Are you feeling too lazy to walk and pick up your downed drone? Try Turtle mode! With a flip of a switch, it turns over your upside down quad so you can take off again.
Note: “Turtle mode” was renamed to “Flip Over After Crash” in later Betaflight releases, but most people still refer to it as Turtle mode.
See my other tutorials related to Betaflight.
Limitations of Flip Over After Crash
Turtle mode is an awesome feature to have on most drones, especially on brushless tiny whoops if you mostly fly indoor. However, it doesn’t work on brushed tiny whoops, because DShot isn’t supported by brushed motors.
Turtle mode works well on flat surface such as concrete, not so well on grassy fields especially when the props are obstructed.
Requirements
In order to use the turtle mode, you need:
- Betaflight 3.2 or newer on your flight controller
- DShot compatible ESC (All version of BLHeli_32 ESC’s and BLHeli_S ESC with firmware 16.67 or newer)
- Latest version of Betaflight configurator
How to Setup
In Betaflight Configurator, Configuration tab, select DShot protocol (DShot150, 300 and 600 all support turtle mode).
Move over to the Modes tab, and assign a switch on your radio to “Flip Over After Crash”.
“Flip Over After Crash” option would be missing and won’t appear until you have selected DShot Protocol.
Finally, in the Configuration tab, set “Maximum Arm Angle” (Arming) to 180. Alternatively you can simply disable ACC (Acceleronmeter) if you don’t fly in Angle mode. This allow the drone to arm even when it’s upside down.
How to Use Turtle Mode?
- When the quad is flipped over, disarm
- Switch on Turtle mode, then arm it (motors should NOT spin, yet)
- Use your roll stick, the motors will start to spin and flip the quad over; the longer you hold the roll stick, the more thrust it will generate
- Once turned over, disarm immediately and turn off turtle mode
- Now arm the quad again to take off
You might want to practice this on a flat surface, clear of people. DO NOT overuse and force it if you can’t turn the quad over, it could burn out the motors and ESC’s.
Other Uses of Turtle Mode
It might help to get your quad out of a tree if it gets stuck, as it spins the motors the opposite direction. But if the props are tangled up, do not use turtle mode!
Some advance drone builders also use turtle mode to test motors. When the quad is sitting up right on the table, and the motors are spinning the opposite direction, they push the quad down so it will stay and not take off. However we don’t recommend doing this :)
Edit History
- Nov 2018 – guide created
- Jun 2020 – updated instructions
14 comments
I recently updated my blheli_s firmware 16 to the most recent Bluejay version 21. Now my turtle mode’s response is super delayed. I remember reading something about the power setting was changed to safely account for 6s batteries. Any idea what setting in particular would be the culprit. I’d like to keep the version I have. I updated all my quads to this firmware before discovering this issue. Really need turtle mode to work well just in case.
I have a similar issue on v21, my turtle mode works only once the quad is not crashed (like testing on bench). If I crash and activate it the motors will not spin. I can hear beeping sounds which sounds like an error is somewhere happening. Flashed also back to 19.2 and same issue.
Useful! Thanks.
Naaaa…. just need to no what you are doing is all.
Ok, it works and if your careful it won’t mess up your escs’. The thing that I didn’t realize at first, is your throttle (mode 2) does nothing. You need arm angle 180, running dshot, and you DO NOT have to do anyting in BLheli as long as the firmware is up to date. Don’t forget to set it up on a switch in modes tab of BF. Once it’s all set, don’t even flip the drone over, practice using it while quad sits on floor upright.
Unarm quad, switch to turtle mode with assinged switch, Arm quad, and don’t mess with left stick. Use right stick, if you roll right, motor 1& 2 (Quad-X format) will spin (opposite direction), pitch forward, the front two motors, 3 & 4, will spin. Think about the four corners of the left stick as the four motors, if you have a steady hand you can actually move stick at angle and spin just one motor. Remember, they are set by default to spin to full or close to full throttle quickly. So if you practice first, you can find that sweet spot where they start to spin, then when in the field, try and see thru goggles which side is more off the ground, and do short little burst to get it to flip, you will burn motor windings if you just let go wide open for more than a couple seconds. Hope that helps, good luck.
Is your maximum arm angle set to 180 degrees?
Mine didn’t work and I was baffled by it until I set it to 180. It was on stock ( 30) degrees before!
:-)
Arris x220 of mine has flip over mode but I’m still not sure what it’s doing. The motors will move and it will rock a little bit but I am afraid of burning something up. What exactly am I trying to do? I get you’re supposed to rock it till it flips but is there a specific technique?
I sure would like to know why Troy’s “Turtle mode”wont work especially since he set everything up the right way!
I was struggling with this. I’m basically brand new to this, and there’s a steep learning curve. Nothing above or really in any of the vids I have watched mentioned that Turtle Mode, or FOAC, is not activated by throttle but by roll control. Your right stick (mode 2) will drive either RH or LH motors. Maybe I’m just clueless, but this wasn’t obvious to me.
I have searched high and low for this. I expected flipping the switch would surge the motors automatically sensing when it flipped over and giving up quickly if it didn’t(keep amps/heat down) and requiring me to re-flip the switch to activate the automatic feature again. Never did I expect to have to hit the AIL/ELE stick.
it dosent even show turtle mode for me and im have bf 4.1.1
Hey,
Everything I read and watch on YouTube about turtle mode makes it look like it just works automatically. This is not the case the for me. I have Taranis set up accordingly in the mixer. I have DSHOT settings correct and Aux switch set up in BF. Yet I still cannot get turtle mode to work. AT ALL. I also flashed my ESCs.
Any idea why this isnt working? I am using the Hobbywing G2 Stack.
I have same problem
“Turtle Mode mode” or “how to fuck up ESC and Prop because of beeing too lazy” xD
A little bit of caution should be used when turtling ^^