Fly Your 4s Quad with a 6s Battery! • Automatic Switching • Betaflight Motor Scaling

[@markb9896]

Been doing this for a few years, works like a charm!

[@RCVideoReviews]

What has your experience been in terms of flight time gained or lost using 6s v 4s? Thanks for the field report.

[@markb9896]

@@RCVideoReviews honestly I haven't noticed much difference but as of late I have not been flying much with things as they are in the world. I just wanted to make the leap to 6s without buying new motors. What I can say is I have not had any issues at all, not hot motors, no burned out motors and no desyncs. Overall it has been a positive experience.

[@RCVideoReviews]

@@markb9896 Good feedback. I'm sure people watching this subject will be appreciative of your first hand details. Thanks for sharing.

[@markb9896]

@@RCVideoReviews my only recommendation to those who want to try this is follow the math. Don't go too high on your % as this can cause hot motors or desyncs. Most of all enjoy it because it works really well :)

[@williamcox3852]

Nice reference video for future use. Thanks John. As usual, you make it simple.

[@RCVideoReviews]

Very welcome

[@alloutofdonuts3998]

Great vid! It’s as straightforward as you can get. I saw this feature, pretty useful if you have both 4s &6s builds. Or just want to use 6s on a 4s quad. Interesting about the motor windings 6s vs 4s. Lower kv can take less amps, seems counter intuitive. I’ve read it but I guess it didn’t really sink in.

[@RCVideoReviews]

It works too. I switch between 4s and 6s and don't even think about it.

[@jozainuddin270]

Brilliant talk's, simple & easy to digest through. Only one thing, I think you forgot to do is to take off the props. Top!

[@michaelmatthews6421]

This is great, I learned something today. Looking forward to the follow up video with the test flights

[@RCVideoReviews]

As soon as those 6s batteries make an appearance, I'll get out there and get some material together.

[@dapolyfpv4004]

@@RCVideoReviews hi there ... did you ever get around to making the follow up video??

[@yawnastyfpv6942]

This is a fantastic tip. I’ve been doing this for a few months now and what a timesaver. Keep up the great work my man!

[@RCVideoReviews]

Awesome. I can't wait to try it.

[@FL_Engineer]

This is a cool trick. It's probably cost prohibitive but it would be interesting to see the true 6s version as a comparison.

[@RCVideoReviews]

Honestly, I think if their programming logic is sound there won't be a difference between the two--but without VIDEO EVIDENCE I can't put a stake in the ground and make the claim. If the motor can/magnets are the same, the difference in power will come in matching the Kv and *maybe* the wiring inside. If I were to make a guess--I'd say the difference would be marginal.

[@KrotowX]

4S motors on 6S works fine, thanks to motor scaling. However I'm now more interested about 6S and 4S motor mix in same quad. Because crashes happen, motors burn, shipping is slow and summer is about to end. And I have a dozen of new 4S motors (2300KV, 2600KV) from 4S time in shelf :)

[@RCVideoReviews]

I'm not aware of any method to mix and match on one airframe and I probably wouldn't try. You'd probably wind up making the pid loop crazy.

[@hkagiri5799]

Cannot wait for the flight video... Nice and very informative tutorial

[@RCVideoReviews]

Thanks. As soon as my 6s batteries show up, I'll get out there and do a side-by-side comparison.

[@FPVDiverBomber]

Thank you Sir, can't wait to fly my nazgul on 6s...

[@RCVideoReviews]

Have fun with it.

[@TomTech24]

Thanks you so Much

[@RCVideoReviews]

Most welcome. Hey FYI, we found something out after learning to use this profile in Betaflight. It's possible if you tune your ESC for 4s that it might not like running the same way in 6s. So just throwing it out there, you may want to do some testing to ensure your ESC is happy at either setting.

[@bugsy742]

I learned a lot from this Thank you 🙏

[@RCVideoReviews]

My pleasure

[@HindsightFPV]

Very interesting!

[@RCVideoReviews]

I should get a chance to try it out this week. 6s batteries should be here tomorrow ;)

[@maleenfpv]

Hey! I need to use 6s quad with 4s Battery for just incase..So what should i do? Thanks ❤

[@RCVideoReviews]

Doesn't work that way. 6s quads are going to have slower spinning motors. If you fly with 4s, you'll be highly underwhelmed on the power.

[@vancestechcorner4532]

goes to show software is king

[@RCVideoReviews]

Developers are clever people. Neat option.

[@R.B_B]

Nice videio. About buy a 6s quad with 4s? Do you have a video explaining this use? Just plug the 4s or will be good make some changes in betaflight?

[@RCVideoReviews]

It doesn't work in reverse. You can use a 6s motor on a 4s quad, but the other way around and it'll be a doorstop.

[@gautamsenthilkumar823]

Can bring kv to 6500kv from 1205.5 11500 kv 1s motors to run on 2s battery?

[@outboxfpv4360]

Have you burned any motors using this? Heard amp draw is more ?

[@RCVideoReviews]

Nope. It works great. And I beat the living daylights out of some of the quads setup this way (on 6s).

[@camarochip]

do the pids need to change changing 4s to 6s,i have a 4s roma now and have 6s batteries too,using your video to help me..and i noticed your pids changed alittle during part of the video,thanks.

[@RCVideoReviews]

No

[@larrygrinstead5949]

Just curious, would you need to setup another profile if you also want to use 3s or would it default to profile 1 (4s)?

[@RCVideoReviews]

If you connect a battery without a cell count specified, the last selected profile remains active. I tested this by connecting 6s then 3s--it stayed on 6s. Then I connected 4s, it switched to 4s. Then I connected 3s, it stayed on 4s.

[@kurtzFPV]

Any idea if inav supports this? I'm going to flash it to my 4s rekon5 shortly and it would be awesome if it did.

[@RCVideoReviews]

I don't think it does unfortunately.

[@HindsightFPV]

How does this effect flight times? I know this gets into a weird area of cell count vs total wh of the pack and math over my head. Just assuming I was going to build a long range 21700 pack and had the opportunity to build a 4s vs 6s and then scale in software it's hard to think I wouldn't see a benefit in flight time because of the 2 extra cells. I'm not crazy to think that am I? Higher total wh = longer run time or would the weight negate the benefit of the extra cells..... Lol now I'm just thinking in circles.

[@RCVideoReviews]

I'm planning on a back to back test with one of the quads. It does get a little dicey trying to predict because if you make the assumption that motor scaling results in a similar input watts outcome and volts times amps = watts, then more volts = less amps = more flight time. However; we're adding weight in the form of two extra cells. So...hard to predict. I think performing a couple of test flights will yield the best estimate.

[@AhmadFPV]

Hey, thanks for that man. Do you think it will be the same as real 6s motor out of the box? Performance - heat….

[@RCVideoReviews]

I don' understand your question. This method is meant to slow down the rotation of a higher Kv (4s) motor when connecting a 6s battery. If you already have a lower Kv (6s) motor you don't really use this process. I can tell you that every one of my 4s quads use this technique and they all work fine.

[@AhmadFPV]

@@RCVideoReviews i mean does it perform like real 6s quad out of the box?

[@RCVideoReviews]

Yes of course it does as long as the dimensions of the can, magnets, and pole count are the same, the remaining variable is wind count to determine kv. So as long as you have control of how fast the motor spins you can make it spin at the exact same speed as a “6s” motor which means it will deliver the same power.

[@55amps]

So I have 4s 2600kv motors I can use 6s ?

[@RCVideoReviews]

If you use the configuration I showed, yes.

[@leoponce82ponce]

Are there any flight time improvements from flying 6s battery with 4s motors?

[@RCVideoReviews]

In theory yes since we're holding the load constant and increasing the voltage, amperage should drop in relation to load. I haven't tested it yet though. If you test, let me know what you find out.

[@ericblendson150]

@@RCVideoReviews is there any downside in using 4s motors permanently instead of replacing the 4s motor with 6s motors if you set everything like you explained ?

[@outboxfpv4360]

Is it safe flying 4s quad with 6s lippo? working out this way?

[@RCVideoReviews]

All of my 4s quads are setup to use 6s batteries. I can and do switch back and forth at will.

[@outboxfpv4360]

@@RCVideoReviews Ok have you tried it on emuflight

[@knut2051]

Could you please tell me where you can buy the RunCam 5 Orange Camera Mount suitable for the Roma F5?

[@RCVideoReviews]

I printed mine. Can you 3D print? If not, this camera fits in GoPro Session 5 mounts.

[@knubew]

@@RCVideoReviews A friend could print it for me, but I think he would need the print file.

[@RCVideoReviews]

@@knubew I've printed about 4 different styles and like this one the best: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4255324

[@knut2051]

@@RCVideoReviews Thank you very much for the link. This helps me a lot. :-))

[@RCVideoReviews]

@@knut2051 You're very welcome.

[@romeo88865]

will it have the same power as a 6S motor ?

[@RCVideoReviews]

Excellent question. I avoid offering opinion as fact and have not found a way to accurately test thrust on a scaled motor. So the best thing I can do is offer an opinion. Given everything about these higher Kv and lower Kv motors is the same (bell, magnets, can design) and the only thing governing Kv is the number of winds (and in some cases thicker wire) I’m going to make an assumption that a 4sKv design spinning on 6s voltage with scaled rpm should perform very very close. This is opinion though and not based on any measurement.

[@karolboski321]

pls link for betaflight 4.2.4

[@RCVideoReviews]

shorturl.at/mvxR8

[@Mic1203Mic]

i've done exactly what you did and mine does not change from 4 cells to 6 cells

[@RCVideoReviews]

Is your firmware up-to-date? This is confirmed working on at least 5 drones.

[@Mic1203Mic]

@@RCVideoReviews firmware 4.2.9

[@RCVideoReviews]

Is that up-to-date?

[@Mic1203Mic]

@@RCVideoReviews i have a 3600kv so if i want the drone to be 1750kv its 48% ...i was readinf to the question mark note on betaflight it says to put 66% ... should i try it?

[@RCVideoReviews]

I would work on ensuring bf picks up your voltage changes before working on the next issue. When you have that working, just follow the video example.

[@DronePlayground]

👍👀🇭🇷

[@RCVideoReviews]

;)