# Turtle mode compatibility with non Modalai ESC Source: https://forum.modalai.com/topic/4853/turtle-mode-compatibility-with-non-modalai-esc Category: General Questions (https://forum.modalai.com/category/2/general-questions) Posted: 2025-11-06 06:00:45 UTC by Jetson Nano Replies: 16 · Views: 1411 ## Jetson Nano · 2025-11-06 06:00:45 UTC Hey @Alex-Kushleyev @Eric-Katzfey @Vinny , I would like to know whether the turtle mode is possible on Flight core v2 with out using the Modal ai ESC. I would like to use the vertiq Motors with on motors ESCs. [vertiq motor](https://www.vertiq.co/23-06-g1) ## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-06 15:01:28 UTC @Jetson-Nano The turtle mode is built into the px4 voxl_esc driver so it will only work with that ESC. ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-07 04:11:00 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey) @Eric-Katzfey So if I built similar driver for on px4 will it cause any errors with existing codes, once i remove the Voxl-esc driver and replace it with the vertiq esc code. ## Reply by Alex Kushleyev (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-07 04:31:40 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Jetson-Nano , it seems that Vertiq has PX4 support, so you should be able to modify their driver to enable the turtle mode. The mode is triggered by checking the RC switch within the `voxl-esc` driver. https://iqmotion.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/ifci_px4_flight_controller.html If you disable the `voxl-esc` driver, PX4 should work fine, as long as you correctly update the PX4 parameters to use another ESC type. Alex ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-07 04:43:11 UTC (in reply to Alex Kushleyev) @Alex-Kushleyev Thank you for the support. Also I noticed only the VOXL-FPV-DEV version only have the voxl_esc_t_on option to control the esc through the joystick, The main version of modalai PX4 fork do not have them, is it under development. The FPV-dev version do not support collision prevention, so i had to roll up to the main version, which gave me this issue. ## Reply by Alex Kushleyev (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-07 05:24:09 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Jetson-Nano , this question is probably for @Eric-Katzfey ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-07 05:27:48 UTC (in reply to Alex Kushleyev) @Alex-Kushleyev ok thank you, I will wait for @Eric-Katzfey reply ## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-07 14:36:06 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Jetson-Nano This is a feature that was designed specifically for our FPV drones so that is the only branch that has it supported. ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-07 14:40:48 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey) @Eric-Katzfey Thank you for reverting back, why does collision prevention not working with this px4 version. The obstacle_distance topic is not showing in any mpc_pos_mod ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-07 14:43:02 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey) @Eric-Katzfey hey, if I would like to implement the same in the main px4 fork (modalai) what all would i have to change. ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-10 04:26:16 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Eric-Katzfey Hey, could you please help me with this issue? ## Reply by tom (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-10 17:39:55 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Jetson-Nano This is where the logic for turtle mode can be found in the voxl-esc driver: https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/blob/voxl-dev/src/drivers/actuators/voxl_esc/voxl_esc.cpp#L330 You'd have to modify px4 to pull this logic into the driver you're using ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-11 04:18:41 UTC (in reply to tom) @tom I am using the Modalai Main fork of PX4 which already have the turtle mode, I just want the turtle mode to be enabled through joystick. ## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-12 14:27:57 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Jetson-Nano It's hard to follow what you are asking. Are you trying to add turtle mode to another ESC driver? Are you trying to get turtle mode working with a joystick and VOXL ESC? ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-12 16:02:07 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey) @Eric-Katzfey I am sorry for the confusion , I started the thread for another ESC, that is cleared. Now I am asking with respect to modal ai FPV ESC. The issue I am facing now is, the VOXL-FPV-DEV fork of px4 has turtle mode for joystick and button. The Main fork of the PX4 do not carry this feature. I would like to incorporate this feature in the Main fork. The reason I switched from fpv-dev to main, was collision prevention error. The VOXL-FPV-DEV do not have collision prevention working properly. I hope my questions are clear now. ## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-12 16:42:45 UTC (in reply to Jetson Nano) @Jetson-Nano Okay, well we don't support that right now. If you want to make your own build then you can probably just replace all of the files in the src/drivers/actuators/voxl_esc with the files from the voxl-fpv-dev branch. ## Reply by Jetson Nano · 2025-11-13 04:28:21 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey) @Eric-Katzfey Thank you for reverting back. I am trying to proceed with the same approach. I am facing some errors while going with this approach , I am trying to debug them. Another approach :- I am also thinking to hardcode the joystick based turtle mode to the voxl_esc.cpp. The manual control values will be monitored and once the value of the assigned button is clicked, the turtle mode will be enabled. Do you think it is a good approach?