Problem with the Autel Evo 2 640T gimbal

[Aerial RoboLution CEO]

Hi everyone,

I am running into a problem with the new Autel Evo 640 T Dual that I bought. It almost brand new with just under 13 hours of flight time on it. Its flown great but today i noticed a significant problem, the gimbal wasnt staying straight and was tilting to the side and not turing with the camera, this caused me lots of problems like when i would fly straight, it would fly at an angle, so i landed the drone, recalibrated the gimal, turned it off and on, changed out the battery, and turned it on again, recalibrated it successfuly a second time and than flew it again, same thing happened but this time around, it turned enough to the side that i could see the tips of my propellors in the camera view, i landed it and called autel, they want me to send the drone in next week but im curious, has anyone else experienced this same issue or does anyone have any experience with thier gimbal turning off its axis to the side like that?

 

[richkphoto]

I've contacted support for a problem for the gimbal twitching at about 50 seconds and about 2 minutes per file. I contacted support and they said they replicated it on there test drone. They said they are looking into a fix. That was 2 or 3 weeks ago. I haven't heard anything else from them. Where did you get your drone from ?

 

[Cicero24]

Yes! I was flying the other day and the gimbal slowly rotated to the right on its own. I could see the front right landing leg. Nothing would fix it in flight. 0-90 degrees…nothing. I had to fly it back and land like that. Shut it down. Restarted and it hasn’t happened since that time. Owning this drone surely has been an experience to say the least. Good luck getting Autel to tell you anything worth something. They always say “send it in” on your dime.

 

[Aerial RoboLution CEO]

I've contacted support for a problem for the gimbal twitching at about 50 seconds and about 2 minutes per file. I contacted support and they said they replicated it on there test drone. They said they are looking into a fix. That was 2 or 3 weeks ago. I haven't heard anything else from them. Where did you get your drone from ?

I bought my drone from empire drone and talked to Autel support yesterday, its still under warranty so they want me to send it in for repair, which I think I may end up doing after testing it in an open field.

 

[Aerial RoboLution CEO]

Yes! I was flying the other day and the gimbal slowly rotated to the right on its own. I could see the front right landing leg. Nothing would fix it in flight. 0-90 degrees…nothing. I had to fly it back and land like that. Shut it down. Restarted and it hasn’t happened since that time. Owning this drone surely has been an experience to say the least. Good luck getting Autel to tell you anything worth something. They always say “send it in” on your dime.

Hi Cicero24,

Thats exactly what happened to mine, i ran a pre-planned mission and the camera glitched in flight after that, im going to run a few test runs before sending it in.

 

[Aerial RoboLution CEO]

Yes! I was flying the other day and the gimbal slowly rotated to the right on its own. I could see the front right landing leg. Nothing would fix it in flight. 0-90 degrees…nothing. I had to fly it back and land like that. Shut it down. Restarted and it hasn’t happened since that time. Owning this drone surely has been an experience to say the least. Good luck getting Autel to tell you anything worth something. They always say “send it in” on your dime.

so just out of curiosity, when you say its been an experience to say the least, do you mind if i ask what you mean? Has this given you other issues as well?

 

[richkphoto]

As for that glitching , I've talked to tech support quite a bit and they told me they think it's a software issue and that they would have to work on it. I have another issue with mine and that is the controller last just over one flight. Form what I've read on the forums it seems like get a fix for a problem could take a while, so I shift my focus to my hex and octo with a Pixhawk flight controller as I need to get work done now not later

 

[Mike Mas]

This and the EVO's constantly moving gimbal problem has been a problem for ever - I can't believe Autel puts these drones out and even worse promotes them a professional gear when they can't stabilize the main component the camera.

Get yourself a DJI Mavic or Phantom - better quality without the gimbal problems and less money. It's sad that both DJI and Autel are both the worlds worst companies for backing their equipment after the sale.

I bought two EVO's for our company and both had the gimbal problem and they had the nerve to tell me to send and insure them to Calif to have them fixed on my own dime - I fixed the problem by sending them back to B&H for a refund!

 

[richkphoto]

I just gave away a Mavic Air 2 (sick of dealing with DJI for the past 10 or so years), but I'm growing tired of Dealing with Autel also as I've purchased the pro which works ok then I got the 640T for solar farm inspections and aside from the above problem it can't fly parallel to the rows of panels and yet have the camera perpendicular to them which makes it useless for the purpose I purchased it. Then I was thinking of survey work with an RTK drone, but I would have to spend another $3200. for the RTK drone as you can't add RTK to any of the current drones. I seams like it's Autels way to milk all the money they can from commercial customers . I guess my solution is to go back to building my own drones with Pixhawk flight controllers which can do it all and if I have a problem I can get help right away and not be told that any upgrade are sent to the engineers and they fix the most popular ones which are for the most part at the consumer level while leaving commercial customers wait for months. Sorry for the rant

 

[Tiger64]

I was doing a time-lapse with my e2 pro last weej and the gimbal tipped the horizon over to about 30 deg during filming.
Figured it was just a one off glitch.
Maybe i need to be keeping an eye on it.
Hopefully it is just software and the will make it right in an update.

 

[Mike Mas]

Bottom line if you keep your drones out of the ground - the DJI platform is near perfect and will last a decade with moderate use. Unlike Autel with problems out of the box, a DJI drome works as intended. While you might run into a problem now and then, 98% of the time a DJI is work ready right out of the box.

Neither company is worth a damn with after the sale service.

Mike