UPDATED INFO: My Anafi dropped to ground from altitude of 9 feet ...

[Kevredhead]

Drone fell into muddy grass from height of 9 feet. Was testing to see if Anafi would fly (no intention of going very high) with battery at 20%. It did for 29 seconds. ? Fortunately everything was okay once battery was replaced. Weather at ground level was roughly 50 degrees.

Have been landing at 30% for all other flights. Just doing a small test. Didn’t expect it to fall from air at 20% but maybe at something less like 10% to 15%. Lesson learned! 30% from now on ... ?

Incident already posted in new spreadsheet.

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

That sucks, but lucky you didn't sustain any damage, when I first got my Anafi, I let the drone fly until the battery ran down to1% (when I took off battery had maybe 20-30%)

I had no problems and the drone landed itself where it took off. I generally always fly my drone until the battery is pretty much empty, obviously making sure the drone can land somewhere safe when the battery is so low

 

[Seitenwerk]

Would be interesting to know if it was cold outside. Maybe some tests would also be interesting. You could try to fly the Anafi at less than 1 Meter and check if this happens again, or if it was a problem of this special battery you used or cold temperatures

Under normal conditions it should be no problem to get down to under 10% without a sudden power drop that leads to the drone going down, but bad weather conditions, old batteries and other stuff can highly affect this

 

[IM35461]

Looking at my flight history I landed once at 5% with no issues.

Was Anafi still on or beeping when you got to it?

 

[CraigCam]

It’s possible that a firmware update may have to inadvertently confused our smart batteries. My shut off was similar but it was very cold and I chalked it off as that but....since then lots of similar reports? Also, I sometimes can’t boot up and I have to cycle the battery several times for an actual initial start up. This happens the most with the brand new battery on my now new replacement Anafi. Anyone else had this phenomenon? It’s making me think now I should be pushing for a warranty repair as these falling out of the sky unexplained shut offs seem to be growing in numbers.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[IronSky1]

I had about 160 flights on my first Anafi (many at 15-20 deg F at 300Ft altitude with zero issues on current firmware) then the gimbal started dropping down if i added ND filter at power on. I isolated it to if you add ND after power up worked fine. Parrot replaced with new unit which went out of control on first flight and hit tree. They claim you need to have both GPS locks on though I have flown with only one at least 30 times. I understand the problem if you are using Flight Plan however, in normal controlled flight I do not think it should be issue.

The big problem with Parrot is getting PARTS. They are way behind on this which is an issue if you fly a lot.
They had a similar issue with BB2 when it came out central cross broke on impact and you could not get replacements for several months.

Parrot make well engineered product however they need to work on parts.

PS: I presume you are using a Parrot battery not a 3rd party? I have had many problems
with 3rd party battery failures.

 

[Seitenwerk]

It’s interesting that people always talk about parrot offering parts while on the DJI forum I never really saw anyone mention it while at the same time they don’t offer any parts as far as I know.

Regarding ND filters: the official manual states that ND filters should be applied after power on (when the camera initialization is finished)

 

[CraigCam]

I didn’t even know there were third party batteries. Maybe I’ll put up my broken one for parts lol!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[IronSky1]

Good input on ND missed that found by trial and error.

I have Inspire and Mavic 2 and just send to DJI repair when bad crash occurs. They appear to be far more complicated to repair then Parrot.

 

[IronSky1]

Parrot sends you to DroneNerds if you need repairs on ANAFI and they do not have any parts yet. They sent my broken ANAFI back.

 

[Kdavis2269]

Have we determined that the increase in reported failures are directly related to the correlation of lower outdoor temp and remaining battery %?

 

[Seitenwerk]

That’s what I think too. Many reports recently with sudden power off problems in mid air in cold conditions. Which would be a typical problem for LiPo batteries

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I think its still to early to come to any conclusions. If it is temp then you would see a lot more people posting about failures. And trust me I spend a lot of time on the various forums and Facebook groups that I have not seen a increase in failures. It could be the age of batteries and how the firmware is calculating time left but even then it should just land the Anafi where it is without shutting down the motors

 

[Seitenwerk]

I think its still to early to come to any conclusions. If it is temp then you would see a lot more people posting about failures. And trust me I spend a lot of time on the various forums and Facebook groups that I have not seen a increase in failures. It could be the age of batteries and how the firmware is calculating time left but even then it should just land the Anafi where it is without shutting down the motors

If it is cold weather, that wouldn’t mean that everyone is affected. But we are definitely seeing an increase in incidents which would fit with the cold weather theory, especially since most of them report that it happened when around 20-30% or below

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Half of the world is experiencing cold weather so if this is true the Anafis would be dropping at a alarming rate. Lets not come to any fast conclusions just yet. There is a reason why you gather information over time.
The sky is not falling just yet

 

[Kevredhead]

Interesting. I thought I read where others would only fly to about the 20% to 30% range for fear of the bird dropping like it did with me. Now I’m wondering if it was something else.

In deciphering the logs best I could tell it was actually at 19% and everything was going fine (comparing lines of data with previous lines, using the information at the beginning to decode what was in the lines.) Only thing I was unsure of was “flight_state,” “alert_state,” and “flip-type.” Alert state and flip-type always read 0. Flight state starts at 7 and switches to 1 roughly 1.87 seconds into the flight (the last line of state 7, prior to the change, is the first line that shows a value in the altitude field). Then switches to 2 at roughly 3.37 seconds; then to 3 at 6.22 seconds. Back to 2 at 8.1 seconds for 2 lines (lasts .11 seconds), then back to 3 at 8.2 seconds. Back to 2 at 14.0 seconds. Back to 3 at 18.7 seconds. Back to 2 at 20.76 seconds, where it stays the rest of the flight.

The “flight-state” of 2 that occurs for only 2 lines at 8.1 seconds seems to correspond with the momentary steep drop in the speed as shown in the graph. The second momentary steep drop in speed also occurs with a switch to state 2 (at 14 seconds), but bird remains in this flight state until 18.7 seconds this time. Not sure what it means yet, but it’ll be fun trying to continue to figure it out, lol. Will compare to other flight logs to see what I can figure out. I think there’s also info on a link someone sent on another message, but will have to check.

 

[Kevredhead]

Would be interesting to know if it was cold outside. Maybe some tests would also be interesting. You could try to fly the Anafi at less than 1 Meter and check if this happens again, or if it was a problem of this special battery you used or cold temperatures

Under normal conditions it should be no problem to get down to under 10% without a sudden power drop that leads to the drone going down, but bad weather conditions, old batteries and other stuff can highly affect this

It was roughly 50 degrees and sunny at ground level. Little wind, nice day other than chilly. Late afternoon sun.

 

[Kevredhead]

Interesting. I thought I read where others would only fly to about the 20% to 30% range for fear of the bird dropping like it did with me. Now I’m wondering if it was something else.

In deciphering the logs best I could tell it was actually at 19% and everything was going fine (comparing lines of data with previous lines, using the information at the beginning to decode what was in the lines.) Only thing I was unsure of was “flight_state,” “alert_state,” and “flip-type.” Alert state and flip-type always read 0. Flight state starts at 7 and switches to 1 roughly 1.87 seconds into the flight (the last line of state 7, prior to the change, is the first line that shows a value in the altitude field). Then switches to 2 at roughly 3.37 seconds; then to 3 at 6.22 seconds. Back to 2 at 8.1 seconds for 2 lines (lasts .11 seconds), then back to 3 at 8.2 seconds. Back to 2 at 14.0 seconds. Back to 3 at 18.7 seconds. Back to 2 at 20.76 seconds, where it stays the rest of the flight.

The “flight-state” of 2 that occurs for only 2 lines at 8.1 seconds seems to correspond with the momentary steep drop in the speed as shown in the graph. The second momentary steep drop in speed also occurs with a switch to state 2 (at 14 seconds), but bird remains in this flight state until 18.7 seconds this time. Not sure what it means yet, but it’ll be fun trying to continue to figure it out, lol. Will compare to other flight logs to see what I can figure out. I think there’s also info on a link someone sent on another message, but will have to check.

Looking at my flight history I landed once at 5% with no issues.

Was Anafi still on or beeping when you got to it?

Yes, I think sorta on, kinda convulsing. Next time I’ll take a video so I can remember the details better. I should have reinstalled the battery after removing and see if it’d booted up, but I guess it could have gained some strength in the interim and turned on even if problematic.

Next time I’ll definitely measure the voltage before recharging. After seeing other comments and looking at logs, etc., not sure now if the battery was the issue or not. The last reading in the log before it died showed 19%. Glad I didn’t have it higher in the air at the time. I had a gut feeling something might happen below 20%; again, based on other comments about the batteries. Funny thing is I specifically ran it without changing the battery because I wanted to see if it would go below 20%. Which it ideally should.

If it’s made to automatically return home when the battery gets below a certain voltage, but instead it just quits abruptly, it makes me wonder if there’s not a firmware problem or perhaps a voltage monitoring problem.

But way too little data yet to suggest it’s a battery issue. Has anyone had one shut off with a relatively high battery reading? Say above 30%?

 

[Kevredhead]

It’s possible that a firmware update may have to inadvertently confused our smart batteries. My shut off was similar but it was very cold and I chalked it off as that but....since then lots of similar reports? Also, I sometimes can’t boot up and I have to cycle the battery several times for an actual initial start up. This happens the most with the brand new battery on my now new replacement Anafi. Anyone else had this phenomenon? It’s making me think now I should be pushing for a warranty repair as these falling out of the sky unexplained shut offs seem to be growing in numbers.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I have had to cycle power when first booting it up a couple of times.

 

[Kevredhead]

I had about 160 flights on my first Anafi (many at 15-20 deg F at 300Ft altitude with zero issues on current firmware) then the gimbal started dropping down if i added ND filter at power on. I isolated it to if you add ND after power up worked fine. Parrot replaced with new unit which went out of control on first flight and hit tree. They claim you need to have both GPS locks on though I have flown with only one at least 30 times. I understand the problem if you are using Flight Plan however, in normal controlled flight I do not think it should be issue.

The big problem with Parrot is getting PARTS. They are way behind on this which is an issue if you fly a lot.
They had a similar issue with BB2 when it came out central cross broke on impact and you could not get replacements for several months.

Parrot make well engineered product however they need to work on parts.

PS: I presume you are using a Parrot battery not a 3rd party? I have had many problems
with 3rd party battery failures.

Yes, an original battery. Just received my Anafi a few days ago.