I had to scrounge around for some of the right connectors, but I basically used harnesses that fit into the matek f722 hd, which has two plugs for motor/servo control, and mapped the pinout on the matek to the esc pinout.

I'm not sure if anyone is able to get esc telemetry on an x8 working, I didn't research too far. On the attached image, I'm using

On SH1.0-8P_1 to ESC Powering upper motors:
VBAT
G
CURR
S1
S2
S3
S4

And on SH1.0-8P_2 to ESC powering lower motors:
VBAT
G
S5
S6
S7
S8

http://www.mateksys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/F722-HD_wiring1.jpg

That's quite a setup. I've never done more than 4 motors. How do you handle the power input from the battery? It's hard to see what you did in your photos. They're pretty low resolution. Do you have higher resolution photos?

BTW, what sort of flight times are you getting?

Yeah, tore it down to get some more photos! I'm usually too excited to put stuff together to get good pics haha.

This was my first multirotor that isn't a quad! I've seen a lot of different wiring setups on the cinelifters facebook page, so I just went with something that made sense and seemed easy, time will tell if it's a good idea or not. I used the Matek 12S FCHUB, designed as a PDB for X Class builds, that also includes a beefy BEC which I'm using to power the 2, 4in1 escs, the DJI setup, and the LED's I haven't installed yet. I also attached one capacitor to that PDB, as well as a FETTEC spike absorber. We'll see how it holds up.

Also, re: flight times, I have no idea yet. I'm going to try some RDQ 6s 1800mah in parallel, and I also bought a 3300mah 6s from Quad Standard Labs. Going to put it through its paces this weekend.

Thank you! The new pics are very helpful! This looks like a fun build. I'm considering it, but I just don't know if the flight times will be very reasonable. I've heard 2 to 3 minutes. I'd want at least 5 for something like this.

Yeah, it was a blast, and I'm hopeful that flying the BGH1 and keeping it light vs. the Komodo will get me better flight times. I also have the 2812 motors, and a slew of 7" and 8" props and battery combos, so I'll run some tests and report back here. If flight times are under 3 minutes, it'll really limit the potential use cases.

Awesome, definitely report back. You could even make a video about it.

No video yet, was too distracted on my first three packs to do anything other than be amazed at how cool it was haha! I do have some results from those packs though. I may upload raw video later!

I only flew the 8" bi-blades from hq prop. I have 8" tri blades from them, and the 7" tri blades as well I'd like to try.

1st Pack, 6:54, 2x RDQ 1800mah 6s, very slow crusing in circles, no punchouts, no aggressive maneuvering
2nd Pack, 4:17, 2x RDQ 1800mah 6s, much more aggressive, split s, rolls, etc.
3rd Pack, 4:48, 1x QSL 3300mah 6s, focused on flips, rolls, and yaw to see what was up with the tune. (it needs a dedicated tuning day where I'm not distracted by how big and loud it is!)

I left some juice in the batteries too, they weren't completely toast.

Also, the motors were completely cool, I was surprised how well this handled. My intended BGH1 Payload is much lighter than the komodo it was designed for, so I'm attributing the longer flight times to that. I may grab some 4400mah batteries, but the cost is just so high vs. doubling up on the smaller 6s, not sure if the value is there. The big packs do look really nice though and much easier to swap batteries out.

Awesome results! You're making me want to build one of these!

Added video of the test flights...it's a really rough export and I forgot to record gopro on 1st battery, but google dvr is at the end if you want to check it out. Nothing special though :)

Wow, the sound of those motors.

Haha, same!

I would be interested in seeing if you could run some 3115's just on the top motor mounts with 10" props, then stack some huge batteries on it and see how long you could fly it. If 10" props could fit of course.

I'd need to go measure it and see if I'd have the clearance...10" is def too wide if they aren't above the camera, giving me some ideas though, if it was up a bit higher, running 10" above, maybe angled out slightly to get more yaw authority, it could be a fun build. Would have to rethink my esc setup too.

Alternatively, you could just move to a frame like this:
https://shop.sculptcopter.com/store/#!/products/x811v6