Drone Hacks - and modding drones in general

HI all.

I’ve been reading through this Drone Hacks App thread and I’d like to know the benefits and uses of using it. Forgive my ignorance but so many rules/regs covering drones and having done the A2CofC and almost finishing the GVC I was surprised to even see this. It grabbed me though as I find it fascinating that you can hack in to the drone software to change things.

I don’t feel like the info I’ve read gives me enough so I’d like to know from anyone who uses it why they do and what improvements it makes to your experience or drone.

Thanks in advance,

Andy.

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I started modding drones around four years ago when I got the original Mavic Pro, try a few searches in Modifications and you’ll find all sorts of guides that various members here have put together over the years on how to mod anything from the DJI app itself, to a Crystal Sky, to a Spark, right up to an Inspire.

Back then it wasn’t as easy as it is now, the point-and-click apps like NLD (also search here for that too) and Drone Hacks didn’t come along until a couple of years later.

I’ve always enjoyed tinkering with stuff so that’s half the reason I do it.

The other half is because of DJI and their fucking stupid restrictions, their NFZ maps have absolutely no bearing on actual UK Flight Restriction Zones (again, many many posts here on that subject). Lots of people, myself included, are pissed off with DJI preventing us from taking off where we are actually legally allowed to take off.

The other half (there’s a lot of halves) is to enable FCC power mode rather than using CE power mode. In a lot of urban areas the DJI signals go to shit because of local wifi interference. Enabling FCC mode gives you that power boost to cut through the noise and maintain a strong signal in an urban environment, even at 500m away.

Beyond those “main” settings that people tweak then are the Parameters (again, search through Modifications ) and this is where the real fun starts, seeing just how much you can squeeze out of your drone. Why? Because there’s a leader board in place!

Beyond speed, you’ve things like ascent and decent rates that can be changed, 101 other settings are buried in the parameters.

Then there’s the rolling back of firmware. DJI are notorious for putting out updates that either contain bugs, or worse, will ground your drone unless you agree to, or do, certain things. They once (in)famously grounded the Spark until you installed a forced firmware update.

The list goes on man… :confused:

Again, Drone Hacks as an app is very new, the DJI modding scene has been around forever :blush:

The Autel modding scene is relatively quiet, simply because Autel don’t place these restrictions on their drones to start with.

If you don’t mind, I’ll tweak your topic title here slightly, as this thread will probably be wider than just a single app :slight_smile:

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There is a large app-modding scene too.

You can download the source code for the DJI GO3 and GO4 apps, change whatever you like (eg, remove NFZs, enable FCC, etc) and roll your own app to suit your exact requirements.

The DJI Fly app source code isn’t out in the wild yet, so your only options there are to use modded certificates (ala Drone Hacks) or a third party modded app (ala Drone Tweaks).

If you’re thinking of buying any of these one-click apps such as NLD, Drone Hacks, Drone Tweaks, then check out the Members Only category, we have exclusive GADC member discounts in place for most of them.

These discounts are available to GADC Full Members only.

@PingSpike thank you so much for the depth there. Thank you for changing the title to something more suitable. It’s fascinating and all makes sense and I will be taking a deep dive in to the forum for whet my appetite for this.

Is it “legal” or a grey area? I did notice that DJI’s areas are different to that of an alternative like Altitude Angel. They seem bigger which is probably just a safety thing.

Do hacks void warranties? Sorry for all the Q’s but from everything I’ve read I’ve not got these answers.

Andy.

The CAA recommend (yes, recommend - you know who you are :rofl:) you always fly with the latest firmware and OEM props etc, but it is just that, a recommendation. Lots of people just find a firmware version that works for them and they never upgrade beyond that. 99% of Mavic Pro owners will still be on .700 firmware, it just worked.

I would suggest removing the NFZs from a DJI drone is not illegal as there is no law that says you can’t. It might put you in breach of a DJI licence agreement but I don’t know anyone who has ever read one to comment further.

Changing the power output levels from CE to FCC might put you foul of the Communications Act 2003? Again, you’d need to do some more research in to that, and any potential implications it may have for you personally.

I don’t think that’s ever been tested. Not here at least. Anyone know of any real world examples, rather than speculation/opinion?

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Even little things like wind warnings and the speed at which they are triggered can be adjusted.

For me it was living close to half a dozen WW2 airfields that haven’t been used since the 50’s that the bods at DJI like to class as NFZ.

Why really gripped my shit though was around the release of the original MP’s firmware to .1000 (I think, could be wrong) but the thing wouldn’t fly until you updated it.

We mod everything nowadays to make it work, usually better for the user.

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I can totally see why that would be annoying @milkmanchris I imagine those places give great photos too! I have read about the time DJI forced everyone with a certain drone to update the firmware otherwise the drone wouldn’t fly. That’s not good form, and makes me wonder if DJI are going down the Apple route…fingers crossed they don’t!

Thanks again @PingSpike

Really good concise input is helping me massively here. I appreciate the time.

Andy.

Read the thread on DJI FLY updates, they have dodgy practices to say the least on how they update silently on Andoid.

At least Apple is protecting us iOS users

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Even some manufacturers know how pointless NFZ’s can be. In my collection I have a Yuneec Q500. Out of the box this has large NFZ’s. I contacted Yuneec and told them that even though LBA is my local airport I’m not in the boundary of their NFZ. Yuneec sent me an alternative firmware for the drone that essentially disabled all the NFZ’s.

RF power restrictions are different. The CAA couldn’t care less but OFCOM might, but don’t have the resources. They have gone after low hanging fruit by visiting dealers selling non-type approved equipment, but the only hope of prosecuting a user is if that user has breached other regulations. Some people believe that having a ham radio license allows you to use more power. This is totally untrue in the UK as it is illegal to install any transmitting equipment on any airborne platform, including model aircraft, if operating under the provisions of an amateur radio licence, even though many of the frequencies we use with Drones are shared with amateur radio frequencies. The only possible exception to this is the use of non-duplex RC control such as the Ezuhf system on 433MHz. In this situation you are transmitting to the Drone from the ground which is permitted, and in theory you could use 400Watts. This would be pointless however as I’ve use less than 1/2 a Watt to communicate via a satellite, at an altitude of 700km.

I’m beginning to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, again, so I’ll stop typing

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There’s another world of mods out there too @gimbalflight - hardware amplified antennas.

Some of examples here and here - more elsewhere on this forum, keep searching :wink:

You can also get hardware mods for the drone itself too. Some are GPS riggers to make your drone think it’s outside of a DJI NFZ. Others are more elaborate modified core-boards.

This is also just the tip of the iceberg :blush:

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If you’re bored one afternoon check out Steve (digdat0) on YouTube.

That’ll give you a grounding into what we were up against with DJI

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I think that proves that it’s a very grey area and companies are being over cautions with their NFZ’s. And also why us droners (I hope it’s not just me) are so confused about where they can and can’t fly all the time!

Will do!

I used Drone Jack’s to put FCC mode on my Dji fpv Drone, a smartphone based app. Worked perfectly and stays in place unless you connect to fly app when it reverts back to EU. Just run DH again. I was only interested in power hack, not NFZ etc. The signal performance was greatly improved tho to be fair original was good. It will well out fly battery range. I decided after that to do the same with my original Mavic Pro. PC based app on Windows for me. Again worked perfectly, still using white version goggles and crystal sky. Dji have left her back in history, no more updates etc, absolutely fine as it works great. One note, I understand latest Dji fpv Drone update has blocked all restriction removal except power hack being used.

There hasn’t been a DJI FPV firmware update since August @Kellybob ? :thinking:

If you’re only looking for FCC you might also be interested in the Drone Tweaks mods too :+1:t2:

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Almost too late, they’re definitely bonking! :joy:

Yes the last update I am aware of was around August. Everything works fine for me so I leave it alone….

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Drone Hacks app - How to enable FCC mode and remove NFZs on your DJI Mavic Air, Air 2, Mavic Mini, Mini 2, or DJI FPV drone