DJI Matrice 30 Series Enterprise Drone Announced – Compact & Weatherproof with 4 Cameras and Laser Rangefinder

The new DJI Matrice 30 series enterprise drone is a weather-proof, relatively portable UAV that offers a 48 MP stabilized camera with up to 200x hybrid zoom, thermal imaging camera, laser rangefinder, and a low-light optimized FPV camera. It comes with a new rugged DJI RC Plus controller and with a pair of the TB30 batteries, it can fly up to 41 minutes. On top of that, an optional DJI Dock will be able to automatically operate up to 7km away and charge the drone quickly when needed. The Matrice 30 series enterprise drone will sell from $9,999 on.

On top of the consumer/prosumer Mavic series and the cine Inspire series, the Chinese tech giant DJI has been offering different drones for other types of customers, in the so-called enterprise series. You might remember the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced drone, for instance. One of the largest series of drones in DJI’s portfolio is the Matrice series. The company has now announced a new DJI Matrice 30 enterprise series, that kind of blends in between the Mavic and older Matrice drones, but brings some impressive specs and features. Let’s take a look at the details.

DJI Matrice 30 series enterprise drone

The DJI Matrice 30 drone will come in two versions – the M30 and M30T. The only difference is that the M30T also includes a thermal imaging camera. Unlike the older DJI Matrice drones, the new 30 series is much more compact and features a foldable design, much like the Mavic series. Even though the Matrice 30 is still much larger than any drone from the Mavic series, it can now be fitted in a decently-sized backpack and is easily taken to remote places if needed. The use cases for this drone range from equipment inspection to seek-and-rescue types of missions.

The takeoff weight (including two batteries) is around 3770g and the maximum takeoff weight is 4000g, so the drone can also carry an additional payload when needed. DJI says that the maximum hover time is 36 minutes and the maximum flight time is 41 minutes. Interestingly, the DJI Matrice 30 series drone has an ingress protection rating of IP55, meaning it can also fly in heavy rain and other challenging weather conditions. The maximum wind resistance is up to 15 m/s (12 m/s during takeoff and landing).

The operating temperature of the drone is between -20° and 50° C (-4° to 122° F). The TB30 intelligent flight battery offers a 5880 mAh capacity at 26.1V. It is a 6S LiPo battery with an automatic self-heating function.

The Matrice 30 series drone has a new 3-axis stabilized camera head that includes multiple cameras:

• Wide Camera – 24mm equivalent focal length, 84° DFOV, 12 MP 1/2″ CMOS sensor. It can record video in 4K 30fps.
• Zoom Camera – 5x-16x optical zoom and 200x max. hybrid zoom, 48 MP 1/2” CMOS sensor. This camera can record 4K 30fps video and take photos in up to 8K resolution.
• Thermal Imaging Camera (M30T only) – 40mm equivalent focal length, resolution: 640×512, frame rate: 30fps, measurement accuracy: ±2°C or ±2%
• Laser Rangefinder – range: 3m – 1200m, accuracy: ±(0.2m+D×0.15%)

The drone also includes an FPV camera (1920×1080) on the body that is optimized for low-light conditions, so the pilot can clearly see the ground and skyline, even when flying at night. On top of that, the drone has a handful of sensors on each side.

DJI RC Plus controller

The DJI RC Plus controller of the new Matrice 30 series is much more robust than any other controller for DJI’s consumer drones. It is rugged and water- and dustproof (IP54 certified), and it includes a 7-inch touchscreen (1920×1200 with 1200 nits) with a handful of physical buttons on top of the two sticks. The buttons and sticks are designed so that they can comfortably be operated even with gloves on, because the whole system can be operated in cold environments, too. The operating temperature range is again from -20°C to 50°C.

There are four OcuSync 3 Enterprise antennas built into the controller for a maximum range with a stable video feed. On top of the battery pack, the controller also has two internal batteries that provide hot-swap functionality for the battery pack. In total, with one battery (plus the fully charged internal batteries) the controller can operate for up to 6 hours.

DJI Pilot 2 and FlightHub 2

DJI Pilot 2 is the new enterprise interface of the controller. The company says it offers improved safety, efficiency, and ergonomics. Users can access all controls with one tap, customize the physical buttons on the controller, create pre-flight checklists, and more.

DJI FlightHub 2 software offers a 2.5D base map for quick terrain awareness, one-tap panorama sync for rapid site overviews, and cloud mapping for fast mapping in RGB or infrared. Other functions of the FlightHub 2 include live annotations, team communication, mission live streaming, and more.

DJI Dock

Another interesting piece of equipment that can work together with the new Matrice 30 series drones is the DJI Dock. It is basically a large rugged cube that can act as a charging hangar for the drone. The Dock can perform automatic inspection flights with a range radius of up to 7km. It is IP55 resistant and can operate in temperatures ranging from -35°C to 50°C. When the drone lands on the DJI Dock, it can charge it automatically from 10-90% in just 25 minutes, according to DJI.

User data security

Because of the nature of the drone and its possible use cases, DJI seems to take data security seriously with this one. With the Matrice 30 series and the RC Plus controller, the company offers a local data mode, one-tap to clear all device data, SD card AES encryption, AES-256 video transmission encryption, and cloud API.

Price and Availability

It seems like DJI Matrice 30 series drones can be pre-ordered now, directly from DJI. The company will offer both drone versions (M30 and M30T) in the so-called Core Package. In that package, the drone will come with the DJI RC Plus controller, two TB30 intelligent flight batteries, one BS30 intelligent battery station, and the aircraft storage case. According to DJI, the price for the M30 package will be $9,999+ and the price for the M30T package will be $13,999+. The price or availability of the DJI Dock has not been announced yet.

What do you think about the new DJI Matrice 30 series drones? Would you like to see some of their features in the consumer drone series as well? Did you use one of the older DJI enterprise drones? Let us know in the comment section underneath the article.