DJI to restrict non-compliant drones at next software update

[Logger]

..
It is true. Firmware 400 I can run my battery down to 10% before the forced autoland kicks on by default.
In firmware 700 it kicks in at 16%
So you do the math, what is 100% minus 16%?
It is 84% is it not?

Your maths is correct but irrelevant. Your alarmist assertion about when autoland kicks in with firmware 700 is incorrect. But I suppose it is in keeping with this thread.

I can assure you I am on Firmware 700 and forced Autoland still kicks in at 10% as it has always done.It will add a buffer to the 10% if at altitude. If it actually had changed, don't you think someone else might have noticed and commented?



Here is a flight from a couple of days ago. I never had any critical battery autoland event. I flew around and eventually landed at 12% when it suited me to do so.

 

[Cerberus]

Your maths is correct but irrelevant. Your assertion about when autoland kicks in with firmware 700 is incorrect.

I can assure you I am on Firmware 700 and forced Autoland still kicks in at 10% as it has always done.It will add a buffer to the 10% if at altitude. If it actually had changed, don't you think someone else might have noticed and commented?

View attachment 13500

Here is a flight from a couple of days ago. I never had any critical battery autoland event. I flew around and eventually landed at 12% when it suited me to do so.

well, this happened to me once on .700 and I was trying to run my battery down and the mavic was hovering around 2m off the ground..
it forced landed when I hit 12%..

Maybe its a random thing..

 

[Logger]

well, this happened to me once on .700 and I was trying to run my battery down and the mavic was hovering around 2m off the ground..
it forced landed when I hit 12%..

Maybe its a random thing..

Yes maybe. You had it happen once and at 12%. So not a draconian change by DJI to make only 84% of the battery is useable

 

[budfroggy]

Does anyone have a confirmed date for this update, or just "later" this week?

 

[Cerberus]

Yes maybe. You had it happen once and at 12%. So not a draconian change by DJI to make only 84% of the battery is useable

it happened once because out of my 100 plus flights on my mavic, this was the only time I ever tried to run my battery completely down.

LOL....

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

I think we all know DJI is not going to make any such statements of reassurance

It is true. Firmware 400 I can run my battery down to 10% before the forced autoland kicks on by default.
In firmware 700 it kicks in at 16%
So you do the math, what is 100% minus 16%?
It is 84% is it not?

Not sure if it's different in Australia but my critical limit default is still 10%.
I am on .700

 

[dwallersv]

What is so hard about that? Your average car can do about 130MPH, the speed limit on some roads is 70MPH. If a car company was to send a software update and limit your car to 70MPH after you bought it, there would be the biggest lawsuit in history taking place. So DJI leave the regulations to the police and start behaving like a drone company and not the drone police.

DJI needs to keep their Dam communist ways of doing business in China and stop trying to bully people in other countries the way they bully their own people.

Rob

Guys, this really is getting out of control.

Again, DJI is doing this because the Chinese government is requiring them to. Chinese owners are now required to re-authorize their aircraft every three months -- not because DJI wants them to, but because the Chinese government is requiring it.

It's obviously impractical to maintain different versions of firmware for different legal jurisdictions, so they implemented the functionality in a way that can be enabled/disabled. It's disabled everywhere else in the world. However, the new auth system requires everyone who's applied the affected firmware to go through the new process at least once.

Now, here's the important part: This is not in DJI's interest, and they know it. They would not do this simply on their own, as it pisses off their customers. The fact they put the extra engineering in to make it configurable, so that customer in jurisdictions where these requirements are not in effect can be left unmolested, strongly supports this.

Fears that these performance and functionality limiting capabilities will be enabled in places where they're not required are hugely overblown. Again, this is not in DJI's interest, and they know it. This will only happen where a government decides to implement such restrictions, and the fact that DJI has implemented this will mean you will be able to continue to use your drone.

 

[Robbyg]

well, this happened to me once on .700 and I was trying to run my battery down and the mavic was hovering around 2m off the ground..
it forced landed when I hit 12%..

Maybe its a random thing..

That's odd! I have seen a few videos of people using the older firmware and forced landings happened at 10%. Today I did a flight and was 1500ft out over the ocean when the battery hit 20% it started to try a landing but gave me the option to abort it. I reached back to my take off point with 12%. That flight was the closest I have come to hitting the dreaded 10% marker.
From the videos I have seen at 10% it's landing no matter what you do. You can steer the landing or delay it a bit by holding up the stick but I don't remember seeing an option to abort.

Rob

 

[FieldGuide]

Does anyone know when this update will happen? Scared it'll happen this holiday weekend when I'm traveling and well.. you know that goes.

 

[dwallersv]

Does anyone know when this update will happen? Scared it'll happen this holiday weekend when I'm traveling and well.. you know that goes.

Good enough: Make sure you're in Airplane Mode on your phone when you fly, and don't update the GO4 app.

Better: Get a firewall app and block the GO4 app from access to the network. One such app on android that I use is AdGuard.

 

[FieldGuide]

Good enough: Make sure you're in Airplane Mode on your phone when you fly, and don't update the GO4 app.

Better: Get a firewall app and block the GO4 app from access to the network. One such app on android that I use is AdGuard.

Good tips! Thx! As long as I don't have to deal with it from Friday to Tues next week, I'm golden! So I'll check tomorrow and thurs.

Who knows... maybe tomorrow is the day with the new announcement.

 

[Robbyg]

Guys, this really is getting out of control.

Again, DJI is doing this because the Chinese government is requiring them to. Chinese owners are now required to re-authorize their aircraft every three months -- not because DJI wants them to, but because the Chinese government is requiring it.

It's obviously impractical to maintain different versions of firmware for different legal jurisdictions, so they implemented the functionality in a way that can be enabled/disabled. It's disabled everywhere else in the world. However, the new auth system requires everyone who's applied the affected firmware to go through the new process at least once.

Now, here's the important part: This is not in DJI's interest, and they know it. They would not do this simply on their own, as it pisses off their customers. The fact they put the extra engineering in to make it configurable, so that customer in jurisdictions where these requirements are not in effect can be left unmolested, strongly supports this.

Fears that these performance and functionality limiting capabilities will be enabled in places where they're not required are hugely overblown. Again, this is not in DJI's interest, and they know it. This will only happen where a government decides to implement such restrictions, and the fact that DJI has implemented this will mean you will be able to continue to use your drone.

If only it was that simple. DJI has stated that they will implement whatever restrictions are required in the country of registration.

As stated by DJI:

This new step, to take effect at the end of next week, ensures you will use the correct set of geospatial information and flight functions for your aircraft, as determined by your geographical location and user profile.

Then they contradict themselves in the next sentence:

All existing flight safety limitations, such as geofencing boundaries and altitude limits, remain the same.


So the first sentence implies that whatever laws apply in your country will be applied to your Drone. So Australian's who have regs that state a 50mw power limit will be limited according to DJI. Further enforced by the fact that they state only Canadians will be exempt from their countries rules.

So if the US decides that this 8Km range stuff is not tolerable, DJI can throw a switch and cut your power down.
If the government requires live monitoring this new firmware will allow it to happen.

Seriously folks do what you want to do. I am staying on .400 with Wifi off.

Rob

 

[Cerberus]

That's odd! I have seen a few videos of people using the older firmware and forced landings happened at 10%. Today I did a flight and was 1500ft out over the ocean when the battery hit 20% it started to try a landing but gave me the option to abort it. I reached back to my take off point with 12%. That flight was the closest I have come to hitting the dreaded 10% marker.
From the videos I have seen at 10% it's landing no matter what you do. You can steer the landing or delay it a bit by holding up the stick but I don't remember seeing an option to abort.

Rob

it tried to force land at 20% for you?

The only thing I noted on .700 and that one time of trying to run my battery down is that at 20%, my mavic initiated a RTH. Thankfully I was alert and fast enough to hit the pause button else my mavic would have a very close encounter with my old TV antennae out back.

and when it tried to force land at 12% I check my battery settings to see whether I might have accidentally altered the settings. The critical batt warning was at 10%..

Was gonna ask in the forum in this but figured I don't really try to run down my battery much at all so mehh.. I left it be

 

[Logger]

it tried to force land at 20% for you?

The only thing I noted on .700 and that one time of trying to run my battery down is that at 20%, my mavic initiated a RTH. Thankfully I was alert and fast enough to hit the pause button else my mavic would have a very close encounter with my old TV antennae out back.

and when it tried to force land at 12% I check my battery settings to see whether I might have accidentally altered the settings. The critical batt warning was at 10%..

Your settings will not effect when RTH or Critical battery Autoland occurs. As far as I understand, both RTH and Critical battery autoland are determined dynamically by the firmware. Critical battery A/L is nominally 10% but accounts height above the ground.

The two user defined battery warning thresholds, (Low and Critical) simply designate when the two respective alarms occur. I made a battery warning mini guide on how it works for someone else a few weeks back.

Anyhow vaguely back on topic and conspiracy theories. We have pretty much established there was no surreptitious reduction in usable battery by DJI.

 

[Logger]

<snip>...So Australian's who have regs that state a 50mw power limit will be limited according to DJI.

Please point me to that regulation. If you cannot, you are theorising purely on the basis of a single unsubstantiated view in another forum. That is a bit alarmist isn't it?

I do not know what the regulations say, but a 2 min google search suggests it is utter rubbish.

Here is some Australian information that shows 2.4GHz is limited to 500mw not 50mw in regards to 2.4GHz spectrum in Australia. That would be TEN TIMES your assertion!.

What radiated power limits apply to devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band?

• 500 milliwatts EIRP is authorised in the 2.4 – 2.4835 GHz band for frequency hopping transmitters that use a minimum of 15 hopping frequencies

Wireless LANs in the 2.4 GHz band FAQ | ACMA

and over here for 5GHzit also suggests 500mw or even 1000mw with DFS enabled.

Channel Spectral width and Power Limitations in Australia

 

[Ziggy01]

Please point me to that regulation. If you cannot, you are theorising purely on the basis of a single unsubstantiated view in another forum. That is a bit alarmist isn't it?

I do not know what the regulations say, but a 2 min google search suggests it is utter rubbish.

Here is some Australian information that shows 2.4GHz is limited to 500mw not 50mw in regards to 2.4GHz spectrum in Australia. That would be TEN TIMES your assertion!.

What radiated power limits apply to devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band?

• 500 milliwatts EIRP is authorised in the 2.4 – 2.4835 GHz band for frequency hopping transmitters that use a minimum of 15 hopping frequencies

Wireless LANs in the 2.4 GHz band FAQ | ACMA

and over here for 5GHzit also suggests 500mw or even 1000mw with DFS enabled.

Channel Spectral width and Power Limitations in Australia

Well, that's a relief.

There's some fantastic misinformation being bandied around in this thread.

 

[JP]

So i have a question. I purchased my Mavic in California and activated it there and flew around. Then i returned back to work in Thailand. How will this affect me.

I flew my drone 3 days ago and when i booted it up i saw the message about an upcoming upgrade. At the time i was going to fly so i chose Ignore. Will this continue to Pop up until i do the upgrade.

At this time after reading all the assumptions and concerns I am a bit frustrated with it all. Honestly had I known this was in the works I would not have purchased the Mavic. I find it extremely unethical to sell something then threaten you about "do it or else". If they want to impose this on all new purchases then fine. It then becomes a new buyers decision. But we are not given an option. The other option is that DJI should say anyone who purchased a Mavic before May 2017 and does not want to upgrade or register it can return for a full refund.

 

[Nightowl702]

I am still waiting for someone to show me where this is a "do it or else" forced upgrade. Show me where it states if you don't update then your Mavic will be restricted. I am curious where everyone is getting this from.

 

[KevWaite]

I am still waiting for someone to show me where this is a "do it or else" forced upgrade. Show me where it states if you don't update then your Mavic will be restricted. I am curious where everyone is getting this from.

It says if you don't log in after doing the update height, distance and video link will be restricted until you log back into the app. It doesn't say if you don't do the update anything will be restricted.

 

[cag_tc]

I don't think the auto land is dependent on the battery percentage, but rather on the voltage and amperage of the most discharged cell. That would give differences on what percentage it wants to auto land.