Not yet. Has anyone had one drop out of the sky with a higher battery level? Say 30% or higher?
UPDATED INFO: My Anafi dropped to ground from altitude of 9 feet ...
- Thread starter Kevredhead
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Batteries and Anafi are both brand new. Received them both just a few days ago.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
Convulsions is what my one did when it fell after a system error when sensor data conflicted.
Seitenwerk
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I wouldn’t say that. It’s not that (if it is indeed weather) every LiPo will suddenly fail because you fly in cold conditions. After all it’s just a chance, nothing more. This increase in reports might still be related to it and only a few people may have the „bad luck“ required for such incidents.
Another clue ... May not be the battery after all.
The first pic is a color key for the fields to be addressed in the 2nd pic and the 3rd pic. The 4th pic varies from this scheme but should be self explanatory.
The second pic is the ending portion of the flight log from the 29 second flight that ended up with the Anafi falling to the ground. Notice everything appears fine, and the log abruptly ends showing the bird still in the air (and climbing). No crash is reported as having occurred. At this point, I cleaned it up and replaced the battery. (I think I briefly left it on, convulsing a bit, then removed the battery. However, this is not reflected in the log.)
The third pic is from the beginning portion of the log from the flight immediately after the Anafi was cleaned and the battery replaced. (Crashed flight began at 16:39; subsequent flight at 16:57.) (Note the color key is also shown at the top of this page, where certain fields of the lines of text I’ve highlighted.) Notice the “product gps” field is set to “false” for the beginning portion of the flight showing in the log. This is the gps on the Anafi itself, not the controller. While false, the “controller_gps_latitude” and the “controller_gps_longitude” both show unchanging values of 500. Also note the “product_gps_latitude” and the “product_gps_longitude” both show unchanging values of 500. But the altitude begins changing from 0 as the Anafi takes off. I do remember one of the gps indicators was green, then changed to red, then back to greeen, cycling like that for a short period of time. I think it was the Anafi gps, but the controller gps stayed green if memory serves correctly. (But can’t swear by it.) I can say when I lifted off both fields were green. I always check for that. But I think it cycled back to red right after takeoff. The log makes it appear as if gps was never acquired.
Finally, the 4th pic shows the section of the log where the “product_gps_available” field changes to “true.” This occurs at 6.045 seconds. (The “time” field, while not highlighted, indicates “6045”) The flight seemed to go without incident after that, including my first attempt with the dolly zoom function, and a climb to 400 feet. (Total flight time of 16:57.)
Given this subsequent flight had some trouble with gps, I wonder if there was a gps problem 29 seconds into the flight that crashed. I was taking off from an asphalt walkway next to a grassy field in a park, and on the other side of the walkway was a tree line. So maybe it had a problem with gps because of the trees? But the first flight went without incident and had no issue acquiring gps.
I also wonder if the software or firmware isn’t properly handling situations where gps is lost, even if momentarily. Not really sure ...
The first pic is a color key for the fields to be addressed in the 2nd pic and the 3rd pic. The 4th pic varies from this scheme but should be self explanatory.
The second pic is the ending portion of the flight log from the 29 second flight that ended up with the Anafi falling to the ground. Notice everything appears fine, and the log abruptly ends showing the bird still in the air (and climbing). No crash is reported as having occurred. At this point, I cleaned it up and replaced the battery. (I think I briefly left it on, convulsing a bit, then removed the battery. However, this is not reflected in the log.)
The third pic is from the beginning portion of the log from the flight immediately after the Anafi was cleaned and the battery replaced. (Crashed flight began at 16:39; subsequent flight at 16:57.) (Note the color key is also shown at the top of this page, where certain fields of the lines of text I’ve highlighted.) Notice the “product gps” field is set to “false” for the beginning portion of the flight showing in the log. This is the gps on the Anafi itself, not the controller. While false, the “controller_gps_latitude” and the “controller_gps_longitude” both show unchanging values of 500. Also note the “product_gps_latitude” and the “product_gps_longitude” both show unchanging values of 500. But the altitude begins changing from 0 as the Anafi takes off. I do remember one of the gps indicators was green, then changed to red, then back to greeen, cycling like that for a short period of time. I think it was the Anafi gps, but the controller gps stayed green if memory serves correctly. (But can’t swear by it.) I can say when I lifted off both fields were green. I always check for that. But I think it cycled back to red right after takeoff. The log makes it appear as if gps was never acquired.
Finally, the 4th pic shows the section of the log where the “product_gps_available” field changes to “true.” This occurs at 6.045 seconds. (The “time” field, while not highlighted, indicates “6045”) The flight seemed to go without incident after that, including my first attempt with the dolly zoom function, and a climb to 400 feet. (Total flight time of 16:57.)
Given this subsequent flight had some trouble with gps, I wonder if there was a gps problem 29 seconds into the flight that crashed. I was taking off from an asphalt walkway next to a grassy field in a park, and on the other side of the walkway was a tree line. So maybe it had a problem with gps because of the trees? But the first flight went without incident and had no issue acquiring gps.
I also wonder if the software or firmware isn’t properly handling situations where gps is lost, even if momentarily. Not really sure ...
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I'm almost sure Anafi's flight controller can't shut down the battery. Was there light in the battery led after the crash ???
A GPS error cannot be the cause of your untimely landing but only make your Anafi drift with the wind.
It is data from the ultrasonic sensor under Anafi and the built-in barometer that determines whether Anafi is standing on the ground or flying.
You can find out if there is a fault in your battery by letting Anafi hover 2 feet over a soft surface until she lands herself. It should be done with 1-2% back on the battery and with light in the battery's led. If it happens with a higher percentage, my guess will be that she will not land but close the engines and fall to the ground. At the same time, there is no light in the battery led.
Regards, Leif.
Can’t remember if there was light on the battery, but it was convulsing like in the video posted earlier in this thread.
I actually tried what you described, with regards to running the battery down to 1%, last night. It did in fact get down to 1%. However, I have 3 separate batteries and didn’t identify which one was being used when it crashed. ? So I should check all three.
With regards to the GPS, while losing connection may not have directly caused the accident, I wonder if some kind of glitch in the software or firmware could have caused it as a reaction to the loss of GPS lock. Possibly no more than a wild theory on my part, but just trying to make sense of the data.
I do agree that the battery shutting down mid flight would explain a sudden drop to the ground, so definitely can’t rule that out at this point. Just found it interesting, looking at the logs, that it struggled to lock the GPS in the flight subsequent to the crash. When inspecting the log of that flight, it appears as if I launched it before locking into GPS, but both indicators were green when launched, and then the drone’s GPS color turned red, then green, then red; sorta cycling between the two until it finally locked in. I haven’t seen this in any of the other logs I checked, but haven’t looked at last night’s logs as of yet.
I’ll look a little more ... it’s definitely a puzzle, and there may be nothing visible (via user accessibility) that will ever give the answer.
Maybe I can let a battery totally run out after landing and see if It convulses like it did after the crash.
If the engine makes noise then the battery is not shut down and there is also light in at least one green led.
The only way the battery can be turned on again after a shutdown is by you are pressing the ON/OFF button.
You must have labeled your batteries with a number so you can distinguish them from each other !!!
As I said, if you lose GPS lock it will only mean that Anafi runs/drifting at the wind and nothing else. I have never heard of an FW error in Anafi that supports your GPS theory.
Should I guess your crash must be due to an error in Anafi's flying computer or the firmware has not been loaded correctly. I do not know if it is possible to refresh the firmware in Anafi but if possible I would try that.
Regards, Leif.
No, I would definitely advise against this because you may be able to destroy your battery with that treatment. And no, the engines say no noise with an off battery as there is no power on the Anafi.
Regards, Leif.
I know there would be no noise with a completely dead battery. But is it possible the battery crowbars to nothing capable of flying but then has just a little juice left? This might explain the strange behavior.
I have now already labeled the batteries. ?
Flew last night and got a second battery down to 1% before it auto-landed from barely above the ground. I started in the driveway with little battery left, and flew it carefully into the garage, just above floor level. As I thought it would, it lost GPS connection once in the garage. And yet continued to fly with no issues. So to your point, it doesn’t appear to be a firmware glitch specifically related to losing GPS. Or if so, it’s inconsistent.
Something caused it to crash. Still have one battery to check with regards to going all the way to 1%.
I have now already labeled the batteries. ?
Flew last night and got a second battery down to 1% before it auto-landed from barely above the ground. I started in the driveway with little battery left, and flew it carefully into the garage, just above floor level. As I thought it would, it lost GPS connection once in the garage. And yet continued to fly with no issues. So to your point, it doesn’t appear to be a firmware glitch specifically related to losing GPS. Or if so, it’s inconsistent.
Something caused it to crash. Still have one battery to check with regards to going all the way to 1%.
