Anafi - FreeFlight 6 not giving distance feedback

[ribas]

I have received Anafi yestarday, and I have updated to last firmware 1.6.8 and 1.6.3 Anafi and Skycontroller
Have calibrated both the Anafi, and camera
Everything is working ok, did 3 flights and shoot video and fotos

But I have a problem, I don´t have distance feedback on Freeflight 6
Only height feedback

The data of each flight has all the position information correctly (flight path)

I don´t know what is wrong
Thanks

 

[Skydreamer]

Usually it means that your gps didnt catch enough sattelites ,did you fly in your backyard,near houses,any type of obstacles ...just out of curiosity,what phone or tablet are you using

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Do you have GPS reception of both the drone and the controller (from your smartphone) before takeoff?
Has your smartphone GPS and is GPS turned on?

 

[ribas]

That was I suspected, and I wait and wait till I got the signal to takeoff and a good precision landmark. Also the flying path is correct. Everything is OK but no distance, only height. I have flight some 300m away and no more than 100m high, good video feed. I will reset my skycontroller. I have reset my iPad. I don´t have active the bluetooth and the wifi connection, I don´t plan to use it

 

[Skydreamer]

Try using phone or tablet with gps...most ipads have no gpd,..it might help

 

[ribas]

Do you have GPS reception of both the drone and the controller (from your smartphone) before takeoff?
Has your smartphone GPS and is GPS turned on?

No, my iPad air I don´t know if it has GPS. It´s the same I have used this last 4 years with my Phantom 4

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

No, my iPad air I don´t know if it has GPS. It´s the same I have used this last 4 years with my Phantom 4

The controller needs the GPS position from your smartphone/tablet in order to display the drone-controller distance in FF6.
If you have no GPS function on iPad, then no distance can be displayed.

 

[ribas]

The controller needs the GPS position from your smartphone/tablet in order to display the drone-controller distance in FF6.
If you have no GPS function on iPad, then no distance can be displayed.

Thanks Dirk. But when I use my iPad air with my Phantom4, the dji app does collect the inicial GPS position (take off) as references it as the origin 0,0,0 x,y,z and if I move my controller, it will go back to to the take-off position not the controller position. Is this really false with the Anafi-controller setup ?

 

[Skydreamer]

here it gets bit complicated,if you have good gps signal when you take off with anafi ,it should stream signal with telemetry to your Ipad,it ahouldnt matter if you have gps in your ipad or not...it will affect skycontroller directional signal we can see in minimap,but thats not important right now....you should be able to see “all”telemetry if you have good (enough sattelites connected to your anafi)gps signal....taking my wife shoping,be back in 1 hour then i will take my anafi for spin and test it with my Ipad(no gps)

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

As Skydreamer said: If you have a green GPS symbol for the drone BEFORE takeoff or wait until it gets green, then the drone's position will be used for RTH and for distance from takeoff point. Of course this stays the correct drone-controller distance only, if you don't move away from the takeoff point.

Sometimes flying without controller GPS I couldn't get drone GPS at the starting point on the ground near my house. After the start I was hoovering over that point at 2m and got GPS soon.
BUT: The drone then had not recorded a starting point and couldn't RTH. Bad if you need that later ...

 

[Skydreamer]

I have same problem around my house,usually get gps signal aprox .6-8 meters above ground,now here is were it gets funky.....freeflight6 needs ceirtain amount sattelites to actually show in screen,i got very week gps signal and locked RTH at 8 meters height(ipad mini,no gps),no distance at all.......
next i switched to Auriga Anafi app,anafi gps locked at aprox.2 meters,it immediately showed distance but it was off by 25 meters....in a picture you can see 14 sattelites connected ,thats a bit on a lower side....
next calibrated my lg phones gps,it shows that my phones gps is not precise and its off by anywhere from 6-15 meters...
so @ribas,if you have good gps in anafi you should see distanece,...in second picture in upper part of green circle distance is showen as 35 meters,actuall distance is 15 .

 

[ribas]

thanks Skydreamer. I have made a reset on my skycontroller, and it asked me to do a xyz movement wich it did not ask during the first activation and firmware update. But the final result was the same, like in your left foto, I had an "?" in the distance display, even with 12-13 satelites and I could see the blue button dancing in the map 10-15m away from the drone symbol.
What is the purpose of this blue button, if the Anafi is correctly positioned on the map as a green symbol?
I can´t figure out this problem.

 

[ribas]

Dirke was right. An iPad needs a GPS to work with an Anafi and SkyController.
This is an information not availabe at FreeFlight app in Applestore.

I have tested with the iPhone 8+ of my wife and it shows both GPS signals green and a different display of the drone in the map (directional graphic) and it gives me distance feedback.
With the iPad air I get a red GPS controller and a green GPS drone

 

[Skydreamer]

Hi ribas,same issue here with my ipad,Anafi gps turns green and no distance,when i use my lg phone(gps is OFF, simulating ipad) i dont get distance when Anafi gps is Red or Yellow,when Anafi gps turns Green i get instantly Distance info in freeflight 6....did bunch of tests,made pictures,called Parrot support,emailed pictures and logs from my test and now i am waiting for parrot to call/email back...as you can see in this picture skycontroller(gps in phone is off)doesnt have gps yet there is distance in freeflight...it could be glitch in freeflight thats causing this distance issue in older ipads,it wouldnt be first time,either way i
l post it here once parrot contacts me back

 

[ribas]

Thanks Skydreamer, your information and testing was very important for me to understand the problem and the solution. I have turned off GPS of my wifes iphone 8+ and I have got distance and green GPS. Because this iPhone has a way better wifi location precision (7m) than my 2016 iPad air (30-50m), and that is the main reason. I need to invest in a Garmin Glo2 to have a correct positioning of my iPad air, and get green green with distance. What I don´t understand is why Parrot is still using this kind of system. The best way to have a solid Home point is using the initial Drone position, and not from the devise gps. Thanks again

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Thanks Skydreamer, your information and testing was very important for me to understand the problem and the solution. I have turned off GPS of my wifes iphone 8+ and I have got distance and green GPS. Because this iPhone has a way better wifi location precision (7m) than my 2016 iPad air (30-50m), and that is the main reason. I need to invest in a Garmin Glo2 to have a correct positioning of my iPad air, and get green green with distance. What I don´t understand is why Parrot is still using this kind of system. The best way to have a solid Home point is using the initial Drone position, and not from the devise gps. Thanks again

Some pilots possibly want to follow their drone and therefore leave the drone's takeoff point. Without GPS in controller or smartphone sth. like follow-me would not be possible too.

 

[ribas]

Dji Go 4 does "follow me" without Device GPS. The app just folllows graphically a subject, it does not depend on GPS because the followed subject does not carry the device.

The difference is :
1- I can still use my iPaid Air2 2016 with DjiGo 4+ Phantom4 and do the "Follow me" "panoramic360" and many other things (my youtube channel is 24k using this setup since 2016),
2- with Anafi I need to spend extra $$$$ for a iPad+Cellular or a $$$$$ compatible smart phone (my iPhone is a 4s)

This is the reason why I don´t understand Parrot in this theme

 

[Skydreamer]

So today i got email from parrot,answer was very short:”Distance doesnt show because your ipad does not have MEMS sensor”.......my first reaction was waht the hell is mems sensor? ?......so i checked the google:
”MEMS magnetic field sensor (magnetometer) may also be incorporated in such devices to provide directional heading. MEMS are also used in Inertial navigation systems (INSs) of modern cars, airplanes ...“

 

[ribas]

Gyroscope and accelerometer? Yes it has, otherwise it could not turn the display and give compass readings. It does not matter, I have invested in a new SE2020 iphone and I can work much better now with both my osmo+ and Anafi.
Anafi is a great machine, the more I use it the more I like it. Thanks Skydreamer

 

[Deleted member 3201]

Completely unrelated but I always get annoyed by the incorrect white balance of Anafi in nearly every single screenshot/video online. It always has a yellow tint over it. I set the white balance before flight and that gives a better result but I almost think it would need a different coating or something