Hi,I purchased the drone but haven't flown it yet.

If I fly the drone only in normal or sport mode, do I need this accessory?

You shouldn't need them in normal mode. If you land from a hover, it should always be a gentle landing. I don't think you need the arm braces. I didn't know they existed until I read your post.

Don't need it for any modes. Also makes transporting the drone a bit more difficult.

There are some types of collisions where it might help save an arm by distributing the force to the other arm its braced to, but if it's a hard impact, it might just take both arms out anyway.

I don't think it's a bad thing to have, but I'm not convinced it adds all that much... at least it's only $19 USD so relatively inexpensive as far as accessories go.

They are a a waste of money if the thing hits the ground its done either with or without braces. In fact on a good crash the brace will damage the rear arms which might have survived otherwise!

Mike

Hello there amitgv1. Good day and congratulations on your new DJI FPV. As mentioned above you can fly your DJI FPV with out attaching any accessories on the said DJI Drone. The use of the DJI FPV Drone Arm Bracers effectively enhance drone arm strength and reduce the risk of drone arm damage. Thank you.

Here's a video I just found showing the arm braces.
They seem like a useful accessory to me.

Hopefully the above video will helpe people decide if they want to use the braces on their drone.

Duane Degn Posted at 3-24 22:13
Here's a video I just found showing the arm braces.
They seem like a useful accessory to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MidadN5W9cw

Yes, very useful...   

sure useful but how long until they are back in stock?

i personally am not bothered by this accessory it all depends on your type of flying. If you take risks and possibly may crash then these accessories will likely help you. If you are like myself who flies carefully, then this accessory shouldn't make a difference and only cause more weight on the drone.

Oh, I didn’t know these were a thing.
Anyone used them? Do they affect performance?

Apollo.

I use  the arm braces. No difference in flight. I'm sure that they protect against a total damage in a small crash.

I think it does help for small crashes. I crashed my drone and broke a little piece on 1 arm (I detached the sensors myself to see what was going on). It is minor damage and the drone still flies, but when I release throttle in a dive or something I get the 'jello-effect' where my whole video is wavy. This is because there are minor vibrations due to it not being as strong anymore as the other arms.

I think if I had the arm bracers it would've protected it. Because of this I sent my drone back to DJI for repair and ordered the arm bracers today. It's 'only' $19 and if this can protect you from sending your drone to DJI for a week or two it's worth it in my opinion!

djiuser_CbasOCUaKNmo Posted at 4-22 01:22
I think it does help for small crashes. I crashed my drone and broke a little piece on 1 arm (I detached the sensors myself to see what was going on). It is minor damage and the drone still flies, but when I release throttle in a dive or something I get the 'jello-effect' where my whole video is wavy. This is because there are minor vibrations due to it not being as strong anymore as the other arms.

I think if I had the arm bracers it would've protected it. Because of this I sent my drone back to DJI for repair and ordered the arm bracers today. It's 'only' $19 and if this can protect you from sending your drone to DJI for a week or two it's worth it in my opinion!

... I use them too!     

More stuff to break in a crash, and more drag at higher speeds. Maybe good carrying handles, though....

luciens Posted at 4-22 05:09
More stuff to break in a crash, and more drag at higher speeds. Maybe good carrying handles, though....

You should drive a car without any body ...      

frankymusik Posted at 4-22 07:10
You should drive a car without any body ...

Well they may add a little additional strength, but by the time you're hitting something hard enough to snap off one arm, you're hitting it hard enough to snap off both of them.

In my crash, I put it into the ground at 90mph, but at a very shallow angle. The left front arm was ripped off, taking a big chunk of the body with it, but the back two arms were completely untouched. If I had had the bracers on it, the whole thing probably would have been totalled.

Enough of it was left for me to glue it back together. It flies, but a lot of stuff is broken like return to home, recording, the vision sensors, no longer work. Doesn't fly right in Normal and Sport mode, etc. But it still flies in manual mode, sort of:

luciens Posted at 4-22 08:35
Well they may add a little additional strength, but by the time you're hitting something hard enough to snap off one arm, you're hitting it hard enough to snap off both of them.

In my crash, I put it into the ground at 90mph, but at a very shallow angle. The left front arm was ripped off, taking a big chunk of the body with it, but the back two arms were completely untouched. If I had had the bracers on it, the whole thing probably would have been totalled.

Uh.. Looking at these pictures makes my heart hurt. Looks like a serious crash. How did that happen?

luciens Posted at 4-22 08:35
Well they may add a little additional strength, but by the time you're hitting something hard enough to snap off one arm, you're hitting it hard enough to snap off both of them.

In my crash, I put it into the ground at 90mph, but at a very shallow angle. The left front arm was ripped off, taking a big chunk of the body with it, but the back two arms were completely untouched. If I had had the bracers on it, the whole thing probably would have been totalled.

"by the time you're hitting something hard enough to snap off one arm, you're hitting it hard enough to snap off both of them."

It's pretty common for FPV drones to have braces between arms for added strength. I think there may be a few scenarios where the arms could increase the amount of damage but I think the the braces are much more likely to reduce the amount of damage than increase the damage.

I posted this video before, but in case anyone is interested, here it is again.


I thought the guy did a good job showing what the braces do.

Edit: I knew I had posted this video on the forum previously, but I didn't realize I had already posted it in this thread. I should have just referred to the earlier post rather adding another big YouTube player to this thread.

Duane Degn Posted at 4-22 09:56
"by the time you're hitting something hard enough to snap off one arm, you're hitting it hard enough to snap off both of them."

It's pretty common for FPV drones to have braces between arms for added strength. I think there may be a few scenarios where the arms could increase the amount of damage but I think the the braces are much more likely to reduce the amount of damage than increase the damage.

Actually, having said what I said, I may be getting a new drone and I might still try these on it. It's very vibration free anyway, but it might be worth $20 to see if they improve any resonances in flight. You're quite right that it does add strength and that can definitely help, depending...

I have them on mine, and have almost since the beginning, I like them, super lightweight and doesn't seem to effect the flying at all, dont know about the crashing yet! And no different to transport with or with or without them. I like em.

Im hoping to get some soon....

to those saying, they wont help,  since if you hit hard enough to break one arm, you'll break two arms with the braces.

whilst I agree this is possible, I disagree with the conclusion


I recently was flying low to the ground , and caught it at pretty low speed - it twisted and broke one arm. (well its was more cracked)
given the impact speed, I think it was just a bit 'unlucky', catching at a nasty angle  - I'm 100% certain with arm braces it would have been fine.

so it had to go back to DJI for repair.
given the breakdown of the costs of repairs - Im also pretty sure that replacing 2 arms would only be fractionally more expensive than breaking one.
(because the parts costs were such a small part of the bill)

so overall, Id say

1)  the arm bracers could save you from a lighter impact, so saving you money - but also the hassle of sending it in for repair.

2) on a heavier impact, sure it might break two arms but:
a) you might have broken two anyway
b) the repair cost for two arms won't be much more than one arm - and its the same inconvenience sending it back for one or two arms ;)

of course, its better not to crash at all, but accidents happen... so if your close to the ground or objects, it feels like a reasonable precaution.

Ok here's the good and bad about the arm bracers,  the good is that it will absolutely help strengthen arms against crashes and I know that from experience with them so they do exactly what they say they do. Now the bad, what I didn't like about them is 2 things, it is a pain in the butt to transport them because it makes it bulkier and alot of the custom fit backpacks are designed for the drone without the support bracers which brings me to the 2nd things is that they are way too tight if you just want to be able to take them on or off really quickly. As you can see in the picture I got a really nice backpack for transportation of the drone but It wouldn't fit because of the bracers and now I'm struggling to get them off. I got the one side off but I swear it felt like I was about to break or crack something so be prepared for that for sure. I still haven't gotten the other side off. I'm not sure what I should do cuz if I cut a slit the batteries don't fit!

Someone should make a crash test, just like crash test cars. Increasing the impact speed until arms are broken. This way its possible to see the drone speed resistance for arms with or without braces.

Just thought I would post a remedy for storing your raptor (w/braces) in a commonly sold foam case.
***NOT SHOWN*** is a new modification allowing one to store their raptor w/battery installed but disconnected (thus allowing the battery's intelligence to safely discharge its voltage).

MadMacx Posted at 5-19 15:06
[view_image][view_image][view_image]

Just thought I would post a remedy for storing your raptor (w/braces) in a commonly sold foam case.

Very cool.
The mod looks great.
Thanks for taking time to post a photo.