Return to home software mistake discovered.

[DiscoBeb2anafiuser]

Anafi. I dont know about my Bebop2's or Disco's yet. BUT RTH is a very important button to me. It has saved me (my drones) many times. I use it all the time flying because it keeps me from having to fly it back near me... BUT it is a must have when i loose connection and sight. So i execute it with a button press on the skycontroller even though i dont have a connection. And it works. Yes, even when the controller and phone say they aren;t connected Ithe RTH button on the skycontroller does get the command through... Kudos to Parrot. All hail king Parrot. Amen. BUT BUT. The RTH button needs to be a one way button. Not a cancel function. Because I do not want my next press to cancel RTH I just wanna be sure it got the message. Afterall, i do not have communication. Nothing on the phone or skycontroller to tell me it received the RTH command. So im going to press RTH several times hoping (praying) that Anafi recieves one of them. BUT BUT NO. It recieved several of them. And every other time it recieves the RTH command it cancels RTH. SO YOU ARE NOW ADVISED. That multiple presses of RTH can leave your drone hovering wherever it is or was when you pressed the RTH and it was already returning home. Foul. Not intuitive. Dumb. Doesnt Any stick movement cancel return to home?. Why do i want my emergency, safe the day, please come back, button to cancel the reason Im pressing it for? Sure enough. The flight characteristics clearly showed that It started returning home then stopped and hovered...... then started returning home and stopped and hovered....... and started returning home again... my multiple presses of RTH was commanding RTH then canceling RTH. I feel real lucky that I pressed it an odd number of times. Hey and what about auto return to home because of battery life. If i press RTH when it is auto returning does it cancel it? I dont know yet. But I dont want RTH to do but one thing. Issue the command. I don't care if it stops each time i press it. Thats what the RTH causes anafi to do. Stop.... pick home direction.... then go. BUT i dont want the RTH button to cancel return to home. EVER. Heck if i cancel RTH i have to stick it anyway. And when i touch the stick it's gonna cancel RTH. So there is no reason RTH should ever canel Return to home. Cause when you loose signal you don't know nothing. And when you to homephone and on the sky controller (especially the skycontroller) BUT it should be a command only. Extra added comment. Later, i think i discovered that moving the sticks does not cancel RTH on anafi. Maybe bebop or disco. I dunno... i learn every time i fly i guess..

 

[AnafiPilot1]

Are you sure about your first statement, if you have no connection to the drone pressing RTH does not do anything - the RTH is initiated by the drone automatically after a certain wait time if it looses connection with the controller.

Once the controller and Anafi re-establish connection, then you can press RTH button to stop the RTH, that is by design.

 

[Skydreamer]

Another problem is that you can have rc control
but no fpv,in panic you are pressing rth button,triggering and cancelling rth.......moving sticks should be the only way to cancel rth

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Anafi. I dont know about my Bebop2's or Disco's yet. BUT RTH is a very important button to me. It has saved me (my drones) many times. I use it all the time flying because it keeps me from having to fly it back near me... BUT it is a must have when i loose connection and sight. So i execute it with a button press on the skycontroller even though i dont have a connection. And it works. Yes, even when the controller and phone say they aren;t connected Ithe RTH button on the skycontroller does get the command through... Kudos to Parrot. All hail king Parrot. Amen. BUT BUT. The RTH button needs to be a one way button. Not a cancel function. Because I do not want my next press to cancel RTH I just wanna be sure it got the message. Afterall, i do not have communication. Nothing on the phone or skycontroller to tell me it received the command the command. So im going to press RTH several times hoping (praying) that Anafi recieves one of them. BUT BUT NO. It recieved several of them. And every other time it recieves the RTH command it cancels RTH. SO YOU ARE NOW ADVISED. That multiple presses of RTH can leave your drone hovering wherever it is or was when you pressed the RTH and it was already returning home. Foul. Not intuitive. Dumb. Doesnt Any stick movement cancel return to home?. Why do i want my emergency, safe the day, please come back, button to cancel the reason Im pressing it for? Sure enough. The flight characteristics clearly showed that It started returning home then stopped and hovered...... then started returning home and stopped and hovered....... and started returning home again... my multiple presses of RTH was commanding RTH then canceling RTH. I feel real lucky that I pressed it an odd number of times. Hey and what about auto return to home because of battery life. If i press RTH when it is auto returning does it cancel it? I dont know yet. But I dont want RTH to do but one thing. Issue the command. I don't care if it stops each time i press it. Thats what the RTH causes anafi to do. Stop.... pick home direction.... then go. BUT i dont want the RTH button to cancel return to home. EVER. Heck if i cancel RTH i have to stick it anyway. And when i touch the stick it's gonna cancel RTH. So there is no reason RTH should ever canel Return to home. Cause when you loose signal you don't know nothing. And when you to homephone and on the sky controller (especially the skycontroller) BUT it should be a command only

I can't read it anymore, because it's so long and complicated that you write ...

 

[DiscoBeb2anafiuser]

Are you sure about your first statement, if you have no connection to the drone pressing RTH does not do anything - the RTH is initiated by the drone automatically after a certain wait time if it looses connection with the controller.

Once the controller and Anafi re-establish connection, then you can press RTH button to stop the RTH, that is by design.

Yes I am sure about my first statement. My last sentence statement was supposed to be deleted. I manage a couple thousand acres. Parts of my flights are pretty far away. Over two miles. Communications at that distance is weak. If you know RF communication, Generally the skycontroller (ground equipment) can transmit and recieve far better than the Drone (air or space equipment). The distance that one can be heard and understood by the other is not equal. Generally, the spacecraft can hear me but I cant hear the spacecraft. In ANAFI world. We define communications as Transmit AND Recieve. The logical and of both. Because the phone says: "not connected". But thats not true is it. It would be really reallly unsusual if the Skycontroller could not control the drone further than the drone can transmit back to the skycontoller. So there exists a control distance which is greater than the distance at which return signals from the drone can be successfully decoded and displayed on the phone. No confirmation, indication, talkback, acknowledgement, so Im in the blind. THerefore. The skycontroller return to home button should always issue the command. Never cancel it. One more thing. Next time you loose Communication with your anafi (I.e."not connected"). Climb. Odds are... it will.

 

[DiscoBeb2anafiuser]

Oh. Parrot made another illogcial mistake. Again on skycontroller 3. The led... bicolor LED. Somebody you has never had to do ten things as once thought of how to use that as an indicator. People. Gages, instruments, switches, levers, etc. There have been lots of studies done to increase proficiency of pilots and operators by laying out where, how big, and how the info is presented. And if i cant tell at a glance what information something is telliing me.. Its worthless. It is nice to have theater lights in my car but i dont waht them to give me info on a car. So. I never use it. I mean it is the only feedback device on skycontroller 3 and it missed. So think again. I need to know at a glance what info it is giving me. I don't want to have to stare at it for several seconds to determine if its alternating colors or blinking just one or whatever the different combinations are. So the led is wortless... especially in the sun you may as well give me a flip up manual to read while flying. It needs to blink bright and quick. I need to spend less than two seconds to see any combo twice. THen I can put it in my eye scan list. I was an expert on conveying information into the brain. Chart, graph, colors, timing, scales, reference book layouts, you name it. The Space Shuttle Operatioins data contains an unbelievable amount of information. Astromauts can execute procedures and utilize the documentation we gve them like they have it memorized. Only better. Because its in a written shorthand form which is a checklist. So, no missed steps. Im refering to the pilots when i say that... Because Ive witnessed their execution of spaceflight critical time operations many times and their performance blows me away. And i wrote some of the procedures. Anyway. My point is. Indicators like the led should convey it's information as fast as possible. Cause the drone is moving and im flying. Vibration feedback (or audible tone) needs to accompany any status changes so that I will look down at the controller. Otherwise. Its just sticks and buttons. I don't need to look at it. My hands are covering it.

 

[BRC]

I can appreciate your input for improvements - and it certainly needs it
but lets keep in mind this is only a $600 drone and not designed by NASA for critical missions
Best of Luck

 

[DiscoBeb2anafiuser]

Are you sure about your first statement, if you have no connection to the drone pressing RTH does not do anything - the RTH is initiated by the drone automatically after a certain wait time if it looses connection with the controller.

Once the controller and Anafi re-establish connection, then you can press RTH button to stop the RTH, that is by design.

Yes im sure... figure it... the skycontroller has no weight or size restriction. It is far more powerful (transmit) than the drone. So the drone is still recieving... but its weak transmission is not making it back. So its disconnected... no picture, not connected, light blinking red on SC2.

 

[PollyWannaFly]

Thanks DiscoBeb - 13 months late, but Thank You. Frankly I haven't used RTH yet for I don't trust it (I'm still a very green pilot). I've learned quite a bit from your testimonies thou, and want to study the topic/manual further (RTH button cancels the task as easily as it initiates it??) Bad enough I have to worry about obstacles in it's flight pattern, but that it can also quit if I panic-punch RTH due to signal or LOS loss. Seriously, really good to know. Thanks again.

 

[Dani]

When in doubt about RTH do not press the button, just detach your phone and close the controller.

 

[DiscoBeb2anafiuser]

I understand your statement. In a perfect world, that would work well... But 50 percent of my drone loss and damage is my error. 50 percent is battery failure, which again is my error most of the time. Because i am resposnible for ensuring the battery pack i use is “good enough” to make the flight plan. So, im going to warn you that counting on anafi to recognize that it needs to return due to battery capacity is good only if your battery is predictable...(the first few months?) because as the batteries age and are used they become less predictable. And when one cell starts to crater, it doesn't fly much longer... And to my knowledge the smart battery does not predict or track cell crater. Furthermore, Anafi doesnt return because of battery low if its on a flight plan. Mine doesnt. It dies in route.

 

[PollyWannaFly]

So...Flight Plan over-rides Auto RTH? Hmmm... that's scary. I agree that most loss & damage events are pilot error due to poor judgements, lackluster pre-flight checking, etc. (I'm guilty of this as well). The smart-battery technology isn't as fail-safe as you'd like to think. It merely tries to sustain battery life while un-used, discharging the cells to a safe 'on the shelf' state. But once there it's left to s-l-o-w-l-y erode on the shelf until it sees a full charge up (the 'sooner the better' rule applies here). What is more, can it count how many cycles its' gone through & estimate how much strength the cell(s) have to maintain safe flight? Poorly. I believe all these battery firmware updates are trying to correct the compromised formula....for every battery in the field! Like being a binary actuary, how can it possibly do that? It's up to the individual pilot to maintain their batteries & record how much flight time they've allotted to each. Not so easy if you bought your batteries second-hand, and even 'new' batteries these days typically have 1 year or more shelf life to them. Why? COST! The average pilot won't shell out $120 current day price for the 'peace of mind', but would rather 'risk' their Parrot to a used cell that appears 'good as new' for 2/3 the cost. And it's for this reason that the warranty periods are so pale on their batteries-they understand that the inventories are aging/weakening. Gamble away either way. It's up to the individual to decide how much risk they'll take, not Parrot.

I'm off my soap box Sorry for the rant.

 

[BRC]

I agree that Anafi's BMS is not great and I have little faith in the Battery Percentage reading as being completely accurate
But its not all gloom and doom
These days we have some vey good tools available to help monitor battery voltages and health
The modded FF6 app allows you to see live overall voltage while flying
3rd party app Airdata allows you check and review health of batteries after flights down to cell level - with other good info
Show Anafi Log to review fight data along with reviewing Meta Data from FDR log battery charge cycle count, etc
Show Anafi Log can also be used to review blackbox telemetry data including voltages, (with modded FF6)
I am much more confident these days that my drones will actually return home without dropping out of sky
However that being said if you have an unhealthy battery all bets are off
Happy Flying