RTH failure on 4.1 mile return

[jeffmm1]

Hello - I made a rookie error tonight and possibly flew my Anafi out to far out with out enough battery to make it back. I had about 12% battery life with approximately 2.0 miles to go when I lost complete control of the Anafi. I went to retrieve the flight log information from the flight manager site and the log couldn't be found which makes me more nervous. I did what the site said if the log couldn't be found but with no luck.

I was flying in automatic mode and not manual. Tonight's flight conditions were optimal with very little wind and almost no WIFI issue since it was in a rural area.

The Anafi also seemed to be sucking a lot more battery life on the RTH trip back which was a head scratcher.


Does anyone know if the Anafi landed itself since it didn't have enough battery life to make it back or did it crash? I have a firm last known GPS location which is in a wide open field and I plan on driving back in the morning to go pick it up in the field. I am curious to see what the condition of the Anafi is.

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

 

[Waldo Pepper]

Hello Jeff,

Most likely your Anafi landed itself on low battery, my Anafi has done the same when I’m too far out to safely make it back.

On the app, select the drone upper middle top. It’ll show it’s last location. Then select the lower right corner arrow, opens another window. As you get closer to the drone, you’ll see a blue circle moving to or away from the drone. It’s precise, you should find it.

However, if the Anafi disconnected as it was landing. Sometimes with enough voltage left the drone will try to RTH and start flying back home, but not much longer it’ll land because by then battery is completely exhausted. This has happened to me on several occasions, but with other type drones. If it’s not were it’s suppose to be, walk directly back to RTH area and eventually you’ll see it not too far from it’s last known location.

Like you, I’ve flown several 4 mile out and 4 mile back flights, only once has it made the complete 8 mile round trip. Usually it lands short within a mile away, depending on wind or elevation this can rob battery life.

Anafi can fly very far under right conditions,

Please keep us posted,
Paul

 

[jeffmm1]

Well I searched for about two hours with no luck. I felt like I was walking in circles chasing a ghost.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

The Anafi is very hard to see. I went through this last winter and never found it for 3 months until one day I looked up in a tree 30 feet away from where it said it should be and there it was.
Don't give up to soon.
Hope you find it.

 

[Waldo Pepper]

Well I searched for about two hours with no luck. I felt like I was walking in circles chasing a ghost.

Sounds like it disconnected at 12%, at that point. It tried to return to launch area never reconnecting and from this last known area it flew quite a bit before it landed due to low battery.

Walk a path directly from it’s last location, to the launch area. It may be several hundred yards to over 3/4 mile from were it says to be, good thing is it’ll be on that path between its last location to were it was launched. But you’ve got to do some walking, investigate every tree and every bit of terrain on this path 12% battery is still a lot of flight left.

It’s happened to me numerous times, when battery is low yet enough to continue flying it’ll do this when loosing connection. It’ll try to reconnect and fly a distance never reconnecting, then land further away due to battery finely conking out. But it’ll be somewhere on that path, don’t give up.

Good luck, hope you walk that path, it’s there.

Psul

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Paul, I saw on your screenshot, that you don't have the actual firmware on your drone. Is that intention?

 

[Waldo Pepper]

Paul, I saw on your screenshot, that you don't have the actual firmware on your drone. Is that intention?

Hello Dirk,

I’m not sure what you mean (don’t have auctal firmware on drone), I’m still new to the Anafi only been flying these about 6-7 weeks.

I’ll compare it with my other drone see if there are differences between the two on the apps, Have a spare Anafi with its own Controller.

Is the firmware missing something? Appreciate the help, thanks!

Paul

 

[jeffmm1]

The Anafi is very hard to see. I went through this last winter and never found it for 3 months until one day I looked up in a tree 30 feet away from where it said it should be and there it was.
Don't give up to soon.
Hope you find it.

So true. I am going back after work for another search and rescue mission. I think I might rent a few blood hounds. Let them smell my spare batteries and cut them lose! ha ha

 

[Rocky the FS]

Well I searched for about two hours with no luck. I felt like I was walking in circles chasing a ghost.

If you have a GPS, perhaps you can put waypoints at the last known position and the RTH position from matching the Google Earth position on the phone to a view of GE on your computer and reading the co-ordinates into the GPS. Then draw a route between them and walk it. The drones GPS is so accurate that I'll bet it is within 10 feet laterally of that line.

Or perhaps you can get a lat/long from the json file and the ShowAnafiLog program that Helmut wrote and input it from there.....to 12 decimal points. ?

 

[jeffmm1]

Sounds like it disconnected at 12%, at that point. It tried to return to launch area never reconnecting and from this last known area it flew quite a bit before it landed due to low battery.

Walk a path directly from it’s last location, to the launch area. It may be several hundred yards to over 3/4 mile from were it says to be, good thing is it’ll be on that path between its last location to were it was launched. But you’ve got to do some walking, investigate every tree and every bit of terrain on this path 12% battery is still a lot of flight left.

It’s happened to me numerous times, when battery is low yet enough to continue flying it’ll do this when loosing connection. It’ll try to reconnect and fly a distance never reconnecting, then land further away due to battery finely conking out. But it’ll be somewhere on that path, don’t give up.

Good luck, hope you walk that path, it’s there.

Psul

Thank you! That makes perfect sense I only hope the additional ground I need to walk is more farm field.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Hello Dirk,

I’m not sure what you mean (don’t have auctal firmware on drone), I’m still new to the Anafi only been flying these about 6-7 weeks.

I’ll compare it with my other drone see if there are differences between the two on the apps, Have a spare Anafi with its own Controller.

Is the firmware missing something? Appreciate the help, thanks!

Paul

I saw on one of your screenshots, that your drone has firmware 1.4.1.
This firmware was published April 2019.
The actual version is 1.5.4.
If you update the Freeflight 6 app to version 6.5.1, you should get the message to update Anafi's and SC3's firmware to the new versions

 

[Waldo Pepper]

I saw on one of your screenshots, that your drone has firmware 1.4.1.
This firmware was published April 2019.
The actual version is 1.5.4.
If you update the Freeflight 6 app to version 6.5.1, you should get the message to update Anafi's and SC3's firmware to the new versions

Thank you Dirk,

Appreciate this, I’ll try and update this weekend. Wasn’t aware was using an older update, still new to Anafi and it’s features.

I’m more involved with modified Bebop 2 drones, these are modified including the Skycontroller 2. Have several Bebop 2 models, super reception no lag or disconnect even at low 2 mile elevation levels. And fly a Mavic 2 Pro as well, every drone I have is modified for research.

Thanks so much for pointing out the Anafi app, I’ll update this weekend.

All the best,
Paul