Waypoints question!

aed1980 · Jun 8, 2019

hi, i would like to ask any of you if waypoints continue its route if it gets disconnected? i had that option on dji, but i didnt see it on the autel, im asking cause i have to film a big land with many trees and for sure i will get disconnected!

aed1980 · Jun 10, 2019

aed1980 said:
hi, i would like to ask any of you if waypoints continue its route if it gets disconnected? i had that option on dji, but i didnt see it on the autel, im asking cause i have to film a big land with many trees and for sure i will get disconnected!

anyone???

DadCorso80 · Jun 10, 2019

I don't believe it does, same goes for when you run out of battery, no option to pick up where you left off which is disappointing. I am limited to one battery or try and plan waypoints with multiple battery changes which is kind of a pain. I usually just try and maximize the overlap distance and altitude for larger areas. I've had good luck with 150' AGL with 65' horizontal spacing and haven't had a chance to look at anything beyond that, but the maps I have had processed turn out quite well with this approach. I've worked in dense pine trees without any signal loss and so far so good, but both were also in rural areas without a whole lot of any other interference.

moodman · Jun 11, 2019

aed1980 said:
hi, i would like to ask any of you if waypoints continue its route if it gets disconnected? i had that option on dji, but i didnt see it on the autel, im asking cause i have to film a big land with many trees and for sure i will get disconnected!

Just ask Autel on their online chat. THey shold know. But, if it does not, I think you should put this in as a future firmware update request. I would vote for it. The point here is that if it DID continue on its preprogrammed flight, even if it didn't RTH, the final waypoint ought to be put in as close to its takeoff point and land. If you did this, then you can always go back to whatever waypoint you wanted it to land at and retrieve your drone. IN the meantime, kickback and relax while the drone does all the work, knowing you can get it back with no worries. This seems like a reasonable request. If you do ask them, come back here and tell us what they said.

fly186 · Jun 11, 2019

I think a similar question was discussed in another thread. The problem, I believe, is that each waypoint is sent from the controller to the drone sequentially. For example, if there are 10 waypoints, waypoint number 8 is only sent to the drone after waypoint 7 has been reached. This would mean that if a disconnect occurs your drone would not get the next waypoint. Of course this is all irrelevant anyway because RTH will be initiated as soon as a disconnect occurs regardless of whether you are flying a waypoint mission or not.

moodman · Jun 11, 2019

fly186 said:
I think a similar question was discussed in another thread. The problem, I believe, is that each waypoint is sent from the controller to the drone sequentially. For example, if there are 10 waypoints, waypoint number 8 is only sent to the drone after waypoint 7 has been reached. This would mean that if a disconnect occurs your drone would not get the next waypoint. Of course this is all irrelevant anyway because RTH will be initiated as soon as a disconnect occurs regardless of whether you are flying a waypoint mission or not.

OK. I get it, if that is how waypoints are handled. Seems like a backward way of doing it, since the whole point of waypoints is to have the drone do the mission, not the drone and the controller combined. They ought to make it so that if the controller sends an abort signal, then the waypoint mission would be aborted. I could see only one reason for RTH to happen during a waypoint mission and that would be if the battery level is critically low. Otherwise, let the mission happen as planned!

Freedom1955 · Jun 15, 2019

aed1980 said:
hi, i would like to ask any of you if waypoints continue its route if it gets disconnected? i had that option on dji, but i didnt see it on the autel, im asking cause i have to film a big land with many trees and for sure i will get disconnected!

If it gets disconnected it comes back. Enjoy your evo....

clemente21 · Mar 7, 2020

Return home did not work while on a mission.

Flying my Evo 1 every time I go a bit further around the neighborhood which has plenty line of sight obstructions. This time I made a mission to fly further than ever before. Did not want to directly control it because if it went too far and disconnected had the hopes that at least either hover or return. Anyway, it was uncharted territory for me.

So, I programmed the waypoints to fly almost 300ft high. The farthest point from home around a mile away. Started the mission fine and had sporadic "weak video link" warnings. At the farthest point got the "device disconnected" message. Nothing worked, no video, no position. Didn't know where it was other than its position when it lost connectivity. I was hoping that it return home and to regain connectivity as it approached.

Nothing happened for about two minutes plus. I was a bit nervous to say the least. Moved around to see if it somehow could establish a conection, but to no avail. After a while, connectivity came and went and showed it was following the mission. I tried to abort the mission and steer it home on those times it showed connection, but it did not respond. The remote control kept trying to connect, but no luck.

Then I regained connectivity as it approached home following the flight path I designed. Examined the video to see what it took and found out it followed the mission entirely and all the video was taken throughout the flight, even when there was no connectivity. The Evo made it to each way point and turned as expected.

So, the lessons learned are these:

Let it complete the mission. If I would have aborted and lose connection I would have to drive to a closer area and try to regain connection -hoping it is hovering of course. Besides, it did not return home while disconnected.

If it lose connection, but the drone followed the mission, this one has had to be stored in the drone. Not sure how else would have gone through the waypoints when it was on its own.

Anyway, the bird made it back and I'm happy.

moodman · Mar 7, 2020

I think this should be reported as a bug. Connection lost
and rth should work even in missions

claudius62 · Mar 7, 2020

Or maybe not. Litchi does the mission from A to Z, even with the radio off after the mission starts. With more than 260 missions made under Litchi and many lost connections, The flight was always done masterfully without problems and the Inspire always returned to the starting point (and without RTH).
So it's possible if the whole mission is sent to the drone's memory before takeoff.
This is what Litchi does but with a switch on the screen to abort the mission. Any intervention on the radio control is ineffective during the mission. We only regain control if we abort the mission.

Jagerbomb52 · Mar 7, 2020

clemente21 said:
Return home did not work while on a mission.

Flying my Evo 1 every time I go a bit further around the neighborhood which has plenty line of sight obstructions. This time I made a mission to fly further than ever before. Did not want to directly control it because if it went too far and disconnected had the hopes that at least either hover or return. Anyway, it was uncharted territory for me.

So, I programmed the waypoints to fly almost 300ft high. The farthest point from home around a mile away. Started the mission fine and had sporadic "weak video link" warnings. At the farthest point got the "device disconnected" message. Nothing worked, no video, no position. Didn't know where it was other than its position when it lost connectivity. I was hoping that it return home and to regain connectivity as it approached.

Nothing happened for about two minutes plus. I was a bit nervous to say the least. Moved around to see if it somehow could establish a conection, but to no avail. After a while, connectivity came and went and showed it was following the mission. I tried to abort the mission and steer it home on those times it showed connection, but it did not respond. The remote control kept trying to connect, but no luck.

Then I regained connectivity as it approached home following the flight path I designed. Examined the video to see what it took and found out it followed the mission entirely and all the video was taken throughout the flight, even when there was no connectivity. The Evo made it to each way point and turned as expected.

So, the lessons learned are these:

Let it complete the mission. If I would have aborted and lose connection I would have to drive to a closer area and try to regain connection -hoping it is hovering of course. Besides, it did not return home while disconnected.

If it lose connection, but the drone followed the mission, this one has had to be stored in the drone. Not sure how else would have gone through the waypoints when it was on its own.

Anyway, the bird made it back and I'm happy.

This is the way it is suppose to work. Always has right from the Autel X-Star to the EVO. The different UAV's that I own all do this. You lose connection it will go about what it was programmed to do. The mission is uploaded to the FC on the UAV before it starts and is stored there. As long as it has satellites (GPS) it will finish the mission as planned. If it loses GPS you are screwed as it just might head back to China.