On this tutorial, I’ll information you thru the method of backing up your FPV drone’s Betaflight flight controller utilizing varied strategies, together with the Presets tab, the CLI dump, screenshots and downloading processor flash. I may even present you restore your drone from the backup information. Let’s dive in.
New to FPV? Try my different Betaflight-related weblog posts: https://oscarliang.com/tag/betaflight/
When to Backup Betaflight
It’s necessary to again up your Betaflight configuration within the following conditions:
- Earlier than updating flight controller firmware, as this course of can erase your earlier settings.
- Earlier than making any vital modifications, so you may revert to the earlier configuration if wanted.
Making ready for the Backup
First, obtain and set up Betaflight Configurator. Join your drone to your laptop by way of the USB cable.
You’ll comprehend it’s linked when the lights on the drone begin flashing and a brand new COM port seems within the configurator’s prime proper nook. Press the join button.
Utilizing the Presets Tab
The Presets tab is the best approach of backing up and restoring your Betaflight settings. It’s principally the identical as coming into the “diff all” command in CLI and saving the lead to a textual content file your self.
Save Backup: Within the Presets tab, click on “Save backup.” This can save your configuration in a textual content file. The file identify contains the mannequin identify and a date/time stamp. Open the textual content file to make sure it incorporates knowledge and isn’t empty to keep away from surprises.
Load Backup: To revive a backup, use the “Load backup” button.
Earlier than loading, guarantee your flight controller is on the identical Betaflight model because the backup file. Open the backup textual content file and examine the “Model.” If the variations don’t match, flash your flight controller to the identical model first to keep away from conflicts and incompatibilities. The right way to flash Betaflight: https://oscarliang.com/flash-update-betaflight/
Utilizing the CLI Tab
In the event you choose to again up Betaflight manually utilizing the CLI, observe these steps:
Go to the CLI tab and kind dump. This command will show all of the settings in Betaflight. Press the “Save to file” button to avoid wasting the output in a textual content file.
Alternatively, use the command diff all to show solely the settings which were altered from the default values. There are a lot fewer strains and extra manageable if you need to undergo it.
To revive settings by way of CLI, press the “Load from file” button and find the backup textual content file, sort save and hit Enter.
Taking Screenshots
Taking screenshots of sure configuration pages may be very helpful for reference, particularly the Ports tab. This ensures you understand which port is assigned to every peripheral, which may be unclear from CLI strains alone.
Downloading Processor Flash
As a sophisticated technique, you may clone all the processor reminiscence, packaging the firmware and configurations right into a single file. This technique is useful as you received’t have to fret about firmware variations. Nonetheless, it requires further software program like STM32CubeProgrammer.
Learn to do it right here: https://oscarliang.com/backup-fc-stm32cubeprogrammer/
I exploit this technique steadily, because it permits me to modify between completely different Betaflight variations rapidly and even swap between iNav and Betaflight for testing functions.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you may guarantee your Betaflight configurations are safely backed up and simply restored, permitting you to experiment and replace with out concern of shedding your settings.
Edit Historical past
- Sep 2018 – Tutorial created
- Feb 2022 – Up to date for Betaflight 4.3
- Jun 2024 – Up to date for Betaflight 4.5