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DJI Ban - Update

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Mrgoodwrench35 said:
I haven't watched the video yet. Does that mean I can't get parts?
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It means if you ship your drone to DJI for service, you won't get it back. No idea on parts.
 
A long time ago, I had to ship it to them for warranty repair. That was such a debacle I decided never again, Ill just fix it myself. I will need new motors soon. I hope they dont stop the parts end.
 
Mrgoodwrench35 said:
A long time ago, I had to ship it to them for warranty repair. That was such a debacle I decided never again, Ill just fix it myself. I will need new motors soon. I hope they dont stop the parts end.
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Are the motors proprietary?
 
No, I've seen both DJI and off brand motors out there.

I also read the ban doesn't actually go into affect until Dec. 24/2025 so I should be good to get parts at least.

I'm using a Phantom 3 Pro that I've had for at least 10 years. Last I looked, I've logged over 300 hours of flight time so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth.

I was surprised to see folks on here see them as fragile. The only issue I had was hairline cracks in the chassis that developed in the first few hours of use. DJI warrantied that and I haven't had any issues since. I even took out a few birds at high altitude. Came back bloody with feathers stuck to it but otherwise unharmed. I hit a swarm of bees once too. I was close enough to hear that one. Sounded really cool and the drone didn't seem to notice. That was pretty messy clean up but no damage. All in all, I can't complain.
 
Mrgoodwrench35 said:
No, I've seen both DJI and off brand motors out there.

I also read the ban doesn't actually go into affect until Dec. 24/2025 so I should be good to get parts at least.

I'm using a Phantom 3 Pro that I've had for at least 10 years. Last I looked, I've logged over 300 hours of flight time so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth.

I was surprised to see folks on here see them as fragile. The only issue I had was hairline cracks in the chassis that developed in the first few hours of use. DJI warrantied that and I haven't had any issues since. I even took out a few birds at high altitude. Came back bloody with feathers stuck to it but otherwise unharmed. I hit a swarm of bees once too. I was close enough to hear that one. Sounded really cool and the drone didn't seem to notice. That was pretty messy clean up but no damage. All in all, I can't complain.
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Well, that Phantom is a bit of a tank.

A guy I hung out with in a drone forum got into commercial mapping using his Mavic. He quickly saw all the money he could make, so he bought one of their $10k+ commercial drones. He was flying it and somehow he bumper into a building. He said it just bumped one of the arms on the bottom and the arm folded up and the drone went out of control and dropped in a pond close by. Brand new drone. DJI warranteed it and his very next flight he caught a cable on a crane he didn't see. It was beyond repair.

My cousin hit a thin branch he said wasn't as big as a pencil with his Mavic 2 and it ripped the arm off, messed up the gimbal, etc. It cost him a bunch of money to fix it.
 
They're just airborne cameras. Not really meant for durability. I know the P4 and some others have collision avoidance built in to the software but I've heard mixed things.

Anything I fly, I try to avoid hitting things airborne, it usually ends poorly.
 
It's best not to crash drones or anything that flies, even if it's just for recreation.

If you're flying things that aren't for recreation, then it's a whole next level of ball ache if you crash things. Especially someone else's property.
 
Mrgoodwrench35 said:
They're just airborne cameras. Not really meant for durability. I know the P4 and some others have collision avoidance built in to the software but I've heard mixed things.

Anything I fly, I try to avoid hitting things airborne, it usually ends poorly.
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Yeah, my cousin was filming his son at the skate park and the drone was following him. Chuck was watching his son, and didnt notice the twig and the drone didn't either.

My 6" race drone would have just trimmed that branch off and kept on going 😜
 
WickedFog said:
Yeah, my cousin was filming his son at the skate park and the drone was following him. Chuck was watching his son, and didnt notice the twig and the drone didn't either.

My 6" race drone would have just trimmed that branch off and kept on going 😜
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Flying Weedeater????
 
The racing drones are a different animal. I banked mine too close to my roof and put one side of the props into the shingles. Props were fine and she just kept going. Needed new shingles though. Live and learn.
 
WickedFog said:
Well, that Phantom is a bit of a tank.

A guy I hung out with in a drone forum got into commercial mapping using his Mavic. He quickly saw all the money he could make, so he bought one of their $10k+ commercial drones. He was flying it and somehow he bumper into a building. He said it just bumped one of the arms on the bottom and the arm folded up and the drone went out of control and dropped in a pond close by. Brand new drone. DJI warranteed it and his very next flight he caught a cable on a crane he didn't see. It was beyond repair.

My cousin hit a thin branch he said wasn't as big as a pencil with his Mavic 2 and it ripped the arm off, messed up the gimbal, etc. It cost him a bunch of money to fix it.
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Anything airborne in RC doesn't like hitting things. Hitting those same items with a plane or a heli would have resulted in a crash also. And just like planes and helis, the bigger and more expensive they are to buy, the more it's gonna cost to fix them after a crash.
 
332_RC said:
Flying Weedeater????
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The FPV drone frames are all thick carbon fiber. So they don't bend easily. And you'd have a hard time stopping the props with a baseball bat lol. So anything organic a prop on an FPV drone hits is getting chewed ip. But usually a prop will break loose because when they hit, it unthreads the lug nut holding them on have seen some pretty hard FPV drone crashes where they just used the props to flip it over if it landed upside down. Then they fly them back

Try this with a DJI 😅
 
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Mrgoodwrench35 said:
The racing drones are a different animal. I banked mine too close to my roof and put one side of the props into the shingles. Props were fine and she just kept going. Needed new shingles though. Live and learn.
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10393.webp

Just me, goofing around with my 4S drone (built light) - saw speeds close to 150 mph. These things are no joke. I'm super careful and extremely responsible grown up man child who considers the feelings of others (especially when wifey is about).

The kinetic energy stored in a 500g drone travelling at a 150 mph is 1124 joules.

Compare this to the kinetic energy of a .45 ACP round, which is 480 to 680 Joules.

Sobering thought, realising that an FPV drone in of itself is a projectile more than capable of killing, even before strapping grenades to it.

With higher voltage and fairings, these things are hitting 363 mph level flight. That's an incredible 6475 joules of energy. Small wonder big brother is getting twitchy over their use.

Then of course we are reminded on a daily basis how effective FPV drones are at deleting Russian armour and personnel.

My belief is that they don't want drones in civilian hands at all.
 

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