Lat/Long of Anafi in FF6 display

[DanLins]

I sure do wish I could see the lat/long position of the Anafi itself in realtime on my screen. If you have a crash, even with VLOS, in a moment of inattention, a json file is not always generated in the FreeFlight controller. Stuff happens fast. Contact between controller and drone are lost, which means you either;
1. possibly lose the drone, or
2. If you had a screen recorder running at the time, you will at least have the distance between the controller and the drone. With this, you can use Google Earth or something similar, to mark your controller position, and then draw a circle with that as the center, using the distance (radius). Then, on the arc of about where you think the drone was last time it was seen, use the Google Earth /tools/path to move along at approximately 100' segments left/right as a reality check, using the lat/long for each point on the path to aid in your field search.
3. Other options I've not thought of. Maybe some of you have a different method?

I've used this method a couple of times with success. However, even some cheaper drones display the realtime positioning, so I don't see why Parrot couldn't do this. I'd be willing to lose a little screen real estate for this. Another way might be to allow the transmission of the json file within milliseconds of a catastrophic event, on the way down, that immediately get sent back to the FF6. However, if the crash happens before it gets sent, all bets might be off, especially if the battery is ejected...

Dan

 

[dmbrody]

Well doesn’t it keep the last known position on the map?

 

[DanLins]

Nope, with no JSON file generation, there is no flight data at all stored on the FF6. You see this in crash reports all the time, many of which result in loss of the Anafi.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Almost all crashes cause the battery to get ejected which is why the .Json file does not get created. So a lot of us have started using small tight rubber bands around the battery to hold it in place if and when a crash might happen. Is this a 100% fix? We do not know but it does increase the chances of getting a log file and if the power is still on you can use the buzzer\bell to locate the Anafi in the App.

 

[DanLins]

Excellent suggestion, Agustine. It has the additional benefit that the MicroSD card will not fly away when the battery is ejected.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[dmbrody]

Nope, with no JSON file generation, there is no flight data at all stored on the FF6. You see this in crash reports all the time, many of which result in loss of the Anafi.

I understand that issue, but in the scenario described by the original poster, he doesn’t need the latitude and longitude, or any other telemetry data. He can just look at the map in FreeFlight6. It will show the last known location of the Anafi. It will also show his current location.

So he could literally just start walking until the dot that is him, lines up with dot that is the last known location.

I’m pretty sure the last known location will stay on the map until he reinitializes (powers on) the Anafi again. So even if he quits FreeFlight6 and restarts it, the location will be marked.

I could be wrong about this completely. Maybe it doesn’t show the last known location every time, but that’s what I remember. It certainly isn’t something I’d like to test.

 

[DanLins]

My understanding is that while the JSON file is normally created and closed on the controller (cell phone), unless the data stream from the drone gives an 'end of flight' signal to the controller, the file never gets created. No map, no GPS, etc., gets created in the app for that particular flight or crash.

This is only based on what I've seen on my controller, so I may be completely in error here also. It is not a pleasant event to experience. On my last crash, the Anafi sat upside down in a hay field filming video of 'close up' hay for over 1/2 hour. No motors were running, no communication with the controller. Ugh....

 

[Jagerbomb52]

The last known location does not need the .Json file. When I lost my Anafi last January all I had to do was navigate to the part of the App that shows last know location on the map. 3 months later I found it 30-40 feet from where it said it would be. No log file was generated until I found it and reconnected to the Anafi.

Guess What I Found Today

Snow has been really melting around here and thought I would check out where the Anafi was last seen. Sunk up to my knees in a few places but where it said it should be there are patches of grass. Thought if I could see the battery I might know which tree it was up. Was just about to give up and...

parrotpilots.com

 

[DanLins]

OOPS! I just looked on my phone and found I was wrong. It took a long time, several hours at least, to get the flight data on this last crash, but it DID finally show up. By that time I had already recovered the drone using the method outlined above, since I was not sure I would ever actually see the JSON file. This changes my thinking on this.

Now, based on that photo and the associated file, it would be easy to walk to within 50 ft. of the drone. I relied on my earlier method due to uncertainty of ever getting the JSON file. I'm going to load it into ShowAnafiLog and see what I can learn from it.

I don't quite understand why it took so long to display the crash flight data on my phone, but it sure appears like the JSON file is not needed for location, if one is patient, as suggested by Agustine.

 

[AugerIn]

um, screenshot from my ff6 after clicking on the drone, showing the last known location where I landed yesterday, including lat/lon

 

[DanLins]

My ff6 on occasion decides to not record a given flight. Is there something wrong with it?

Well, it doesn't bother me all that much, since now record all my flights with a screen recorder on my cell phone.