Betaflight 4.4 – Das musst Du wissen!

We've been waiting a long time for this - now it's finally here. Betaflight 4.4 brings many new features and improvements. The release document of the new version on the GitHub page contains a promising and extensive list of bug fixes, improvements and new features. So let's take a look at the most exciting ones together!

The biggest news!

This is the list of new features and improvements based on my personal priority list. Some of these features may not interest you, but they certainly got me excited.

New HD OSD!

The new HD OSD system (OSD stands for Onscreen Display) allows you to display the elements in a much smaller grid on a wide screen. This means that if you are flying with 4:3 cameras, you can place all the elements on the black sides of the screen (left and right), which can be very useful! Unfortunately, this is not supported by HD Zero.

Easier setup of HD VTXs

You can now set up your HD VTX on the "Ports" tab! I'd be lying if I didn't think this was cool. It definitely makes life easier.

GPS Rescue Update

Quick review: While RTH means that the drone will return to its takeoff location and land safely, the GPS Rescue feature in Betaflight means that the drone will more or less return to the location it came from in the hopes that you'll take it over once it gets there. Otherwise it would crash to the ground with the grace of a stone or fly in circles until the battery wouldn't take it anymore. So it wasn't a perfect solution.
That has now changed: the GPS rescue function has been significantly improved. This means your copter can now return to the take-off point, land and switch off the motors. And THAT is great (even if it still doesn't hit the take-off point perfectly and needs a few meters in diameter).

Implemented battery continuation

This feature might be interesting for you if you fly long distances, use large batteries or work professionally with larger drones. Why? You probably know those situations where you have to land to change the propellers or to change the camera settings ... and then the milliamp hour counter in the OSD is reset to zero so that you no longer know how much you have already used. This will now change! Since this update, the milliamp hours used can be saved. So you can continue your flight with the same battery and the correct mAh will be displayed.

HD OSD system elements for VTX temperature and goggle fan speed

Especially during the warmer days it is important to know what is going on. I remember the first version of the Orqa goggles overheating and the VTX shutting down due to their temperature. Without warning - that can be tough. But hey! That won't happen anymore!

MSP support for Ghost

If you fly with the Ghost system, you can now use Lua scripts! This makes everything much easier to navigate and change!

AUX channel added to OSD

You can now display anything you want in the OSD. This can be done via an AUX channel. For example, it was suggested to display the heart rate of pilots during races. And since we're talking about racing events ...

Standby mode

This allows pilots to indicate on the screen that they are ready without arming the quad. This can be useful for racing events.

Betaflight 4.4 offers many improvements and I recommend you scroll down in this post and check what might be relevant or interesting for your personal flying style or needs.

Important information

If you want to update your FC to the new Betaflight 4.4, there are a few things to keep in mind:

All documentation and media to help you get the most out of Betaflight can be found on the new website: https://betaflight.com/
After updating to Betaflight 4.4.0 you MUST use the latest Betaflight Configurator 10.9.0. Earlier versions of the configurator will not work properly with this and other versions.
If your target system does not display versions 4.4.0 in 10.9.0 of the configurator, flash 4.3.2 and then submit a support request on the CLI tab.
4.4 has a new cloud building system. This is designed to extend the life of smaller MCU based boards with flash memory. You must enable the various options in the build before selecting "Load Firmware Online" in the configurator. Note that the firmware will no longer be available after flashing the board if you have not enabled this option.
HD OSD support has been added! This is not currently supported by HD Zero (but it is hinted that this will happen soon!)
check all settings carefully (PROPS OFF!) before arming for the first time. check PIDs, filters, rates, motor configuration and motor rotation. For the first few flights, arm your drone in a safe place, fly carefully and watch out for setup or build issues.

The full list of improvements (also available on Betaflight GitHub ):

Add angle limit to OSD settings menu
blackbox fields_disabled_mask to msp
Removed unused rxRefreshRate
Update GPS Rescue
Extract function toUpperCase for osd elements
Only write to FLASH once 64 bytes are buffered
Save flash: Replace CLI params for OSD stats and warnings with bitmasks
Use timed timeouts for USB HAL functions, not simple counts, as per H7
Use macros for power with integer exponents
Style: Use angle brackets with standard library headers
Remove USE_EXTI, USE_GYRO_EXTI and USE_MPU_DATA_READY_SIGNAL defines
MAX7456 cleanups 1
Refactoring IMU, ACC and small PID loop improvements
Don't set sleepTime to ut_delay in BARO_STATE_PRESSURE_SAMPLE state
CLI: Raise upper limit of dyn_idle_min_rpm
Allow dyn_notch_min_hz as low as 20Hz
Refactor barometer as floats with pt2 smoothing
Change Dynamic Notch Min Hz default to 100Hz
Unify all eRPM to RPM calculations into one single function
GPS Rescue smoothed with upsampled inputs, bug fixes
Cleanup some switch-case-s
Add MSP displayport sub-command definitions
Enhancements for ICM-426xx (gyro and acc)
Fix function brace style
ExpressLRS: Minor style fix and clean up
Use ARRAYLEN macro where applicable
Populate unified targets as separate target folders
Move TPA to PID profile
Use std abs() instead of ABS() macro
Use lrintf for explicit rounding of float to integer
Remove old style definitions
BMI160/270: Stronger acc anti-aliasing
Revert GPS satellite minimums to single gps_rescue_min_sats value
Removing 'UNIFIED_TARGET'
Remove duplicate DSHOT port configuration
Lock altitude task at 100Hz & fix baro calibration
use PWM_RANGE consistently
Enable MSP Displayport on a serial port using FUNCTION_MSP_DISPLAYPORT
Moving OSD to cloud build option
Final target clean up
Adding board scratch space.
Parse GPS DOP values
Dedicated task for GPS Rescue
Refactor RPM Filter
Add HD OSD system elements for VTX temp and goggle fan speed
Fix/enhance NMEA & Ublox message polling for GPS
NMEA ATGM336 - support 10Hz refresh rate
Display FLASH JEDEC ID in status and flash_info
Extend error output
Cloud build option for 64 leds
Add support for Omron 2SMBP-02B barometer
Display OSD canvas size in status command
Improved SDFT windowing
Disarm on fail-safe when allow arming without fix is enabled and failsafe procedure is set to GPS-RESCUE
Flash M25P16: Add QSPI support
Add osd_canvas_width/height variables
Automatically apply HD settings if HD VTX is detected