Is it Possible?

tstowe · Jan 16, 2014

Can you take the guts out of a Phantom and put them in another body? Something like a Flame Wheel?

ZonComGMZ · Jan 16, 2014

Probably with a Phantom 1 but you would need to figure out a way to get the battery mounted with the connections in a Phantom 2 or Phantom 2 Vision because they are molded into the shell.

tstowe · Jan 16, 2014

I have the P2. Could you change the connection and put a different battery of the same power?

ElGuano · Jan 16, 2014

tstowe said:
Can you take the guts out of a Phantom and put them in another body? Something like a Flame Wheel?

yep there are people who have transplanted after breaking the body I'm a crash. There are a few differences (pmu/bec is on the phantom motherboard, GPS is unshielded in the shell and compass is hanging down) that you would have to account for, but there's absolutely nothing that's a deal breaker.

tstowe · Jan 16, 2014

Anyone have a Flame Wheel? Do you think there would be advantages? I looks like a larger frame, more rotors...

ElGuano · Jan 16, 2014

tstowe said:
Anyone have a Flame Wheel? Do you think there would be advantages? I looks like a larger frame, more rotors...

Advantages are upgradability - you can fit bigger props, bigger motors, bigger battery, there's room for more payload. The smallest one, the f330 is a bit larger than a phantom.

OI Photography · Jan 16, 2014

There's three models of FW:

330 (quad)
450 (quad)
550 (hex)

It is possible to move your Phantomguts to the 330 or 450 with some minor additions as ElGuano said (or even the 550 if you get more motors/ESC's), and the Phantom motors are the same ones widely sold with the Flamewheels in kits anyway. I'm not terribly fond of using ESC's that don't have heat sinks, even though the Phantom can get away with it, so you might want to swap those out (the 18A OPTO's DJI sells would be fine).

The NAZA is the most valuable piece of kit in your Phantom, so that's the main thing that will save you money to use in the new rig.

The FW's will give you more payload capacity in relation to their size, but not a HUGE amount. But they are a great natural step from the Phantom to the DIY side of UAV's

Bonus Trivia: a little over a year ago, the geneticists at DJI were able to successfully transplant some stem cells from an iPhone in to a Flamewheel 330, and thus the Phantom was born

LeoS · Jan 16, 2014

Wouldn't it be cool if there are alternate shells for Phantom to change its look, have more interior\protected spaces, with more cutouts to lessen the weight, etc..

ElGuano · Jan 16, 2014

LeoS said:
Wouldn't it be cool if there are alternate shells for Phantom to change its look, have more interior\protected spaces, with more cutouts to lessen the weight, etc..

I thought they did make those! http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=5538998011

OI Photography · Jan 16, 2014

LeoS said:
Wouldn't it be cool if there are alternate shells for Phantom to change its look, have more interior\protected spaces, with more cutouts to lessen the weight, etc..

I've often wondered if it would be possible to 3D print a custom version of the shell with desired tweaks and adjustments like that.

LeoS · Jan 16, 2014

ElGuano said:
I thought they did make those! http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=5538998011

You said your phantom could take 2x regular batteries within its body, right?
Yeah I still haven't gotten a good look at it

Pictures + Step by step?

OI Photography said:
I've often wondered if it would be possible to 3D print a custom version of the shell with desired tweaks and adjustments like that.

That will need a BIG 3D printer(!)
But yeah, it's possible... or you could make it in several parts (body + arms), and might as well make the arms removable\foldable for travel.

OI Photography · Jan 16, 2014

LeoS said:
or you could make it in several parts (body + arms), and might as well make the arms removable\foldable for travel.

Bingo

I'd also love to see a clear version of the Phantom shell. At least the top half, but even the whole thing would be cool.

Gizmo3000 · Jan 16, 2014

tstowe said:
Can you take the guts out of a Phantom and put them in another body? Something like a Flame Wheel?

People have done it, as the motors and the NAZA are the same.
tho you'd have to get a higher end GPS puck, as it'd be sketchy to use the bare Phantom GPS and compass.
and the ESC's the Phantom uses are only 18A and bare as well, not quite as robust as the 30A that comes with flameweheel bundles.

But if you tried to use the Phantom GPS, compass and ESC's, you'd end up with a not very elegant, more of a hacked-up looking custom quad.
My advice would be to sell the Phantom and put that money towards parts more suitable for building a flamewheel the correct way.

I'm surprised that at this point, DJI hasn't put out bigger version of the PHantom that users could migrate to.