So, now what

gbailey133 · Jun 19, 2021

I have an x-star premium and 3 batteries, I cannot charge. I have seen the videos on opening the batteries, but I am not comfortable with that process. My drone was in storage and I did not know that batteries would drop to the point the charger will not charge them, and now I found out the company does not even produce the batteries anymore. What can I do? Is the drone worth anything anymore? Anyone interested in it, or am I out completely?

gbailey133 · Jun 20, 2021

off to eBay I guess?

ORANGE CRUSH · Jun 20, 2021

A lot of us in your same boat, there are people who have jump started their batteries that have been sitting & have rejuvenated their batteries. Check out articles on the forum as to how this is done, as for E-bay, good luck, looks like x-stars aren't selling very easily. Thanks to Autel, they are bricks now!!

gbailey133 · Jun 20, 2021

ORANGE CRUSH said:
A lot of us in your same boat, there are people who have jump started their batteries that have been sitting & have rejuvenated their batteries. Check out articles on the forum as to how this is done, as for E-bay, good luck, looks like x-stars aren't selling very easily. Thanks to Autel, they are bricks now!!

I’m seeing that as I look through the internet on this issue. I don’t have a place I can work on the batteries at this time. I have looked into a new drone the Ruko F11 GIM. I am hopeful to get something to off set the cost to the new drone.

ORANGE CRUSH · Jun 20, 2021

Personally I would look into a quality UAV such as a DJI mavic mini 2 or a mavic air 2 or air 2s, those cheaper ones won't have any range and/or cameras will be junk, also warranty issues may be terrible. You pay for what you get, don't waste you money on knock offs!! As far as Autel, they are full of chip issues right now, steer clear of their drones, plus they short changed us of battery availability!! Not s company to trust!!

gbailey133 · Jun 20, 2021

Not going back to Autel after this paper weight.

tuxontodd · Jun 26, 2021

I know how you feel. All four of my Evo 1 batteries went bad at 18 months with less than 40 flights each. I really don't think they went bad but if the firmware thinks that you can't fly. Never going back to Autel either.

gbailey133 · Jun 26, 2021

I got $300 on eBay minus the $50 listing and selling fees. Going to move on to another drone. Hopefully with our a repeat issue. I’ll be looking long and hard at reviews before I drop another dime.

Char7ie · Jun 26, 2021

A message for Autel Robotics:

I paid $1000 for an X-star and you dropped all support, including replacement batteries. WHY? I also purchased the Evo and are now ending support for it. I assume you will you stop producing these batteries as well. When the Evo 3 is introduced, you will soon thereafter stop support for the Evo 2. This is no way to run a business. This is no way to treat your customers. You should be ashamed. These are not toys and they are not disposable.

Now, you are making a second version of the smart controller that will not be backwards compatible. How does this make sense to you?

Eventually, all your consumers will realize you do not care about anything but selling new, expensive products, without concern for the customer or money already spent. I will not support you any longer.

ORANGE CRUSH · Jun 26, 2021

Thank you & well said, Autel has released 3 Drones, live deck & a smart controller. They are ALL obsolete as of NOW!! Yes the Evo 2 will have batteries for a while, I guarantee you Autel will produce an Evo 3 with everything new including batteries making the Evo 2 worthless. Mark my words, it will happen, Autel is famous for this!! There is no reason they can't keep making batteries for the x-star & evo 1 so we can still use them till we decide to upgrade! Heck DJI isn't even that bad, screw Autel, I'm done with dumping hard earned cash into the Autel toilet!!

gbailey133 · Jun 27, 2021

Char7ie said:
A message for Autel Robotics:

I paid $1000 for an X-star and you dropped all support, including replacement batteries. WHY? I also purchased the Evo and are now ending support for it. I assume you will you stop producing these batteries as well. When the Evo 3 is introduced, you will soon thereafter stop support for the Evo 2. This is no way to run a business. This is no way to treat your customers. You should be ashamed. These are not toys and they are not disposable.

Now, you are making a second version of the smart controller that will not be backwards compatible. How does this make sense to you?

Eventually, all your consumers will realize you do not care about anything but selling new, expensive products, without concern for the customer or money already spent. I will not support you any longer.

Well said!

JuanPablo · Jun 30, 2021

Char7ie said:
A message for Autel Robotics:

I paid $1000 for an X-star and you dropped all support, including replacement batteries. WHY? I also purchased the Evo and are now ending support for it. I assume you will you stop producing these batteries as well. When the Evo 3 is introduced, you will soon thereafter stop support for the Evo 2. This is no way to run a business. This is no way to treat your customers. You should be ashamed. These are not toys and they are not disposable.

Now, you are making a second version of the smart controller that will not be backwards compatible. How does this make sense to you?

Eventually, all your consumers will realize you do not care about anything but selling new, expensive products, without concern for the customer or money already spent. I will not support you any longer.

Sadly you see this all the time with "tech stuff". With proper maintenance and access to parts a drone should provide you with many years of enjoyment and that doesn't help a companies bottom line. I have an Evo I with a broken landing gear and I either have to send it off to Autel or spend $100-500 for an EVO shell (used as a display) or a parts drone, This is absolutely absurd. The thing is, Autel occupies a unique spot in the market in that they are one of the only companies that make a decent drone that is not geofence restricted! As much as I dislike Autel Robotics, I would still buy their drones over a DJI because of that very issue!

JuanPablo · Jun 30, 2021

gbailey133 said:
I have an x-star premium and 3 batteries, I cannot charge. I have seen the videos on opening the batteries, but I am not comfortable with that process. My drone was in storage and I did not know that batteries would drop to the point the charger will not charge them, and now I found out the company does not even produce the batteries anymore. What can I do? Is the drone worth anything anymore? Anyone interested in it, or am I out completely?

Have you thought about making your own battery pack. Chances are the electronics are not damaged so you could get away with buying the cells and having the case 3d printed!

Char7ie · Jun 30, 2021

JuanPablo said:
Sadly you see this all the time with "tech stuff". With proper maintenance and access to parts a drone should provide you with many years of enjoyment and that doesn't help a companies bottom line. I have an Evo I with a broken landing gear and I either have to send it off to Autel or spend $100-500 for an EVO shell (used as a display) or a parts drone, This is absolutely absurd. The thing is, Autel occupies a unique spot in the market in that they are one of the only companies that make a decent drone that is not geofence restricted! As much as I dislike Autel Robotics, I would still buy their drones over a DJI because of that very issue!

Sir, you make a valid point. Good luck to you. I only wish Autel would continue to support customers who sunk hard earned money into their products. Customers would then be more loyal to the brand name, being happy to repeat purchase. Their business decisions are turning away customers. Their drones are superb. Neither one of my units, X-star or Evo 1 have ever had an issue other than old batteries. Now, my only alternative is to figure out how to incorporate a Lipo into their BMS. Well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway, the FAA will make all of these obsolete in three years.

Mikegans · Jun 30, 2021

Char7ie said:
A message for Autel Robotics:

I paid $1000 for an X-star and you dropped all support, including replacement batteries. WHY? I also purchased the Evo and are now ending support for it. I assume you will you stop producing these batteries as well. When the Evo 3 is introduced, you will soon thereafter stop support for the Evo 2. This is no way to run a business. This is no way to treat your customers. You should be ashamed. These are not toys and they are not disposable.

Now, you are making a second version of the smart controller that will not be backwards compatible. How does this make sense to you?

Eventually, all your consumers will realize you do not care about anything but selling new, expensive products, without concern for the customer or money already spent. I will not support you any longer.

Your information is incorrect the version 2 will be exactly the same as the version 1 using the same batteries and updates. The only difference is version 2 will have 2.8 and 5.4 frequencies.

ORANGE CRUSH · Jun 30, 2021

So they say, we have seen Autel do some dumb things, then a year from now will be an Evo 3 with the Evo 2 being obsolete. Why weren't both frequencies used in 1st place as Dji uses for a more stable transmission? It's all about the almighty dollar!

Char7ie · Jun 30, 2021

Mikegans said:
Your information is incorrect the version 2 will be exactly the same as the version 1 using the same batteries and updates. The only difference is version 2 will have 2.8 and 5.4 frequencies.

2.4 and 5.8 Ghz? I'm not interested in the smart controller.

JuanPablo · Jun 30, 2021

Char7ie said:
Sir, you make a valid point. Good luck to you. I only wish Autel would continue to support customers who sunk hard earned money into their products. Customers would then be more loyal to the brand name, being happy to repeat purchase. Their business decisions are turning away customers. Their drones are superb. Neither one of my units, X-star or Evo 1 have ever had an issue other than old batteries. Now, my only alternative is to figure out how to incorporate a Lipo into their BMS. Well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway, the FAA will make all of these obsolete in three years.

You are so right. I keep reading about the need to regulate the personal drone industry and to hear them talk you'd think commercial airliners were hitting drones every other day and terrorists were using them to deliver explosives on a weekly basis. Given the number of incidents I'd say things are pretty safe the way they are. But at the very least they'll find a way to make money off us...either by licensing, registration, or both

GeekOnTheWing · Jul 1, 2021

JuanPablo said:
Sadly you see this all the time with "tech stuff".

The difference is that drones are considered, registered, and used as aircraft. It would be extremely easy for FAA (and other nations' equivalents) to bring them under existing standards with regard to maintenance, inspection, and parts.

And you know what? Maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I can buy PMA parts for an 83-year-old Piper Cub from my choice of vendors in the time it takes me to fill out a Web form, but you can't buy a battery for a 5-year-old drone?

How does that make any sense?

What will happen at some point is that someone will be forced to rewire a battery or jerry-rig a repair on a drone because of the manufacturer's dropping support, and that drone will wind up causing an accident, injury, or air disaster when it malfunctions.

The victims' families will sue the pilot, the manufacturer, and the FAA. The pilot will be ruined, and the manufacturer will be in court for years. But the FAA will quickly settle and will thereafter bring all drones under FAR 43: and then you'll all be paying me to do your inspections.

If a drone is an aircraft, then treat it as such. Either keep making the parts, or license other companies to make them.

JuanPablo · Jul 2, 2021

GeekOnTheWing said:
The difference is that drones are considered, registered, and used as aircraft. It would be extremely easy for FAA (and other nations' equivalents) to bring them under existing standards with regard to maintenance, inspection, and parts.

And you know what? Maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I can buy PMA parts for an 83-year-old Piper Cub from my choice of vendors in the time it takes me to fill out a Web form, but you can't buy a battery for a 5-year-old drone?

How does that make any sense?

What will happen at some point is that someone will be forced to rewire a battery or jerry-rig a repair on a drone because of the manufacturer's dropping support, and that drone will wind up causing an accident, injury, or air disaster when it malfunctions.

The victims' families will sue the pilot, the manufacturer, and the FAA. The pilot will be ruined, and the manufacturer will be in court for years. But the FAA will quickly settle and will thereafter bring all drones under FAR 43: and then you'll all be paying me to do your inspections.

If a drone is an aircraft, then treat it as such. Either keep making the parts, or license other companies to make them.

I don't disagree with you on the potential for disaster, but an 83 year old Piper Cub represents a totally different era in business and manufacturing. My 96 year old grandmother has a 65 year old washing machine that she still repairs herself, and I have a 1968 Diesel Mercedes that I can usually fix with parts from the hardware store; think the same could be said about a 2020 Honda or a new washing machine from home depot? In this era of "Planned Obsolescence" even the simplest things contain PCB boards.