So as I've been mentioning for a while it's time to turn the pirat into a martian. I am taking my Ghost Pirat build and putting it into a new frame. I just started the work on it tonight and I expect it to be done by tomorrow. 

Considerations that I had to determine:

• What frame to go to?=I went with what is working well for me on my other quad: a Martian III
  
• Can the existing guts be put on the new frame without any rewiring?=It appears so. There is some extra slack on the wires to the ESCs but I don't think they're long enough to cause any problems.
  
• If it's not a pirat any more what should the new name be?=I decided it's a bit of a Frankenstein now so I decided to go with 'Stein for short. This time there wont be any visual tie in unlike the other version of the build and my first build.
  
• Do I want to mount the stack differently?=Yes, I decided to use nylon standoffs instead of my long metal screw solution. This should help me get back a few grams and will help reduce noise I suspect. The biggest risk is the little nylon nuts that mount on top of the flight stack seem a little wishy washy to me but I'll probably glue them in somehow
  

What I've dealt with so far:

• I've had a couple of screws strip out on me... I just used my dremmel to turn them into flatheads and got them out that way. 
  
• Screws are too long for the middle 4 holes in the legs and slightly too long for mounting the standoffs under the bottom late without the PDB installed. I've corrected this by adding an extra nut (similar to the technique I used to space my VTX in the previous stack). This seems to have fixed the issue.
  
• Nuts for nylon standoffs don't seem like they'll stay on: as mentioned above I'll probably just glue them on or something later. It's not the most elegant solution but it should get the job done. 
  

Project Tasks / Milestones

• Milestone 1: Purchase new frame and plan rebuild - Complete
  
• Disassemble Pirat frame - Complete
  
• Strategically unhook wires to make reconnection easy without needing to document - Complete
  
• Store old frame parts as just in case / spares - Complete
  
• Milestone 2: Disassemble Pirat frame - Complete
  
• Dry fit parts on Martian III frame - Complete
  
• Assemble base of new frame - Complete
  
• Assemble, mount, and reconnect wires in flight stack - Complete
  
• Mount motors making sure to use blue on all screws (and some specific frame screws as well) - Complete
  
• Zip tie wires to assure slack doesn't cause potential for damage during crashes - Complete
  
• Mount the rest of the frame back togehter - Complete
  
• Test board sensor alignment and each motor in BF to assure correct assembly and continued safe operation, adjust where needed. - Complete
  
• Milestone 3: Complete reassembly - Complete
  
• Install action cam camera mount - Complete
  
• Put props on - Complete
  
• Strap a battery on and power it up in the field - Complete
  
• Give it a good fly and see how it feels - Complete
  
• Modify tune and filters - Complete
  
• Milestone 4: Test flight characteristics - Complete
  
• Milestone 5: Come back to intoFPV and update photos and tell everyone how things went - Complete
  

Some photos:
Before Picture of "the Ghost Pirat"


The quad formerly known as the Ghost Pirat, now known as 'Stein's guts (This one makes me think of Scotty):


Finished assembly:



Final view before re-maiden flight:



Flight video either during testing, or just after:

Yeah, I love "guts" photos

If your frame has room, you can use 6mm F-F standoffs as nuts.  That works well on a couple of mine.  (You can also use plain metal M3 nuts, but it's easier to strip the nylon screw.

I like the new name.  Now the Pirat truly is a ghost...(wasn't "Frankenstein's Ghost vs the Pirate" the name of a movie or something?)

(02-Sep-2017, 09:33 AM)sloscotty Wrote: (wasn't "Frankenstein's Ghost vs the Pirate" the name of a movie or something?)

I think that one gets aired on terrestrial TV here in South Africa on an almost monthly basis, along with George of the Jungle, Snakes on a Plane and all the other worst movies that you possibly can think of!

I reckon your production of 'Stiens ghost vs Captain Hook will be a blockbuster compared to the predecessor!

(02-Sep-2017, 09:33 AM)sloscotty Wrote: Yeah, I love "guts" photos

If your frame has room, you can use 6mm F-F standoffs as nuts.  That works well on a couple of mine.  (You can also use plain metal M3 nuts, but it's easier to strip the nylon screw.

I like the new name.  Now the Pirat truly is a ghost...(wasn't "Frankenstein's Ghost vs the Pirate" the name of a movie or something?)

I think since it's nylon and nylon that I'll probably stick with same materials and just use some simple school craft glue as a sort of loctite substitute just to give it a touch of security. 

As for the name of the movie... maybe it should be my first video title when the quad is together and I should find a way to make it halloweeny since we're getting closer to October.

OP Updated including video of first flying day.

The new version of this quad is great. Finally I get to try out these awesome EMax motors

I am very happy with tehStein (had to fix spelling and add the teh because it's how I started referring to it... as "the Stein")... This is quite possibly a better flyer than the bumblebee which is what I was hoping for. More importantly the differences are subtle so now I finally have 2 quads that fly similarly!

Left the house with 7 batteries, flew 10, came home with 6. No serious crashes. I am back baby w00t!

Welcome to the Martian 3 club! Mine is a 4" and it's my 1st miniquad. What do you think of the squashed X vs X vs stretched X? 

Only thing I dislike about mine is how the camera sticks out so far, so I MacGyvered a solution out of the MANY broken props I had lying around. What do you think?

(04-Sep-2017, 04:20 PM)McDee Wrote: Welcome to the Martian 3 club! Mine is a 4" and it's my 1st miniquad. What do you think of the squashed X vs X vs stretched X? 

Only thing I dislike about mine is how the camera sticks out so far, so I MacGyvered a solution out of the MANY broken props I had lying around. What do you think?

Hey McDee,

Thanks for the welcome, although I've already been a member and like the frame which is why I picked it for this quad. My first build was in a Realacc Martian III 220. Interestingly enough this new one (The readytosky version that I got on Amazon) is almost a true-x frame which confused me at first because my first one was a squashed X. I don't notice too big of a difference between the handling of the two, at least not enough differences to notice past the difference in props and motors. As I get to know the new one better I'll have a feel for stuff like that though. 

Your camera solution is pretty smart and looks pretty cool as well. Is there any obstruction in the FOV or are they completely free in the feed?

Ah, makes sense that you'd already been a member. Funny that both of our 1st quads were martians! My next build will be a stretched X, I wonder if I'll be able to notice the difference with my lack of experience. I think there will be too many other differences for me to be able to tell...

The 'guards' are not visible in my FOV. I did cut small notches in the bottoms of the props then hot glue the zip-ties so I could zip-tie them together just in case they moved into spinning props mid-flight. I 'totally on purpose crashed' a few times today to test them today and they held up very well! I don't think they would do much in a direct hit though, hopefully I will never test them out like that...

that is a monster so fast and dynamic !