What a year it has been for DJI drone fans! From the dual-camera Air 3 to the omni-sensing Mini 4 Pro, the company released some of its most powerful, feature-rich drones in 2023. But as more advanced products are launched, older offerings reach their End of Life (EOL). We know of at least five DJI products whose service and support will end in 2024, and the list includes popular heavy-lifter Matrice drones.
In a Tweet from a few days ago, a photo and video are shown of what seems to be a weaponized DJI Matrice 210 that was allegedly seized by the Taliban from Afghan security forces during a night raid in the Garamsir district of the Helmond province in Afghanistan.
Correction: an earlier version of this article erroneously said it was a DJI Matrice 200 when it is in fact an M210
CES 2020 in Las Vegas was a great place to meet up with people in the drone industry and you always learn something new. One of the things we picked up this time, is that the DJI Matrice 300 is rumored to be launched in late February. It seems that DJI realized that after a number of reports came out of crashing DJI Matrice 200 / 210 drones, it was time for an updated and improved version. In the days after CES, we have been able to confirm these rumors through a secondary source.
A report by UK‘s Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that DJI Matrice 200 drones used by police were falling out of the sky in the rain due to a technical fault. The drone pilots lost full control and power of the drone causing it to fall straight down to the ground while in use by police.
Today, DJI releases a firmware update for one of its most important enterprise drones the DJI Matrice 200 series (DJI), which includes the M200 and M210. There are two firmware updates one for the battery and one for the aircraft. See below for details.
Today DJI is making a huge step forward in the Enterprise drone market with the release of the DJI Matrice 200 V2 series and new DJI Flighthub Enterprise software. The combination of improved hardware and new software is meant to take enterprise drone operations to the next level. Yes, we’re talking beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) and night-time operations. But, also the ability for enterprise customers to deploy and large numbers of drones. The Matrice 200 Version 2 now offers Ocusync 2.0, encrypted data transmission (AES-256), top and bottom anti-collision beacons, DJI’s AirSense system using an ADS-B receiver and more. DJI’s Flighthub Enterprise offers many new customization options for commercial drone operators such as private cloud hosting, new DJI Pilot PE app designed for users with high data security requirements, centrally manage and deploy drone firmware updates, mission planning, and device maintenance information. FlightHub Enterprise and the Matrice 200 Series V2 drones are now available worldwide. Today’s announcement from DJI is a huge step forward and it will allow commercial drone operators to start using drones in ways we haven’t seen before and on a much larger scale than we have seen before. Exciting stuff!
Late last year the first reports surfaced of drones unexpectedly falling out of the sky in the UK. Affected drones were from the Matrice and Inspire series. DJI issued an official statement and started an investigation into the issue. The Chinese drone maker subsequently released two different firmware updates to tackle the issue and now concludes the TB55 battery investigation, saying that the most recent firmware update resolved the problem. See below for DJI’s official statement.
Romeo Durscher, DJI’s Director of Public Safety Integration, wrote an extensive piece on the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual. In the article, Romeo points out the strengths of DJI latest drone and compares it to the more expensive but more capable Matrice 200/210 with a Zenmue XT2 camera.
DJI recently launched the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual drone, which offers many advanced features that are useful for any police force. However, the DJI Matrice 210 with both a Zenmuse XT2 thermal and Zenmuse Z30 zoom camera may be the ultimate police drone, if there ever was one. As part of the expanding Santa Rosa Police Drone Program, the department just added this exact setup to their arsenal as the ultimate police drone.
New versions of the popular enterprise drones are underway. In an FCC filing (FCC ID SS3-M200V21811) the DJI Matrice 200 V2, Matrice 210 V2 and Matrice 210 RTK V2 show up. From the filing, it does not become obvious what kind of improvements can be expected. Nor does it give us any indication as to when these new models may be released. Typically there between 4-8 weeks between a new DJI product showing up in FCC filings and its actual release. Unless, of course, there is a delay.
Earlier this week, official DJI retailer, Heliguy in partnership with DJI, organized the Emergency Services Roadshow. During this event in the UK, the Chinese drone maker provided an update to the battery problem that affects some of the DJI Matrice 200 and Inspire 2 drones. The batteries that are impacted are the TB50 and the TB55 series, as we reported before.
First announce during AirWorks 2018, DJI has released a new flight simulator to help train the growing number of both consumer and commercial pilots. The new DJI Flight Simulator allows pilots to test a variety of different drones in various weather conditions for a number of different applications. The goal of the new DJI Flight Simulator is to safely train pilots using the equipment they will operate prior to flying their drone.
West Midlands Police in the UK has grounded their DJI Matrice 200 drone after the aircraft had suffered an unexpected power failure causing the drone to fall from the sky. DJI has now come out with a statement urging people to fly with caution when using TB50 and TB55 batteries that are found in the Matrice 200 and Inspire 2 drones, while the company is working on a firmware update.
