RC flyers and Robopets, which ones?
April 26, 2008 1:34 PM Subscribe
I want a buying guide to RC toys.
I've bought several Air Hogs RC fliers. Recently, I bought a Flytech Bladestar, a helicopter-like flier with some (not-so-excellent) autonomous collision-avoidance
Now I want more.
Three part question:
Part One: the second Air Hogs Heli I got I just can't trim. I trim and trim, and it just turns whatever direction it wants. There seems to be a vibration in the rotor shaft.
I bought the thing because of the three-way control (altitude, yaw, and forward-back) How can I get this thing trimmed correctly, so I can control more than just the altitude?
I can weight it, but where? How do I diagnose and correct the lack of trim?
Part two: what other RC flyers can I get? I'm willing to spend up to $200 per flyer, but only if it's not something I'm going to immediately break. They nice thing about the Air Hogs is that they're light enough to minimize crash damage, decently rugged, and what damage they do incur doesn't make them unflyable. And the planes have amazing battery time and quick recharge times. Not so much the Helis.
And they're cheap, so I'm not stressing about "oh crap, what if I brake it."
So for me, a good flyer is: cheap, rugged, all easy to fly, and above all damage-resistant. Indoor is better than outoor. I'm doing this for fun, not to become an rc gearhead, so it needs to fly out of the box, just add batteries, minimal prep other than trimming.
Something that actually requires skill, concentration, or manual dexterity is not a good bet for me.
Part three: I like the autonomous flight (in theory -- in practice it's a bit meh) of the Flytech Bladestar. So now I want an autonomous and rc controllable 'pet", like the Pleo or WooWee RoboWhatever series.
A plus to RoboWhatever is that (I've read) they're programmable and designed to be hackable.
Please recommend the best of the RoboWhatever series, or another autonomous and rc controllable "robopet". By best, I mean capability per dollar, and by capability, I mean both realistic autonomous "behaviors" and programmability.
Or is the Pleo worth the three to six times greater cost than teh Robowhatever series? Or do I want something else? (Not a Lego Mondstorms, I have one of those.)
To sum up: how do I fix an untrimmable Reflex Heli, what other rc flyers are rugged and easy to fly, and what autonomous robo pet is the best deal for my money? Thanks!
I've bought several Air Hogs RC fliers. Recently, I bought a Flytech Bladestar, a helicopter-like flier with some (not-so-excellent) autonomous collision-avoidance
Now I want more.
Three part question:
Part One: the second Air Hogs Heli I got I just can't trim. I trim and trim, and it just turns whatever direction it wants. There seems to be a vibration in the rotor shaft.
I bought the thing because of the three-way control (altitude, yaw, and forward-back) How can I get this thing trimmed correctly, so I can control more than just the altitude?
I can weight it, but where? How do I diagnose and correct the lack of trim?
Part two: what other RC flyers can I get? I'm willing to spend up to $200 per flyer, but only if it's not something I'm going to immediately break. They nice thing about the Air Hogs is that they're light enough to minimize crash damage, decently rugged, and what damage they do incur doesn't make them unflyable. And the planes have amazing battery time and quick recharge times. Not so much the Helis.
And they're cheap, so I'm not stressing about "oh crap, what if I brake it."
So for me, a good flyer is: cheap, rugged, all easy to fly, and above all damage-resistant. Indoor is better than outoor. I'm doing this for fun, not to become an rc gearhead, so it needs to fly out of the box, just add batteries, minimal prep other than trimming.
Something that actually requires skill, concentration, or manual dexterity is not a good bet for me.
Part three: I like the autonomous flight (in theory -- in practice it's a bit meh) of the Flytech Bladestar. So now I want an autonomous and rc controllable 'pet", like the Pleo or WooWee RoboWhatever series.
A plus to RoboWhatever is that (I've read) they're programmable and designed to be hackable.
Please recommend the best of the RoboWhatever series, or another autonomous and rc controllable "robopet". By best, I mean capability per dollar, and by capability, I mean both realistic autonomous "behaviors" and programmability.
Or is the Pleo worth the three to six times greater cost than teh Robowhatever series? Or do I want something else? (Not a Lego Mondstorms, I have one of those.)
To sum up: how do I fix an untrimmable Reflex Heli, what other rc flyers are rugged and easy to fly, and what autonomous robo pet is the best deal for my money? Thanks!
Contact the folks at All E RC... full disclosure: my brother runs the company. They're happy to give good customer service and advice/help though.
posted by twiggy at 1:36 PM on April 26, 2008
posted by twiggy at 1:36 PM on April 26, 2008
Sorry just to throw more links at you but the folks at the RC Groups forums were extremely helpful when I was playing with R/C gliders for a time. There's a forum for any conceivable category of R/C vehicle so you're likely to find someone with experience with your particular model.
posted by asterisk at 7:30 PM on April 27, 2008
posted by asterisk at 7:30 PM on April 27, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by orthogonality at 1:35 PM on April 26, 2008 [1 favorite]