Locating a lost Anafi - Theory only

[Liger 1956]

If I were to fly my Anafi a long way away and something was to go wrong, e.g. hit a tree or accidentally land, is there any way that I could get the last known GPS coordinates of the drone from FF6 to aid with the search? I think that the coordinates are recorded on the Anafi SD card and transfered to the Parott cloud vua FF6 after the flight but what if I have a crash? I must stress that I have not lost my Anafi but I want to be prepared if the unthinkable happens.

 

[Landbo]

If I were to fly my Anafi a long way away and something was to go wrong, e.g. hit a tree or accidentally land, is there any way that I could get the last known GPS coordinates of the drone from FF6 to aid with the search? I think that the coordinates are recorded on the Anafi SD card and transfered to the Parott cloud vua FF6 after the flight but what if I have a crash? I must stress that I have not lost my Anafi but I want to be prepared if the unthinkable happens.

Hi.

You can always see your quad's last known position on the map in the APP. It's even if you've had FreeFlight 6 shut down. Try yourself and open the APP and look at the map.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any possibility of reading the latitude and longitude of the last known position. We must have complained to Parrot about that shortcoming!

Regards Leif.

 

[PascalG]

If you open the flight data in FF, you can zoom in close enough to see where the recording stopped within about 50' you can then open an app like google map, go to the spot just by matching the terrain

Obviously this is only work if the controlled received positions all the way to the end which is not guranteed to happen in case of a malfunction

I guess Parrot could have included the option to tap on the track and read th lat/lon

 

[IM35461]

When my one fell out of the sky I used the app to try and help find it. If still connected to the controller you can make it beep also.

My one had lost connection but I only found it in the bushes because it was beeping.

The app shows the last know position and click on the map on Android to load Google map thing to take you to that location.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

After a motor shutdown Anafi starts to beep the motors.

The app will show Anafi the device and home position. The controller has a compass built in which is displayed in the app so you can rotate the controller to aim at Anafi then walk in that direction: you will see the gap close. When you get close you should hear Anafi beeping.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

After a motor shutdown Anafi starts to beep the motors.

The app will show Anafi the device and home position. The controller has a compass built in which is displayed in the app so you can rotate the controller to aim at Anafi then walk in that direction: you will see the gap close. When you get close you should hear Anafi beeping.

Vegasrobbi, do you know exactly which sensors are built into the SC3 and which sensors of the smartphone can be used?
I ask because there are many different theories about this.

 

[Liger 1956]

Thanks for the info everybody. It gives me more confidence go fly my Anafi further away with some confidence that I could find it if things go wrong.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

Vegasrobbi, do you know exactly which sensors are built into the SC3 and which sensors of the smartphone can be used?
I ask because there are many different theories about this.

I don't know what the SC3 supports. Anafi uses the device GPS for X and Y or you will not have Follow, it's not like DJI optical tracking only.

If the device has an on board barometer Anafi will use it for dynamic altitude in conjunction with VPS altitude; if not VPS only.

During the preflight Follow check the app will indicate what sensors are supported in the device.

 

[Ozziebattler]

If you want to make sure you find it velcro a GPS tracker to it like a Trackimo because if its not powered up after it crashes you wont find it

 

[Naviator]

Crashed my Anafi into very thick brush (bushes) at 100+ meter distance due to pilot error and overly complacent piloting...

Used the last known position on the FF6 map and using the Google Map search function it led me to within 1 meter of the Anafi.

Motors were not beeping as the battery had shifted aft enough to disconnect, so located it visually. Would have been much easier to locate if body was patterned with contrasting color (such as hi-vis orange), as seeing a dark grey drone in thick brush is a most challenging exercise.

 

[PCUK]

I must admit that the drone symbol was hard to see on my phone. Hit a tree-top while out of sight yesterday - doooh! but found it due to good loud beeping. Looking carefully now I can see the drone position and my position on the map even though they've both been switched off all night and the drone is still off! Makes me a lot happier having found this works well.

 

[Island Xpress]

After a pilot error I flew (crashed) my Anafi into a bush some 80m away in an rather inaccessible area.
I found it very helpful to see on my controller the distance between Anafi and the Controller.
Walked in the direction where I lost her, watching the decreasing numbers for the distance until they began to increase again, then walked in a roughly 90 degree angle until I finally reached a distance of only 1m.
Looking around I saw Anafi stranded on the top of a bush, only then I could hear the beep and see the light in the bright daylight.

 

[Drabbs]

how about one of these to help with the final search after the map has got you close

The small tracker that sticks to anything | Tile

The Tile Sticker sticks to anything. Our small, waterproof Bluetooth tracker has an adhesive back, 3-year battery life and 150 ft range. It provides effortless, long term convenience.

www.thetileapp.com

 

[Nidge]

how about one of these to help with the final search after the map has got you close

The small tracker that sticks to anything | Tile

The Tile Sticker sticks to anything. Our small, waterproof Bluetooth tracker has an adhesive back, 3-year battery life and 150 ft range. It provides effortless, long term convenience.

www.thetileapp.com

One aspect of these BT trackers that could pose an issue, and actually be the cause of a loss, is if you are also using 2.4GHz as a control link. There could be adjacent and/or co-channel interference to the Anafi’s onboard receiver resulting in a disconnect.

Regards

Nidge.

 

[d95gas]

Bluetooth networking transmits data via low-power radio waves. It communicates on a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (actually between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz, to be exact).

 

[DanLins]

Normally Bluetooth signals are too weak to reach out more than 50 or 60 feet. Not really a huge aid unless your Anafi is in a really thick mess of brush.

 

[Island Xpress]

How would you get a directional advice?