Waypoints

[MNSky]

I thought it would be an appropriate moment to shout from the roof tops many of us Lite+ pilots would love to have waypoints with the recent firmware update from DJI accommodating the M3 line. DJI listened to their fan base. Autel are you listening to yours?

 

[claudius62]

AUTEL Never.
There have been 500+ claim posts for the Evo 2 and none have been listened to and acted upon by Autel.
Do you really think he will do it on a model which, moreover, was not originally intended to have the waypoints system.
Anyway, Autel never had much consideration for its customers.

 

[MNSky]

Sadly, not holding much hope they will as the evidence you highlighted. Based on the overwhelming excitement of M3 owners with the latest firmware update, DJI continues to solidify its competitive advantage over Autel.

I’m viewing it as an opportunity to express to anyone from Autel who may pay attention to this board, as an Autel product supporter I would love to see this feature added to the Lite/Nano platforms. I believe it would result in a massive shot of enthusiasm for their customer base.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

i would love waypoints as well. if autel could get missions on the nano before dji could get waypoints on the mini, it would be another big win for autel over dji for a first in the sub-250 category.

 

[claudius62]

The Mini 1, Mini 2 and Mini SE already have waypoint missions with the Litchi app. For the Mini 3, they will arrive soon.
Dji will quickly drop the SDK.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

The Mini 1, Mini 2 and Mini SE already have waypoint missions with the Litchi app. For the Mini 3, they will arrive soon.
Dji will quickly drop the SDK.

im not the expert here so i may not get it exactly right but i think it should be noted (but probably not a big deal for most people) that litchi is not a true waypoints in that it uses virtual sticks which in part means you need to have a connection for it to work. true waypoints like you see in the mavic 2 and mavic 3 will allow the drone to fly autonomously and even if you lose connection with the rc which basically means "fire and forget." litchi mission lose connection and the drone hovers, lands, or comes home.

in order to gain litchi compatibility, first the sdk must be released and word on the street is there will be no sdk dropped for the mini 3 or the mavic 3 non-enterprise drones...and even if there were, it takes a year or longer (no longer a factor for m3 with regard to waypoints; mini 3 pro launched in may)

did i get that right?

 

[claudius62]

Not quite, not everything is false, not everything is true. I've been using Litchi for almost 7 years now and the missions are fully autonomous on all older drones, Phantom, Inspire, Serie Mavic, Mavic 2... In case of signal loss the option is either to revert to the point of departure, or to continue the mission (which I always do). The drone can be 2 miles away without a link with me, it continues its mission and I resume the link when it returns.
However with newer drones like the Mavic Mini 1, Mini 2, Mini SE, Mavic Air 2 and Air 2S cannot continue the mission if the signal is lost, in this case they are not able to continue waypoint missions beyond signal range .They make a return home.
But however the mission is automatic without the sticks. You can use the sticks during the mission, depending on the flight programming to steer laterally the drone or to speed up or slow down the drone, that's all, it doesn't stop the mission.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

Not quite, not everything is false, not everything is true. I've been using Litchi for almost 7 years now and the missions are fully autonomous on all older drones, Phantom, Inspire, Serie Mavic, Mavic 2... In case of signal loss the option is either to revert to the point of departure, or to continue the mission (which I always do). The drone can be 2 miles away without a link with me, it continues its mission and I resume the link when it returns.
However with newer drones like the Mavic Mini 1, Mini 2, Mini SE, Mavic Air 2 and Air 2S cannot continue the mission if the signal is lost, in this case they are not able to continue waypoint missions beyond signal range .They make a return home.
But however the mission is automatic without the sticks. You can use the sticks during the mission, depending on the flight programming to steer laterally the drone or to speed up or slow down the drone, that's all, it doesn't stop the mission.

ok thanks for the update. it seems like if you have dji waypoints which allows continued missions beyond signal range then so does the litchi counterpart. i've only had one mission that lost signal so it's probably not a big deal for most flyers.

 

[claudius62]

Yes and I bless Litchi and his missions.
This summer in the mountains, my Mavic 2 pro was attacked in the mountains by one or two raptors in flight during a mission. I no longer had the drone in vision except the video feedback. I think the autoflight saved the drone, it must have backflipped, I think, but went back to continuing the flight with three damaged propellers (including one with a nice down feather in it), I think if I had done the flight manually, I would have lost the Mavic 2.
Watch the video clip.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

ha, yeah in a few frames you can actually see his shadow while stalking your drone....

 

[GFields]

Gents, this is not a forum that belongs to Autel and it is doubtful that anyone from Autel will ever see this Thread. I own the Evo Lite+ and also would love waypoints.
I suggest sending your request directly to them.

 

[cturtle97]

Strange that a “robotics” company doesn’t have Waypoints capability. I thought I had researched enough prior to purchasing my Evo Lite + this week. I watched reviews and tutorials. Didn’t realize that the Lite + was locked into using the Sky app which does NOT have mission planning. Only the Autel Explorer app does and that app is not compatible with Lite + or Nano. AND no third party apps exist that allow it as an add-on. I was coming over from the DJI world, but now am disappointed and will likely return the Lite +.

 

[andrew124C41]

I thought it would be an appropriate moment to shout from the roof tops many of us Lite+ pilots would love to have waypoints with the recent firmware update from DJI accommodating the M3 line. DJI listened to their fan base. Autel are you listening to yours?

One should remember that Autel is primarily in the automotive analytic/diagnostics industry. As I understand it, the owner gave his son the drone division. I don't think their prosumer drones are taken seriously by the company. I have no idea how good or bad the Dragonfish is. Judging by the absolutely disgraceful customer support, I would not hold my hopes up. I just lost my E2P V2 due to signal loss and I am thinking of getting away from Autel and going with DJI or another company.

 

[airheadbit]

While getting my EVO Lite+ ready for spring flying, firmware and app updates, I didn't see any 'waypoints' in the latest android app 1.4.54 - I can only hope they have finally fixed the gimbal issues...