Uncommanded full power climb

[BerndM]

I have a strange dilemma.
After not using my EVO-1 for at least the last 6 or 7 months, I charged up the 3 batteries with the intention to hover them in the back yard to run them thru a full cycle 5 feet up.
I started the motors, everything indicated Ready To Fly, and had good GPS lock. I applied just a touch of power to get it up to about 5 feet, and the thing just shot up at full power to about 50-60 feet with zero stick input before I could pull the stick all the way down but it still continued to climb so I hit the Pause button to stop the climb command. It slowed and with me holding the throttle all the way down it slowly came straight down and landed right where it launched from. After my heart stopped racing, I went to the drone and carefully positioned my hand on top of the drone to hold it down and applied just a tiny bit of up throttle and again it went to full power even though I had released the stick. It stayed at full power until I pulled the stick all the down and it SLOWLY slowed down and shut the motors off. It did the same thing with the other 2 batteries as well. I went ahead and installed the latest FW 1.5.8 to the drone and all 3 of my batteries and it STILL acted exactly the same.
Anyone had a similar issue??? Your commentary would be highly appreciated since as it is the drone is totally unusable.
Thanks

 

[jcommstudios]

I have a strange dilemma.
After not using my EVO-1 for at least the last 6 or 7 months, I charged up the 3 batteries with the intention to hover them in the back yard to run them thru a full cycle 5 feet up.
I started the motors, everything indicated Ready To Fly, and had good GPS lock. I applied just a touch of power to get it up to about 5 feet, and the thing just shot up at full power to about 50-60 feet with zero stick input before I could pull the stick all the way down but it still continued to climb so I hit the Pause button to stop the climb command. It slowed and with me holding the throttle all the way down it slowly came straight down and landed right where it launched from. After my heart stopped racing, I went to the drone and carefully positioned my hand on top of the drone to hold it down and applied just a tiny bit of up throttle and again it went to full power even though I had released the stick. It stayed at full power until I pulled the stick all the down and it SLOWLY slowed down and shut the motors off. It did the same thing with the other 2 batteries as well. I went ahead and installed the latest FW 1.5.8 to the drone and all 3 of my batteries and it STILL acted exactly the same.
Anyone had a similar issue??? Your commentary would be highly appreciated since as it is the drone is totally unusable.
Thanks

@BerndM Did you get a bad battery warning? If so the EVO1 will go into RTH mode. I've gone trough a half dozen batteries since getting the drone when it first came out. Each battery that went bad gave me a damaged battery message and then went into RTH. You can cancel it by pressing the button with the pause indicator but make sure you land quickly. If you are storing the unit for some time make sure your batteries are near 50%. These "Smart Batteries" aren't so smart. It's best to fly them down to 50% rather than trusting the auto discharge feature. It doesn't always work. Sounds like you need to find some new batteries which is hit or miss at this point.

 

[resq3129]

I HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN A FEW MOTHS AGO WITH A BRAND NEW UNIT ( EVO1) UNFORTUNATLY MINE DID NOT RESPOND TO ANY STICK INPUT OR PAUSE BUTTON, I HAD NO BAD BATTERY WARNINGS OR ANY TYPE OF WARNINGS THAT ANYTHING WAS AMISS. MY DRONE WENT UP AND MADE A HARD RIGHT TURN RIGHT INTO A TREE AND FELL STRAIGHT DOWN DESTROYING THE DRONE. I SENT IT BACK TO AUTEL AS THE "NEW DRONE" WAS A REPLACEMENT FOR ANOTHER DRONE THAT HAD ISSUES! THEY SENT ME ANOTHER ONE BUT I AM HESITANT TO EVEN TRY AND FLY THIS ONE. i AM GOING TO TETHER IT TO GROUND BEFORE FIRING IT UP!

 

[jcommstudios]

I HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN A FEW MOTHS AGO WITH A BRAND NEW UNIT ( EVO1) UNFORTUNATLY MINE DID NOT RESPOND TO ANY STICK INPUT OR PAUSE BUTTON, I HAD NO BAD BATTERY WARNINGS OR ANY TYPE OF WARNINGS THAT ANYTHING WAS AMISS. MY DRONE WENT UP AND MADE A HARD RIGHT TURN RIGHT INTO A TREE AND FELL STRAIGHT DOWN DESTROYING THE DRONE. I SENT IT BACK TO AUTEL AS THE "NEW DRONE" WAS A REPLACEMENT FOR ANOTHER DRONE THAT HAD ISSUES! THEY SENT ME ANOTHER ONE BUT I AM HESITANT TO EVEN TRY AND FLY THIS ONE. i AM GOING TO TETHER IT TO GROUND BEFORE FIRING IT UP!

@resq3129 Might be better to find a very large open space rather than tethering the drone. I've been flying drones for many years and from a few different manufacturers. They all have problems at some point. I had a couple of Yuneec H480s just fall out of the air. Turned out to be the controller not the drone. You might try calibrating the controller. here is a link from Autel on the process. Calibrate EVO 1 Controller

 

[resq3129]

I dont want to lose another drone. Lol I have calibrated the remote, Autel sent me a new remote and drone. Dont trust it yet. Lol. I have been flying for a few years myself and this is the first drone that has given me this feeling.

 

[BerndM]

Apparently all 3 of my batteries have magically gone bad at the same time. Almost seems like a built in suicide code from Autel to force you to buy new batteries. I install a fully charged (?) battery on the drone, The controller indicates 100% for the drone. The battery shows 4 green lights. I start up the drone weighted down by 4 pounds of lead attached to the legs (1 pound on each leg) and give a tiny up throttle and the motors go to FULL power and stay there even after I let go of the throttle. Battery is still showing 4 green, the controller says 96% now and rapidly starts dropping. Now controller shows battery is down to 50% after only 1 minute but I still have 4 green on the drone. WTF??? Even if I bought new batteries, I can't ever trust this drone again, so maybe I'll sell it for parts. Batteries for sure are history but mechanically and physically it is like brand new. I wouldn't trust the electronics at all. Bummer. Glad I still have my 10 year old DJI F450 Flamewheel quad which is 100% flawless in all aspects and totally reliable, and impervious to all the governments Nanny crap.

 

[jcommstudios]

Apparently all 3 of my batteries have magically gone bad at the same time. Almost seems like a built in suicide code from Autel to force you to buy new batteries. I install a fully charged (?) battery on the drone, The controller indicates 100% for the drone. The battery shows 4 green lights. I start up the drone weighted down by 4 pounds of lead attached to the legs (1 pound on each leg) and give a tiny up throttle and the motors go to FULL power and stay there even after I let go of the throttle. Battery is still showing 4 green, the controller says 96% now and rapidly starts dropping. Now controller shows battery is down to 50% after only 1 minute but I still have 4 green on the drone. WTF??? Even if I bought new batteries, I can't ever trust this drone again, so maybe I'll sell it for parts. Batteries for sure are history but mechanically and physically it is like brand new. I wouldn't trust the electronics at all. Bummer. Glad I still have my 10 year old DJI F450 Flamewheel quad which is 100% flawless in all aspects and totally reliable, and impervious to all the governments Nanny crap.

@BerndM I think you might be on to something...lol... the suicide code was fw v1.85. I had no problems with previous versions. Once I did that update, long ago, is when I started getting battery failures. I have one battery that is 3 years old and kind of does the same thing you describe It doesn't fail but even though the indicators show it's full when I fly it it indicates low battery at just about 10 minutes of flight. I remove it and if I check it it has 3 green on the indicators which should be 75%. I have 5 good batteries and had 5 that failed. I have disposed of the bad ones.
The EVO 1 was a breakthrough as far as as 1/2.5 " sensor camera went at 4K UHD 60p and DCI 24p. I've shot some great looking video with it. I like the lack of NFZ or as you put it "Nany crap" but have been reticent to pick up the EVO 2 with the chip thing going on and some of the problems I read about. I usually shoot the drone simulating crane and dolly shots or for flyover establishing shots for video projects I work on (which have been few until lately due to covid19). I got in on the Best Buy freak out where they sold 2 batteries/props and bag for $85. I see the same setup is back to $219! Perhaps Autel will have some 3rd party vendors make future batteries for the EVO 1.
I still have an H480 that I outfitted with a Peau 3.97 lens. Using 4 3rd party batteries that I have maintained properly with a balance charger and no problems at all. To bad Autel didn't do the same for the "smart batteries" which apparently aren't so smart!

 

[BerndM]

Anyone know how to open up the EVO-1 battery without destroying the case completely??
I want to check the internals out and see if I have a bad cell or???
Also, anyone have a diagram of the battery connector and which tabs do what
Thanks

 

[YuKay]

You could always try the old battery resuscitation trick: hold its button down for 30secs and then leave it on charge for 24 hours.

 

[BerndM]

I tried that on all 3 of my batteries with no effect.

 

[Marcle]

I start up the drone weighted down by 4 pounds of lead attached to the legs (1 pound on each leg) and give a tiny up throttle and the motors go to FULL power and stay there even after I let go of the throttle. Battery is still showing 4 green, the controller says 96% now and rapidly starts dropping. Now controller shows battery is down to 50% after only 1 minute but I still have 4 green on the drone. WTF???

Putting that kind of load on the battery by having the drone weighted down puts the battery at a bad state of power loading. They are built for temporary high loads (full throttle acceleration and maneuvering) but sustained loads such as that will damage the battery. They are fragile things to begin with because of the necessary battery chemistry for delivering that sort of power immediately hence the battery management systems built into the pack. I'm no battery guru but have seen enough posts from people that are well versed on the limitations of Lipos and Liions. My question would be, in a RTH scenario that close to the homepoint, why the default behavior would not be to just land instead of climbing to RTH altitude. If RTH is triggered closer than 60ft from the homepoint, DJI aircraft just land where they are (which could be a whole other problem in certain scenarios).

 

[BerndM]

I understand fully the strain I was putting on the supposedly "Damaged" battery but I certainly didn't want the EVO to fly off somewhere out of control and possible hurt someone. I also didn't want to lose an expensive drone. The issue of the "Damaged" batteries is one thing and easily but expensively remedied, but the really disturbing thing is the instant full power climb with only the smallest move of the throttle stick. All I was trying to do was to gently climb to about 4 or 5 feet, not end up with SpaceX rocket launch. Even after I did a full FW update with all 3 batteries and the drone and controller, the rocket launch issue was still there. I suspect the drone's electronics are toast at this point. Bummer.

 

[Tiger64]

Would setting a lower rth height stop it climbing as high, if that's what is happening?

 

[BerndM]

Would setting a lower rth height stop it climbing as high, if that's what is happening?

Hmm...hadn't thought of that. I will give it a try. Thanks!!

 

[GLEvideo]

I don't believe the batteries are really bad or damaged. It is the software that is the problem. Autel has admitted to me that the software analyzes each cell in the battery and detects when any one cell is more than .05 percent out of balance with the rest of the cells. This is DAMAGED BATTERY condition according to the software. This is absolutely ridiculous! That is way too tight of tolerance for cell balance. These batteries are flyable for more years to come and somehow we need to find a way to hack the software to open up that tolerance to a more reasonable level. Do earlier versions of the software have a wider tolerance or perhaps disregard this feature? If so, we need to have a place to find that earlier software. I would sacrifice any of the new refinements of the newer software for older software that might still allow me to fly with aging batteries.

 

[BerndM]

I don't believe the batteries are really bad or damaged. It is the software that is the problem. Autel has admitted to me that the software analyzes each cell in the battery and detects when any one cell is more than .05 percent out of balance with the rest of the cells. This is DAMAGED BATTERY condition according to the software. This is absolutely ridiculous! That is way too tight of tolerance for cell balance. These batteries are flyable for more years to come and somehow we need to find a way to hack the software to open up that tolerance to a more reasonable level. Do earlier versions of the software have a wider tolerance or perhaps disregard this feature? If so, we need to have a place to find that earlier software. I would sacrifice any of the new refinements of the newer software for older software that might still allow me to fly with aging batteries.

I totally agree with you. I also believe that their FW or software is badly coded as far as the auto discharge is concerned. According to the manual, the self discharge starts at up to 6 days after a full charge and supposedly draw the battery down to around 70%. All 3 of my batteries were down to less than 10%, showing only one blinking green light. ALL 3 OF THEM. Coincidence??? I think not.

 

[BerndM]

You could always try the old battery resuscitation trick: hold its button down for 30secs and then leave it on charge for 24 hours.

How is this supposed to do anything? I tried it on all 3 of my batteries but I don't see how anything is accomplished since no lights showed up on my fully charged batteries and the charger did nothing at all that i could see during the 24 hour "charge". All of my batteries showed a full charge (4 green) before the 30 second button press. When I plugged the charger in, no lights came on so I assume nothing was happening.