If you are trying to register your new DJI drone with the FAA, you might get asked about Remote ID serial number for your DJI drone.
Most users only know about one serial number and that’s the aircraft serial number printed inside the battery compartment or on the box.
So what is Remote ID serial number?
The Remote ID serial number is a new requirement from FAA to connect your drone’s remote ID module to your account for identification purposes.
What is Remote ID?
A remote ID is like a license plate for your drone.
Instead of a physical license plate, it’s a digital one that helps the authorities identify the owner of the drone flying in the air if needed.
Technically speaking, a Remote ID is a small radio chip inside your drone that stores and transmits the real-time position, altitude, and FAA registration number of the drone.
The transmission can be received via any smartphone in the vicinity of the drone. But the actual features of the whole process is still unknown.
FAA started working on implementing a digital remote ID on commercial drones back in 2016 when it was deemed necessary for security by US Intelligence agencies.
A number of incidents that happened before pushed for this necessary regulation including an unknown drone crashing into the White House in 2015.
After discussing and deliberating with all stakeholders for the next 3 years, the FAA came up with the first draft of the proposed new regulation in 2019.
More than 53,000 comments were collected and the rules were updated and finally released in April 2021.
According to the new rules;
- All new drones that will be manufactured AFTER September 2022 will have remote ID capabilities (hardware + software)
- All the drones will begin transmitting Remote ID AFTER September 2023.
Does DJI drones have remote ID?
For now, none of the DJI drones have remote ID that is in compliance with the new FAA regulations released in 2021.
The reason is that the necessary technical details to implement a compatible remote ID module are currently not worked out so none of the drone manufacturers have it on any of their drones.
But according to the rules, all drones manufactured after September 2022 should have hardware capabilities to enable remote ID transmission after September 2023.
But for now, none of the DJI consumer drones have remote ID that is compatible with FAA requirements.
However, some DJI drones have eID capabilities that works with DJI Aeroscope. But don’t confuse this with the FAA remote ID.
What to enter on Dronezone website?
When registering a new drone on FAA DroneZone website, you will be asked if your drone is remote ID compliant.
You can simply choose “No” and continue with your registration. Before September 2023, you are not required provide any remote ID.
However, some people have been trying to enter the drone serial number without any success. The drone serial number is not the remote ID serial number.
You can also add manufacturer ID “1581E” before the drone S/N and enter that as remote ID serial number and the FAA DroneZone site will accept it.
However, that is really not needed and you can just select “No” and move on with the registration process.
When will DJI add remote IDs to its drones?
When the FAA released the new regulations in April 2021, the agency gave drone manufacturers adequate time to make sure their new products are in compliance with the just-released regulations.
The timeline is as follows:
- All new drones that will be manufacturered AFTER September 2022 will have remote ID.
- All the drones will begin transmitting Remote ID AFTER September 2023.
Apart from that, all drones that weigh less than 0.55lb (250 grams) don’t have to have a remote ID at all.
So, you can fly your Mavic Mini, DJI Mini 2 and Mini 3 Pro without remote ID even after the rules go into effect.
However, the EU is famous for more stringent regulations when it comes to safety and they are currently in the process of updating their commercial drone rules.
In such a scenario, if any specific major country mandated the DJI to put remote ID hardware in all their drones, the DJI Mini series drones will also have to be updated. This can be done in two ways:
- DJI can release a new version of Mini drones with remote IDs included.
- DJI can release a small separate remote ID module that you can attach to your existing drone (more likely)