I'm discovering the Anafi is buggy and not really reliable

[ihavequestions]

It's just a crapshoot whether something will go wrong it seems. Launched it yesterday and for whatever reason, when I got home, the video seemed to have been sped up. I guess maybe it entered hyperlapse mode? For whatever reason, when I got home, I found the video to be many times as fast as it should have been. The other day when I landed, it did not see the ground and it was a large thump when it landed. And a lot of times the video freezes when it looses connection and doesn't recover even after it regains connection. I've been only about 3 flights and so far, these are the issues just with these flights.

Anyone else discovering issues like this?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Nope

 

[Landbo]

Nope. Mine has over 130 flight on the log.

Regards, Leif.

 

[Chasbro]

I've got 77 flights and no problems.

 

[Kilrah]

4 flights here, one video feed loss like you, and "SD card errors" twice when I used another one than the stock one even though no other device has a problem with it.
On 2 flights I had very poor video link even after attempting manual channel changes, and that wasn't in particularly bad RF environments.

Also I have a device that if I connect it to the aircraft it just kills the aircraft's wifi AP until the next aircraft reboot...

So yes, there are certainly some bugs.

 

[ihavequestions]

4 flights here, one video feed loss like you, and "SD card errors" twice when I used another one than the stock one even though no other device has a problem with it.

Also I have a device that if I connect it to the aircraft's wifi it just kills the aircraft's AP until the next aircraft reboot...

So yes, there are some bugs.

Had that too. After reformatting on my Mac and then doing it again on the Anafi itself, that issue seemed to be resolved. Takes a little work and playing around with the FAT32 format.

 

[slvervper99]

Don't know about being unreliable, no drone is perfect. I have had minor issues that can be fixed. It's a funny issue but probably not as funny if the In-app purchase were more but I have had to remove the app from my phone a couple of times, after reinstalling the app - the in-app purchase is also remove so Freeflight 6 ask me to restore purchase which I did - what happened was it made me look like
I re-purchased the in-app features so I-tunes charged me another $2 so I didn't care much but if it was the $32 that Agustine said before Parrot made a sale on the in-app - I would be furious.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Don't know about being unreliable, no drone is perfect. I have had minor issues that can be fixed. It's a funny issue but probably not as funny if the In-app purchase were more but I have had to remove the app from my phone a couple of times, after reinstalling the app - the in-app purchase is also remove so Freeflight 6 ask me to restore purchase which I did - what happened was it made me look like
I re-purchased the in-app features so I-tunes charged me another $2 so I didn't care much but if it was the $32 that Agustine said before Parrot made a sale on the in-app - I would be furious.

LOL
Get yourself a cheap android phone and be done with iOS

 

[PascalG]

So far so good in a month of use. Comparing to the two DJI sparks I ve had (lost or failed) I find the Anafi and FF to be more reliable. I hope Parrot doesn’t start loading the firmware and app with too many extra stuff and keep it simple.

Almost every flight with spark recorded numerous errors in the logs and frequent issues. I also think DJI made a big mistake using WiFi instead of a cable to link the phone to the remote

That said, Anafi appears sensitive to the memory card used. I tried a 64 GB I used on Spark and my GoPro but it won’t work in Anafi. No big deal

It is also important to put the phone in airplane mode, every glitch I ve had (frozen app, interference etc) was when I had forgotten to set airplane mode

Overall signal reliability depends on the environment. I typically use Anafi in the Bahamas away from civilization so interference on 2.4 is minimal and offer good range.

 

[ihavequestions]

It's simply not reliable. Los of signal and it will rotate on it's own without my control as one example out of many.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

It's simply not reliable. Los of signal and it will rotate on it's own without my control as one example out of many.

Don't think so. Loss of signal naturally means having no control. "Rotating on it's own": Never saw this.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I agree with Dirk, if it is rotating on its own with or with out signal you have another problem. I would contact CS and ask why it is doing that.

 

[j5898]

Perhaps you need a recalibration - that could perhaps explain the rotation. Or you might have interference. I wonder if the Anafi would complain of interference? - this is a major issue with my other drone (mavic pro) - it complains a lot of times - sometimes refusing to take off completely. I never had the Anafi complaining even less refusing to take-off because of interference.

On the memory card topic I had some very bad experiences - but the issue is simple - because of the 4k you need a very fast card - the Sandisk ExtremePro microSD A1 (32GB, Class 10) 90 MB/s write speed will do - the Sandisk Extreme microSDXC (128Go, Classe 10) 60MB/s write speed will not - both are class 10 but the write speed is different - with the later the drone would simply stop recording after a minute or 2.

 

[PascalG]

First of all try using the original SD card to see if the video records properly. Also, try playing ghe video in a diffeent device. You didnt say how you played it.

Next, did you put your phone in airplane mode. That is important to avoid interference

How far were you when you lost signal and what environment? In developped areas, you will get interference. Which band were you on?

When you said it rotated on its own after loss of signal, how far was it and how much rotstion? If it lost signal, it should have RTHd, was it just turning around to rth? And yes try a calibration

 

[Kilrah]

Yes I figure it was the initial rotation at the beginning of an RTH.

I have done the job I basically bought it for and it indeed is a pretty good toy, but really just a toy. The camera is good, but the rest is way too buggy and flimsy for comfortable serious use.

- Aircraft and RC initially didn't connect when on location, even after a couple of minutes. Reboot did fix it.
- SD card errors a couple of times, on the original card.
- Camera feed died once, all black, couldn't recover without coming back home and power cycling aircraft. Was after switching to play mode to check a photo.
- Video link was terrible, wasn't even 100m away but had to deal with constant several-second drops. Kinda livable for photos, but still annoying.
- Took out the card at the end and didn't notice the friggin SD clip popped off. Only noticed later when going to put it back in after copying, but of course I was now miles away. Fortunately was passing close to the location in the evening so could go back there, and yes there it was on the ground. At least it can be clipped back on and there's no permanent damage.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I have had SDcard errors but it was something I did to make them. Once I figured out what I did wrong (flight plan) issue was solved.
Never had a connection problem at start up
Never had camera feed die completely even 1 mile away.
Video link seems to get better for me the farther away I am, I know makes no sense but it has happened on several occasions.
Know that the SDcard holder is not the best I tend to just leave the card in there till I am at home to edit video\photos.
Maybe I am just lucky but I have had very little problems with the Anafi other then props. I have had 3 that I needed to replace for hairline cracks. Better safe then sorry with changing out props. Props are cheap, Anafi not so much

 

[PascalG]

Altogether i find Anafi less buggy than Spark.

I m not a big fan of the SD card holder, i prefer the eject style but so far its been holding up and i always take card out after every flight.

Once again, make sure the phone is in airplane mode. This is critical for reliability and transmission stability.

I ve routinely gotten up you 3/4 NM range although in low interference areas

 

[Ozziebattler]

Yes I figure it was the initial rotation at the beginning of an RTH.

I have done the job I basically bought it for and it indeed is a pretty good toy, but really just a toy. The camera is good, but the rest is way too buggy and flimsy for comfortable serious use.

- Aircraft and RC initially didn't connect when on location, even after a couple of minutes. Reboot did fix it.
- SD card errors a couple of times, on the original card.
- Camera feed died once, all black, couldn't recover without coming back home and power cycling aircraft. Was after switching to play mode to check a photo.
- Video link was terrible, wasn't even 100m away but had to deal with constant several-second drops. Kinda livable for photos, but still annoying.
- Took out the card at the end and didn't notice the friggin SD clip popped off. Only noticed later when going to put it back in after copying, but of course I was now miles away. Fortunately was passing close to the location in the evening so could go back there, and yes there it was on the ground. At least it can be clipped back on and there's no permanent damage.

Why does everyone take the SD card out??

 

[Liger 1956]

Old habits die hard. I would worry about a powered up Anafi with props on taking off by itself whilst connected to the computer. With my home brew quads I always remove the props for safety when using the computer to alter settings on the flight controller.

 

[Kilrah]

Why does everyone take the SD card out??

Because cards fill so quick you need to swap or empty them when on a location, stock card only stores one flight's worth and the dang thing throws "SD errors" with almost everything else.
If you don't swap, because 20MB/s USB2 is meh when you can read your card at 80MB/s in a reader and get back in the air 4x faster.