How recently flown my new anafi with no issues. Went to fly today and not only will the sky controller 3 not power on (no illumination of the front indicator light) but the drone itself will not show the live camera feed on my phone when flying via wifi without the controller. Everything is charged and have reset the drone and uninstalled and reinstalled the freeflight 6 app. When the controller is plugged in to charge the small led indicator light on the back lights up green. Any thoughts??
Anafi Skycontroller 3 won't turn on
- Thread starter Ooochie
- Start date
Dirk_ANAFI
Well-known member
There are TWO issues:
1. Skycontroller does not power on.
2. "...but the drone itself will not show the live camera feed on my phone when flying via wifi without the controller..." -> this has nothing to do with the Skycontroller and should work, if only issue 1 exists.
I would recommend that you contact the seller to make use of Parrot's 1 year warranty on their product instead of separating the controller and thereby destroying your warranty !!!
Regards, Leif.
Regards, Leif.
Dirk_ANAFI
Well-known member
Hi Dirk, I'm having the same problem with the controller not powering on. This has happened with two different controls, the original one and then the replacement I got from the vendor. Both powered up when I first got them home but after leaving them charging until green light came on indicating a full charge neither would power up. If you hear about a solution let me know and I will do the same.
As far as the drone is concerned I was able to pair it to my iPhone and was able to fly it with video feed. It did take a couple of tries to get it paired up, download the drone update to my iPhone and download it to the drone. Once that was done the drone seems to work find.
I think I have the dreaded SC3 failure. It's been working great then last week it took a looong time to charge to get a green light.
Took it out to fly and no lights at all, no blue indicator. Only way I can get it to power up is connect the USB C. Seems like a typical battery failure.
I took the back off and the rear cover mounts some odd looking circular batteries. Anyone know of replacement batteries or specs? Wouldn't mind buying a new SC3 but having a hard time finding one.
Took it out to fly and no lights at all, no blue indicator. Only way I can get it to power up is connect the USB C. Seems like a typical battery failure.
I took the back off and the rear cover mounts some odd looking circular batteries. Anyone know of replacement batteries or specs? Wouldn't mind buying a new SC3 but having a hard time finding one.
Talked to Parrot support today they were very helpful and gave me return authorization. The rep said it sounds like the battery is not charging and the problem is probably on the board. I pulled the battery out it's a 3.6 volt lithium-ion 2500 milliamp with three wires, I'm not sure why it has three wires maybe one is a sense. Anyway it was at 0 volts like it was not getting a charge. I don't think the problem is the battery I think it's in the controller, will report when I know more. At least I can fly my anafi with my tablet for now.
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3,6 Volts seem to indicate the Lithium-Ion battery has only one cell, so the third wire may not be intended to balance charging.
I found some web site that sell 3 wires 3,6 Volts battery and the third ‘white’ wire is marked as a ‘thermistor wire’. (Just for my ref... what is a thermistor ? Here : Overview | Thermistor | Adafruit Learning System
See an example here : eBay
In an other forum, there is a poster that gave this information :
Most of two-wire batteries are made cheap for RC (Radio-Controlled) toy applications. They have super-high discharge rates (15C to 90C) and can be harmful.
For individual replacement and for your private use you can do whatever it takes, but if you aim at industrial scale, consider all warnings in Olin's answer.
I have seen the opposite, an original China-made battery would came with three-wire connection form its BMS protecting circuit, but a European-based medical supplier re-packaged it with the yellow thermistor wire cut-off, making it a two-wire connector. So go figure the safety and reliability of this re-branding.
Your device will likely need the thermistor connection (usually PTC102, aka 10k to ground) to operate, otherwise the charger chip will sense a faulty battery (like most of Texas Instruments chargers would do, for example). You can re-use the old thermistor, or just fake it with corresponding chip resistor with a nominal value (10k at 25 deg.C, or whatever it is).
NOTE: there is an informal convention on pouched batteries dimensions. This one is labelled as "6043450", which means that it is 6.0 mm thick, 34 mm wide, and 50 mm long. Just FYI, you can use this as a search parameter to find a better fit.
So there is also a possibility for the battery to be Ok, but the white wire of the thermistor sensor or the thermistor itself is faulty and the onboard charger of the SC3 does consider this battery as damaged and refuses to charge.
There may be a problem with the battery itself or the SC3 charger.
To test the battery itself, the only way to check it would be to charge the battery with an external 2 wires (black/red) charger and see if the battery charges and keeps its load.
To test the thermistor white wire, the chip resistor could be faked with a corresponding value, or exchange the exact same battery reference with a new one with 3 wires. Or more simply if you have an ‘universal electric checking device’, you can try to check the resistance between the white wire and the black one is 10kOhm when the external temp is 25°C. Testing a thermistor here : Overview | Thermistor | Adafruit Learning System
Then, if it does not work, it may come from the SC3 charger, or there may be a real ‘overheating’ problem with the SC3 like a shortcut or a battery problem that causes the thermistor to detect a high temp and the SC3 think it should not charge the battery...
... as all this process is long and risky, and as Parrot did accept to exchange your SC3... that’s your best option !
As you are not the only one with this problem, it would be interesting to follow-up with the question...
When you mention a 0 volt indication, is it between the red and black wire of the battery ? Or from the charger ? From the white wire (that would make sense if it is a sensor) ?
You are mentioning an ‘odd circular battery’, does it look like this one :
More on thermistors (1$ for a pack of 10) use in electronics here (for my reference) :
learn.adafruit.com
I am no specialist in electronics or electricity, but I just try to understand the root cause of the problem...so be careful if you test things in your SC3 !
I found some web site that sell 3 wires 3,6 Volts battery and the third ‘white’ wire is marked as a ‘thermistor wire’. (Just for my ref... what is a thermistor ? Here : Overview | Thermistor | Adafruit Learning System
See an example here : eBay
In an other forum, there is a poster that gave this information :
Most of two-wire batteries are made cheap for RC (Radio-Controlled) toy applications. They have super-high discharge rates (15C to 90C) and can be harmful.
For individual replacement and for your private use you can do whatever it takes, but if you aim at industrial scale, consider all warnings in Olin's answer.
I have seen the opposite, an original China-made battery would came with three-wire connection form its BMS protecting circuit, but a European-based medical supplier re-packaged it with the yellow thermistor wire cut-off, making it a two-wire connector. So go figure the safety and reliability of this re-branding.
Your device will likely need the thermistor connection (usually PTC102, aka 10k to ground) to operate, otherwise the charger chip will sense a faulty battery (like most of Texas Instruments chargers would do, for example). You can re-use the old thermistor, or just fake it with corresponding chip resistor with a nominal value (10k at 25 deg.C, or whatever it is).
NOTE: there is an informal convention on pouched batteries dimensions. This one is labelled as "6043450", which means that it is 6.0 mm thick, 34 mm wide, and 50 mm long. Just FYI, you can use this as a search parameter to find a better fit.
So there is also a possibility for the battery to be Ok, but the white wire of the thermistor sensor or the thermistor itself is faulty and the onboard charger of the SC3 does consider this battery as damaged and refuses to charge.
There may be a problem with the battery itself or the SC3 charger.
To test the battery itself, the only way to check it would be to charge the battery with an external 2 wires (black/red) charger and see if the battery charges and keeps its load.
To test the thermistor white wire, the chip resistor could be faked with a corresponding value, or exchange the exact same battery reference with a new one with 3 wires. Or more simply if you have an ‘universal electric checking device’, you can try to check the resistance between the white wire and the black one is 10kOhm when the external temp is 25°C. Testing a thermistor here : Overview | Thermistor | Adafruit Learning System
Then, if it does not work, it may come from the SC3 charger, or there may be a real ‘overheating’ problem with the SC3 like a shortcut or a battery problem that causes the thermistor to detect a high temp and the SC3 think it should not charge the battery...
... as all this process is long and risky, and as Parrot did accept to exchange your SC3... that’s your best option !
As you are not the only one with this problem, it would be interesting to follow-up with the question...
When you mention a 0 volt indication, is it between the red and black wire of the battery ? Or from the charger ? From the white wire (that would make sense if it is a sensor) ?
You are mentioning an ‘odd circular battery’, does it look like this one :
BatterySpace.com/AA Portable Power Corp. Tel: 510-525-2328
BatterySpace.com/AA Portable Power Corp. Tel: 510-525-2328 - Powerizer Battery Official Site. Offer Lithium ion batteries, LiFePO4 batteries, polymer batteries, LiMnNi batteries, LiNiMnCo batteries, Nimh batteries, nicd batteries, lead acid batteries, primary batteries, second batteries, battery...
www.batteryspace.com
More on thermistors (1$ for a pack of 10) use in electronics here (for my reference) :
Thermistor
A thermistor is a thermal resistor - a resistor that changes its resistance with temperature. Technically, all resistors are thermistors - their resistance changes slightly with temperature - but the change is usually very very small and difficult to measure. Thermistors are made so that the...
I am no specialist in electronics or electricity, but I just try to understand the root cause of the problem...so be careful if you test things in your SC3 !
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Yes it does look like that one.
Unfortunately the battery has a red, blue and white wire no black. I measured between the red and other two wires and got 0 volts. I assume the battery is flat.
I connected the battery to my charger with no luck it couldn't sense it.
Parrot said it was under warranty so I'm getting a new one hopefully I can keep this one to experiment with.
I do think it's a board problem not the battery.
Unfortunately the battery has a red, blue and white wire no black. I measured between the red and other two wires and got 0 volts. I assume the battery is flat.
I connected the battery to my charger with no luck it couldn't sense it.
Parrot said it was under warranty so I'm getting a new one hopefully I can keep this one to experiment with.
I do think it's a board problem not the battery.
Dirk_ANAFI
Well-known member
Rep says the process takes 10 days for authorization shipping etc.
I asked him if I could just buy a Skycontroller 3 outright and he said no they're not available on the online store yet, I'd have to buy a used one. I'm waiting for that Anafi V2 to come out so I have a spare
I asked him if I could just buy a Skycontroller 3 outright and he said no they're not available on the online store yet, I'd have to buy a used one. I'm waiting for that Anafi V2 to come out so I have a spare
It is most likely the battery (circuit) that is faulty. At the top of the battery, there is an electronics circuit that controls the charging of the battery.
The wires:
Red = + V.
Gray = - V
Blue wire, unfortunately, I cannot see what is being used on the defective battery I have separated. However, the cable is connected to the IC which controls the charge.
Regards, Leif.
No, unfortunately I do not know where the battery can be purchased as a spare part. The battery I have shown pictures of has a faulty charging circuit. I was lucky that I could get a defective SkyController at a dealer here in Denmark where the antenna was broken and could pair the two defective controller to one.
You can try reading the thread here about the battery as well: Parrot Skycontroller 3 battery.
Regards, Leif.
