While you’d rarely have any use for the serial number of your Mavic’s flight controller, when you do… it’s almost always urgent. You might also need it to unlock some geographical areas locked by the authorities (though I’d advise against doing that before doing your research. Check out my U.S drone laws to learn more).
There are other reasons for needing the serial number of your DJI flight controller, if you’re the impatient type then I’ll tell you straight up: You can find the serial number of your DJI flight controller in either the DJI Fly app or DJI Go 4 app.
If you’re however someone who likes to dig into things further and needs more details then stick around for the article.
So what’s a DJI flight controller in the first place? Or rather, what’s a flight controller in general?
Put simply, a flight controller is nothing more than a circuit board with electronic chips on them. You can compare them to the motherboard and processor in your laptop.
The flight controller is the brain of a drone. A small box filled with intelligent electronics and software, which monitors and controls everything the drone does. And just like the brains of different organisms, flight controllers also vary in sizes and complexity.
Basically, it’s like a mini computer within the drone that combines control information from the pilot (the commands you give your drone through the remote controller) with sensor information to adjust the thrust at each propeller and fly your DJI drone as desired. It’s responsible for: Flight control, motor control, manual as well as pre-programmed flight.
That pretty much sums it up.
Fair question, what is the serial number of your DJI drone’s flight controller and how is it formatted?
A DJI serial number is a set of 14 characters, made up from a string of letters and numbers. While the average person can’t decode it, DJI drone serial numbers (and those of their components) have information that can allow you to trace your drone from its manufacturer all the way to the end consumer.
An example of a serial number you might find for a DJI flight controller would be: 3N3LEHMI0200MY
Keep in mind that for the sake of avoiding confusion, DJI has made it so that the letter “ O “ is excluded from the possible characters of its serial numbers. So any 0 you find is a zero, not an “O”.
There are three ways to find the S/N of your flight controller.
The actual flight controller
Let’s start with the first place which is the actual FC. Some flight controllers have their serial numbers on them through a sticker, some don’t however. Besides, you probably don’t want to go dismantling your $3000 Mavic drone just to find the serial number of your flight controller.
Which brings us to the next and more popular option…
DJI Go 4 App
There is another way to find your flight controller’s serial number and that’s to go through the DJI Go 4 app.
To find it, follow these steps:
DJI Fly App
If you’ve already activated your drone with the DJI Fly App, you can use that as well to find the S/N of your flight controller.
To find your flight controller’s serial number via the DJI Fly App, follow the follow these 3 simple steps:
You may be wondering why go through all the hassle. After all, you don’t bother to know the serial number of your phone or laptop, why bother noting that of your drone?
The serial number of your DJI Flight Controller is important because With it you can repair, unlock geofencing and do maintenance as well as get access to various other drone services. It’s a good rule of thumb to make sure you write it down or take a picture of it, in case you need it in the future but have no way of accessing it.
Here are the two main reasons you’d need your flight controller’s S/N for…
Repair & Maintenance
Drone accidents happen all the time. And sometimes it might not be your fault and it will be the drone that malfunctioned, and sometimes that malfunction will be due to the flight controller. In which case you’ll need to send it off to the manufacturer for repairs. The problem is if the serial number has been wiped in the crash they’ll have no way of identifying your drone.
So be sure to take a picture of it or write it down somewhere to keep it safe.
Unlocking Geofencing on your drone
That’s right, to unlock Geofencing on your drone, knowing the serial number of your flight controller is crucial. Without it, you simply can’t get around flying restrictions.
You may already be familiar with what Geofencing is, but if you’re not, it’s basically the enforcement of virtual restrictions on drones using a combination of Global Positioning Satellites, WiFi, Radio Frequency Identification, and your drones’ internal software.
Look at it more as a safety measure that restricts access to certain areas. These areas are visible on your drone app which alerts you when you get close to them. I’ve written a more in-depth article about that here which you can check out.
There are two ways to unlock your drone (Custom and Self unlock) and both require you to fill out a form which will ask for the serial number of your flight controller.
I’d say we’re just about done with this article, we covered pretty much all you need to know about the flight controller’s serial number.
Honestly, the main reason why you’d need to be able to know our serial number is to unlock geofencing. Many times the areas aren’t actually restricted in reality and it’s really frustrating not to be able to fly because your drone said so… That and in case your drone malfunctioned and crashed and you had some sort of warranty.
Many things can cause the serial number to get erased off your flight. So to be safe, I recommend you either write it down somewhere or take a picture of it and upload it to the cloud.
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