Got my new toy today! Some observations...

goferfan · Jun 30, 2018

Hey all! XSP vet here who impulsively pulled the trigger on an Evo and got it today. Weather sucked here, was dodging storms all day, but I did get it flying a couple times for short periods. My definitely non-expert observations:

-I'm still giddy that the thing is so damn small. And quiet! I always felt a bit self conscious with my XSP between its size and its noise.. Not something that I'd take on a hike with me. The Evo could easily fit in a small backpack.

-Flight seems stable, just as stable as my XSP. Wind was only about 5 to 7 mph today but it was stable enough that I don't think a little more wind would bother it. A little more responsive than my XSP, handled more like my old Phantom 3 that felt like it would stop on a dime.

-impressed with the camera.. Had a little horizon tilt but nothing as bad as I've seen in the pre release videos. Camera has 8x digital zoom but as you'd expect it looks crappy zoomed in that far. Video did skip and stutter a few times at 4k/60fps but that may have just been my crappy computer. Will need to test that out more.

-Got to 2 miles out over Lake Superior without a hitch or hiccup. Could have gone farther but a shower was moving in and had to come back early. Note that's absolutely ideal conditions though...ive gotten 3.3 miles with my XSP and parabolic reflectors over the lake.

-I tried taking it out at night and that was a disaster. I've gotten some decent night video and stills with my XSP and was hoping for at least the same with the Evo. Took off from my backyard and the damn remote started beeping loudly and wouldn't stop (I couldn't figure out exactly why). I don't care about being stealth but I'd prefer not to wake the whole neighborhood with loud screeching beeping. Haven't found a way to turn it off or at least make it quieter.. Flight was fine but I couldn't get even a crappy night photo..all pitch black. Im hoping it's because due to the noise I didn't have time to fart around with the settings and most of the shots were on 'auto' (although the XSP captured some halfway decent night shots even on Auto.) I note that the Evo lens is an f/2.8 but I couldn't find the speed of the XSP lens anywhere (anyone know?) Anyway, I'm hoping to figure out a way to shut up the infernal beeping and try taking it up again another night.

-I did not test the obstacle avoidance, nor do I intend to.

-no time in between storms to test out the advanced flight modes. I'm sure the more expert folks on here could give better reviews of that anyway.

Anyway, I know I'm much more of a novice pilot than most of the folks on here, but hopefully this will help someone out...

Wayne Maine · Jun 30, 2018

I saw a vid clip from Ron Medirous (SP) about turning it off. Somthing to do with depressing the wheel on the right side.

Jagerbomb52 · Jun 30, 2018

My understanding of OA is there is no way to use OA when there is not sufficient light for it to "see". So if it was turned on this could have been the cause of your constant peeping. Just a guess on my part.

goferfan · Jun 30, 2018

Agustine said:
My understanding of OA is there is no way to use OA when there is not sufficient light for it to "see". So if it was turned on this could have been the cause of your constant peeping. Just a guess on my part.

I think you may be right, and it was the obstacle avoidance; however, turning the obstacle avoidance off didn't stop the damn beeping! Thanks for the tip though. I turned it off mid flight, maybe having it off from the beginning would work.

goferfan · Jun 30, 2018

Wayne Maine said:
I saw a vid clip from Ron Medirous (SP) about turning it off. Somthing to do with depressing the wheel on the right side.

Oooh.. Thanks! Gonna search for that. Appreciate the help!

goferfan · Jul 2, 2018

Update...
1. I'm a moron. The beeping was due to the obstacle avoidance having trouble in the dark, but it was coming from my phone, not the controller. Turning down the volume on my phone solved the issue.
2. Flew in some higher winds, 15-20mph - absolutely no problems with stability.
3. Made another attempt at some night shots, got some decent ones but I think my XSP did better at gathering light. It was a very dark night, want to try again when the moon lights things up a little.
4. Day shots - detail was excellent, but the camera had a little trouble in the bright sunshine - couldn't get both the bright sky and dark trees to be properly exposed. I suppose this is where the HDR mode on the Mavic Air would come in handy. Didn't have this many exposure problems with the X-Star, but I did usually use a polarizer with it (I hope there are some filters available for the Evo soon.) I've seen a couple blogs and videos touting the amazing dynamic range of the EVO sensor, so maybe it's just operator error. Time will tell..

Love the EVO so far...so much so that I'm accepting a friend's offer to buy my X-Star (man I'm gonna miss that thing...) It's amazingly portable, very quiet, so far has flown very well, very stable with no signal problems...I don't know that I would ever use my XSP if I have the EVO available. I've never flown a Mavic or Spark or Mavic Air so I can't compare with that but I can say it's replacing my XSP as my go-to drone.

OldBlueHeron · Jul 3, 2018

FYI

https://www.amazon.com/PolarPro-Collection-Filter-3-Pack-Filters/dp/B07DRCLVWM

Swoop66 · Jul 6, 2018

First impressions after unboxing, charging, and setting up RC and phone app. Coming from a Phantom 3 Std (about a dozen flights).

Setup was a dream come true. Coming from a DJI P3s, there's really no comparison. Everything about preflight was hugely better, so far.
Charging was very easy; adding a USB out to the charger was a great idea.
I got GPS signal inside the house (upper most floor)! Not so with the P3.
The app and RC features are an incredible upgrade for me. The app interface is very well done from a user standpoint; everything I looked for in the setting menu was exactly where I expected to find it.
The controller has it's own cooling fan that really pushes air. It's actually quite loud in an otherwise quiet room. It ran for a good portion of the charging cycle.

The firmware update was painless... Dustin Dunhill's unboxing and update video was a great primer on the update. Example: from his vid I was ready for full reboot once everything was complete and that the app says it's "complete" when the hardware still has about 6 minutes remaining. I did have to cycle my wifi connection on my phone to get the update downloaded; for some reason it kept claiming no connection with a strong wifi signal and internet connection.

I'll try to setup a first flight vid late today.

goferfan · Jul 6, 2018

Swoop66 said:
First impressions after unboxing, charging, and setting up RC and phone app. Coming from a Phantom 3 Std (about a dozen flights).

Setup was a dream come true. Coming from a DJI P3s, there's really no comparison. Everything about preflight was hugely better, so far.
Charging was very easy; adding a USB out to the charger was a great idea.
I got GPS signal inside the house (upper most floor)! Not so with the P3.
The app and RC features are an incredible upgrade for me. The app interface is very well done from a user standpoint; everything I looked for in the setting menu was exactly where I expected to find it.
The controller has it's own cooling fan that really pushes air. It's actually quite loud in an otherwise quiet room. It ran for a good portion of the charging cycle.

The firmware update was painless... Dustin Dunhill's unboxing and update video was a great primer on the update. Example: from his vid I was ready for full reboot once everything was complete and that the app says it's "complete" when the hardware still has about 6 minutes remaining. I did have to cycle my wifi connection on my phone to get the update downloaded; for some reason it kept claiming no connection with a strong wifi signal and internet connection.

I'll try to setup a first flight vid late today.

Glad it's going well! My first bird was a P3S as well, then I went to the XSP and became a pumpkin fan. Keep us updated on your adventures!

Swoop66 · Jul 8, 2018

Swoop66 said:

First impressions after unboxing, charging, and setting up RC and phone app. Coming from a Phantom 3 Std (about a dozen flights).

I'll try to setup a first flight vid late today.

Click to expand...

Ok - I did get a first flight in on Saturday... Friday kept getting more gusty. Unfortunately, I had trouble with both my stand alone camera and my screen recorder. The video was great from the craft (but not enough to publish), and I did successfully play with the follow mode a little bit.

Here's a video from today (still having trouble with the stand alone camera, so just the EVO and the Explorer App):

I had trouble with:

Auto takeoff: it says "INVALID COMMAND" when I try to takeoff using the button.
Auto land: not sure what it's problem is, but it will get to about 3 feet and decide it's not "safe" to land (manual landing turned out to be 10 times easier than the P3S)
Horizon issue: yes it's there... check the vid. You can see it correcting at the end of a turn. Adding the grid overlay in the app made it easier to see it. Until another firmware upgrade, I recommend incorporating a 3-5 second hold after turning to let the gimbal roll correct itself (the further you turn, the worse it is).
I STILL WANT MY FREAKIN' CASE!!!

I was impressed by:

Return to home - simply wonderful accuracy. Don't know if I can expect that every time, but it really nailed a pretty tight landing zone. Even landed by itself, contrary to my issue above.
User friendliness - I continue to be surprised at how easy it is to do things, including just flying it. It sort of makes up for some of the issues above... even if there's a disappointment in features/performance, I didn't spend 10 minutes and 3 reboots getting the thing in the air, and there's been no issues that have really impaired the experience.

Disclaimer: I filmed in 4K, post-processed in Camtasia and published at 1080p. Applied YouTube "Autofix" and +1 of saturation in YouTube. That seemed to match the color saturation I get in the native 4K on my computer, in the App, and on a 4K TV (LG OLED).

DadCorso80 · Jul 9, 2018

The auto takeoff stumped me at first as well, you have to start the motors first (quick toe in on both sticks) then press and hold the takeoff bbutton for 2 seconds.

goferfan · Jul 9, 2018

DadCorso80 said:
The auto takeoff stumped me at first as well, you have to start the motors first (quick toe in on both sticks) then press and hold the takeoff bbutton for 2 seconds.

LOL...I had the same problem but was embarrassed to admit it. Futzed around with it for a good 10 minutes, then had to watch a YouTube video on how to take off while I was standing in the middle of a baseball diamond with curious onlookers watching me.