Not returning after losing connection

[Sportback]

Hi, I’ve had an issue today. I’ve taken off, the starting point have been recorded and for some reason I’ve lost the connection. The drone was 10 meters away in a clean straight way but I wasn’t able to reconnect. Instead of returning home, the Anafi has been static for 9 minutes until I’ve recovered the signal.

Is this normal? Adding to this, the drone was flying over the sea, so this could have been a little tragedy and the total loss of it.

Thanks in advance

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Yes, that's normal. The drone must be more than about 30m away to start RTH.

 

[Sportback]

Yes, that's normal. The drone must be more than about 30m away to start RTH.

Thanks!

 

[Zamzara]

I wish they'd change this for that very reason.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

I wish they'd change this for that very reason.

For which reason?

 

[Zamzara]

Being over the sea 25 metres away and having a random loss of connection.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

I think, this behaviour is ok because below 30m the drone is in VLOS, so you can stear it back home (over land or sea) and because a complete signal loss below 30m is probably very seldom.

 

[Shiningmonk]

While it is probably unusual to lose your connection so close to the drone, if it happens, what are you supposed to do if RTH only works at 30 metres? I'm also assuming that the automatic RTH on low battery only works at 30 metres.

 

[PGTART]

loosing singal so nearby likely means your phone isnt up to the job to perform all operations.

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

Hi, I’ve had an issue today. I’ve taken off, the starting point have been recorded and for some reason I’ve lost the connection. The drone was 10 meters away in a clean straight way but I wasn’t able to reconnect. Instead of returning home, the Anafi has been static for 9 minutes until I’ve recovered the signal.

Is this normal? Adding to this, the drone was flying over the sea, so this could have been a little tragedy and the total loss of it.

Thanks in advance

When you say you were not able to connect do you mean you waited in vain for the video feed to return or did it not obey your controller inputs? Sometimes it will have a crash of the Free Flight 6 app but there is no actual loss of control. If a drone is in contact with the controller it won't engage RTH because it is in contact with the controller... The solution to this is to reboot the app. Naturally, when your drone is over water this isn't the first thing that leaps to mind. If you are in clear line of sight you don't need the screen to fly, just fly it VLOS. If the controller has crashed for some reason reboot that as well, at ten metres away reestablishing contact should be straight forward.

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago when the drone lost signal for no obvious reason and it returned to home a little less precisely than I would like. I had no control and it was hovering over the edge of a very cold waist-deep lake. Fortunately, it was just within reach of my tall son who asked me whether he could catch it like a Spark. Yes, you can snatch it out of the air and turn it 90 or more degrees over and the motors will cut out. After this incident, I played with a few more scenarios and I have experimented with rebooting the app and the controller mid-flight, although so far only when it has been hovering low and nearby. To boost your confidence it might be a good idea to test an emergency scenario so you can see what happens if you reboot the controller and app while the drone is hovering a modest distance away, at a height that you could grab it out of the sky if it didn't respond.

 

[Sportback]

When you say you were not able to connect do you mean you waited in vain for the video feed to return or did it not obey your controller inputs? Sometimes it will have a crash of the Free Flight 6 app but there is no actual loss of control. If a drone is in contact with the controller it won't engage RTH because it is in contact with the controller... The solution to this is to reboot the app. Naturally, when your drone is over water this isn't the first thing that leaps to mind. If you are in clear line of sight you don't need the screen to fly, just fly it VLOS. If the controller has crashed for some reason reboot that as well, at ten metres away reestablishing contact should be straight forward.

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago when the drone lost signal for no obvious reason and it returned to home a little less precisely than I would like. I had no control and it was hovering over the edge of a very cold waist-deep lake. Fortunately, it was just within reach of my tall son who asked me whether he could catch it like a Spark. Yes, you can snatch it out of the air and turn it 90 or more degrees over and the motors will cut out. After this incident, I played with a few more scenarios and I have experimented with rebooting the app and the controller mid-flight, although so far only when it has been hovering low and nearby. To boost your confidence it might be a good idea to test an emergency scenario so you can see what happens if you reboot the controller and app while the drone is hovering a modest distance away, at a height that you could grab it out of the sky if it didn't respond.

Thanks for your reply.
After taken off, I flew the drone 1mt up and 10 meter in front of me and over the sea (10 meters above the sea more or less), after this I turned 90 degrees the drone just to stare to me and suddenly the video feed in the app (I wasn't flying with the controller) went to black and displayed the "Not connected" message.
After waiting for two or three minutes to reconnect I turned off the wifi in my phone and turned it on again because I wasn't able to see the wifi signal from the anafi. The funny point in this is that I could reconnect when I walked away 3 or 4 meters from where I was And with a heavy stone stretch of wall between the drone and me... At that point my phone saw the anafi wifi, connected to it normally and could recover it.


Thank you in advance

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Maybe a HF reflection on the water surface?
I would always use controller & smartphone with Wifi connection between Anafi and controller (smartphone in airplane mode).

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

Thanks for your reply.
After taken off, I flew the drone 1mt up and 10 meter in front of me and over the sea (10 meters above the sea more or less), after this I turned 90 degrees the drone just to stare to me and suddenly the video feed in the app (I wasn't flying with the controller) went to black and displayed the "Not connected" message.
After waiting for two or three minutes to reconnect I turned off the wifi in my phone and turned it on again because I wasn't able to see the wifi signal from the anafi. The funny point in this is that I could reconnect when I walked away 3 or 4 meters from where I was And with a heavy stone stretch of wall between the drone and me... At that point my phone saw the anafi wifi, connected to it normally and could recover it.


Thank you in advance

I have never even attempted to control the Anafi with the phone. I don't see the point. The only time I have ever looked at the Anafi's Wi-Fi signal on my phone was when the drones had come down somewhere else, either a crash or forced landing. Even then all I did was see that the drone was in Wi-Fi range, I have never even put the Wi-Fi code into the phone. The controller is simply so much better at maintaining the signal and I don't want to have any confusion about what device is in control. Ideally I turn off Wi-Fi in my phone and turn on 4G data so the map can update even if I go beyond the area I have preloaded. I only use the phone's Wi-Fi to help find the Anafi on the ground. I have twice had to recover a downed Anafi. Walking around with a phone and occasionally looking at it looks less sad, suspicious and hilarious than walking around sadly holding a controller that clearly isn't controlling anything.