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The Day I Lost My Evo

Glad you were able to retrieve it. Had a similar experience (not with the Evo) but with another drone. I was able to make it back with 8% battery (was over water yikes) but luckily landed somewhere safe where I picked it up. I plan to fly the Evo closer than I would other drones that I own/fly.
 
Glad you tracked it down! Hmmmm. The drifting sideways is odd? Why would it fly off-course for no reason? The wind shouldn't have cause that all by itself?? I can see the Evo -- being lighter -- wouldn't do as well as the XSP, which I think flies incredibly well in high winds up to 25-30mph gusts. I wish Autel drones would do more when down (away from home base) to make them easier to find. My right RC controller broke, causing the XSP to flight down and land in a bush. Being the desert, and at dusk, I could see it 1/4 away easily just from the LED's alone.
In the jungle of the Big Island, Hawaii, I spent an hour looking for that same drone in some 4' high cane grass not 50' from me. A beep every 60 sec would have been very helpful. Make a noise, brightly strobe the lights, something extra to aid us is most welcome -- like the Mavic...
 
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Thanks for sharing. Very interesting story, and I'm happy you got your Evo back.

I'm new to the Evo myself, so I don't know everything about it, but I was under the impression that it uses GPS to maintain its position (and its course) in the wind. If GPS is turned off, it's not going to be aware that it's drifting so it won't have the ability to counteract it.(Like I said, I'm new, so I could be wrong about this.) I'm wondering why you turned off GPS.

I wish I could fly in a place where I could send it out that far, land it, then just pick it up. Here in PA, with all the hills and trees, it would be tough to find a place to land where I could drive and find it.

I've flown my Evo in the wind, I'm guessing up to around 20mph, and it didn't seem to have any problem counteracting it. It flew a little faster going with the wind, but I've never seen any sideways drift like you were getting.

Once again, thanks, and congrats on successfully getting it back.
 
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting story, and I'm happy you got your Evo back.

I'm new to the Evo myself, so I don't know everything about it, but I was under the impression that it uses GPS to maintain its position (and its course) in the wind. If GPS is turned off, it's not going to be aware that it's drifting so it won't have the ability to counteract it.(Like I said, I'm new, so I could be wrong about this.) I'm wondering why you turned off GPS.

I wish I could fly in a place where I could send it out that far, land it, then just pick it up. Here in PA, with all the hills and trees, it would be tough to find a place to land where I could drive and find it.

I've flown my Evo in the wind, I'm guessing up to around 20mph, and it didn't seem to have any problem counteracting it. It flew a little faster going with the wind, but I've never seen any sideways drift like you were getting.

Once again, thanks, and congrats on successfully getting it back.
My question is how did he just turn off GPS?
 
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He went to Ludicrous mode.

I'm only aware of Ludicrous mode turning off obstacle avoidance, not GPS. In this video, Alejandro talks about Ludicrous mode: "This new feature added to Evo allows you to reach a top speed of 45 miles an hour in GPS mode."

 
Watched the OP's video again, and at the 9:40 he mentions he puts it back into GPS mode. Which is what caused my comment about GPS.

However, according to the screen, he always was in GPS mode, since that's what's up in the left top corner all along. I just think he misspoke about putting it back into GPS mode. As far as I can tell, there's no way to take the Evo out of GPS mode, unless you physically block the GPS from receiving a signal.
 
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Which brings up a question:

If you put aluminum foil over the GPS to force the Evo into ATTI mode, and then put it in Ludicrous mode, how fast will it go? And without GPS engaged, would it even know how fast it's flying?

Not that I'm going to be trying that anytime soon. :p
 
Glad you found the drone but the winds looked a lot higher than 10mph to me. It's also possible that the wind picked up a lot on the second flight with your Evo.
My recommendation when dealing with wind and a long flight path is to always fly into the wind on the outbound leg if possible so that you are coming back WITH THE WIND on the return flight.
 
Here is my story. I just finished the edit. Let me know what you think.
Glad you were able to recover the Evo. It almost looks like the wind picked up more on your second flight because the Evo sure was struggling to come home against the wind.
 
I can see what you did wrong (not your fault), the vision sensors (OA) remained on. When this occurs, the drone only tilts so far forward. You need to disable OA so the drone can tilt further forward and then you can fly your evo in standard 22mph mode and it wont lose altitude. In Ludicrous mode it does turn off vision but the flight characteristics are unstable IMO. You also need to disable OA/Vision after ever flight and even flipping between Ludicrous and Normal mode.

I found this out the hard way also in a wind gust, found a safe place to land it and had to go pick it up by car.
 
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I can see what you did wrong (not your fault), the vision sensors (OA) remained on. When this occurs, the drone only tilts so far forward. You need to disable OA so the drone can tilt further forward and then you can fly your evo in standard 22mph mode and it wont lose altitude. In Ludicrous mode it does turn off vision but the flight characteristics are unstable IMO. You also need to disable OA/Vision after ever flight and even flipping between Ludicrous and Normal mode.

I found this out the hard way also in a wind gust, found a safe place to land it and had to go pick it up by car.
OK that does sound like an option. Next time this happens I will do that and see if it improves. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
I posted a video of me doing a live feed test and in the video you can hear the obstacle sensors going on from the sun, I had the sensors turned off so that it will not affect the flying however you can hear it. If you do not have your sensors turned off then this shows you can have your drone slowed down not only from wind but from the shinning of the sun.
 
I posted a video of me doing a live feed test and in the video you can hear the obstacle sensors going on from the sun, I had the sensors turned off so that it will not affect the flying however you can hear it. If you do not have your sensors turned off then this shows you can have your drone slowed down not only from wind but from the shinning of the sun.

Since they are vision sensors (cameras) the drone sees the UV light as an obstacle and will stop. The wind situation is a little different in that in order for the drone to maintain OA, will limit its tilt angle. This in turn has the effect where in a strong wind will carry it away giving the impression its lost GPS/Drifting however its simply the limited tilt angle preventing the drone fighting the wind. Difference between disabling OA in standard mode and ludicrous is drone wont drop altitude when fighting wind in standard. In Ludicrous mode it could end badly if you dont have that much altitude to play with.

Always keep an eye on the "Vision" indicator on the OLED RC to know if your vision sensors are on or not, there's a bug in the android app where it will sometimes not disengage for some reason.

Hope this helps someone avoid a lost drone :)
 
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Here is my story. I just finished the edit. Let me know what you think.
I have the Evo and I learned right away that the Evo does not do well in a slight wind. I purposely flew many times for practice purposes only in wind 10 mph to 25 mph. I challenged the wind to the point that the drone started to fly backward with full throttle forward. I am well seasoned now flying the Autel Evo in wind 10 mph +
 

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