New Firmware Update - After update EVO flew away

[ChrisP]

On July 1st I saw that my EVO needed a Firmware update 1.5.8. This update was allowed over the air via my controller. The update was successful. I shut the drone and controller down after the update and then restarted them and everything connected as normal, controller, all GPS was good, camera worked and moved fine.

The next morning on July 2nd, I drove out to an open area for some pictures. I turned on controller and drone, everything connected as normal, GPS signal good, ATTI, controller and battery 100% charged. In this case I am only using controller and aircraft, no phone connection. I launched the drone, it went up about 75 feet and then basically became uncontrollable, it fley around in a circle, one of the motors was lagging, light was not present, then it started moving again. I tried to regain control, but within minutes it was 3000 feet away and 650 feet up. I tried return to home, reconnecting, nothing!! Up until that firmware update, this drone flew perfect Everytime without fail. I flown it about 20 times and it's only 6 months old.

 

[Highlander1UK]

On July 1st I saw that my EVO needed a Firmware update 1.5.8. This update was allowed over the air via my controller. The update was successful. I shut the drone and controller down after the update and then restarted them and everything connected as normal, controller, all GPS was good, camera worked and moved fine.

The next morning on July 2nd, I drove out to an open area for some pictures. I turned on controller and drone, everything connected as normal, GPS signal good, ATTI, controller and battery 100% charged. In this case I am only using controller and aircraft, no phone connection. I launched the drone, it went up about 75 feet and then basically became uncontrollable, it fley around in a circle, one of the motors was lagging, light was not present, then it started moving again. I tried to regain control, but within minutes it was 3000 feet away and 650 feet up. I tried return to home, reconnecting, nothing!! Up until that firmware update, this drone flew perfect Everytime without fail. I flown it about 20 times and it's only 6 months old.

I am sorry that you have lost your drone BUD, I have had the FW1.5.8 on since last Dec when it was released as Beta, and it has been the bain of my life because it kept saying I needed to update every time I turned it on and I updated it every time I put a newer battery on to the drone now I have 5 batteries that give me Bad Battery warnings as soon as I fire the drone up, so I bought another 3 newer batteries and as soon as I install to the drone and turn the RC on I get the update, but this time I ignore the update and all is good, get 24 to 26 mins flight time on all 3 batteries, if I insert an old battery I do not get the UPDATE warning.

 

[ChrisP]

I am sorry that you have lost your drone BUD, I have had the FW1.5.8 on since last Dec when it was released as Beta, and it has been the bain of my life because it kept saying I needed to update every time I turned it on and I updated it every time I put a newer battery on to the drone now I have 5 batteries that give me Bad Battery warnings as soon as I fire the drone up, so I bought another 3 newer batteries and as soon as I install to the drone and turn the RC on I get the update, but this time I ignore the update and all is good, get 24 to 26 mins flight time on all 3 batteries, if I insert an old battery I do not get the UPDATE warning.

I had this feeling inside too, don't do the update. I went ahead anyway and bang! Perfect drone lost! Since it's under warranty, I hope they can at least give some sort of discount on another one.

 

[Highlander1UK]

I had this feeling inside too, don't do the update. I went ahead anyway and bang! Perfect drone lost! Since it's under warranty, I hope they can at least give some sort of discount on another one.

I would not hold out a lot of hope on that score BUD, they told me if I wanted t come to USA then they would give me a discount of 20% on new batteries LOL

 

[claudius62]

To believe that it is a lottery these updates?
Personally, since the update to 1.5.8 (with Explorer 1.0.1.45), I have not had any problem except from time to time the disconnection of the tablet and the radio.
Total of 35 flights since for a duration of 3 hours 38 including fifteen mission flights.

 

[ChrisP]

Im wondering if I should go with DJI next? I live in the US, so I like the idea of Autel being located in Washington. As far as software updates, I guess why buy another Autel then, if I can't trust the updates? 20% discount, ha, I don't think so. Lol. I'm just glad the drone flew out over the lake, if it was in my residential area it could have been a disaster!

 

[HiloHawaiian]

So sorry, it’s an awful feeling when that happens.....

My 2 cents? A few folks here convinced me long ago it’s really dangerous to fly w/o a phone/tablet. There’s no way to record your flight log. The log would record a drone flying erratically, then flying away. It would also show you where it landed/crashed. Autel could review the log and give you a replacement. They did once for me. I recovered my fly-away damaged XSP after a long search — but I had the flight log to guide me close to where it landed about 3 miles away...

 

[Madhungarian]

On July 1st I saw that my EVO needed a Firmware update 1.5.8. This update was allowed over the air via my controller. The update was successful. I shut the drone and controller down after the update and then restarted them and everything connected as normal, controller, all GPS was good, camera worked and moved fine.

The next morning on July 2nd, I drove out to an open area for some pictures. I turned on controller and drone, everything connected as normal, GPS signal good, ATTI, controller and battery 100% charged. In this case I am only using controller and aircraft, no phone connection. I launched the drone, it went up about 75 feet and then basically became uncontrollable, it fley around in a circle, one of the motors was lagging, light was not present, then it started moving again. I tried to regain control, but within minutes it was 3000 feet away and 650 feet up. I tried return to home, reconnecting, nothing!! Up until that firmware update, this drone flew perfect Everytime without fail. I flown it about 20 times and it's only 6 months old.

"GPS signal good, ATTI," ATTI mode for the Evo means that you do not have gps lock. This could be why your drone flew around in a circle. Usually called the fish bowl effect when there is a gps lock issue.
If you took off this way it's possible that the drone was never was able to set a home point.
Sorry that you lost your drone.

 

[drrags]

"GPS signal good, ATTI," ATTI mode for the Evo means that you do not have gps lock. This could be why your drone flew around in a circle. Usually called the fish bowl effect when there is a gps lock issue.
If you took off this way it's possible that the drone was never was able to set a home point.
Sorry that you lost your drone.

I wonder if it took off towards its last home point? Is that possible?

 

[Tufargon]

I wonder if it took off towards its last home point? Is that possible?

How would it know that without a gps lock?

 

[Madhungarian]

I wonder if it took off towards its last home point? Is that possible?

I would think the home point is set when the drone enters into GPS mode, and resets after each flight. (arming and disarming) I really do not believe the previous coordinates are stored on the controller since it does not even store flight logs. A great website to see if you could run into GPS coverage issues is
www.uavforecast.com
As you can see in my area, it would not be good flying GPS on Sat at 22:00
It also will say it is NOT good to fly if its too hot.

Location: Menifee, Sun City, CA, 92586, United States map »
Warning: 1 airport, 1 heliport nearby, check the map for details.

Time	Gusts	Temp	Precip Prob	Cloud Cover	Visibility	Visible Sats	Kp	Est. Sats Locked	Good To Fly?
Time	Gusts	Temp	Precip Prob	Cloud Cover	Visibility	Visible Sats	Kp	Est. Sats Locked	Good To Fly?
Time	Gusts	Temp	Precip Prob	Cloud Cover	Visibility	Visible Sats	Kp	Est. Sats Locked	Good To Fly?
Current Conditions as of Saturday 2020-07-04 17:09 PDT
17:09	16 mph	93°F	-	-	10 miles	14	2	14.0	yes
Saturday 2020-07-04: sunrise 05:43, sunset 20:03
18:00	15 mph	89°F	-	-	10 miles	14	2	13.8	yes
19:00	12 mph	84°F	-	-	10 miles	13	2	13.0	yes
20:00	9 mph	80°F	-	-	10 miles	13	3	12.7	yes
21:00	5 mph	76°F	-	-	10 miles	16	3	14.1	yes
22:00	5 mph	73°F	-	-	10 miles	11	3	9.8	no
23:00	5 mph	70°F	-	-	10 miles	12	2	10.5	no
Sunday 2020-07-05: sunrise 05:43, sunset 20:03
00:00	3 mph	68°F	-	-	10 miles	12	2	11.2	no
01:00	2 mph	67°F	-	-	10 miles	13	2	12.0	yes
02:00	3 mph	65°F	-	-	10 miles	13	2	12.0	yes
03:00	3 mph	64°F	-	-	10 miles	14	2	12.5	yes
04:00	3 mph	63°F	-	-	10 miles	14	2	12.3	yes
05:00	3 mph	62°F	-	-	10 miles	16	2	14.0	yes
06:00	3 mph	64°F	-	-	10 miles	13	2	12.5	yes
07:00	2 mph	69°F	-	-	10 miles	18	2	17.8	yes
08:00	2 mph	74°F	-	-	10 miles	17	2	17.0	yes
09:00	3 mph	79°F	-	-	10 miles	17	2	17.0	yes
10:00	4 mph	84°F	-	-	10 miles	14	2	14.0	yes
11:00	5 mph	88°F	-	-	10 miles	15	2	14.7	yes
12:00	7 mph	91°F	-	-	10 miles	12	2	12.0	yes
13:00	8 mph	94°F	-	-	10 miles	13	2	12.7	yes
14:00	9 mph	96°F	-	-	10 miles	11	2	11.0	no
15:00	10 mph	97°F	-	-	10 miles	15	2	14.4	no
16:00	10 mph	96°F	-	-	10 miles	12	2	12.0	no
17:00	10 mph	95°F	-	-	10 miles	14	2	14.0	yes

 

[ChrisP]

I wonder if it took off towards its last home point? Is that possible?

It originally said ATTI, and I did notice there were no GPS bars on the controller, so I waited and finally all the bars showed up to get the lock. I then launched the drone and it hovered right in front of me, I moved it higher, and then noticed it began to move around as you described, but then one of lights on the motors went out, drone was kind of hanging sideways in midair. Lol. It then regained all four motors and took off
No control at all, just flew out of range, I had a good picture the whole time, although it was sideways for some reason, tilted. Controller keep saying out of range, and then it finally went blank.

 

[ChrisP]

So sorry, it’s an awful feeling when that happens.....

My 2 cents? A few folks here convinced me long ago it’s really dangerous to fly w/o a phone/tablet. There’s no way to record your flight log. The log would record a drone flying erratically, then flying away. It would also show you where it landed/crashed. Autel could review the log and give you a replacement. They did once for me. I recovered my fly-away damaged XSP after a long search — but I had the flight log to guide me close to where it landed about 3 miles away...

I do use the app with my phone, but it's been glitchy. It stopped working a couple of times while in flight and made me nervous to use it. I reloaded the app again to my phone, again it does not always work. I do have previous flight logs but not for this failed flight.

 

[konoplya]

On July 1st I saw that my EVO needed a Firmware update 1.5.8. This update was allowed over the air via my controller. The update was successful. I shut the drone and controller down after the update and then restarted them and everything connected as normal, controller, all GPS was good, camera worked and moved fine.

The next morning on July 2nd, I drove out to an open area for some pictures. I turned on controller and drone, everything connected as normal, GPS signal good, ATTI, controller and battery 100% charged. In this case I am only using controller and aircraft, no phone connection. I launched the drone, it went up about 75 feet and then basically became uncontrollable, it fley around in a circle, one of the motors was lagging, light was not present, then it started moving again. I tried to regain control, but within minutes it was 3000 feet away and 650 feet up. I tried return to home, reconnecting, nothing!! Up until that firmware update, this drone flew perfect Everytime without fail. I flown it about 20 times and it's only 6 months old.

my drone just flew away from me as well! only my second flight after the new update. luckily it hit my neighbor's tree and crashed. the battery is cracked open and the gimball, while not having any visible damage, is not calibrating properly. this is absolute madness. literally 3 seconds into the flight. my drone is still under warranty, calling Autel on monday and giving them an earful

 

[ChrisP]

It has to be a bad release of firmware. I work on software for radios and this is common, but is not good when it comes to a drone. Yes I am calling and want a replacement.

 

[konoplya]

It has to be a bad release of firmware. I work on software for radios and this is common, but is not good when it comes to a drone. Yes I am calling and want a replacement.

definitely update us on what happened. i'm calling tomorrow hopefully they'll be able to help. if not, i guess i'm not going to be a customer anymore. was thinking of upgrading to EVO 2 this year, but if its gonna fly away like that, no way.

 

[ChrisP]

definitely update us on what happened. i'm calling tomorrow hopefully they'll be able to help. if not, i guess i'm not going to be a customer anymore. was thinking of upgrading to EVO 2 this year, but if its gonna fly away like that, no way.

I will, I keep reviewing in my head if I did anything wrong, but I connected and launch the same way every time. 25 out of 26 flights were perfect, no problems at all. I've never crashed, dropped this drone or the controller, not a scratch on them. I have other drones where you have to spin it and turn your phone data off so it will connect via wifi, a bit more is needed before launching it. I will say tho, that the only time one of my other drones acted like this, I did get it back, is when I was flying very close to power lines. I was able or maybe lucky it crashed into a bush. In this case, no power lines, cell towers, nothing.

 

[konoplya]

I will, I keep reviewing in my head if I did anything wrong, but I connected and launch the same way every time. 25 out of 26 flights were perfect, no problems at all. I've never crashed, dropped this drone or the controller, not a scratch on them. I have other drones where you have to spin it and turn your phone data off so it will connect via wifi, a bit more is needed before launching it. I will say tho, that the only time one of my other drones acted like this, I did get it back, is when I was flying very close to power lines. I was able or maybe lucky it crashed into a bush. In this case, no power lines, cell towers, nothing.

same here man. i even flew in the vicinity of powerlines a few times in the past and never had an issue. this drone is pretty straightforward with the startup. i lost connection a few times because it flew too far, but then once it initiated the return home routine it reconnected with no problems. also, never lost visual of it either. last night, it literally zoomed away, never seen it happen before.

 

[Tomaso]

"GPS signal good, ATTI," ATTI mode for the Evo means that you do not have gps lock. This could be why your drone flew around in a circle. Usually called the fish bowl effect when there is a gps lock issue.
If you took off this way it's possible that the drone was never was able to set a home point.
Sorry that you lost your drone.

I agree completely about Atti Mode causing the fishbowl effect. The drone was looking for a connection. I sometimes get the notice of Atti mode but I cautiously proceed knowing that something could cause my drone to tank. Luckily nothing has happened.

 

[ChrisP]

I agree completely about Atti Mode causing the fishbowl effect. The drone was looking for a connection. I sometimes get the notice of Atti mode but I cautiously proceed knowing that something could cause my drone to tank. Luckily nothing has happened.

This is and was what I normally see before I get all the bars for a GPS lock. Before the fly away, as I mentioned, I saw ATTI on the controller, then I waited until I received a full GPS lock. It's says GPS in place of ATTI. At that point I launched the drone, but for some reason about 30 seconds later it became uncontrollable. Nothing I did would control it, any input to the controller was null. I could see a live sideways picture and received information of drones distance and height. Was 3000 feet away and 659 feet high when picture went dark on controller. I see many people who fly with just the controller, do not do this!! Ever. If you cannot retrieve the aircraft and have no logs because of not using the explorer app, your toast. Autel will not help you. The Autel app or the drone itself stores the flight logs.