After going down the BF 4.3 rabbit hole with my smaller builds (baked in ELRS anyone?   ) I finally decided to try it on my daily driver, the rooster 5 inch quad that I love.

I really liked the way 4.3 (RC3 mainly) handled the smaller builds that were underpowered (1S) and the general improvements to the configurator interface.   Given that now we are on RC6 I thought it would be time to try this out on a "real" quad, lol...

Here is the rooster on the operating table.   Some quick specs:

• Armattan Rooster 5" frame
  
• T-Motor PACER V2 - 2207 at 1950Kv
  
• Mamba F405 stack with 40A(I think?) Bl_Heli_S esc.
  
• Foxeer T-rex camera
  
• TBS vtx (cant' remember the model, lol) and TrueRC antenna
  
• Battery backed loud arse buzzer.
  
• Some rando 5" props - again can't remember, they're blue!  Aggressive pitch at 4.3
  
• Crossfire RX
  
• 6S 1300 - 1400 mAh lipos
  

My process to go from 4.2.1 to 4.3 RC6 went as follows:

1. Take screen shots of all the settings from the previous version I was running.
   
2. Take a diff all and save it to a txt file (just in case I need to roll back)
   
3. Remove the props, fire up a small fan (to cool the quad on the bench) and plugged in a battery.
   
4. Using https://esc-configurator.com I updated the ESCs to Bluejay 0.16 at 24kHz - left all settings default.
   
5. Downloaded and installed the new BF4.3 RC6 configurator.
   
6. Plugged in the FC via USB and connected to the new configurator.
   
7. Enter bootloader mode using the "bl" command in the CLI (who presses that button still? lol)
   
8. Updated my FC's target (FURYF4OSD) to 4.3RC6
   
9. Unplugged USB, unplugged battery.
   
10. Plugged USB back in and connected to BF configurator
    
11. Applied the custom config for this FC (happens automatically upon first connection)
    
12. Disconnected the FC from configurator and unplugged USB to power it all down again.
    
13. Plugged in the USB again and connected to configurator.
    
14. Referring to the screenshots I took in step one, applied settings for the ports, RX, etc.
    
15. Applied settings for OSD
    
16. Applied settings on configuration tab (eg: telemetry)
    
17. Set my rates, made sure I set the rates type to Betaflight so my old rate values were compatible.
    
18. 
    
19. Set the receiver tab up correctly for CRSF and TAER1234 channel order.
    
20. Set my modes.  eg: ARM, BUZZER, ANGLE mode.
    
21. Set up my vtx table for the TBS vtx I'm using (SmartAudio 2.1 unlocked)
    
22. Set up the motors tab with RPM filter ON.   Confirmed magnet count on the T-Motor PACERS and left it at the default since that was correct already.
    

And that's where the regular programming stops and the new RC6 settings for me started.

Motors tab.

There is now some new functionality, very impressive actually.  You can now change the motor direction without having to open Bl_heli / Bl_Heli32 configurator software.   You can do this within BF configurator!

Here's what I mean:
Click on Motor direction, select manual and you get this.


Within five seconds I had all my motors spinning in the correct direction.  For me this is "props out", I prefer this over props in.   This is usually just a personal preference.  I seemed to have the habit of collecting a lot of gunk on the fpv cam with "props in" so "props out" is for me. 

This feature is awesome, makes it so easy to set up your motors.
I checked CPU, was at 45%.  I changed my PID loop to "old bugger" 2K.  I set DSHOT to 300.   CPU came down to 35% 

After checking everything and confirming the receiver and transmitter were working well together I did a quick hover in the back yard.

All good.

I decided to leave PIDs and Filter sliders at their default settings to see how it flew.

I was very happy with the performance.  It feels a bit more dialed in and nimble than when I was on 4.2.1.

Here is a my maiden flight on the 4.3 RC6 build with stock PIDS and filters. 


I will update the filter slider now and try again tomorrow to see how it flys.

4.3 is the best build of BF ever. 
Cheers to the devs! 

Apparently they changed the CPU load scaling in 4.3 I think, it's now safe to run with CPU load up to 75%.
see point 8: https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight...troduction

The ability to change motor direction and order easily in a little gui interface is definitely one of my favorite new features.

(05-May-2022, 08:03 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: The ability to change motor direction and order easily in a little gui interface is definitely one of my favorite new features.

Or re-ordering motors.... Saves a bunch of going back and forth from blheli/bluejay and betaflight configurator. 

I've found that the stock tune doesn't seem to handle wind very well on both my 3.5" and new 5", but it's so much easier to tune with all the new options available.