Another Anafi Drops from the Sky

[lemieszek]

GoPro grounded Karma's when they were falling from the sky, what precisely is parrot doing about it?
I would say everyone's Anafi has the potential to fall from the sky now with the current firmware issues.
Parrot seems to be investigating on a case by case basis when in reality it is more than likely their firmware which is causing the problem.
My programming/coding knowledge is very limited in comparison to some people but surely re-releasing the previous firmware version modified so that the Anafi see's it as an upgrade rather than a downgrade and forces previous firmware back to the Anafi, Controller and batteries would be the easiest & quickest solution. This would buy them time to work out the problems with the new firmware and not sacrifice peoples expensive purchases.

There are a lot of IFs you have to go through before you can make that claim.

They very quickly released another update for 6.6.6. Mine, at least, was running that replaced version.

Besides, as far as I can tell there are about 4 cases reported in this forum. I don't have all the numbers that would allow me to gauge how much of anomaly this is.

Parrot responded to me in a matter of minutes after I talked to them. It's been one (very atypical) week. As far as I can tell, they're moving as fast as possible and I have nothing that says otherwise.

Those are the facts.

 

[catkinson80]

***THIS HAPPENED PRIOR TO THE MOST RECENT UPDATE***

I don't know whether this person is a member of this forum and the video doesn't have much detail or audio but it appears his Anafi falls from the sky for no apparent reason.

 

[lemieszek]

I don't know whether this person is a member of this forum and the video doesn't have much detail or audio but it appears his Anafi falls from the sky for no apparent reason.

From the date this was posted, it happened before the latest update.

 

[catkinson80]

Yes your correct I just checked, I looked at the first comment date instead of the post date, my mistake.

 

[mrajic]

Hi there! One of the flights is only 3s long, so it's probably not a flight - just some time you turned it on and off, or tried to take off and couldn't. The other one is a long flight (almost 15 minutes). Is that the one that ended falling down? It ends at an altitude of 67cm above your takeoff location. But I know you mentioned you hovered for a long time after the "crash", so maybe this is the one where you hovered? In which case we don't have the crash flight in those files...

I had just two take offs that day, and the first flight was 29 seconds long according to the video length taken by Anafi, and not 3 seconds as shown on the .json file..

In that regards I updated my first video. Anyone who has an opinion what might of happen, please comment.

 

[Deleted member 3201]

I had just two take offs that day, and the first flight was 29 seconds long according to the video length taken by Anafi, and not 3 seconds as shown on the .json file..

In that regards I updated my first video. Anyone who has an opinion what might of happen, please comment.

I believe the Anafi fell for your girlfriend/wife !!

but seriously, I think the sonic landing sensor malfunctioned, it maybe though the Anafi was on a surface and thus needing to stop the rotors?

During the landings I saw many times the '***' (2 tail rotors) move up a little bit before stopping. I wish we could read the sensor data

 

[robinh]

Coming to this thread a bit late, but my ANAFI dropped straight down after 30 seconds of hovering. This was after drone, handset and battery update (failed) after a few months of inactivity. Now it will switch on, connect intermittently but won't switch off. I have to pull the battery. I have tried the hard resets but I only just realised this is just a settings reset of your current firmware. I don't know how to get new firmware into it or backdate. Parrot have opened a case for me but are not replying. Anyone got any suggestions please?

 

[lemieszek]

Coming to this thread a bit late, but my ANAFI dropped straight down after 30 seconds of hovering. This was after drone, handset and battery update (failed) after a few months of inactivity. Now it will switch on, connect intermittently but won't switch off. I have to pull the battery. I have tried the hard resets but I only just realised this is just a settings reset of your current firmware. I don't know how to get new firmware into it or backdate. Parrot have opened a case for me but are not replying. Anyone got any suggestions please?

Would you have your JSON from the flight so that I can comparte them with the others I have?

 

[robinh]

I'm sorry but I don't know what that is. Does anything here help?
Parrot problems

The drone isn't connecting to my PC via USB cable.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

He is asking for the log file that is saved to the FreeFlight 6 App It is called a .Json file and can be sent from your phone (FF6) to someplace like a email address or Dropbox or Google drive. Once you have the file you can upload it here in a message.

 

[robinh]

Would you have your JSON from the flight so that I can comparte them with the others I have?

 

[h-elsner]

lemieszek: 0914_2020-03-06T213431-0500_E9FB13_0005
mrajic: 0914_2020-03-08T133243-0500_1550FD_0021
robinh: 0914_2020-03-12T092844+0000_C67C15_0004
SkySpy: 0914_2020-03-15T092739-0500_2E5006_00BE


Four cases that looks the same:

• Suddenly loss of telemetry. All report a drop from the sky. This indicates either total power loss or total flight controller shutdown. Most probably sudden power loss.
• Nowhere flight mode 4 (Landing) seen nor flight mode 0 at the end (landed) as expected.
• No suspect discharge behaviour till the end (drops or someting like this).
• No alerts at all.
• WiFi signal strength OK. Except @SkySpy had a not explainable decrease of WiFi signal 15s before telemetry ends. I would expect the signal should going better than nearer it comes, hmmm. Maybe direction of antenna.
• GPS available all the time. Number sats OK. Delta coordinates plausible. Means for me, GPS OK.

I would like to hear what Parrot say about this (if they someting).

br HE

 

[lemieszek]

lemieszek: 0914_2020-03-06T213431-0500_E9FB13_0005
mrajic: 0914_2020-03-08T133243-0500_1550FD_0021
robinh: 0914_2020-03-12T092844+0000_C67C15_0004
SkySpy: 0914_2020-03-15T092739-0500_2E5006_00BE


Four cases that looks the same:

• Suddenly loss of telemetry. All report a drop from the sky. This indicates either total power loss or total flight controller shutdown. Most probably sudden power loss.
• Nowhere flight mode 4 (Landing) seen nor flight mode 0 at the end (landed) as expected.
• No suspect discharge behaviour till the end (drops or someting like this).
• No alerts at all.
• WiFi signal strength OK. Except @SkySpy had a not explainable decrease of WiFi signal 15s before telemetry ends. I would expect the signal should going better than nearer it comes, hmmm. Maybe direction of antenna.
• GPS available all the time. Number sats OK. Delta coordinates plausible. Means for me, GPS OK.

I would like to hear what Parrot say about this (if they someting).

br HE

This is exactly right. Does anybody know if Parrot technicians follow this forum or should we e-mail this to them?

 

[Liger 1956]

I believe that the .json files do not tell the whole story. There are also files in the FDR directory of the Anafi's micro-SD card relatingbto each flight which, if I remember correctly, Parrot has asked for when analysing a crash. So far nobody except Parrot appears to have the capability to decode those files although some forum members have tried.

 

[charleslee]

This is exactly right. Does anybody know if Parrot technicians follow this forum or should we e-mail this to them?

They have there hands full with that f*** in Virus

 

[Chasbro]

I think its a bug in the firmware. I'm going to order an arm and patch up my old bird. Amazon has anafi refirb kits for $415 but I don't have enough confidence in the latest firmware to fly it. If they release new firmware I might get another unit. Until then I'll fly my beater. Anybody remember this same scenario with the bebop 1? Parrot released new firmware featuring " improved detection of errors". It caused the bird to suddenly drop from the sky but at least you got a motor error warning. Ok Parrot, the ball is in your court.

 

[robinh]

I suggest if you don't already have a support case open with Parrot then you open one and email a link to this thread.
There is a legal case against Parrot which could be taken to the small claims court. It's similar to the class action that was just won against Apple who were found guilty of slowing down old iPhones. I have a support case open where they asked standard questions and I answered but did not receive a reply. So I have just followed up with an email saying:
"Please see this thread. Please advise urgently how I can return to stable firmware otherwise I will be looking into legal action against Parrot for damaging my drone.
Another Anafi Drops from the Sky"

 

[Ana789]

[...] So I have just followed up with an email saying:
"Please see this thread. Please advise urgently how I can return to stable firmware otherwise I will be looking into legal action against Parrot for damaging my drone.
Another Anafi Drops from the Sky"

Did you send the email to parrot AND did CC it also to your own account?
Since only a receiving email in your account, that shows that Parrot was ALSO recipient of the we very same mail, can be seen as proof, that parrot most likely has gotten it!

At least, my experience in "difficult" to reach email service points, is: As soon I put me and perhaps some others under CC, they at least confirm that they got it.
You never know if you need it!

 

[Chasbro]

New item by Charles Brothers

photos.app.goo.gl

Here's what my flight graphics data looks like.

 

[SkySpy]

Agreed. As far as I'm concerned they're doing their job investigating what's going on and I'm far from having anything bad to say about their support so far.

Having dealt with Parrot support before on less serious issues only to have my cases closed without resolution makes it's difficult to remain positive. In this case I found no form on Parrot's website to request a warranty/support case number. I called support. Ethan sent me an email with a case number and a long list (3 pages) of request for information. The fact that Parrot does not have an online request form, nor a PDF that can be emailed or downloaded makes it difficult for me to view Parrot as a company that takes it's warranty obligations seriously. I copied the questionnaire and pasted it to a new email. Provided all the information and sent it back to support. I then received an email informing me that my request could not be processed from an email request. I was instructed to fill the "Online Form" request with a link provided. This link just took me to the normal Parrot website. I found no on line form. I called support again. This time I talked with Alex. He assured me that they had indeed received the information I had emailed. He claimed they were in the process of reviewing it. He said unless there was something missing in the information I sent they would escalate my case to the next level (whatever that means) and I would receive notice of this escalation this coming Monday. In my previous cases with Parrot. several "Mondays" went by with no update from support. Eventually I would get an email informing me that my case was considered resolved and closed. Pardon my pessimism but this all sounds too familiar.