I’ve been an EVO owner for about a week now. I’ve flown it 4 times. Compared to my DJI P4P, I love the lack of restrictions and app crashes common with DJI. The geo fencing hassles of DJI are probably enough for me to keep the EVO. I also like the video quality much better than my ANAFI and Bebop.
My evo is on firmware 1.2.3.
However, the EVO has a problem that is heartbreaking to me. If it were not for the geofencing issues of DJI, I would just return the EVO for another DJI. As many users have mentioned, yawing (i.e. turning, and consequently any circle strafing [manual] or orbit mode[auto]) is jerky. I have spent hours now comparing it to my DJI footage and Parrot (Bebop and ANAFI) footage, and it is a night and day difference. Even my $40 Hubsan can circle strafe smoothly. The EVO yaw (and ORBIT mode) is awful. It was absurd before the newest firmware, but it remains very bad. This is a device for navigating 3D space, and it cannot turn smoothly. What is worse, is that apparently Autel customers have been complaining about this with the X-Star since 2016. I sent some footage in to AUTEL (on firmware 1.2.3) this week. They said not to worry, “the engineers are aware of it” and it will be addressed in a “future firmware” release.
I believe the problem is that the EVO does not yaw with “analog”-like smoothness, where each indiscernible increase in movement on the stick subtly increases yaw speed (like a DJI). Instead, it seems to have programmed increments that it jumps to. It’s hard to tell, but it seems to have 5-6 yaw speeds, where my other drones have so many I wouldn’t be able to count. I don’t know much about drone electronics, but they may be hamstringed by their ESCs or flight controller. Why else not fix it in 2 years? And you can't say its my piloting, bc my DJI and Parrot footage say otherwise!
I love circle strafing around points of interest, which looks awesome on my DJI and ANAFI. I’ll only be getting out my EVO as a last choice when I anticipate poor cell reception and too many “yellow” DJI zones to mess with. What a disappointment!
My evo is on firmware 1.2.3.
However, the EVO has a problem that is heartbreaking to me. If it were not for the geofencing issues of DJI, I would just return the EVO for another DJI. As many users have mentioned, yawing (i.e. turning, and consequently any circle strafing [manual] or orbit mode[auto]) is jerky. I have spent hours now comparing it to my DJI footage and Parrot (Bebop and ANAFI) footage, and it is a night and day difference. Even my $40 Hubsan can circle strafe smoothly. The EVO yaw (and ORBIT mode) is awful. It was absurd before the newest firmware, but it remains very bad. This is a device for navigating 3D space, and it cannot turn smoothly. What is worse, is that apparently Autel customers have been complaining about this with the X-Star since 2016. I sent some footage in to AUTEL (on firmware 1.2.3) this week. They said not to worry, “the engineers are aware of it” and it will be addressed in a “future firmware” release.
I believe the problem is that the EVO does not yaw with “analog”-like smoothness, where each indiscernible increase in movement on the stick subtly increases yaw speed (like a DJI). Instead, it seems to have programmed increments that it jumps to. It’s hard to tell, but it seems to have 5-6 yaw speeds, where my other drones have so many I wouldn’t be able to count. I don’t know much about drone electronics, but they may be hamstringed by their ESCs or flight controller. Why else not fix it in 2 years? And you can't say its my piloting, bc my DJI and Parrot footage say otherwise!
I love circle strafing around points of interest, which looks awesome on my DJI and ANAFI. I’ll only be getting out my EVO as a last choice when I anticipate poor cell reception and too many “yellow” DJI zones to mess with. What a disappointment!
