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DJI Cellular Dongle 2 question.

MavicKhan

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Cascais, Portugal
Thinking of buying DJI's Cellular Dongle 2 for my Air 3S, since my country is listed as one where it will work.

Question:

Am I right to assume that, in addition to the generally described features, the dongle will also help locating the drone if it makes an emergency descent and lands in a recessed area where it won't be in VLOS with the controller?

Can you direct me to a in-depth resource that deals with this and other functionalities of this accessory?

Thank you.

MK
 
The dongle is basically a substitute for the RC connection to the drone. In the case of RC signal loss, the dongle 4G connection takes over and will only lose connection if there is no 4G in the area you are flying. If the drone does a forced landing because of low battery etc and if your dongle is still powered on after the drone lands and still has a strong 4G connection then you will be able to use Find my Drone feature.
 
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Excellent.

This being the case, I will let go of the locator I have been using, riding piggy back on the drones - the type that you call and receive a a goggle maps link to the spot where it is - and just rely on the dongle to raise the odds of finding the drone, if lost in the circumstances I described. I will even use the SIM I already have.

The only trade off is that the locator has an autonomous power source, obviously.

Thank you!

MK
 
Excellent.

This being the case, I will let go of the locator I have been using, riding piggy back on the drones - the type that you call and receive a a goggle maps link to the spot where it is - and just rely on the dongle to raise the odds of finding the drone, if lost in the circumstances I described. I will even use the SIM I already have.

The only trade off is that the locator has an autonomous power source, obviously.

Thank you!

MK
Given the value of these drones, it is always recommended to have some sort of locator on it. I would not 100% rely on the dongle to provide exact location. An example is that if the drone auto lands due to low battery and let's say your battery level is at 1%. if the drone powers down then you will not be able to locate the drone if it lands in thick bush using the dongle and this is where your external locator will come in handy.
 
I also always fly with a small and thin short range locator-directional beeper on top of the drone.

The SMS locator I used until now gave me the broad position of the drone.

The dongle will now help doing the same, even if the battery is depleted after landing.

The locator-directional beeper will then pinpoint the location, as I get near the general area, as it already did in the past.

If the area is accessible or not, that is a whole other matter.

MK
 

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