Anafi Thermal Falls from Sky

[jaja6009]

Well I can be added to the list of people who have had problems after the several new firmwares and having their drone fall from the sky for no reason whatsoever.

Anafi Thermal
Firmware 1.6.7
Free Flight 6.6.7
Batteries updated from Free Flight 6.6.6
iPad pro 9.7



The drone was hovering at 325 feet conducting a hyperlapse video of traffic for a public safety agency.
The battery was at 75% and the drone lost all power and fell straight down pretty much destroying itself.

I will start the process to have my drone repaired under warranty. It was purchased July 2019 from Drone Nerds.

I had previously never had a problem with either of my Anafis. But ever since the newest firmwares and battery reflash, problems have popped up. I used to swear by the Anafi, but even if they replace the drone with a new one I can never have faith in them again unless there is a serious firmware update. This could of easily hit a person or object even though it was not over people. The wind did blow it so it landed around 50 feet from where it was hovering.

The Anafi will not power on.
There is no flight listed under My Flights
The video it was recording is a .TMP file and I cannot open it. I tried to rename the extension to .mp4, and tried to open it with various video players.

I opened a ticket with Parrot on the phone and have since filled out the required crash information questions they sent me.

I hopefully will receive a new drone, but I cannot have faith anymore in Parrot drones. My other Anafi while using Pix4D Capture now does an autoland no matter where it is if the battery gets to around 15% without warning and now this Anafi Thermal suffered a total power loss. I am most likely going to have to move on as these drones are used to supplement a Public Safety Agency as well as my side business and I am now unable to fulfill several projects that have been planned.

The crazy thing is that before these latest updates I never had one problem with either Anafi and was the first person to sing their praises. Unfortunately Chinese made drones may be my only choice even though they are being pushed out by the Public Safety part of my job.

So far Parrot Support has been good. They answered the phone and immediately sent me an instructional email.

Does anyone know how to play the .tmp video file? I would love to see it!

 

[crossroad]

Well I can be added to the list of people who have had problems after the several new firmwares and having their drone fall from the sky for no reason whatsoever.

Anafi Thermal
Firmware 1.6.7
Free Flight 6.6.7
Batteries updated from Free Flight 6.6.6
iPad pro 9.7



The drone was hovering at 325 feet conducting a hyperlapse video of traffic for a public safety agency.
The battery was at 75% and the drone lost all power and fell straight down pretty much destroying itself.

I will start the process to have my drone repaired under warranty. It was purchased July 2019 from Drone Nerds.

I had previously never had a problem with either of my Anafis. But ever since the newest firmwares and battery reflash, problems have popped up. I used to swear by the Anafi, but even if they replace the drone with a new one I can never have faith in them again unless there is a serious firmware update. This could of easily hit a person or object even though it was not over people. The wind did blow it so it landed around 50 feet from where it was hovering.

The Anafi will not power on.
There is no flight listed under My Flights
The video it was recording is a .TMP file and I cannot open it. I tried to rename the extension to .mp4, and tried to open it with various video players.

I opened a ticket with Parrot on the phone and have since filled out the required crash information questions they sent me.

I hopefully will receive a new drone, but I cannot have faith anymore in Parrot drones. My other Anafi while using Pix4D Capture now does an autoland no matter where it is if the battery gets to around 15% without warning and now this Anafi Thermal suffered a total power loss. I am most likely going to have to move on as these drones are used to supplement a Public Safety Agency as well as my side business and I am now unable to fulfill several projects that have been planned.

The crazy thing is that before these latest updates I never had one problem with either Anafi and was the first person to sing their praises. Unfortunately Chinese made drones may be my only choice even though they are being pushed out by the Public Safety part of my job.

So far Parrot Support has been good. They answered the phone and immediately sent me an instructional email.

Does anyone know how to play the .tmp video file? I would love to see it!

How to recover TMP files

I am using microsoft word 2016 and it crashed while I was saving a file. When i opened it back up, it says it is unable to locate my file, and in the folder I had it saved, it is now saved as a temp

answers.microsoft.com

or try Wondershare Uniconverter

 

[Ana789]

Perhaps this works for the video?

Repairing Corrupt DJI Video Files

live555.com

 

[vintorez]

But ever since the newest firmwares and battery reflash, problems have popped up.

Universal crush drone protection

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I believe a .TMP file is just a temp file so using it will be difficult but you could give this go and see if it works for you.

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-convert-a-tmp-video-file-to-a-windows-media-player-video-clip

 

[jaja6009]

Thanks for all of the useful tips on fixing the video file. I am trying each solution. Also here is the aftermath of my poor little bird. For some reason this drone was my favorite and it hurts that this one crashed.

Aftermath pics:


I retrieved all parts except for the LED light on the bottom. Looks like she fell straight down and landed on her feet!
Put the damaged battery in my Bat Box for safety until I figure a way to properly dispose of it.

I am going to try and get her to power up, otherwise there is no Flight Log of her doomed mission. Parrot Support asked for the log, but it is not there.

Thanks to all for your help and I will try each solution until I can get the video of that last mission.

I will also keep updating what happens in regards to a warranty replacement.

 

[d95gas]

The whole mess stems back to the last few updates that Parrot literally threw out the door at us. They must realise that people are losing faith in the product, and ultimately could well have an impact on their military contract if its seen that their engineers are totally incapable about doing any sort of testing before pushing to the end user.

The bill for crashed drones since their updates must now be very significant, there will be many 100's outside the forum who have lost their drones, that we dont know about.

Fortunately as a collective we are able to put everything together and work out where the errors are.

Parrot..... you should be ashamed of the quality of workmanship you have. Gone from having an awesome product, to a product that the masses have lost faith in. shame on you.

 

[jaja6009]

d95gas, I have to agree with you on how they took something that works and made a mess of it.

I do have good news. Using Restore.Media I was able to view the ill fated video. I watched a preview and saw that the video just ends while filming at a hover, which tells me that the battery cut out and then the drone fell. It is possible that the restore process did not fully fix the file though and maybe the end is missing, but from how the incident happened it seems like the battery power cut out and the drone fell so the last thing recorded was the video in hover at 325 AGL.

Still no response from Parrot, I filled out all of their questions they asked yesterday and I emailed them again today telling them that I am unable to get a Flight Log.

Recovered Video does not show anything of interest.


P8132457_-_Copy_recovered.mp4


The Restore.Media worked well and was very easy to use. I used the Generic H264 Codec option with no sound. You can preview for free or pay $4.99 to download the recovered video.

 

[Deleted member 3201]

d95gas, I have to agree with you on how they took something that works and made a mess of it.

I do have good news. Using Restore.Media I was able to view the ill fated video. I watched a preview and saw that the video just ends while filming at a hover, which tells me that the battery cut out and then the drone fell. It is possible that the restore process did not fully fix the file though and maybe the end is missing, but from how the incident happened it seems like the battery power cut out and the drone fell so the last thing recorded was the video in hover at 325 AGL.

Still no response from Parrot, I filled out all of their questions they asked yesterday and I emailed them again today telling them that I am unable to get a Flight Log.

Recovered Video does not show anything of interest.


P8132457_-_Copy_recovered.mp4


The Restore.Media worked well and was very easy to use. I used the Generic H264 Codec option with no sound. You can preview for free or pay $4.99 to download the recovered video.

With the program MPV you can also view the anafi .TMP files. On my first flights I tested come U1 cards which were very cheap and not industrial grade; they would often have writing errors, leading to lost footage, only .TMP files on the card. With the MPV I would just view the video as if it was a normal file

mpv.io

a free, open source, and cross-platform media player

mpv.io

I hope the firmwares get fixed as well, it would rather not fly like this

 

[BRC]

The whole mess stems back to the last few updates that Parrot literally threw out the door at us. They must realise that people are losing faith in the product, and ultimately could well have an impact on their military contract if its seen that their engineers are totally incapable about doing any sort of testing before pushing to the end user.

The bill for crashed drones since their updates must now be very significant, there will be many 100's outside the forum who have lost their drones, that we dont know about.

Fortunately as a collective we are able to put everything together and work out where the errors are.

Parrot..... you should be ashamed of the quality of workmanship you have. Gone from having an awesome product, to a product that the masses have lost faith in. shame on you.

Well said! - and the fact that their tech support team seems to be ignorant of any issues due to recent FW releases is beyond believable - I have lost confidence every time I fly

 

[jaja6009]

I have now reached the point of incredulous!

I got this email from Parrot Support

This is from Parrot support team and I am happy to be helping with your case # , concerning your Parrot Anafi Thermal.

Thanks for your reply.

Pleased note that unfortunately we wouldn't be able to provide warranty without the last flight data.

We are sorry for the inconvenience.


It is always our aim at Parrot to provide you, our customer, with top quality service to the best of our ability.


I have no Flight Log because the battery lost all power sending my poor drone to its death. It cannot power on so there is no possible way for me to get a Flight Log. Their documentation states that if you attempt to "mess" with the drone all warranties are void. So I am not sure I am following their logic here. I consider myself a good repeat customer of Parrot owning 2 of their drones, both of which operated perfectly until the release of 1.6.7. With 1.6.7 both drones have had major problems with the regular Anafi having forced landings (More Like controlled crashes) while using Pix4D Capture. And now the Thermal free falls from 325 AGL from a total power failure and somehow I am to blame because the drone lost power and did not generate a Flight Log?

And BRC do not believe for a minute that the customer support people do not know this is a problem, they are the first to hear it when people have it happen. They just don't acknowledge it most likely as a policy.

I have gone in 3 weeks from being perfectly happy with my Anafi's and completing work in both of my jobs, to having lost my Thermal and grounded my regular Anafi. I am losing work as I type this email.

 

[d95gas]

If I were in your position, I would be putting together a full timeline document.

I would include snapshots of possibly posts on this forum where others have had the same issue. Document as much as you can around the issues of the last firmware upgrade including the battery update.

There is also a post on here where someone was told by Parrot, NOT to fly until they have resolved the battery issue.

Provide as much evidence as you can.

Parrot support are well aware of the battery issue...... Unless they have their head up their ar$e$

 

[Lufthaken]

I have no Flight Log because the battery lost all power sending my poor drone to its death. It cannot power on so there is no possible way for me to get a Flight Log.

Hi,

Of course you do not have the (limited) flight log, that is beeing sent to the app after landing. But there is a more detailed flightlog saved in flight on the sd card.
AFAIK nobody exept Parrot can read them, but they are there.
If I remember correctly, the ANAFI has two Folders on the SD Card. The one without pictures and Videos contains the (raw) log files.
You need to look for the file date and time, so you find the correct one for your flight.

I have the exact same Thermal as you, including frmware, App and Battery Versions. Even though I flew (very low volume) without problems, I will let it grounded until this has been settled. I mean: We´re talking about a Product für 2K+$/€ which is supposed to be for professional users..... I wait for the day, when some professional user sues them to get back the money for downtime of their "professional tool".....

Wish you good luck dealing with parrot´s incredible service. Incredible in any way.....

 

[Deleted member 3201]

I have now reached the point of incredulous!

I got this email from Parrot Support

This is from Parrot support team and I am happy to be helping with your case # , concerning your Parrot Anafi Thermal.

Thanks for your reply.

Pleased note that unfortunately we wouldn't be able to provide warranty without the last flight data.

We are sorry for the inconvenience.


It is always our aim at Parrot to provide you, our customer, with top quality service to the best of our ability.


I have no Flight Log because the battery lost all power sending my poor drone to its death. It cannot power on so there is no possible way for me to get a Flight Log. Their documentation states that if you attempt to "mess" with the drone all warranties are void. So I am not sure I am following their logic here. I consider myself a good repeat customer of Parrot owning 2 of their drones, both of which operated perfectly until the release of 1.6.7. With 1.6.7 both drones have had major problems with the regular Anafi having forced landings (More Like controlled crashes) while using Pix4D Capture. And now the Thermal free falls from 325 AGL from a total power failure and somehow I am to blame because the drone lost power and did not generate a Flight Log?

And BRC do not believe for a minute that the customer support people do not know this is a problem, they are the first to hear it when people have it happen. They just don't acknowledge it most likely as a policy.

I have gone in 3 weeks from being perfectly happy with my Anafi's and completing work in both of my jobs, to having lost my Thermal and grounded my regular Anafi. I am losing work as I type this email.

If they are requesting the flight log on the memory card.. but you cannot provide it to them?.. that sucks.

 

[d95gas]

Push back to Parrot. Point to the mounting evidence that their engineers totally screwed up with the deployment of 1.6.4 upwards, including the major screw up they admit to on updating the batteries.

As a direct result Anafi's are falling out of the sky at incredible rate.

In their own developer forum they have admitted they caused the errors and waiting for the next firmware release.

There is so much evidence, they cannot hide or ignore it. You cannot let them get away with screwing you over.

 

[Deleted member 3201]

There is no evidence, nothing was said in the developer forum; it is open to the public

 

[Hawaii Drone Imaging]

I've had my thermal for almost 1 year now. No MAJOR issues or problems as of yet. I'm sorry all of you have had issues with your aircraft. I am on around 30-40 flights and only faced one situation where my camera would go through its motions and I would continuously get a "Camera Needs Calibration" error and my camera icon on my display would be red. I would fly the aircraft and the camera would function perfectly though. That was with software version 1.6.3.

It was a while before Parrot released software 1.6.4. Once they did, I installed it and the camera error went away and the aircraft has been flying flawlessly since (Oct 2019). I have been prompted by the app, but have not updated to 1.6.5 or 1.6.7 because I noticed others starting to have issues with those updates and aircraft were failing.

I feel "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" at the moment and will not update unless ABSOLUTELY needed.

I'm using
Freeflight App v 6.6.4
Skycontroller v 1.6.2
Anafi Thermal v 1.6.4
Hardware version HW_02

I'm using an iPhone 8s or at times an iPad Mini 3.

I have not been prompted as of yet by the app to "update" my batteries. I see others have posted this but not sure on the procedure in which they did this.

My aircraft was #180 out of the batch when released. I don't know if that may have anything to do with it, but just trying to provide you with as much info as I can give. Good luck guys and gals.

 

[Deleted member 3201]

In their own developer forum they have admitted they caused the errors and waiting for the next firmware release.

you just made that up. the developer forum is public

 

[jaja6009]

If they are requesting the flight log on the memory card.. but you cannot provide it to them?.. that sucks.

They never asked for the contents of the memory card other than any video footage. I sent them the .TMP file and the recovered MP4 from the .TMP file. They gave me directions on how to generate the Flight log which I knew in advance would not work due to the drone cutting power at 325 AGL and never landing and being unable to turn back on. I will send them the full contents of my memory card if they request it. It is rather large at 2.19 GB even compressed. Another weird thing is that I cannot request and receive my old Flight Logs. The flight logs up to the crash are on the device, but if I request them in an email from Free Flight 6 or from Parrot.com My Account they do not get delivered. I have requested 4 times since April 8th.



sUAV Imagery, when I had 1.6.4 installed, the Anafi worked great! I never had a problem. After my reply to them of explaining that both them and me know that if my version of events is true, there is no possible way to get the Flight Log unless I can get the drone to turn on, I have yet to receive their response. I am hopeful that this will be resolved to my liking just because I am being 100% honest and open with them and only expect them to fulfill their obligation and nothing more.

The battery used on the ill fated flight was actually the second least used battery out of my seven batteries with only 20 flights and 14 charges.

 

[jaja6009]

They never asked for the contents of the memory card other than any video footage. I sent them the .TMP file and the recovered MP4 from the .TMP file. They gave me directions on how to generate the Flight log which I knew in advance would not work due to the drone cutting power at 325 AGL and never landing and being unable to turn back on. I will send them the full contents of my memory card if they request it. It is rather large at 2.19 GB even compressed. Another weird thing is that I cannot request and receive my old Flight Logs. The flight logs up to the crash are on the device, but if I request them in an email from Free Flight 6 or from Parrot.com My Account they do not get delivered. I have requested 4 times since April 8th.



sUAV Imagery, when I had 1.6.4 installed, the Anafi worked great! I never had a problem. After my reply to them of explaining that both them and me know that if my version of events is true, there is no possible way to get the Flight Log unless I can get the drone to turn on, I have yet to receive their response. I am hopeful that this will be resolved to my liking just because I am being 100% honest and open with them and only expect them to fulfill their obligation and nothing more.

The battery used on the ill fated flight was actually the second least used battery out of my seven batteries with only 20 flights and 14 charges.

I have yet to receive any new response, but I replied to them today with a link to the full contents of my SD card for them to download. I zipped it and it is a large 2 GB file. I have again followed their advice to request flight logs on Free Flight 6, wait and then highlight the in question flight log with a star. Of course this flight log never appears since the drone will not turn back on. Again I went to Parrot.com My Flights and requested an email link to download all flight logs and still have not received that email. This is puzzling since this has always worked in the past to get older flight logs and now this does not even work.