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How to Set Up Reversed Propeller Direction for FPV Drones

Reversing your drone’s propeller direction to “props-out” can have some great benefits for FPV pilots, like keeping the camera clean, improved efficiency, and getting stuck less. 

Here’s how to set up reversed propeller direction for your FPV Drone in three easy steps!

Necessary Items & Preparation

To reverse your propeller direction, here’s what you need

  • A computer with BlHeli Configurator and Betaflight installed
  • USB Cable to connect your drone to your computer
  • Prop Tool
  • Battery to power your drone

Make sure to take your propellers off as always before making any changes to the drone’s settings.

Betaflight Settings

The first step is to plug your drone into your computer, and connect it to Betaflight. 

To reverse your propeller direction in Betaflight, the only setting you need to change is in the Configuration tab. This step is a quick one!

Once you’re in the configuration tab, check the box next to the “Motor direction is reversed‘ text in the Mixer. 

BlHeli Settings

Next, close Betaflight and open BlHel configurator.

BlHeli configurator needs your ESC’s to be powered up to change the settings, so after you hit “connect,” plug a battery into your drone.

After powering your drone, click “read setup” on the bottom right of the screen.

By the “motor direction” text, change the setting from “normal” to “reverse” for each ESC. If you’ve already reversed a motor in the past, change it back to normal.

Once you’ve reversed all your motor’s directions, hit “write setup” at the bottom right of the screen.

Testing Reversed Motor and Propeller Direction

It’s important to test out your drone and make sure the changes to the settings have worked to reverse your propeller direction before you go fly your drone.

Close BlHeli configurator, and open up Betaflight again.

Once you’ve connected to Betaflight, go to the Motors tab. 

Make sure your props are off, then click the box next to “I understand the risks.” All this feature does is make sure that you’ve taken your props off so you don’t get injured.

Use the “master” slider to spin all your motors very slowly. Touch your finger lightly to the side of the motor to verify that it’s spinning in the right direction.

If any motor is spinning the wrong way, go back to the BlHeli Settings, and repeat all the steps above but ONLY change the motor direction on the one that’s spinning the wrong way.

Put Your Propellers on with the New Rotation Order

Before you set up reversed propeller direction, your propellers were spinning towards the ends of your drone like this.

Now, make sure that you put your propellers on with the new direction in mind! They should spin towards the center of your drone.

Conclusion

You’re all done! Now that you know how to reverse your propeller direction, give it at try and see if it helps your flying style!

If you’ve read through this and still aren’t sure if you want to reverse your propeller direction, you can read through the pros and cons here.

Make sure to comment with any questions you have, we’re more than happy to help get pilots in the air and test out new features. Let us know whether you use normal or reversed propeller direction on your FPV drone.

Happy flying!