4G Dongle Arrived

[GadgetGuy]

With the dongle in a rc pro in the USA will it work with a att Sim card? Anyone try it for internet access on the controller for maps ect.

That's its only currently functioning purpose. Should work. However, hot-spotting the RC Pro to any phone also works just as well, for free.

 

[Robby1750]

Do a search for 4G dongle. There's another member that did buy one for his RC Pro that works for him, and he's in the US. I forget which network worked for him

I've seen that thread it only works for the controller it doesn't give the unlimited range

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

One of our members in the US advised me that his local police are conducting test flights soon with their M30, using a 4G dongle.
Would be awesome for urban work like LE or S&R.
Using reliable urban cellular there should be no problems with signal failing etc when flying BVLOS on certain flights, though I'm sure some effort still to be needed to get those BVLOS approvals, even for those services.

 

[GadgetGuy]

One of our members in the US advised me that his local police are conducting test flights soon with their M30, using a 4G dongle.
Would be awesome for urban work like LE or S&R.
Using reliable urban cellular there should be no problems with signal failing etc when flying BVLOS on certain flights, though I'm sure some effort still to be needed to get those BVLOS approvals, even for those services.

Yes, I suspect DJI jumped the gun, promising 4G on what they classify as a consumer drone like the Mavic 3, and then reconsidered. Limiting its use to commercial craft used for LE and SAR makes more sense, where BVLOS waivers are possible.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I've seen that thread it only works for the controller it doesn't give the unlimited range

The primary purpose of the 4G dongle is not unlimited range, because the battery is already the current range limiter for all but one-way suicide flights without a 4G dongle. The real purpose of the 4G dongle is to overcome signal blocking in urban areas, where even a temporarily obstructed LOS signal would otherwise initiate an RTH, which would interfere with the mission. In an LE or SAR mission, such RTH interference would severely limit usefulness. The 4G dongle would allow the mission to continue, along with full FPV from the camera throughout.

 

[AnzacJack]

Definitely. Being able to drop down for better vision or to use speakers is always going to cause dropout issues. This system should alleviate that

Going to purchasing a couple of dongles next week as I believe/hope they will work in Australia

 

[GadgetGuy]

Definitely. Being able to drop down for better vision or to use speakers is always going to cause dropout issues. This system should alleviate that

Going to purchasing a couple of dongles next week as I believe/hope they will work in Australia

Yup. That is my understanding, too! Lucky you!
However, you really only need the drone side dongle, if you are Hot Spotting the RC Pro to a phone for wifi and maps. The phone itself is the RC side dongle, unless you don't use one at all. One drone side dongle can also be used with multiple drones supporting 4G, when flying one drone at a time. Just unplug it and unclip it and put it on the other drone.

 

[surfbird]

What you're saying makes no sense. 4G isn't a peer to peer technology, 4G devices aren't capable of communicating directly with each other, 4G is a spec used to connect to the internet. Everything else in this exchange happens there.

DJI may have coded their app to only allow the RC Pro to connect to a drone with a 4G dongle if it detects the presence of a 4G dongle inside as a way of selling more 4G dongles but can't see any other reason for a restriction.

You said your response was based on "your research" I don't suppose that you're actually just guessing?

>4G devices aren't capable of communicating directly
Actually they are.
UDP hole punching
WEBRtc uses it all the time. Otherwise the latency would be high.

 

[gogorokokoko]

so far this 4g dongle seems to work just in very few cases outside of China
i have an idea about making the 4G dongle usable worldwide
we have to find a guy, probably a chinese guy, that can hack the dongle
im saying that because there is a guy that offer the fcc mode for rc pro and people interested in this are talking about it here:

some guy doing an FCC hack permanent for RC pro Controller

hi guys there is a guy doing a permanent fcc hack for the mini 3 pro rc controller. 40usd just wondering if anyone on here had heard of him or even had done the fcc hack?. can only get him thorugh telegram dji fcc his name.

mavicpilots.com

my idea is to ask to him if he can help us or if he knows someone that could etc
so maybe someone from here can talk to a guy from the other thread and see what to do
now, the main goal is to create offers by making demands
this tech is new so there are no offers at this time but thats is what we have to do

 

[surfbird]

so far this 4g dongle seems to work just in very few cases outside of China
i have an idea about making the 4G dongle usable worldwide
we have to find a guy, probably a chinese guy, that can hack the dongle
im saying that because there is a guy that offer the fcc mode for rc pro and people interested in this are talking about it here:

some guy doing an FCC hack permanent for RC pro Controller

hi guys there is a guy doing a permanent fcc hack for the mini 3 pro rc controller. 40usd just wondering if anyone on here had heard of him or even had done the fcc hack?. can only get him thorugh telegram dji fcc his name.

mavicpilots.com

my idea is to ask to him if he can help us or if he knows someone that could etc
so maybe someone from here can talk to a guy from the other thread and see what to do

A good start is to start decompiling the new sdk:

DJI Mobile SDK Documentation

DJI just added it it. The lte functionality have been lurking in sdk4 for a long time, but they never done it official.
I did a quick check and it seems to use phonenumber as login to the service. The default is a chinese one.


Edited:
Probably in here. I wonder of you just an chinses number what will happen.
It also want some kind of verificationcode

method startLTEAuthentication​

void startLTEAuthentication(String phoneAreaCode, String phoneNumber, String verificationCode, CommonCallbacks.CompletionCallback callback)

Package:

dji.v5.manager.interfaces

Description:​

Start LTE authentication, call getLTEAuthenticationVerificationCode to get the LTE authentication verification code, and then call this interface to start LTE authentication. After passing the authentication, you can call setLTEEnhancedTransmissionType to enable and disable LTE enhanced video transmission.

Supported since MSDK 5.2.0

Input Parameters:​

String phoneAreaCode	The area code of the LTE authentication mobile phone number, currently only supports mainland China (86).
String phoneNumber	LTE authentication mobile phone number.
String verificationCode	LTE authentication verification code.
CommonCallbacks.CompletionCallback callback	Return the callback of execution result.

 

[Suren]

It works for us with the latest FW in NZ on both Mini 3 Pro and Mavic 3 but if you try to buy the service for another year, it fails so maybe Dji is just giving us a taste of what it is like to use it and then close it again. Mine shows will expire next month and asks me to renew but when I try to buy the service it fails. Seems the you can only buy the service in China.

 

[gogorokokoko]

It works for us with the latest FW in NZ on both Mini 3 Pro and Mavic 3 but if you try to buy the service for another year, it fails so maybe Dji is just giving us a taste of what it is like to use it and then close it again. Mine shows will expire next month and asks me to renew but when I try to buy the service it fails. Seems the you can only buy the service in China.

just buy another dongle

 

[Suren]

Bad News, I went to fly just now and it seems that Dji closed the 4G server for New Zealand, does not work for us anymore.

 

[surfbird]

Just a thought. You that got the dongle working, are you using an ip6 enabled operator?
When I did my own testing with transfer live view between two 4g phones, ip6 was the most efficient. Very few operators here in Sweden have enabled ip6 though, due to fear of overbilling.

Are all 4g dongles in NZ disabled now?

One last thing If you plug in the dji dongle in windows/linux, what device is it detected as? Is it possible to send mdoem commands to it?

 

[Suren]

Just a thought. You that got the dongle working, are you using an ip6 enabled operator?
When I did my own testing with transfer live view between two 4g phones, ip6 was the most efficient. Very few operators here in Sweden have enabled ip6 though, due to fear of overbilling.

Are all 4g dongles in NZ disabled now?

One last thing If you plug in the dji dongle in windows/linux, what device is it detected as? Is it possible to send mdoem commands to it?

Not sure if it is IPV6 but I would assume IPV4 as that is what is used most commonly in New Zealand. I was playing around with the dongle bit and managed to get it working again by playing around with the APN settings of the dongle under device management. Few tests after that and it was still working. I tried previously to plug it into the Windows PC but it does not show up, PC beeps when you plug it in showing a connection but when you go into file explorer, nothing comes there, not even in disk partition. Maybe there is a way to view it using command

 

[surfbird]

Not sure if it is IPV6 but I would assume IPV4 as that is what is used most commonly in New Zealand. I was playing around with the dongle bit and managed to get it working again by playing around with the APN settings of the dongle under device management. Few tests after that and it was still working. I tried previously to plug it into the Windows PC but it does not show up, PC beeps when you plug it in showing a connection but when you go into file explorer, nothing comes there, not even in disk partition. Maybe there is a way to view it using command

I extracted string containing lte in dji fly. I don't have time to do any reversing for the moment, but it might be some help for others.

Some intersting things:
check_country_in_lte_black_list
lte_set_ipv6_server_ip
lte_dev_get_local_ipv6
lte_dev_set_remote_ipv6
lte_decrypt

Seems to be dev things in the production code
lte_dev_set_remote_ipv6

Seems to be implemeted as dbus interface, that would be very nice

 

[Suren]

I extracted string containing lte in dji fly. I don't have time to do any reversing for the moment, but it might be some help for others.

Some intersting things:
check_country_in_lte_black_list
lte_set_ipv6_server_ip
lte_dev_get_local_ipv6
lte_dev_set_remote_ipv6
lte_decrypt

Seems to be dev things in the production code
lte_dev_set_remote_ipv6

Seems to be implemeted as dbus interface, that would be very nice

That is really interesting. Seems that if this is altered to show a country that is on the list, the dongle just might be able to work in other countries. I, like another on here have emailed Drone Hacks and they have ordered the dongle to see what they can do with it. Hopefully they might be able to crack/hack it so that it works every where.

 

[ReaperNine]

The issue with the US gov is the concern for hacking. You can't get close enough to most gov facilities with the RC Pro dongle. But a drone with a modem attached to it, can get close enough to gov wifi access points. It has happened here in the US already. But I believe DJI is in cooperation with the FCC on getting a 'cyber security' approval contract at the moment. Alot of public safety departments are using the Enterprise drones and also want the 4G ability for their operations. Hopefully all goes well.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The issue with the US gov is the concern for hacking. You can't get close enough to most gov facilities with the RC Pro dongle. But a drone with a modem attached to it, can get close enough to gov wifi access points. It has happened here in the US already. But I believe DJI is in cooperation with the FCC on getting a 'cyber security' approval contract at the moment. Alot of public safety departments are using the Enterprise drones and also want the 4G ability for their operations. Hopefully all goes well.

If that were the real issue, geofencing already prohibits flying over or anywhere near such government facilities, so a 4G dongle on a drone is no threat to hacking government wifi access points.

 

[ReaperNine]

If that were the real issue, geofencing already prohibits flying over or anywhere near such government facilities, so a 4G dongle on a drone is no threat to hacking government wifi access points.

GEO fencing is mostly for airports. You know, where other aircraft operate? Are you saying every government facility is an airport?