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Major Multiple Issues with Evo II V2 Enterprise and Autel Explorer

scriffij

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Hi
I have had an Evo II pro with standard controller that I also bought a dual 640T for and recently I bought an Evo II V2 Enterprise with extras.

I have a $100K job that I am about to lose to some kids with DJI Mavics.

For note, I have been building and using heavy lift drones (sub 50kg) since 2014.

I am doing terrain following (UGCs created) recon flights in the bush for a major international construction company using Thermal pre-dawn flights and then flying the same waypoint missions with RGB after sun up. I had the international CEO with me on my first flights at 4am in the morning and the Evo II Enterprise V2 did not perform like a $16 000 instrument.
  1. Its stopped recording on waypoint 2 every time even though the action in the waypoint for waypoint 2 was to do nothing. There was no camera action associated to it. This caused me to lose valuable data and look stupid in front of the CEO. The general parameters had camera action set to “- -". first waypoint was set to start recording and last waypoint was set to stop recording all other waypoints had no camera actions.
  2. I have a V60 SD card in it and it keep stopping recording or stating that the SD card is too slow. Again, valuable data was not captured for the CEO who was not impressed. I was recording at 4k 30 frames not even 8K.
  3. I lost signal continuously and sometimes it would stop recording during signal loss and I would not know that it had done this until I regained reception and objects I was supposed to capture were not recorded. CEO again not impressed.
  4. The elevation slider bar is set from 10 to 800 making it very difficult to change from 45 to 50m. I looked stupid again in front of CEO
  5. I had 60 waypoints and it slows down and stops at every waypoint losing about 10 seconds on every waypoint costing me valuable flight time. Why cant this very expensive aircraft just fly through waypoints like every toy drone out there?
  6. When the thermal cross hair is activated, none of the screen is accessible on the tablet as when you try do something like drop down the top menu, all it does is move the crosshair to where you tapped the screen.
  7. The 640T does not have an 8K RGB camera. I took frame grabs filming at the same distance and 8K is the worst resolution, followed by 6K. 4K is the highest but realistically, it’s just a standard 1080 camera that resamples the imagery to higher resolution and add massive amounts of compression that just makes everything blurry.
You know what’s seriously stupid. My Evo II v1 did not do any of this (apart from the stopping on each waypoint). I replaced the standard controller and had to update the firmware and now it has all these bugs as well. Does that mean the Autel are active making this aircraft worse by adding these bugs !

These are basic things that the Evo II V2 should have no problems with. Does Autel care about their customers that spend bucket loads on their gear only to lose work and look stupid in front of your business.

Does Autel have any plan to fix these basic issues anytime soon as I have spent a bucket load of money on Autel products and am now loosing buckets more on business to millennials with DJI toy drones.
 
DJI might not have waypoints but there are several other aps that control the drone and do waypoints such as Drone Deploy, maps made easy, UGCS.... that do and do it well. What othher apps can control the Evo II other than Autel Explorer?
 
DJI might not have waypoints but there are several other aps that control the drone and do waypoints such as Drone Deploy, maps made easy, UGCS.... that do and do it well. What othher apps can control the Evo II other than Autel Explorer?
sure, litchi is also one of them. but even those take at least a year to become compatible. as far as i know there isn't anything else better for autel.
 
sure, litchi is also one of them. but even those take at least a year to become compatible. as far as i know there isn't anything else better for autel.
You might want to check into Maps Made Easy: Map Pilot Pro (paid versions). I use with M300 P1, Plus Autel 6Ks..
 
On point 1, I believe that if you manually start the camera it will continue to film through the waypoints until you stop the camera. Set the camera to no action when setting up the mission.

On point 2
The SanDisk Extreme Pro has very fast read/write; Autel recommends using that. (are you using that? You didn't specify which one you were using.

As far as stopping at each waypoint, you can set it to hover at the waypoint, or fly over. Check out the Autel mission planning video on YouTube- He explains each step pretty clearly
Hope this helps!
 
On point 1, I believe that if you manually start the camera it will continue to film through the waypoints until you stop the camera. Set the camera to no action when setting up the mission.

On point 2
The SanDisk Extreme Pro has very fast read/write; Autel recommends using that. (are you using that? You didn't specify which one you were using.

As far as stopping at each waypoint, you can set it to hover at the waypoint, or fly over. Check out the Autel mission planning video on YouTube- He explains each step pretty clearly
Hope this helps!
on Point 1 found out you have to set every waypoint to do absolulty nothing or it will stop recording irrispective. this makes the camera actions on waypoint when using video essentially useles as it has to be done manually.

On point 2 I have a V90 SAD card - fastest there is.

on point 3 the drone uses up about 10 seconds on Fly Over while it stops on the waypoint. not sure Autel understandfe what the term fly over means... I think they understander it to mean stop on waypoint and waste some usefull battery time.
 
Hi
I have had an Evo II pro with standard controller that I also bought a dual 640T for and recently I bought an Evo II V2 Enterprise with extras.

I have a $100K job that I am about to lose to some kids with DJI Mavics.

For note, I have been building and using heavy lift drones (sub 50kg) since 2014.

I am doing terrain following (UGCs created) recon flights in the bush for a major international construction company using Thermal pre-dawn flights and then flying the same waypoint missions with RGB after sun up. I had the international CEO with me on my first flights at 4am in the morning and the Evo II Enterprise V2 did not perform like a $16 000 instrument.
  1. Its stopped recording on waypoint 2 every time even though the action in the waypoint for waypoint 2 was to do nothing. There was no camera action associated to it. This caused me to lose valuable data and look stupid in front of the CEO. The general parameters had camera action set to “- -". first waypoint was set to start recording and last waypoint was set to stop recording all other waypoints had no camera actions.
  2. I have a V60 SD card in it and it keep stopping recording or stating that the SD card is too slow. Again, valuable data was not captured for the CEO who was not impressed. I was recording at 4k 30 frames not even 8K.
  3. I lost signal continuously and sometimes it would stop recording during signal loss and I would not know that it had done this until I regained reception and objects I was supposed to capture were not recorded. CEO again not impressed.
  4. The elevation slider bar is set from 10 to 800 making it very difficult to change from 45 to 50m. I looked stupid again in front of CEO
  5. I had 60 waypoints and it slows down and stops at every waypoint losing about 10 seconds on every waypoint costing me valuable flight time. Why cant this very expensive aircraft just fly through waypoints like every toy drone out there?
  6. When the thermal cross hair is activated, none of the screen is accessible on the tablet as when you try do something like drop down the top menu, all it does is move the crosshair to where you tapped the screen.
  7. The 640T does not have an 8K RGB camera. I took frame grabs filming at the same distance and 8K is the worst resolution, followed by 6K. 4K is the highest but realistically, it’s just a standard 1080 camera that resamples the imagery to higher resolution and add massive amounts of compression that just makes everything blurry.
You know what’s seriously stupid. My Evo II v1 did not do any of this (apart from the stopping on each waypoint). I replaced the standard controller and had to update the firmware and now it has all these bugs as well. Does that mean the Autel are active making this aircraft worse by adding these bugs !

These are basic things that the Evo II V2 should have no problems with. Does Autel care about their customers that spend bucket loads on their gear only to lose work and look stupid in front of your business.

Does Autel have any plan to fix these basic issues anytime soon as I have spent a bucket load of money on Autel products and am now loosing buckets more on business to millennials with DJI toy drones.

Maybe it's just me, but there is no way that I would shoot a job paying that kind of money with anything Autel offers. For a project like that I would have rented a DJI Matrice 300 RTK at a minimum, and probably a second one as a backup.

In my opinion, there is nothing enterprise about any of Autel's products except the cost. I have brought $60K worth of gear to $15K projects in the past, no way would I bring a single Autel drone to a $100K job.

Also, I would have tested the entire project extensively weeks ahead of time and rented what I needed to ensure that I had done everything possible ahead of time to reduce the chances of failure.

Not saying it is your fault that the drone did what it did, but it really does sound like you did not properly prepare for this particular job. Whenever I am shooting an unfamiliar project or asked to do something new with my equipment, I test from end to end the unfamiliar parts of the project weeks ahead of the shoot date.

I have even gone so far as to take a drone to the project site days before the shoot to test for interference and obstructions without the client present. You probably would have found all of these problems and limitations with the drone ahead of time if you had done the same.
 
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I really sympathise with you - this is a clear example of where expectation hits the brick wall of reality. I agree with Herein 2021 - with what I've learned the hard way: I wouldn't trust a newer model Autel to be reliable enough to manage a complex job without flying it manually: and even then I'd be like a cat on a hot tin roof.
I have no idea what the hell is happening with the firmware and the flight apps (AND the component quality), but I have read of the problems with "enterprise" v.2 Autels and the RTK modules as well as numerous other glitches. I am astonished that this manufacturer is letting its customers down so badly (and constantly getting away with it). Much as I genuinely hate DJI as a geofencing dictatorship: their hardware is pretty much good-to-go straight out of the box.

If I'm going to be really honest, I'll say that my purchase of a current Autel product will be the first and last. The last good iteration of the EVO 2 was the one they re-named "v.1" - it seems that model only had relatively minor bugs and glitches compared to the v.2... and as for the rest? I'll buy DJI and keep my 4 year old Mavic 2 Zoom in-service. At least I know that it's reliable and will do the job I want it to.
 
I really sympathise with you - this is a clear example of where expectation hits the brick wall of reality. I agree with Herein 2021 - with what I've learned the hard way: I wouldn't trust a newer model Autel to be reliable enough to manage a complex job without flying it manually: and even then I'd be like a cat on a hot tin roof.
I have no idea what the hell is happening with the firmware and the flight apps (AND the component quality), but I have read of the problems with "enterprise" v.2 Autels and the RTK modules as well as numerous other glitches. I am astonished that this manufacturer is letting its customers down so badly (and constantly getting away with it). Much as I genuinely hate DJI as a geofencing dictatorship: their hardware is pretty much good-to-go straight out of the box.

If I'm going to be really honest, I'll say that my purchase of a current Autel product will be the first and last. The last good iteration of the EVO 2 was the one they re-named "v.1" - it seems that model only had relatively minor bugs and glitches compared to the v.2... and as for the rest? I'll buy DJI and keep my 4 year old Mavic 2 Zoom in-service. At least I know that it's reliable and will do the job I want it to.
I agree, they are a large company acting like a small one. Two words for Autel, "Customer Service". Plus they haven't delivered the v3 EVO as of yet when compared to their current marketing ads. Major features not implemented, and many bugs have not been addressed in over a year.
 
Hi
I have had an Evo II pro with standard controller that I also bought a dual 640T for and recently I bought an Evo II V2 Enterprise with extras.

I have a $100K job that I am about to lose to some kids with DJI Mavics.

For note, I have been building and using heavy lift drones (sub 50kg) since 2014.

I am doing terrain following (UGCs created) recon flights in the bush for a major international construction company using Thermal pre-dawn flights and then flying the same waypoint missions with RGB after sun up. I had the international CEO with me on my first flights at 4am in the morning and the Evo II Enterprise V2 did not perform like a $16 000 instrument.
  1. Its stopped recording on waypoint 2 every time even though the action in the waypoint for waypoint 2 was to do nothing. There was no camera action associated to it. This caused me to lose valuable data and look stupid in front of the CEO. The general parameters had camera action set to “- -". first waypoint was set to start recording and last waypoint was set to stop recording all other waypoints had no camera actions.
  2. I have a V60 SD card in it and it keep stopping recording or stating that the SD card is too slow. Again, valuable data was not captured for the CEO who was not impressed. I was recording at 4k 30 frames not even 8K.
  3. I lost signal continuously and sometimes it would stop recording during signal loss and I would not know that it had done this until I regained reception and objects I was supposed to capture were not recorded. CEO again not impressed.
  4. The elevation slider bar is set from 10 to 800 making it very difficult to change from 45 to 50m. I looked stupid again in front of CEO
  5. I had 60 waypoints and it slows down and stops at every waypoint losing about 10 seconds on every waypoint costing me valuable flight time. Why cant this very expensive aircraft just fly through waypoints like every toy drone out there?
  6. When the thermal cross hair is activated, none of the screen is accessible on the tablet as when you try do something like drop down the top menu, all it does is move the crosshair to where you tapped the screen.
  7. The 640T does not have an 8K RGB camera. I took frame grabs filming at the same distance and 8K is the worst resolution, followed by 6K. 4K is the highest but realistically, it’s just a standard 1080 camera that resamples the imagery to higher resolution and add massive amounts of compression that just makes everything blurry.
You know what’s seriously stupid. My Evo II v1 did not do any of this (apart from the stopping on each waypoint). I replaced the standard controller and had to update the firmware and now it has all these bugs as well. Does that mean the Autel are active making this aircraft worse by adding these bugs !

These are basic things that the Evo II V2 should have no problems with. Does Autel care about their customers that spend bucket loads on their gear only to lose work and look stupid in front of your business.

Does Autel have any plan to fix these basic issues anytime soon as I have spent a bucket load of money on Autel products and am now loosing buckets more on business to millennials with DJI toy drones.
I reported this problem in 2021. It still exists today. You must restart the camera manually at WP2. Editing a waypoint route will also cause it to go into “custom” mode rather than “route” mode. This can cause the drone to do all sorts of crazy things as it flies - backwards, sideways etc. That bug still exists.

Then there are the “custom” route problems where you cannot fly an “internal” route and have the camera point in the proper direction. For example, fly the inside of a treeline around a field on a SAR mission. I found the workaround is to create a waypoint just to shoot a photo. Then turn the corner, and the camera willl be pointed correctly. Bizarre!

Or plan a mission with clouds overlaying the maps. Always interesting.

Autel is simply too busy with the lites, and nanos, and MAX hype to fix problems that would result in a stable platform.

I’ve found workarounds for all of these issues, but the time wasted was incredible.

I use the Autel for recreational photo flights over water, but that’s about it. I view it as expendable. It’s a shame they don’t listen to customers. They have the potential.
 
DJI might not have waypoints but there are several other aps that control the drone and do waypoints such as Drone Deploy, maps made easy, UGCS.... that do and do it well. What othher apps can control the Evo II other than Autel Explorer?
NONE! THEY HAVE YET TO OPEN UP THE SMART CONTROLLERS TO 3RD PARTY APPS (NO GOOGLE PLAY, DEVICE IS NOT RECOGNIZED AS A DOWNLOAD TARGET)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I’ve found workarounds for all of these issues, but the time wasted was incredible.
Do you have a workaround for the stupid stoping at every waypoint thing? What's even dumber about this, I'd the mission flight time estimate does not take these waypoint delays into account. So it is always wrong. 😥
 
Do you have a workaround for the stupid stoping at every waypoint thing? What's even dumber about this, I'd the mission flight time estimate does not take these waypoint delays into account. So it is always wrong. 😥
I guess I haven’t noticed that. There is some delay if the camera must rotate to a different POI, but I can understand that. What kind of missions are you flying? Are you using “route” or “custom” missions?
 
What kind of missions are you flying? Are you using “route” or “custom” missions?
Grid missions. At the end of each leg it is stop, pointless delay time, turn, more pointless delay time, then, go. These maneuvers could be completed in a second or less.
 
Grid missions. At the end of each leg it is stop, pointless delay time, turn, more pointless delay time, then, go. These maneuvers could be completed in a second or less.
It does take 10sec to make each turn. That appears to be built into the software. It’s anyone’s guess as to “why”. That value appears to be factored into the estimated flight time when planning the mission. What is not factored into the mission is the takeoff and landing times.

This is the mission summary:
1689073784721.png

This shows when the 1st photo was taken 46sec after takeoff.

IMG_7703.jpeg


This shows the last photo was taken 67sec before landing.

IMG_7704.jpeg


I’m sorry this doesn’t answer your question about the excessive delay when turning. But the estimated flight time (just for the grid) is very close, without the takeoff and landing times.

The delay isn’t a bug. It is a design issue.
 
The mission time remaining clock that counts down does not take that delay into account. In fact, the countdown actually stops ticking during these maneuvers. I'm using the Explorer app for android, not on a smart or pro device.
 
I just checked on Autel website and there is a new version of Autel Explorer for V1 & V2 dated July 10/2023.
Has anyone tried?
Screenshot 2023-07-12 at 8.12.08 AM.png
 
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Regarding issue #1, I reported the same problem more than 2 years ago. It hasn’t been fixed and likely never will. That’s the Autel way. With all of the other reported problems that have never been addressed, I have since gone to the “dark side”. There are still problems, but they seem to eventually get addressed. I still use the Autel for certain tasks. My V1 has been a very dependable drone.
 

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