Crash with brand new Anafi

[dominic]

But my anger here was caused by 2 reasons:
1. Discussing this theme in a theme about a new crashed drone.
2. domincs post #13 with "let's other people crash first ".

LOL!! You are that unhappy with that reality.
Of course, failure is the mother of success. It is fated. if others don't sacrify themselves first to learn from the failure experiences. The rest of us cannot be success. It's how the world works. The problem is whether you are willing to sacrify yourself and make good for the others.

 

[dominic]

I'm not going to put another cent on this drone. I got a lemon and the support service is a disaster. They have a bunch of preformatted emails, requesting all sort of details that you spend hours

It is not a news anymore and you are not the first one. It has been their biggest failure of Parrot business since AR Drone and it is their culture that we cannot change. They keep losing loyal customers due to poor customer service. It's the root cause that it ends their business. Not the market trend. If you are keen to the marketing. As of today. You will notice that the no. of hit count of all of the Parrot youtube video are extremely small. Just thousand to several thousand hits only within the first few months of each launch. That hitting rate is far less than the time of AR Drone, Disco and Bebop 2 or even Jumping Sumo (LOL...) when there was over 20,000 - 100,000 hits in the first few months of the launch when a new official youtube video is published by them. So we now know they only left a few thousand active users supporting their business now. Poor company ruined by their own poor culture.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

LOL!! You are that unhappy with that reality.
Of course, failure is the mother of success. It is fated. if others don't sacrify themselves first to learn from the failure experiences. Others cannot be success. It's how the world works. The problem is whether you are willing to sacrify yourself and make goods for the others.

dominic,
HERE, that means Anafi and it's updates and not the wide world with other possible aspects.
Speaking about Anafi I read nearly every post on crashs or nearly crashs in this forum. Obvious is, that reports on crashs are not or rarely correllated with a new update. Main causes were instead:
1. Piloting fault (including flying under extreme or not recommended conditions)
2. Hardware problems (battery, motors, props ...)
3. ...
These problems can be watched since the beginning, that means can be found in posts from July 2018 until now with no certain relation to updates.

So my advice is:
Do updates as soon as they are available.

 

[dominic]

Do updates as soon as they are available.

Well, typical tone of Parrot supports. Like pointed out: "Our drone can't be wrong.". You know... that is exactly the way they keep losing customers.

 

[DeWe]

I'll believe the flight data are on the SD card, if there are any data available.
Put the SD card out of the Anafi and insert this one with an adapter into the PC. If I remember right, there is a log subdirectory

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I'll believe the flight data are on the SD card, if there are any data available.
Put the SD card out of the Anafi and insert this one with an adapter into the PC. If I remember right, there is a log subdirectory

Yes there is but no one knows how to read the .Bin file.

 

[DeWe]

Send it to Parrot... They rejected you Request, because they want see the log.... You could provide this log.
On other hand : look in the forum : there is a program available and also a link to another program (simular the link from Parrot Support side) to used the file in combination with Google earth(?)

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Well, typical tone of Parrot supports. Like pointed out: "Our drone can't be wrong.". You know... that is exactly the way they keep losing customers.

The point that Dirk_Anafi is trying to make is this. Most companies will not honor warranties if you are not up to date with firmware and software. I can tell you that I have been around since day one with the Anafi and suggesting that crashes happen more often from updates is totally wrong. Most crashes reported where either mechanical (broken prop, ESC failure) or pilot error. I had one Anafi replaced and had to fill out a form. One question they asked was I up to date on the firmware. I said yes, I do not know if they would have replace my Anafi if I said no. On my Autel Robotics UAV warranty it clearly states I need to be up to date or the warrant is void.
This warranty does not apply to:
1. Aircraft(s) not utilizing most current, or up to date, and publicly available firmware.

So if you cannot produce documented proof then I say drop the Parrot bashing and move on.
If you have a problem with Parrot take it up with the company.
This forum is not intended to be a mechanism for people to vent frustrations about manufacturers, distributors or sales from private parties. Please settle your differences with the seller, manufacturer and distributors through other means but not through our community.

 

[Niczko]

Send it to Parrot... They rejected you Request, because they want see the log.... You could provide this log.
On other hand : look in the forum : there is a program available and also a link to another program (simular the link from Parrot Support side) to used the file in combination with Google earth(?)

Alright I just checked that - thanks for mentioning.

I indeed found a file called log.bin dated 11 APR (date of the crash) and of size 59.51 MB.
Also, I mentioned to the customer support team that I shot a video on that day. However, all I have is an empty MP4 file (0 MB) and a TMP file of size 59.55 MB (both dated 11 APR). Note the size of that TMP file is similar to the log.bin file size so they must contain the same data. They at Parrot never told me to send over that TMP file - that's what makes me angry: the way they have of letting me down abruptly without looking for other elements of investigation - because that's not my fault if there's no **** flight data.

So I'm going to contact (again...) Parrot customer service and ask explicitly if I should send over any or all of those files. LOL!

 

[DeWe]

I wish you good luck

 

[pmh1nic]

Of course this a long discussed theme with different opinions.
My opinion:
A product with the possibility to make updates is actual with the newest update and my guarantee refers exactly to this actually updated product.
If the actual update is faulty and something wrong happens, I would tell the vendor and possibly return the product.
On the other hand as a vendor I would reject a returned product, if a problem occured with using an old FW or software.

But my anger here was caused by 2 reasons:
1. Discussing this theme in a theme about a new crashed drone.
2. domincs post #13 with "let's other people crash first ".

I think you make valid points. Regarding refusing warranty work because someone didn't do the latest update, I think the manufacturer would have to prove the crash was caused as a result of not doing the last update. Say the update was to allow users to set the return to home camera angle but the crash occurred because of some flaw in the flight plan feature the manufacturer would have a hard time refusing the warranty claim since the failure had nothing to do with the last update.

 

[DeWe]

during initialising a new tablet, also the latest FF6 was installed. I haven't no chance only to check, if the livestream working without update the SC3 and the Anafi in front.

Gesendet von meinem viennalte mit Tapatalk

 

[Niczko]

So here's the latest chapter about my Anafi dead after 2 weeks. Sent the files to the support as suggested here - 110 MB of data, and it turns out they can't read their own files. As usual, Alex is happy to help and sorry for the rest.

This is Alex from Parrot support team and I am happy to be helping with your case # 1312438, concerning your Parrot Anafi.

Thanks for your reply.

We are sorry to tell you that we couldn't retrieve the flight data using the files that you have sent, kindly note that we can only offer chargeable repair to fix the drone.

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

Kind Regards,
Alex S.
Parrot Customer Support
Office Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
+44(0)2034815677

To ensure we receive your response, please do not modify any formatting or content of the original message (including any reference codes or footers).

So yeah - I'm screwed. Prospective buyers are warned.

 

[DeWe]

Out of my experience with own build copters : Does you have make a new Calibration after SW update?

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

110 MB??
Which files did you send?

 

[Niczko]

Well, as mentioned earlier, I sent all the files created on the SD card on the day of the crash.
There's a log file (55 MB), a TMP file (55 MB) and an empty MP4 file.

That's all I have, cannot do more than that.

 

[SauderMultimedia]

May be a moot point and take it as you want, but whenever I do a firmware update, I'll also reset and re-calibrate everything before I fly just to make sure I don't have any leftover bits of code cached in there somewhere.

 

[Rocky the FS]

That is a very good procedure and I do the same. Drone, controller, and camera.

 

[Niczko]

Not sure if you got it: my drone is dead, it won't turn on. So obviously it won't calibrate either

 

[SauderMultimedia]

Not sure if you got it: my drone is dead, it won't turn on. So obviously it won't calibrate either

No, no, I got that and understand. My comment was more of a general comment rather than directed toward your issue. Hopefully yours will get replaced and then my comment might apply.