GPS rescue has failed me

A video about my experience trying to get a 7" FPV drone to return home while using GPS on my
Betaflight quadcopter.
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[@KristjanB]

This looks to me like a typical toilet bowling effect when using the compass on the GPS. Don't use the compass they are notoriously difficult to get right and can get out of calibration at any time because of magnetic interference. GPS rescue works just fine without the compass.

[@VinydFPV]

Better yet just buy one without a compass. I did and it works fine

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

Yea on my inav I've gone places gotten interference. It went around past me then back 🤣 🤣 🤣

[@taylorowen7558]

I switched my Quads over to KISS Ultra V2 and you just turn on GPS and it works great every time. Yes one button in the GUI and it works!!!!!!

[@big-smoke-rc]

Your videos are great. You can see the effort and care that's gone into them. Thanks for these 🙏🏻

[@Fixed4ever]

Excellent work on the video! I like the way you storyboarded it and executed the video!

[@_REMIE]

Great work on the production my dude! Video, editing, music, voice over on point.

[@Thesafarm]

Like your videos more and more, everytime. Keep on keeping on.

[@sethwalmsley5287]

Came here straight from the podcast. Love it!

[@SYNAPTICFPV]

move the gps away from the vtx antenna, put the gps on one of the arms

[@VinydFPV]

Or you could insulate and the ground your connection wires

[@tehBlackouTT]

facts. i printed a carrier for my gps that extends 10mm further out the back, and even just that little adjustment away from antenna is a huge difference is signal.

[@blessfpv]

Love your videos bro 🛩️🔥💪🏼

[@h2o40fpv]

Great video, thank you .😊

[@PMcDFPV]

Really enjoyed your video man.

[@LilwickedFpv]

Keep up the great work guys 😎👌🏽

[@spartan3299]

INAV, if the compass setup properly can rth nearly as nice as a Mavic. If your running 1W try 500mw, Use a med tall antenna and place the gps in the antenna null zone or at the opposite end of the frame and not on an arm. I place mine flat on the top plate and strap the battery under the frame. After configuring the compass. Orient the facing your computer screen. Zero reset the Z Axis, offset, upper right of screen 1 "Setup" Slowly rotate the quad while facing the screen and note if it moves correctly in all axis roll, pitch, yaw. If not you will have to change the Mag alignment on the Board and sensor alignment tab on the config page. Then repeat the Setup procedure again. I also test with the quad tilted forward as in forward flight and it should move correctly in that angel as well.

[@PopGheorghe]

I have AMAX motors. The thread thing is by design (I assume), at least mine are also like that. So that you can not get past the mount and touch the coils.

[@DanielSingerX]

Great Vid!!! My experience with HDZERO has been similar where it messes with gps signal.. On the very same quad I had analog and everything worked flawlessly both on nav and betaflight.. Installed HDZERO and it was very similar to what happened here. its almost like its getting satellites but the data isn't steady as to where it needs to be. And I'm using the whoop lite vtx so just imagine 1W.. nav return to home is way better always! Just that compass crap is annoying and will cause your drone to turn around like that cause of the magnetic fields from motors and wires on the drone

[@jonleis7762]

Great editing bud

[@noobrescue]

This is honestly hilarious. I have my GPS mounted exactly like that except the 3D mount sits on the fc nuts

[@MrSabram07]

I wish i could fly with my dog but he just goes nuts whenever i ever power up a drone around him

[@John_Doe_6996]

If your dog was to attack your drone, it would be a bloody mess, and stitches… a 5 inch or bigger is a flying quadruple saw blade… I imagine flew mine into my hands once and it turned my hands into a sliced up bloody mess in just a second.

[@ImperialArmour]

Usually for GPS related functionality, Inav is the go to for long range pilots. The swirling comes from the GPS pid tune, and the magneto meter needs to be calibrated to prevent flying backwards.

[@jeffparisse4202]

iNAV also suffers from magnetometer calibration and magnetic interference issues. It is a hardware issue unrelated to FC firmware.

[@ImperialArmour]

@@jeffparisse4202 the way bf 4.4 flies a Gps rescue quad would strike fear into any pilot's heart.

[@jeffparisse4202]

@@ImperialArmour Indeed!

[@lambo_drives]

7:59 priceless- if you don't know, don't worry about it. Thank you Professor Ripper ✌🏻

[@squirrelynutz1]

Hdzero is the cause of losing gps sats. I had to put my gps on the front. Then boom 25 sats

[@CaptainKazi]

These are interesting results, but I haven't tried iNav yet. Looking for the new RTH in BF 4.5. good vid!

[@danieledm0101]

What you experienced with inav that was swinging on yaw axis is due to the fact that you have interference to your gps, bad magnetometer calibration could be too. Anyway i solve these problems moving gps in a higer position compared to the frame and far from the rx antennas.. you have an hardware problem mate I’m sure that once you fix it it will be fine in bf too. Another tip for inav, safe and effective way to test if your gps and magnetometer is calibrated and working well is to test posHold, if that works well you will have high change that the rth is perfectly working too.

[@spookydonkey2195]

Good job with this vid, 10/10 motor review. I struggled with gps and HDZ for ages and finally have 2 Inav builds that seem to be pretty good. I’m guessing you have compass issues now. I ended up with a slightly longer and flat to the frame gps mount in rear, flat is way easier to configure compass. Vtx and antenna up front and shielded. All the sats and flawless returns so far. I still don’t trust it. Damn this comment is too long

[@Pilotkosinus]

When I use GPS rescue, the drone always comes back to me. I have no idea what could be wrong with you.

[@BrandonBeans]

BE 220 GPS ($10) + BF 4.5 Dev + 57600 gps baud + 4khz pidloop + UBLOX auto config = 💯

[@AdventureTherapyUSA]

people on their phone at the park in general are playing pokemon go. You can find them in their cars or walking around looking at their phone as they hunt rare pixels

[@grimripperrr]

hioly shit, that's so funny, I just thought they were shooting up or something.

[@Poedunk-wz4hb]

@@grimripperrr What you've never done some china white while trying to catch a Pikachu?

[@grimripperrr]

@@Poedunk-wz4hb no I have but not in my car

[@whereverimayroam74]

The screw taps don't go completely through to stop you from screwing too far and clipping your motor coils. ?

[@LostCloudx4]

wow sucks. I even use BF4.4.3 (i think) and first try RTH was perfect (just a touch jerky), even lands usually within 6in of take off spot

[@stevewalet4173]

get your compass set properly. I'm pretty sure the compass, was and still, is your issue.

[@bren42069]

Awe doggie 😍

[@ugpfpv361]

yeah something was wrong... interference of bad gps unit. When in betaflight the numbers next to the sat count should be below 1.0, it's the hdop number you can think of it as a trust counter, the lower the better. so even if you have over the number of sats needed if you can't trust that it's stable wait a little longer and if it never gets below 1.0 don't trust gps rescue. Just switching to iNav of another firmware won't help a hardware issue. The other thing that helps once you do get good numbers is to fly in a straight line for the first bit after taking off.

[@MarkusRessel]

Looks to me like neither betaflight nor inav had a great RTH experience, since both should simply fly back to you in a straight line. Betaflight RTH is not super solid yet, but it has saved my ass multiple times already. I have nkt yet tried inav, but looks solid, both have their pros and cons. Use what fits the usecase best.

[@kevinglenister6520]

Would you tell me where you purchased the side mount for your gps or did you make it?

[@grimripperrr]

It’s a rear mount that I got off thingiverse and printed in TPU and pulled it to fit on the side

[@Pilotkosinus]

is it an m8 oder m10 gps modul?

[@lezbriddon]

fimi drones return to home is always in 'drunken sailor' mode....

[@xORLOCKx]

Making me want to break out my LR quad. It's been a year. Maybe I should go lose it.. 🤔

[@phlidd]

He's Joshua Bardwell and you're gonna learn something today

[@VinydFPV]

I went from m8 to m10 chip and it made a world of difference. Actually I never really worked right on the m8. I would get like 7-8 satellites and then lose em. It went back to like 2. So yeah I'm just starting to get this whole GPS thing l think?!?

[@whereverimayroam74]

Just bought a 10. Got tired of sitting endlessly trying to get the 8 to lock 8 sats.

[@VinydFPV]

@whereverimayroam74 big difference huh? The most it ever takes me to lock 8sats is like 5 mins. Most like 2

[@whereverimayroam74]

@@VinydFPV - Sorry, I should have been clearer. I JUST bought it so it's not installed yet. Your comment was music to my ears. I can't wait.The 8 took WAY too long.

[@VinydFPV]

Wait you'll be very surprised my friend. It was like night and day difference. I got lock 1st time in like 2 minutes and I have a 1 watt VTX literally right under it...

[@1337flite]

The screw not going all the way through might be to save people from scewin their screws all the way through and shorting their motors. Hard to tell how many threads you got in (or can go in) on the video.

[@ChrisQuadFPV]

Welcome to the club 😢

[@mattecas3424]

Great video! I have the same issue with HD0 and GPS rescue. I am running betaflight 4.5 RC2 on two drones, one running a cheap vkk 1w analog vtx and the other running a HD0 freestyle v2. After configuring the GPS Rescue settings, I have no issue with the analog drone, but the HD0 one keeps losing satellites and it's simply not reliable enough. Not ideal for a "rescue" feature... I love flying HD0, but it is definitely not polished or refined.

[@grimripperrr]

I’m considering swapping it to analog

[@mattecas3424]

@@grimripperrr Yeah, analog seems to be the only realiable option for long range because: 1. Fuck DJI 2. Walksnail isn't realiable enough and sudden lag can make you lose your drone 3. HD0 just emits too much RF noise over the GPS.

[@Natris111]

2 weeks ago I have tested gps rescue with bf 4.4. It was supposed to go up like 2 meters per second; instead shot up like an arrow to like 100m, then one engine died, and it started spinning; disarmed it, wiring in all engines is burned, with one totally toast, battery toast, but fell into wet ground so vtx and fc look fine. I do not trust gps rescue in bf like at all; I guess it is disarm on loss of signal for me from now on.

[@snviper]

Just get the module far away from the vtx for example onto the front arm. I struggled a lot with GPS and HDZero and that solved it.

[@sleepycbr]

I thought that the gps had to be oriented the same way the fc is.

[@chrisalexthomas]

Hey I'm curious, you've got a hdzero freestyle v2 on the back of this, which btw, I also have the apex evo 7 lr frame, so super cool coincidence. But my question is, you've got two antennas out the back like a V tail configuration. But hdzero freestyle v2 only has only ufl on it. Are you using two video antennas and if so, how are you doing that? Cause I also wanna try it if it helps with video reception, which previously has been a bit shit. Cheers!

[@grimripperrr]

Those are for the elrs diversity receiver, I’m only using the one lumineer antenna on the back

[@chrisalexthomas]

@@grimripperrr oh yeah, I see in one shot you have a grey 3d printed rack on the back with the ELRS antennas on it, and I do see you having one black antenna out the back, but then in another part of the video at 5m09s, you have two huge black antennas. Perhaps it's another drone? I'm also wanting to try long range and I'm constantly getting fucked over by antennas, or maybe I bought a cheap component, or something like that and this time I just went for the good stuff and I'm looking at your, botgrinder, giant ant cowboys videos and trying to figure out where I'm going wrong tbh. I can barely go 500m without shitting my pants cause hdzero is putting sparkles and I know from past experience that means I'm gonna fall out of the sky

[@grimripperrr]

@@chrisalexthomas that’s not mine, that’s someone else’s DJI O3 apex. And also HDzero needs good antennas for it to work really well

[@chrisalexthomas]

@@grimripperrr Do you ever get the feeling sometimes, like iphone(dji) and android(hdzero). You backed hdzero because you love the idea, you love the open source aspect, you love the idea of sticking it up for the little guy who can change the industry. I loved android to begin with, but over the years I got fed up with how slow it was, how shit my phone responded. I bought an iphone se back in 2020 and it was the best phone I ever bought, I still have it and its fast as fuck. I never complain about it. I'm not at the point yet of giving up on hdzero, I still wanna see what their v2 goggles eventually might be, I want to believe they can do it. But after spending more than 1000 euros on equipment and barely being able to go behind a fucking tree without losing video. Like, with a 1w freestyle v2, if I go 500m away and I'm getting sparkles. If I try to push at all, I'm getting sparkles. I'm slowing starting to think twice about it. You ever get those feelings?

[@grimripperrr]

@@chrisalexthomas I flew the O3 for a while, HDZero is better for how I like to fly. The latency of DJI isn’t worth it, just make sure you have a good antenna on your quad that’s away from the drone and good google antenna and you’ll get better penetration

[@CDRaff]

Do you have a compass on your quad? If you do did you calibrate it? iNav is cool without a compass in a plane, but not having one in a drone makes it do wacky shit. Furthermore the only way to correctly calibrate the compass is via the stick commands and away from anything that can cause even minor interference. Like go out in a field carrying the drone and controller alone and hold the drone as far away from the controller as you can while doing the calibration.

[@grimripperrr]

There is a compass and the heading was set in the correct direction. I am going to recalibrate it though and see if that helps.

[@BrandonBeans]

dont use compass on bf pre 4.5 as it has known bugs use 4.5 or turn it off @@grimripperrr

[@DeadCell765]

Digital can't beat an analog system with a ground station when it come to long range

[@ctvxl]

Walksnail can equal analog with the proper ground station setup. Saw a video a few months ago of someone with a pair of very high gain dish antennas and antenna tracker using walksnail RX, and he went out 60km no problem on 25mw! I'm sure HD zero would probably have similar results. I doubt DJI could though. I suspect they have a hard coded limit on range. But yes, long range is easier and cheaper with analog for sure. Analog will likely always be the king of long range.

[@Robocopter_fpv]

0:51 😂😂😂😂😂

[@cinemoriahFPV]

Don't use the magnetometer.

[@grimripperrr]

I didn't with betaflight, you have to with iNav

[@JPspinFPV]

Digital still freaks me out going long range. Does your GPS also have a compass?

[@grimripperrr]

Yeah there’s a compass and I was certain it was calibrated but I’m going to try and recalibrate it

[@JPspinFPV]

@@grimripperrr If you didn't already, try calibrating at the field away from the car n shit. Looks like it was hunting for direction.

[@JPspinFPV]

I will compare the heading in the goggles to a compass on my phone just cuz I don't trust it.

[@MrStevegibb]

Sadly since 4.4 they butchered gps rescue and now it needs a lot of sensors to even work. For example without a barometer 4.4 onwards sometimes gets altitude wrong and tries to correct making your drone drop into obsticles. In 4.3 it was the old gps rescue that worked great even without barometer and magnetometer. I had no idea inav worked bow without a magnetometer but looking at your video a mag would make it much more consistent with its heading.

[@grimripperrr]

It has a magnetometer but I think I need to recalibrate it

[@ugpfpv361]

on 4.5 for me works perfectly just had to change location of my walksnail, comes in and lands by itself... no compass or baro

[@dustinwilson492]

Wow dude that was some weird movement from the quad. Not sure what's up. Had gps rescue save my ass twice now. You've already figured inav now let's build a foamboard wing for long range. Can't lose a quad if it's a plane lol.

[@RoyCruse]

Try ardupilot

[@SyphenHouse]

Well.. your patches, are not patches in the proper sense. Those Mx-Airs are hemispherical. You should swap them out for the X2-Air Mk2 if you are looking for better range.

[@CDRaff]

2:35 All the time dude. It's fucking weird. The park I have been flying at recently is basically closed(they are reseeding the grass and want people off of it for a year..? IDK) and still there are weirdos chilling in their cars staring at me like I'm weird.

[@MountaineerFPV]

Have you ever seen the movie Last Action Hero? Are you the son of the bad guy in that movie, opposite of Arnold? 😂👍👍🇺🇸

[@grimripperrr]

I know the movie, but Idk if I've seen it, but if I have it would have been on television when I was a kid.

[@MountaineerFPV]

@@grimripperrr the axe man

[@SlayTech]

Make sure you have enable angle mode when gps rescue is activated. Common mistake just setting gps rescue and it tries to fly back and land while in acro.

[@tbounds4812]

looks like them motors prevent you from using screws too long and shortin ur shit

[@grimripperrr]

I think that makes sense, but also the actual threading tolerance feels a little tight as well and not just at the end where this would make sense. I am going to double check that though.

[@plop386]

i dont know shit abou that but as it was free i'll just say it seems ok even if i have no clue. at least you say you dont knwo. but so dont say they look good. from where i am you seems ok mate, you dont need to see a doctor for 20 years trust me , i'v been gifted stfff to say that. even if i dont know but u know free stuff

[@IBHiNation]

I assume the people sitting in the cars are smoking weed and or getting head. I shouldn't bother them.

[@airwarorg]

Will flying an FPV quadcopter improve your sim piloting skillz? Probably not.

[@TorontoFPV]

Long range = sadness Like that you investigated those motors anyways. I don't know what I good motor looks like but lets check it out anyways!

[@slappomatthew]

Thats because GPS rescue sucks