Can anyone provide guidance about the mini's compliance with the new FAA remote ID rule?  Is remote ID something I can purchase for my drone and install after the fact if it is not already equipped?  Thanks!

Probably. In reading, you have some time before needing to worry about it. Looks like 60 days + 30 months to use if I read right.

Yes, they'll be some kind of module device that you can purchase and attach it to the drone however I don't think you'll need it at least for the Mini,

Found this FAA bulletin:

According to these statutory and regulatory requirements, no person may operate an unmanned aircraft in the
airspace of the United States unless it has been registered by its owner, or unless the aircraft is
excepted from registration (e.g., aircraft of the national defense forces of the United States or
unmanned aircraft weighing 0.55 pounds or less).

Hello there red squirrel. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have posted. For additional reference I will post a DJI Forum link with regards to this matter as well ( https://forum.dji.com/thread-202023-1-1.html ). Thank you.

The mini is sufficiently light to not fall under this rule.

Thanks for all the info everyone! Do other mavic drones employ remote ID yet or is that in the pipeline? Is it something that can be accomplished with a software upgrade or is something physical needed to attach to drone? Just keeping in mind for future possible drone purchase planning even if not required for mini.

As far as I know, there isn't even an agreed technical standard yet  for the remote ID system, not in the US and not in the EU where this is also a hot topic for new regulation. So it seems regulators have split this in a two step process

First step : mandate registration of pilots and drones (with exceptions depending on the drone's characteristics) and allocate IDs for those
Second step: mandate that the ID can be queried remotely ... somehow...some time in the future.

Note that while newer drones can receive ADS-B messages from aircraft transponders (so the drone can detect a/c in the proximity), that doesn't imply that the drone itself will transmit ADS-B messages identifying itself. I think the last thing that air traffic controllers want is their systems being cluttered with tons of drones, which would be pointless anyway because unlike all the other a/c, the controllers would not have any way to contact the drone pilots via radio in real time. So I don't think ADS-B (which uses relatively powerful transmitters for piloted a/c) will be the solution, at least not for the small consumer drones.


hb