Mavic 3 Bill of Materials

[ianwood]

Talking about GPS on another thread and making the assumption the Mavic 3 uses an uBlox M9 GNSS chip. But, I haven't come across any detailed tear downs that ID the components. There are several teardowns but none look at the chips on the boards e.g. Ambarella SOC, uBlox GNSS, ARM processor, etc. If you know of any links (or come across any in the future) that reveal details about the internals, post them here!

 

[RocketBrew]

The closest I have found, so far. No markings are visible...

 

[JeffreyS]

Why?

 

[ianwood]

Why?

Knowing the underlying hardware helps us to better understand the behavior and performance of the drone.

For example, here is a thread discussing the performance of the GNSS (GPS): Satellite lock after firmware update

If we knew what chip was being used, we could compare the specs of that chip and determine if it is the source of potentially slow performance or if improvements can/should be made.

 

[997GT3]

Knowing the underlying hardware helps us to better understand the behavior and performance of the drone.

For example, here is a thread discussing the performance of the GNSS (GPS): Satellite lock after firmware update

If we knew what chip was being used, we could compare the specs of that chip and determine if it is the source of potentially slow performance or if improvements can/should be made.

How will you as an end user be able to make improvements if any? Genuinely curious.

 

[ianwood]

How will you as an end user be able to make improvements if any? Genuinely curious.

Using the above example of the GNSS: if for example, we prefer to have GLONASS and not BeiDou constellations, we can connect to the uBlox chip via a serial interface and use a software tool to change settings. That is if we confirm it is indeed a uBlox chip inside. That is just a hypothetical but it should give you an idea.

 

[ZoneAerial]

Using the above example of the GNSS: if for example, we prefer to have GLONASS and not BeiDou constellations, we can connect to the uBlox chip via a serial interface and use a software tool to change settings. That is if we confirm it is indeed a uBlox chip inside. That is just a hypothetical but it should give you an idea.

How did that “hypothetical” play out? Kinda fell flat, eh? So simple!

 

[Deleted member 93449]

How did that “hypothetical” play out? Kinda fell flat, eh? So simple!

He didn't say it was simple. Anything built by humans can be hacked, reverse engineered, altered and possibly improved by other humans with the know how. Manufacturers will make it more difficult to do that by not making publically available a complete the bill of materials or using generic terms for others. There are companies that will buy a working unit of a product just to tear it down so they can duplicate the design and maybe improve on it.

 

[Suren]

The closest I have found, so far. No markings are visible...

View attachment 140630

Did this come out of a Mavic 3 or bought?

 

[Suren]

He didn't say it was simple. Anything built by humans can be hacked, reverse engineered, altered and possibly improved by other humans with the know how. Manufacturers will make it more difficult to do that by not making publically available a complete the bill of materials or using generic terms for others. There are companies that will buy a working unit of a product just to tear it down so they can duplicate the design and maybe improve on it.

I 2nd your comments. I was told it will be impossible to read the Dji FW. We managed to extract the .bin file and read part of the fw.sig files but not all. As time permits we will keep trying to hack deeper into it to try and understand Dji's code and changes

 

[RocketBrew]

This photo is from the Cloud City Drones website, they are selling it as a spare part.

Mavic 3 GPS Board Module

DJI OEM Replacement Mavic 3 GPS Board Module BC.MA.SS000395.01 Note: Product photo is for illustration purposes only and may not include everything shown.

cloudcitydrones.com

Did this come out of a Mavic 3 or bought?

 

[ZoneAerial]

I 2nd your comments. I was told it will be impossible to read the Dji FW. We managed to extract the .bin file and read part of the fw.sig files but not all. As time permits we will keep trying to hack deeper into it to try and understand Dji's code and changes

Opening a bin file is certainly not the same as hacking into the firmware . One can natively see bin components on MacOS. Good luck, but there are plenty of professional reverse engineers who can’t “hack” DJI fw and don’t have exploits without secneo, trustzone etc.
Silliness.

 

[ZoneAerial]

He didn't say it was simple. Anything built by humans can be hacked, reverse engineered, altered and possibly improved by other humans with the know how. Manufacturers will make it more difficult to do that by not making publically available a complete the bill of materials or using generic terms for others. There are companies that will buy a working unit of a product just to tear it down so they can duplicate the design and maybe improve on it.

Sure. Doesn’t mean you can customize the firmware on a ublox chip while installed in a DJI drone. Theoretical speculations that anything can be reverse engineered don’t apply to @ianwood. Go ahead. Try.

 

[Suren]

Opening a bin file is certainly not the same as hacking into the firmware . One can natively see bin components on MacOS. Good luck, but there are plenty of professional reverse engineers who can’t “hack” DJI fw and don’t have exploits without secneo, trustzone etc.
Silliness.

Yeah, but my tech that works for me has FW decrypting software that allowed us to go into the FW and read some of its code, well actually alot but there is still some things we cannot read. It is taking time but we will get to it. Like said above, anything man made can be hacked.

 

[ZoneAerial]

Yeah, but my tech that works for me has FW decrypting software that allowed us to go into the FW and read some of its code, well actually alot but there is still some things we cannot read. It is taking time but we will get to it. Like said above, anything man made can be hacked.

Any fw "decrypting" software that your "tech" who "works for you" has is able to be accessed by the dji-rev-eng gang. In fact, most of them have access, resources, and skills that far surpass the "tech who works for you". Ain't gonna argue with you here. No magic bullet. And a bill of materials won't help. Again, theorizing that things are "able" to be exploited doesn't mean there are exploits.

 

[Suren]

Any fw "decrypting" software that your "tech" who "works for you" has is able to be accessed by the dji-rev-eng gang. In fact, most of them have access, resources, and skills that far surpass the "tech who works for you". Ain't gonna argue with you here. No magic bullet. And a bill of materials won't help. Again, theorizing that things are "able" to be exploited doesn't mean there are exploits.

Oh, okay, thank you.