Anafi arrived yesterday evening, today nothing but frustration.

[dashSolo]

I wake up excited to configure my Anafi after charging the Anafi and controller. Anafi fully charged, controller not.
Start configuring with 35% battery in controller. Start with Anafi, appears ready to fly no update everything connected.
Nothing was ever said anywhere where altitude limitation is 150m? I do landscape photo's in the mountains and airspace is not a problem. This a major negative for Anafi.
I decide to launch, it goes to about 3ft, controller drops off because battery goes dead. Anafi in solid hover, app takes over and I fly around a little. I land because I will never use this. Next, I charge up controller, reconnect and this time says firmware update, fine...takes about an hour (seems long). Controller now shows firmware 1.0.5. Anafi shows 1.0 no update. New issue, controller will not connect to drone and app at the same time.

I called Parrot support and talk over the issues, support says Anafi should show update 1.0.1. It does not show this and no option to update. Support says they will elevate and will get back to me on Monday, four days from now.

Not happy at all.
1. Reinstalled FF6 app on both S8 and Nvidia K1
2. Tried five different cords from controller to both S8 and K1. IOS iPAD
3. Charged up all components.

 

[AnafiPilot]

Sorry to hear of the troubles.

The 150m limit is from point of take-off.

I also live in the mountains and was looking forward to some sunrise/sunset shots over a ridge or peak, but nogo with FreeFlight.

There’s Bebop app that allows flying past the limit, but it is not available for Anafi yet.

For max lightweight travel, I was interested in basic flying using the phone only. I'd enjoying hearing your experiences.

 

[nicholashickman]

First up, I hope they can get it sorted for you.

150m limit doesn't surprise me, my Typhoon H is limited to 122m and I presume my spark is, but i'm pretty sure my Autel XSP is not height restricted. I think the manufacturers feel obligated to enforce the common consensus that 400ft AGL should be the limit unless you have an exemption, but then 150m is 492ft so.....

 

[AnafiPilot]

Any better luck today?

 

[Johnnot]

I have an ANAFI since yesterday. Read all the user manual. Followed every step but the **** thing does not want to fly. I have been through the process of firmware update at least 10 times. Each time, when it seems ready to fly, either I press the take-off button and nothing happens (just the leds of the drone go red when I press the button) or it comes up with the firmware update again. I am exasperated. I wrote to support in English and they replied in German that they will get in touch. Has anybody been through the same?

 

[dashSolo]

Hold the power button down for 15 seconds to do a factory reset. Try this a few times and see it you can progress any further.

 

[Johnnot]

Thank you for the advice. I tried twice and, when I press the take-off button, it comes up with the usual request to update the firmware.

 

[dashSolo]

The initial firmware update could take up to an hour, so let it grind through the process to see if you can get any closer to getting it up in the air.

 

[Skydreamer]

Thank you for the advice. I tried twice and, when I press the take-off button, it comes up with the usual request to update the firmware.

What device ,ios or android

 

[Johnnot]

The device is IOS. The firmware update does not look like a long one but rather like the repetition of the same process every time. By now I must have done it 12 times.

 

[Skydreamer]

The device is IOS. The firmware update does not look like a long one but rather like the repetition of the same process every time. By now I must have done it 12 times.

Ios app is bugged,it took me 4 minutes with my android phone...hard reset is 12 seconds,not 15,when holding button down count 21,22,23...release button at 32,turn off anafi,restart ios device(chances to go trough with iphone is higher than with ipad),connect ios to skycontroller 3(sc3),once ff6(freeflight6) opens turn on power in anafi and try to update
Note :if you are using iphone i would recommend turning off wifi in iphones settings before connecting to sc3.....

 

[QuadKid]

There is a specific sequence to installing and connecting the drone properly. maybe you got out of sync somehow, Like Skydreamer says I would try to reset the battery first, uninstall FF6 from your device and start from scratch. Follow the direction in the link below.

Installing FreeFlight 6

 

[Skydreamer]

Hi,there is hard,soft and battery reset,battery reset is done after crash or if you fully charge battery and its showing 85% or after 12 days of not using battery,battery has own chip that gets updated with every firmware,battery reset is done by connecting battery to wall charger ,pressing and holding button for 15 second....hard reset is done by installing battery in anafi,pressing and holding button for a 12 seconds....issue is that manual doesnt explain all these things and parrot support doesnt have all informations,they are getting new info every day but it will take some time till they get answers for everything.
In Johnnot case i dont think Reset will help...If you used anafi wifi password to connect anafi to your phone there is possibility that when skycontroller 3 connects to anafi,anafi will also connect to the phone,that will cause some problems,usually range gets affected,like signal gets dropped after 300 yards/meters or it could cause other issues like firmware installation...freeflight 6 could be already running in background when you connect phone to sc3 and ff6 strats again,that will definitely screw up everything....turning off phone and turning it back on kills all apps working in background and gives you new fresh start

 

[Johnnot]

Hi,there is hard,soft and battery reset,battery reset is done after crash or if you fully charge battery and its showing 85% or after 12 days of not using battery,battery has own chip that gets updated with every firmware,battery reset is done by connecting battery to wall charger ,pressing and holding button for 15 second....hard reset is done by installing battery in anafi,pressing and holding button for a 12 seconds....issue is that manual doesnt explain all these things and parrot support doesnt have all informations,they are getting new info every day but it will take some time till they get answers for everything.
In Johnnot case i dont think Reset will help...If you used anafi wifi password to connect anafi to your phone there is possibility that when skycontroller 3 connects to anafi,anafi will also connect to the phone,that will cause some problems,usually range gets affected,like signal gets dropped after 300 yards/meters or it could cause other issues like firmware installation...freeflight 6 could be already running in background when you connect phone to sc3 and ff6 strats again,that will definitely screw up everything....turning off phone and turning it back on kills all apps working in background and gives you new fresh start

My ever repeating firmware update saga ended with exchanging my Anafi for a new one. This one flew for your comments faultlessly after one update. Thank all for your comments.

 

[BJN]

I got mine today and I'm kind of amazed I figured out how to finally get it updated, talking to the phone and controller, and flying. The only sequence that works for me is to start the drone, start the app, and connect to drone's wifi, then wait for the app to find the drone...only then can I open the controller and hook up the phone. Then I have to be patient and wait for the drone connection. If I connect the phone to the controller first, I can make the wifi connection to the drone but the app doesn't recognize the connection has been made.

My Nexus 6 phone is too big for the controller's clamp, even if I take off the slim case. I stuck some adhesive rubber feet near the front edge of the clamp as a new edge stop, and that gives more than enough clearance for the phone in the case (the case keeps the side buttons from compressing in the clamp). Parrot could easily have molded in additional retention tabs steps into the bracket. The bumpers I stuck on don't interfere at all with closing the bracket.

As fussy as the updates and connection sequence have been, I'm more than a little wary. I had the wifi connection fail when I was using the app to change the still image settings with the drone sitting next to the controller. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

 

[Simon H]

There is definitely a sequencing issue with iOS. I usually connect to the controller which starts up the app, turn on the Anafi and then have to close the app, confirm the WiFi in settings and re-open the app before it will see the drone. Niggly problem but it has become second nature after so many flights I barely notice it as an issue.

 

[Jerry Shu]

After the led of controller is turning blue thats mean full, but the indicator is device only say 85%, this happened everytime.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

After the led of controller is turning blue thats mean full, but the indicator is device only say 85%, this happened everytime.

No, on the rear side of the SC3 controller left of the USB-A socket there is a green/red LED indicating the SC3 battery level:
Green: full
Red: charging

 

[Jerry Shu]

Yes the rear side and sorry my mistake, it was green, not blue.

 

[CraigCam]

I started with IOS and it became obvious that Android is better. I’m also one who doesn’t want to tie up my phone with all these WiFi flying apps. You need a decent Android and I used a Motox4 I got for cheap as an open box and no SIM card or phone service. It’s very worry free as I control the connection and nothing can interrupt me so I don’t need to worry about airplane mode. I’ve only experienced a full loss of control and connection once and it was in a crazy hot commercial area where WiFi intefernce was rolling in and out in spikes. It could have been something bigger then I know as none of my devices would connect and I just had to wait for it to go away.