Autel EVO 2 Battery TEAR DOWN

[@mathewdavis-adventuresandd6643]

Thanks for the video. I have an Autel Evo 1 drone and I'm seriously considering a tear down and replace the battery packs. I did this with an old high end metal detector that use a proprietary battery. In the tear down I discovered the battery pack was filled with nothing more than Chinese made "C" style batteries wired in series. Talk about an easy hack and that metal detector is still running at a tiny fraction of the price of the battery pack, which is now nearly impossible to even find.

[@jte936]

I just tore evo 1 battery apart. Almost the exact same but they made it hard to remove the chip. Getting battery out without chip requires soldering iron. Will be replacing flat batteries in one with 3S 18650s and seeing what it does. Will 3d print a holder and mount in the original frame.

[@dangerous8333]

Great video. Videos like these really help out the community. I hope someone can use this video to figure out how we can rebuild these batteries.

[@lifealfresco5783]

I hope so too. Thanks for your feedback.

[@ThatLVCguy]

Great teardown. Wonderful for the community to see. Thanks for sharing

[@lifealfresco5783]

Thanks for your comments and the feedback

[@andrewbaerm.d.3984]

I just started using an E2Pv2. I picked up the aftermarket charger because I wanted to get my hands on the connectors so I could charge on the road with a lithium iron phosphate battery. Those packs are garden variety lithium, the type used on RC at about 4.1 volts per cell in a 3s configuration yielding 12 volts at full charge. My point is that I suspect the packs could be replaced if one could find the right ones. If I remember, the total is supposed to be 7100 milliamp hours which is an odd size. Autel might just make them themselves. But if it was only 7000, no harm.... Just shorter flight time.

[@bidenisasnake9932]

Most have NO clue what you just said. I've rebuilt battery stuff before, most have a RANGE they work at. I have a few controllers that work off the same Li-ion pack velcroed to the back.

[@andrewbaerm.d.3984]

@@bidenisasnake9932 Maybe you don't but I am sure there are those that do. I just built something that allows me to charge on the road with the aftermarket cables and it works well.

[@mathewdavis-adventuresandd6643]

@@bidenisasnake9932 those that don't have a clue are not the one's that will be tackling the job of rebuilding one of these batteries so no harm.

[@Brandvegn]

Thanks for the video. I have an issue when charging and got the "head" separated. One thing not mentioned is the glue that is adhering the back between the two clips. I did this carefully and noticed that there is a four wire plug but only 2 were actually soldered to the battery. The exposed tips of the wires do not look as if they were tinned and therefore possibly were not actually soldered anywhere which may or may not be by design. Do you recall if all 4 of the black wires were connected or only two? I have not pulled the white protective adhesive foam from the top of the 3 batteries yet but wanted to see if you recalled all 4 wires were soldered to the battery assembly from the controller at the top.

[@bulletproofkarma9480]

If you wanted to replace the cells, does it have the same issue as DJI the battery chip disables and won't allow charging?

[@9w2ksl14]

how to reset cycle battery counter after change new cell

[@bidenisasnake9932]

I've had 2 drones go swimming. The batteries short and discharge all the way or below their minimum recharge start level. I've brought a couple back by Jumping it to get some juice in to the minimum so the Charger will take over. Careful, the Bad side of this is BAD.

[@konaboyz1690]

IT Profession is maybe overworked and quality control been gone since WWII?

[@ferrishappenings7971]

Thank you for this. Nice to know. Sorry about your drone. You said in a comment that Autel was replacing. Did you mean the drone? Or drone and battery? What did they say was the problem?

[@lifealfresco5783]

Autel evaluated the blackbox and found fluke issue with one of the modules within the drone. The contact noted that drone wasn't getting correct telemetry data or something. They are kindly replacing both. I'm looking forward to getting back in the air on Monday. Cheers.

[@gavinb8416]

Interesting, did you say it was lithium ion of lifepo4?

[@lifealfresco5783]

Not sure which. Definitely not pure lithium. I'll post a follow up short video breakdown one of the cells. Probably is a Li-Fe-PO4 and not lithium polymer.

[@lifealfresco5783]

I think it's a li-fe-po4 now. had no idea when opening it up. I'll post follow up battery of opening the battery flat packs and show close up of the circuit board.

[@stanvisualseychelles932]

If that's Li.fe po4, then it's much safer than lithium polymer. I was just watching a video lithium polymer vs li.fe and li-ion going through harsh test.

[@ddcbanz]

Its Li-ion. LiFePO4 is heavier for the same energy content than Li-ion and more weight makes it not a good use case for drones.

[@TECH-fi8xo]

possible to order battery new one ? meant replacement ?

[@lifealfresco5783]

Certainly is. Just got word back that Autel is going to replace. I'm thrilled.

[@johnwalter6410]

And you are taking it apart why?

[@jte936]

They self discharge and quit working after 10-20 cycles. One battery we have has 16 cycles and gets the “cannot fly” message

[@drone_labs_]

Nice video but I got tip for you. Buy new batt. Users no need to look inside bat. Pro user ( EVO II pro) is for pro use.

[@jimnewton9535]

Sorry about your drone. Do a teardown of the drone as well, just to see if Autel's claim of a chip shortage on what they use in the drone is true. ;-)

[@moodberry]

My thoughts on batteries....A battery, ANY battery, is just a storage device for electrons. In the case of Evo batteries, there is some circuitry that controls how those electrons flow to the drone, and I assume some firmware that "reports" to the drone how many electrons are left to be used. So, if one could figure out how to mimic this "flow" of electrons and data, then any kind of storage on the battery pack side of things would count as valid by the drone. TO do this would require knowing the logic Autel has built into their battery controller. That is the real problem with rebuilding a battery pack. My skills aren't enough to do that part, but I know how to solder replacement LiPo cells in place of the existing flat packs. Does anyone want to collaborate on rebuilding these batteries? I think there is some money to be made!

[@eqbviewllc7111]

why does it cost $200+ each? Supply and Demand ~

[@lifealfresco5783]

opening it up, I found top-end name-brand components on the circuit board (unusual) and custom battery components (also unusual. I expected to see off the shelf commodity cells). While that gives superior performance (long drone hang-time), I'm sure that comes at a price. thanks for your question.

[@infringinator]

@@lifealfresco5783 I've had 3 batteries fail or have issues with less than 50 charges each! Autel makes some crap batteries my friend has DJI with over 500 charges.

[@moodberry]

So in short, you showed us that it is nearly impossible to replace the cells. That's too bad, since doing so would be a HUGE plus for me and how I view Autel. If these were reasonably priced, I wouldn't even consider replacing cells.