Any one (DJI SUPPORT) know how to allow our fleet of P4pros to bypass 500 m take off AGL limit?

We are REOC holder in Australia - we have been asked to take 2000-2500 feet pics of Rural farm land..... have all clearances.... DJI is limiting our job.

Please advise what DJI needs to overcomes this - serial numbers, REOC REPL approvals etc - got them all !

Look forward to DJI and anyones elses support

Cheers Gaz

The bad news is .... You won't get it.
DJI have the Phantoms hardwired for 500 metres max altitude and they aren't in the business of unlocking them for anyone.
You could charter a helicopter if you really have to go that high or maybe use a non-dji drone.
Are you sure you really need to go that high?
500 metres with a very wideangle lens will get a lot in.
Or you could try creating an orthophoto if you need to show a larger area.

Labroides Posted at 2018-4-6 02:03
The bad news is .... You won't get it.
DJI have the Phantoms hardwired for 500 metres max altitude and they aren't in the business of unlocking them for anyone.
You could charter a helicopter if you really have to go that high or maybe use a non-dji drone.

We are trying to beat hiring a copter ... the thing is the phantoms fly well over 11km horizontal just need 1km high ...

Labroides Posted at 2018-4-6 02:03
The bad news is .... You won't get it.
DJI have the Phantoms hardwired for 500 metres max altitude and they aren't in the business of unlocking them for anyone.
You could charter a helicopter if you really have to go that high or maybe use a non-dji drone.

We are trying to beat hiring a copter ... the thing is the phantoms fly well over 11km horizontal just need 1km high ...

You need a DJI Flamewheel550 running a Naza and a Sony RX100v4 on the gimbal - no problem with height on these - LOL

Seriously? You bought a fleet of P4Pros without knowing they had a 500 Metre maximum altitude?

Geebax Posted at 2018-4-6 02:57
Seriously? You bought a fleet of P4Pros without knowing they had a 500 Metre maximum altitude?

need backups.... when doing insurance work...

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 06:49
need backups.... when doing insurance work...

Sent you a PM

AvatarAir Posted at 2018-4-6 07:13
Sent you a PM

nothing came through.... :/

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 07:31
nothing came through.... :/

sent again

I have not tried this and I do not advise trying it, but theoretically, could you go up to 500m, set a new home point and have another 500m above that? And so forth, until you get to the altitude you want. In other words, is the takeoff altitude part of the home point? Of course if you lose contact with the drone and it returns to your last home point it will "land" way up in the air and will probably crash.

Joerg62 Posted at 2018-4-6 15:58
I have not tried this and I do not advise trying it, but theoretically, could you go up to 500m, set a new home point and have another 500m above that? And so forth, until you get to the altitude you want. In other words, is the takeoff altitude part of the home point? Of course if you lose contact with the drone and it returns to your last home point it will "land" way up in the air and will probably crash.

There are a number of things wrong with that. When you get up to the first point, you will have to have a place to land. Just setting a new home point will not extend the height. You have to land, shut down the motors, then re-start them and take off again. And in RTH, the aircraft does not record the altitude.

Geebax Posted at 2018-4-6 16:03
There are a number of things wrong with that. When you get up to the first point, you will have to have a place to land. Just setting a new home point will not extend the height. You have to land, shut down the motors, then re-start them and take off again. And in RTH, the aircraft does not record the altitude.

Thanks, that was my question. So setting a new home point does not affect the takeoff altitude. So this won't work.

Joerg62 Posted at 2018-4-6 16:12
Thanks, that was my question. So setting a new home point does not affect the takeoff altitude. So this won't work.

Yes, setting a new home point will not reset the altitude, but landing and restarting the aircraft will. But in either case, the RTH parameters are position only, the height of the home point is not set.

You can always ask uncle Google, there is always a way, MORE SO f you have all the required permissions.....

Bashy Posted at 2018-4-6 19:51
You can always ask uncle Google, there is always a way, MORE SO f you have all the required permissions.....

trying to avoid hacking firmware - air insurance may not cover a crashed drone if they find its been tampered with..... trying to do tings by the book.... : (

Above 500m , just out of curiosity , what sort of image quality  then are you hoping for to be portrayed with the parameters that are with a phantom 4 pro camera as is .    As the higher you would go the less clarity and clear an image would come .

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 21:13
trying to avoid hacking firmware - air insurance may not cover a crashed drone if they find its been tampered with..... trying to do tings by the book.... : (

Are you sure you really need to go that high?
500 metres with a very wideangle lens will get a lot in.
Or you could try creating an orthophoto if you need to show a larger area.

Have you seen how large the outback is? I’ve already hired a Cessna and taken a canon 5dmk3 up - all a bit iffy- dji has all the tech - 20mpx cam is good - shows size of property and google earth updates every year or 2

You have no chance lifting the 500m limit doing it by the book as far as i know...

Well the hope is like some other providers they can take your REOC or REPL license details.....and cross match it with CASA........then send a code or something corresponding with the Serial or similar for example.... its not uncommmon in the tech industry ... the more people request it the more DJi will listen...and work out way ...

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 23:06
Well the hope is like some other providers they can take your REOC or REPL license details.....and cross match it with CASA........then send a code or something corresponding with the Serial or similar for example.... its not uncommmon in the tech industry ... the more people request it the more DJi will listen...and work out way ...

As Labroides says, it is not going to happen. People have been yelling at DJI for years about the height restriction and they have no intention of doing anything about it. In fact, when some Russian hacks found a way around it, DJI went to great lengths to plug the hole.

Their view appears to be that if you want to go above 500 Metres, then you buy one of their professional solutions that does not have the limit. The Phantom is considered a consumer machine.

This is why I posted: Seriously? You bought a fleet of P4Pros without knowing they had a 500 Metre maximum altitude?

Another point that has not been mentioned is the time it takes to get to that sort of altitude, it eats up battery power very fast, so once you gety up there, you will have very little time to do any work before you have to descend again. Once again, the Phantom is not a good choice for the job.

Geebax Posted at 2018-4-6 23:14
As Labroides says, it is not going to happen. People have been yelling at DJI for years about the height restriction and they have no intention of doing anything about it. In fact, when some Russian hacks found a way around it, DJI went to great lengths to plug the hole.

Their view appears to be that if you want to go above 500 Metres, then you buy one of their professional solutions that does not have the limit. The Phantom is considered a consumer machine.

their Inspire range doesnt support it either....... the Matrice 200 hard to come by ....some of the enterprise ones still use DJ go... no one had been able to give me a clear answer - not interested inthe m600 flying spider city..... ..... the DJI p4p is so capable.......just seems like theyre playing hard ball...

Looking like you will need to use an  old school  drone and flight software to get to these heights... https://www.dji.com/naza-m-v2

and on page22 on the manual - http://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/n ... elease_notes_en.pdf - confirms you have a max ceiling of 2000m

The F550 was a very capable platform for its time or you could find a S900 cheaply these days...

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 23:17
their Inspire range doesnt support it either....... the Matrice 200 hard to come by ....some of the enterprise ones still use DJ go... no one had been able to give me a clear answer - not interested inthe m600 flying spider city..... ..... the DJI p4p is so capable.......just seems like theyre playing hard ball...

just seems like theyre playing hard ball...

Not at all. DJI have their largest market in consumer aircraft, and they will not jeopardise that market. Don't be simply seduced by the P4 camera, it might be OK for your job, although frankly I would rather lift up a higher resolution camera with decent fixed lens (think Sony RX1R), look at factors like I mentioned, battery life.

The way to solve it would be to cheat the barometer with pressure changes.
Power on the motors when placed in/below a tight box, create vacuum until you get a reading of 262meters then power the motors off/on and you should have a reference point of -262 meters when vacuum is released and box removed.
When you reach max altitude of 500 meters you should be at 2500 feet. I would recommend that you do a short flight in advance of all this to warm up the sensors as the temperature change the readings.

Preferred was if DJI would open up for a unlock just like the NFZ, did you contact the flysafe team, what was their response?

Edit: This would be the same as landing at a higher point and take off again.

Does any one know RRP of Matrice 200 USD?  some forum said 18k?

Ive pinged DJI 2 weeks ago....still waiting....  

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 23:28
Does any one know RRP of Matrice 200 USD?  some forum said 18k?

Ive pinged DJI 2 weeks ago....still waiting....

Try a S900 - https://www.dji.com/spreading-wings-s900 - you get find cheap full setups for the price of 2 P4P's

KedDK Posted at 2018-4-6 23:27
The way to solve it would be to cheat the barometer with pressure changes.
Power on the motors when placed in/below a tight box, create vacuum until you get a reading of 262meters then power the motors off/on and you should have a reference point of -262 meters when vacuum is released and box removed.
When you reach max altitude of 500 meters you should be at 2500 feet. I would recommend that you do a short flight in advance of all this to warm up the sensors as the temperature change the readings.

He said he did not want to modify the aircraft for insurance purposes.

ALso some asked about why use a p4p - over say google earth or near maps etc.... one can acheeive 10cm per pixel @ 1890 feet! google earth is about 60cm to 30 meters..... depending on area...

Even the Matrice 200 is limited to 500m MVH, as it uses the A3 controller and Go app.

Geebax Posted at 2018-4-6 23:30
He said he did not want to modify the aircraft for insurance purposes.

He would not be modifying anything, this is not any different than doing the land/takeoff that is not possible everywhere.

Aerial-Image Posted at 2018-4-6 23:44
Even the Matrice 200 is limited to 500m MVH, as it uses the A3 controller and Go app.

but my hopes is they allow Alt setting to be toggled .... - i will phone again on monday.....

I think the only way you are going to get your Phantom above 500 metres is to strap it to a helicopter or hand hold it out of the side of a helicopter and launch it if you're game !!!!  

Good luck with that !

pickfordphotography.com Posted at 2018-4-6 23:58
but my hopes is they allow Alt setting to be toggled .... - i will phone again on monday.....

If they do it for you, it will be a first.

This will give you an idea of the cost of the M200:  https://spheredrones.com.au/collections/dji-matrice-200

What exactly are you trying to do?
What would you hope to achieve at 2000-2500 ft that you can't achieve at 1640 ft?
All you've said is have been asked to take 2000-2500 feet pics of Rural farm land.
Does the client have a particular reason to ask for 2000-2500 ft and would they know anyway?
Are you just shooting obliques?
Have you considered shooting panoramas?
That's one way to get a lot of country in the shot and you get a lot of country in the frame from 1640 ft.

Spacetrakker Posted at 2018-4-7 00:21
I think the only way you are going to get your Phantom above 500 metres is to strap it to a helicopter or hand hold it out of the side of a helicopter and launch it if you're game !!!!  

Good luck with that !

or you could just edit the parameters ;)

easily bypassed in the flight controller parameters, module 306. or so im told

I suspect what you've been told is a fairy tale.