After 3 years of development and contributions from over 50 developers, the Betaflight 4.3.0 has been officially released, The new release focuses on flight performance, leading-edge feature additions, and wide target support. According to the BetaFlight teem, there are over 1200 changes and many significant improvements including bug fixes. Before updating your firmware, make sure you install and use the latest version of the Betaflight Configurator (10.8 or higher).
Betaflight is the most popular flight controller software (firmware) used to fly FPV drones. Betaflight is completely free to download and use. It is open source and therefore free to use both commercially and privately, as well as modify and redistribute.
What’s changed on Betaflight 4.3.0 & BetaFlight configurator 10.8
New PID-based tuning sliders – Whether you need to tweak the tune or build it from scratch, we now have simpler, more comprehensive, firmware-based tuning sliders in the Configurator. These are active by default. Slider positions are stored with the quad and can be modified via the OSD or LUA. New expert sliders allow fine-tuning of Pitch: Roll balance, DMax: Dmin, and I relative to P.
Presets – A fantastic, comprehensive new preset system! Whether a whoop, a twig, a 5″ racer, a freestyle setup, or an X-class, you can now easily apply a great tune for your quad, out of the box. Presets also exist for radio setups, vtx configurations, and so on. Users can choose from ‘official’ Betaflight Presets and ‘community’ presets. Both are checked by Betaflight developers. Access to external Preset repositories is also provided, but take care when using these, since Betaflight has no control over their content.
Less gyro filtering with higher P and D, providing better ‘out of the box’ performance.
We’ve changed how D is configured. We now have Derivative and D_Max settings. The Derivative value is what sets the D value in smooth flying. When you turn fast, D rises to Dmax, providing more effective damping for fast movements, and when going straight, D back to Derivative and reduce D noise and motor heat. The difference between the two values has been reduced, and the Derivative value is significantly higher. Unlike 4.2, you usually won’t need to push the D slider higher, unless you are seeking stronger straight-line stability in a clean HD or cinematic build.
More accurate loop times – We’ve made massive scheduler and DMA code improvements, including EXTI-triggered SPI gyro reads (on supported boards), giving super stable loop times, smoother filter performance, faster logging and improved CPU efficiency. NOTE: The CPU load reported in 4.3 is higher than reported in 4.2 due to a change in the way it is calculated. It now reports the % of the time that the processor is busy running tasks, rather than a figure based on load average.
Multi-dynamic notch – We have completely rewritten, much improved, SDFT based multi-dynamic notches. More than one resonant peak can be tracked at the same time, more accurately and more quickly than before, with low latency cost. This allows for lower overall low pass filtering and better performance.
The above two changes have significantly improved incoming ‘gyro noise’. This has allowed us to push the default gyro filtering higher than before. Coupled with higher D, this improves propwash. Many quads can now fly with the gyro filter slider hard right.
PT3 based RC smoothing – RC smoothing has been completely revised and is now entirely filter-based, using optimized PT3 (third-order) smoothing. RC Smoothing now has the ideal filter shape applied with no overshoot and very smooth response. The auto smoothing value provides anything from low latency to exceptional buttery cinematic smoothness.
RPM crossfading – we now can smoothly disable overlapping RPM filtering notches entirely at low RPM. This greatly reduces filter delay at low throttle. You’ll hear an immediate difference in the sound of the motors, and experience less propwash around low throttle.
PT2 and PT3 lowpass filtering options – The old biquad lowpass filter option is no longer available on Gyro, due to delay, overshoot and resonance issues. Previous Gyro biquad lowpass users should change to PT2, but more likely will find that, in 4.3, single or dual first order filtering is optimal for Gyro. Biquad filtering is still available for D, where a harder cut than PT2 can be useful.
Feedforward jitter reduction – 4.3 introduces feedforward jitter reduction, which is an improvement on feedforward transition. It delivers a ‘dynamic transition’ effect to the feedforward, where you can get silky smooth responses while making slow stick inputs, and immediate, snappy feedforward responses to quick inputs. Usually, Transition is not required any more. Jitter reduction provides the Transition type effect, but at any stick angle. Jitter reduction also attenuates RC link noise during slow movements, especially for the newer higher rate Rx links. Racers will tend to use lower jitter reduction values than Freestylers, since that will attenuate link noise without delaying stick responses.
Other feedforward improvements – We now have second order smoothing on boost, soft interpolation during slow stick moves, and more accurate duplicate packet interpolation. Most slower radio links won’t need averaging, which is now off by default. High speed radio links (250hz and higher) will typically benefit from 2 point averaging and stronger smoothing. Presets to suit most common link types make Radio link configuration easy.
AntiGravity improvements – P boost has been added, along with I boost timing optimisation to peak when it is most needed. This provides greater stability during rapid throttle changes. The default value of 3.5 should not be increased without careful testing.
Dynamic gyro filter expo curve – Adjusting filter expo curves improves propwash by raising dynamic gyro filter cutoff values more quickly as you throttle up.
Improved dynamic idle – The dynamic idle code has been heavily revised, and can now keep RPM at a more stable value, more quickly and more precisely than before, and can be fine-tuned with its new single-sided PID controller. It is now much simpler to set up. There is no need to measure RPM or change your D_Shot idle percentage value – leave that value at your normal setting. Just enable DShot Telemetry (and check it is working), and set a suitable idle RPM value in the PID Tuning page. Typically 3000-4000 rpm works great. This improves motor spin-up-from-low-rpm behaviour, enhancing low throttle input responsiveness, and reduces the risk of desyncs, while allowing the motor drive to go all the way to zero for enhanced braking when appropriate and for longer inverted hang times.
Linear and Dynamic mixer options – These are alternatives to the stock Betaflight mixer code. The dynamic option may result in less aggressive bump and landing responses for level mode or cinematic flights.
Feedforward in Level and Horizon Modes – Feedforward is now active in Horizon, Level, and Level Race modes, leading to quicker level mode angle changes and making Horizon mode as responsive as Acro for flips and other fast moves. The amount of feedforward in these modes can be adjusted and saved in the profile, like for the other PID parameters.
Actual Rates is the new Betaflight default – Actual rates provide a simpler and more intuitive way to set your Rates, and are now the default. Default rates are less aggressive in the centre, but more progressive around mid-stick, than the previous defaults. Full-stick default max roll rate is the same as before. Betaflight rates are optional and can still be used. Take care when updating! If you copy and paste your old rates values, be sure to copy and paste the rates type also! Use this calculator to convert your old rates to Actual rates.
CrossfireV3 and Ghost RC link improvements – As well as support for the latest Crossfire, ELRS and Ghost protocols, the internal betaflight RC code now supports 12bit or higher RC data in a float data path, handles very low RC Links (down to 16hz) better than before, fully supports high speed links to 1000hz, and better attenuates feedforward glitches when the RC link returns after dropouts.
ELRS over SPI support for ELRS V2 on-board receivers. Many thanks to Phobos and the other ELRS devs for helping make this happen.
FrSky OSD fix – Asizon fixed it!
Lua script updates – we now have RSSI in your OSD via LUA, Slider control from the radio, and lots of other changes.
Changed CLI command names – many CLI parameters are re-named. As a result, a lot of copy and paste efforts will fail to make all the changes you intended. Using the CLI ‘get’ command now finds related values more easily. For example, get gyro_lp will find all gyro lowpass filter settings, get feed will find all feedforward values, etc.
**4.3 should fly really well on defaults. Start there, or with a Preset that suits your purposes. Most likely if there is a good match for your hardware, the Preset will fly great, with no additional adjustments. Advanced tuners can experiment with the easy
Cool! I upgraded all my drones