I’m probably wrong, I read DV4S rather than DV4, my mistake.
I cannot confirm or deny that the DV4 has a built in anti-spark.
Personally I’d still prefer using a loopkey because they’re almost as reliable as the wire you use with them (at 12s) while being more repairable than a “proper” anti spark switch. That said, I wouldn’t blame you if you prefer the function and form of a working switch over having to use a loopkey.
It’s generally less effort to replace a broken AS switch with a loopkey than it is the other way around.
First off, leave the normal connector on the VESC, the VESC should have an XT90 male which should have the pins exposed like this:
The XT90S (anti spark version) only comes in a female connector where the male side pins are inserted when the connector is connected:
(XT90S female on the left, XT90 male on the right.)
An XT90S (or even the non anti spark female version) should be placed on the battery to avoid any risk of a battery short if the pins are damaged.
These are all different ways to turn on and off your vesc during/after use.
With an anti spark switch on your battery, you’ll be capable of plugging in your battery to turn on your board but that creates a sub-par experience having to remove an enclosure just to turn the board on. An external anti spark switch like the flipsky one you mentioned is the most elegant option but has a higher risk of failure compared to a loopkey. Also when loopkeys fail they are generally repairable with comparatively low effort.
All of these methods are different ways to manage power to your VESC, I’m biased towards loopkeys since I’m generally more concerned about function over form. A loopkey creates a pretty reliable physical way to disconnect your battery while being at risk of killing your battery if you forget the loopkey inside your board, a built in AS creates a very low power draw “sleep mode” that uses very little power, (unless you’re using a ubox, actual numbers on power draw in sleep mode) I’m not entirely confident in how an external anti spark switch works, that’s likely a better question for somebody smarter than me.