Betaflight 4.4 GPS Rescue - Can You Now Trust It ?

Betaflight 4.4 GPS RTH Rescue for FPV and Drone, does it now work
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[@MadRC]

Hi Everyone here are the links to the BF Wiki and video betaflight.com/docs/wiki/archive/GPS-Rescue-v4-4 kzbin.info/www/bejne/q56ul4WFp71jl6c

[@tstrrtstrr745]

Also increase ground speed. On a 5 inch you can easily set it to 20m/s = 72 km/h = 45 mph. The stock setting (5m/s) is too low, that means 2km (1.24 miles) would take 400 seconds = 6 minutes 40 seconds. In an emergency, battery will probably run out before it returns home (if you are into long distance). If you want to improve it further, turn on efficiency in OSD (Wh/km) and fly in different speeds in angle mode and set ground speed according to the speed that gives you the best efficiency in energy per distance (Wh/km). Super slow isn't efficient and ultra fast isn't efficient. The sweet spot is somewhere in between.

[@Dorff_Meister]

After losing a quad to desert scrub, I'm now adding GPS + Rescue to my quads. Thanks for this overview.

[@volkergoe]

Heads up for spreading the information - it would have helped if you had put the home direction arrow and the altitude into your OSD for those tests.

[@FPV-TV419]

For anyone using gps rescue for the first time... its a good idea to be only a few meters off the ground before simulating rx loss. If its not configured right it can drop like a stone. Much safer if its only a few meters off the ground.

[@Sugar_K]

Totally get the other settings right before you put it in a position to drop 100m

[@losien1]

But if you do it too close it will actually drop! You may try it low but you must do it beyond the set minimal distance.

[@FPV-TV419]

@Michal W yea obvs this also

[@user-wz3fz5lq7n]

No sorry man but that’s cost a lot of money it would be drop off hard ! When u do the gps rescue early

[@aadharsh1394]

It just dropped dead from 15 Meter thank God it was some soft land or else it's a different story

[@Sugar_K]

There is a 4.4.1 update to it coming really soon. And it includes a massive improvement to the 42688 gyros

[@moblades1]

Love the support and sportsmanship y’all show each other. This is what FPV is all about. Wish we had this sport when I was in college… yes I’m old 😂

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic video and info, Ian! Thanks a bunch! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@losien1]

@Mads Tech Regarding the drop: you have to first figure out at how much of throttle (in „ms”) your drone hovers or even slightly going upwards, then you need to put that value in the 1st stage of failsafe as a set value in throttle channel (change AUTO to SET and put that value) and the same goes to stage 2 gps rescue into the relevant line.

[@BeautyBeastRC]

How do you figure that out?

[@Inertia888]

Blackbox Explorer, or if you have a screen on your radio, you can set EdgeTx to show throttle position. I filmed my telemetry while I held a hover, and the widget on my radio was a few percent different from what Blackbox showed. I have not tested yet, but I am going to start with Backbox, since that's the data coming directly from the board. Just remember to make any unit conversions if necessary. @@BeautyBeastRC

[@BrainDeadEngineering]

I love what you do for the community ! That landing accuracy is incredible ! My 2 cents is drop is from the sanity check timer . I also test FS by flying away from home , then landing , then lighting up the FS so as you don't free fall and brake stuff if it's a no go .

[@NotOfThisWorld567]

I watched Limon's video and using his setup/advice my quads have returned home every time I've flipped the switch and failsafed. Loving what the devs have done with this!

[@NotOfThisWorld567]

Okay! I finished watching this upload and see you mentioned Limon's (aka Ivan's) GPS tutorial. 😂

[@MrSmithFPV]

@@NotOfThisWorld567 You got a link to this tutorial?

[@NotOfThisWorld567]

@@MrSmithFPV Here you go. I think he's a Betaflight developer but I could be wrong about that. I just know that this video set everything up so I had no issues with GPSRescue. He even talls about a CLI command in this video that let's you know how good your sat link is not just how many sats you have. Like link quality vs rssi. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q56ul4WFp71jl6c

[@ValleyFPV]

Nice video. I prefer to configure the Failsave mode 1 stick settings to HOLD. That way the quad will continue to fly using the last stock positions at LOS for that short mod 1 time period.

[@flipfpv4539]

Thanks Ian great info I feel that the RTH in BF4.3 use to turn first then climb with no bobbing on the return flight BF4.4 climbs very slowly then turns I have experienced an over shoot where the quad kept moving forward climbing slowly… I ended up in a tree during testing Anyway the landing feature is very good and thanks to all the Dev’s involved 😊

[@MountaineerFPV]

Always informational Ian, thank you. Lets goooooooooo 👍👍🔋🔥✈️📻

[@avsaase]

The drop is from the default 1.5 second delay for GPS rescue to kick in. That actually cost me my AOS Falcon 7 because it failsafed low over a pond.

[@BrandonBeans]

Nice work! Definitely link that guide in the description!

[@MountaineerFPV]

Thanks BetaFlight Team

[@namansharma2937]

highly appreciate your effort to make this video soo easy to understand. Really helpful stuff.

[@artifixprime]

Thanks for making this - have two quads I need to configure this on :)

[@baggszilla]

If you set your throttle to Hold instead of Auto it might not drop. Thanks Ian for all you do buddy! Cheers! And yup you mentioned that later in the video! I knew you would figure it out! Lol

[@3dmaxers]

Your landing so smooth ! Mine was jerky like drop 4 meters, then wait 1 sec and another quick drop until hard land

[@pfeerick]

😂 They missed that detail on the release notes... "GPS rescue is no longer a semi controlled crash". Accuracy will be partly determined by the GPS module. Great to see content showcasing the hard work of the Betaflight devs ... 4.4 was yet another great release... stay tuned for 4.5 though... I hear that there are even more good things ahead 😊

[@bulufish8208]

With the prices of quads now a days give me the GPS RESCUE. I WAS waiting for your take on this option..........thank u.

[@turboomni848]

Great stuff as usual and thank you. One question is there a minimum distance you must fly in order for return to home work or else it will just drop? I tried a few years ago and on the maiden try of return to home I apparently did not travel far enough for the RTH to work and the it just shut down the motors.

[@saltlabproductions]

great video mate!

[@benleong2008]

nice video! havent tested it myself yet but can i ask how do you gain back control during a GPS rescue? simply throttle up the stick?

[@madforit9661]

A good video there, well made

[@paulr3556]

This is cool, this means if you far away, you can hit return to home, take goggles off and start packing bag up. Turn goggles and remote off last, just as you see it return and start to descend. Perfect timing. Also I noticed your beeper on for whole time of GPS rescue, what happens if motors set to chirp/beep for Rx loss?(beacon) Can motors chirp as they are flying? Hopefully nothing happens.

[@SteveFPV80]

I'm sure that I've seen somewhere that the RTH is designed land a few meters short of the take off point in the direction it returns. I guess it's to stop it landing on your head.

[@WindjumbieFPV]

Yeah it works perfectly 👍🏼

[@Sugar_K]

Put the alt on your osd and you’ll be able to work out the drop pretty quick

[@rcjarvis]

Great Video Once More... notice between 6:50 and 6:52, what looks like a distant bird disapears in your prop wash, most likely a fly but in the previous seconds it clearly looks like a bird.... Excuse my keen sense of observation!

[@miguelquiroz1550]

Thanks!

[@mikespeedyfpv321]

Epic love it

[@mxracingunlimitedltd7784]

Looks like it works pretty well actually for accuraccy and flying back.. The initial drop when going into failsafe mode might be the 1-2 sec delay to go from stage 1 to stage 2 failsafe which then activates the GPS Rescue feature, or maybe make sure the throttle and other sticks are set to hold for the stage 1 failsafe so it shouldnt drop as much if that is the case. But it just seems to be the reaction time of the drone FC realizing a loss of RX and then activating the failsafe to use the gps to hold position and then begin the RTH. This is a nice feature and i wasnt aware it worked this well until i saw this video. ill have to try and set this up.. When you failsafe it with a switch, can you instantly get control back by flipping the switch off?

[@raikagenu7072]

that drop moment is fallback condition, you should set the Throttle to "HOLD" in Channel Fallback Setting

[@willynilly3d994]

I'm new to 4.4 and honestly I'm not comfortable flying with it yet. I'm lucky I guess because I've always had success with Betaflight GPS rescue in the older Betaflight versions. My questions is my I'm having to set up Angle mode to use the 4.4 GPS rescue? I don't use Angle mode on any of the quads and I have never had to use Angle mode before when I've utilized the older Betaflight versions of GPS rescue. Thank you.

[@paulr3556]

Hiya, I thought old GPS rescue used to return to home, and lets you take over automatically when in receiver range and people not expecting and quad would drop if they not ready on the sticks. This has changed then?

[@erikvf7]

That's very good. I'll try that. One question: If I have a rxloss failsafe behind some rocks, then I set the level 1 to pump the drone up. Am I able to get control of the quad again, canceling the return to home?

[@MadRC]

Yea you can regain control at any time once signal has returned.

[@cinemoriahFPV]

Failsafe mode one should be set to hold and angle. The will prevent the drop.

[@MCFPV-jk9oj]

Saludos desde españa, soy un apasionado de tu contenido, he encontrado un fallo a esta configuración: si te hace failsafe a menos de la distancia configurada para que entre el modo 2 el dron metera el golpe de gas y angle y luego se apagara en el aire. Si esto ocurre haciendo freestyle dentro de un edificio abandonado el dron se golpeara contra el techo. Lo se porque me a pasado en casa y pensaba que tenia mal configurado el return to home. que valor me recomiendas para el acelerador? yo le puse 1500. Un saludo jefe

[@user-nb7fr9kb8j]

Great vid - as always. 👏👏. Just moved from Avata and have set up controller for flight modes etc. I have gps on my Geprc cinelog35 but cannot find failsafe option down the left in betaflight 4.4??

[@user-nb7fr9kb8j]

Just found expert mode

[@fpvbersila4524]

Great video, I set up my gps rescue yest and I'm hvg the same issue that its bobbing when rth like yours, any idea how to rectify this?

[@michaelwilson3946]

As a freestyle pilot, would it self correct in the middle of a roll? Been thinking about adding gps, but not sure on its behavior if you're not flying straight. I don't use angle mode. Would adding angle mode correct if you're upside down? I have only failsafed a few times. I don't like doing the walk of shame more than I have to. Need one of those fancy skateboards or scooters like the cool kids have.

[@olivierviguier9749]

Hello, thanks for this tuto, If I well understood to have your last behaviour we should keep switch failsafe to stage 1 and after it go to stage 2 after 1.5 sec or less if we reduce this value? could you confirm because initialy I have switch fail safe in stage 2 position! Thanks in advance....

[@mattfarr1323]

What are some of the best FCs to run this newest Feature, and how far back in terms of FCs would be able to run it. Also, could you turn off your transmitter completely to test it rather than a mode switch?

[@sakuratears9731]

In my testing, I flied 3km away and activated GPS Rescue and the home arrow is far from “accurate” during the return. It turns left and right constantly and rapidly dips its head up and down. All settings are default except I set the max angle to 45 and hover throttle to the correct value. I have tried to tune it following the guide from 4.4 GPS Rescue github page but it is just too hard for me to understand. It may still because of my settings are not right but tuning it is so much harder than switching to iNav or ardupilot. Yes, I do not need pure performance for a long range quad, and that’s why I’m now working on an ardupilot tune for my 7” Long Range drone.

[@ojsh_]

make sure Angle mode hover doesn't have significant drift - may need to recalibrate accelerometer on very flat surface

[@RookieRay]

what's your favourite GPS Module for a 5 inch freestyle?

[@LehtusBphree2flyFPV]

Maybe manufacturer will take the location of the GPS is located on the drone like the arm or the top above the antenna like yours.

[@olivierviguier9749]

Hello really basic question in stage 1 Throttle value should be set between 1000 to 2000 from the radio setting as it is in stage 2? or in the KV of the motor speed. for me I think it should be like stage 2 between 1000 to 2000, so it's little bit strange you set it to 875????

[@Les_Grossman]

Not much to say about it... I love it 😬

[@n1tr0g34r]

@madrc you didn't mention the most impotant thing: "Remember to set the GPS Rescue Hover throttle value accurately! The correct value makes the quad hover, or very slowly ascend, while in level mode with the heaviest battery you plan to use"

[@rctom1]

4.1 BF is no crash! going home like dog but b4 landing u have to take over. WHAT YOU WHANT DJI exacly ? my 2 cent

[@ryanjones6837]

Im on holiday tomorrow and need to figure this out haha. Ive set it up correctly i believe but my gps icon is not lit up on betaflight. But i see in this video the gps icon is lit here either. So can it still work or do i have to have that top right gps icon shown?

[@user-wz3fz5lq7n]

I don’t know if someone do the same thing i do but every fpv that i build once i send it too far or so i did test it for 100m or above for 5 days which means day one 5 lipos used and same thing in the following day each day i test the gps which means is i increasing the meters how far it can hold up then activate the gps and now I don experience any issues with my all fpv

[@mikes1796]

Thanks for the video, Ian. In Stage 1, how do I determine the correct throttle value? A little punch would be ok, but I'd be happy with it maintaining it's current altitude. How do I figure out the right number?

[@MadRC]

The simplest way is to enable the throttle position on your OSD and look at what your hover value is and then use that in the receiver tab to see what the PWM is. However it’s worth noting an FPV quad is never going to always hover in the same place and throttle position as it will shift with battery voltage.

[@mikes1796]

@@MadRC Thanks Ian, I'll give it a try.

[@AlfieDoug]

Is what you see as a drop just the craft flicking from manual mode to self level angle mode, it appeared to just rapidly level. Oops, I typed this before you explained the reason for the drop. I will be sticking with Inav for now it is fine for my type of flying, Betaflight with baro, compass and gps rth like Inav would be perfect for me.

[@MadRC]

Yea it’s getting there now.

[@jeffthompson7498]

is that the M10 gps unit your using?

[@razorblade7108]

Would love to use 4.4, but compared to 4.3.2 I'm getting much less satellites and it takes longer to get a GPS fix with the Matek M10S GPS. The altitude and speed were completely random in 4.4

[@RC-Flight]

I believe a new version is about to be launched

[@johnwalter6410]

Why are you got your OSD right in the middle of the screen?

[@sten6537]

My drone disarmed itself about 5meters in the air and it fell on the ground instead of a soft touch. Any ideas why?

[@Inertia888]

The error rate on these GPS Antennas claims to be within 1.5meter CEP. This means that at least 50% of the time it was successfully tested to be accurate to a 1.5meter target. This makes me wonder if we might be able to get a more accurate RTH, if we used u-blox's u-Center, to fine-tune the GPS module? Maybe some of the error rate falls in BF, I have no idea, I'm not under the hood of BF. But we can all use u-Center, and this ten~fifteen feet from the launch point seems to be common. I'll give a try for my next build. I'll also be using an H7 flight controller, just in case the processing speed of the board ends up making a difference once I speed up the GPS unit.

[@rhysezfpv]

British accent makes everything sounds like a documentary 😆

[@maddercat]

What's it do if you're inverted?

[@michaeln.8311]

Hello, on the return flight the copter wobbles like a dolphin, what can be the reason for this?

[@MrStevegibb]

Ian is this a Re-up? as this seems the same as your video before on this feature

[@MadRC]

I disused it on a live about a month ago but no other video.

[@rcrahul3657]

How did you get the OSD overlay on the DVR video, anyone can guide?

[@NotOfThisWorld567]

Setting up home direction arrow in OSD is a good "failsafe" to make sure GPS rescue will work properly before you NEED to use it.

[@mikebergman1817]

A++++

[@gus8378]

What backpack is that?

[@Photonees]

Damn, that VTX signal really dropped, is that in "EU" mode?

[@mikediggsv2]

Why is it bopping shaking up and down on rth

[@mikeyama7277]

when I activate gps rescue my quad drops like 5 meets before going up, what could be causing this??

[@MrKeithw124]

it worked once for me. the second time it came back home hovered above me thought about descending then disarmed.. it destroyed my 7 inch quad.. no I dont trust it to do a full landing yet.. my settings were set right. have no clue why it happened.

[@flat-earther]

wow. did you figure it out?

[@MrSmithFPV]

Nice testing. But why so many people say that GPS Rescue was even better on 4.3? Also here on the comments I can read that.

[@MadRC]

To me it’s dramatically better here. It’s now lands and not crash.

[@jeffclassics]

But the pitching back and forth is common problem I've seen. Maybe it's not there in 4.2 coz I remember the fly to home was much smoother then. Now, the pitch oscillation is crazily scary. Pids in gps rescue, why, tuning pid is hassle in itself, now there's another layer of it in gps 4.4?

[@gmivisualsjason3729]

An utterly unnecessary feature for BF...... The previous GPS RTH as an emergency failsafe was more than adequate. Many times it saved me and never failed to catch my drone until the signal returned to me. Just put Inav on for proper RTH..... BF is just getting more and more unnecessarily complicated Many times in life "Less is more"

[@moriwaky]

are you on CE mode on DJI o3? that lost on signal so close is masive

[@MadRC]

Yea I was there.

[@flat-earther]

I can't see what you are doing on betaflight watching on my laptop because every detail is too small. One would need to watch this video on a large screen TV to see what you are doing.

[@smsg83]

What button are you pressing for RTH/GPS Rescue? Is it the gps rescue mode on bf or do you turn off your TX?

[@MadRC]

Yea I was triggering failsafe via a switch.

[@smsg83]

@@MadRC Thanks! I will bind a button on my Tango 2 to Failsafe for testing. Better test would be to turn of the TX, but I am not that brave.

[@russgrgda8198]

How do you trigger failsafe manually?

[@califpv]

It's an option you can set in Modes

[@1stslave143]

You need to adjust failsafe 1 to that have angle and the throttle to hoover value

[@w1llyFPV]

At the beginning let me say I do like your work. In my opinion you have set throttle value to high for 1st stage. It shouldn't go up so quickly as yours. Try to find right value for hovering for this 1,5 sek and than it will go up 10m more than your max height. Best Ragards

[@dronejunkiefpv9556]

Like 27 👍

[@mikediggsv2]

Have you seen the prices of flight controller or just ESC and flight control stacks your better off buying a DJI drone

[@torpedoLaw]

No way cheaper… proprietary batteries alone make it more expensive. I could keep going!

[@vladyslavlesyk5483]

there are stage 1 and stage 2 of failsafe, when stage 1 kicks in you have little time(usually 1-1.5 seconds, depending how this parameter is set) for the signal to recover, if during this time the signal recovers you keep flying with no actual failsafe, if during this time the signal is still lost you move on to stage 2 where failsafe happens and the quad behaves depending on your settings, drop, land or gps rescue. what happens during stage 1 of failsafe you can set in channel fallback settings, I guess you should set throttle to hold if you do not want your quad to fall

[@JeromeGanet]

How is it possible to see the drone going up during Stage 1 with a throttle set to 875 ? range is 1000-2000 and throttle hover is around 1300 ... Strange.

[@MadRC]

It’s not going up at 875

[@JeromeGanet]

@@MadRC Oh ok my bad, on the video I have the feeling the drone was going up fast just after the Failsafe before the GPS rescue mode 2.

[@MrAnatolyvizitiu]

I don't think it was a drop, it look like a normal transition from acro to autolevel

[@adywert]

Read the documentation before talk. Or try LBT

[@deice3]

I feel having failsafe do high throttle punchout is pretty dangerous, unless you're certain its safe in the condition you fly in regularly. Wouldn't recommend it for most people.

[@murrijuana2842]

Yeah, you could hit a bird or a plane or superman.

[@johnwalter6410]

You should never have your magnometer (gps) sitting at an angle.

[@sky-cats]

Short answer - No. You can't. Today almost lost a drone.

[@EnglishTurbines]

Why is it saying RX Loss when clearly you haven't turned your transmitter off?....To test it properly would mean turning your TX off to simulate signal loss....🤔🙄😳🇬🇧

[@dax4812]

You can simulate a rx loss by a switch.

[@EnglishTurbines]

@@dax4812 Yes, and you can make a receiver Fail Safe in a number of different ways too....🤔🙄😏

[@MadRC]

Magic and hope.

[@Sugar_K]

Or pull the module out.. then put it back in 😬

[@PulsionPro]

Who is going to tell mads that its pronounced betaflight, not beetahflight.

[@oldneet]

I think the upper version, the better. My BF4.4.2 on Flywoo Explorer LR4 works good. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJyvloNqeJiqkLc

[@marcdornan1454]

Is 'propper' a pun or just poor spelling?

[@MadRC]

Pure incompetence

[@marcdornan1454]

@@MadRC you are far from that! Just don't give up tech videos and make a full time career of spelling bees!

[@johnrosner8964]

After your drone lands take right back off and try rescue again see how accurate that is

[@GamingwTuNiNi]

@madrc can you please post your gps_rescue_throttle_p gps_rescue_throttle_i gps_rescue_throttle_d gps_rescue_velocity_p gps_rescue_velocity_i gps_rescue_velocity_d gps_rescue_yaw_p