Betaflight GPS and GPS Rescue - everything that you have to know

Support my work / pawelspychalski
Learn how to connect your GPS module to Betaflight and configure GPS Rescue for a safe return in case of a lost signal. In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the steps to install the GPS module, set up the UART port, and configure the Betaflight settings for GPS Rescue. By the end of this video, you'll have the confidence to fly your drone with the peace of mind that GPS Rescue has got you covered.
12 NEW things you should know about Betaflight • 12 NEW things you shou...
Steps:
1 - Install GPS module to your drone
2 - Connect GPS to a UART port on your flight controller
3 - Configure the UART port for GPS use in Betaflight Configurator
4 - Set up GPS Rescue in the Betaflight Configuration tab
Note: Before attempting to install and configure your GPS, please ensure that your drone is properly built and functioning. Also, be sure to consult the Betaflight manual and the GPS module's manual for specific instructions and troubleshooting tips.
Recommended GPS receivers
Matek M10-5883 bit.ly/3LuvXPB
Matek M8Q-5883 bit.ly/3ZVtPEd
Beitian BN880 bit.ly/348jk3D
Beitian BN180 bit.ly/3wc70gY
0:00 Why GPS is useful
0:55 UBLOX 6M, M8, M9 and M10 modules
2:40 With or without magnetometer?
5:33 The best place on your FPV drone to install the GPS receiver
7:05 Flat or tilted?
7:52 GPS wiring
8:18 Betaflight setup
9:19 NMEA versus UBLOX - one of them is bad
10:32 Autobaud and Autoconfig
11:40 Set Home Point Once
12:35 Ground Assistance Type
13:01 OK, does it work?
14:46 The Betaflight Configurator GPS tab
15:34 Failsafe and GPS Rescue mode
17:27 GPS Rescue as a flight mode
17:50 GPS on your Betaflight OSD
18:14 Outro

[@FPVUniversity]

12 NEW things you should know about Betaflight kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmqUooWNerN1nqM

[@BODALLY]

Hi mate my gps cable is to short can I just extend it ?

[@FPVUniversity]

​@@BODALLY yes, of course you can

[@x8n1720]

I turn "Allow Arming Without Satellite Fix" on, because I can fly my first pack without waiting or overheating the VTX in proximity with no worry. When I make a longer fly or in "danger" areas with a possible failsafe, I certainly have to wait for the ready beep. At the 2nd pack the GNSS commonly has a fix in seconds, so it's faster than my DJI-VTX to get ready.

[@Timothyboland1995]

Great, been testing this for the past week! great to see your setup and config!

[@Sek101]

Pawel, some settings should be set in the channel fallback section on the left when using Rescue also: Users should have level/angle mode set to an aux in their modes tab, and have the value set in channel fallback (should it be renamed to Stage 1? Probably!) to engage it. Also, the throttle value should be set to a good hover/slight climb value, or to 'Hold', this way in real failsafe, the transition to Rescue will be seamless. Otherwise there would be a brief cut in motors which is not ideal! Room for improvement in the feature does exist!

[@john_h9281]

You made a really good point here about changing the Stage 1 Failsafe parameters.. “Mads Tech” Ian covered this point in his last Sundays YT Live Stream 👍

[@Sek101]

One thing to add: Allow arming without fix... This does exactly as it says, but if you DO have a fix before arming, the Rescue will be available and work normally.

[@nextlevel_fpv]

I just set up my first gps yesterday on a 7” and I did this exact thing. It makes a lot of sense for the drone to go into angle mode in the case of a failsafe before gps rescue is activated. All my quads without GPS have angle mode on a switch in case of lost video too

[@petrokey]

Thanks so much for pointing to wires and i2c. It was really not obvious!

[@Estuardo305]

Subscribed! 1st glass video information on Gps, Just what I needed.

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic, Pawel! Thanks a bunch for the tutorial! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@FPVUniversity]

Thanks, will do!

[@JohnCuppi]

Fantastic video! I feel fully informed now on GPS Rescue for BF 4.4, there was no video exactly like this until now. I can't believe how much reliability and faster of a lock I was missing out by not using UBLOX vs. NMEA. But... that's how it was configured on my Flywoo Explorer LR V2 with BF 4.1 out of the box. I simply didn't know any better. 🤷‍♂

[@marinehm]

Excellent information!

[@paulbizard3493]

Instructive video, thanks.

[@FPVUniversity]

My pleasure

[@fubar-fpv8354]

Love your work man !!

[@FPVUniversity]

Thank you

[@DiraPictures]

Man this has to be said: Your accent sounds really cool.

[@padcom]

What a coincidence! I was just researching parts for my new lineup of drones and was just picking a GPS unit. Went with the M10 with 5883, will see if the aircraft will be wondering a lot.

[@mateuszjasek]

I'm using m8 module without connecting magnetometer. Return to home is working great on betaflight 4.4

[@maddercat]

for the fly without gps fix thing, when you want to take off, you might not have a fix, but once you get airborne you might get enough satellites, especially if you're in a new area. I got super mad at it not arming cause it took it like 5-10 minutes to get enough satellites before it would arm, when I could have been flying during that time and given it more of a chance in the air to find more satellites as well. Also if you have it set and you're working on it inside with the props off, and testing motors or something or testing it wont arm which blows.

[@BendApparatus]

Correct me if I'm wrong but in GPS camera drones (as DJI) forcing an armed and takeoff without satellite lock and expecting locks in midair causes a definitive flyaway. Is this not the case with FPV drones?

[@maddercat]

@@BendApparatus no, it'll just first failsafe to position 1, whatever you have that set as for a while, and then it'll fall out of the sky I believe if you lose signal. That's my understanding, but it'd never just flyaway, especially if you're still in control. This stuff is just for failsafe or if you lose control remember, it's not actually got anything to do with control under normal flight conditions. Long range quads that most people would be using return to home like this on, usually it takes several miles of flying before you could possibly failsafe them. It also won't failsafe or return to home within I think it's 60 meters of its launch point as I understand that as well.

[@BendApparatus]

@@maddercat ah ok.

[@pfeerick]

Another aspect to this is flying indoors... one of my smaller quads with GPS is also fun to fly indoors... where the GPS don't work! 🤣 That same quad will overheat while waiting for satelite lock, so I fly it for a few minutes, then bring it back once it has enough satelites for a fix. But I agree, the default should be not to allow that - require the user to think it through.

[@MoppelMat]

BF as magnetometer support. you can disable it if you want or need, but its there and it works.

[@jojo42069]

17:17 I turn this on for flights I know I just want to fly near and know I don't need a fix (Sometimes I also am struggling to get a fix or it takes too long). Rescue works once you wait for a fix and then arm. So it does make sense to turn this on. But you're right...By forcing you to establish a fix, the probability is higher for rescue to work. Because everything stands or falls with a fix.

And also what if you fly with GPS locked and you fly into a building and loose radio signal. It will fly to maximum height ...so into the ceiling and dig itself out. :D (More probably it will loose GPS and then disarm i gues?) Same with flying in a forest. I don't want GPS rescue in a forest, but position and home position is really useful there. Actually i was looking for an option to disable gps rescue for a flight when i don't want it. With this I could simply arm quickly before a lock... but it's a bit lame method. Is there a switch option to disable it completely?

[@jojo42069]

@ Yes sanity checks will prevent that

[@jojo42069]

@ In the Failsafe tab just untick GPS rescue as the method and choose either drop or land. Save and reboot

@@jojo42069 Yes, but i don't carry my laptop when i go to fly. Actually i plug my drone to my laptop about 1 time per year for Betaflight update. :D

[@CesarGomes1978]

Hi Pawel. Have you ever heard about BSGNSS GNSS modules? Any thoughts about them?

[@emptyqrider]

Which video of yours recommends for full inav build & including if possible trx setup ? Going to use speedy bee f7 FC .. thanks for any advice buddy

[@ercancinar6967]

You are amazing, keep going (:

[@FPVUniversity]

Thank you so much!!

[@icp-trek]

I've seen several tutorials about setting up GPS on Betaflight. And even if I know or think I know, I just have to listen to what Pawel says. Maybe I missed something? Dziękuję.

[@JohnCuppi]

So I'm going to give a reason -- a bad one, but still a reason -- why I have kept "Allow Arming Without Satellite Fix" on. Doing that has allowed me fly higher but stay close while waiting for a fix -- and I get that fix *significantly* quicker in my experience this way, rather than just waiting with it on the ground. My DJI vista also doesn't have to cook while I fly around, really wait to lock in and get that good fix. Previously with my setup on 4.1 set to NMEA it could be slow enough for that very first initial satellite fix... after changing to UBLOX... I find and lock those first sats and more faster, even on the ground, so I will be following your advice. Disabling it now while I remember, just to ensure I don't accidentally take off one day without it. 👍

[@d4r3kg]

17:12 it does, it work when you wait until you get fix and rescue will work!

[@y_i_fly6256]

Very nicely done and informative. Now I have to get back into Betaflight to readjust some settings on my recently installed GPS module. Do have one question. Does the arrow on the GPS module supposed to be facing towards the front of the quad or does the orientation of the flight controller override the direction? If so, really need to know how to reverse that polarity in the CLI to get it set in the right direction.

[@senseisecurityschool9337]

If you're using Betaflight it doesn't matter which direction the GPS points. GPS by itself doesn't know or care which direction it's facing. That's the job of the *compass*, which Betaflight GPS Rescue can't use. If you were using Inav, that's different. Inav will use the compass (magnetometer) for much better return to home, position hold, etc. If you're using Inav with a compass, you:s want the compass arrow pointing forward.

[@grzbiet]

so base on your build the vtx antenas have no (or small) effect on gnss, nice to know, it was bothering me for some time. thanks!

[@FPVUniversity]

Antenna itself should not interfere with GNSS signal. But VTX can as it can put a lot of RF noise from electronics. Still, it's always a good idea to separate them as much as it makes sense

[@fabian9163]

Is it really true, that BF doesn't use MAG? Thought its not necessary but useful. And is there any way besides the "OSD-arrow" to validate if it sends valid data? Maybe Blackbox?

[@bvlosproject]

Can you tell me when RTH should start working? In case of connection problems between TX i RX or when there is a problem between video transmitter googles or may be in both cases?

[@hknight007]

Thank you for this useful video Pawel! May I ask you, whats the difference between M8 and M10? Does M10 get more satellites? I have a couple of M8s installed and I'm thinking if its worth upgrading them to M10s or continue using the M8s 🤔 Thanks! Best regards 👍

[@batcavefpv5007]

Thanks for the video. My GPS lock and sat count is always solid (15-20 sats). However my home arrow is always incorrect. Any ideas of what would cause this? I have a M80 PRO GPS, its mounted on top of my GoPro, copper shielded and grounded wire. I know you say this is not ideal, but with HDZero 1watt on board mounting in the rear I would get no or little GPS lock.

[@marcinterpiowski8624]

Dzięki Paweł. Mam dwa drony z modułami bn-180. Czas najwyższy wymienić je na coś nowszego. Pozdrawiam z okolic Gdyni.

[@user-nz6bd1nm8q]

The man 🎉🎉

[@FPVUniversity]

Thanks 👍

[@propwashTN]

I had many electromagnetic problems with beitian bn220, but with the matek m10 5883 I solved them, thanks to Pawel and thanks to the electromagnetic filters that this m10 GNSS has inside, but to make it work better you need to use u-center 2 and serial usb, set the boudrate to 57600, the default is 9600, and set the rate from 1hz (1000ms) to 5hz (200ms), keep the constellations: GPS, SBAS, GALILEO, GLONASS, and remove since betaflight sees them but unfortunately still doesn't recognize them: BEIDOU, IMES, QZSS. I arrived at this configuration thanks to Oscar Liang's guide and the operation manual of the new u-center2 software, the GNSS is configured correctly for betaflight 4.4, thanks for your videos and greetings from Italy

[@cougman68]

Betaflight needs your help to enable position hold!🤔👍

[@FPVUniversity]

Hm, not sure if I want to help the competition ;)

[@erv5890]

Betaflight does indeed make use of the Magnetometer. It might not be required but it definitely benefits from it when present.

[@Shins_FPV]

Ok Paweł, a antena od crossfirea może być blisko gpsu? Czy i reciver i antena muszą być daleko od GPSa.. drugie pytanie to czy analogowy vtx nadający większą mocą, będzie bardziej przeszkadzał GPS, niż ten który ma mniejszy output power, czy podobnie będą zakłócały prace gpsu? I ostatnie pytanie jeszcze o antenę od vtxa, powinna być jak najdalej o GPSa?

[@artifixprime]

Thanks - setting up a long range quad right now :) I'm going to use Walksnail, but there are a lot of reported GPS peoblems. Some people are report that proximity to the VTX is the problem, but others say it's the antennas. Which do you think, or could it be both? One more please - if GPS rescue kicks in (e.g. with a failsafe), will it disable when the RC link comes back, or do you need to do something to disable it?

[@shedstuff8524]

i use Walksnail at 1200mw with GPS RTH (inav) and never have any issues not getting around 30 sats locked ,, but my M10 is 17cm away from the Air unit and 12cm away from the tip of the antennas so i say proximity is 100% the issue

[@BendApparatus]

Also I believe in the case of of RC link regained. It will remain in GPS rescue mode unless any input from the gimbals is initiated above 30% (this may be adjustable so check)

[@kayuen6656]

thanks for the video, what happens if i'm flying acro mode upside down and rescue mode kicks in. will the drone flip the correct way and make its way back to the home point please?

[@FPVUniversity]

Yes it will

[@marccretten]

Where do you set GNSS direction? Arrow forward or arrow facing to the rear? NAV/BetaFLight: compass Arrow forward, set CW 270° Flip when flight controller arrow is facing forward. INAV/BetaFLight: compass Arrow backward, set CW 90° Flip when flight controller arrow is facing forward.?

[@trebor1477]

Allso try to power GPS from 3.3V in this case you can power it ower USB port. This is good to not overheat the VTX

[@user-ij1bi4zb4g]

hello! i have a question about the gps navigation in betaflight. do you think i could plan a mission with waypoints using betaflight in FPV with QGroundControl? i considered using ardupilot but then i would have to buy another flight controller.

[@FPVUniversity]

No you can not. Use INAV instead, has everything you need

[@calmarcalmar]

17:00 why having 'allow arming without fix'? because you may want to make only short flights, where no such thing is needed - most of the time?

[@buddyadkins2432]

What if you get the 3D Fix Green light, but no satellites are listed?

[@christopherconkright1317]

How do you track your drone gps? is there an app

[@salve_rex9256]

@Pawel: connect GPS to 3.3V for power on with USB cable?

[@FPVUniversity]

I would not do it. It's the LDO that powers CPU and usually does not have too much margin.

[@wiechman4648]

Pawel sir, I am having the issue of just one TX and RX pad short, I was wondering if softserial can be done with this board, Omnibus F4 V3, I have Motor pads 5 and 6 available, Can they be turned into RX / TX ? wondering if you had a video on that, IF IT IS possible. I cant buy a new board right now, I am trying to hook my vista unit up to get OSD in goggles, BUT I am not using the DJI controller, I left a R9 Mini receiver in, BUT IF I hook up the vista to use with the DJI controller and take out the R9 Mini everything should work, BUT I think I might have less range with the DJI Radio. Your thought's? I Have my Gps on TX3-RX3 then SCL / SDA - My RX mini to sbus, I have the GPS and everything working good right now, I hate to go in and screw anything up. Thank you very much.

[@NaorFPV]

did you test this receivers GOKU GM10 Pro V3 GPS with or without compass. or nano version.

[@Tonynux]

...and Nameless micro receiver.

[@mishka_medvedb]

Hi, but can I tell you in detail about inav settings for 7-inch drones!??? Thanks

[@FPVUniversity]

Together with INAV 6. So still a few weeks

[@keithbribac]

With allowing arming without fix set to on but still had 8 or more satellites before taking off, will gps rescue still work?

[@treesifpv3848]

Yes, once the minimum satellites is reached, a home point will be set when armed, and GPS rescue works as before.

[@deice3]

Is it possible to choose whether failsafe procedure is drop / gps rescue easily (e.g. with controller switch?). I feel it is highly location dependent whether you want GPS rescue or not, so making the choice before flying seems useful.

[@FPVUniversity]

No, it's not possible

[@tymoteuszkazubski2755]

You can do that in ArduPilot using lua scripting.

[@Sek101]

You can change failsafe procedure in the OSD menu, along with all of the more advanced GPS Rescue settings such as heights, speeds, distances and the Rescue PID settings.

[@FPVUniversity]

This does not count as "simple" or "easy". Preferably with a switch during flight. You can do it also by conecting to your laptop, but still, not easy

[@treesifpv3848]

One option is to set minimum GPS rescue distance to something large like 800m. Then if you're flying nearby (bando, trees, etc) the quad will drop, beyond 800m GPS rescue will work.

[@1e0_oki]

Thanks for the videos but can a drone fly without GPS?

[@FPVUniversity]

Of course is can

[@misturarica7519]

From my experience, if you choose to be able to arm without Satellite lock it will only be available if you wait for the sats. If you arm and start flying before that you will get a warning that RTH is not available, but if you do wait, it will work. This is important for when you want to fly fast and don't want to wait for GPS to lock.

[@dax4812]

I cant get gps rescue to light up yellow in betaflight. How can I fix this? The switches are working, it flips and gets into the set range, but it stays gray. I get satelite fix and location is correct. Cant get gps to work on a switch. (Tried different switch, same problem)

[@totyrain]

Most of the time i didn´t need the auto land, like when i do freestyle about 30m arround. Thats why y enable "arm without fix".

[@Marcin0Sm]

Cześć, ekranowaleś kiedyś przewód od gps ?, podobno bardzo poprawia to skuteczkosc GPS

[@FPVUniversity]

To tak nie działa.... kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoK9nqyXrq6lppo

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

Yea some areas where I live drone gets pulled a certain direction when near there. I've had return to home go around buildings then come back to me from behind me 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@Fleche_FPV]

Doesn't ground assistance allow for better precision? I can't get the glonass. it comes from the glonasse or my m10 matek ???

[@FPVUniversity]

In general yes, but difference is most cases minimal and enabled can cause longer to get the fix

[@Fleche_FPV]

@@FPVUniversity ok, thanks ! And for glonass captation ?

[@user-pc6if9hg8g]

Can I also have this GPS rescue mod in INAV if I only have a bn-220 and a barometer?

[@FPVUniversity]

no, you need magnetometer as well

[@user-pc6if9hg8g]

ok i understand and thank you for your answer

[@jeckfrost9371]

Good afternoonI,use pixhawk4 mini + matek m10-l4-3100 and the mission planner program. Please help, I downloaded the firmware 4.3.2 for pixhawk4 mini. I put all the settings that are in the CAN description. I cannot connect MATEK M10-L4-3100 to pixhawk. I have set up CAN:CAN_D1_PROTOCOL>1 CAN_P1_DRIVER>1 GPS_TYPE>9 NTF_LED_TYPES>231 BRD_SEFETIENABEL>Oh, where did I go wrong or something I haven’t installed yet? help please fix: EKF3 waiting for GPS config data. Tried many options, the result is unchanged.

[@CesiumSalami]

Unless something has changed very recently - I'm relatively certain that BY DEFAULT if a compass/mag is present and enabled BF GPS Rescue will use it for heading. I think it should be disabled by default, but AFAIK, if it's there BF will use it. This leads to a good number of issues if it's not setup properly, which is very easy with BF. There is (or at least used to be) a fallback that disabled the mag in a botched rescue where no progress towards home is made where it would be overridden and only GPS derived heading would be leveraged. In practice I haven't seen that work out too well either though. For BF unless you really know what you're doing (and even in that case) I wouldn't even wire up the mag/compass.

[@GinTonicFPV]

Hi Pawel, I have the Matek M8Q-5883 and I could never got UBLOX to work properly. I see the satellite icon in BF but I observe the following: When I turn off 'Auto Config', the OSD GPS elements disappear but I quickly get a lock (the GPS module flashes which indicates lock). When I turn on 'Auto Config', the OSD GPS elements come back but I'm not able to get a lock. Sometimes I see the coordinates flashing random values but satellites remain at 0. Is there something else that I need to configure in the GPS using U-center?

[@FPVUniversity]

Leave it ON and put it outside. First lock might take even up to 20 minutes on the open field.

[@user-mo4ul5td2p]

no way to setup my GPS m8n on betaflight ( work on ublox pc soft ) set 38400 bds uart 2 auto conf ubloc save and reboot the gps option is diseable after reboot

[@InfinityDrones]

You are mistaken with regards to 'allow arming without a fix'. In my opinion you should have it enabled because if you do have a crash you can at least still turtle. If you're stuck in a tree for example is very useful. If you wait for 6 or more stats an then arm GPS rescue will still work.

[@trebor1477]

I have my GPS arming with no GPS always set to ON. Then I can arm and fly and when I get enough satellites I can land and rearm the quad with enough satellites. In this case GPS rescue is working. So please don't tell something if you did not try it.

[@nucleo1772]

betaflight still have no SCL SDL position hold option?? INAV win for me

[@MacGyverek]

Will be in next release 4.5 (land and poshold)

[@bvlosproject]

"Arme without fix" is very usefull when you flight with gps only from time to time

[@FPVUniversity]

But what's the point if GPS rescue does not work then?

[@bvlosproject]

@@FPVUniversity You can change rescue mode in BF only. So if you are using your drone once for "long range" where GPS is needed and once for freestyle with out GPS ( to minimize demage risk) it is very usefull feacher. Because when you remove GPS it is inpossible to arme the drone.

[@mrstukadoors5641]

Paweł mistrzu czemu nie nagrywasz poradników tez w Polskim języku? Brak czasu chęci czy może jakiś inny powód ? Pozdrawiam

[@FPVUniversity]

Bo doba ma tylko 24 godziny a z youtube w tym hobby nie da się żyć (Bardwell i może jeszcze 2 inne osoby dają radę)

[@AndrzejRoszkowski]

14:55 - what about similar feature in inav?

[@AndrzejRoszkowski]

one with sats :)

[@FPVUniversity]

All nice, but does not give any specific help. So super low priority

[@operadorfpv]

Крутбл 😊

[@TommyTester]

One thing that would be helpful is to develop a list of I2C capable Flight Controllers. Thanks for all you do. I'm going to attempt a scratch build following much of what you have shared.

[@mikeyama7277]

Mine drops like 5 meters before going up, what could be the reason of this? its useless like this.

[@diablo1281]

Not true to be specific. You need to remember and know what frequencies use your GNSS module. It's not 2.4 nor 5+Ghz... just check documentation.... Most of GNSS use range 1-2GHz with different modulation. But love your style of narrating :*

[@Tonynux]

Beitian BN-180 is recommended, and BN-220 no! Why? I have both on 2 different quads, and I think the 220 is better.

[@flipfpv4539]

Thanks Pawel love this feature but concerned about the overshoot before the quad turns round I think BF4.3 flight characteristics were better ie.. instant 180 turn once GPS rescue was activated and no bobbing up and down on the way back Love the landing thing though 😊👍 kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5vGnXqLfcxsfLs

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

Think one of my gps is nmea only 🤔

[@FPVUniversity]

I think it's time to get a better one.

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

@PawelSpychalski think so. I'm go look at it. Maybe I changed it already haha

[@MrfB-br6yh]

Because betaflight doesn't has altitude hold I hate it I love inav incredibly

[@PowerThumb.]

First! 👆🏻

[@MCsCreations]

Firstn't!

[@samsegars8047]

I think I mounted my gps in maybe the worst location then.

[@josephsantacruz5957]

R r

[@ImperialArmour]

SANITY CHECKS OFF This is a stupid feature where if even 1 of the various conditions are not met, the drone falls out of the sky. Have you seen a flyaway? it's basically just flying in the wrong direction VERY SLOWLY, ample time for you to rearrange your control link.

[@pedro449]

Pawl, why you try so hard to talk bro, take it easy.