I knew RC reception was bad, but this seems a bit extreme...?

[lemieszek]

Ok, so I'm starting a few mapping missions over an urban area I'm studying. I'd been using a Spark and Litchi for these missions till recently so I'm just getting the hang of the Anafi and Pix4Dcapture.

I drew a polygon about 450m x 450m around me, 120m in altitude, and Pix4D said it should take 10 min... nice safe mission to get started. RC, bird and iPad all close to 100% battery.

Wait for good GPS reception, hit start, off it goes...

Exactly 41m above my head, I lost all reception. I didn't get a "heavy interference" warning and it didn't get choppy - it became as if the drone was turned off entirely. The bird kept climbing, got to its altitude and began the mission. Still no reception. I'm turning my RC around, pointing it up, etc, and nothing.

About 3 min into the mission I get out of Pix4D and into FreeFlight. Try again. Nothing at all. I grab a metal cookie can I have lying around and try to use it as an improvised signal booster. Nothing. Hit RTH like crazy. Nothing.

The bird flies its mission and comes back overhead. Somewhere in the middle of its descent it starts responding to my commands on the RC. I land it safely.

I knew the SC3 is weak, but 41m of range seems a bit extreme. Yes, it's an urban environment, but I've flown my Spark 2.7km out from the same spot - video got choppy but I had communication all the while.

Wifi channel set to "auto" and both bands are available to me.

Any contributions?

 

[Skydreamer]

I dont think its sc3,i would say its your Anafi drown in wifi interferance...did you check wifi channels in freeflight6 network settings,which channels are taken,which one are free.....here is small example,aprox 100meters from my house is city water department ,small building with 3 omni directional antennas ,from what i can tell they also using some kind of wifi extender,all 2.4ghz channels are taken ,that same signal is not letting me fly over the state park thats located right past that building.....here is picture of my Anafi right before it got disconnected and auto RTH,distance from my Skycontroller 3 to Anafi was aprox .170 meters/yards...
Note: My Skycontroller3 is moded.

 

[lemieszek]

I dont think its sc3,i would say its your Anafi drown in wifi interferance...did you check wifi channels in freeflight6 network settings,which channels are taken,which one are free.....here is small example,aprox 100meters from my house is city water department ,small building with 3 omni directional antennas ,from what i can tell they also using some kind of wifi extender,all 2.4ghz channels are taken ,that same signal is not letting me fly over the state park thats located right past that building.....here is picture of my Anafi right before it got disconnected and auto RTH,distance from my Skycontroller 3 to Anafi was aprox .170 meters/yards...
Note: My Skycontroller3 is moded.

I'll fly manual on the same spot tomorrow and open the wifi channel interface while it's on the air to see what's happening there. You'd think the auto setting would have taken care of any busy channel...
I'll report back.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[Ana789]

I'll fly manual on the same spot tomorrow and open the wifi channel interface while it's on the air to see what's happening there. You'd think the auto setting would have taken care of any busy channel...
I'll report back.
Thanks for the reply.

Try switching it to 5.8Ghz!

 

[Deleted member 3201]

this is normal; you need to point the controller at your anafi.
Having it directly above you will mean that after 20 meter or something the directional signal of the controller is moving 100% past it

 

[MustangPhil]

Hello, as an occasional user of Pix4DCapture with the Anafi, here is my little experience (it may be different in your case) :

- In the vast majority of my flights with Pix4Dcapture, the WiFi Signal was Ok, but I first check it with a quick recognition flight with FF6.
- During this first flight (launched with FF6), I check the different heights of the ‘four corners’ of the future Pix4DCapture mission, that no tree or obstacle will be in the route, and I check consistency of the WiFi Signal. I did missions much farther than 450m around me and had no transmission problem (I flew 30 or 50m above the ground to get a targeted GSD around 1cm/pix). During a reco flight in an industrial zone, I had strong interferences just after take-off. So I chose to manually switch to 5.8Ghz In FF6 and had no problem after that in this particular area).
- I land, close FF6, launch Pix4DCapture, then fly the mission

I am not sure if this change in WiFi frequency is taken into account in Pix4DCapture, but Pix4DCapture will not allow to choose a frequency, so I think it relies on the setting in FF6...
For sure the ‘automatic selection of the most favorable WiFi band’ does not chose 5.8Ghz

hope this helps...

 

[lemieszek]

this is normal; you need to point the controller at your anafi.
Having it directly above you will mean that after 20 meter or something the directional signal of the controller is moving 100% past it

I moved the controller around as much as I could. I pointed it directly upwards (that is, 90º up from a normal position). Besides, the drone moved ahead to an angle not that far from the horizon. No reception all along.

 

[lemieszek]

Ok, so I took the bird out today and ran three tests: leaving wifi channel at "auto", it picked a really crowded 2.4ghz channel for some reason. I picked the middle channel of the 5.8ghz band, took the drone out and at about 350m it complained a little bit about interference. I opened the wi-fi setting pane and I could see a little wave on my channel. I took it back, switched to the highest 5.8ghz channel, took it out again and got to about 500m with no issues (video got a little choppy but that's all). Took it back, switched to auto again, took off, and at 90m it started complaining of heavy interference.

So my take is: "auto" channel is useless (I could see the 2.4 channels were crowded even before taking off, so it's not a matter of it being busy where I flew to). Manually selecting a 5.8ghz channel did the trick (I didn't try Pix4D after that but I'm hoping it uses the setting from FF).

I'll report back once I've tested Pix4D after setting the channel manually.

Thanks everyone!

 

[BRC]

Often I fly in areas with lots of interference and usually get very good range
I also have found that auto channels are way to slow to switch, so I manually select in 5.8ghz range
In addition I have a dedicated phone so have wifi off, airplane mode on, and bluetooth off
If I have another cell phone with me I usually will turn it off or set it to the side
Usually if my signal weakens it's because I have become lazy and don't have the proper orientation of controller or obstructions in between
btw... there are apps available to scan wifi channels

Happy flying!

 

[lemieszek]

Often I fly in areas with lots of interference and usually get very good range
I also have found that auto channels are way to slow to switch, so I manually select in 5.8ghz range
In addition I have a dedicated phone so have wifi off, airplane mode on, and bluetooth off
If I have another cell phone with me I usually will turn it off or set it to the side
Usually if my signal weakens it's because I have become lazy and don't have the proper orientation of controller or obstructions in between
btw... there are apps available to scan wifi channels

Happy flying!

Thank you! When you say "very good range", what's that in numbers?

 

[BRC]

Some days better than others - and I do fly VLOS
1km plus should not be an issue
I really don't use flight plans for distance as i want to be in control at all times
btw... i use standard FF6 app for both android and IOS devices - in FCC mode

 

[MustangPhil]

@lemieszek, Thanks for your feedback.
If you try FF6, manually Change the frequency (for example the highest canal in the 5,8 GHz band like you did) then close FF6 and fly with Pix4DCapture, I would be glad to have your impression with this.
Does Pix4DCapture keep the last band used by FF6 ? (And how would it do it, as Pix4D asks us to close FF6 prior to launch Pix4DCapture ?)
As you found a ‘frenquency jammed area’, And you could find a band that works well, you will quickly have the answer ;o)

Another point that seems to have a negative impact on the signal (and @BRC started to mention it), is the proximity of other smartphone or connected devices (smartphones of other people near you... even a ‘smart connected watch’ can cause a mess). So it’s not only the proximity of antennas or towns packed with WiFi boxes...

 

[lemieszek]

Ok, I can confirm that once you manually select a 5ghz band on FF, the choice is valid for Pix4D. Had excellent reception throughout the mission today.

 

[MustangPhil]

One last thing with Pix4DCapture And the Anafi is the gimbal position :

If you set a gimbal position in Pix4DCapture sub-menu (for example nadir/90°), be careful with the actual gimbal position, because a slight touch on the gimbal switch on the SC3 will be set in Pix4DCapture without any warning. I one flew a mission with the guimbarde at the horizontal position (must have touched the reset pos button)

To avoid this, check the pictures taken while you are in flight (icon on top of Pix4DCapture screen to switch between the mission plan and the pictures it takes in real-time).

 

[Gundamx9x1]

hello all! Can anyone tell me from experience if the anafi works better with iOS or Android? As I have noticed most if not all problems are coming from Android users

 

[lemieszek]

hello all! Can anyone tell me from experience if the anafi works better with iOS or Android? As I have noticed most if not all problems are coming from Android users

I frequently use both (got an Android phone and an iPad) and I think everything works equally well with both.

Edit: FWIW, a lot of the posts on this forum are about problems because you don't usually come post about a good day of flying you have. If you read this and other posts you'll see the matters are mostly resolved. The falling Anafis were an issue with a firmware update that was corrected within 2 days, and the reception thing is mostly a matter of band selection...

 

[Gundamx9x1]

I frequently use both (got an Android phone and an iPad) and I think everything works equally well with both.

Edit: FWIW, a lot of the posts on this forum are about problems because you don't usually come post about a good day of flying you have. If you read this and other posts you'll see the matters are mostly resolved. The falling Anafis were an issue with a firmware update that was corrected within 2 days, and the reception thing is mostly a matter of band selection...

Thank you for your prompt response I actually posted in a few other threads my problem where others were having similar problems, I'll get to the point I got a used anafi and I made sure everything was updated to the latest sw and all was well I was flying at about 150' altitude at about 50'-100' away on channel 165 in airplane mode in a remote area in the dessert far from everything and it just decided to stop responding at around 40% battery and as I posted in the other threads when It stops responding to my controls it starts to ascend on its own and or free fall either a few feet or all the way to the ground as if its barometer is received conflicting info. I have performed a hard reset and soft reset in the app and also the remote but have not fully re-tested yet and the phone question has to do with the fact that I noticed on iOS it has a rating of around 4.7 where on Android it has a significantly less rating of 3.6 which would mean Androids are experiencing more problems? But anyways would you give any recommendations that I should perform before flying again? As this drone has magnificent potential if I weren't so scared to crash/lose it and since I bought it second hand warranty is not an option. THANKS !