New Anafi Arrives Today!!!

[VonZipper]

Look what the man in the brown truck left for me today!

I am very impressed with the quality of the Anafi and very excited. I was a little concerned about the build quality based on comments and reviews I've seen on Youtube. But, my worries were sorely misplaced. It appears to me that the construction was purpose-engineered to be lightweight and durable! Couldn't be more impressed. Everything about it speaks to its high-quality!

I've been just finished charging the Anafi which took about an 90 minutes, starting from a half charge with a USB-A. Waiting for full charge on the Skycontroller so I can do the updates. Darkness is falling fast so I doesn't look like I'll get to fly today. Well, that will give me time to get familiar with everything tonight and I'll get an early start tomorrow (fortunately, I'm off from work tomorrow!)

Some of my accessories have been trickling in as well. Most impressive among those is the MC-Cases ruggedized hardcase. I'm very impressed by it. It was a little smaller than I imagined it would be (as was the Anafi - even after watching hundreds of hours of video reviews of it). However, it is perfectly sized for the Anafi and its accessories, well laid out and well engineered. What you can't see from this picture is that there are two additional battery slots underneath the body of the aircraft. So, you could have storage for a total of six batteries in the case: two underneath the body, three along the front edge of the case and one installed on the aircraft (if you had a mind to have that many batteries!) More likely, I'll use three of the open battery slots for other type accessories. Here's a link to the manufacturer's website, if you're interested.

Case for Parrot Anafi - Carrying Case by MC-CASES® - made in Germany

Anyway, can anyone tell me what is the proper sequence for start up/initializing/pairing? The included documentation is pretty scarce on the subject.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Congratulation! Everything looks fine.
I open the controller, put my smartphone into the holder, connect USB cable and wait for FF6.
Then I place Anafi on it's takeoff point and switch it on.
After BOTH GPS icons have changed to green: takeoff.

 

[VonZipper]

Congratulation! Everything looks fine.
I open the controller, put my smartphone into the holder, connect USB cable and wait for FF6.
Then I place Anafi on it's takeoff point and switch it on.
After BOTH GPS icons have changed to green: takeoff.

Okay, Dirk. That seemed to work well. Thanks!

All the components linked up quickly and began the update process. The whole process only took about six minutes. Now, I just have to wait for the earth to spin around back into the sunlight!

 

[VonZipper]

I took out my new Anafi for a test drive today! I was so impressed by it's performance. Its flight performance was very smooth and stable in a slight breeze. I was blown away by how quiet it is. Knew I had made the right choice as soon as I heard it. The online video comparisons don't do justice to how quiet this quadcopter is!

The screen on my iPhone 6 was so terrible that I was barely able to try out the automated flight maneuvers because I couldn't see the screen at all. I decided that I have to do two things: one procure a screen hood and get a phone with a better screen. In fact, minutes into my flight with my third battery, my iPhone overheated and shut down. I terminated the flight, packed it up and called it a day.

I flew two flights in manual mode and found it very easy to control. I found the default rotation setting (10, i think) way too slow so I increased it to about 50 and found that worked well for me. I tried Sport mode briefly but went back to Film mode and continued practicing in purely manual mode. I did manage to try boomerang and dolly zoom once when the sun wasn't completely blocking my screen. The dollyzoom worked as advertised but the boomerang looked just like the dolly shot to me. I'll try again when I can see the screen better.

I did test the RTH function at several different altitudes. It performed well and returned to within a foot of the starting point on all three tests. I will say, I think the altitude is off on the high-side. I don't have any way to measure this but it seemed significantly higher than the 60, 90 and 120 feet altitudes that I set. Has anybody else noticed this? Or, maybe I just need to have my MARK-1 Eyeball re-calibrated!

The replay of the video on my computer was not smooth at all. In fact, I'd say it was jerky. I don't know why but I'm not concerned just yet. I don't even know what video settings were applied because, again, I couldn't see the screen! I'll try again tomorrow. I also to get a couple of larger SD cards, that 16GB card filled up in no time at all.

I'm waiting to see what the new phones Apple is going to release on the 13th before I replace my phone. So, I decided to go ahead and make a temporary hood for my iPhone. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to use to construct the hood but when I saw my wife folding up a 12-count Pop Tart Box to put in the recycle bin, I knew. It's a good fit for my iPhone 6 and an even better fit for her iPhone 7+! I cut out a opening in the bottom to manipulate the screen, cut a hole for the USB cable and reinforced it with some packing tape. I didn't have any flat black paint so I painted the exterior flat gray and lined the interior with black construction paper. Not sure, how effective it will be but I'll let you know after I try it out tomorrow. I'll include a photo of budget Pop Tart Hood!

Anyway, very happy with my decision to go with the Parrot Anafi! I hope I can try out some of the programmed flight maneuvers tomorrow.

 

[IM35461]

The default 4K videos won't play on my laptop but are okay on my one year old Windows 10 desktop.
You could try the new 2.7K video mode on Anafi.

Rotation on Anaffi I suspect is slow by default as it only has electronic image stabilization in that plane and fast rotation can make the image shudder.

 

[VonZipper]

Yeah, IM, maybe that was the problem. I was trying to replay on my laptop. Maybe the old desktop will work. I meant to switch to 1080p today but I forgot. I also had forgot about tthe 2.7K.

Screen was still bad. Slightly improved, but still bad. I will definitely need a phone with an improved screen. I think I have it down between the Apple X (or their new improved version to be announced later this week) or the Huawei Ascend XT2.

The "Pop Tart" hood did give me a little better visibility of the screen and I was able to try most of the preprogrammed flight maneuver functions. Haven't had a chance to check out any of the video yet. But they all seemed to work as advertised.

My Anker 30W USB PD Charger came in today and I've got it charging now. Checking to see if it will charge in the advertised 105 minutes or not...

Overall, I am very happy. It is the easiest flying drone that I've ever flown. Super stable and easy to operate. I dialed back the rotational speed to 40 degrees from 50 degrees. What value do set your rotational speed at for filming? The default setting for film mode is 10 degrees and the default for sport mode is 30 degrees. Just curious what folks are using when they're filming... Flying again in the morning!