Beta that supports Autel EVO 2 Pro
Hello - I'm told that there is a Beta version of Dronelink that supports Autel EVO 2 Pro.
If i sign up for a premier or elite plan, would I have access to that Beta version?
Thanks
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80 comments
I love helping push products forward, Im in the beta test group with autel before a firmware is released for public testing for the last year. trying to justify to myself paying to help test out a beta app and then how seriously a company takes the suggestions and faults i find to heart. right now the curves and orbit missions saves seem intriguing but not something i use all the time. I suggest the Orbit Missions to autel over a year ago and so far they havn't done anything with it. I do love the Mission Recording feature in the Explorer app, was trying to find that in this app, do yall have it?
We are about as serious as it gets (just look at volume and activity on the bug reports and beta test threads in this forum). It also helps that I write all the code.
Thats cool and good to know, I for one don't like spinning my wheels for nothing. So this make it a easier to make a decision. Thanks
Will 1 month of the Starter plan make the Beta Available to use.. I only use the Autel 2 Pro 6K
$20 if I paid annually. $30 monthly... still debating though about paying that much to work with a beta app that is suggested not to use on pro jobs... still thinking about it
If there is any question in your mind, I would avoid the beta.
Could someone give advice with regards to a test plan? What’s a realistic approach for evaluating flight behavior? I plan to start simple but I’m not sure what to attempt and what to avoid.
On the autel version of the app. when I use autel app to do Fly Over waypoints and video with a POI, i have to make all the waypoints without a camera action. and when i press fly i also manually press the Video Record button so it records without stopping. The question I have is at waypoint does it stop for a second and then continue to the next waypoint or does is continue on its way? this might be another reason I might need to go ahead and test the autel app
Thanks Mike, Too bad they didn't have a special offer to do beta testing since I only use Autel. or at least try out the beta on the cheaper hobby plans.
Thanks, Mike. I’m definitely familiar with the Dronelink tutorial series and have created a few missions. What I’m concerned about is the risk of crash or fly-away, etc. when evaluating flight behavior in this early beta app. I’m asking what I should and should not attempt to minimize the risk.
In the words earlier in this topic from someone who knows …
“ Please be very careful. This is the very first build with support for this vendor.”
Mike - I appreciate your advice. I'm also hoping to hear tips & test strategies/ideas from folks who are flying or plan to fly the EVO II Pro with this beta.
This is definitely the tool that all of us EVO pilots have been looking for.
I am not trying to be a jerk here, but the beta is intended for existing, experienced Dronelink users that are able and willing to put the effort in to come up with their own test scenarios, drawing from their prior knowledge of using the system. We do plenty of our own internal, prescriptive testing, and the point of our public betas is to let other people dream up their own scenarios that we haven’t or wouldn’t think of. I realize that if you are not an existing customer, paying to be in a beta seems strange, but the reality is we already have thousands of people in the beta and have plenty of feedback to work with. The general idea is that if you have been a user for a long time, your payment is a sunk cost and joining the beta doesn’t cost anything extra if that is something you are interested in.
Yeah, paying to be in a beta is kinda weird, I have some suggestions i don't know if the beta has this or not,
In the Autel Explorer app. There is Mission Record. which I freaking love because I am able to manually fly and when i press the shutter button, it records the waypoints, the altitude, heading, gimbal angles. Because a lot of times you don't know for sure what you taking pics of until you are in the air and start flying around. Then when you have to come back you just load the mission and it flys. I have used this on a lot of construction update jobs.
Suggestions only, if this is a option in the DL app that the explorer version does not do.
1. What I hate about it is that it when i press the button to record those things it saves the image as a JPG and not give a option to save as a RAW. So after recording the whole mission if you need RAW, you have to RUN the mission again with RAW selected so that is a waste of time, it should save RAW the 1st time when initially recording the mission.
2. Mission Record to be able to change whether to choose if the mission is going to be Video or Pics, I have some clients that want to see video instead of pics between waypoints with different altitudes and camera angles. that I don't know those angles until i get on site and start flying and decide then.
3. To be able to go into the saved mission and manually add waypoints to it, create a curve between waypoints to create a smoother video, add POI's to the mission just in case want the camera and drone to fix on something between two waypoints. Yes I know that a lot of times the camera and drone will turn fast according to the waypoints and their settings. but it is to get video between those waypoints to edit a final video for the client.
4. To be able to change the MSL to AGL before recording in Mission Record. I know the reason behind MSL in mission record is so that you can take off from anywhere to try to achieve the same altitude, but test I ran over the last year, the next time i go to a site the altitude is off by 3-5 feet, mainly because unless you have the RTK unit it won't closer to the same altitude. but when I ran test on using AGL in waypoints, it gets pretty close. So at a job site 90 percent of the time i am taking off from basically the same area so AGL would be more helpful
just my thoughts about this, if this app is capable of doing it.
Jim, Thanks for the comment. I purchased the elite license immediately a few weeks ago when I saw that this beta was available. I've seen what Dronelink can do and have been waiting for the EVO support. I'm Definitely Glad It's Here!
Have you watched this video Daniel Hubbard?
Another Idea, like i said I don't know if this app already does this or not.
I know it has the ability to create waypoints before going to a job site, but like i said before about not knowing the altitude, heading and camera angle of what you are taking pics of until you get there.
I do this in the EVO 2 Pro 6K but then when i get to the waypoint i press pause, move the evo up or down, turn it and adjust the gimbal and press the shutter button to take the pic and then press unpause and it goes to the next waypoint and i pause and repeat. kinda of a pain to do that every time i go to the site.
what would be cool is to be able to set the waypoints before going to the site then save as unfinished mission (without camera angle or heading) , so when you get the job site and fly the unfinished mission when it gets to the waypoint it pauses. then your able to adjust the altitude (if needed), camera angle and heading hit the shutter button to save the additional info for that waypoint and also take the Pic as (RAW or JPG). once it saves it goes to the next waypoint and does the same thing. by the time your finished with all the waypoints you have everything saved as a final mission. so you can go back and doing it again later
JIm i was trying to do a search but didn't know what it was called. in the EVO it is called Mission Recording so i was doing searches for mission recording but didn't find that video... cool.
But does is take the initial pic as a jpg or raw image so you don't have to rerun the mission again the 1st time your there?
are you able to manually modify those missions by manually adding a extra waypoint later or a POI?
is it using MSL or AGL?
I use Mission Recording to do what "On The Fly" does so thats cool just wondering if it gives you the option for saving RAW when you first recording the mission. Autel only saves as jpg while recording then you have to waste another battery to fly the saved mission to get RAW files.
and if you talking about where I asked about setting waypoints on the computer first and then when flying it pauses to set other functions like gimbal, altitude and heading, No the simulated drone wouldn't work because I am talking about when before i go to a job site i don't have any idea what the building looks like or what I heading or gimbal angle i might need to get the shots. so it would be cool if there was a way to set the waypoints at home on the computer but when flying the mission when it gets to the waypoint, it pauses and let you set the gimbal/heading and press the shutter button and it saves that additional info in the waypoint before going to the next waypoint.
and thats good you can manual edit the waypoints after you complete the "on the fly" missions
No, I have noticed in the discussions to not pay just to use the Beta, since I only use autel drones.
Also I guess I am not making myself clear bout the simulated drone won't work for what I am talking about. the buildings are brand new in the process of being built, so they wouldn't be on any maps yet. so I have no idea until i get to the location and the drone in the air what altitude, camera angle or heading I will need. I can see setting up the waypoints around location before hand, but having the ability to update the waypoint with a click of a button to update the waypoint with the camera angle and heading while it is paused at that waypoint i setup before going to the location would be cool, and save alot of time.
this is why right now the only option I can use, Mission Record in the explorer app, which does the same thing as DL's "on the fly" the only thing that bothers me is the initial file is saved as jpg so i have to rerun the mission after I am finished recording it to get the RAW files.
I am just thinking outside the box about what would be cool to be able to do, to save time and get more flying time out of the battery.
I have not had a great deal of success so far. I've tried multiple times to fly a very simple orbit mission with two different altitudes. I must first download the mission to the iPhone, as I do not have any mobile service on this device. Each time that I have attempted to fly this mission, the app exits/crashes after selecting the mission. The only successful interaction that I have had was to start the rotors fly straight up to 100' then try to execute an "on the fly" orbit. I flew to the north about 30' and selected that location as the center of the orbit. I then backed up to set the radius which was approx 85' and hit the button to start, but no response waited about a minute, then I hit RTH on the controller. It went up to the 150' RTH setting and flew to a position right over the home location, but it would not descend. I was able to finally able to land manually.
Any suggestions?
Daniel, you could do as you mention set up some waypoints and a basic plan prior on your home/office PC, then when you get to site you could quickly edit that plan and enter relevant information to the plan prior to flying it. As long as you have the internet available to you (and preferably a tablet) modifying the previous plan you made should be fairly quick and easy.
Kelly, I would like to be in the air when i do it, but im good with the explorer app running mission record for now
Mike,
iPhone 7 Plus, IOS 15.3.1
Dronelink 3.4.0 (188) | Kernel 3.4.0
To the best of my knowledge there is currently one beta version available supporting the EVO II Pro. And yes it was installed as the document you pointed to advises.
Daniel,
That's cool, just pointing out an option.
Am I the only one having issues with the EVO II Pro beta?
Your phone is very old and it is on our legacy device list. We ran another round of tests yesterday with modern iOS devices and did not experience any of the issues you mentioned.
Jim,
Do you have any "rough" estimate when there might be an Android version published? 1 Year, 6 months, 3 Months?
I am very anxious to see firsthand Dronelink working seamlessly with the EVO II Pro. but not sure I am willing to invest $200 - $300 just to experience it in beta form. I might be however. I already spent $100 to get access to it on a device that it does not work on. When I originally asked if the iPhone 7 Plus I was using was supported, the only information I was provided was a statement that it was on the "legacy devicelist" however there was no link provided earlier that clearly explained what that meant. I took the statement to mean that yes it should work. Turns out it doesn't. So it was a gamble that did not work in my favor. Just trying to evaluate my options going forward and avoid significant costs if possible.
Creating the Android vendor adapter (which will be open source just like the DJI one) will only take a few weeks. The issue right now is that Autel has no UX SDK (like DJI) so there is no default flight dashboard for those drones. We were already in the process of creating a cross-platform flight dashboard (starting with iOS), which is why we were able to launch basic support for Autel on iOS so soon, but as you can see, there are a lot of missing things even still, such as camera settings menus. The full realization of that work will likely extend into the summer realistically. It also doesn't help that we are in the middle of ski season here in Utah...
As I've stated quite a few times, the beta is not for getting pre-release access to features and new drone support, it is for testing only and we don't recommend that people spend money just to join the beta. It is mainly intended for people that already have Dronelink accounts (their purchase being a sunk cost) and want to help us push the product forward. I do want to point out however, that unlike most apps out there, Dronelink does not charge you again just to get access to a different platform / OS. You paid $100 to get Dronelink (all platforms), not just Dronelink for iOS.
We have a 30-day, no questions asked refund policy, so feel free to email support@dronelink.com if you want to cancel your account. If you do want to continue in the beta test, I highly recommend that you read the FAQ and tutorials.
Please keep in mind this is a beta, so the safest assumption is to assume nothing works.
Not really, given our refund policy.
Thanks for the information Jim I appreciate it. I am fully aware of the purpose of beta testing, and I already had a Dronelink account. In fact I participated in one of the beta programs when you were adding new functionality to the Mavic Mini. It just happens that the account I had was not at a qualifying level. I am not sorry I signed-up for the beta. I am sorry that in order to continue I'll need to make an additional investment or continue to wait. The software you have delivered in the past was top notch for the Mini, and I'm sure this one will be as well. I am just itching to be able to use it once again with a much more capable drone.
👍
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