[sidbarabari]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

That's good info. I have seen some bloggers custom building their own drones. Do you have any link where to buy relevant parts and get info?

Sure. Most of them are supposedly made of Carbon fiber. We work on Carbon fiber a lot and I can see that they aren't of good quality but they do get the work done with fpv systems. The loss in worst case scenario would be 4/5k considering the fact that you have the controller/tablet in your hands and the drone itself can be rebuilt easily. Water damage is an other issue.

Also considering the fact that we lot travel a lot around hills and we don't use auto mode because of fact that we don't know the terrain much, manual helps here and is more powerful, doesn't fail around strong winds etc.

Drawback - we don't have a return to home function unless we upgrade to a better FC(flight controller) which one itself would be costly but worth it to play around.

It's also a good trainer drone for manual setup. We make some inhouse for testing. Search for racing drones on Google or Rc-hyderabad/Rc-mumbai but they do sell base frames most of the time. or just reach us at Exodrone systems, Hyderabad (exosl(dot)com). Would be happy to help with the info or even the whole setup.

Originally Posted by Nitish.arnold

P.P.S. If you want to check out my work with DJI, a few reels are uploaded on my Instagram account, go have a look.

Interesting. Cars and drones at the same place.

Yesterday, after reading this post, I asked my team to design the cheapest system possible at the lowest price with bare minimum sensors. Looks like our team has designed and had started 3D printing the whole setup last night.

Some of our first systems are in use in an government organisation for testing and i guess if things go well, I will register this as a personal system for traveling and photography. I had a dream to put on a flare for SOS once. Let's see if I can play with it

[sidbarabari]

Update: got some changes done to the design, size is similar to phantom 3/4, have manual, autonomous and all modes of flight with GPS and return to home capabilities.

[sachinayak]

Originally Posted by Rahul Lal

As far as 'there is no way they can be prove whether it is brought from outside or you are taking back to India’ pl be informed that any item which a passenger is carrying with him at the time of leaving India & intends to bring it back, then he has to inform customs at the time of departure and obtain a export certificate (which mentions all the details of the item including its s.no. etc) So on arrival if you insist that that Drone was originally carried from India & you are taking it back then Customs will ask for this export certificate.

FYI - Customs will not register a drone when you are carrying it out of India as it is a restricted item and you are not allowed to carry it (out of India or into India). So getting an export certificate from customs is technically not an option. Puts drone owners who bought their drones prior to the ban in a quandry.

[Nitish.arnold]

Originally Posted by sidbarabari

Update: got some changes done to the design, size is similar to phantom 3/4, have manual, autonomous and all modes of flight with GPS and return to home capabilities.

I will be more than happy to test it for any bugs!

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

You can also consider Avata for a bit more to get in FPV action. If your friend is a Dubai resident, he can save around 5-10% more by shopping in Individual stores like the ones in Meena Bazar and paying in cash.

Got the DJI AVATA

[sidbarabari]

Originally Posted by Nitish.arnold

I will be more than happy to test it for any bugs!

That's great. I will keep it in mind. I would be happy to hear that Indian made drones are competitive too.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by Nitish.arnold

Got the DJI AVATA

Great news Do share your all the details of the purchase along with first flight video.

[mail2sekh]

Originally Posted by a_chelat

Anyway I have decided to go ahead with the purchase; waiting only to see if I can get better deals during Black Friday/Cyber Monday. I will keep you all posted.

Hi , were you able to get the mini 3 in? Am in exactly the same boat as you and was keenly monitoring the cyber monday deals. DJI store stuck to $909 with a carry case thrown in during the offer period. Adorama had/has? some better deals with the fly more kit. I have friends flying in mid Dec from the US and Dubai.

Dubai also shows some offers - https://www.amazon.ae/dp/B09WDBDGBZ?...1M5ZSND019E8FV

However reading through the entries here , it appears to be a hit and miss at customs even for a Nano drone even for personal use as well. That's a real bummer. The grey market is thriving for sure. I am hearing a quote of 1.2L for the Mini 3 pro with the fly more kit in Bangalore. That's a cool 25K margin.I wonder how much of a "Make in India" happened for drones in the last 9 months since the import ban came into effect in Feb-22. Assume that is the intent of the ban ? Would be happy to buy if a comparable product existed in India.

Until then thank him - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wang for opening up a world of possibilities :-)

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by mail2sekh

Hi , were you able to get the mini 3 in? Am in exactly the same boat as you and was keenly monitoring the cyber monday deals. DJI store stuck to $909 with a carry case thrown in during the offer period. Adorama had/has? some better deals with the fly more kit. I have friends flying in mid Dec from the US and Dubai.

Dubai also shows some offers - https://www.amazon.ae/dp/B09WDBDGBZ?...1M5ZSND019E8FV

However reading through the entries here , it appears to be a hit and miss at customs even for a Nano drone even for personal use as well. That's a real bummer. The grey market is thriving for sure. I am hearing a quote of 1.2L for the Mini 3 pro with the fly more kit in Bangalore. That's a cool 25K margin.I wonder how much of a "Make in India" happened for drones in the last 9 months since the import ban came into effect in Feb-22. Assume that is the intent of the ban ? Would be happy to buy if a comparable product existed in India.

Until then thank him - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wang for opening up a world of possibilities :-)

Now you are having an option to get the newly launched Mini 3 vs Mini 3 Pro and save $. Don't worry too much about customs, some people make a living importing stuffs from abroad and selling them at grey market and you are scared to bring a $1000 drone. Consider Avata as well, the experience is truly amaing.

https://youtu.be/W7jtv2DlGs0

[Venkygupta]

Hello, I am planning to get the DJI mini 3 Pro RC with the Fly more kit. I too have friends coming from Dubai in April and its showing around 3600+1000 AED with the Fly more plus kit. Here I am getting a quote of around 1.05-1.20 lakhs. Can anyone recommend me a trusted reseller in India or do you think I should get it from Dubai?

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by Venkygupta

Hello, I am planning to get the DJI mini 3 Pro RC with the Fly more kit. I too have friends coming from Dubai in April and its showing around 3600+1000 AED with the Fly more plus kit. Here I am getting a quote of around 1.05-1.20 lakhs. Can anyone recommend me a trusted reseller in India or do you think I should get it from Dubai?

I am not paranoid getting electronics from abroad over paying premium to grey market resellers in India. For DXB you can check the following organized players for updated quotes:

https://www.virginmegastore.ae/en
https://uae.sharafdg.com/
https://www.jumbo.ae/

However some of the best deals can happen at Meena Bazaar with cash payment, provided your friend earns AED and not exchanging it with markup.

[a_chelat]

I owe you all an update on my drone purchase. I got myself a Mini 3 Pro from the US. I did buy a bundle but not the Flymore combo. This was a Costco offer for its members and apart from the drone, the bundle had 2 extra batteries, the DJI charging hub, extra propellers and a 128 GB memory card. I don't remember exactly how much I paid for it because it has been a few months but it was way cheaper than anything I could find in India and also made more sense than the Flymore combo at the time.

Now to address the important question - no, I had no issues with the customs or the airlines. Drone was in the check-in baggage and batteries in the cabin. No questions asked. I even registered it on the DigitalSky website and got a UIN number, just to avoid hassles when I am flying it in India; I will at least have some paperwork to wave around at nosy people/authorities.

[Venkygupta]

Originally Posted by a_chelat

Now to address the important question - no, I had no issues with the customs or the airlines. Drone was in the check-in baggage and batteries in the cabin. .

Hi, can you please tell me if we need to declare the drone on the immigration declaration form or not? I have followed all the remaining above-mentioned steps like the drone is in the Check-in baggage and the batteries and the RC are in the cabin bag. If you have any further advice that would be much appreciated!!

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by Venkygupta

Hi, can you please tell me if we need to declare the drone on the immigration declaration form or not?

If you declare it will be confiscated prolly unless you have proper legal documentation.

Originally Posted by Venkygupta

I have followed all the remaining above-mentioned steps like the drone is in the Check-in baggage and the batteries and the RC are in the cabin bag. If you have any further advice that would be much appreciated!!

That will be enough. Additionally you can do the following:

1: Junk/Fold the packaging and put in different compartment.
2: Register your drone on DigitalSky beforehand, where you get a legal documentation from DGCA.

https://digitalsky.dgca.gov.in/dashboard

[Venkygupta]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

If you declare it will be confiscated prolly unless you have proper legal documentation.

Hey, thank you for the reply. I did not declare it anywhere. I entered India just a couple hours ago. Bought the Mini 3 Pro just as they mentioned above and had absolutely no issues. No screening at immigration as well! Thank you. Will register the drone also.

[Samfromindia]

I have some update which might be of interest to the context of this thread. Bhpian dip27in (hi everyone from Kolkata) bought Mini 3 Pro from Thailand and returned Kolkata few months back. Customs inspected his luggage and found the drone inside camera bag. However no issue happened as its a 250GM drone and documents are not needed for clearing customs for the same. This does not come under import as it was not box packed and classified as personal used drone.

I hope this will clear any confusion among future users planning to shop nano drones at least from abroad

https://tropogo.com/india-guides/dro.../generic-rules