OSD

OSD stands for on-screen display, the overlay of flight information drawn directly onto the video feed the pilot sees in their goggles. Typical OSD elements include battery voltage, flight timer, current draw, and sometimes GPS coordinates or distance from the takeoff point. Because it sits directly in the video feed, the pilot never has to look away from the drone to check these numbers.

The OSD is generated by the flight controller and configured through the same software used for tuning, letting pilots choose which elements appear, how large they are, and where they sit on the screen. The most important element for most pilots is battery voltage, since it gives an early warning to land before a pack is discharged too far, which protects both the pack and the flight.

New pilots sometimes leave the OSD cluttered with every available element switched on, which can make it harder to read the one number that matters most in the moment, usually voltage or flight timer. Trimming the display down to a few key readouts, positioned somewhere they will not block the view of obstacles, tends to make it easier to glance at quickly during a flight.