Where is the airsense / ads-b option?

[Jhun80]

Sorry, noob question guys. I have a 2 day old Mavic Air 2, USA version (box have an ADS-B sticker as well as the drones arm). I flew my 2nd battery, smoothly, but then I heard a plane around me and i saw it too, but I didn’t see any alert while flying my drone, it must be disabled by default. I couldn’t find it on the settings. Where is it?

 

[Meta4]

I heard a plane around me and i saw it too, but I didn’t see any alert while flying my drone, it must be disabled by default.

Or the plane you saw did not have ADS-B.

 

[gnirtS]

Sorry, noob question guys. I have a 2 day old Mavic Air 2, USA version (box have an ADS-B sticker as well as the drones arm). I flew my 2nd battery, smoothly, but then I heard a plane around me and i saw it too, but I didn’t see any alert while flying my drone, it must be disabled by default. I couldn’t find it on the settings. Where is it?

Only about 40% of GA aircraft have ADSB. It might be one of the majority that arent equipped so wont appear.
That or its so high or far away its filtered out.

 

[Jhun80]

Or the plane you saw did not have ADS-B.

Found it! Im so dumb. It is disabled by default.

 

[z28lt1]

Only about 40% of GA aircraft have ADSB. It might be one of the majority that arent equipped so wont appear.
That or its so high or far away its filtered out.

There are still a ton of aircraft that do not have working ADS-B, so its always possible you don't get the signal. That said, I do not believe it is a majority that don't have it anymore, as installs have grown significantly in the past 12 months.

According to the FAA there are now over 138,000 installed with about 127,000 deemed as "good" installs. This of the 159,656 that the FAA things need to be equipped with ADS-B, and out of a total of about 220,000 civil aircraft in the US. Assuming the installs that are not meeting performance requirements get fixed in short order, that will mean that almost 87% of those required to equip have, and almost 63% of all civil aircraft has equipped. These numbers are from the FAA as of June 1, 2020.

By the way as a comparison, there were only about 74,000 installs on June, 2019, so any stats that are more than a few months old will be outdated.

However, as you can see, there are still about 60,000 aircraft in the US that the FAA expects to never have ADS-B, so while it will be a good tool it will never cover every situation, particularly if you are in G airspace and more than 30NM from one of the major airports, as flying in that space will not require ADS-B (and also happens to be the least restrictive airspace for drones).

 

[gnirtS]

The civil uptake rate is far higher than GA for obvious reasons. Sadly as far as drones are concerned, civil are the traffic least likely to cause a problem operating <400ft or so and away from an airport. Its almost always GA/Mil thats going to conflict.
I have far more chance running across a PA28 or rotary wing roughly at that altitude in the middle of nowhere than i am an A380 (although if it was an A380 down there, he'd have far bigger problems than my drone)

(Rest of the world is far far lower takeup than the US too so its even less useful!)

 

[z28lt1]

The civil uptake rate is far higher than GA for obvious reasons. Sadly as far as drones are concerned, civil are the traffic least likely to cause a problem operating <400ft or so and away from an airport. Its almost always GA/Mil thats going to conflict.
I have far more chance running across a PA28 or rotary wing roughly at that altitude in the middle of nowhere than i am an A380 (although if it was an A380 down there, he'd have far bigger problems than my drone)

(Rest of the world is far far lower takeup than the US too so its even less useful!)

No doubt its an issue and will be for some time (or maybe forever) with the most likely low - fliers going to be those that never need to equip.

For clarification Civil (as I used above and defined by the FAA) would include GA and commercial. Based on some math we need to do with the FAA numbers and how they are categorized, we'll get to about 63% of all GA aircraft are equipped.

 

[gnirtS]

OK i was classing civil as civilian/commercial (language difference there) and not GA. That might explain the differences!

Im not sure its likely ADSB will become *the* gold standard. The CAA and EASA for example still havent gone for it officially in their upgrade schemes and so on.

Its used and useful no doubt but does have issues such as bandwidth available in busy airspace, the complete lack of security or verification meaning literally anyone can spoof contacts, trigger alerts etc.

 

[evo400]

Im very curious to actually where is this Adsb module installed? Looking online at various Air 2 tear downs, there doesn't seem to be any hardware difference in the both EU and US drones.

Im starting to think, the ADSb receiver might be built inside the controller itself.

 

[gnirtS]

Im very curious to actually where is this Adsb module installed? Looking online at various Air 2 tear downs, there doesn't seem to be any hardware difference in the both EU and US drones.

Im starting to think, the ADSb receiver might be built inside the controller itself.

I was told drone itself but not seen proof.

One easy way to test would be use it with the Smart Controller - if you still have ADSB then its the drone!

 

[Sam Trampton]

I was told drone itself but not seen proof.

One easy way to test would be use it with the Smart Controller - if you still have ADSB then its the drone!

iT IS ON THE GPS BOARD WHICH COSTS AROUND £25/£30 THE US VERSION OF IT HAS ADS-B RECEIVER ON IT, THE UK VERSION DOES NOT.

 

[Sam Trampton]

OH AND THE GPS BOARD IS IN THE DRONE KINDA GOES WITHOUT SAYING EVEN THAT OTHER CIRCUIT WHICH COVER STILL ON IS THE GPS CHIP AND OTHER SIDE OF BOARD IS GPS ANTENNA AND COMPASS AND ALSO THE IMU IS ATTACHED AND CONNECTED TO THIS BOARD BUT ITS THE SAME FOR BOTH VERSIONS AND IS NOT INCLUDED IN BOARD PRICE SO UNLESS IT'S DAMAGED IN SAY CRASH CARRY ON USING IT JUST RECALIBRATE WHOLE LOT BEFORE NEXT FLIGHT.

 

[evo400]

OH AND THE GPS BOARD IS IN THE DRONE KINDA GOES WITHOUT SAYING EVEN THAT OTHER CIRCUIT WHICH COVER STILL ON IS THE GPS CHIP AND OTHER SIDE OF BOARD IS GPS ANTENNA AND COMPASS AND ALSO THE IMU IS ATTACHED AND CONNECTED TO THIS BOARD BUT ITS THE SAME FOR BOTH VERSIONS AND IS NOT INCLUDED IN BOARD PRICE SO UNLESS IT'S DAMAGED IN SAY CRASH CARRY ON USING IT JUST RECALIBRATE WHOLE LOT BEFORE NEXT FLIGHT.

Where could I order that? Id be curious to give it a go and replace the board? cheers

 

[Sam Trampton]

Where could I order that? Id be curious to give it a go and replace the board? cheers

You can order it on ebay from various places eg: Professional Drone GPS Module Main Board ADS-B for DJI Mavic Air 2 Accessories 603922699200 | eBay

Or just search: mavic air 2 ads-b gps board

But note! that even after replacing the one without the ADS-B circuit in your current version there is no guarantee that it will notify you of nearby planes since it has been said on forums like DJI that MA2s bought in US with ADS-B don't notify you of approaching aircraft and the option does not even appear in menu options because DJI disables it outside North America, if so you would have some hacking to do. It has also been said that the ADS-B receiver on this board only receives on 978MHz and not on 1090MHz as in Europe, although I have not seen this verifyied by DJI which seem very uncoperative with giving out such information about MA2. So you would have to find out from DJI, good luck. Also you will probably void your waranty by doing this if nothing else.

Also check other comments on this subject here: Airsense Missing outside of USA

 

[xunhui]

Or the plane you saw did not have ADS-B.

What he is is correct.

 

[evo400]

Jus

You can order it on ebay from various places eg: Professional Drone GPS Module Main Board ADS-B for DJI Mavic Air 2 Accessories 603922699200 | eBay

Or just search: mavic air 2 ads-b gps board

But note! that even after replacing the one without the ADS-B circuit in your current version there is no guarantee that it will notify you of nearby planes since it has been said on forums like DJI that MA2s bought in US with ADS-B don't notify you of approaching aircraft and the option does not even appear in menu options because DJI disables it outside North America, if so you would have some hacking to do. It has also been said that the ADS-B receiver on this board only receives on 978MHz and not on 1090MHz as in Europe, although I have not seen this verifyied by DJI which seem very uncoperative with giving out such information about MA2. So you would have to find out from DJI, good luck. Also you will probably void your waranty by doing this if nothing else.

Also check other comments on this subject here: Airsense Missing outside of USA

Just to report Airsense works fine outside of North America.

I tested it and got the warning " Manned aircraft nearby" .. ( the chances are most user will not experience this warning unless you are on a collision course or in the vicinity of plane. Simple airliners flying couple of thousand feet overhead will not trigger the warning.

 

[Sam Trampton]

Jus



Just to report Airsense works fine outside of North America.

I tested it and got the warning " Manned aircraft nearby" .. ( the chances are most user will not experience this warning unless you are on a collision course or in the vicinity of plane. Simple airliners flying couple of thousand feet overhead will not trigger the warning.

Well that's good, just to sort out a few other curious questions I noticed on other user comments, some claimed that on their US bought ads-b version the option to switch ads-b on or off dissapeared after an update when they tried it outside north america, did your MA2 option do anything like that on the fly app. Oh and what versions of the fly app together with aircraft and radio control firmware are you using.

 

[Usaf0789]

Hey everyone, first post here as I am running into this issue now as well. I have a US model MA2 but currently live and fly in England. I have researched and found where the Airsense feature gets turned on and off in settings but that option is 100% not on my menu under the safety tab. When I updated to the most recent firmware it was on a UK cell network. Could that have removed the feature?

 

[dawgpilot]

Hey everyone, first post here as I am running into this issue now as well. I have a US model MA2 but currently live and fly in England. I have researched and found where the Airsense feature gets turned on and off in settings but that option is 100% not on my menu under the safety tab. When I updated to the most recent firmware it was on a UK cell network. Could that have removed the feature?

I doubt the cell network matters. The drone has a GPS receiver so it knows what country you are in, and apparently DJI is automatically hiding AirSense when the drone is used outside the North American market.

 

[Usaf0789]

I doubt the cell network matters. The drone has a GPS receiver so it knows what country you are in, and apparently DJI is automatically hiding AirSense when the drone is used outside the North American market.

Yeah I suppose that makes sense. I wasn't sure what the trigger was but the GPS piece is basically unavoidable then. Apparently it looks like other people have said it did work outside the US but I believe the Airsense was supported in North American models. Who knows, its just slightly irritating that DJI would disable it in other areas even thought its fitted with the feature. I guess I can just hope it's maybe changed in a future firmware update.