How long will Autel continue EVO1 firmware support?

Catweazle · Feb 17, 2021

Good morning and good to be back on board. Haven't flown for months but as there is a great white annoying our boaties along our coast in Adelaide I thought I'd give the EVO 1 some fresh air, hence my query regarding Autel continuous flying support for EVO1.

Eagle928 · Feb 17, 2021

I asked that question of a sales rep at Autel in the USA and he said there is no plans to discontinue support for the Evo 1 to his knowledge.

I guess you can take that at face value and hope they continue support for a long time into the future.

With car and motorcycle manufacturers they have to support a car, truck, or bike they make for 10 years. I think that should apply to drones as well. at least 7 years anyway.

herein2021 · Feb 17, 2021

@Eagle928 @Catweazle I've read in multiple places the average life of a drone is 3yrs and that's not counting the ones that meet an unnatural end. Of course Autel will not reveal in advance when they will stop supporting firmware for x model; sometimes the manufacturer themselves don't know. Usually its right around the time when it becomes more costly to keep the development team writing code for a model that is no longer making them a profit than the customers that they will lose due to their lack of support for the older model.

Personally I just always sell my whole kit a few months after a newer model comes out; that gives me time to make sure the new model is reliable and the initial bugs are worked out, and I get rid of my current kit before it becomes obsolete. I typically recover about 40% of my initial purchase price and of course the equipment has paid for itself many times over with paying jobs.

The drone industry is just far too new to treat it like other more established industries. Drones at this point are developing so quickly as is battery technology that it is unrealistic to expect any kind of long term support or compatibility matrix. That's also why I try not to invest too heavily in an individual drone model. I don't buy ND filters, I don't buy useless accessories, additional chargers, etc. because I know its shelf life is limited.

For bigger jobs that need multiple drones or better cameras like the Inspire 2, I just rent the drone for the job and send it back when its done.

Eagle928 · Feb 17, 2021

herein2021 said:
@Eagle928 @Catweazle I've read in multiple places the average life of a drone is 3yrs and that's not counting the ones that meet an unnatural end. Of course Autel will not reveal in advance when they will stop supporting firmware for x model; sometimes the manufacturer themselves don't know. Usually its right around the time when it becomes more costly to keep the development team writing code for a model that is no longer making them a profit than the customers that they will lose due to their lack of support for the older model.

Personally I just always sell my whole kit a few months after a newer model comes out; that gives me time to make sure the new model is reliable and the initial bugs are worked out, and I get rid of my current kit before it becomes obsolete. I typically recover about 40% of my initial purchase price and of course the equipment has paid for itself many times over with paying jobs.

The drone industry is just far too new to treat it like other more established industries. Drones at this point are developing so quickly as is battery technology that it is unrealistic to expect any kind of long term support or compatibility matrix. That's also why I try not to invest too heavily in an individual drone model. I don't buy ND filters, I don't buy useless accessories, additional chargers, etc. because I know its shelf life is limited.

For bigger jobs that need multiple drones or better cameras like the Inspire 2, I just rent the drone for the job and send it back when its done.

I live in a smallish town; maybe 30K people so I don't think there's any place to rent drones like the Inspire but it would be great if there was.

You make some very good points. I've been toying with the idea of getting a Mavic 2 Pro which in itself is kind of silly since I already have the E2P. Then I thought about the Mavic Air 2 because it's newer and does more than the little beast (Mini 2) I have. In the end I decided to get a fun and possibly cinematic new drone that's not even out yet.

The DJI FPV combo kit with the drone, goggles, and controller with Occusync 3.0.

The FPV people who have flown it says it's not real FPV but camera drone people (like me) are liking the idea of different modes to grow into, flying 78 mph, and having a little obstacle avoidance; probably on the front and bottom. FPV guys call it a training drone because it kinda has training wheels to go into GPS and hover mode. It also has a 4K camera; of course everything does these days. Heck; the new Galaxy S21 phone has a camera built-in that does 100X zoom! Cost is expected to be around $1,300. That's probably with just one battery that does 30 minutes flying time if not going full FPV acro mode. Probably a couple hundred more for the fly more bundle like DJI usually does.

herein2021 · Feb 17, 2021

Eagle928 said:
I live in a smallish town; maybe 30K people so I don't think there's any place to rent drones like the Inspire but it would be great if there was.

You make some very good points. I've been toying with the idea of getting a Mavic 2 Pro which in itself is kind of silly since I already have the E2P. Then I thought about the Mavic Air 2 because it's newer and does more than the little beast (Mini 2) I have. In the end I decided to get a fun and possibly cinematic new drone that's not even out yet.

The DJI FPV combo kit with the drone, goggles, and controller with Occusync 3.0.

The FPV people who have flown it says it's not real FPV but camera drone people (like me) are liking the idea of different modes to grow into, flying 78 mph, and having a little obstacle avoidance; probably on the front and bottom. FPV guys call it a training drone because it kinda has training wheels to go into GPS and hover mode. It also has a 4K camera; of course everything does these days. Heck; the new Galaxy S21 phone has a camera built-in that does 100X zoom! Cost is expected to be around $1,300. That's probably with just one battery that does 30 minutes flying time if not going full FPV acro mode. Probably a couple hundred more for the fly more bundle like DJI usually does.

You can rent anything and get it shipped pretty much anywhere in the country. I've never stepped foot in the camera rental vendor that I typically rent from: lensrentals.com I think they are in California somewhere and I'm in FL. You can certainly rent the Inspire 2 and have it shipped to you for 7 days.

I only buy a drone if it can do something that I need that none of my current drones can do. So right now I have the E2P, DJI P4, and Mavic Mini 2.

E2P - Replaced my Mavic Pro which was force landed in the ocean thanks to DJI's geofencing. I only got the Mavic Pro because I needed something smaller than the P4 for travelling; then it became so convenient that I stopped using the P4 even for local jobs unless I needed 4K60FPS or it was really windy that day. Now with the E2P I may sell the P4 since the E2P does 4K60FPS and handles the wind just as well.
DJI Phantom 4 - I've had this one the longest and this one was my main video and photography workhorse for many years.
DJI Mini 2 - This is my indoor drone for big commercial jobs, weddings, big events, and music videos, where I need indoor drone footage. I keep the prop guards on it and its only purpose in life is for indoor drone footage

If it weren't for the whole limited shelf life problem I'd probably sell the P4 and get a second E2P, but this time next year there could be an E3P and I'd then be stuck with two E2Ps so I may keep the P4 as a backup to the E2P. The DJI FPV drone looks interesting but I just don't have any use for it not to mention I really don't plan on buying another DJI drone after what happened to the Mavic Pro.