despite the fact they dominate the
consumer videography drone market DJI
continues to innovate at just about
every price point case in point the new
maverick heir to an update to the
popular Mavic air released in 2018 this
quadcopter boasts impressively long
flight times a new 48 megapixel CMOS
sensor a new controller and DG is occu
sync 2.0 and air sense technologies all
for just seven hundred and ninety-nine
dollars it's been a while since we took
a look inside a drone so we're gonna
dismantle this thing to see how it works
and how easy repairs will be but first a
little x-ray imagery from our friends at
creative electron in this x-ray shot
with the battery removed we can see the
wires running every which way and
impressively dense motherboard and
thankfully what looks like a lot of
screws more than anything though x-rays
like this always remind us how intricate
and complex modern technology is now
let's take this thing apart first to go
the quick release low noise folding
props next the battery comes out with
just the push of a button
if only smartphone batteries came out as
easily like some of DG eyes other drones
to Mavic air to has legs that fold in
greatly reducing its footprint for easy
travel the hinge mechanism seemed robust
but the question will be how easy are
the arms to replace should they loosen
or break in a crash the plastic sensor
cover on the bottom of the drone is held
in place by six 1.5 millimeter hex
screws and underneath the cover we can
see the four downward facing sensors to
vision sensors on either side of the LED
and to time-of-flight sensors at the
back of the drone before we get to those
sensors though let's see if we can get
this gimbal out the air - and most other
DJI drones have an exposed gimbal during
flight meaning it could be the first
thing to hit the ground or a tree in a
crash luckily it doesn't seem too hard
to access just one bracket a few screws
and a couple press connect cables then
we can rustle it free
the camera at the end of this gimbal
comprises a half-inch 48 megapixel CMOS
sensor capable of recording 4k video up
to 60 frames per second and a F 2.8 lens
with an equivalent focal length of 24
millimeters giving you about an 84
degree field of view the vision sensors
come out after we disconnect their
cables and underneath them a few screws
hold down the first of two circuit
boards this one with its own cute little
fan and heatsink these drones do an
insane amount of processing Walter in
the air they're constantly taking in and
processing data from their sensors as
well as recording video receiving inputs
from the controller transmitting video
and positioning data back to your
smartphone and driving the motors to
stay in the air all that in mind we're
not surprised to see a beefy thermal
solution like this behind those shields
we find that h6 processor some sk hynix
ram and the eight gigabytes of Samsung
memory that serves as the internal
storage just in case you forget your SD
card rather than dig out the second
board from here we flip things over to
try and remove the upper case we find
some obvious screws in the battery well
and then some less obvious ones too in
the front underneath the front faceplate
- hidden behind some panels and two in
the back and those require a fixed blade
driver so have one of those on hand the
upper case removal reveals another board
which looks to be home to the GPS
hardware this little board is also where
the front facing sensors are attached
remove the sensor then that board can
come out the rear facing obstacle
detection sensor is still hanging on to
the body of our Mavic but remove a
couple screws and it lifts right out a
little more disassembly confirms our
suspicions the motors are soldered to
the last board that remains in the Mavic
solder gives the motors a more efficient
connection to power than a removable
connector would but it's still
unfortunate for some fixers who don't
have a soldering setup at home it's also
a bummer that these wires start fixed on
either end of the legs meaning that
should this drone break a leg in the
crash
build need to resolder the motor cables
just to put a new leg on that said it is
nice that all the motor cables run to
this fairly sparse board instead of the
main board so you don't need to worry
about accidentally ruining some
important silicon while you're replacing
a leg or burnt motor with all the
exciting bits out of our Medicare 2 it's
time to give it to score on the one hand
it's modular construction and liberal
use of screws makes for simple
disassembly gimble replacement is
especially easy the motors are soldered
to their own spacious board making the
most difficult repairs slightly less
daunting on the other hand those motor
wires complicate the otherwise simple
leg replacement procedure and the new
controller mostly disassembled
off-camera was the less straightforward
to disassemble with hidden screws and
glued on battery cell connectors with
all that in mind we're giving the DG I'm
advocare to a six out of ten or repair
abilities give thanks for watching our
maverick air - Tyrone if you liked this
video give it a thumbs up and let us
know in the comments if you want to see
more drone tear downs like this one we
know it's not a drill