3s vs 4s flight time?

[mrfunk]

Newbie questions...Running a dji flame wheel clone, 2830 1000kv motors, and 30a escs with a 3s 3300 gen ace, 10x5props and getting about 10mins flight time.l want to increase the flight time, obviously a bigger battery will help. Do i just go 4s 3300 or 3s 4800 or 4s 4800? Or just buy a spare and swap it out.... What would you do?

Also how would changing the props to 9x5 help, affect flight?
At the moment it flys well. Really want to use this for flv, and fun.. love flight test btw

 

[cranialrectosis]

10 minutes seems to be about average.

A bigger battery doesn't always help. Bigger batteries (mAh) or higher C ratings or additional cells add weight. More weight means more power to lift therefore the faster power is drawn from the battery. More weight also means more breakage in a crash.

I run 1800, 2200 and 3000 mAh lipos on my FT copters. The difference between the 1800 and the 3000 is about 4 minutes flight time. The difference in how the copter handles is night and day and it suks to muff a flip and crash a 3000 as the copter gets smashed.

If you run 12V LEDs you may also need to step the voltage down for 4S.

You may get better performance from 11" rotors on 3S if your motors will handle them. I would look into that first. The longer rotors tend to be more efficient with power. Going down to 9X5 on 3S will likely feel sluggish and underpowered and won't be as efficient. You may have to go to shorter rotors if you go 4S. Again it depends on what your motors can handle.