The other main 8S FC/ESC stack is made by Foxeer. It has a built in regulator that can take 8S input, so you don't need the separate Pololu regulator. If you want to go that direction, that might be a better choice. For charger, I recommend the ISDT Air8.
What a great pair of videos. Traditionally higher voltages are used to overcome transmission line losses however I think it’s a super interesting subject the use of 8S in FPV and especially the potential on long range builds bringing the current down. On traditional builds like you have here you should see some benefit from lower temps on the battery meaning you could see better longevity on a lipo back however I’m not sure the benefit outweighs the cost in the that regard. More than anything my largest concern like as you stated is the chances of big nasty failure in the event of an issue and 8S burnouts could be rather interesting to see. This pair of videos on 8S has been really enjoyable to watch and it’s definitely an interesting subject for sure.
8S on long range has no advatage over 6S. I did the math behind it. Lets assume we take the best li Ion cells I know: Molicel p28a (35A max) or p42a (45A max) You can fly them from 4.2V down to 2.8V per cell. Lets assume an average of 3.5V under load per cell. Everything is about weight and energy density on long range builds. So lets do this according to weight and power the LI Ion cells can deliver: 6s 18650 (~300g) : 3.5 V x 35A x 6 = 735W 8s 18650 (~400g) gives 980W 6S 21700 (~430g) gives 945W 8S 21700 (~570g) gives 1260W 6s2p 18650 (600g) gives 1470W Okay and now you can do the same calculation for the mAh in the cells or Wh. You will see all the numbers between 6s and 8s in are so colse together if you compare the weight and max power and total mAh. I could write very long on this, but just do the math yourself. Now you could argue you could the take for example 5000mah 21700 samsung 50s (35A max) on 8S and reduce the amp draw like this. But then you are still only able to output max 980W with heavy 570g 8s 21700 pack. I'd rather have the 1260W power with the lower capacity molicel p42a to pull out of a dive than losing my quad because I traded for more total capacity. Just my 2 cent
You don't get any battery heat advantage, however the cable from battery to ESC and ESC to motor can be narrower at iso power vs 6S. Or you can get lower losses :)
Actually, I basically agree. I reached out to both Foxeer and T-Motor to sponsor this build, and T-Motor ended up sending product. But if I had known the Foxeer had a built in regulator, I might have tried harder to use it. The Reaper is a great ESC.
@@andrewbt87 Does the matek have power output for camera? Only has a 5v 2a output, wont work with DJI o3 or something. Foxeer has 10v 2a output for camera. Why do you want to go matek in this case?
Thank you for all of the awesome stuff you do and the people you put up with I. The comments. Love you man, you have helped me through all of my fpv troubles and have taught me so much about not only drones but electronics but with a bunch of other things. Your Info is all most always perfect and no matter what the haters say you are the Fpv know it all and they should respect the effort, fact checking, and research you put into these videos as all of the complaints and corrections mentioned here are either form people who don’t understand basic language structure or those who have so much money and time that they believe any path to the completion of a goal is a good one. Love you and all that you do!
Foxeer makes both a 30x30 and a 20x20 fc rated for 8s. They also use an mpu6000 gyro. Also, fettec makes a sick 30x30 8s esc, you just need to use betaflight passthrough in their cofig to set it up with a bf fc. Of you can run a regulator as Joshua did, and run a fettec or kiss fc with it. Also, gnb makes an 1100 mah 8s pack now. Lastly, xnovo has made a 2208 1500kv motor for years. Actually, the only part we were missing for 8s was the battery, as iflight and others have made 8s capable esc's since 2021.
iFlight makes a 12v micro bec that takes 8S. You can join 2 of these together with a servo pin header to increase the output and get 12v 4amps. Small but powerful bec setup I use on high power fixed wing setups.
hey man I built the 8s build I used foxer repper 30 x30 esc and flight controller both 8s rated and all I can say is wow I also used cricket 2306 1750 kv it is super responsive and I am in the process of turning and getting some flight footage thanks for all u do I am in my 6th year flying acro and I love it
The key part for this 8S build are the motors. I tried T-Motor F60 2207.5 1750Kv w/ scaled motor output limit and they sounded "off" with lots of weird whirring and sporadic stuttering. Tried XNova 2208 1500Kv unscaled and they seemed underpowered vs F60. You really need the experimental F60s 1500Kv. YMMV.
I have an 8s build with xnova 2208 1500kv and find they work great. I can't tell if they are underpowered, but they have so much thrust on 8S. Maximum current draw on 8s is 120A. I figure some 6s builds draw ~150A. But I guess the whole 8S idea is to lower the current draw, reduce heat, have more thrust and go easy on the Lipo's. The only other 8s motors I can think of are the xing 2506 1500kv, flyfishrc 2506 1550kv and amax 2306 1500kv. I only tried the xnova 2208, but next are the amax 2306 1500kv.
Foxeer has a dual BEC 8S FC so you can skip the external voltage regulator. My 8s Build came in at 610g without an action cam. I used the 1100 battery from gnb and RCinpower smoox 2306 1350kv. There's also a fetek 2207 1100kv
@@JoshuaBardwell I built towards maximizing motor and prop response. The 1350kv hit the 450mph prop tip speed sweet spot for the 4.8-4.9" props that match the "ideal" disc loading for around 600g sine I choose to just use the 03 for recording. Obviously I subscribe to CR as well but the quad rips so something is right. My hover is around 1310 throttle on gf4934's
When playing with 18650 LithiumIons I built for more voltage to help drive the amperage down to achieve the same wattage. They were bigger 10+ inch builds but the performance was pretty good for 6s2p and goal was to go 8s2p. Had to use APD X-class escs, the iflight 8s stuff was a pain to solder to. Have barely flown in the past 3 years while building a car project. A good 4:1 ESC rated for 8s is a tempting thought but if one side fails it is a full new 4:1 that has to be purxhased versus an individual ESC. Bundling wores/space is a pain as well. Using matek big 8s rated PDB helped with some of power distribution issues but that was macro quad life not mini quad life.
@@JoshuaBardwell stator volume less than 2208 but more than 2207.5. Maybe better for 5.2-5.5 prop size over 4.9-5.1. They are same size as the fpvcycle motor, which some people still like for 5inch.
Removing the ground cable from the ESC-FC cable is not necessary if you run a separate cable from VBat to the BEC, since the ground is always common. Having it run separately adds a little risk of picking up noise, causing more errors in FC-ESC communication, so I prefer keeping it in the connector, only removing the vbat line.
Clean build, although for the regulator wiring I'd suggest just cutting the power wires of the ESC to FC cable in the middle and soldering both sides straight onto the regulator. It looks like they'd be more than long enough and you wouldn't then have an extra set to solder onto the battery terminals.
Fantastic video, Joshua! Thanks a bunch for the tutorial! 😃 And you know what... I never saw any advantage of using 6s. But 8s... I'm kinda enjoying it! Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Those T-Motor ESC BSC011N03 mosfets are only rated for 30V, 8S is 33.6V and more with spikes during flight, that's on the limit and can blow even with 6S sometimes, on 8S you're trying your luck, they could handle it but who knows how long.....
What are the 50W for?😅As far as I know don't need a 4A 12V voltage regulator, unless you're powering something new that I'm not aware of. A VTX for example, uses less than 200mA at 12V for a 500mw output, most receivers draw less than 50mA. Another trick is to simply wire the rest of the stuff to the balance connector at a lower cell count, since the draw is so little, it will not noticeably make the battery out of balance during the duration of the flight. As a dumb example, I run 5 micro servos and a receiver out of a crappy 1.5A liner bec at that is at 5V, so about 7.5W. Forgetting that, this is cool I hope higher cell counts catch up. A lot of weight can be saved in wiring at higher voltages. I don't main quads but I like that you are the few that are actually still pushing the limits of performance.
A digital vTX can pull as much as 10 or 12 watts. If you're sure you'll stay under 20 ish watts them you could use a smaller regulator. I like to have a little headroom.
I’ve picked up a set of stanfpv ducts for my 5” to just mess around with after watching a chris rosser video on the effects of ducts. I’m amazed how much more of a locked in feel it gives me but it’s foresure not as nimble as a naked prop version. Now I’m wondering if building a 5” 8s ducted version will bring back a few things lost in the 6s ducted version but add the braking drag and control the ducts add. 🤔
Hey just asking. Why not use a 2306? I'm big on speed and performance. I always over power my motor land or air from my personal experience a 2207 is more of a race motor I don't think it's going to handle that heavy frame and battery right Im almost definitely sure a motor might go. It might work on that build because hey that t motor . But 2207 on 8s on a freestyle looks a little 😱 s'mores anyone
Holy cow you're right! You can select LiHV 8S but as soon as you plug in a battery, it immediately goes to LiPo. The highest you can go is 4.30 volts on standard LiPo program. Geez. I'm sooooo opposed to ToolkitRC chargers though. I have blown up so many of them.
@@Mupshot yeah, I TOTALLY plan to do that as well. I have a bunch of old 5" sized 4S batteries, that never get used for anything. That being said, along with all of the build parts, I ordered (1) 1100mah non-HV 8S...then when I realized I couldn't even charge the darn thing, so I went back an ordered the ISDT Air8, along with another 1100mah 8S(so now I have 2). Needless to say, It got expensive REALLY quick. Especially for something that doesn't serve much of a purpose, other than being cool as SH$!
Hey Josh, at that short a distance the difference between 12 and 14 gauge in current drop is going to be mA even under load, so I would really not worry about a 2 gauge difference.....
Hola Joshua siempre e soñado con un Quad mas potente que 6s y este video cumple mi sueño! lo unico que nose si se necesitan unas helices especiales para poder hacer un punch sin que parta la helice o se rompan
What about the skystars f722 mini hd pro. It claims to go to 10s. BTW I tried it with dji fpv motors worked fine. Using copper wire gives you the best performance in my testing
Good afternoon Joshua, love your videos! Is there a way to contact you directly? I need your help with a 03 air unit and goggles 2 please let me know, thank you Robert
Came for the Thumbnail, stayed for the Golden nut and wondered if you cannot forgo the $25 and just tap off lesser voltage from the balance lead? Would the electronics drain enough current during the flight to cause significance imbalance/wear to the battery?
You need to get a lighter battery, that 1350 is way too heavy. It would have so much more acceleration if it wasn't carrying that weight. Try 2 450mha 4S battries in series instead.
So... if I change my ESC so it can handle 8S I can run my T-motor T100 1100kv at ~32000rps with an 8S battery without a problem or I will burn down my motors due to Hight temperature? 8S is out of Specifications for those motors.
I have the ISDT Air8. It charges 8S but not 8S HV. I also used the ToolkitRC M8, but I've blown two of them up so I kind of don't want to spend another $50 on another one.
Next video: Buying a new charger because all you chargers only go up to 6s. Yeah, when you said “Look at that balance lead!” my first thought was add a new charger to the price of this build. The biggest difference I can feel between 4s and 6s is the amount of sag especially when your 6s batteries are new. Not sure how much better that can get going to 8s but imagine as the batteries get older, they continue to not sag as much longer through the life of the battery.
You can use 2x 4S batteries with an XT60 In-Series Connector (the kind that is 3 XT-60 connectors with no wires in between). If all your batteries are already 4S, then you don't need new batteries OR a new charger. All you need is this series connector.
You mention the motor being ideal for 5" setup, but doesn't going to 8s change things? Can you run a smaller motor with the same prop load because heat is reduced? This might also be better for running at higher speeds.
Also, is it really needed to have that stack nut when the Volador uses threaded press nuts under the frame for the stack screws? Technically it would seem this would eliminate that need.
@@JoshuaBardwell Ahh. I see. Wait!? You opted for a 20x20 stack when it had space for 30x30? lol I missed that in the video and assumed since it was a JB build it had 30x30 😀
8s? I just finished building everything to 6s and now I'm looking at 8s, but I don't know of a 8s charger or a 8s battery board for your balance plug. Thanks for the video and information about a 8s quad.
ISDT PC-4860 is a 4 battery 8S parallel charging board that I have had and loved for some time now. But 80% of my 8S builds the past year have been with 2 XT60s (or XT30s for the 3-4” builds) in series and I have had a very good experience with just running 2X 4S batteries. 1. Way easier charging to 4.4V/cell! 2. Keeps everything much cheaper and simpler. 3. Also lighter as you can use smaller batteries! I use 300-450mAh for 3-4” and 550-850mAh for 5-6” I wish I didn’t get 8S chargers and stuff, it was a waste of time and money.
