SMART CONTROLLER v1

[uas_gian]

Just curious, why do people believe the V1 Smart Controller is worth twice retail? Sure they only made a few, but the V2 is on the way, and it's dual channel instead of single channel, it's Blue Certified, and it has the potential to be viable for more than a month like V1...

All kidding aside, seriously. Why is the V1 worth twice it's retail? There's absolutely nothing special about it, and it's already obsolesced. I own a refurbished V1 Evo II Pro, and I just can't see spending more than retail on something that will only ever work with this version. I guess we'll see how this all shakes out. But my guess is that in the next 6-months or so, definitely in the time frame of the next version launch... they'll be more than a few of these going up for sale, for a lot less than retail.

I understand supply and demand, but is there really that big of demand for the V1 smart controllers?

There's one on ebay here: Autel Smart Controller - EVO 2 6K / 8K - V1 / Only 500 alloted to USA | eBay

And There's the one from the post above, the owner of which I've chatted with in another forum here on AutelPilots, with the same result as the ebay seller... Both are 100% sure they're sitting on a nice golden nugget.

I just don't understand the thinking.

There must be many more like us. We bought two aircrafts of the Evo II V1 generation via European retailers and at that time we chose Autel Robotics with the expectation to be able to expand the tool set with Live Deck and then add a Smart Controller a year or two down the line. I did get one piece of refurbished Live Deck V1 only just in time as the news came out about Smart Controllers V1 will not arrive and Live Deck soon thereafter went listed as sold out. The main retailer we order from in Germany told us they had about 50 pre-orders and only had received 3 items. Clearly we were not one of those 3.

So yes it feels bad to hear too late the aircrafts we have bought are stuck with the two not so great controllers they originally were shipped with. We will definitely not spend twice the retail value for a secondhand item. But I do understand some might rather have the complete V1 set, before buying two or more aircrafts just to have everything aligned with the so called V2.

My personal argument for moving toward Autel in our company was their expandability and the compatibility of the tools. This promise has obviously been broken.

Side note: Volkswagen promised it's customers "Clean Diesel" but they technically couldn't realize it as promised and chose to go the cheating way. Millions of car owners suddenly were driving a car that had lost value over night. This lead to one of the biggest international law suits.

The Evo II V1 is not crap, it does handle most of the required jobs without the smart controller, but not having any V1 compatibility in the future so soon after introduction of the Evo II does feel like a scam.