GPS Rescue mode in Betaflight is similar to “Return to Home” on a DJI drone. It is meant to help bail you out when your video feed or radio signal gets sketchy, and in failsafe, the quad is supposed to return to you automatically using GPS.
Disclaimer – Rescue mode in Betaflight should be treated as experimental. Do not rely on it and expect to get your quad back every time you lose signal, because you won’t. There have been times it didn’t work properly for me and definitely isn’t as reliable as a DJI drone. It’s good to have as a last resort nonetheless.
Rescue mode is like “return to home”, but in its simplest form. It’s designed to bring your quad close enough to home so you could get your signal back and regain control. It’s a useful feature to have in Betaflight, especially if you fly long range and it could save your drone one day :)
Check out my other Betaflight Tutorials.
Requirements to use GPS Rescue Mode
- Flash your FC to the latest Betaflight (v3.5 or newer)
- Tutorial: Setup a GPS module on your FC
- Enable Accelerometer (it uses Angle mode when flying back home)
This is the GPS module i use, product page – http://bit.ly/2KZcdR7
Barometer is not required, but can be useful. It’s used to calculate the altitude of the quad. If you don’t have this, altitude can be calculated from GPS data, but it’s won’t be as accurate as having a barometer. FC that has barometer built-in: Rush Digital F722, Kakute F7.
Compass is not required in Rescue Mode, direction is estimated from GPS data.
GPS Rescue Mode Configuration
To use GPS Rescue mode, you must have a 3D fix first. You can check this in the Setup page, GPS section.
Settings for GPS Rescue mode are available in the Failsafe page. To edit the settings, you need to select “GPS Rescue” first. But if you are not ready to use Rescue mode as failsafe method, just change it back to Drop after configuration.
You might have to tweak the settings in Betaflight to make it work for your particular setup and environment. Make sure to check out the Betaflight wiki to fully understand what the parameters do: https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/wiki/GPS-rescue-mode
Here are the settings that work for me.
The same settings are also available In CLI, enter get gps_rescue and you will get the list of GPS related parameters. Here I will briefly explain what each parameter means.
set gps_rescue_min_sats = 6
Minimum Satellites – Your quad won’t arm if the GPS has fewer satellites than this value. The recommended number of Sats is 8 for reliable rescue mode. 5 might still work, but it can be sketchy. Expect the quad to become a bit more unstable as it might wander around intermittently during Rescue mode.
Note that if you take off before the GPS sees a good amount of satellites, it won’t know where home exactly is. More satellites means better position accuracy, you can reduce the number of sats but the position accuracy will go down.
You can disable “Allow arming without fix” to allow you to arm without a satellite fix. Beware that GPS rescue will not work for that flight if you arm before getting a fix (because it doesn’t know the home position).
Altitude Mode – it determines the altitude at which the quad returns home.
- Maximum altitude is the highest altitude your quad was flown during flight
- Fixed altitude is just a user defined value
- Current altitude is whatever height that the quad was at when GPS rescue mode was activated
The option depends on your environment. Maximum altitude is probably the safest option, but if you flew way too high in that flight, you could be wasting energy climbing back to that altitude when Rescue mode is activated.
To set “Fixed altitude”, enter number in “Initial altitude”, or enter this command line:
set gps_rescue_initial_alt = 50
Initial Altitude (meters) – at what minimum height the drone returns home relative to the take off point. It should be high enough to avoid trees, buildings and power lines.
set gps_rescue_angle = 35
Angle – It’s in degree. For a smaller quad, you might want to set it to a higher angle than the default 30, in case the quad isn’t strong enough to fight head wind. However if the angle is too steep it might struggle to stay in the air so it really depends on the power of your quad.
You need to enable Accelerometer and need to be calibrated/trimmed properly for this to work accurately. If your ACC is faulty, rescue mode might not work correctly for you. Verify by flying in Angle mode.
set gps_rescue_descent_dist = 200
Descent Distance (meters) – at what distance from home our drone starts to descent. Enter a distance at which you think you would get your signals back reliably.
Ground speed (meters/second) – Note when entering value in GUI, the unit is different than CLI (which is cm/s). This is the speed at which the quad travels back. The default 20m/s is about 70km/h.
set gps_rescue_sanity_checks = RESCUE_SANITY_ON
Sanity Checks – when set to “ON”, it constantly monitors GPS Rescue mode conditions, for example:
- is GPS still connected
- are we getting good number of satellite fix
- are we at least 100 meters away from home? (distance can be changed)
- are we getting closer to the home, and we didn’t hit an obstacle
If any of these conditions are not met, it will abort rescue mode and your quad will just disarm and drop to the ground. So yea, it’s not ideal if you are flying over unrecoverable area like water, but generally, it should be on for safety reasons.
The Betaflight wiki also recommends setting Sanity Checks to “Failsafe Only” if you are having trouble with the option “On” during testing. It turns Sanity Checks off when Rescue mode is activated by a switch but only turns it on when it’s in failsafe. This is my preferred option.
If you decide to turn it off entirely, you should be aware of the risk, such as fly away.
You can change the minimum distance with this command line (range: 50 – 1000)
set gps_rescue_min_dth = 100
When the quad is too close to yourself, the direction estimation might not work well and the quad won’t know which way to go exactly (because it doesn’t use a compass). This is to prevent activating Rescue mode when the quad is too close and endangering yourself by flying your quad accidentally to your face :)
set gps_rescue_throttle_min = 1100
set gps_rescue_throttle_max = 1600
set gps_rescue_throttle_hover = 1250
Throttle (min/max/hover) – these are the min, max and hover points of your throttle value you want to use in rescue mode. Set max to a value so the quad isn’t too fast, set min to keep the props spinning at a reasonable rate, and set hover point to just enough to keep the quad afloat.
Activating GPS Rescue Feature
There are two ways to activate GPS Rescue mode, either by Failsafe, or by a switch on your transmitter.
Go to the Betaflight Modes tab and add a switch/AUX channel for GPS Rescue Mode.
To set it up for failsafe, go to the Failsafe tab in Betaflight Configurator. If you don’t see it, you have to first enable “Expert Mode” (next to Update Firmware button on the top).
Alternatively you can do that in CLI by entering:
set failsafe_procedure = GPS-RESCUE
save
Note that your quad will enter rescue mode if RC signal is lost, and it will go back to acro mode as soon as RC signal is restored. At this point it’s possible that your video signal is still lost and you are flying blind!
Therefore it’s important to assign rescue mode to a switch. When failsafe happens, you should put your switch to rescue mode as well. Only put your switch back to acro mode when you are ready to take over control.
It is nice to be able to set GPS Rescue as your failsafe, but it really depends on the environment. For example I wouldn’t use GPS Rescue mode as failsafe if I am flying in a forest, bando, or garage. Imagine losing your control link while under a tree, or inside a building. Your failsafe would kick in, and Rescue mode would immediately send your quad into the branches or the ceiling, which isn’t very helpful!
Besides, if you have no GPS fix when it failsafes, the quad will just drop to the ground.
What Happens when Rescue Mode is Activated?
The quad climbs to the altitude you set (or maximum altitude during flight). Then it starts flying toward the launch point. It’s not going to be a smooth cruise, it might jiggle left and right as it’s trying to figure out the direction, but it will eventually get home.
It won’t stop at exactly where it took off, instead, when it reaches the “descent distance” from home, it will start to descent and “land”.
However, don’t rely on Rescue mode for landing, speaking from experience, it’s not pretty (not what it’s designed for anyway)! You could end up on top of a tree, or just crashed straight into the ground. It simply doesn’t care what’s underneath, or how high it is from ground.
As soon as you get your video and radio links back, you should take back control and resume flying.
Testing GPS Rescue Mode
Assign a switch to Failsafe in the Modes tab in Betaflight. It emulates full failsafe mode in Betaflight. Note that this is only for testing GPS Rescue mode, as soon as you finish testing, you should remove it.
Remove all props, go into the Modes tab and verify that Failsafe mode can actually get activated by the switch. At this point your quad will go into Rescue mode, and your radio controls will be locked out. Now check if you can deactivate failsafe and take back control. (You could also just turn off the radio to simulate a failsafe, but it takes time to turn it back on, so it’s safer to use a switch)
When you are testing this on the bench, with the USB cable connected, the Rescue mode box won’t turn yellow like other modes. This is fine as long as the small yellow bar can move to the activation range.
It’s useful to enable these GPS related OSD elements, they will help you understand what your quad is doing. You can also have Flight Mode enabled, it’ll say “RESC” when Rescue mode is activated.
Now test it in an open field without any obstacles and people.
Make sure you have enough locked satellites in the OSD before arming.
Fly in a straight line, past your descent distance and more. For example, if your descent distance setting is 200 meters, fly 300-400 meters away.
Activate Failsafe mode. Now the quad should enter GPS Rescue mode. You should also activate Rescue mode now, as I mentioned earlier. When you get out of Failsafe, you can manually disengage Rescue mode and that gives you enough time to take back control, otherwise it would just drop to the ground.
Pay attention to the home arrow in Betaflight OSD, if it’s pointing up, it means you are flying home. If it’s pointing down, means you are flying away from home. The arrow might be pointing the wrong direction from time to time, this is normal. Just make sure the quad isn’t flying the complete opposite direction.
When the quad gets close enough to home, you have to get ready to take over control. Keep the throttle stick around 40-50% (slightly higher than hover point), and the roll and pitch stick at the neutral position.
Disengage failsafe, then rescue mode, and now you have full control to the quad as normal.
If you don’t disengage rescue mode and let it fly too close to launch point, it will just start to descend when it hits the “descent distance”.
Repeat the procedure again and again until you are feeling comfortable with it.
Once you are done with testing, remove Failsafe from the Modes tab.
Edit History
- Oct 2018 – tutorial created
- Aug 2020 – updated, GUI changes, CLI parameter names changes, added throttle min/max/hover values
85 comments
hej i have the tyro 119 with the accst taranis x9d
build it all and it all works
if i install all the modes on bf it works until i come to gps rescue or failsafe
then nothing on the quad will work even if i put all the modes back
need to restart the quad and the taranis and start all over again.
then if i do all the basic stuff the quad and taranis work and i can fly but nog with gps if i put it on it is okay but when i want to set the failsafe or gps rescue it is again blocked up and need to restart
WHO CAN HELP!!!
Hi Oscar, I saw a reviewer saying that GPS rescue triggers on critical low battery? Is this true?
Hi Oscar, some say put throttle in hold some say leave it in auto, I trust you so you tell us please
Hi, is there a way to warm start the gps position ? i.e. connect the drone to a mobile phone, and send it the current position ?
TBS CROSSFIRE/ TRACER – MAVLink by WiFi
Ground control software like Mission Planner or APP QGroundControl
How it going Oscar I have a novice 4 that I enabled gps rescue to an aux switch now I can’t arm it in drop or land mode in the osd anymore? Before I assigned the switch I could arm in drop or land but couldn’t in gps ” I know because I didn’t have the required 6 sats” also the arm without fix was disabled from the factory all I wanted was gps rescue on an aux switch now I have lost the ability to arm in drop or land and even gps unless I get the minimum sats why is this happening? Also my 3d fix says false but
with this model all I was so supposed to be able to do was enable gps rescue which was done factory already and just assign my aux switch and that’s it but now I’m having these issues unless I turn off take off without a fix Thanks man I would love to hear back for this issue
If you enable “warning” in OSD element, that should tell you why it’s not arming on the screen?
If that doesn’t say it, you can follow my troubleshooting guide to find out why it’s not arming.
What is low throttle delay
Hi Oscar, Ive set up GPS rescue on my Iflight XL5 Quad HD. Im having issues my GPS Rescue. When I activate via an Aux switch to test it, the quad does not fly towards where it took off from. For what ever reason it always seems to fly off in the same direction no matter how many sats I have. In BF I have it set to a Minimum of 8 sats. The GPS unit has a compass and I have that connected, activated and calibrated. It seems that home point is never correctly set when I take off… Im at a loss as to what could be the issue. The GPS unit sits off the back of the quad underneath the DJI antennas. I’m running crossfire and that antenna is below and behind GPS unit. Do you think these could be causing some sort of issue?? Appreciate your thoughts. Cheers Matt
Have you tried disconnecting the compass in Betaflight (and the wires)? It should work without compass.
Also get the GPS co-ordinate of your home position from the OSD, and check it in google map see if the location is correct?
Hi Oscar. I tested failsafe by switching off my radio while the copter was about 5 meters in the air. I noticed that there was about a 1 second pause between when the motors stopped spinning and the GPS rescue kicked in, causing the copter to fall a few meters towards the ground before rising up again. How can I set it up so that the instant the signal is lost the GPS rescue will activate before the motors stop spinning?
My stage 2 guard time was set to 0.4 seconds by default, and throttle fallback was set to Auto.
Would setting the stage 2 guard time to 1 second, or setting throttle fallback to set = 1500 prevent this motor pause at signal loss?
Thanks
Steve
Can you try the following:
assign a Aux channel to rescue mode.
in Failsafe tab, Channel fallback settings, set that channel value to activate Rescue mode.
When Failsafe kicks in, Rescue mode should be activated immediately.
This is really useful. I tested my set up today, on a switch, and everything worked except regaining control.
It came back to me then hovered up and down in front of me. I could not regain control at all.
Reading more into it, I think it may be down to stick deflection. The default is set to 30% which means you need to move a stick more than 30% to regain control.
But flicking the switch out of rescue mode did nothing… would that be the same reason? Because in essence it’s locked in rescue mode until I move a stick more than 30%?
Same for me. You have to move the stick to regain control. I don’t understand, why this is not mentioned at all in Oscars article above!? Can you please comment @Oscar
This feature was introduced in Betalight 4.2 whereas I think this article and wiki it was based off at the time were referencing 4.1 where it was not a feature and it was instead recommended to manually switch GPS rescue mode via switch following failsafe. This is no longer required in 4.2 onwards with this new feature (called failsafe_stick_deflection in cli).
Hi Oscar, thanks for the helpful guides, I conformal coated my kakute f7 forgetting about the barometer, my altimeter now gives weird readings, if I setup gps rescue and the board will it have an effect?
You can disable Barometer in the “Configuration” tab, then altitude will be calculated from GPS data instead.
The blue light on the gps flashes, but the gps isn’t activated on the beta light, do you know why?
Hey oscar! Thanks for the step by step instructions. My drone’s gps rescue mode works perfectly but now i don’t know what happened. When i activate the gps rescue through a switch, the drone stumbles/stalls while turning. I did another test but this time the drone was already facing the home direction and when gps rescue activated, the drone Ascended and flew back home perfectly. May i know what causes the stall during yaw/turning?
Just the way it is right now, it has no way of knowing which direction it’s facing as it’s not using a compass, it can only work it out by flying forward and work it out that way that’s why it’s constantly adjusting its course.
Hey Oscar, I just wanted to say thankyou for all your different how to pages ,, I dont know anyone else who flys ,, your pages helped me with alot of different issues
Hello,
I believe I have my Gps rescue set up, it locks on to the satellite’s, but in BF the modes page….I don’t get the gps rescue tab turning yellow when I activate the switch, the marker goes into the yellow range on the slider but the GPS Rescue tab on the left does not turn yellow.I did test the switch in the air 150 meters away, and the quad tumbled from the sky and I lost video as soon as switch flipped? [email protected]
Put “Flight Mode” in your OSD, in Rescue mode it should change from “Acro” to “Resc”.
Something else I found with beta flight. So instead on the Failsafe tab you can set the value of a switch so that it’s in the active mode. So setting RTH switch to 1800 will have it activate that if it comes within range but forgot to turn on the switch
I tried setting set gps_rescue_min_sats = 0 in betaflight 4.2 and the entry is invalid. The lowest you can put seems to be 5
if you want to take off without GPS fix, just do this in CLI:
set gps_rescue_allow_arming_without_fix = ON
Great information Oscar,
I already set up rescue mode in betaflight and assign 1 switch on my TX for rescue mode,
Should I set in failsafe in my transmitter as well?
in my TX there is Failsafe mode = not set / hold / custom / no pulses, last time I use custom set (position to arm, level, rescue mode) but it disarm after failsafe 2 seconds, should I just set it to NO PULSE?
Yes, although failsafe always gets triggered first in Betaflight and that’s all you need, just set it to No Pulse in your radio anyway.
Hi Oscar,
So I lost video, hit the switch for Rescue but wasn’t sure so hit throttle anyway, I fly in Acro always, and I did manage to get the quad back but noticed on the HD footage it was fighting my throttle inputs and possibly stick bumps. Curious if that somehow ruins the FC or it just keeps fighting my stick inputs and prolongs my return?
Hey Oscar I installed RDQ mini 8 gps on kakute f7 and when I set a switch and checked in modes tab gps rescue doesnt highlight when switched on. I know in flight it has to be 100 meters away but when testing on the bench I think the mode should highlight like all other switched modes. Any idea what’s going on?
Hi Oscar. I have set up gps rescue on my quad with the matek 405 std flight controller and all seems to be working well thanks to your great instructions. My only concern is, and bear in mind I have only tested this with the props off on a bench, I have assigned rescue mode to a spare switch on the radio, and when I flick it, sure enough, rescue shows on the goggles screen, my worry is that when I arm the quad on the bench near the window, if I then press the rescue mode switch, it cuts the quads motors, is this just because it hasn’t taken off and gone anywhere yet. Many thanks. Ian.
you are too close, it has to be at least certain distance from the launch location (set in the CLI commands)
hi oscar, thank you very mutch for the description. it works fine.
for eachine x220hv @4s it is very important to change the default values form this parameter to:
gps_rescue_throttle_hover = 1400
gps_rescue_throttle_min = 1250
otherwise the drone fly back in rescue-mode like a frog. the motor seams to stopp every second an then start again and so on. this because the default value (1280) is to low for hovering. also the …trotte_min ist too low. you have to determine this paramter for your own drone.
Great write-up Oscar! Thank you. I set mine up but when it reached 100m from home it shut-off motors and crashed. :( Any suggestions?
because you set distance to 100m? you should just take over control as soon as you have signal, it’s not designed to return to home like DJI drones.
Hi Oscar,
Bravo !!! This blog is great,
Pls Help I’m still confuse and had a question when GPS rescue set with the fail safe logic not using switch as per below,
set failsafe_procedure = GPS-RESCUE
save
I know it will happen “automatically” during e.g rx loss…, and after the rx signal back to normal what will happen with fail safe procedure? can I control back my quad or let it land? under authority of failsafe?
You will regain control as soon as signal is back. Please read the section “Using GPS_Rescue for Failsafe” again, it tells you how it works and how it should be setup.
I ask you a question, does the GPS on the drone help stabilize it, kind of like dji that when they are with connected satellites are stuck in a place?
I believe gps rescue only helps you get back your quad not stabilise it at least in betaflight
Te hago una consulta el gps en el dron lo ayuda a estabilizarlo, tipo casi como los dji que cuando estan con suficientes satelites conectados se quedan clavado en un lugar ?
Oscar question how would I have gps rescue on a switch and also have my Fail-Safe set to either work like normal no gps rescue and have gps rescue activate when wanted on the same switch? Just in case I have rx loss in a bad area I don’t want it to activate GPS rescue like a bando spot or low clearance area…so I wanna have the betaflight Fail-Safe to be setup with a switch but have two options for Fail-Safe on a switch and a sepy switch for gps rescue all by itself? Is this possible?
Hi Oscar,
Many thanks for sharing this…. Test the GPS rescue with switch and works great.
Pls advice which failsafe mode i should choose in TX? I am using Tarani Xlite with r9 lite module. Should i just put “no pulse” or make it “Custom” and than set to activate GPS Rescue switch.
Thanks before
it shouldn’t matter as long as you use SBUS or FPort, because it has a failsafe flag in the protocol to notify the FC, but setting it to no pulse is probably the safest.
This looks great, thanks for the report. I lost video above a river last weekend and almost lost the quad… Luckily video came back.
However, I am running a full KISS (V1) setup. Is it possible to setup such a system on a KISS quad?
Not unless KISS support GPS. You’d have to check with KISS customer service, I am not sure if this is possible.
Hello Oscar!
How i need to set my failsave in crossfire, should i set it to cut, and in betaflight to gps rescue? is this ok? i use betaflight 4.0, and rth on a switch works perfect.
Thanks for Help!
Yea sounds good to me.
To add some feedback, in case it helps others: Adjust `gps_rescue_angle` with caution!
The default GPS Rescue Mode variables tested correctly on my 7″ SuperG+ running Betaflight 3.5.7. I sometimes fly during moderate wind where 32 degrees of pitch is insufficient, so I increased `set gps_rescue_angle` from 32 to 40 degrees. During testing, however, gps_rescue_angle=40 consistently caused the quad to reach altitude, then descend towards 0 altitude as it headed towards home (well before reaching `gps_rescue_descent_distance`). The quad would have crashed into the ground had I not taken control. I tried 4S, 5S, and 6S batteries with the same results. Increasing `gps_rescue_throttle_max` from 1600 to 1800 did not help. This is odd, as the quad is well tuned and I have no problem maintaining altitude when flying at a 40+ degree pitch.
All is well with gps_rescue_angle=32. Hopefully it’s not too windy when I need a rescue!
@jerrod I have gps mode enabled. I know this because I can see my long and lat on my OSD. I can see how many gps satalights im locked into.
But when I go into modes there is no rescue mode. It’s as if my version doesn’t support it but I’m using 3.5.6 and every guide says 3.5+.
@Tdub – in your config tab you have to enable GPS mode. Almost exactly half way down the page, on the right column.
@Oscar – I think you might have it backwards. My gps return to home works the other way – up arrow is toward home, down arrow means you’re traveling away from home.
Thanks for the article Oscar!
That’s what i mean exactly.
I’ve set up a GPS module via an open port. I have it communicating, I can see my GPS stats on my OSD but when I go into “modes” I do not have a “GPS Rescue” option. I have “Beep GPS Satellite Count” but no rescue mode. How do I enable that mode?
Hi, I set my Cl Racing F4S board and HGLRC Neo-8M GPS up exactly the way you wrote. I made a simple flight
in the front yard. The quad was only about 5 feet off the ground and flew out about 35 feet, stopped, turned around but all of a sudden it went full throttle and shot up only to either I killed the motors or the motors quit and it fell to the pavement nose first. (miraculously there was no damage except the ice that it hit) I have no idea what caused that to happen.
Now when I got the quad in the air again I didn’t touch Rescue or anything and as the quad was hovering in front of me the motors suddenly quit and it fell to the ground. I was informed that maybe the quad is going into failsafe mode. The board is new as is the Rx, was a clean build and everything is working.
I now understand that Rescue if activated closer than 100m will kill the motors but what happens if you are coming back on Rescue will it kill the motors when it comes within the 100m?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWmHsctdpck&t=1s
Thank you, your information is very valuable to us.
Jim
Hi Oscar (or anyone else, that can help) Ive type in get gps in the cli and I dont have set gps_rescue_min_dth = 100. If I try to add it in it comes back with ###ERROR### Invalid name. Is there a clever way of adding this command into the B/F 3.5.1 thats on my G730L please? Im stumped :(
This command is for the future version of Betaflight 4.0 (still in Beta).
For current stable Betaflight 3.5.X, use this command instead:
set gps_rescue_min_descent_dist = 100
I have tried both commands and am getting the invalid name on both. I have betaflight 3.5.6 installed. Any other recommendations?
can you try “get gps_rescue_” and try find it?
Hi Oscar, one question to ask ,
If I set failsafe on my transmitter for quad to power down the motors and drop , and I was to set up gps RTH as failsafe also ,
Question, what failsafe will the quad take orders from ?
Will it drop or RTH?
Thank you Oscar I’m learning a lot for your blog
Very new to the hobby
look at these as layers… TX, RX and FC, these are all layers.
The closest layer to your motors is the FC, so the quad will react to the FC failsafe layer first.
This is assuming you are using SBUS or CRSF, where the RX will send a “Failsafe flag” to the FC.
home arrow in Betaflight OSD says wrong direction and when turn on rescue going away from me——-why
not enough satellites? Or GPS module is interfered by VTX? Try further separation.
Hello Oscar! I have a question and think may know now but want to MAKE SURE…For the first trial with the rescue mode has me puzzled but I think that may be clear now as well…. Okay first time I tried it, it seemed to start to work, it went straight up I guess the the altitude have set but then dropped from the sky?! Now I think that is prob due to I turned GPS Rescue back off then tried to turn it back on, and after reading your article that seems to make it drop??…I think? as well as I “may” have disarmed it and rearmed it to try to get the “failsafe” rescue to kick in and prob re-set the “home” location?! Alright I am about to try it again now after doing some adjusting, BUT MY BIG question is “Which way should the arrow point for home” down?? For if I remember correctly I did watch someones video on this after my failure, and I believe and PLEASE TELL ME, when arrow is pointing downward is that pointing to “home” for I just flew it and seems that was direction it was when I was some distance away, and in the video I watched I DID notice that when rescue is activated the arrow JUMPS STRAIGHT UP on it’s return, so I still am confused?!! So which way should the arrow be pointing when I have it away from me and should be pointing “home”?? PLEASE let me know for need to test it again, but I almost lost it the first time just got lucky finding it somewhat. Thanks I greatly appreciate it!
If the arrow points up in OSD, means it’s flying away from home. If it points down, it means the quad is facing home.
please could you help I have put gps on my quad tested it in my garden with props off so got 8 sats come up when I flicked the switch the motors go very fast ,my question is why should it do this when it is not 100 m away ,should it have gone into failsafe and cut the motors ,I have set all the cli commands as you have and am running 3.5.1
Hi Oscar, would you know why I can get Rescue mode to work faultlessly when I activate it with a switch but when I try to activate it with failsafe either with Failsafe set to a switch or by turning off the transmitter it just disarms.
Rescue mode only works when the quad is further than 100m away (or any distance you set), within this distance you quad will just drop/disarm.
If this is not the case then you need to play with Insanity-Check’s options.
When testing GPS Rescue, make sure you land and disarm between tests. This is because the rescue altitude is set to the highest altitude you reach during flight or the minimum setting number (whichever is greater, ie. the quad will never descend when rescue is activated, it will only ascend or maintain altitude). If you do multiple rescue tests without disarming, then the minimum altitude can stack higher and higher depending on how high you are flying and each test the quad will climb a little bit higher due to the altitude error stacking.
Thanks for explaination!
What will drone doing when he returns to home, will it land automatically and disarm? For example if i have problems with radio.
No, it will not land but drop. Make sure to regain control.
Does anyone know whether this is possible using a FRSky GPS module? I have a feeling it’s not, and that the FrSKy only connects to the FrSky receiver not directly to the flight controller.
Hello Oscar. Thank you for the wonderful post.
Hi Oscar. Thank you so so much for this information. I have a question based on the last section of your blog. If I set Gps rescue to failsafe and I experience failsafe and lose video at the same time. My quad starts heading back and it reconnects to my quad, but I am flying blind. U said set the switch to failsafe as well. How do I set both up, failsafe and switch if I can only chose one mode. Please advice. Thank you. I have learnt a lot.
Setup GPS Rescue mode on a switch, so when failsafe happens, you should also flip the GPS Rescue mode switch.
Good information Oscar. I installed mine a couple of weeks ago (mini ublox M8N) strictly for lost quad location. I went out to check it out but due to a FC malfunction my quad went wildly out of control before i had a chance to ‘test’ the install. Long story short, got my GPS coordinates from my DVR, plugged them into my smartphone and it got me within 50 feet of my quad. :) With out the GPS i probably would have been hours trying to find the quad.
that’s good to hear bro!
I have experience the “drone falling out of the sky” issue. My question is: Why would sanity check make the quad behave properly when it doesn’t do that by arming through a switch. Have you test that? I have sanity check off because of this reason as of right now.
it’s really a hit and miss issue at the moment with Sanity Check. Make sure you understand the risk of turning it off. Sometimes it’s better to lose your quad than damaging something or someone more important.
Hi Oscar ! there’s one important detail in:
set gps_rescue_initial_alt = 50
where 50 is Alt in meters. this value means Absolute alt or above takeoff ?
because in my place Absolute hight ( ground level ) is about 180 meters so if I write 50 meters my drone becomes a suicide machine )))
It’s the height from ground :) so setting that to 50 would be 230m in your cause
Hi Oscar,
non-failsafe scenario question:
is it possible to take back the control if the mode was activated previously w. a switch?
If I turn the mode off w. the switch within the minimum range (before the quad “lands”) it falls from the sky.
BF3.4
thanks,
WP
Yea if it was activated with a switch, you can put it back in acro mode anytime using that switch. What’s your Sanity setting?
Thanks for this post! My next build will probably be a 6inch for mid/long range with gps, so this tutorial it’s perfect
When I first tested this (less than descent distance) it just disarmed in flight.Does any modification beed to be made to the sanity checks tonprevent this?
You can try
set gps_rescue_sanity_checks = RESCUE_SANITY_FS_ONLY
or even OFF, but that’s not recommended according to the wiki.
You need to be beyond the minimum range of 100m, maybe its set as part of descent distance, not sure on that. The disarm I believe is a safety measure so the drone doesn’t fly autopilot straight into you being so close to its home coordinates. Personally I would like to see a safety check added that if it is activated by switch within the 100m range, it simply does nothing but beeps an alarm onscreen “proximity” or something instead of dropping out of the sky.