• Registered: 10-20-2010
  • Posts: 3

Topic: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

Hi,

I recently purchased an AR.Drone and love it. Except...

During my last two flights it has "lost connection" while flying around with 20 feet of me. Both times it would display "lost connection" and just hold a steady hover until I grabbed it out of the sky and flipped it over causing it to shut off. The 1st time it was only 3 feet high and not drifting so I was able to attempt to re-connect the wifi and re-start the app. After it lost connection I checked the wifi connection and the AR.Drone was just not there. During the 2nd flight and it "lost connection" it decided to hold a hover at 10 feet or so and I was only just barely able to retrieve it. This is truly scary as I was flying much higher and further away during these flights and I think I am extremely lucky that it decided to lose connection so close to me. Had it been higher or further I'm sure I would have lost it.

I should add that this drone has maybe a dozen flights and has never displayed this behavior before. It has never been crashed or even landed hard. I always fly in "airport mode" with just the wifi enabled, and ALL other apps closed. After the 2nd instance, I left it powered up and power cycled my iphone, but the Drone was still not visible on the wifi. In both instances after a full power-cycle it acted normally.  I think it's quite safe to say it's a drone issue.

A couple of things. You guys need to fix this. At the very least the Drone needs to land if it is not receiving commands. 2nd, should I ever lose this thing due to a blatant malfunction I would expect a replacement. I could understand if I flew it out of range or lost control, but when I am fully in-control within 20 feet of myself this should never happen. Again, if the drone would just land if it stops receiving commands that would help tremendously.

  • Registered: 12-18-2010
  • Posts: 2

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

I had the same problem! Is there any one out there who can explain why this strange behavior happens? And how we can prevent this from happening?

  • Registered: 12-19-2010
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

I had the same problem twice. First time I was outsiside, it kicked in a wall and Brookstone replaced it for me. Second time, the very day I got the replacement, I was indoor it flew crazyly hit the ceiling and broke a piece. I intended to give it as a xmass gift to my father, so I bought a second one which flew ok and then today, without any crash or anything, gave me a "TOO MUCH ANGLE EMERGENCY" message and don´t start. I can even record videos and take pics, but the engines do not start.
With all these malfunctions, can we have our money back any way? I bought 3 extra bats, 2 drones and more, app US$ 800.00 that now looks to me being a GREAT dissapointment.

4 Reply by PJ

  • PJ
  • Newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 12-31-2010
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

I got my drone just a few days ago but now it will not keep a wifi connection.
After resetting, it may connect normally for a very short time but then I get the message on "CONTROL LINK NOT AVAILABLE". When this happens & I check the wifi on my iTouch, either the AR Drone is gone or I can see it but the IP address is 169.254.144.155
How can I get it to work again?

  • Registered: 01-19-2011
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

I bought my parrot ar drone last weekend. In the beginning it worked perfectly, but had problems connecting. Then i pressed the unpair button and the reset button and it worked. After a few days it had the same problem but when it had connected it said CONTROL LINK NOT AVAILABLE. I read the instructions book and it said that my IP ADDRESS should start with 192...... but mine started with 169. I fly mine with an Iphone 3GS and my brother has an AR DRONE too and he has no problem at all and he flies his with an Iphone 3G.

HELP ME please.

  • Registered: 03-24-2011
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

I am having the same problem. The drone worked fine for a couple of weeks, and now it will lose the wifi connection during flight. The ip changes from 192... to 169...
I turned the iPad off to reset it. I have reset the drone. I did a renew of the IP and that got the IP back to 192...

There seems to be a bug in there that occurs after the drone operates for awhile. Possibly something stored in memory that eventually exceeds it's location and it starts trashing the wifi memory? Just a programmers thought.

7 Reply by Dennisvankleef (edited by Dennisvankleef 06-27-2012 02:57:42)

  • Registered: 06-27-2012
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

I have the same problem i was hovering 1,50 meter above the ground  and he shoot up  and lost my drone  :mad:

  • Registered: 09-17-2012
  • Posts: 22

Re: Lost connection only 20 feet away!

Dennisvankleef wrote:

I have the same problem i was hovering 1,50 meter above the ground  and he shoot up  and lost my drone  mad

Prior to the fly-away event, did you experience any other flight anomalies on the same day?  On the same battery charge?

I bought my ARDrone 2 in late August 2012 and enjoyed about 20 flights before encountering a problem.  On 13 September my drone experienced a "too much tilt" emergency shutdown of its motors after flying sideways at fairly high speed and then coming to a thumbs-off stop.  No damage was done in the fall of about 2 m to the grass.  However, the emergency shutdown message was flashing and couldn't be turned off.  (No button for that on-screen.)  Neither could I hit that peskily small record/stop button to respond to my urgent pressing so that I could have safely disconnected the flight battery without losing my recorded video of the tilt emergency shutdown event.  Since there was plenty of charge still on the battery and no apparent mechanical damage, I set the drone down on level ground, did the level trim, and pressed the takeoff button.  Whoa!!!  The drone lept straight upward at very high speed, fortuitously collided with an overhanging tree branch whose leaves triggered an emergency motor shutdown, and dropped about 20 feet to the grass.  Again, no damage, but if not for the tree it probably would have made a clean getaway.

Maybe my mistake was not disconnecting and reconnecting the battery to reset the drone's computer.

Am I right about that? What do you folks at Parrot say?

I flying on ARDrone Free Flight v2.05 with 2.1 hardware and v2.1.20 software.  Phone is Samsung Galaxy S3.