I have had several DJI drones, but I was attracted to try the Autel drone 4T. I did all of the updates for the controller and drone. I launched the drone using the controller, it hovered at the 2.5-3' level, and would not respond to any controls. Then it started to drift, towards me, obstacle avoidance didn't provide any assistance, and it flew into my car slowly. Luckly no damage to the car, but damage to the camera (made buzzing noise) and broke two blades. Autel told me to send them the drone, which cost $300 in shipping with insurance, and I'm awaiting word from them. I'll update the post based on their feedback.
First flight unresponsive, started drifting and crashed
- Thread starter dandandan
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Takashira
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Keep us updated on what you hear. If this happens again, remember to long press the pause button on the controller to try to reestablish a connection.
I always tell people never buy a drone especially an Autel drone from somewhere that does not let you return it within 30 days. I would have returned it immediately. Now you are out an additional $300 with no guarantee that Autel will properly address your problem.
Very interested in what you tried to take control. I know it’s hard to be super calm when something like that happens. I’m not trying to bust your b***s but did you try RTH or anything other than move the sticks? I’m not trying to excuse the way the drone behaved. It’s just interesting to know when people take the time to post that they both explain what happened and what they did to control the situation.
Just FYI, I’m one of the people who’s moved to Autel for commercial drones. Max 4T and Evo 640T Enterprise. I even bought a nano plus because I was sick of not being able to fly at my house because of DJI locking down Drones even though I am not in an airspace where that should be happening. All three of my Autels have been 100% reliable. That’s not to say my DJI drones were not because they were always reliable. My fly safe unlocks were usually about 80% successful. 90% of my commercial work takes place in airspace that does require DJI Fly safe unlocks.
I’m only making these comments because it seems like this forum is heavily weighted with people bashing these drones. My experience has been exceptionally good. I really am sorry to hear what happened with yours.
Just FYI, I’m one of the people who’s moved to Autel for commercial drones. Max 4T and Evo 640T Enterprise. I even bought a nano plus because I was sick of not being able to fly at my house because of DJI locking down Drones even though I am not in an airspace where that should be happening. All three of my Autels have been 100% reliable. That’s not to say my DJI drones were not because they were always reliable. My fly safe unlocks were usually about 80% successful. 90% of my commercial work takes place in airspace that does require DJI Fly safe unlocks.
I’m only making these comments because it seems like this forum is heavily weighted with people bashing these drones. My experience has been exceptionally good. I really am sorry to hear what happened with yours.
Thanks for posting. Its a horrible experience no doubt. As unfortunate and expensive as it is now.....there are many of us with very similar malfunctioning Max 4 T aircrafts! My 4 T flew away and I went thru the whole process.
Then was told they could not find anything wrong with the data they reviewed and my craft operated normally! They didn't provide any warranty support to cover my lost drone.
Good Luck. Be persistent and please post to help others from our bad experiences.
I have yet to fly the new one I bought at a discount. I've been waiting till all known issues are resolved before I risk spending another nickel for repairs!!!
Then was told they could not find anything wrong with the data they reviewed and my craft operated normally! They didn't provide any warranty support to cover my lost drone.
Good Luck. Be persistent and please post to help others from our bad experiences.
I have yet to fly the new one I bought at a discount. I've been waiting till all known issues are resolved before I risk spending another nickel for repairs!!!
The same is true of DJI. I made the mistake of buying a consumer drone from a seller at a tradeshow who had a local business. I hated the drone. They wanted 15% to take the return. Moving forward, I agree with you, buy from the manufacturer if the seller does not have a favorable return policy. I’ve never had a problem with my Autel drones. I’ve had bad gimbals, bad batteries, and a few other issues with DJI drones. I’ve been through well over 100 of them so to be fair, the track record is really quite excellent, not as good as my track record with Autel, but excellent even so. I do only own three Autel Drones, however. There will definitely be an Alpha in my fleet soon, however.
Thanks for posting. Its a horrible experience no doubt. As unfortunate and expensive as it is now.....there are many of us with very similar malfunctioning Max 4 T aircrafts! My 4 T flew away and I went thru the whole process.
Then was told they could not find anything wrong with the data they reviewed and my craft operated normally! They didn't provide any warranty support to cover my lost drone.
Good Luck. Be persistent and please post to help others from our bad experiences.
I have yet to fly the new one I bought at a discount. I've been waiting till all known issues are resolved before I risk spending another nickel for repairs!!!
I have been an avid aerial photographer since 2016. I've regularly updated to the best I could afford that offered the features that benefitted my interests.
Key word being features and functionality.
I could be wrong but, I imagine most here gather to support our interest as drone enthusiasts. We need to gather and converse to learn from all our experiences in my opinion.
There are those who are fortunate to not have issues thankfully.
My hopes is that Autel would care enough to deliver a fully functioning as marketed reliable product.
It's a significant ammount of money to invest and not be confident in it's performance.
But yes positive information is always better!!!
100% agree.
Happy Flying to All
AfoofA
Then was told they could not find anything wrong with the data they reviewed and my craft operated normally! They didn't provide any warranty support to cover my lost drone.
Good Luck. Be persistent and please post to help others from our bad experiences.
I have yet to fly the new one I bought at a discount. I've been waiting till all known issues are resolved before I risk spending another nickel for repairs!!!
100% agree.
I have been an avid aerial photographer since 2016. I've regularly updated to the best I could afford that offered the features that benefitted my interests.
Key word being features and functionality.
I could be wrong but, I imagine most here gather to support our interest as drone enthusiasts. We need to gather and converse to learn from all our experiences in my opinion.
There are those who are fortunate to not have issues thankfully.
My hopes is that Autel would care enough to deliver a fully functioning as marketed reliable product.
It's a significant ammount of money to invest and not be confident in it's performance.
But yes positive information is always better!!!
100% agree.
Happy Flying to All
AfoofA
MrTurnerPhoto
Member
I'm happy to hear about an Autel owner who is happy with their drone. It is just about a year now that I purchased my MAX 4 and it still doesn't do all of the stuff promised at the original release. Sadly, I love how it performs in flight but that is about it. Autel's own "AutelIRTool" doesn't work correctly and the IR is the MAIN selling point for me with this drone! I read that other software for IR does not work with it either. I have been holding out for almost a year waiting on improvements but, should anyone offer me anything over 7k US, I will sell it, with batteries, case, multi-battery charger, and everything else that I own that is Max 4. I love the way it flies, I can't make money waiting on Autel to catch up on what they promised at the sale of their products. I have too much invested with no return. To be clear, I'm not going to bash this drone because I love the way it flies. It is just that the company itself needs a lesson in customer relations and truth in marketing practices.
So I did return the drone, and was hoping for a warranty repair, but Autel said they wanted $4500 to repair the drone. I know when I connected the drone when I first got it, I did several updates, but their tech support said the drone firmware was not up to date are. It feels fishy to me, I’m pretty tech savvy, but this was my first Autel. I’ve only had DJI before.
Good info. From the time I hit takeoff, and noticed it was unresponsive and listing, I tried to engage the obstical avoidance. I did not try the land RTH button because I didn’t know if it would try and go up 100m and continue to list and be unresponsive, and because I ran out of time. When I was between the car and propellers, and the props were getting close to hitting me, I moved. I’ve been hit drone blades before, cut through my thumbnail and part of the meat of my thumb, didn’t want to do that again. I would have had more time if I tried to take off in the middle of no where, but shoulda, coulda, woulda. I’ve never had an issue launching from that area before, and I expected this drone to be better than my others (DJI air 2, DJI mini 4). I really would like this drone to work, and if they warranty covered it, I would try again, but I’m pretty pistol shy right now with their products, but I was happy to hear you’ve had good results.
MrTurnerPhoto
Member
Been there and almost done that! The drone did the same thing to me after I started performing updates. Flew great out of the box. I did updates until it didn't ask for more (but there were). I then went out to fly and the drone started doing a hula dance so I put it back on the pad. Thank goodness I didn't have an incident. Later I found that more updates had not shown up yet. You know, I just realized that most of my issues with this Max4 always come after major updates. WOW.
Sad they wouldn't cover their product. Makes me a little worried about my Max 4T purchase. My mini 4 flew away and DJI said the same thing but then said they were sending me a new unit. Here is what they told me-
For your case CAS-1653927-J9S23, we have finished the data analysis, and the result is as follows:
1. The aircraft worked under APAS mode and it responded well to the pilot's commands;
2. Flight Time T=05:21, Relative Height H=25.8 m, Distance to Home Point D=389.3 m, the flight record ended when the aircraft was flying backward;
The record ended without any sign of abnormality, so we could not verify what happened afterward.
We truly appreciate your support for DJI. Since your product is under the warranty period, if the aircraft cannot be recovered, we would like to offer you a replacement, DJI Mini 4 Pro aircraft (without the remote controller and battery charger). Please kindly send us the following information:
Shipping address:
Contact name:
Phone number:
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