Faulty Drone?

[Gerard55]

Had this happen last night and again today and i'm unsure what's going on. Was going to take it out to test visibility of the red strobe i had attached to the underside of the drone, but for whatever reason i couldn't get the drone to connect. It would power on (could hear the fan spinning) but that was it, no gimble movement no connection at all. And to power off i had to remove the battery as it would just continue to stay on regardless of me pressing the power button or holding it down for several seconds. After much faffing around last night when i got home out of the blue it started to function again, turned it off and on a few times and it had no issues connecting.

Brought it out today along with my mavic and the same issues occured, drone would power on but not connect and not move the gimble in any way to indicate a connection. Tried restarting my phone, restarting the controller, restarted the drone a bunch of times and got the same result each time.

No idea what's going on with it, is it possible this replacement is faulty? as the mavic had no issues connecting and flying using the same phone plugged into the controller.

 

[Gerard55]

Just turned the drone on a few minutes ago and it connected first time with no issues. Baffling this. The only difference this time around is i forgot to turn on plane mode on my phone and it connected first time..

Just turned it on and off again, same thing it wont connect and doesn't show up in wifi, guessing it has a faulty wifi controller or something inside.

 

[Gerard55]

After a lot of messing around, reinstalling the app etc it appears to be working again. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence this messing around

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I had this happen once with my newer Anafi. It would not connect. What I ended up doing was connecting the USB-C cable to the Anafi battery and the other end to the controller. If I remember right the LED lights will fash red for a second or two indicating its connected and recognized. Not saying this will fix your problems but its worth a shot if everything else fails.

 

[Gerard55]

I had this happen once with my newer Anafi. It would not connect. What I ended up doing was connecting the USB-C cable to the Anafi battery and the other end to the controller. If I remember right the LED lights will fash red for a second or two indicating its connected and recognized. Not saying this will fix your problems but its worth a shot if everything else fails.

It's happened 3 times now and just seems to be a random occurrence, it seems like the drone needs a connection to the app for the battery to know to power down when the button is pressed, otherwise it just sits there and you physically have to remove it. Not sure if it's an app issue or the drone is getting stalled in a specific stage of its startup and can't continue.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Unlike other UAV's the Anafi just needs a fast touch to turn on and off the battery. In the manual it also says to turn on the Anafi first which is opposite of everything I was told to do but this is what Parrot wants you to do. So maybe give that a try.

 

[Gerard55]

Unlike other UAV's the Anafi just needs a fast touch to turn on and off the battery. In the manual it also says to turn on the Anafi first which is opposite of everything I was told to do but this is what Parrot wants you to do. So maybe give that a try.

Hmm, wasn't aware of that turning on the drone first. I'll have to do that later to see if it makes a difference.

Never realised this either:

a) If you use Parrot Skycontroller 3, unfold the central part of the controller to power it on, wait for the steady dark blue light, then plug your device to the controller using a USB cable.

I generally just connect the phone to the controller then open it, will have to do it their way from now on.

 

[Gerard55]

Had it out tonight, same thing all over again, tried their method of what goes on first and nothing. According to another phone i had with me it wasn't even broadcasting a wifi signal so there was no connection between the 2 for it to "boot up" into. It seems like it gets to a certain stage then just gets stuck there, the odd time it managed to get past it but that doesn't happen often.

 

[Gerard55]

And out of the blue after yet again reinstalling the app it decides to work again.

 

[SMOk3]

In the manual it also says to turn on the Anafi first

I've always turned my SC3 on first. Not sure if it makes any difference, never had no problems occur doing so.

@Gerard55 Have you tried a different device? Just a thought.

 

[Gerard55]

I've always turned my SC3 on first. Not sure if it makes any difference, never had no problems occur doing so.

@Gerard55 Have you tried a different device? Just a thought.

Only have the one phone to try it with, my brothers iphone i could try but doubting it would make a difference.

 

[Gerard55]

Seem to have fixed it (fingers crossed), removed the app, all the cache and data with it, then reinstalled the modded app. Working so far.

 

[Gerard55]

Well so much for that theory, was out tonight with it getting some footage, had a short flight, turned it off, travelled to my next spot, turned it back on and no luck getting it to connect. My mavic pro connects first time every time, when the parrot does this routine of it turning on but not having any gimble movement or trying to connect it doesn't even seem to be broadcasting a signal. I can check on my phone or the connect option and it doesn't show up on wifi on the phone and in the app doing the manual connect the drone doesn't appear either.

Restarted the phone, reinstalled the app, messed with the connections and nothing.

If it continues i'm going to get it replaced, just irritating bringing it out and then it decides it's not going to bother to connect for whatever reason. Even bypassing the skycontroller and just using the phone as a controller it would not appear tonight so i can only assume its a fault with the drone.