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DJI Neo (a new 149 gram drone)

msinger

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Is it going to be an upgraded/updated tello?

I would welcome this as the tello is a great platform for teaching and coding but is getting a little dated. I have about 20 that would love to be retired im sure 😂
 
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Yeah, looks more like a Tello replacement made to be flown with a phone than anything that can be flown "interestingly" like the Avata...
 
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Although possibly a cinewhoop style craft? Either way im checking what i have left in this years budget 😃
 
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Possible footage of the Neo?

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Well they've already pre-sold at least one 😁

Hoping it will be a true acro capable with Manual mode, but I'll get one regardless. It would be awesome to have all the aavata 2 tech/features/camera in a little bugger like that, optionally controllable via wifi directly from smartphone, like the Air 1.

I'm probably one of 3 people on the planet that loved the portability features on the Air 1 (smartphone control, hand gestures). Was perfect for family day trips, and still use it occasionally like that, but I'm down to one working (and fading) battery.
 
Possible footage of the Neo?

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i looks kinda big for 150 Grams. interesting days ahead
 
Personally I see this as an Operations Over People drone, cinematic style not FPV. Lightweight, full prop cages. Possibly ideal for indoor use, too light to cause damage to persons or property. The specs on the battery indicates they've sacrificed flight time to keep weight at a bare minimum, just enough to get up in the air, get your shot without risk. Batteries will likely be very cheap so easy to get lots of short flights.
 
Personally I see this as an Operations Over People drone, cinematic style not FPV. Lightweight, full prop cages. Possibly ideal for indoor use, too light to cause damage to persons or property. The specs on the battery indicates they've sacrificed flight time to keep weight at a bare minimum, just enough to get up in the air, get your shot without risk. Batteries will likely be very cheap so easy to get lots of short flights.
I'm not sure why DJI thinks the time is appropriate for an "Operations Over People" drone. I don't know nearly enough about OOP details so maybe I'm about to speak out of turn but I think this is a good opportunity to bring up the topic and I know we have experts here to give us the most accurate information.

DJI cannot just decide the drone is appropriate for operations over people, it has to be approved by teh FAA. So you may meet the requirements to be a Category 1 drone for example but unless the FAA says you are....you aren't. Doesn't a Category 1 drone need to have standard RID? 149g drone with standard RID doesn't sounds like a winner to me when it comes to what could be one of DJIs most popular "recreational" drone for the general public. I see early unverified pics of Neo without guards, not sure how that works when they are optional equipment. In fact, I'm not even how/if a recreational pilot can fly under OOP rules, is it even possible?

I'm not the best PFV pilot but I don't believe it is very easy to fly over large outdoors crowds while wear goggles. Even if the drone and equipment is suitable, in the US there are just too many outdoor events where you still won't be able use the drone whether there is a TFR or a local laws or other reasons such as getting crowd approval. I guess I'm trying to say the conditions are not best for DJI to launch an OOP drone; too early for that, too many government regulations. Instead, from what I've seen, most people just use whatever drone they already have and kinda do whatever they want (as long as they do it "safely") so I doubt anyone is going to buy an OOP drone not fully knowing the "rules" in the first place.

This would be my opinion on it, probably because I selfishly prefer that this turns out to be a solid FPV drone so I hope they don't cut too many corners. ;)
 
I'm not sure why DJI thinks the time is appropriate for an "Operations Over People" drone. I don't know nearly enough about OOP details so maybe I'm about to speak out of turn but I think this is a good opportunity to bring up the topic and I know we have experts here to give us the most accurate information.

DJI cannot just decide the drone is appropriate for operations over people, it has to be approved by teh FAA. So you may meet the requirements to be a Category 1 drone for example but unless the FAA says you are....you aren't. Doesn't a Category 1 drone need to have standard RID? 149g drone with standard RID doesn't sounds like a winner to me when it comes to what could be one of DJIs most popular "recreational" drone for the general public. I see early unverified pics of Neo without guards, not sure how that works when they are optional equipment. In fact, I'm not even how/if a recreational pilot can fly under OOP rules, is it even possible?

I'm not the best PFV pilot but I don't believe it is very easy to fly over large outdoors crowds while wear goggles. Even if the drone and equipment is suitable, in the US there are just too many outdoor events where you still won't be able use the drone whether there is a TFR or a local laws or other reasons such as getting crowd approval. I guess I'm trying to say the conditions are not best for DJI to launch an OOP drone; too early for that, too many government regulations. Instead, from what I've seen, most people just use whatever drone they already have and kinda do whatever they want (as long as they do it "safely") so I doubt anyone is going to buy an OOP drone not fully knowing the "rules" in the first place.

This would be my opinion on it, probably because I selfishly prefer that this turns out to be a solid FPV drone so I hope they don't cut too many corners. ;)
Here's my understanding, with a link below that backs it up. Category 1 drones don't need to be approved/certified by the FAA. Only Category 2 and 3 drones require FAA certification, and Category 4 is a custom branch that will require an individual Airworthiness certificate. For Category 1, it needs to have a sub-0.55lb take-off weight, no rotating parts that can cause laceration. As long as it meets those criteria it is automatically a Category 1 drone. Now, if you add sustained flights over groups of people outdoors only then does a Category 1 drone need to be Remote ID compliant. Given that at this point RID is essentially just software using existing on-board antennas, and with a projected retail price of $330 with Fly More combo it's not hard to imagine it'll include built-in RID. Even if it didn't, unlike the other DJI drones in the Mini series this Neo drone will be so far under the weight limit you can easily add an aftermarket RID broadcast module and still meet the requirements. Part 107 is required for OOP flights but realistically it's trivially simple to get a Part 107 so that's not much of a barrier.


Regarding full FPV, I don't get why DJI would choose such a minuscule battery for that task. The Neo battery is only 1435mAh. For comparison the Mini 2 is 2250mAh. Certainly there are micro FPV drones with tiny batteries but given the size of this drone in the leaked photos/video it doesn't appear to be a micro drone, bigger than a Tello, probably closer in size to a Spark.

That's why I still believe this drone is intended for comparatively short cinematic flights with little risk to persons or property.
 
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Here's my understanding, with a link below that backs it up. Category 1 drones don't need to be approved/certified by the FAA. Only Category 2 and 3 drones require FAA certification, and Category 4 is a custom branch that will require an individual Airworthiness certificate. For Category 1, it needs to have a sub-0.55lb take-off weight, no rotating parts that can cause laceration. As long as it meets those criteria it is automatically a Category 1 drone. Now, if you add sustained flights over groups of people outdoors only then does a Category 1 drone need to be Remote ID compliant. Given that at this point RID is essentially just software using existing on-board antennas, and with a projected retail price of $330 with Fly More combo it's not hard to imagine it'll include built-in RID. Even if it didn't, unlike the other DJI drones in the Mini series this Neo drone will be so far under the weight limit you can easily add an aftermarket RID broadcast module and still meet the requirements. Part 107 is required for OOP flights but realistically it's trivially simple to get a Part 107 so that's not much of a barrier.


Regarding full FPV, I don't get why DJI would choose such a minuscule battery for that task. The Neo battery is only 1435mAh. For comparison the Mini 2 is 2250mAh. Certainly there are micro FPV drones with tiny batteries but given the size of this drone in the leaked photos/video it doesn't appear to be a micro drone, bigger than a Tello, probably closer in size to a Spark.

That's why I still believe this drone is intended for comparatively short cinematic flights with little risk to persons or property.
Good to know; perhaps the Neo can be used for OOP flights but I thought it was too early for DJI to embrace that primary role for one of it's potential best selling drones (due to price). If they put standard RID in Neo, that's going to blow it, IMO. I don't mind it but a lot of Americans do.

So Neo1 will start likely start of small, cheap, and scant of specs only to get better with Neo2 and Neo3. At first I thought this might have been FPV2 but I can't see Neo going 100mph and diving tall buildings. But I guess since this isn't Avata3 then you can't really expect much FPV-wise.

So pardon me please help me understand one more thing: Even with a category1 drone, can recreational pilots operate sustained flights over uninvolved outdoor large crowds of people with no prior approval from *anyone*?
 
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Good to know; perhaps the Neo can be used for OOP flights but I thought it was too early for DJI to embrace that primary role for one of it's potential best selling drones (due to price). If they put standard RID in Neo, that's going to blow it, IMO. I don't mind it but a lot of Americans do.

Back this up. I say most Americans aren't aware of the existence of RID and don't care at all. Where do you get the idea that "a lot" of Americans are opposed to RID?

From what I can see, it's limited to a handful of members here, who coincidentally have some other fairly unusual concerns about the gubmint as well.
 
So pardon me please help me understand one more thing: Even with a category1 drone, can recreational pilots operate sustained flights over uninvolved outdoor large crowds of people with no prior approval from *anyone*?
They way I read it is the entire "drone categories" discussion relates only to Part 107 cert holders. The FAA ammended 107, they didn't ammend USC 44809.
 
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Back this up. I say most Americans aren't aware of the existence of RID and don't care at all. Where do you get the idea that "a lot" of Americans are opposed to RID?

From what I can see, it's limited to a handful of members here, who coincidentally have some other fairly unusual concerns about the gubmint as well.
Just read into it. Overall, I'm saying registration. They are tied together even though most consumer maybe don't know much about either. Seems every conversation about a sub-250g drone in the US involves a statement saying something along the lines of "...you don't need to register." Wouldn't that involve RID? I know there are differing opinions on that particular topic but in order for DJI to have "no registration" bragging rights, surely they have to consider RID, right?

Looking at what happened to the [confusion] with Mini 3/4 on RID, seems to me a much lighter drone (Neo) even with battery options would fall into the "no RID" category for DJI and they would probably be correct if they thought Neo had no commercial application (other than OOP I guess). Just wouldn't make sense to automatically include RID in Neo (at cost) but waffle on borderline Mini drones.

If it makes you happy, I can change my statement from RID to registration but I don't have anything else to add (in this thread) with regard to RID, registration, and the FAA as far as how they work together. Nevertheless, I could be wrong that a sub-250 drone targeted for US travelers who go to foreign countries, one day if that drone broadcasts, the rules overseas will likely require registration which would undermine the intended sub-250 advantage. DJI, just let those 2% of the consumers who want it to choose to add an external broadcast module.
 
You said, "a lot of Americans do" in reference to opposition to RID. I say so few Americans are even aware of something called RID in reference to drones, and among those that have heard "RID" even fewer know what it is, to have their purchasing decision for any drone be influenced by it.

To say "a lot" of Americans know about RID, or none are aware of it would both be false, but the latter is nearly true.

It has nothing to do with making me happy. It's a matter of fact vs. fiction.

Heck, the vast majority of Americans have no idea who DJI is.
 
You said, "a lot of Americans do" in reference to opposition to RID. I say so few Americans are even aware of something called RID in reference to drones, and among those that have heard "RID" even fewer know what it is, to have their purchasing decision for any drone be influenced by it.

To say "a lot" of Americans know about RID, or none are aware of it would both be false, but the latter is nearly true.

It has nothing to do with making me happy. It's a matter of fact vs. fiction.

Heck, the vast majority of Americans have no idea who DJI is.
Registration my friend; registration. ;)
 
They way I read it is the entire "drone categories" discussion relates only to Part 107 cert holders. The FAA ammended 107, they didn't ammend USC 44809.
"Category 2 enables sustained flight over open-air gatherings, while Category 3 imposes additional safety limitations. Under Category 3, drone operations over crowds are prohibited unless conducted within or over closed- or restricted-access areas, where individuals are duly notified of potential drone flights, or if the drone maintains flight over individuals who are directly involved in the operation or are situated under protective structures or stationary vehicles." Source: dronedj.com
 
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