Betaflight motors: protocol, direction, order and a props-off test

Direction commands are DShot commands. If the board is still on OneShot or PWM, the direction section is hidden, because those protocols cannot carry the command. Set DShot150, DShot300 or DShot600, save, reboot, and come back. ProShot1000 is treated as DShot for this check. Disabled is not.

The direction command is sent with the motors stopped. It sets one motor index, or all motors, to spin normal or spin reversed, and then sends the save command so the ESC keeps it. If you only reverse and forget that the ESC must store it, the next power cycle can come back the old way. FlySpark sends the save command together with the direction.

Motor order says which flight-controller output is the front-right motor, which is the rear-left, and so on. The wizard pulses one output at a time. You tap the position where you felt or saw that motor. The result is stored on the flight controller. It does not rewrite ESC firmware.

Betaflight 4.3 is the first version whose firmware supports this wizard. Older firmware gets a plain note instead of the button. INAV has its own order flow on the same card. After you save, use the motor test, still with props off, and confirm the slider labelled Motor 1 moves the motor you think is Motor 1.

The test card warns that motors will spin as soon as a slider moves. Remove every propeller and keep the craft held down. A slider at the bottom is stopped. Raise one at a time. If the wrong motor spins, the order map is wrong. If it spins the wrong way for the thrust you want, use DShot direction, not a swap of two signal wires, unless the protocol is analogue and direction commands do not exist.

Do this on a bench supply or a battery you can disconnect, and do not arm from the radio while a slider is up. Arming and the sliders are both ways to spin a motor. One at a time.

Motor poles are the magnets in the bell. RPM filtering and any RPM readout are wrong if the pole count is wrong. The step is 2 because a motor does not have an odd magnet count. KV is stored so the firmware can reason about the motor. It does not by itself change how fast the motor spins; the protocol, the throttle and the ESC do that.

Bidirectional DShot is what lets the ESC report RPM. The protocol footer says the ESC firmware has to support it. Bluejay and AM32 do. The ESC configurator is where those ESCs are flashed and their direction can also be set. The Filters tab then uses that RPM for the RPM filter.

Turtle mode is the Flip over after crash mode. It needs DShot and ESCs that reverse. INAV shows a turtle power percent on this tab and says the same requirement in the hint. Assign the mode on the Modes tab only after a props-off reverse test has worked.

Motor idle is the percent of throttle the motors sit at when armed and the stick is down. Betaflight allows 0 to 20 percent. Too high and the quad wants to climb the moment you arm. Too low and DShot motors can desync on a hard snap. Change it in small steps.

None of these steps need a radio arm if you use the sliders. That is the safer bench check. Arm from the transmitter only after direction and order are right, the props are still off, and the arming flags on Setup are clear. Then put the props on, outside, and hover once before you trust a reverse you did on the bench.