Shendrones Squirt Micro Cinematic 3"

My goal is to build a safe(er), versatile and reliable micro AP rig, capable of capturing some challenging shots I've imagined since I first strapped a camera to an RC heli back around 2010. Inspired by Robert MacIntosh' work work with micro HD builds. When I saw the Squirt and read Andy Shen's writeup I couldn't buy it fast enough.

Nurk recently published an excelent writeup of the frame, as well as several videos. The timing was really serendipitous for me, having just received the frame, and the content has validated a lot of my notions about this build.

A unique feature of this build is a rudementary clean/dirty division between the motors and camera, using rubber FC standoffs. My hope is that the weight of the battery and floating top plate will deaden vibrations from the motors. Pictured here with more literal dirt on the dirty side. Time will tell if this works as hoped.

Update - clean/dirty idea didn't last. I was having some nasty yaw twitching and removing the soft mounts fixed it.

Parts Discussion

I printed my own ducts from PETG, instead of the prescribed Nylon. I'm impressed with how tough they are, but only time will tell if they are strong enough.

The frame is luxuriously spacious, accomidating a 30x30 stack with room to spare. There are also 20x20 mounting holes, which are not pictured on the product page. I wish there were a few more holes and notches for mounting - I love my zip ties...

These motors just seemed like a safe, readily available choice with a 7mm stator. In retrospect it was crucial to use motors with prop nuts, not T mount, to facilitate modified 4" props, which are HQ 4x4.3x3s.

The BrainFPV Radix FC is my favorite FC and has provided great results in two other builds. For this rig, I expect the Brain OSD's framing tool will be valuable.

I probably should have used a more modern BLHeli32 ESC, but I decided to try the Spedix IS30 due to cost, user friendly 5v and VBAT pads, and slimmer design. Sacrificed current sensing, but voltage should be sufficint for now. I probaby won't use it again, but ESC designers, if you're listening; please put some pads on your 4 in 1s!

Video soon! Testing now with the Session 5, but moving to the Hero 7 soon. I'll post here, or subscribe to my YouTube.

Thank you for checking it out!