Total Disconnect

[Krusty Geeza]

During the flight in these images, for the yellow coloured portion of it the Anafi had a major brain-fart & disconnected from FF6 totally at around about 400 metres distance from me. The video was cracking up & disappearing from about 300 metres away from me & there was nothing between me & it to interfere with the signal.

This is the first time it has happened to me, I have had video disconnect at around about 400 metres from me, with nothing between me & the Anafi & no EMF interference either. In fact, during this flight I crossed an electric train track with the train going past & there was no interference from it at about 40 metres away from it.

It's rather disconcerting having to close & restart the FF6 app, while the Anafi is off in the distance doing who knows what. Looking at the video & data for the flight, it stopped flying for that duration at the 5 minute mark.

Any ideas why the Anafi would just totally disconnect from the FF6 app? It wasn't an issue with the iPad & I always have it on Aeroplane mode as it's just used for flying the Anafi.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

So when you say total disconnect do you mean you lost all RC control or just video? If RC it should have gone into RTH.
I have lost video many times only for it to come back a few minutes later. It is rather upsetting to say the least but I found just adjusting the Antenna on the RC a couple of degrees and watching the signal display to determine the best angle helps a lot.

 

[Krusty Geeza]

So when you say total disconnect do you mean you lost all RC control or just video? If RC it should have gone into RTH.
I have lost video many times only for it to come back a few minutes later. It is rather upsetting to say the least but I found just adjusting the Antenna on the RC a couple of degrees and watching the signal display to determine the best angle helps a lot.

Total disconnect from FF6. With the alarming red "Disconnected" message while the Anafi was in the air. I just rewatched the video & realised it was the yellow portion, not the orange part of the flight pattern, so have changed my initial writing to reflect this.

It looks like it all happened quickly enough that the RTH wasn't triggered. It seemed like it took forever, but that happens once your adrenalin kicks in! The moment I saw the red warning of disconnect I closed down & restarted the FF6 app & got reconnection fairly quickly.

I did just check the positions of cell-phone towers & this area seems to be central between 4 of them, I wonder if it hit a hotspot of some sort with interference from them?

I always set my RTH as is appropriate for wherever I am flying after getting in the air, climbing until I can spin around 360 degrees without seeing any potential obstacles, making note of the altitude, then adding an extra 10 metres to that, just to be safe. next time, I'll just let it RTH. It's reassuring to know that actually works!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

About my first week last summer with the Anafi I flew from my back yard off the deck to the water falls down the road. 3200 feet away. When it reached the tree line at 250 feet ALT I lost all control of the Anafi. I did panic but thought maybe trying to unplug the cable and reconnecting it fast might do something. Not sure the time frame but I had video and control with in a few minutes. It is not a great experience when you lose connection but you do have options if you take the time to try them.