New pilot in West Virginia

[DivePanama]

New pilot here out of West Virginia. Started out with the Parrot Anafi, which I really love, and decided to give the Autel EVO a chance. Really enjoy the EVO even though it is already going back to Autel for service and repair So I will be back to using the Anafi solely until my EVO's issue is resolved.

 

[Atomic08]

Welcome to the Forum !

Why did you have to send yours back?
Beware and get ready for a LONG wait to get the repair back..
I sent mine back after a few days June 4th and am still waiting.
It took 8 days to get to Washington State fro the east coast,
and I was told yesterday 6/21 that it will be about two weeks for them
to get to the repair, because of the heavy flying season repair schedule,
then unless I wanted to pay
UPS 3 day select - $35.19
or
UPS 2nd day air - $47.05
it would take another 5-7 days to get back to me.
All because one of the control arms broke !

So I shelled out $1200 May 23th, waited 7 days for delivery, returned 6 days later,
and will have to wait up to July 10th to play again !
I was hoping to get it back to shot our local July 4th fire works with it !!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Welcome to the Forum. I think you will enjoy your membership. There are many other members happy to provide assistance for any issues you may have, and those that may need information you bring. A lot of good information is already stored in existing threads.

Couple easy things:
1.) The search Icon is your friend. It's the magnifying glass near the upper right of the screen when you scroll all the way up. It can find many answers you will never find by yourself.
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5.) Review the forum rules (on the bottom right). There are not too many, but it is important they are followed to keep the Forum a useful and happy place for everyone.

 

[DivePanama]

Welcome to the Forum !

Why did you have to send yours back?
Beware and get ready for a LONG wait to get the repair back..
I sent mine back after a few days June 4th and am still waiting.
It took 8 days to get to Washington State fro the east coast,
and I was told yesterday 6/21 that it will be about two weeks for them
to get to the repair, because of the heavy flying season repair schedule,
then unless I wanted to pay
UPS 3 day select - $35.19
or
UPS 2nd day air - $47.05
it would take another 5-7 days to get back to me.
All because one of the control arms broke !

So I shelled out $1200 May 23th, waited 7 days for delivery, returned 6 days later,
and will have to wait up to July 10th to play again !
I was hoping to get it back to shot our local July 4th fire works with it !!

I was doing a final flight for the day on a new battery with an initial full charge. Drone was about 200 feet away and 120 up and above the tree line. I was in level flight and pushing the right stick forward when it just lost altitude, and fast. It went straight into a tree that was below it and then fell 80 feet to the ground. The left rotor arm gave at the pivot point.

What was strange was I had flown the same route 4 times earlier on the first battery. The only issue then was on the second flight I received a critical error message for the IMU so I did a RTB and recalibrated both the controller and drone. Flight #3 and #4 went with no glitches.

I just wonder that when I switched to a brand new battery whether I should have done the calibration sequence for the controller and drone again.

With my Anafi I have never experienced this type of behavior.

 

[Atomic08]

DP...
With my other Drones, Phantom, Yuneec Typhoon H, and the few flights I had with the EVO,
I Always turn off both the drone and the controller and restart both again when I change batteries.
I think this is what you mean by "calibration sequence" ?

 

[Ansia]

To my understanding, he means that he should re calibrate compass and IMU with the new battery. The answer is no. You only do calibration when the drone isn't behaving correctly or if it asks you to. If you do to many calibrations, it can create what it's called fish bowl effect. My guess is that the battery wasn't placed correctly and with the vibrations the IMU may have lost power, giving you an error and making the drone crash. I've only read about this twice with the Evo, but have seen it countless times with other drones.

 

[DivePanama]

Just to clarify, when I say calibration sequence I meant the steps taken to calibrate the controller and then the drone calibration (rotation of the drone horizontally and vertically).

I did this twice. First time was after the firmware update and I received a error message saying calibration had failed. Second time was after its second flight and received a critical error message saying IMU failure.

When the drone went down on flight #5 there was no error message. Just a rapid loss of altitude. The weird part was I still had video feed even as it falling from striking the tree. I got the disconnect message when it hit the ground. At that point the battery was separate from the drone.

I very well may not have fully seated the second battery. Compared to my Anafi the EVO battery feels like it takes more force to lock the battery in.

I really like the EVO and how it flies, when it’s not crashing ?; however, I have had absolutely no issues with my Anafi so far and I have been flying it for awhile now. Considering that the picture quality on the Anafi is very good I may switch back to it as my main flyer even after I get my EVO back.

 

[Ansia]

Just to clarify, when I say calibration sequence I meant the steps taken to calibrate the controller and then the drone calibration (rotation of the drone horizontally and vertically).

I did this twice. First time was after the firmware update and I received a error message saying calibration had failed. Second time was after its second flight and received a critical error message saying IMU failure.

When the drone went down on flight #5 there was no error message. Just a rapid loss of altitude. The weird part was I still had video feed even as it falling from striking the tree. I got the disconnect message when it hit the ground. At that point the battery was separate from the drone.

I very well may not have fully seated the second battery. Compared to my Anafi the EVO battery feels like it takes more force to lock the battery in.

I really like the EVO and how it flies, when it’s not crashing ?; however, I have had absolutely no issues with my Anafi so far and I have been flying it for awhile now. Considering that the picture quality on the Anafi is very good I may switch back to it as my main flyer even after I get my EVO back.

Yes. You need a strong person to seat the battery of the Evo correctly. This is why I ask my wife to do it each time. ?

The Anafi's camera is really good, but the Evo excels in other areas. @Agustine (the administrator of this page) also flys an Anafi. Im my opinion, each drone has it's own uses and is better for specific tasks. For example. I fly a Phantom, Evo, and Tello. My Phantom I use when I want to do photogrammetry or wish to fly in strong winds. I have more faith on my Phantom, than in any other drone, but this is mainly due to the fact that I have years of experience in it and I trust it completely. The Evo I do when I am fooling around, when I want to do a video (if you know how to play with the settings, you can get such smooth shoots, that the Phantom simply can't achieve) or simply just want to go out and fly. My Tello is my indoor crashing drone. I make sure to crash this little fellow each time I fly, so I get that out of the way and don't crash my bigger drones. I have been debating recently on getting an Anafi, for bridge inspections, but the boss lady hasn't given me the OK yet. ?