DJI to restrict non-compliant drones at next software update

[Blades]

Frankly, if it prevents idiots from flying these things in highly populated urban locations or in any number of stupid places I've seen posted here and elsewhere and allows stricter control over those that operate these things dangerously, I'm for it.

It's a shame that a minority of morons makes this kind of "parental control" necessary.

Frankly I did not buy it and would not buy it if they were going to do this! So by your way of thinking every car should have a breathalyzer on it so nobody drives drunk and causes an accident right? Cars are a lot more dangerous than a toy 1 lb drone.. Its called personal responsibility and if you break the law you will be punished appropriately. I don't need the government or DJI controlling every aspect of my life!

 

[Blucenturion]

You are so full of it. If I'm flying around my neighborhood, my neighbors will most likely know about it because they can hear the **** thing, not because they will be tuned into some frequency with their special radio receivers.

Also, your local police department has no access to the FAA's registration list, nor do they have access to DJI's registration list. At most, in this hypothetical scenario, they would be able to request such information from the FAA or DJI, but that is a far cry from real time capability. You are a real loon, and frankly I'm sick of the nonsense you continuously spew on this board.

I've said it multiple times already and ill say it again. None of this even matters if you don't update the app or the firmware.

The practice of disagreement by calling someone with an opposing viewpoint, names, is popular but still abhorrent. You need a two week ban, bro.

 

[Ziggy01]

Frankly I did not buy it and would not buy it if they were going to do this! So by your way of thinking every car should have a breathalyzer on it so nobody drives drunk and causes an accident right? Cars are a lot more dangerous than a toy 1 lb drone.. Its called personal responsibility and if you break the law you will be punished appropriately. I don't need the government or DJI controlling every aspect of my life!

Point by point:

I wouldn't be averse to cars having a mandatory breathalyzer.

I never suggested that a Mavic is as potentially lethal as a car (another false equivalence).

Like you, I'm supportive of appropriate punishment for those who break the law.

Like you, I don't want the government or DJI controlling every aspect of my life.

 

[dwallersv]

Well, to keep this in perspective, only those in China will have to use the breathalyzer to start their cars, the rest of us can ignore it. Also, as much as it sucks for our Chinese buddies, they only have to breath in it once every three months to keep their car at full performance.

So yeah, this is annoying, but hardly the severing-of-a-limb all this hysteria seems far more suited to.

 

[Blucenturion]

Last week msm reported FAA regs overturned for drones. Current administration rolled back the regs.

So if my government doesn't require whatever makes no sense dji would do this.

I emailed support and have not got an answer yet asked if this upcoming update will include those rolled back regs.

"Current administration" had nothing to do with this, MAGA. It was a Court Order.

 

[torqum]

The practice of disagreement by calling someone with an opposing viewpoint, names, is popular but still abhorrent. You need a two week ban, bro.

The one who needs a ban is the one who has repeatedly spread misinformation here and elsewhere in order to whip up a panic. But I've said my piece so go ahead and ban me.

 

[Robbyg]

I am really surprised at the hostility one or two people have shown to Adiru. He is only trying to help out people and yet he is getting grief from a few people on the forum.

Let me tell you a little story. Ironically it happened two months ago to the day when I made a post and asked the following question:

_______________________
I heard a rumor that Go4.05 has a new feature in it that binds the the Sim Chips phone number to the Mavic.
Supposedly if you take out the Sim the Mavic works fine but if you change the SIM to a new number you will get some sort of error that requires some kind of re authentication. Can anyone test this. My iPhone 6+ does not have a Sim in it.

I am really hoping this report is false.

Rob
-----------------------------------------

The link is here:
Can anyone test a mobile device with 2 different SIM chips on the Mavic


I left out details in this post because I was afraid people would label me a paranoid nut job like they are doing to Adiru.

So now that the subject has come full circle let me tell you what I left out.

I had picked up this info from an exchange between a group of Chinese DJI Beta testers. I was using google to translate so it was not very clear exactly what they were saying but I did get enough to know that they were complaining that the latest Beta version they were testing required a SIM Chip to be in whatever device they were using and that the device was broadcasting their flight telemetry info directly to DJI.

One guy was complaining that his privacy was being invaded and another complained that his data plan was being eaten up and another was saying he was upset that he had to buy a new device that used a Sim card.

They also mentioned that their telephone numbers were on record with DJI's servers and that they tried changing the Sim cards, but when they did the Mavic would no longer fly. One guy was trying to comfort the guy complaining about his data being used up by saying that he was able to start the Mavic and then remove the Sim card and it still flew. A loophole which might have been intentional or was fixed in the next version.

Now I might have gotten the versions they were using mixed up and there is no way to be certain when this code was added but I do know that whatever was in Beta tests two months ago had the code in it.

I know many of you will sit back in comfort thinking that this is only a problem for the Chinese pilots. The fact is that this code is in every version that has been released in the last 6 weeks. That is the reason that I started posting seven weeks ago about trying to backup the .400 firmware and IOS app and why I was obsessed with staying on my old version.

As it stands DJI is just one button press from implementing this feature in any country they want to.

My assumption based on current events is that they are worried about legal problems that may develop if they force Sim chip use or monitor and shutdown a drone from a user in the wrong country. So they are trying to gather an exact Geo location that is given and approved by the owner of the drone. This would exonerating them in a court of law should this happen.

Any pilot in America or the EU can sit back and stick your head in the sand, but all the evidence to date seems to point to the fact that DJI is putting into place a flight monitoring system that can be activated should the laws in your country require it.

If you think about it, this is a request that Homeland security could fast track through congress very quickly. And just in case DJI was thinking that they are two steps ahead of the average person, I think I already know why your so willing to do this DJI. If the USA requires this it would mean that all other drone companies are blindsided and DJI in effect would be the only company that would have drones that can be legally sold in the USA.

As for the blame game that will come. DJI will say that they are sorry, but due to US law you are now required to use a device that has a SIM chip in it with a data plan. And for those that are going to ask what about me! I don't have cell reception where I fly! Maybe that is why the Chinese guy was able to fly without a Sim Chip in it. I would bet that the system will use the DAT file and allow you to fly for maybe a day or two before it will shutdown and require a sync with the DJI server.

Rob

 

[Blucenturion]

I am really surprised at the hostility one or two people have shown to Adiru. He is only trying to help out people and yet he is getting grief from a few people on the forum.

Let me tell you a little story. Ironically it happened two months ago to the day when I made a post and asked the following question:

_______________________
I heard a rumor that Go4.05 has a new feature in it that binds the the Sim Chips phone number to the Mavic.
Supposedly if you take out the Sim the Mavic works fine but if you change the SIM to a new number you will get some sort of error that requires some kind of re authentication. Can anyone test this. My iPhone 6+ does not have a Sim in it.

I am really hoping this report is false.

Rob
-----------------------------------------

The link is here:
Can anyone test a mobile device with 2 different SIM chips on the Mavic


I left out details in this post because I was afraid people would label me a paranoid nut job like they are doing to Adiru.

So now that the subject has come full circle let me tell you what I left out.

I had picked up this info from an exchange between a group of Chinese DJI Beta testers. I was using google to translate so it was not very clear exactly what they were saying but I did get enough to know that they were complaining that the latest Beta version they were testing required a SIM Chip to be in whatever device they were using and that the device was broadcasting their flight telemetry info directly to DJI.

One guy was complaining that his privacy was being invaded and another complained that his data plan was being eaten up and another was saying he was upset that he had to buy a new device that used a Sim card.

They also mentioned that their telephone numbers were on record with DJI's servers and that they tried changing the Sim cards, but when they did the Mavic would no longer fly. One guy was trying to comfort the guy complaining about his data being used up by saying that he was able to start the Mavic and then remove the Sim card and it still flew. A loophole which might have been intentional or was fixed in the next version.

Now I might have gotten the versions they were using mixed up and there is no way to be certain when this code was added but I do know that whatever was in Beta tests two months ago had the code in it.

I know many of you will sit back in comfort thinking that this is only a problem for the Chinese pilots. The fact is that this code is in every version that has been released in the last 6 weeks. That is the reason that I started posting seven weeks ago about trying to backup the .400 firmware and IOS app and why I was obsessed with staying on my old version.

As it stands DJI is just one button press from implementing this feature in any country they want to.

My assumption based on current events is that they are worried about legal problems that may develop if they force Sim chip use or monitor and shutdown a drone from a user in the wrong country. So they are trying to gather an exact Geo location that is given and approved by the owner of the drone. This would exonerating them in a court of law should this happen.

Any pilot in America or the EU can sit back and stick your head in the sand, but all the evidence to date seems to point to the fact that DJI is putting into place a flight monitoring system that can be activated should the laws in your country require it.

If you think about it, this is a request that Homeland security could fast track through congress very quickly. And just in case DJI was thinking that they are two steps ahead of the average person, I think I already know why your so willing to do this DJI. If the USA requires this it would mean that all other drone companies are blindsided and DJI in effect would be the only company that would have drones that can be legally sold in the USA.

As for the blame game that will come. DJI will say that they are sorry, but due to US law you are now required to use a device that has a SIM chip in it with a data plan. And for those that are going to ask what about me! I don't have cell reception where I fly! Maybe that is why the Chinese guy was able to fly without a Sim Chip in it. I would bet that the system will use the DAT file and allow you to fly for maybe a day or two before it will shutdown and require a sync with the DJI server.

Rob

Yours was the post several weeks ago that made me downgrade to 0400, after seeing my a/c jump around in a hover on 0600. However, I didn't have the smarts to do the same to my controller, now I'm a bit uneasy.

Edit: Checking, and I'm on V01.03.0400. So I guess I'm good.

 

[Former Member]

I am really surprised at the hostility one or two people have shown to Adiru. He is only trying to help out people and yet he is getting grief from a few people on the forum.

Let me tell you a little story. Ironically it happened two months ago to the day when I made a post and asked the following question:

_______________________
I heard a rumor that Go4.05 has a new feature in it that binds the the Sim Chips phone number to the Mavic.
Supposedly if you take out the Sim the Mavic works fine but if you change the SIM to a new number you will get some sort of error that requires some kind of re authentication. Can anyone test this. My iPhone 6+ does not have a Sim in it.

I am really hoping this report is false.

Rob
-----------------------------------------

The link is here:
Can anyone test a mobile device with 2 different SIM chips on the Mavic


I left out details in this post because I was afraid people would label me a paranoid nut job like they are doing to Adiru.

So now that the subject has come full circle let me tell you what I left out.

I had picked up this info from an exchange between a group of Chinese DJI Beta testers. I was using google to translate so it was not very clear exactly what they were saying but I did get enough to know that they were complaining that the latest Beta version they were testing required a SIM Chip to be in whatever device they were using and that the device was broadcasting their flight telemetry info directly to DJI.

One guy was complaining that his privacy was being invaded and another complained that his data plan was being eaten up and another was saying he was upset that he had to buy a new device that used a Sim card.

They also mentioned that their telephone numbers were on record with DJI's servers and that they tried changing the Sim cards, but when they did the Mavic would no longer fly. One guy was trying to comfort the guy complaining about his data being used up by saying that he was able to start the Mavic and then remove the Sim card and it still flew. A loophole which might have been intentional or was fixed in the next version.

Now I might have gotten the versions they were using mixed up and there is no way to be certain when this code was added but I do know that whatever was in Beta tests two months ago had the code in it.

I know many of you will sit back in comfort thinking that this is only a problem for the Chinese pilots. The fact is that this code is in every version that has been released in the last 6 weeks. That is the reason that I started posting seven weeks ago about trying to backup the .400 firmware and IOS app and why I was obsessed with staying on my old version.

As it stands DJI is just one button press from implementing this feature in any country they want to.

My assumption based on current events is that they are worried about legal problems that may develop if they force Sim chip use or monitor and shutdown a drone from a user in the wrong country. So they are trying to gather an exact Geo location that is given and approved by the owner of the drone. This would exonerating them in a court of law should this happen.

Any pilot in America or the EU can sit back and stick your head in the sand, but all the evidence to date seems to point to the fact that DJI is putting into place a flight monitoring system that can be activated should the laws in your country require it.

If you think about it, this is a request that Homeland security could fast track through congress very quickly. And just in case DJI was thinking that they are two steps ahead of the average person, I think I already know why your so willing to do this DJI. If the USA requires this it would mean that all other drone companies are blindsided and DJI in effect would be the only company that would have drones that can be legally sold in the USA.

As for the blame game that will come. DJI will say that they are sorry, but due to US law you are now required to use a device that has a SIM chip in it with a data plan. And for those that are going to ask what about me! I don't have cell reception where I fly! Maybe that is why the Chinese guy was able to fly without a Sim Chip in it. I would bet that the system will use the DAT file and allow you to fly for maybe a day or two before it will shutdown and require a sync with the DJI server.

Rob

Oh this should be quite the debacle. DJI can't seem to iron out their firmware issues, and now they are revising DJI Go in a major way. Wonder how many dozens of new threads are gonna pop up here on people having problems with the new app, phone compatibility, and loss of connection. "Did DJI disable me or is it my phone, sim card or the firmware." Nightmare waiting to happen, just as I was getting excited about the Spark release.

 

[TroutboyNZ]

Oh this should be quite the debacle. DJI can't seem to iron out their firmware issues, and now they are revising DJI Go in a major way. Wonder how many dozens of new threads are gonna pop up here on people having problems with the new app, phone compatibility, and loss of connection. "Did DJI disable me or is it my phone or the firmware." Nightmare waiting to happen, just as I was getting excited about the Spark release.

EXACTLY, bang on. This for me is the only REAL reason for concern!

 

[Glideslope]

Yes, but Mavic was never pitched as "drone rental as a service"
DJI also never stated to prospective customers that DJI Go app would be a requirement to fly. In fact in all its advertising and press it said that customers can fly with only the remote controller if they wished.

I actually fly quite a bit with the controller only.

 

[Randy]

Except for the possibility of your mavic broadcasting its serial number on 2.4 or 5.8 every time you fly.

I agree that if they sold the Mavic advertising that you don't need a device like an SMARTPHONE or iPad to fly it, how can they change the rules and limit those that don't use the GO 4 app and smartphones and iPads to fly THEIR DRONES. Sounds illegal to me. Sounds like a dirty trick subject to many lawsuits. If you click that you take full responsibility and/or have permission to fly in an area the liability is now off of DJI, let us be responsible for our own mistakes if we choose to break the law, they've already isolated themselves when we check the boxes.

 

[Logger]

.... DJI to continue to degrade the performance of the Mavic (for example now only 84% of a full charge battery is actually "usable" as opposed to 90% when it was first sold on earlier firmware, later this number could get to like 70% or even 60% etc) ..

Can you explain what you mean by this. My Mavic has all the latest updates installed and I still have 90% battery usable. I don't see any change in battery behaviour and as far as I can tell, mine will still critical battery autoland at 10% (plus a pad for altitude).

Did you perhaps have Critical battery auto-land kick in a bit sooner, simply because you were flying a bit higher than normal and incorrectly conclude skulduggery by DJI?

I get the Low battery warning at 20% as I have set it to do. Then I can merrily fly around until 10% when it will auto-land. Alternatively I can choose to land any time prior to 10%. I do not s the 84% limit you speak of. I had no problem flying and landing with 12% battery yesterday. Maybe they have hobbled your Mavic only. Anyone else seeing seeing this degrade performance?

 

[alienwarrior]

Conspiracy theory X:

China and USA are pushing, shoving and flexing muscle over the South China Sea and all the man made islands China has built and militarized. Some sources indicate war could be around the corner and if by some chance China and the USA start throwing bullets and bombs at each other then DJI will most likely be forced to hit the kill switch by the Chinese govt.
"We make Imperialist Yankee Americans pay, turn off all their expensive toys!"(Spoken with a strong Chinese accent)
And this next update will make it all possible!

Whadayarekon?

 

[Former Member]

I like your positive thinking but the fact that DJI does not make different versions of the app or firmware for different countries, means the same code will end up in your App and firmware.

While it may start off as a campaign against terrorist you can bet your last dollar that DJI will use it for whatever Geo problems they need it for. Any country that has laws in place to limit drone flight will eventually feel the pinch as they use forced upgrades to enforce new laws and problems that DJI as a company feels is a threat to their business.

I am not talking about a year from now but most likely within a couple of months. I would bet that even pilots in the USA will start to see increased NFZ control very soon. Folks who live in DC and FL will most likely be the first on the list.


Rob

Funny you should say this because since updating to .600, I started getting NFZ warnings when I was far from an NFZ zone. The warning would go away after a minute or two, but still, I think they were prepping me for a more stringent, "DJI enforced" NFZ lockdown if they determine you are in a restricted area.

 

[collins]

If you think about it, this is a request that Homeland security could fast track through congress very quickly. And just in case DJI was thinking that they are two steps ahead of the average person, I think I already know why your so willing to do this DJI. If the USA requires this it would mean that all other drone companies are blindsided and DJI in effect would be the only company that would have drones that can be legally sold in the USA.

Rob

I suspect this is a little extreme.

However, certainly China does this sort of thing. China has a long track record of implementing 'spurious safety standards' with which 'only' Chinese companies can comply. This protects them from foreign competition.

Personally, I see the opposite happening with DJI. DJI is a very 'high profile' Chinese exporter because it consists of both Chinese tech, Chinese components and Chinese ownership. So if 'trade frictions' (That Trump has been going on about) continue DJI is likely to be in the 'front line'. The US could easily introduce a drone tax of say 50% and it would hit almost exclusively Chinese manufacturers. It is far, far easier to do this than to place a tariff on Chinese imports because this would break various existing trade treaties and would likely be blocked in the courts.

 

[Former Member]

This will be interesting from a contract law perspective (anyone actually read DJI's full T's and C's?) for those who purchased their equipment under a different premise. Not sure you can effectively entice someone to purchase a product under one set of expectations and then arbitrarily change those (limit) expectations without offering some compensation if the use is subsequently limited, unless it is spelled out at the time purchase.

DJI has little respect for contract law. ie taking preorders for 10,000 Mavics, receiving payment, then failing to produce the product within promised period of time.

 

[collins]

Funny you should say this because since updating to .600, I started getting NFZ warnings when I was far from an NFZ zone. The warning would go away after a minute or two, but still, I think they were prepping me for a more stringent, "DJI enforced" NFZ lockdown if they determine you are in a restricted area.

I believe that a recent firmware update (possibly 600) implemented 'NFZ' showing up on the controller 'by default' if the Mavic has yet to acquire GPS coordinates - it then goes away when it connects to GPS.

 

[torqum]

I am really surprised at the hostility one or two people have shown to Adiru. He is only trying to help out people and yet he is getting grief from a few people on the forum.

Let me tell you a little story. Ironically it happened two months ago to the day when I made a post and asked the following question:

_______________________
I heard a rumor that Go4.05 has a new feature in it that binds the the Sim Chips phone number to the Mavic.
Supposedly if you take out the Sim the Mavic works fine but if you change the SIM to a new number you will get some sort of error that requires some kind of re authentication. Can anyone test this. My iPhone 6+ does not have a Sim in it.

I am really hoping this report is false.

Rob
-----------------------------------------

Rob

I don't know why you think your post is comparable to adiru's. All you did was ask a question and express some opinions. There's no problem with that. The problem is when someone asserts something to be true which clearly isn't, and when you call them out on it they either ignore you and continue to make the assertion or they deflect.

Adiru has made multiple posts on multiple forums making 2 unsupported claims. The first is that unless you downgrade to an earlier firmware version your mavic will be severely restricted. Even in DJI's own communications it's clear that that's not the case. If however you update the firmware version but fail to re-activate, or you update the app and fail to follow through with updating the firmware and re-activating, then there will be restrictions. When he was called out on this he even went so far as to claim that DJI has installed a kill switch on all versions of the firmware, so that even if you don't update the app or firmware, eventually after a certain period of time the firmware will expire and you will be forced to update it. But wait, there's more. He also claimed that it wouldn't be enough to roll back the date on your phone to try and fool the mavic and delay the kill switch because the mavic uses GPS signals to check the date and time. All of this is pure imagination on his part, but he goes around spreading this stuff to scare people.

The second fictional claim he's made is that the reason behind the latest update is so that DJI can make your drone trackable by radio signal, and that everyone, even your neighbors, will be able to identify your drone by radio signal when it's flying. This is also pure fantasy, all dreamed up from a white paper he found which explores a far less fanciful version of this idea. It is NOT a paper that reveals any hidden reason behind the latest firmware update.

Can we please stop talking about this now?

 

[Blades]

"Current administration" had nothing to do with this, MAGA. It was a Court Order.

I don't know why you think your post is comparable to adiru's. All you did was ask a question and express some opinions. There's no problem with that. The problem is when someone asserts something to be true which clearly isn't, and when you call them out on it they either ignore you and continue to make the assertion or they deflect.

Adiru has made multiple posts on multiple forums making 2 unsupported claims. The first is that unless you downgrade to an earlier firmware version your mavic will be severely restricted. Even in DJI's own communications it's clear that that's not the case. If however you update the firmware version but fail to re-activate, or you update the app and fail to follow through with updating the firmware and re-activating, then there will be restrictions. When he was called out on this he even went so far as to claim that DJI has installed a kill switch on all versions of the firmware, so that even if you don't update the app or firmware, eventually after a certain period of time the firmware will expire and you will be forced to update it. But wait, there's more. He also claimed that it wouldn't be enough to roll back the date on your phone to try and fool the mavic and delay the kill switch because the mavic uses GPS signals to check the date and time. All of this is pure imagination on his part, but he goes around spreading this stuff to scare people.

The second fictional claim he's made is that the reason behind the latest update is so that DJI can make your drone trackable by radio signal, and that everyone, even your neighbors, will be able to identify your drone by radio signal when it's flying. This is also pure fantasy, all dreamed up from a white paper he found which explores a far less fanciful version of this idea. It is NOT a paper that reveals any hidden reason behind the latest firmware update.

Can we please stop talking about this now?

The 1st point is right from what I get from this I don't agree with DJI handicapping my drone in any way, shape or form because I do not want to upgrade my MP and sign into my DJI account and agreed to their new terms of service. I would not have got the MP if this was what they were going to do with it. Its like a phone I paid for and its mine and if I want to jail break it I can. It clearly states if you do not upgrade you won't be able to use the live feed and they limit how far away it will fly. I do not want to upgrade!