Most docks spend more time charging than flying. On a site that wants a drone up every time an alarm trips, that charge wait is the gap that matters. DJI Dock 4 closes it with a battery swap, and that changes how you plan a shift around one dock.
The figures below are DJI's, from its 13 October 2026 Dock 4 briefing. We have not timed them on an Australian site yet.
The relaunch is under a minute
When the Matrice 5TD lands, Dock 4 swaps its battery instead of charging it in place. DJI quotes 25 seconds from the cover closing to a fresh battery in the aircraft, and under 45 seconds from touchdown to the next take-off. The aircraft stays powered through the swap, and up to 2 GB of footage offloads over Wi-Fi while it happens.
The dock holds three charged batteries in a four-bay compartment, with one bay kept free for the battery coming off the aircraft. Standby batteries sit at 95%, and two charge at once, 15 to 95% in 27 minutes at 25 °C. In practice, the batteries keep pace with flights that leave the aircraft on the pad for only a minute or two between missions.
Each flight does more work
Each flight is longer too. The Matrice 5TD flies up to 59 minutes, with about 48 minutes of working time per flight. In FlyTo mode it reaches 21 m/s, so a point 3 km from the dock is under three minutes away.
Put the two together and one dock covers a shift as a run of long flights with short gaps, not a flight followed by a long charge. DJI's own case study from a Canadian drone-first-response program makes the same point: more patrol time from one dock.
What a shift looks like
| Job | How Dock 4 runs it |
|---|---|
| Alarm response | An alarm, CAD event or geofence breach triggers a flight. The aircraft is over the point in minutes, and the next flight is ready under a minute after it lands. |
| Scheduled patrol | Routes repeat through the night. Each flight runs about 48 minutes, then the swap, then the next route. |
| Repeat inspection | Panoramas, thermal checks and close zoom on assets at set times, with the same angles each time. |
| Power outage | Compartment batteries become the backup supply, about 4.5 hours each, used one after another. With two or more batteries in the bay the dock can still swap and launch. |
The aircraft does the first look
On a busy night the operator should not have to watch every frame. The Matrice 5TD recognises 17 target types on the aircraft itself, including people and vehicles filtered by colour, smoke and fire, livestock and vehicle types from sedans to excavators. It also flags thermal hot spots. The control room gets an alert with the location, not a raw feed to stare at.
Through FlightHub 2, flight requests, live video and evidence push into the VMS, CAD or SCADA system the site already runs. For a security team the dock becomes one more camera on the wall, one that can move to the alarm.
Speaker, light and a safe stop
The 5TD has three accessory mounting points, one on each side and one on top. The AS2 Speaker goes on the left and handles push-to-talk from the control room. The AL2 Spotlight goes on the right and lights the scene. The AP1 Parachute takes the top. DJI lists the three at 188 g, 115 g and 107 g, plus 40 g for the Accessory Mount: 450 g in total, which takes the aircraft from 2,600 g to its 3,050 g maximum take-off weight.
The flight termination system is built into the airframe and runs separately from the autopilot. It needs at least one 4G SIM. With the AP1 fitted, it stops the motors and opens the canopy, automatically or on command from FlightHub 2.
Where it fits, and what comes first
Dock 4 earns its install on sites that fly many times a day: security perimeters, alarm response, utility and mine sites with repeat checks through a shift, and cold sites down to -40 °C. If the job is one mapping flight a week, a lighter dock or a crewed flight is usually the better spend, and we will say so.
The hardware is the quick part. A dock that launches on alarm is still a remotely piloted operation, and response or patrol work beyond visual line of sight needs CASA approvals in place for your site. We plan that with you alongside the install. The site side, from the O4 Ground Station to the network, is covered in our Dock 4 site planning guide.