What happens with return to home with spoofed GPS?

[Lady Rover]

Hi,

there are a number of ways to engage FAA mode even in Europe.
Out of curiosity, if you spoof the GPS of the cellphone to be in the US and engage FAA mode in Europe, what happens if you get out of range and the drone goes into RTH (return to home).
Will it fly due west towards the US and fall out of the sky when it's running out of power?
Or will it fly back to your starting point?

 

[msinger]

if you spoof the GPS of the cellphone to be in the US and engage FAA mode in Europe

The drone contains its own GPS receiver, so changes you make to your mobile device's GPS will not affect the aircraft. When RTH is enabled, the drone will fly back to the last marked home point.

 

[crosswired]

as msinger pointed, GPS spoofing for FCC hack purpose doesnt affect drones own GPS location so its completely safe (using it by myself )

 

[sar104]

Surely the communications mode is determined by the location of the aircraft, not the mobile device, so what does it achieve to spoof the mobile device location?

 

[Lady Rover]

As far as know you can engage FAA/FCC mode that way. Which you can not use in Europe otherwise.
The app is tricked to believe you are in the US or elsewhere outside of Europe.

FAA/FCC engages a larger range than CE mode. Of course one should only use that in rural areas....

 

[dawgpilot]

Surely the communications mode is determined by the location of the aircraft, not the mobile device, so what does it achieve to spoof the mobile device location?

You'd think so, but that's not how DJI programmed it. DJI uses the mobile device to determine if the drone should be put into FCC or European mode. So all you have to do is temporarily spoof your phone's location to get the drone to switch into the mode you want, and then you can decline it's offer to switch back once you stop spoofing.

 

[sar104]

You'd think so, but that's not how DJI programmed it. DJI uses the mobile device to determine if the drone should be put into FCC or European mode. So all you have to do is temporarily spoof your phone's location to get the drone to switch into the mode you want, and then you can decline it's offer to switch back once you stop spoofing.

That is odd. And I've taken both a Mavic Pro and Mavic 2 Pro to the UK several times and never seen any notifications about switching from FCC mode, so now I'm puzzled by that too.

 

[dawgpilot]

That is odd. And I've taken both a Mavic Pro and Mavic 2 Pro to the UK several times and never seen any notifications about switching from FCC mode, so now I'm puzzled by that too.

I'm not sure, but it might be limited to those DJI drones that are WiFi-based, such as the Mavic Air. (versus the OccuSync Mavic 2 Pro, for example). I've taken my Mavic Air to Portugal and Iceland and was immediately prompted to switch modes upon powering everything up there.

 

[Lastrexking]

I'm not sure, but it might be limited to those DJI drones that are WiFi-based, such as the Mavic Air. (versus the OccuSync Mavic 2 Pro, for example). I've taken my Mavic Air to Portugal and Iceland and was immediately prompted to switch modes upon powering everything up there.

Yep, it's just the Air that this is useful on. I did the back (UK) and I'm prompted to change every time I start a new flight. I click cancel and it stays in fcc mode.

I don't do it to get more distance, just a better connection. It's so much better.