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Anafi Thermal Falls from Sky

Awww maann!! I really hope they get back to you and replace it for you. One of my co-workers liked how mine operated and he just ordered one. I told him DO NOT update it when he gets it out the box! Not sure what software will be installed already.
 
I had a false hope of recovering the Flight Log from the doomed mission.

Today I went to update my Anafi Work to 1.6.8. When I powered on the controller and iPad it still showed that the iPad was connected to my Anafi Thermal from the day of the crash (April 8, 2020) with the location on the minimap being where the crash happened. When I turned on the Anafi Work this connected status was broken and a new flight log was shown! I finished with the update on the Anafi Work and then prayed that this Flight Log was now available to send to Parrot.

Well the Flight log was for the day after the crash and the time was wrong. Nothing in the Flight Log is of help. No known position, a time of 13 seconds (Doomed flight was probably around 5 minutes long) and the tabs on the bottom, GPS Path, Graphics and Medias are all grayed out. Drone Log Book.com will not accept it if I try to upload it and Drone Logbook.com also did not auto import it even though I am signed up. I still have not had any further response from Parrot Support. I guess between the Covid-19 mess and from what I hear overall slowness of their responses anyway I still have a ways to wait.
 
Update on Parrot Support.

I received an email today from Parrot Support. They asked if the vendor has taken care of the problem. I replied no, because this is a warranty issue with Parrot.
I guess I'll have to wait another 3 weeks for their response. I have read how their customer service is bad, but come on.
 
If possible I would suggest following up emails with phone calls too....
I am calling them weekly, I hope to wear them down, before they are able to do it to me first
Wishing you luck
 
Well my warranty will be up in two weeks. I still have not had a reply from Customer Service. So I will now take the drone apart and connect the ribbon cable that came loose during the crash. It's the cable from the motherboard to the motorboard. I tried to connect it but am unable unless I take it all apart. If this works and I can get the Anafi to power on, I should be able to get my ill fated flight log and then get my Anafi fixed under warranty. My largest fear is that I will do all of this and then have Parrot say that the warranty is void since I "tampered" with the drone. But at this point I have no choice. I have no doubt that they are waiting for the warranty to expire and also hope that I will just go away. Using the excellent repair video posted on this site I hope to make this fix as soon as the Torx wrenches I ordered arrive as I had no Torx bit in such small sizes. I really do miss the Anafi Thermal and have missed out on several use cases in the last few months. :(
 
Well my warranty will be up in two weeks. I still have not had a reply from Customer Service. So I will now take the drone apart and connect the ribbon cable that came loose during the crash. It's the cable from the motherboard to the motorboard. I tried to connect it but am unable unless I take it all apart. If this works and I can get the Anafi to power on, I should be able to get my ill fated flight log and then get my Anafi fixed under warranty. My largest fear is that I will do all of this and then have Parrot say that the warranty is void since I "tampered" with the drone. But at this point I have no choice. I have no doubt that they are waiting for the warranty to expire and also hope that I will just go away. Using the excellent repair video posted on this site I hope to make this fix as soon as the Torx wrenches I ordered arrive as I had no Torx bit in such small sizes. I really do miss the Anafi Thermal and have missed out on several use cases in the last few months. :(

The Torx wrench that comes with it to replace props fits every screw on the Anafi except for the very small one on the camera which does not need to be taken apart as far as I know. .
 
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The Torx wrench that comes with it to replace props fits every screw on the Anafi except for the very small one on the camera which does not need to be taken apart as far as I know. .

Thank you!
 
Well my warranty will be up in two weeks. I still have not had a reply from Customer Service. So I will now take the drone apart and connect the ribbon cable that came loose during the crash. It's the cable from the motherboard to the motorboard. I tried to connect it but am unable unless I take it all apart. If this works and I can get the Anafi to power on, I should be able to get my ill fated flight log and then get my Anafi fixed under warranty. My largest fear is that I will do all of this and then have Parrot say that the warranty is void since I "tampered" with the drone. But at this point I have no choice. I have no doubt that they are waiting for the warranty to expire and also hope that I will just go away. Using the excellent repair video posted on this site I hope to make this fix as soon as the Torx wrenches I ordered arrive as I had no Torx bit in such small sizes. I really do miss the Anafi Thermal and have missed out on several use cases in the last few months. :(
You may also want to reach back out to customer service to make sure that the case is still open prior to warranty period expiring
Best of luck
 
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!
 
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.
I guess if you use an Android phone, you wouldn't have much falling issues !
 
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!
this definitely is with the ipad / iphone. Please use Android
 
And what do you base that on?
I come from the DJI spark world... read in the DJI forums with so many falls using the iphone in particular. The Androids don't have that many or i haven't read a Android falling experience
 
I come from the DJI spark world... read in the DJI forums with so many falls using the iphone in particular. The Androids don't have that many or i haven't read a Android falling experience
Well the Anafi don't care if it is iOS or Android they both get their share of falls from the sky.
 
Well my warranty is now over. (1 Year?). I still have not heard back from Parrot about warranty service even though I keep the support ticket open.
This really hurts as before the crash the Anafi Thermal was my favorite drone to fly between my own small fleet and my full time job's fleet.

I tried to take the Anafi apart and reconnect the ribbon cable that connects the motor board to the motherboard. The connection on the motor board was sheared and the ribbon cable will not connect to it. I can get it somewhat seated but the drone still will not power on.


For future people who use this thread if they need warranty service:

  • Do not be discouraged by this thread. Others have gotten their Anafi repaired under warranty.
  • It is highly disappointing that this is 100% something that should be covered by warranty and the dubious claim that there cannot be warranty service without a flight log even though it is well known by users and Parrot that if my scenario is correct there WILL NOT BE a flight log.
  • As mentioned in this and other threads, use a screen recorder to have a backup for your incident if you cannot get a flight log.
  • Know that there is no concrete firmware, device or age of battery that will predict this happening. Read through all of the posts and you will see that it has happened in a broad range of firmware, devices and age of batteries.

Thank you to everyone who gave great advice and also those that kept my spirits up hoping I would get my warranty coverage. I really do appreciate the camaraderie and this shows how great this forum is.

The only good thing about this bad episode is that it is now easier to decide which thermal drone to get in the future. As purely business, I cannot possibly consider the Anafi USA for obvious reasons (My results, yours may be different). Skydio and Autel look very interesting, especially Autel, but if my side business can increase I might just be able to get an aircraft that can get the thermal I really want, a FLIR 640 Radiometric.

I will miss my Anafi Thermal and may she rest in peace.

Moderator, you may close this thread at your convenience. Thank you.
 
Hold up on the closing of the thread!

UPDATE!

As I stated, the week before my warranty was to expire I tried to take apart my Anafi to reconnect the ribbon cable between the motor and mother board. I was unsuccessful as the connection point on the motor board was too damaged (Sheared almost).
I then started my final courses of action that I had decided upon in the event my warranty was not honored. I put in a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and started a complaint with my state's Consumer Affairs. I also placed an email to an executive at Parrot. I told this executive that Parrot was not honoring warranties and that in my case they were asking for something that was 100% impossible (A Flight Log). I stated my case and received an immediate email response. I was told that my case would be reopened and today I got an RMA to return my drone. I was told that after reviewing my log??? that the drone was defective. We all know that I have no log, but I did place my full SD card contents in Google Drive and had sent the link to Parrot months ago so maybe they got the log from the files we are not allowed access to?

Regardless I am very happy with this outcome as can be expected. I will keep everyone updated until this case reaches full conclusion.

I made sure that I told them that I did attempt to take apart the drone in a last ditch effort to get it to turn on so I do not feel this should be a problem.

I was so happy that I flew my regular Anafi for the first time since my Thermal crashed (April 8, 2020) and took some 360 Sphere Panoramas.
 
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Yesterday while looking for my lost cell phone, flying in film mode, between 6 to 10 feet was just about to end and was over a driveway, hovering and down went my Anafi Thermal land in a small stick pile. I had just put new props on a couple of days before. Only one prop was broken at the hub, the other was like new. Tried to get support but it ring for 3 or 4 times and nothing.
Reading the support page it says to contact the seller, Dronenerds. I did and almost instanly got emails from Parrot with case number. They are to get back with me. The clock is ticking.

This the jason file.
 

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I am still waiting for my replacement Anafi Thermal. There seems to have been some kind of error and I was told today that it WILL ship on Monday from a New Jersey warehouse so hopefully sometime midweek this slow motion nightmare will be resolved.
 
Well after 4 months and 11 days, I finally received my replacement Anafi Thermal! They sent a brand new drone in the box.
I had only sent back the Anafi Thermal itself, so I emailed Parrot to see if they want the case, batteries, controller and other items. If they want it I will send it back and consider this whole case closed, if they do not respond or say to keep it so be it.
While waiting for my replacement, my warranty expired so this Anafi Thermal will be my last, hopefully it can avoid the random fall from sky.


Advice to others reading this thread who themselves are in need of warranty coverage:

  • Contact Customer Support Immediately
  • Give all information requested
  • If they want a Flight Log for a crash give it to them
  • If they want a Flight Log for a crash where a Flight Log was not generated, explain this to them and ask for a higher up representative if they are unable to understand this
  • Be polite and professional even when speaking with people who lack the knowledge that you do. (We all know from our various jobs that not all of our coworkers are equal)
  • Do not give up
  • Contact the vendor or Authorized reseller to see if they can help
  • Contact higher level employees at Parrot, but ensure to remain polite and professional
  • Log all interactions whether through email, phone calls

I hope to have the new aircraft in the air by this weekend.
 
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