I just watched the fpv blue Blunty interview and that story about how dji entered fpv brings some really bad warnings if it happens to be true. DJI won't share their digital achievements of course and they can just drop the entire fpv branch if there is no minimum market and revenue from it. If somehow DJI drops development and cancel partnership on the transmiter units, digital will suffer a major step back. I guess we are used to relying on niche fpv brands and companies that basically develop over a well known standard that enables competitive prices and players. Going DJI root seems the opposite, everything is pretty much close and expensive until who knows when. Digital is the way to go, but we need more players and more technical solutions. It's easier said then done, I know, but I guess DJI can become a dead end soon.

(26-Mar-2021, 05:46 AM)bffigjam Wrote: Could also be to do with the fact that they will probably be one of the first approved remote ID suppliers that are attainable to us, so they will have a monopoly on the market...

This could mean that the DJI FPV Drone V2 may be the only legal option for a while?

Who knows.. I guess it comes back to support the small guys because if you don't they won't be there when you need to fall back on them.

did the fpv community choose the death of any build culture, opensource abilities.... by choosing the digital fpv system from dji, gave it responsibility to fpv?
didnt someone mentioned this while dji launched their digital system?

Ian put the post below on RCG yesterday evening (source HERE) regarding the outsourcing of the manufacture of Air Units to a partner (which we all know full wee will be Caddx).

What DJI have caused with all their shenanigans is people panic buying Air Units and Caddx Vista's, so we are now in a similar situation as we were last year with the toilet roll and hand sanitizer shortages. It wouldn't surprise me if that was part of DJI's original plan to try and quickly get some of the existing stock sold off before handing over production to a partner.

Personally I'm now in a quandary about whether or not to buy some additional Air Units and Vistas as an insurance policy to secure my ability to continue using their digital system into the future should the worst happen with them pulling the plug. I really begrudge giving DJI any more of my money but it's like being between a rock and a hard place. You either give them even more money (that they honestly don't deserve), or you take a risk that you may end up being left high and dry with no more Air Unit / Vista availability unless you are prepared to pay ransom prices for pre-owned units. Who knows if the "alternative system" components are going to be any good. Maybe Caddx will manufacture them to an inferior quality compared to the originals. Or maybe they will end up being better quality. It's like rolling the dice. I really do hate DJI with a passion.

Mads Tech Wrote:Now I have had a few more hours to think on somethings I thought I would share my thoughts on this mess and also put some things out there too as suddenly people are speculating what this V2 Airunit will be.

Well let’s get that straight first, no one has said it’s a V2, and imo it’s not.

DJI over the last year have put a massive amount of resources into the FPV drone, as I have said before I was meant to be involved in the launch as well as supporting it on social however as time went one I felt more and more uneasy with how things were heading on many levels and in the end I stepped back from being involved. For starters it was clear that this was all about the drone and the FPV system was just something else they made in the passed. As I shared with you all though hints for months before the release the V2 goggles were only for the drone and if they did not exist their would not be a V2.

Last year some of us who do this stuff were asked to be involved with a release of a new FPV product. Over time in 2020 more and more info was shared and it was clear this was a very big thing for DJI internally.

From all the info and talks It was my option that there was basically zero interest in the FPV side of this product and again it was all about the drone. This was set for January launch but got pushed back very last minute

After the drone delay things were very quiet. The info was going to be a March release for the drone with nothing on the goggles at all, things then were just wait and see, I was not able to secure access to product in the EU for a few reasons and it was looking like I was going to step out as I just was unhappy with a number of the conditions how things were going.

As time went on everyone started to notice that the V1 goggles were in short supply but we were given no info of confirmation from DJI on that the plan was. Then completely out the blue myself and the other like JB people who get told these things were told we could go live on talking about the V2 goggles tomorrow morning. It was literally 12 hours before the launch. No one had content ready and everyone was scrambling to put something together. I did not have product in hand so again I was flying blind but JB, Nurk and others did and spoke about things.

It very much felt like a last minute marketing decision to get product out on the shelves.

Now throughout this we had been getting little bits of info on what was going to work and not work with the V2 goggles such as Airunits, remote and things. We were told about the video our function however Info was extremely limited and the guys with product in hand could not test as there was no app. It seems some of the contacts were telling people that yes it will work with the Airunits and others not. Again I was careful to only share what I thought I could and try to steer people the right way.

Anyways the goggles launched and things were fairly smooth as the first batches of the V2 had the normal Air system firmware. We did not even know about the dual booting option at this point either as the guys with the drone had goggles with only drone firmware. It was assumed that these would come together as one for launch, no one expected the dual booting thing we have today.

Fast forward to March and we were at done launch, then the first mess hit. Activation issues all on both systems, on the drone people using the wrong app as the play store could not have the new one due to the ban. For the goggles only due to the firmware on the V2 being for the drone mode and users could not switch.

This entire problem was caused by again that part I mentioned above were there seemed no consideration for the FPV system. It’s clear the focus was entirely on the drone and while some work was done to allow the dual boot no one fully tested the actual behaviour for users purchasing the goggles only.

Now fast forward to this week, again in what I think is another marketing move the DJI store changed their page to show the FPV system being out of the production, no one got warning, no dealers or parters were warned and DJI were silent. Yesterday close to every dealer and person like my self was putting questions in and it was crickets.

Fast forward to today and then we were all sent the statement I shared, carefully worded but giving a little hope.

So the question is what has actually gone on with this Air unit mess? , well none of us really know but it’s fairly solid info that global silicon shortages are causing issues for everyone, DJI are also on a ban list in the US that could also be causing them problems sourcing components needed.

What interesting is their statement says that a parter will produce a product of equal quality for the FPV community, to me this is unheard of for DJI to use a partner to make hardware like this. They are licensing out the tech and that can only be for one or two reasons.

It’s possible the US financial ban means they can’t get a component they need so that will have to factor it out, but then if that’s the case it would affect the drone too.

It’s my felling reading between the lines that DJI have lost interest in the FPV system as a standalone now, it’s back to core business that’s drones with massively profitable batteries and accessories.

Yesterday they made a change that triggered feedback one a level they were not expecting. In the passed when they have done these things with the RTF products they have seen noise but nothing like this, I think they literally have overnight had to come up with a solution and this parter thing is it.

Regardless of this to me this is not a V2. It’s a replacement for the DJI units and nothing more.

Franky in the end this entire mess is of DJIs own doings, it’s part of the reason it’s so difficult to be involved with things when you have conflicting info from siloed teams and marketing saying one things and engineering doing something completely different. You have a constant revolving door of people with new teams for new project and no continuity. . The tech is amazing but dealing with the mess they cause is just impossible at times.

In the end you have to accept with them you buy it as it is today. Get everything you need to keep using it for the future as it could be abandoned tomorrow.

Even if the hardware production moves seamlessly over to Caddx, we're (currently) reliant on DJI for software and firmware support in order to activate and update before binding. I'm just going through the steps with a new Vista Nebula Pro and can see how it could fall apart now that DJI have lost interest.

... I’m gonna continue to fly analog until my piloting skills improve....I’m betting the next 12 months will be another big step in the FPV community, both in video and other components

Reading through Mad’sTech’s post and thinking over it again and again: It is clear that the silicon or component shortage for the stand alone FPV system is an excuse to cover up their intentions. How is it they can keep the FPV drone in production?

I find it hard to believe in the assumption that DJI’s poor choice of words is causing all this mis-communication. I think they are very smart with their messaging that can be open to interpretation.

I bought the DJI FPV system a month or so after it came out because I was happy with what it was capable of doing at the time. The firmware updates and 50Mbps mode were great improvements and I was glad to get them, but honestly, if they didn't update a thing, I would still be very pleased with the system.

I really hope they do continue making improvements and release new firmware updates for the v1 goggles, air unit, and vista. I hope someone does make a v2 air unit or vista. But even if they don't, I am still glad I bought it when I did and have been able to enjoy it for well over a year already. As long as spare parts or replacements are available, I'm good. And I only bought one air unit in 2019 and just a month ago got my first vista.

I think it's like Ian (Mad's Tech) said. DJI were probably planning to discontinue the standalone FPV system entirely following the launch of the DJI FPV Drone, but after the backlash they got they had to go back to the drawing board and they just quickly came up with the "partner" solution.

The question is, how long will that continue for because DJI own all the IP and the rights to the ASIC chip production, and they also write / support all the closed source firmware. So if DJI decide it's no longer profitable for them to continue manufacturing those ASICs or supporting the firmware then it's then game over for both the partner and all the consumers who need new Air Units or spare parts.

So this may just be a temporary stay of execution. All we can do is sit back and wait to see what happens, and hope.

And that alone is enough to keep adoption of their system or tech, irrespective of how they get it to market, away from my quads. Super sad, but par for their course.

(26-Mar-2021, 04:32 PM)kaitylynn Wrote: And that alone is enough to keep adoption of their system or tech, irrespective of how they get it to market, away from my quads. Super sad, but par for their course.

Agree. I really hope that digital gets developed by other companies, proper fpv companies and then we can all go digital without those fears. I can't backup a system that you have to stock spares with fear of permanent shortage, altough I understand the people doing so because they have already expendend a lot in the system.

If there is a chip/imager shortage , assuming both use the scarce part, which would DJI rather sell...
$1299 drone set that generates on going parts and accessories revenue or a one time sale of a $175 air unit?

Pretty clear which makes business sense...


My company builds embedded electronics and we are having lead time problems with Lots of parts right now.
So far we have gotten everything we need, but we have spent more time on this in the last month than in the previous 24...
Silicone issues are real....

(27-Mar-2021, 02:13 AM)pbreed Wrote: Silicone issues are real....

Why is there no shortage with the other cameras, transmitters, receivers, vtx’s, fc’s, esc’s in the market?

DJI makes their own ASIC/Silicone, seems they have made their own chip shortage.

I know there are shortages of silicon but I don't buy that as an excuse. Silicon shortages just delay and slow down production. It is no reason for a company (DJI) to post a message on their website stating that a product is "discontinued" which basically means it will never be manufactured again.

Let face the real facts. DJI were actually going to discontinue the standalone FPV system until it all kicked off from the FPV community after which they then came up with the "partner" solution at the 11th hour, and that "discontinued" message then disappeared from their website.

Caddx clearly have no problems restarting production of the Vista in the next 2-3 weeks (which uses the same chipset/silicon as the DJI Air Unit), so that is the real evidence of silicon shortage. Pause production and then restart it again once the silicon manufacturing has caught up, not by making statements that a product has been discontinued.

This all goes to show that DJI have clearly lost interest in the standalone FPV system. They have very likely made more money on sales of their new DJI FPV Drone in the last 2-3 weeks since it launched than they have made on the standalone FPV system in the whole 18 months that it's been in existence for. All you see on the DJI related social media sites now are post after post about the new DJI FPV Drone. Posts about the standalone FPV system seem to have slipped into obscurity.

DJI couldn't even be bothered to provide updated firmware on the V2 goggles for the standalone FPV system. They simply just dumped the original firmware on them from the V1 goggles as a dual boot option, and they haven't provided any firmware updates or bug fixes to the standalone FPV system since July last year (9 months ago). That is almost unheard of from any company who manufacture and sell a mainstream product.

I really hope I'm wrong but I don't expect to see any more real development on the standalone FPV system by DJI, so I think we can probably forget about ever seeing any V2 Air Units. I think we'll be lucky if we continue to get support and firmware updates for the existing V1 Air Unit and Caddx Vista. That is until DJI pull the plug on stumping up money to manufacture any more ASICs for it.

They could always put the IP up for sale so someone like Fatshark or orqa can come in and take the tech.

Imagine if we had a kickstarter to purchase the digital fpv tech from DJI and made it open source.... but we would have to raise millions

(28-Mar-2021, 10:57 PM)bffigjam Wrote: They could always put the IP up for sale so someone like Fatshark or orqa can come in and take the tech.

Imagine if we had a kickstarter to purchase the digital fpv tech from DJI and made it open source.... but we would have to raise millions

I doubt they will ever sell the IP as they are using the same tech (with minor updates) in their new FPV drone (which has been a top seller compared to their standalone digital fpv system) and their video quality gives them the edge against the entire market.