to call a "one time courtesy" replacement. This means that we cannot confirm that an Evo legitimately had a malfunction but we err on the side of the customer to get them back in the air as soon as possible enjoying an Evo again. Please keep in mind that with every reported issue on Evo we do a very thorough investigation, so we do not come about making these decisions lightly and this is not going to happen to every customer that reports a lost Evo.

While I completely understand that you may question this "policy", what that forum member stated is not entirely accurate. We will not only replace one Evo. As you mentioned, there are plenty of other issues that may occur on an Evo, not just a "flyaway" or lost drone. If we can definitively prove that your replacement Evo has a malfunction of some sort, then of course we will take care of you as best as we can. But again, we take any allegation of a malfunction on our product very seriously so we will always heavily investigate these cases.

I hope that this email has shed some light in regards to the questions you asked, and please feel free to approach us with any more questions or concerns if you have any. In the mean time, please enjoy the rest of your Sunday and happy flying!

Best,

Alejandro R.
Customer Support
AUTEL ROBOTICS"

I've always had the impression that they just kinda play it by ear. Yes, they want to take care of the customer, but if it turns into a weekly/monthly deal, then ofcourse they would have to put a line in the sand at some point. So I can see why they may have told him something to the effect that he stated.

 

[Jerry Normandin]

Anti-Drone technology? They shot you down man!

I am willing to bet the shipping navigational radar took out the connection. Rth didn't happen because the Evo probably rebooted.

This happens to all civilian drones and r/c aircraft.

If anyone has an Evo and a boat with a decent navigational RADAR maybe they can try hovering in the path of the RADAR signal to prove my theory.

I think if you fly close enough to a decent NAV RADAR it will cause an issue.

I want to give you an idea of how powerful marine RADAR is.
A 12" Furuno RADAR blasts out 6kw of energy. A shipping container ship
Has a 48" or greater. Granted the frequency is higher than the Evo controller but if you Evo flew within a few hundred feet of the ship and was in direct line of sight of the radar, the Evo link would drop, a voltage would be induced in the Evo and possibly cause the Evo to reboot.

 

[UnRanged]

I am willing to bet the shipping navigational radar took out the connection. Rth didn't happen because the Evo probably rebooted.

This happens to all civilian drones and r/c aircraft.

If anyone has an Evo and a boat with a decent navigational RADAR maybe they can try hovering in the path of the RADAR signal to prove my theory.

I think if you fly close enough to a decent NAV RADAR it will cause an issue.

I want to give you an idea of how powerful marine RADAR is.
A 12" Furuno RADAR blasts out 6kw of energy. A shipping container ship
Has a 48" or greater. Granted the frequency is higher than the Evo controller but if you Evo flew within a few hundred feet of the ship and was in direct line of sight of the radar, the Evo link would drop, a voltage would be induced in the Evo and possibly cause the Evo to reboot.

Some would say that large arrays can even make some tasy fried seagull...

 

[The Guy In The Helmet]

I will be missing my dear friend Evo... Lost it flying on the river. Never had this issue before but I was shooting a video to a beautiful container ship and when I passed over on the side, the controller lost total communication and the Evo never come back home. The weather was nice, sunshine and 7mph winds. I only fly with the RC and I do not use tablet or phone. I already opened a ticket with Autel.... Very sad day.

I am sorry brother!
My heart aches for you, sir...

What is your plan now?

 

[Bulldoggboyz]

I am in a drone Meetup group from South Jersey, we meet monthly. Here is the link if you would like to join us: South New Jersey Drone Meetup (Sewell, NJ)

Cool...Thanks for the link! I will have to check out one of the meets some time. Only problem is when it's nice enough to fly, it's usually nice enough to ride. LOL!

 

[macoman]

I just received my refurbished drone today... Still in the box. They sent me back also the bag I sent to them

 

[The Guy In The Helmet]

This is pretty cool... very personal touch that they sent back the bag you sent initially!

How is it operating, the refurbished unit?

 

[macoman]

This is pretty cool... very personal touch that they sent back the bag you sent initially!

How is it operating, the refurbished unit?

I just turned on last night and didn't pop up any firmware update. I assumed that have the latest firmware installed. I will try to test it this coming weekend.