I've played with the S107 a bit. Its stability and control are incredible, given that it's a $30 micro-RC gyrocopter. My 2 year-old flew it for a bit as well, and aside from some signaling issues (we were outside) she had no trouble with it either.
I finally got the RC10 rolling as well. It took longer than expected because NiMH cells are larger than the old NiCads so modern battery pack don't fit in the car. I ended up removing the battery clip, moving the steering servo, and securing the battery with high-strength velcro. The next issue appears to be that my old electronic speed control overheats from the higher discharge NiMH cells after a while--an issue I never had with NiCads. I'm going to stick with it for now and see how annoying this gets though, as I really don't want to buy a new speed control for what's become a knock-around car. Still runs great however, and I expect to drive it until I break something that can't be replaced.
How's the 325 fly! Cool!
It's an interesting size. For sure, learning to fly for realz with a 60 inch rotor diameter made life a lot more stable -- but obviously a five foot circle of death is a lot more costly to maintain (and terrifying) than a 30 inch one. I flew a micro for a while until i beat it up too bad (can't remember the brand, it was one of the first full-collective micros, maybe an 18 inch rotor). Was pretty finicky to maintain, and definately too unstable to do much more than hover and run around the yard a bit.
Even if it was more stable though, i found the micro to be hard to orient. In a big field, I could for sure do plenty of tricks -- inverts, loops, whatnot -- but found orienting front/back to be hard once it was far enough away to safely move with enough speed to do any trick that needed momentum.
That was the beauty of the giant raptor -- you could ALWAYS tell what direction it was pointed.
I'm also curious how flying it electric would be. I imagine because of power drain, it actually gets harder to fly safely as the pack drains? Less "oh sh*t dump the collective" headroom? On the other hand, zero concerns about having it just completely crap out on you.
You flight guys definitely tempt me.
I have two more land projects I want to do, then I'll probably move into flight. I want to build a scale crawler, followed by purchasing a 2WD short course truck since it seems to be the "in" class for racing (which I've always watched but only done a leetle bit).
After that, though, I want to join the air crowd, too. My dad flew helicopters for the Army, and when he went with me to the hobby store the other day I caught the old feller eyeballing a full collective mini chopper. I'd like to get him one with a Huey body and paint it up like his old UH1H.
Post videos of you guys not wrecking! Give me reasons to make my old man spend his money so I can spend mine, too!
Also - Rabbit - concerning the electrics, I don't know how the flight models work. But since running a LiPo under 3.0 volts can permanently ruin the pack, land models usually have a hard cutoff that shuts off the model at a preset voltage, or failing that, at least a warning alarm to let you know you're running on electron fumes. I am not sure how that translates over to flight models - is the transmitter actually a transceiver? Does it tell you what the pack voltage is? Or is there a failsafe mode that puts the chopper/plane into a slow descent? Way more consequences in the air!
Ugh, let me just state for the record, "Today was not a good day to fly."
I said videos of you not wrecking.
This is one reason why I do often hesitate at the choppers and planes - a mistake, even at 40, on the ground, can mean as little as $5 in parts. Not so much for you guys.
Ok, need help getting this RC Plane (first I've ever dealt with) off the ground and into a tree.
I got the thing glued together and messed with the wiring until it seemed to work, but it seems weirdly off in a way I can't figure out. I have not messed with programming the controller on the PC, so maybe that is the solution.
Pictures of the problem,
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3935/rcplane.jpg
The problem is that when you press up on the right stick, it effects both elevation and turning. Its basically as if the stick is off by 45 degrees as shown in one of those pictures. Pushing the stick in those directions does what is indicated.
Note that nothing is plugged into the battery spot on the receiver and that there is an unused jumper cable that came with the kit. Do I need to plug the cable currently connected to throttle to the battery and then put the jumper on the throttle?
Controllable things include Wing Flaps, Tail Flaps, Front Wheel, and Fan.
Any help is appreciated.
Do you not need insurance to fly in the US?
Yes even models.
I think we have to join an association which requires some amount of buddy box flying, and gives you insurance.
I know my Dad did, but not sure if it was mandatory or not.
Maybe this will help with explaining the problem. Let me know if the table makes sense.
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't really have any idea what you are talking about. My cousin (12 years old) got this for Christmas and I've been trying to help him get it ready to do something. I've never used these planes and neither has he or has the person who bought it.
The plane came mostly together with a few wires sticking into the compartment where the receiver is. I messed with these one at a time to try to get something to happen since there were no directions to tell me where to plug anything in.
I guess one last question is what that jumper is for. it would seem to me that the BATT connector should be connected to the connector that clearly gave power, but when I did that, none of the other functions worked. Do I need to connect that power connector to the BATT space, and put the jumper on the THRO space? I don't want to bust anything.
Lastly, my cousin sparked the receiver when he got it by putting the battery directly onto the receiver. I thought this would have ruined it, but it seems to mostly function. Not sure why it would mostly function and then have this bizarre behavior if something had gone wrong.
Thanks anyway.
That's a pretty impressive fleet, LiquidMantis. What kind of crawler is that?
It's RC update time...
I put in an order last night for the parts to fix my TXT-1, which has been sitting busted since the spring. My boy drove it into the tire of my car and snapped off the upper link mount and ripped several ball ends off the suspension links. Tamiya uses a pretty fine thread on the stock ball ends.
I also picked up a nice Stampede roller on eBay that I'm going to merge with the one I already have. There's been a lot of updates to that kit since I bought mine and I wanted to upgrade to the stronger transmission gears, slipper clutch, etc. I'll be stripping all the goodies off the old Stampede and putting them on the new one.
Anybody have any RC news?
That sounds great! I built my son a Stampede and have been teaching him to drive this summer.
How do you like the slash? Did you get to drive it yet? I see that has a clear body... let's see the paint work!
I've been doing hobby grade rc for a couple years now. I first bought a savage flux for bashing, racing and learning, standing backflips on 4s but 6s was too much power and I couldn't land them, or keep control of it on the track. I switched to 5s and found that to be the sweet spot. Then people around here switched to racing short course so I got a platinum slash 4x4. Then we went indoor for the winter with a corally rdx 10th scale touring, associated r18 18th scale touring, and tamiya M05 for mini racing. I find the mini to be the most fun, not balls to the wall fast like the corally and thus easier to control.
I got a helicopter a couple weeks ago and it's my first attempt at anything but ground based RC but it's been too cold and windy so far to do more than spin the blades. I need to bring it to work and try it out in the auditorium sometime.
I've set aside the money to get one of these when they come available
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/p...
I have a regular 4 channel heli, but this just seems far too cool.
I drooled at the first AR Drone but passed because I was broke adn $300 seemed like a lot of money.
Now I have the money and AM getting one. NOBODY CAN STOP ME!!!!
[size=3]I hope my wife doesn't find out.[/size]
My wife gave me a Champ RTF G-Flyr for Christmas.
My first attempt at flight was a lesson in how a 14mph wind can affect a very light craft.
My wife recorded it for hilarity.
I was lucky. The wind took it over a line of trees into a residential neighborhood. I must've walked a half mile but I found it landed neatly on someone's front lawn.
I now check the wind when I check weather for a flight.
My son got a Tonka Ricochet R/C Replay for Christmas. It's a pretty awesome truck-like vehicle but the battery charge only lasts 15 minutes or so.
Oh and Air Swimmers are pretty cool too.
Not really R/C, but my son and I ventured into the realm of rocketry. Here are some vids of our first attempts at launching an Estes Amazon rocket with both "B" and "C" engines.
We had three good launches before the wind kicked up. We must've hit near a 1000 feet with the "C" engines.
The wind carried the rocket to a clump of trees where it got hung up and was effectively lost.
I was going to recommend an altimeter, but then I saw your spoiler. Welcome to the hobby!
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