Poor connection issues

[dharlow]

I know this has been discussed many time here and I have searched the forum. For the moment, I have a very simple ( I hope) question. When I fly my anafi with my controller connected to my phone with usb, should I disable my wifi on my phone? I have not been doing this and I am having BIG problems with poor connectivity. Even with the drone no more than 200 ft from me and NOTHING between me and it, I am getting red warnings. And, if there is a thread that discusses this problem in depth, I would appreciate the link.
Thanks for your answer.

 

[Landbo]

I know this has been discussed many time here and I have searched the forum. For the moment, I have a very simple ( I hope) question. When I fly my anafi with my controller connected to my phone with usb, should I disable my wifi on my phone? I have not been doing this and I am having BIG problems with poor connectivity. Even with the drone no more than 200 ft from me and NOTHING between me and it, I am getting red warnings. And, if there is a thread that discusses this problem in depth, I would appreciate the link.
Thanks for your answer.

Yes you should try and put your phone in fly mode.

You may want to try and fly a turn off phone / tablet and see if it helps in the reach. You should make that test on a flat field so you can follow the quad if you lose the connection for a safety.

If you still can not reach a range between your anafi and controller that is far beyond VLOS when you fly outside the cities, either your Anafi or controller is defective.

By the way, I still have connection with my Anafi at a distance of far over 2000 meters.

Regards Leif.

 

[PascalG]

I always set the phone to airplane mode. Whenever i forget, i also get poor connectiom error messages even at just a few hundred feet. Some also recommend turning off iWatches and nearby ipads

Also, check which band Anafi is using. 5ghz is less sensitive to interference but offer shorter range. If flying in undevelopped areas, switching to 2.4 ghz will drastically increase range. I ve gotten as much as 4000 to 5000 feet in low interference environment

 

[Skassa]

Depending of location in my country with 5ghz 166 channel i get 8000feet in semiurban area at 150 meters of altitude and no obstacles from the controller and anafi.

 

[dharlow]

Thank you all for your suggestions

 

[IRR]

Good suggestions here to help improve connectivity. Unfortunately that's one of the tradeoffs of the Anafi compared to a Mavic Pro with proprietary technology like occusync. It'll be interesting to see if Parrot puts more R&D into their own version as it can really be a limitation for the Anafi. Or if they stay with WiFi to maintain a certain price point. That being said, given the right conditions I've got it out to 2.8 miles (4500 meters) with no drop in FPV.

 

[PascalG]

Since users are supposed to maintain LOS with drones, there is little incentive for manufacturers to improve range. DJI didnt use Occusynch is the spark

 

[dharlow]

Since users are supposed to maintain LOS with drones, there is little incentive for manufacturers to improve range. DJI didnt use Occusynch is the spark

If you look at my original post, I never fly out of LOS(it was implied, not outright stated). All I want is to be able to fly my drone in LOS with nothing between me and it and have it stay connected. If I can do that, I will be happy.

 

[PascalG]

If you look at my original post, I never fly out of LOS(it was implied, not outright stated). All I want is to be able to fly my drone in LOS with nothing between me and it and have it stay connected. If I can do that, I will be happy.

Never said you did... I was just explaining why few manufacturers will include long range tech like Occusynch

 

[LEE YONG IL]

I read all above.
My case is also poor wifi connectivity and short range.
I did many things; hard reset, soft reset in FreeFlight6, phone reboot, airplane mode, but still I got short range not further than 500 meters.
Is either my Anafi or controller defective?

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

- Use a Wifi Analyzer app to detect not or less used channels.
- Switch to another channel or to 5 GHz band if allowed in your country.
- Fly in a way that there are no obstacles between you (SC3) and Anafi and the SC3 antenna points directly to Anafi.
- Always switch your smartphone to flightmode.
- Switch off Apple watch or other smart watches using wifi.
- Go to a higher position with SC3.

If all of that doesn't help: contact Parrot support.

 

[LEE YONG IL]

- Use a Wifi Analyzer app to detect not or less used channels.
- Switch to another channel or to 5 GHz band if allowed in your country.
- Fly in a way that there are no obstacles between you (SC3) and Anafi and the SC3 antenna points directly to Anafi.
- Always switch your smartphone to flightmode.
- Switch off Apple watch or other smart watches using wifi.
- Go to a higher position with SC3.

If all of that doesn't help: contact Parrot support.

Thanks.
I will try again.

 

[PascalG]

I wonder how switching to 5.8 GHZ would help getting better range vs 2.4. Everything I read on the issue shows the lower freq offers far better range. I understand you will get less interference on 5.8 but also shorter range

And yes I don’t nevessarily believe everything printed or posted on line

Here is an interesting article on the issue. Again, take it with a grain of salt and has a starting point for further research. I found the Fresnel Zone part pretty interesting.

I manually selected 2.4 after dispointing range during my first few flight on 5.8 and never looked back

8 ways to increase your drone's range

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I find the RC antenna on the Anafi to be very directional. I do not suffer from bad connections but there are times when trees are in the flight path I will see my signal bars dip down. By just moving the antenna up or down or left to right the bars come back to almost full signal. So I can see people who are not used to RC equipment and how signals work having a hard time with it. There are options out there but first they will void your warranty and second they are not cheap.

 

[Drbgaijin]

I find the RC antenna on the Anafi to be very directional

I have noticed that too, Agustine.
When I started learning to fly the Anafi, I tended to follow it's flight visually, but only moved my head to follow it. Only recently did I realise that I was not following the flight by direction with the controller too. Now I make sure that, as I turn my head to follow, I also turn the controller as well.
Regards
Douglas

 

[Skassa]

I have noticed that too, Agustine.
When I started learning to fly the Anafi, I tended to follow it's flight visually, but only moved my head to follow it. Only recently did I realise that I was not following the flight by direction with the controller too. Now I make sure that, as I turn my head to follow, I also turn the controller as well.
Regards
Douglas

Yes i do same and believe or not with 5.8ghz manual set 166 channell with a lot of interference [2.4ghz devices semiurban/urban zone] at 150mt of altitude i reach 2400 meters without loose the fpv signal in my country.I think 2.4 ghz is better only without wifi interference zone (lake,sea,mountain) someone reach over 3500 and 4000 meters.

 

[Flight_Seeing]

I am sadly on my 3rd Anafi. 1st was excellent. Quick to initiate GPS and never had connection issues. Then it developed a gimbal fault. Parrot support were useless but thankfully my local currys store exchanged it. This was an original Anafi.
I upgraded to the FPV however drone #2 would not start up correctly and it struggled to get GPS. Footage wasblurry and un useable! Also connection to the drone always seemed weak! Back to the shop.
I got another FPV version in exchange. Footage is crystal clear so far. GPS takes an age to initiate but my biggest concern is conectivity to the drone.
I flew over an estuary today - raised position, clear line of sight. I totally lost wifi to my drone no matter what i did it would not respond. I had the warning it would RTH but it didnt even do that. For several mins i lost wifi to my drone and it did nothing at all. This was the theme of the flight.
I flew the drone back to me once i had signal and just as it returned even at 20ft forward and 177m up it lost wifi again. Good few mins without wifi
no interference warnings just no signal.
This got me thinking. My original Anafi flew without issues. Could it be the new FPV body is not as good for wifi/gps??
Its a slightly different shape and the legs are directly under the props. I think im right in saying the wifi and gps antenna are in those legs. Could the slight change in design have affected it?
Anyone else swapped who could comment?

i think ill be converting to another brand if the Anafi continues to struggle

 

[Liger 1956]

How far away from you was the Anafi when you first lost WiFi? Did you just lose the video feed or did you also not have control?

 

[Flight_Seeing]

How far away from you was the Anafi when you first lost WiFi? Did you just lose the video feed or did you also not have control?

it was about 1000 feet away. 350 feet up. Did not lose a physical video image feed but lost total control. When control came back it was frozen for some time. I could see drone moving but not see any change in footage

 

[Liger 1956]

I cannot tell from your profile but are you in a country that uses the FCC power levels of WiFi e.g USA and Canada, or in a European country that uses the lower power CE compliant WiFi?