How to Enable DShot Beacon – Using Your Motors as Beepers

Have you ever lost your FPV drone in a field or a dense area? Finding it without a beeper can be a daunting task. Luckily, there’s a nifty feature called DShot Beacon that uses your motors as beepers. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to set up DShot Beacon in Betaflight.

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What is DShot Beacon?

DShot Beacon is a feature that allows your drone’s motors to make a beeping sound just like the startup chant you get when you first plug in the battery. If you don’t have an external beeper installed in your FPV drone, having DShot Beacon setup will make it easier to locate your drone when it’s lost. The setup process is straightforward, but there are a few key steps you need to follow to ensure it works correctly.

Warning: running motor beeper for too long could result in motor overheat, even burns out your motors in extreme cases. Avoid setting beeping volume too high and reduce the beeping frequency to reduce the chance of burnt motors.

Hardware Requirements

Before diving into the setup, ensure your ESCs (Electronic Speed Controllers) support DShot ESC protocol. If they are running the following firmware, they should support DShot Beacon:

• Bluejay
• AM32
• BLHeli_S
• BLHeli_32

If your ESC only support PWM, Oneshot and Multishot but doesn’t support DShot, then DShot Beacon won’t work.

A bit out of topics, if you’ve ever wondered how ESC’s can make sound, they don’t. The sound is actually coming from the motors, which the pitch and volume of the sound is controlled by signal from the ESC. It’s even possible to play a jingle with motors at startup: https://oscarliang.com/blheli-32-custom-startup-tone-music/

Setting Up DShot Beacon

Betaflight Configuration

Connect to Betaflight Configurator: Connect your flight controller to your computer and open Betaflight Configurator.

Select DShot Protocol: Navigate to the Configuration tab. Under “ESC/Motor Features,” select the appropriate DShot protocol depending on what PID Loop Frequency you are running:

• For 2KHz or 1.6KHz, choose DShot150.
• For 4KHz or 3.2KHz, choose DShot300.
• For 8KHz, choose DShot600.

Enable DShot Beacon: Scroll down to the “DShot Beacon Configuration” section. Enable RX_LOST,  RX_SET, or both.

• When RX_SET is enabled, motors will beep when you activate the beeper switch.
• When RX_LOST is enabled, motors will beep when the drone loses radio connection.

When both options are disabled, DShot Beacon is effectively disabled. When the drone is armed, DShot Beacon is disabled.

Choose Beacon Tones: You can select one of the five available beacon tones. Although the sound does not change significantly, having different tones can be useful for differentiation. Note that setting it to 0 will disable motor beeper. I normally pick number 3.

Beeper Configuration: Further down in the Configuration tab, you’ll find “Beeper Configuration.” While you don’t have to change these settings, you can customize them to your preference. A pro tip is to disable the USB beeper if you have an external buzzer to prevent it from beeping every time you connect to Betaflight.

Save and Reboot: After making these changes, click “Save and Reboot.”

Setting Up Beeper Mode

Modes Tab: Go to the Modes tab in Betaflight Configurator. Here, you will set up a switch on your transmitter to activate the beeper mode. If you need help with setting up Modes tab, I have a tutorial here: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-modes/

Disable the option “Hide unused modes” to display all the available modes.

Add Range: Find “Beeper” and click “Add Range.” Assign it to an AUX switch on your transmitter. For example, I use AUX 3 (Channel 7) for Beeper.

Configure Switch Range: Set the switch range for the beeper to the desired position. I prefer setting it at the end of the switch range, ensuring it’s only activated when the switch is fully down.

Save Settings: Click “Save” to apply your settings.

Practical Use Case

Imagine your drone is lost in a bush and you can’t see it. By activating the beeper, the motors beeping will help you locate the drone. For small drones, the beeping might not be very strong because the motors are pretty tiny, in this case, you can also try arming and disarming immediately to make some more noise and movement. Do not arm it for too long if the props are obstructed while armed, you could burn the motors.

Adjusting Beeping Volume and Delay

You can adjust the DShot Beacon volume in the ESC configuration tool, in this example, BLHeliSuite:

• Beacon Strength: how loud you want the motors to sound (default 80, range from 1 to 255); up to 120 are good values IMO. Try different values and check if the motors and ESC would get too hot over a period of time. I don’t recommend setting this too high to prevent motors and ESC overheat.
• Beacon Delay: This is after how long the motors starts to beep when being idle. It’s useful in case you cannot activate beeper from your radio, so the motors start beeping automatically. However it could be annoying when you are just setting up your quad on the bench (default is 10 minutes, I think reducing it to 5 minutes is a good idea).

Note that there is also Beep Strength, which might seem seem relevant but actually it has nothing to do with DShot Beacon. It only controls the volume of the start-up chant, we normally just leave it at the default 40.

Conclusion

Setting up DShot Beacon is a straightforward process that can save you a lot of time and frustration. By following the steps outlined above, you can use your drone’s motors as effective beepers. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced pilot, this feature is a valuable addition to your FPV toolkit.

Edit History

• Jun 2017 – article created
• Jul 2024 – Guide rewritten for Betaflight 4.5