Phantom 4 Pro V2 is now RID compliant

[Fly With Me]

The scanning apps just are not working properly yet. As I said, I spotted a drone the other night, and only one out of four apps identified it. The way DJI explained to me is that, when you start the motors, the RID comes on (I verified that with the WLAN scanner). If it does not come on, you cannot launch. AeroScope is just the agency in the US that DJI used to get the system up and running. The extra info is optional, you don't have to enter anything (I also verified this by my own testing). I don't know why these scanning apps are not working on everything. Does not make sense that they would release an app if it did not work. I think a bigger question might be, with the great amount of P4P v2 owners in this country, why are you and I the only ones talking about this?

 

[rtcook]

I haven't tried this yet, but what is the name of the WIFI network when you scan on your phone? Does it start with the 1581F destination and then the flight controller number?

 

[Fly With Me]

I haven't tried this yet, but what is the name of the WIFI network when you scan on your phone? Does it start with the 1581F destination and then the flight controller number?

No. It starts with "RID" then the drone ID number that you registered with the FAA. Did you know you have to go in and re-register your drone using the number that comes up on Go 4 as the Aircraft number? No cost, but that needs to be done. Come to think of it, after the RID my number starts with 1581F also. In fact, looking at it closer, the new number is the 1581F followed by the original serial number.

 

[rtcook]

As discussed prior, the 20 digit number you need to register with the FAA (Drone Zone) is 1581F + 14 digit Flight Controller number + 0. Since there is no electronic communication between the drone itself and the FAA, the WIFI network name displayed on your phone should contain the Flight Controller number. I was wondering if it also was prefaced by 1581F. If so, this must be built into the new firmware.

 

[luis martinez]

Did you start the motors? DJI drones don't start transmitting RID data until the motors have been started.

Let me go back and start with the settings. I entered the FAA number of the drone in the circled areas but I'm guessing that is wrong?

 

[rtcook]

Yes. Wrong. Please read through this thread. We are making some headway.

 

[nickap]

No. It starts with "RID" then the drone ID number that you registered with the FAA. Did you know you have to go in and re-register your drone using the number that comes up on Go 4 as the Aircraft number? No cost, but that needs to be done. Come to think of it, after the RID my number starts with 1581F also. In fact, looking at it closer, the new number is the 1581F followed by the original serial number.

SO, I have tried multiple times scanning for a wifi signal with the motors running and have not seen any wifi network that starts with RID. BUT - I have not tried re-registering the drone entirely with the FAA; I just modified my existing registration to add the RID number. I guess I will try a complete fresh registration and see if that makes any difference. As has been discussed, it doesn't seem to make sense that the FAA registration would cause the RID signal to be transmitted or not - but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

EDIT - just to clarify, I never did re-register the drone, but I was eventually able to get a successful RID test anyway (see my post further down). So it's apparently not necessary to actually re-register the drone, you can just add the RID number to an existing registration.

 

[Rob Levine]

SO, I have tried multiple times scanning for a wifi signal with the motors running and have not seen any wifi network that starts with RID. BUT - I have not tried re-registering the drone entirely with the FAA; I just modified my existing registration to add the RID number. I guess I will try a complete fresh registration and see if that makes any difference. As has been discussed, it doesn't seem to make sense that the FAA registration would cause the RID signal to be transmitted or not - but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

Just got a reply from DJI. So Aeroscope is NOT the FAA RID. They are separate. Apparently once you update the firmware that's it - you're broadcasting your FAA RID. You need to go into the FAA Drone Zone Inventory and set the correct RID for each drone.

Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support.

Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 do supports FAA Remote ID function after firmware update. For the Remote Identification in DJI GO 4 refers to DJI Remote ID (not FAA RID), which is the option for DJI Aeroscope function, it's different form FAA Remote ID. Please do not worry about this.

For more Remote ID rule, please refer to FAA official website to apply this and get more detail information. If you need further assistance, don't hesitate to let us know and we will be more than happy to further assist you. Rest assured that this will be taken care of and be handled accordingly.

 

[rtcook]

Nice of DJI to explain that. Would have been alot easier if they would have mentioned it in the firmware update instructions. Don't understand why there is not some kind of indication in the GO4 app. Looks like they did the least amount of work to make it compliant.

 

[nickap]

Nice of DJI to explain that. Would have been alot easier if they would have mentioned it in the firmware update instructions. Don't understand why there is not some kind of indication in the GO4 app. Looks like they did the least amount of work to make it compliant.

I think they've never bothered to update the firmware update instructions for Go 4 / Phantom users - all the notes and screenshots on that page refer to other apps like DJI Fly, DJI Pilot etc. Maybe they'll update the instructions at some point, but it would have been nice if they had added some note or a separate page specific to Go 4 BEFORE releasing the firmware update.

 

[nickap]

Finally, success!!

I've been (maybe stupidly) doing my testing up to now inside my house, with the props off the drone, just firing up the motors when needed. Today I took the drone outside to make some actual test flights. Turns out that makes a big difference.

First thing I saw in Go 4 was an alert under overall status - when I clicked, it turned out to be a standard compass calibration alert, BUT there was also an additional alert of "Remote ID functionality normal". This is the first time I've ever seen any reference to Remote ID in Go 4. (Note - later after calibrating the compass, I tried to go back and view remote ID status, and couldn't find it - I was only able to see this message when I happened to have an alert about something else, in this case compass calibration, that I could click on to view details.)

Then I tried a short flight, and checked Wifi in the settings on my Android phone, and also using the Wifi Analyzer app. No sign of an RID network. After a couple of minutes, I landed the drone, then took off again and re-checked for Wifi. This time after a few seconds Wifi Analyzer showed an RID signal (indicated by the arrow in the screenshot below). Wifi Analyzer doesn't display the entire RID number, but checking it later against my RID it's pretty clear that this is indeed the RID being transmitted by my drone.

Here's the full RID from my FAA dronezone registration - compare the number to the one after the "RID-" prefix in the screenshot above:

So upshot of all this - I can confirm that YES, IT WORKS. (sigh of relief)

 

[rtcook]

Nice work! Going to have to go through this myself. Only thing is the FAA enforced this RID to be able to identify drones. Right now all we see is a RID WIFI signal on a cell phone labeled as a RID number and nothing else. Doesn't show anything and makes me wonder what exactly is being transmitted in that signal and what software do you need to read it.

 

[Rob Levine]

Nice work! Going to have to go through this myself. Only thing is the FAA enforced this RID to be able to identify drones. Right now all we see is a RID WIFI signal on a cell phone labeled as a RID number and nothing else. Doesn't show anything and makes me wonder what exactly is being transmitted in that signal and what software do you need to read it.

Well it looks like the SSID for a WiFi network so one would assume the network can be 'logged into' somehow. Worries me a bit that it's a black box at this point.

 

[nickap]

Nice work! Going to have to go through this myself. Only thing is the FAA enforced this RID to be able to identify drones. Right now all we see is a RID WIFI signal on a cell phone labeled as a RID number and nothing else. Doesn't show anything and makes me wonder what exactly is being transmitted in that signal and what software do you need to read it.

According to the FAA, for a Standard Remote ID drone (which the Phantom 4 Pro v2 apparently is):

Drone Remote Identification

• Remote ID capability is built into the drone
• From takeoff to shutdown, drone broadcasts:
  • Drone ID (Remote ID-compliant serial number)
  • Drone location and altitude
  • Drone velocity
  • Control station location and elevation
  • Time mark
  • Emergency status

So the information being transmitted seems to be fairly basic ... though I guess they can figure out how long the drone has been flying since takeoff, and exactly where it has been.

My guess would be that this will only really come into play when a drone is detected flying in a restricted airspace. Then they would want to know who it belongs to, where it came from etc. IMHO, there's no way the FAA are going to be tracking drones that are flying normally in non-restricted airspace.

 

[Fly With Me]

Okay, after a lengthy chat session with DJI support, I still haven't yet successfully been able to confirm that the RID is being transmitted. But here are some tips:
-- The RID serial must be registered with the FAA before it can be transmitted by the drone. I'm not sure how that works but apparently you must register the RID for everything to work.
-- The RID is only transmitted while the motors on the drone are running.
-- Once registered and with motors running, the RID should be visible by scanning (on a phone or whatever) available wifi networks. This hasn't worked for me yet, but DJI did tell me that there may be a delay after registering the RID, so I'm going to leave it a while then try again. Supposedly you can find RID status in the Go 4 app also, but I wasn't able to figure out how to do that.

You have it the clearest. Once you start your motors go onto your phone, settings, then WLAN search. That is the search for local networks. That usually kicks up a list of all the WIFI networks near you. You should see one number that starts with "RID" followed buy your serial number. Shut off you motors and it goes away. As far as FAA compliance, i have done my due diligence. I have loaded the update and performed a test, finding that it shows a signal. I am just going to go fly and forger about it now.

 

[Fly With Me]

You have it the clearest. Once you start your motors go onto your phone, settings, then WLAN search. That is the search for local networks. That usually kicks up a list of all the WIFI networks near you. You should see one number that starts with "RID" followed buy your serial number. Shut off you motors and it goes away. As far as FAA compliance, i have done my due diligence. I have loaded the update and performed a test, finding that it shows a signal. I am just going to go fly and forger about it now.

 

[rtcook]

According to the FAA, for a Standard Remote ID drone (which the Phantom 4 Pro v2 apparently is):

Drone Remote Identification

• Remote ID capability is built into the drone
• From takeoff to shutdown, drone broadcasts:
  • Drone ID (Remote ID-compliant serial number)
  • Drone location and altitude
  • Drone velocity
  • Control station location and elevation
  • Time mark
  • Emergency status

So the information being transmitted seems to be fairly basic ... though I guess they can figure out how long the drone has been flying since takeoff, and exactly where it has been.

My guess would be that this will only really come into play when a drone is detected flying in a restricted airspace. Then they would want to know who it belongs to, where it came from etc. IMHO, there's no way the FAA are going to be tracking drones that are flying normally in non-restricted airspace.

I don't think so either, but my curiosity has me wondering how all this works and just who can see the data if they want to.

 

[rtcook]

You have it the clearest. Once you start your motors go onto your phone, settings, then WLAN search. That is the search for local networks. That usually kicks up a list of all the WIFI networks near you. You should see one number that starts with "RID" followed buy your serial number. Shut off you motors and it goes away. As far as FAA compliance, i have done my due diligence. I have loaded the update and performed a test, finding that it shows a signal. I am just going to go fly and forger about it now.

I agree. We did what we were supposed to do and verified. On to flying.

 

[Rob Levine]

Just got a response from the FAA - they haven't approved the P4P v2 yet.

While DJI may have just released a firmware update for their Phantom 4 Pro Version 2, there is no accepted declaration of compliance for that particular model on UAS Declaration of Compliance as of yet.

A drone Manufacturer advising their customers to contact the FAA to get the standard RID serial number for their drone is quite backwards, and directly contradicts 14 CFR §89.505.

We in the UAS Support Center will certainly be glad to assist you with navigating FAADroneZone, the UASDOC page, and the registration process, but ulitmately the Manufacturer must submit a Declaration of Compliance, get it accepted, and provide you with the RID Serial Number for your drone.

My best advice is to continue to monitor the UASDOC page for updates, and reach out to us anytime with questions.

 

[nickap]

Just got a response from the FAA - they haven't approved the P4P v2 yet.

Very interesting! I was wondering about that, and why the P4P v2 wasn't included in the compliant models list. Sounds like it's up to DJI to make the submission to the FAA and get it approved. Hopefully they will do this before the March deadline ... So really it's 'not our problem' in a way - but it would probably be wise for us to keep an eye on the listings, and if the P4P v2 isn't added soon, we should push DJI to take care of getting it added asap.