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Likes-Dislikes

Michael

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Well I have some in both camp for sure but overall this unit is worth having due to the simplicity of flight and CS aspect.

Likes: Easy to fly by a newbie; App works; battery life is decent; failsafe mode works; landing manually is easy; auto takeoff and land works and is almost spot on; great camera with totally removable ability; shell design and durability better than competitors; spare parts for the common must have replacement things are available; CS is the best; and of course the price for what you get.

Dislikes: FW needs updating; yaw rate adjustability a must; taller landing gear to better protect the camera/gimbal; ability to set waypoints prior to starting up unit and hovering which eats battery; the app icons to work for "flight record" "academy" "learn more" "media" and the last two I could care less but "store" and "me"; the ability to cut off the marker lights for a more incognito approach; ability to snap photo while in video; ability to view flight log of each flight without so much hassle and download time; and a camera option to simply remove the one it has now to add one that will hook right up with TI/FLIR for that needed application; and yes.......more color options like a matte gray or matte black unit.

It would appear I have more dislikes than likes but not really in that they are deal breakers. In fact, the many dislikes are more things I know that Autel will eventually fix one day so I cannot argue them to one to say stay away.

What are your dislikes and likes of this unit and what you would love to see Autel do to this platform to make it a ultimate machine?
 
Good list. I'm not sure I would agree with you on the spare parts. To my knowledge, the only thing available is the shell and landing gear. (not talking accessories).

The entire platform needs a lot of refined due to it's age. Until I was notified they couldn't fix the missing EXIF data with the .DNG format, I would have said they could to fix any of the shortcomings in the platform. I'm of course a little less confident they will/can.

I'm 'betting my hedges' on them putting in the dev time to continue with the platform refinements/corrections.
 
The only thing that I would like to see on the XSP is a real sense obstacle avoidance type unit I know they can do that and I also know that it could be done as an ad on.
 
  • yaw rate adjustability - Smoother yaw is essential, adjustable yaw rate would be nice
  • taller landing gear to better protect the camera/gimbal - Disagree - it would be slower and a little heavier
  • ability to set waypoints prior to starting up unit and hovering which eats battery - I have a whole list of improvements to the Waypoints capability
  • the app icons to work for "flight record" "academy" "learn more" "media" and the last two I could[n't] care less but "store" and "me" - I think they ought to drop the icons until they're functional. As far as the "Flight record" i would much prefer an inter-app function that would kick off AZ Recorder if I forget, and possibly stop it when I land. I have one recording that 2+ hrs long because if forgot to stop it. On at least two occasions I turned off the remote and/or reset the app and AZ recorder captured it. An embedded record would not.
  • the ability to cut off the marker lights for a more incognito approach - Do you mean turn off all the lights? You can turn off the front ones. I have a Xiro Xplorer and it's possible to dim the all the lights down to off.
  • ability to snap photo while in video - I 'd like this too but I suspect that it would be hard to implement, at least for full resolution images.
  • ability to view flight log of each flight without so much hassle and download time - I have submitted suggestions to Autel about this. I would like abbreviated log files, with flight and track information, but much less than is in the current log files, saved to the SD card and/or saved by Starlink. There should be a way to replay a flight in Starlink and/or another application. If Starlink saved a KML file, Google Earth could show the flight path.
  • camera option to simply remove the one it has now to add one that will hook right up with TI/FLIR for that needed application - Agree, though I suspect the cost would be too much for me to get one unless I had a real need for it. I don't expect Autel to provide one because the market would be small..
  • .more color options like a matte gray or matte black unit. - No opinion
I have a Xiro Xplorer. The X-Star costs $200 more than the Xplorer (and is worth it), but there are a couple of things that the Xplorer does better.
  • I would really like a digital zoom capability, which the Xplorer has. Every time I mention this someone will quickly say, "Optical is better". It certainly is but you can't implement optical zoom in software. With the sensor used on the X-Star digital zoom could be provided with out losing much if any resolution.
  • This is pretty minor, but the Xplorer has two black anodized motor shafts and two aluminum-colored shafts. The props have matching hubs. This is easier to see and use than a red dot on the top of the shaft, especially in low light.
  • The Xplorer is more precise in its positioning. I have flown in close proximity to trees, wires, and fences. The Xplorer stays within a few inches of where it is positioned while the X-Star will drift a foot or more, both horizontally and vertically.
  • The Xplorer does save hj log files to the phone/tablet. There are sometimes gaps of several seconds between records.
Like the X-Star, Xplorer has a removable gimbal. Many users expected that they would release a 4K camera to replace the existing 1080p one. They did but it is not compatible with the old Xplorer. A lot of people were annoyed by this. It does work on the Xplorer II.
 
Well I have some in both camp for sure but overall this unit is worth having due to the simplicity of flight and CS aspect.

Likes: Easy to fly by a newbie; App works; battery life is decent; failsafe mode works; landing manually is easy; auto takeoff and land works and is almost spot on; great camera with totally removable ability; shell design and durability better than competitors; spare parts for the common must have replacement things are available; CS is the best; and of course the price for what you get.

Dislikes: FW needs updating; yaw rate adjustability a must; taller landing gear to better protect the camera/gimbal; ability to set waypoints prior to starting up unit and hovering which eats battery; the app icons to work for "flight record" "academy" "learn more" "media" and the last two I could care less but "store" and "me"; the ability to cut off the marker lights for a more incognito approach; ability to snap photo while in video; ability to view flight log of each flight without so much hassle and download time; and a camera option to simply remove the one it has now to add one that will hook right up with TI/FLIR for that needed application; and yes.......more color options like a matte gray or matte black unit.

It would appear I have more dislikes than likes but not really in that they are deal breakers. In fact, the many dislikes are more things I know that Autel will eventually fix one day so I cannot argue them to one to say stay away.

What are your dislikes and likes of this unit and what you would love to see Autel do to this platform to make it a ultimate machine?
I definitely agree about taking photos while shooting video and I think you can turn off the front (red) lights. Do you know how download the flight logs? If so can you let me know how to do it. Thanks
 
I definitely agree about taking photos while shooting video and I think you can turn off the front (red) lights. Do you know how download the flight logs? If so can you let me know how to do it. Thanks

No clue but one poster hinted you could! I hope I can find that or I may just go to Autels live chat and ask. If it is in the manual I did not see it. I will check again.

As far as flight logs I have no idea!!!! I read a post that stated it took them like 45 minutes to download!!!
 
No clue but one poster hinted you could! I hope I can find that or I may just go to Autels live chat and ask. If it is in the manual I did not see it. I will check again.

As far as flight logs I have no idea!!!! I read a post that stated it took them like 45 minutes to download!!!
Yeah I never saw it in the manual. I think only autel can do it. Like if you had to send it back for a problem or something.
 
Yeah I never saw it in the manual. I think only autel can do it. Like if you had to send it back for a problem or something.

I think it can be done but I am computer illiterate and I think for more advanced folks than I. I wish they had a way that flight logs could be downloaded and put in a spreadsheet style format with graphs or what not. Just a simple download and the user goes to what they want to view. But I guess we can dream on.

On a lighter note I found on the app menu how to turn off the front red directional lights!!!!!
 
I think it can be done but I am computer illiterate and I think for more advanced folks than I. I wish they had a way that flight logs could be downloaded and put in a spreadsheet style format with graphs or what not. Just a simple download and the user goes to what they want to view. But I guess we can dream on.

On a lighter note I found on the app menu how to turn off the front red directional lights!!!!!
Yeah I knew you could turn off the front lights I remember seeing it. As for computer illiterate, same here. Getting a little better
 
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I sent this to Autel on 8/15. They closed the ticket so I assume that they passed it on to the development group, but I don't know what their implementation plans are.
I would like to have easy access to some of the flight data. I realize that this is available by using by reading the flight data and extracting the information from the log00x.bin files, but there is a lot of information there with a very fine time granularity, with many records per second. I would like to have a flight log file on the SD card with the following fields, or something close to it, with one record per second. It would be similar to the .*** files, but there would be one log per flight rather than one .*** file per video clip. The format could be CSV or tab-delineated.

Time of Day (epoch/Unix format or yr/month/day/hour/min/sec)
Flight time, in seconds, if the log does not start at the beginning of the flight.
Heading (0 = North, 90=E, etc)
Latitude
Longitude
Altitude (GPS)
Battery %
Battery V (optional)

There may be a few other fields but these are the most important. An indicator when video was start or stopped, or when a photo was taken, might be useful.

Access could be provided by either download the flight record to the phone and proving a way to export it, or by saving it on the SD card, or both.

It would be a nice addition to Starlink to be able to replay a flight, though that goes are lot further than getting a basic flight log.
 
Yesterday's flights just re-enforced the need for better RC input control. Arrrg.
 
Good list. I'm not sure I would agree with you on the spare parts. To my knowledge, the only thing available is the shell and landing gear. (not talking accessories).

The entire platform needs a lot of refined due to it's age. Until I was notified they couldn't fix the missing EXIF data with the .DNG format, I would have said they could to fix any of the shortcomings in the platform. I'm of course a little less confident they will/can.

I'm 'betting my hedges' on them putting in the dev time to continue with the platform refinements/corrections.
Saw some stuff on the shelves at Fry's Electronics. Fry's has a pretty decent supply for many brands.

IMG_3445.jpg
 
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