Graham's Blog

Been looking into this for a while , because as any S6 user knows the flight time is very poor.

Part of this is the cells that come with the S6 can be pretty hit of miss and they perform really badly in cold weather.

Also part of this is due to the low voltage landing value which is 3.60 per cell and so 7.2 volts for the pack and battery is classed as 0% and lands.

I think Wingsland set the value at 3.60 as the cells are low c rating and will die off pretty quick at the end and to save it falling out of the sky they set a cautious low voltage landing value.

So I figured a way to fool the battery level.

Pics below show battery at 7.4volts and app still thinks it is at 100%.

Yes puffy clapped out lipo, but only ised for testing like this and not flight before I get spammed with dont use dangerous lipo messages!

The small changes I made were a tight squeeze into the S6 and due to a stupid mistake on my part I blew something, before I got around to a test flight.

Just waiting for some components to arrive to fix it and try a test flight.

This mod not so much for the stock batteries as I think they not good enough to take any lower than the stock low voltage landing value, but more for mods for external batts and also maybe a dual pack 18650 pack.

I tried that before but only runs for maybe 2/3 mins before those type of cells hit the magic 3.60 landing voltage, this mod might make those cells more useable.

Will update with info for those who wish to try if it works…..

Got hold of some Emax 1106 V1 6000kv motors that had the 9mm prop hole spacing and therefore could fit the S6 props and clamps.

First off I done a amp test with original motors vs the Emax ones.
Wingsland :-

So with the original motors pulled around 16.amps at about 120 watts

Below tested again with same fully charged battery

And Emax 1106 V1 6000kv Motors:-

So pulled around 29.3 amps at about 215 watts!.

So figured this was going to be far worse flight time with these.

Anyways,  tried a flight and took a fully charged battery and took off and the S6 went from about 100% battery to 70% after 18 seconds.

Then at around 60% it flipped over in the air and fell into the grass and I could smell burning!

I expected the ESC had fried, but actually looks like the 2 front motor plugs had melted on the esc board.

This is prob due to the original wingsland wires that I soldered the emax ones to are a lot thiner and could not handle the amp draw.

Soldering the emax wires direct to the esc board is a option , but I doubt it going to improve flight time over the original S6 ones.

So would class this experiment as a total fail and as expected, and only tried as someone once told me you get better flight time with the 6000kv emax motors on a S6. That is definitely not true.

There are some 3800kv 1106 motors around, but to use them cant use the S6 props and clamps and would not be as foldable.

So we are pretty much stuck with the S6 original motors here……

Oh well need to re install the original motors and fix the plugs and hopefully esc is still okay 😉

update….

Turns out this did kill the esc board, so either a faulty mosfet or one of the motor control chips….

Have fun!

Judging from the amount of messages from my blog I still get about the S6, it seems a lot still have them or buy them. Even now after 3 years since it was launched and abandoned by Wingsland themselves.

Even now the Wingsland apps have all been removed from the Apple store and so you need a Android phone now (unless you already have the ios app on your iphone), and its still available to buy new on banggood.

Strange its still selling enough to justify them still being made over in China.

Why I ask myself is why do I still get so many messages about this 3 year old quadcopter?

More so as most reviews of it were so bad when it came out.

I guess in part it seems great value for what you get. A great looking quad and with a 4k camera, and its very small when folded up.

But as always the 5-6 min flight time (if you get a good battery with it) and only then if you fly in warm weather and light wind. Flying this in cold weather you be lucky to get 2/3 mins.

Would I buy one in 2020?? Prob not as you can no longer get the R6 controller as they not made anymore and flying with a phone is totally crap in my opinion and also the apps have been dropped from Apple store. And also for the price of a S6 and a controller (if you can get one) is gettting close to a second user price of a DJI Spark, which although only takes 1080p video, is if I am being honest still a better bet, as you get a quad with a 2 axis gimbal around 12 mins flight time and is rock stable inside and outside and when arms of S6 are unfolded is about same width size (although a lot deeper in size)

Also if you have the budget there is also the DJI mavic mini, but thats a big jump in price of course.

But I will still use mine from time to time and the S6 has been a intresting project to me and got a lot of fun and hair pulling at same time.

I am hoping one day battery technology actually changes and makes possible a better density that can fit inside s6 and give something like 10 mins flying time.

But lipo chemisty seems to be stuck at what it is now for years, so dont hold your breath 😉