Anyone else not buying DJI in the US due to the potential ban?

[MS Coast]

when they come knocking on my door for my Mavic 3 Classic, they better have a check for $1600 in their hands......

No one is coming to confiscate your drone.

What is the source of this fear? Can anyone provide one shred of evidence that confiscation is even under consideration by any government? H.R. 2864. does not even mention banning drones already in the US.

 

[Dangerly]

Rumors of the Air 3S are out, the interesting part of the Ban is that its brought even more attention to the DJI company and there getting ready to Release the Electric Bikes , no wet suit needed. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

I saw that eBike from DJI in a recent marketing email from them and actually checked that it was from DJI. Wow, way to diversify! Maybe they will eventually cross a drone with an eBike so you could use pedal assist to fly your eBike up into the sky. I can dream. Someone did actually fly across the English channel using pedal power, so it's not that crazy of an idea.

Wet suit? If you crashed your eBike into the ocean, I imagine it would have a very powerful battery. I'm thinking, would I rather get electrocuted or... Okay, I'll stop before I cross a line and have this thread locked by an admin.

 

[anotherlab]

....As far as the ban on DJI, don’t you worry my friend, by the time is enacted 5 years from now, it will be as old as your Air 1...

The proposed law as written would add DJI to the "Covered List" and would prevent them obtaining any new FCC licenses. That would go into effect at the start of the fiscal year 2025 (its part of the NDAA FY25 bill approved by the House).

 

[Nanny Ogg]

I wonder if any of the sponsoring congress critters have ever even flown a drone (DJI or other brand). They like to keep fear and ignorance alive.

 

[dave canada]

i think dji drones that are already here are still some years ahead of the alternartive

 

[jephoto]

I have owned a specta air from cogito. It is actually an Air 3 , but with no dji logo anywhere on it. There are various videos on YouTube. Sent it back, because could not get spare batteries through Amazon. Also couldn't get firmware updates. But still an Air 3 for 999 dollars with what is really an rc2 controller.

Air 3 batteries don’t work on it?

 

[moldorf]

no expert but it seems like there are some possible paths forward

*1) the ban doesn't pass
*2) the ban passes and only affects future models
*3) the ban passes and prohibits DJI from selling new drones in the US including existing models
*4) the ban passes and prohibits all future and current DJI drones

I am sure there are more variations on the possible paths

seems #4 is unlikely. #1 may happen but in an election year you can't know what stupidity Congress will engage in before they adjourn

I have a Mavic 3 and a Mini 3 pro. If either #2 or #3 happen (with a grace period), I may buy a Mavic 3 Classic and hope both of my Mavic's last a long time

 

[anotherlab]

Air 3 batteries don’t work on it?

Same hardware design, but firmware locked to prevent the hardware from being interchangeable.

 

[JohnnyComeLatly]

No. I just bought the Avata 2 last week. The ban will just make it more expensive until the 2030 time frame when you can't get it at all here. Same for your FPV parts.

 

[tstr14]

Bought one yesterday, waiting for it to be delivered. Maybe it will come by drone?

 

[mavic3usa]

no expert but it seems like there are some possible paths forward

*1) the ban doesn't pass
*2) the ban passes and only affects future models
*3) the ban passes and prohibits DJI from selling new drones in the US including existing models
*4) the ban passes and prohibits all future and current DJI drones

I am sure there are more variations on the possible paths

seems #4 is unlikely. #1 may happen but in an election year you can't know what stupidity Congress will engage in before they adjourn

I have a Mavic 3 and a Mini 3 pro. If either #2 or #3 happen (with a grace period), I may buy a Mavic 3 Classic and hope both of my Mavic's last a long time

...and this doesn't even account for what DJI might do; we just don't know.

Imagine this, after the ban passes for example (this isn't real so just imagine):

DJI says "In light of the recent ban by the US government, DJI has decided to cease all future drone shipments to the US starting August 1st. We have decided to immediately divert all resources to Europe, Asia, and South America..."

We don't know how Best Buy and Amazon will react. They might say "Based on the confusion caused by the recent DJI drone ban and the uncertainty going forward, we have made a business decision to discontinue selling DJI branded drones and will be returning all inventory to DJI effective immediately....."

We just don't know. And we can keep on telling ourselves that it just won't happen because it has never happened before or it won't happen because there is no government law dictating that it has to happen that way or it won't happen because companies are greedy and wouldn't rather sell and make a profit that take no risk and send it back to the manufacturer. We just don't know for sure but how ick is that we have to face such possibilities due to self-inflicted stupidity.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the number one threat to the consumer drone industry is excessive government regulation and the uncertainty it bring. When you have zero dollars invested, you know everything that will happen in the future and uncertainly is not a problem for you and everybody else is exaggerating or fear-mongering. A person with zero skin in the game say "That won't happen and it never will happen; cite a case in the last 100 years that happened this way; provide proof this will happen in the future (nonsense)."

 

[JGA]

Actually, because of the potential ban I bought an extra Pro 4 as a backup.

 

[SpitFire]

Greetings: and welcome to the forum, from Chicago the Windy City.
FLY SAFE & FLY SMART
Not worried, not losing sleep over drone issues.

 

[Thelastosirus]

I bought my M4P in anticipation of a ban. If they retroactive the FCC certifications which would be a worst case scenario, you can simply turn off Wifi and never perform another update if you have the RC2. If using your phone that might be trickier since you can block permissions, but the app might seriously take offense. This is under the assumption DJI will block take off in US territories (Or even brick the drone a-la Note 7 style). Or they can does their customers a solid and make one final firmware which disables wifi or updates or whatever to stay off internet-connected infrastructure. There will be a workaround though.

 

[moldorf]

I bought my M4P in anticipation of a ban. If they retroactive the FCC certifications which would be a worst case scenario, you can simply turn off Wifi and never perform another update if you have the RC2. If using your phone that might be trickier since you can block permissions, but the app might seriously take offense. This is under the assumption DJI will block take off in US territories (Or even brick the drone a-la Note 7 style). Or they can does their customers a solid and make one final firmware which disables wifi or updates or whatever to stay off internet-connected infrastructure. There will be a workaround though.

the issue is there appears to be code and timer in the Fly app that severely restricts height (30M) and distance (50M) if you haven't logged in within 90 days (used to be 30 days). So, it's entirely possible that your drone won't be able to fly further than a 50 dollar drone

now, it's possible there may eventually be a hack for that, but that's not certain

there is the Litchi app for older DJI drones (Mini 2, Mini SE (version 1 only), Air 2S, Mavic Mini 1, Mavic Air 2, Mavic 2 (Zoom/Pro), Mavic (Air/Pro), Phantom 4 (Standard/Advanced/Pro/ProV2), Phantom 3 (Standard/4K/Advanced/Professional), Inspire 1 (X3/Z3/Pro/RAW), Inspire 2 and Spark.)

and there is Litchi Pilot (beta) for Mini 3, Mini 3 Pro, Mavic 3E, and Mavic 3T

there is no SDK for Mini 4, Air 3, and any Mavic 3 (non-enterprise)

 

[DARKSeifer]

I think the ban is the reason to pick now the drone you want, because it will take some years to fill the market gap.

Pick a M3 and hack it to not emmit RID and that's a drone you can have for the next 5-10 years and keep working in real state, landscape photography, videography, etc.