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DJI Mini 4 Pro

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Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#231

Post by baybal2 »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #141
ben7799 wrote: post #22

I've had the original Mini since it came out. Other than damaging a prop from it hitting a blade of grass on landing it is in perfect shape. Yes, they are so fragile I landed very smoothly in the grass and soft grass is enough to damage the props! I don't fly it as much as I used to. These new ones are certainly an engineering marvel with how much they have added and still kept it under 249g. The big one to me though…

I'd like to find a good competitor too, and not just because of the geofencing. DJI has been identified as a national security threat by the US DOD, essentially because there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/270608...

> identified as a national security threat by the US DOD, essentially because there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service.

There are far more obvious reasons for that. These drones are of enormous military value. By buying them, US consumers are funding an obvious foreign military hardware production. US money may well be funding production of drones which may once be used to correct artillery strikes on Los Angeles.

DJI are particular seem to work in concert with "military civilian fusion," and have hardware, and software to defeat both very serious jamming, and attempts to fry its radio with pulsed microwaves. Military jammers for 2.4g band seemingly have near 0 effect.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#232

Post by rmbyrro »

snypher wrote: post #187
brindlejim wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DJI is fully compliant with China's policy of civil-military fusion. Anyone flying anywhere sensitive should not use them. They're beaming back home whatever they want, and China is using both tech and data to give an asymmetric advantage to allies like Russia in the Ukraine war.

>They're beaming back home whatever they want This claim is always thrown out like a life preserver without ever anything to back it up. Do you have anything to support this claim?

Given the history of China and its tech companies, the burden of proof shifted to their shoulders.

So, I turn to them: is there anything that proves its a surveillance-free device? No, they cannot assure that.

Someone may not like it, but China now has a very, very bad reputation among people in the West. Especially after the last pandemic and how they handled it.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#233

Post by rmbyrro »

ryandrake wrote: post #215
andersrs wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you're joking. Apple's business depends on them bending the rules for China.

Is there actual evidence that Apple is bending the rules for them? If true, that would be quite a scoop!

Yes, the CCP published on their website that Apple is collaborating with them.

Of course there wouldn't be any evidence.

What people allege is that Apple being successful in China is suspicious.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#234

Post by ChatGTP »

pedrovhb wrote: post #193
ben7799 wrote: post #22

I've had the original Mini since it came out. Other than damaging a prop from it hitting a blade of grass on landing it is in perfect shape. Yes, they are so fragile I landed very smoothly in the grass and soft grass is enough to damage the props! I don't fly it as much as I used to. These new ones are certainly an engineering marvel with how much they have added and still kept it under 249g. The big one to me though…

I had the original mini too. Really fun, but mine is RIP in the water under a waterfall ravine. It's hard to say whether it was a GPS bug, a gust of wind, or just my own fault, but as I was shooting a video next to some rock walls, it went towards the rocks and I couldn't get it back. After the first hit it tumbled and hit some vegetation, and then it went all the way down, no way to recover. It's a good thing the ne…

My friend was flying his, lost it and asked it to fly back to him and it went absolutely full speed into a waterfall about 10 meters in front of us.

It was hard not to chuckle.

RIP.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#235

Post by cjbgkagh »

Bimos wrote: post #189
1024core wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even a sport watch can be a security threat as demo by some exercise army personnel. In the early days of the Afghan (or was it Iraq?) war, people used Strava to figure out the locations of American bases. They'd see a bunch of smart watches suddenly wake up in the morning and start exercising at the same time, a dead giveaway.

Recently a Russian commander got killed because he shared his daily running route on Strava which was seen by the killer. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-...

I wonder if killing their dumber commanders might inadvertently be helping them…

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#237

Post by okdood64 »

snypher wrote: post #187
brindlejim wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DJI is fully compliant with China's policy of civil-military fusion. Anyone flying anywhere sensitive should not use them. They're beaming back home whatever they want, and China is using both tech and data to give an asymmetric advantage to allies like Russia in the Ukraine war.

>They're beaming back home whatever they want This claim is always thrown out like a life preserver without ever anything to back it up. Do you have anything to support this claim?

While I myself still wouldn't ever use DJI because of this reason, no can ever provide any concrete claim. Quite hilarious.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#238

Post by corbezzoli »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #199
ngcc_hk wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not need to transmit the video first. But coordinate or interested person. Even a sport watch can be a security threat as demo by some exercise army personnel. They just know who and when and where these places are. For the transfer part it is much harder as said and easier to detect in peace time. But then what happen in war or proxy-war time. You have to know how many senior Russians are killed by using a ph…

[flagged]

The point GP is making is that DJI does not indiscriminately upload every video. The moment it has the chance to associate a VIP to a drone, only then the tracking could start. It’s not like you can detect that during random tests on a new unit.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#239

Post by okdood64 »

Aurornis wrote: post #106
ramenmeal wrote: post #21

Streaming 1080p/60fps up to 20km wirelessly is mind boggling to me. What kind of tech is used to make that happen? seems like it'd require a lot of power.

The video quality degrades at longer distances. You can't get the full bandwidth at the maximum distance, but you might see enough to navigate. Communicating with a drone up in the sky is easier than something like your WiFi or your cell phone because you have a nice, clear line of sight to the drone. Fly behind a hill, building, or some trees at distance and the drone will lose connection and go into safety mode. Th…

Cool stuff.

I suspect military communications uses wattage MUCH stronger than what's allowed by regulation in the battle space, correct?

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#240

Post by corbezzoli »

okdood64 wrote: post #237
snypher wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They're beaming back home whatever they want This claim is always thrown out like a life preserver without ever anything to back it up. Do you have anything to support this claim?

While I myself still wouldn't ever use DJI because of this reason, no can ever provide any concrete claim. Quite hilarious.

What concrete claim are you looking for? Is it not enough that Huawei was banned by the US? Do you know the reason why it was banned? The same reason could broadly apply to every Chinese company. TikTok is the software counterpart that isn’t allowed on any government phone.

DJI does not produce infrastructure pieces so it hasn’t reached the same urgency to the US, so it’s still allowed.

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