# Ground proximity hold

**URL:** <https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/ground-proximity-hold/8118>\
**Category:** Blue Robotics Software\
**Created:** [September 4, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/ground-proximity-hold/8118 "2020-09-04T13:39:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joshua\_Hendricks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Joshua\_Hendricks](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/Joshua_Hendricks)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/ground-proximity-hold/8118/1 "2020-09-04T13:39:52Z")

</div>

Hi  
I am using QGroundControl on a BlueROV2 (Heavy config) and would like to know if it would be possible to keep the proximity from the ground (bottom of the water column) constant  
I have a ping sonar attached integrated into the BlueROV2 and am able to view the depth with pingviewer, but have not managed to integrate pingviewer with QGroundControl

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sudheeshk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@sudheeshk](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/sudheeshk)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/ground-proximity-hold/8118/2 "2020-09-05T11:39:29Z")

</div>

Hi,  
Ping Sonar distance value is shown in QGround control Latest release as range finder.  
Thank you

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joshua\_Hendricks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Joshua\_Hendricks](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/Joshua_Hendricks)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/ground-proximity-hold/8118/3 "2020-09-07T06:34:47Z")

</div>

Hi,  
Thanks for your reply,  
I wasn’t aware that these were the ping sonar values,  
Do you know of a way to control the depth using the proximity to the ground instead of the depth from the surface

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![williangalvani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/6f9a4e/32.png) [@williangalvani](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/williangalvani)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/ground-proximity-hold/8118/4 "2020-09-08T17:58:58Z")

</div>

Hi, that was disabled because it was not reliable enough. The Ping1d can lock onto reflections and has a relatively slow response time due to the internal filtering.

To enable it, you will need to build a custom ardusub firmware with this commit reverted:

> <https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/commit/4b16271b3df99991259ffd314acab7bf7635c1a7>
>
> The rangefinder handling doesn't handle sonar glitches like
> locking on to reflec…tions very well. We will remove the
> rangefinder as an input to the controllers until we can do a
> more robust implementation.