Bought and Tested the DJI RC Plus on Ebay that claims to work with the Mavic series of Drones. Guess What? IT DOES WORK! I'll tell you why.

[TVQ]

I was being serious. Anyway, thanks for the help. TVQ

 

[Joe_Gates]

I was being serious. Anyway, thanks for the help. TVQ

happy to ear you have things sorted to your satisfaction! Enjoy that RC Plus. I love mine!

 

[ronaldraoul]

hey guys, i'm new to the group but not to drones. i have the mavic 3 pro, and both the RC Pro and RC Plus. i ordered the RC plus from ebay, but it refuses to bind. returning it to the buyer is such a hassel, anyone knows how to sort this out with the firmware flashing etc?

 

[arfrahmanhakim]

Got it working after switching firmware. Thank you guys for the quick help. View attachment 182113

do you have a tutorial for changing the firmware?

 

[wrybread]

That's weird. It's running DJI Fly right? Did you tell DJI Fly you're connecitng to a Mavic 3 Pro? Remember that it's ok to click ok to the dialog that says something like "this requires a firmware update", that's not really updating the firmware, that's just changing the firmware mode.

 

[wrybread]

hi, just flash it with cos firmware and it will support all drones

See the discussion starting here:

D

Post in thread 'Bought and Tested the DJI RC Plus on Ebay that claims to work with the Mavic series of Drones. Guess What? IT DOES WORK! I'll tell you why.'

Apr 25, 2025

Just got my RC plus for my Mavic 3 pro but it will not pair to the drone. Any suggestions?

• DroneFarmerLLC

 

[wrybread]

I wonder what hack mine uses. I bought it from a seller in China and it binds perfectly to both my Mavic 3 Pro and Mini 3 Pro. My understanding is the hack is just making the firmware think it's an RC Pro.

But out of curiousity got a link to the firmware and instructions you're recommending?

 

[wrybread]

They used to have a fairly closed community, but now information is starting to appear, and the main discussion takes place on Telegram. cos-project.com is their website. COS Community is their Telegram channel

That's super interesting. But are you saying all the people in this thread who connect to their Mavics just fine are using the cos firmware?

 

[Dave Pitman]

DJI just inserted an artificial incompatibility. No extra work was necessary.

This is an older comment about DJI's decision to not allow their controllers to operate other families of their drones.
I just wanted to chime in that this is certainly true for the RC Pro controllers. So it makes sense that it would be true for the RC Plus as well.

There is no hardware difference. There is an app running on the controllers at the root level that won't allow the controller to switch between their different control apps. That is why they can be easily converted to work with any of the drones by means of root level access. But then it will only load that control app and not the previous. If you learn how it's done, you can switch back and forth. But it is still a bit or a pain. If that "non-compatibility" app could be removed, then probably all of the different control apps could happily live on any of the controllers.

The other chap wanted proof. It's quite simple really. For example. Look up the FCC approval for the RC Pro. The 510A for consumer Mavic 3s runs the Fly app. And 510B runs the Pilot 2 app for Enterprise Mavic 3s. you will find that there is only one approval document. That is because they are the exact same controller. Only the model # sticker is different. And which app they are programmed with from the factory. From the FCC's perspective of the hardware. They are the same controller.

Would DJI do that? Hell yes.

 

[Dave Pitman]

That's super interesting. But are you saying all the people in this thread who connect to their Mavics just fine are using the cos firmware?

The OP, Aracurd has deleted all their posts on Mavic Pilots for whatever reason.

 

[wrybread]

The OP, Aracurd has deleted all their posts on Mavic Pilots for whatever reason.

Bummer, there was some interesting info about drone hacking forums and telegram channels. I wonder if someone told him to delete the posts.

But a lot of info remains in the replies that quoted him.

 

[rexster1505]

The OP, Aracurd has deleted all their posts on Mavic Pilots for whatever reason.

I looked at the COS website and decided whether Russian or Ukranian, I'd pass on it.

 

[AlaskanGuy]

Had my first flights today with the RC Plus controller and my Mavic 3 Pro! My copilot was doing most of the flying so I couldn't get too into the buttons and all that:

View attachment 179945

But everything was super smooth, paired to my Mavic just like any other RC, no issues with anything at all. The only downside is that as expected the 3 buttons under the right stick don't do anything, but I don't have those on any other controller anyway. And I've had unused buttons on every DJI controller I've ever had. The build quality is amazing, feels like one of those ruggedized police laptops. IP54 waterproof and a giant screen. Definitely feels professional. Even the sound is good, it's playing music from Spotify as I type.

The screen is easy to see in full sun, I think it's noticeably brighter than the Pro? I really need to see them side by side. But it's waaay brighter than my RC. On paper it's 1200 nits for the Plus, 1000 nits for the Pro and 700 for the RC. There's some things to get used to, like the fact that the Sport/Normal/Cine switch is a rocker on the left side, but so far I prefer every difference. And the sticks feel great.

I haven't tested the HDMI output during a flight but it works great at my desk, can mirror DJI Fly to a big secondary monitor. And I prefer its full sized HDMI port to the mini HDMI on the RC Pro. I just ordered a USB-C monitor, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to comment on the USB-C port.

I'm curious to see how it'll do in a range test compared to the RC and the Pro. I'd also like to figure out how to attach external antennas since why not. I gather I need to find MMCX to SMA adaptors to connect to the antenna jacks.

I plan to write up something for people considering this controller but so far here are my notes on the specs:

- Internal battery is 6.5ah @ 7.2v (46.8 watt hours), RC Pro is 5ah @ 7.2v (36 watt hours), RC is 5.2ah @ 3.6v (18.7 watt hours)
- Has a socket for a hot swappable 2nd battery (WB37) that's about 37 watt hours, costs $60 from DJI or less on eBay.
- 64 gigs internal storage (versus 32gigs for pro)
- 1200 nit screen, versus 1000 nit for pro and 700 nits for RC
- 7 inch screen versus 5.5 for pro and RC
- IP54 waterproof rating, which means should easily be able to handle rain. Not that I'd want to fly in the rain given the drone but it's nice to not worry about the controller. I don't think the RC Pro is waterproof at all?
- Costs about the same as the Pro on eBay. I got the Plus for $600 shipped, looks new to me. That's about the same price as the Pro on eBay. I got it from this seller.

Cons:

• Can't easily update firmware. I don't see that as an issue since this is an Occusync 3 controller anyway, and given DJI's track record the Pro will probably never get support for OC4 drones. And if a critical firmware update does come out I'm sure it can be updated just as it was before. And note that I can and already have updated DJI Fly since that's just an app.
• The R1, R2, R3 and C3 buttons can't be used, but I figure no biggie since they're not on the Pro controller anyway.

Since I'm in the honeymoon phase I've been using it as a tablet when not flying. I love Android but I've never really found a good Android tablet before, this is far and away the best I've used. Fairly easy to install apps on but so far I haven't gotten the Play Store installed. I wish I could use the joysticks to scroll! If anyone has any ideas about catching the signals from the joysticks and buttons at the OS level I'd love to hear them.

And let me know any questions, glad to help. It's bizarre how little info there is about this online at the moment.

Plug in a USB C Mouse with scroll wheel.

 

[rexster1505]

Fairly easy to install apps on but so far I haven't gotten the Play Store installed.

Not tried it on my RC Plus, but was never able to get Playstore up and running on my RC Pro. Numerous videos on Youtube, but finally gave up. I can get pretty much anything I want off APKPure website.