No.
If you say you have had Phantom since September, you should have known by now how DJI releases their application and the firmware.
That there is always something new inside, but it's not in the description. For example how they restricted Phantoms to fly higher than 500 m.
Then, if you found out you can't use those batteries with FW 1.7, you were still able to downgrade the firmware back to 1.6.
According to your complaints I believe you are now at FW 1.8. But it was your choice to upgrade. Nobody forced you to do it.
And finally, if you were on their place, you would do the same thing.
You would want to make the profit and also you wouldn't want to be responsible for potential damage that could be done using non-original parts.
I also don't like what they do and how they do it, but I accepted it (by staying on FW 1.6 and app 2.6.0).
You should accept their policy too - to be happier
I'm going to start by addressing the biggest mistake you made in your post - that if I was in their place, I would do the same thing.... Never in a million years would I treat my customers the way that DJI treats theirs. Insisting that ONLY my batteries are used in my product? Maybe my board of directors could talk me into going that route - but I would absolutely have implemented it better. From the date I made the decision, all new hardware sold would be subject to the restriction. Existing hardware would have a 2 year grace period....during which any existing aftermarket batteries would be at or near the end of their useful life anyhow....BUT...even that situation would be unlikely to ever come up because I certainly am smart enough to have thought ahead and made this a policy right from the initial release of my product - and even if I did not have the technology to detect and disable - the manual would have spelled out the restriction and warned that at some point in the future, this may be enforced so do NOT purchase aftermarket batteries!
But DJI did none of that. There were no cautions or restrictions in the documentation. There was no reason for a smart consumer not to go out and purchase a good quality aftermarket battery and save a few dollars. Because DJI was not smart enough to put verbiage in their documentation telling consumers not to buy them - they should have been sensitive to the fact that some of their customers may have invested significant money in batteries that DJI was about to render worthless. A company that cared about their public image and customer satisfaction would have put together a plan to minimize the impact to these customers - such as a battery trade-in program where affected customers could send in their aftermarket battery and $50 and receive a brand new DJI battery. It would have probably been a break-even proposition for DJI and it would have kept their customers happy and perhaps even generate some positive publicity. This is where I think the company was particularly "greedy" and shortsighted.
Finding and using a workaround such as not upgrading to the latest firmware is not a solution. Many people are already aware that DJI does not give a **** about their customers - but some don't. The policy itself - that only DJI batteries are acceptable - is questionable, but apparently they are within their rights as a manufacturer to insist on it. But it was still a punitive way to implement the policy. They knew that this policy would affect existing customers - and they didn't care. This time, the issue is batteries - next time it will be something else.
My message was intended to vent - source 1 or 2 DJI shells so that I can make use of my aftermarket cells - and bring wider awareness to the mindset of DJI when it comes to its customers. Had I known this about the company before I bought my first drone - I most likely would have gone with another manufacturer. If I were not so heavily invested into the DJI ecosystem, I'd seriously consider switching.
This was a really crappy way for a company to treat its customers. It could have been handled much much better.
Sure - there are workarounds to help circumvent the policy...but that doesn't change the fact that the way DJI implemented this policy change treated some existing customers unfairly.
1. As you pointed out, one could stay at the older firmware level - but then they run the risk of operating with bugs that have been identified and corrected in later firmwares as well as potentially missing out on new features.
2. One could replace the 'head unit' of the aftermarket battery with one from a damaged or dead DJI battery. This piece contains the electronics which identify the battery as being an official DJI product.
3. One could use the aftermarket cells in one of the Horizon battery mods or any other extended flight battery mod that requires splitting open a battery in order to extract its cells individually.
We've heard plenty of responses on this chain from the "average consumer" type - the ones that don't understand the technology and would never dream of using anything other than OEM parts. The "average consumer" that doesn't understand that some aftermarket parts are better and more reliable than the OEM parts they are meant to replace. Others are just as good as OEM parts. There is usually the 'junk' as well which often doesn't last long enough to use even once. The "average consumer" doesn't know and doesn't care. They pay a few extra $ and make sure that they don't invalidate their precious warranties! They're often first in line to purchase the "extended warranty" if available too - one of the biggest scams in the electronics market! This is the same type of person that thinks a "best before" date on a food product is an "expiry" date and wouldn't dream of eating anything if the printed date on the package was yesterday! These people usually think they are smarter than the crowd - while "the crowd" and the "savvy consumer" know the opposite is true!
Honestly, I'm surprised there are so many 'average consumers' here. I would have expected a higher concentration of 'savvy consumers' in this hobby - and those that understand technology, manufacturing and risk. Maybe there are - but they are all off happily modding their after-market batteries and antennas to set new range and endurance records that will eventually benefit all of us.
