Introduction
Do not attempt to upgrade Betaflight versions without following these instructions! A complete guide with illustrations is available in the Education Shared Drive for partner organizations.
Betaflight is a free open-source flight control software. It has two distinct parts.
- FIRMWARE is the code within the drone’s flight controller itself. Do not change this if your drone is working.
- CONFIGURATOR is the desktop app that provides a graphical interface to modify the firmware.
Betaflight Firmware version 4.3 REQUIRES the latest Configurator Version 10.8 to function. If you are utilizing Chromebooks, DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE. The outdated Google Plugin of Betaflight Configurator is 10.4 and you must use Firmware 4.2. There is a way to revert new 4.3 drones back to 4.2.
Backups of the factory settings are available at: https://github.com/Drone-Sports/Betaflight in the Settings Folder. You can save these settings as a .txt to your computer (using save link as, or copy the code into TextEdit or another editor and save as a .txt file).
Upgrade Betaflight Configurator Desktop Client to 10.8
It is safe to upgrade your desktop Configurator at any time, regardless of what version of firmware you are using.
Download a new version of Betaflight for your computer at https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight-configurator/releases/tag/10.8.0
In your Applications folder, or from a shortcut on your bottom apps bar, double click on Betaflight Configurator icon. You will see a warning about the unverified developer.
On your Mac, navigate your browser to Preferences>Security and Privacy>General. Click Open Anyway, then Open in the confirmation window.
Upgrade Betaflight Firmware to 4.3
PLEASE NOTE: Betaflight Firmware 4.3 IS NOT COMPATIBLE with legacy Configurator Versions such as the Chrome Plugin 10.4 (used by school Chromebooks). If you upgrade to 4.3, you must use desktop Configurator 10.8.
Start Betaflight Configurator 10.8 and connect the flight controller. Click on the Presets tab.
In the Presets area, click on Save Backup, name your backup and remember where it is placed. Saving this text file keeps all preset features available for reinstallation on the flight controller.
With the Preset backup complete, click on the Update Firmware button at the top of the application. Click Auto-detect or click the down arrow to find IFLIGHT_F411_PRO (for Saker DS200 “Bantam” models).
Along the bottom of the page, click on the Load Firmware (Online) button. Next, click on the now yellow Flash Firmware button. The progress bar will show completion percentage of flashing to the flight controller, wait until the progress bar turns green, indicating success. Click to close the following Warning window.
Navigate to and again click on Presets. This time, choose to Load Backup. Then, navigate to your saved back up, choose Open and wait for the progress bar to complete. Upon completion, Betaflight 10.8 should restart. The top left will show the firmware version of the flight controller indicating Firmware 4.3.
Alternatively to loading a Preset, you can copy and paste the "4.3 20cm Training RC1" CLI into the CLI tab. Ensure you copy all of the code into the text entry box then hit the enter key. Your drone will reboot once complete.
Ensure that the drone is sitting on a level surface, then click Calibrate Accelerometer to establish the flight controller as level.
Check your aircraft orientation in Betaflight Configurator Setup tab. Pitch the nose of your aircraft up and the graphic on the screen should also pitch up (the USB plug is located at the rear of the aircraft). If they do not match, adjust your Yaw Degrees setting under the Configuration tab, Board and Sensor Alignment box. Earlier flight controllers use a Yaw Degrees setting of -180. Later flight controllers use a Yaw Degrees setting of 0. If your graphic display shows the aircraft pitching nose down when you pitch the nose up, choose the different Yaw Degrees setting. After saving the graphic display should match the movements of the actual aircraft.
Finally, double check that the Modes tab is set correctly for your radio. Power on your radio and check that your switches are assigned to the desired function. If not, select Auto from the dropdown and activate the switch you want to assign to that function. It should detect and select the proper AUX in the dropdown.
Restoring Betaflight Firmware 4.2
To install or restore Betaflight Firmware 4.2 (for use with Chromebooks) please download the .hex file for Chromebook users and latest 4.2 CLI settings file from the Drone Sports GitHub: https://github.com/Drone-Sports/Betaflight
Select Load Firmware [Local]. Choose the .hex file that you downloaded.
After installing Load Preset and choose the .txt file for the CLI settings.
Check your aircraft orientation in Betaflight Configurator Setup tab. Pitch the nose of your aircraft up and the graphic on the screen should also pitch up (the USB plug is located at the rear of the aircraft). If they do not match, adjust your Yaw Degrees setting under the Configuration tab, Board and Sensor Alignment box. Earlier flight controllers use a Yaw Degrees setting of -180. Later flight controllers use a Yaw Degrees setting of 0. If your graphic display shows the aircraft pitching nose down when you pitch the nose up, choose the different Yaw Degrees setting. After saving the graphic display should match the movements of the actual aircraft.