And yet another unwanted autolanding

[Clrk]

Hey guys,

This start to be a classical topic on this forum...

Just casual fly over water with my 1 year old battery, wasn't very far away, so around 20% I start to come back.
I get no RTH warning neither autolanding warning, when suddenly at 16% Anafi decided to autoland. Over water.

I tried like crazy to reach the coast, here is where I managed to land.
Pretty close, right? (Actually, 1 meter close)

Everything is up to date, running on Android. I'm surprised I did not get any warning before, not really trusting this battery anymore.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to any computer as I'm travelling, so can't check the battery stats.

Anyway, an other testimony of a untrustworthy battery...

Any recommendations to avoid that ? I mean, excepting landing at 50%...
I used to land at 10% in the past with no issues

 

[70Falcon]

Yikes! That was a close call...

 

[Ana789]

Aside getting a new/other battery, I'd try to empty it total, recharge, empty it total, recharge, empty it total, recharge and hover it one full battery till it lands automatic!

To empty the battery fully, I would leave the bird on, on the ground, and transfer Pictures/videos, till the bird shuts down!

Perhaps you could give that a try?

Nice place, you are. Just no Parrot dealer around, methinks!

 

[AnafiPilot1]

If you are going to re-test this battery - In a controlled manner, try first reseting the battery by holding down the on/off button till does the red light dance.

 

[S.C.C.]

Are you sure it's about the battery ? Autolanding happened to me only a few days ago, just after hand launch, battery at 32%. Instead of hovering, it jumped 2-3 meters higher, then just as quickly tried to land... and crashed in the high grass. I managed a 8 minutes flight a bit later, which was aborted near the end, and landed it safely (with ~2-3%).
I was not touching the joysticks at all, just watching anxiously the screen trying to understand what was up, but I couldn't see any error message (until something like "motor stopped", when it was on its back on the ground, beeping... but this was after the crash, the motors stopped because thee props hurt the grass I suppose).
It's also up to date, Flight Plan was on, but not running.
I suspect a bug in the function to maintain altitude, when the GPS signal is not 100%, but what do I know ? (except maybe that GPS position can jump a few meters away for no apparent reason, at least on handheld GPS devices for hiking).
Edit : I wrote to Parrot, but I got a standard answer from "Ethan" as if I wanted to replace the drone, no real answer to my remarks.

 

[Ana789]

Are you sure it's about the battery ? Autolanding happened to me only a few days ago, just after hand launch, battery at 32%. Instead of hovering, it jumped 2-3 meters higher, then just as quickly tried to land... and crashed in the high grass. I managed a 8 minutes flight a bit later, which was aborted near the end, and landed it safely (with ~2-3%).
I was not touching the joysticks at all, just watching anxiously the screen trying to understand what was up, but I couldn't see any error message (until something like "motor stopped", when it was on its back on the ground, beeping... but this was after the crash, the motors stopped because thee props hurt the grass I suppose).
It's also up to date, Flight Plan was on, but not running.
I suspect a bug in the function to maintain altitude, when the GPS signal is not 100%, but what do I know ? (except maybe that GPS position can jump a few meters away for no apparent reason, at least on handheld GPS devices for hiking).
Edit : I wrote to Parrot, but I got a standard answer from "Ethan" as if I wanted to replace the drone, no real answer to my remarks.

Sounds a bit, what mine has, every now and then
Handstart, no really hovering, loosing power a bit (does not look like a landing;-), but I keep it in the air by throttle high and it stabilized after some seconds.
When it is minimum 3-5 meters in the air, mostly.
My guess is temporary power management and/or ground sensor malfunction

 

[crossroad]

Version of Freeflight ?
Firmware version ?

 

[Clrk]

Thanks for the replies !
I will try testing and resetting the battery. The health on the app is at 92%.

I don't think the GPS had issues as I was flighing for 10min with super clear sky, and at 60m high.

For the versions, the Android app is at 6.6.5-rc1 and the drone at 1.6.4.

So maybe, if the health is 92%, I will substract 10% always for safety...

By the way, no Parrot reseller indeed, that was french polynesia

 

[Rexgallorum]

Thanks for the replies !
I will try testing and resetting the battery. The health on the app is at 92%.

I don't think the GPS had issues as I was flighing for 10min with super clear sky, and at 60m high.

For the versions, the Android app is at 6.6.5-rc1 and the drone at 1.6.4.

So maybe, if the health is 92%, I will substract 10% always for safety...

By the way, no Parrot reseller indeed, that was french polynesia

This firmware is definitely ruining our flying experience: sometimes my anafi takes off like a rocket and by its own reaches about 10mt...then goes down like a stone and it stops and bounces 1,2,3 times at about 1.50mt...then starts hovering.

If the takes off goes right...I start flying and then all of a sudden it starts yawing without any reason. No wind. No electromagnetic interference. Nothing wrong except the fact my drone points wherever it wants. Then it starts again following the correct path.

NO WAY. THIS IS NOT SERIOUS. PARROT MUST FIX THIS ISSUES!!!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

You would think if this is firmware related you would be seeing everyone complaining about it but I do not. ?

 

[Clrk]

You would think if this is firmware related you would be seeing everyone complaining about it but I do not. ?

That's indeed the reason why I would think about a battery thing

 

[crossroad]

That's indeed the reason why I would think about a battery thing

1. Try with another battery.
2. Try with Freeflight 6.6.2 official or mod apk.

 

[Ana789]

Just found this:

ANAFI’s smart battery hard reset
Hard resetting ANAFI’s battery is useful to correct any battery issue. Parrot recommends a battery hard reset
whenever the battery’s behavior strays from its expected behavior.
1. Plug your smart battery to a power source.
2. Regardless of the battery’s behavior, press and hold its power button for 15 seconds.
3. Release the power button: the battery’s LED run successively in green and red, then flash alternatively in
green.
4. The battery’s hard reset is complete.


Perhaps that helps?

 

[Rexgallorum]

Just found this:

ANAFI’s smart battery hard reset
Hard resetting ANAFI’s battery is useful to correct any battery issue. Parrot recommends a battery hard reset
whenever the battery’s behavior strays from its expected behavior.
1. Plug your smart battery to a power source.
2. Regardless of the battery’s behavior, press and hold its power button for 15 seconds.
3. Release the power button: the battery’s LED run successively in green and red, then flash alternatively in
green.
4. The battery’s hard reset is complete.


Perhaps that helps?

Hi!
Unfortunately not, I tried several times to reset the batteries.
Nothing changed at all.

Simo

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Hi!
Unfortunately not, I tried several times to reset the batteries.
Nothing changed at all.

Simo

After the reset, one or two complete charge / discharge cycles must be done so that the electronics store the minimum and maximum values, as this will calculate the charge level. A smooth reset just clears this. For mobiles this is the way to do it, I think that is the case here.

 

[Clrk]

Quick follow up after the different tests:
With a different battery, everything seems to be fine
With the same battery, after a reset, I tried a flight in sage environment (no water). This time I got the RTH warning, then the auto RTH (at 40%, but wimd was strong), then drone came back at 20%, and then announced emergency landing upon arrival (20%!)

So, maybe I need few more cycle to reset the battery, but there's one thing I can't explain: why the hell didn't I get any warning or RTH when the emergency landing got activated above water?!

 

[Ana789]

The RTH is assumingly set on the batt calculation and distance
You where to close to Home, to get a RTH because of battery %
The auto landing kicks in, as soon the batt voltage is to low, to make it back.
Which happens,surprisingly, in case the cells voltage drop unexpected

 

[Clrk]

The RTH is assumingly set on the batt calculation and distance
You where to close to Home, to get a RTH because of battery %
The auto landing kicks in, as soon the batt voltage is to low, to make it back.
Which happens,surprisingly, in case the cells voltage drop unexpected

On that case, I was 400m away from the drone, that usually triggers the RTH

 

[Jagerbomb52]

With one of my UAV's the manual states this. I am not sure if Parrot has something like this built into their firmware but I suspect they do. This is what my manual says for my X-Star Premium

If the aircraft is only within 50m away from the home point when your aircraft’s battery level reaches 25% (Low Battery Warning), the aircraft will not perform the Go Home procedure.
•
If GPS is unavailable when Failsafe is activated at Low Battery Warning, Go Home procedure will not be executed. In this case, the aircraft will land automatically when the remaining battery level reaches 15% (Critical Low Battery Warning).

 

[Clrk]

With one of my UAV's the manual states this. I am not sure if Parrot has something like this built into their firmware but I suspect they do. This is what my manual says for my X-Star Premium

If the aircraft is only within 50m away from the home point when your aircraft’s battery level reaches 25% (Low Battery Warning), the aircraft will not perform the Go Home procedure.
•
If GPS is unavailable when Failsafe is activated at Low Battery Warning, Go Home procedure will not be executed. In this case, the aircraft will land automatically when the remaining battery level reaches 15% (Critical Low Battery Warning).

Well that could be a good hint!