Chopper Fun
by Kevin on Friday, May 25 at 1:19 AM GMT-4
A recent conversation about R/C helicopters inspired me to post about a little toy I have had for a while now. Technically it isn't R/C, its IR controlled, but the Picoo Z is still a lot of fun.
Basically. it is a very tiny helicopter that you can annoy your pets (and spouse) with. I read about these on the net sometime last year and immediately ran to Walmart and was lucky enough to find one. My wife thought I was pretty crazy to be buying myself something from the toy department (hey, at least I didn't have to fight a little kid for it).
Basically. it is a very tiny helicopter that you can annoy your pets (and spouse) with. I read about these on the net sometime last year and immediately ran to Walmart and was lucky enough to find one. My wife thought I was pretty crazy to be buying myself something from the toy department (hey, at least I didn't have to fight a little kid for it).
First the bad things about it:
As I mentioned, it uses IR to communicate so you do have to keep within a reasonable distance and in LOS (or at least be able to bounce a signal to it). It also is only two channel so you really only control lift and yaw. Unweighted the chopper hovers with a slight forward motion. You need to add weights to give it any sort of forward momentum but that then means you have to spin to the left to hover. The reverse is true as well, turning right makes you pick up speed quickly.
Battery time is limited for flight to about 5 minutes a charge due to the chopper being so small. Bigger batteries are heavier, so it really doesn't benefit a ton from a larger battery. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take 20-25 minutes to charge. Honestly, this isn't that bad except you are having so much fun buzzing around you hate to have to wait in between charges.
The last "bad" thing is that they don't all fly perfectly right out of the box. They do require a lot of trimming and fine tuning. You may even need to weight the chopper appropriately or oil the rotors to get optimum performance. This is a bad thing because of the time, but also a plus for the geek in me.
The good things:
This thing is FUN. Once you get the hang of it it has a surprising amount of fine control. I was buzzing the cats (and Kim.. sorry) in no time. You wouldn't believe the looks of death you get when you hover a small helicopter inches above someones head. Try it. Really.
Cats also absolutely go bat shit over this thing. They follow it around the house, they alternate running in fear to hunting it. Our youngest cat has spiked it out of the air once with no problems. They are all much braver when it is sitting charging though.
I like how it charges from the remote. I have had this for about 8 months now and have only changed the remote batteries once. You get a lot of charges off a set.
The most useful "feature" though is the fact that honestly for such a fragile looking little thing, this chopper is TOUGH. I have smashed this thing into the walls and ceiling at quite high speeds when learning that a little throttle can be a lot of speed. While you could crush the rotors easily if you tried, you do get an extra tail rotor in the box just in case.
Honestly, if you see one of these around and you still enjoy toys, pick if up. Totally worth the $40 bucks.
As I mentioned, it uses IR to communicate so you do have to keep within a reasonable distance and in LOS (or at least be able to bounce a signal to it). It also is only two channel so you really only control lift and yaw. Unweighted the chopper hovers with a slight forward motion. You need to add weights to give it any sort of forward momentum but that then means you have to spin to the left to hover. The reverse is true as well, turning right makes you pick up speed quickly.
Battery time is limited for flight to about 5 minutes a charge due to the chopper being so small. Bigger batteries are heavier, so it really doesn't benefit a ton from a larger battery. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take 20-25 minutes to charge. Honestly, this isn't that bad except you are having so much fun buzzing around you hate to have to wait in between charges.
The last "bad" thing is that they don't all fly perfectly right out of the box. They do require a lot of trimming and fine tuning. You may even need to weight the chopper appropriately or oil the rotors to get optimum performance. This is a bad thing because of the time, but also a plus for the geek in me.
The good things:
This thing is FUN. Once you get the hang of it it has a surprising amount of fine control. I was buzzing the cats (and Kim.. sorry) in no time. You wouldn't believe the looks of death you get when you hover a small helicopter inches above someones head. Try it. Really.
Cats also absolutely go bat shit over this thing. They follow it around the house, they alternate running in fear to hunting it. Our youngest cat has spiked it out of the air once with no problems. They are all much braver when it is sitting charging though.
I like how it charges from the remote. I have had this for about 8 months now and have only changed the remote batteries once. You get a lot of charges off a set.
The most useful "feature" though is the fact that honestly for such a fragile looking little thing, this chopper is TOUGH. I have smashed this thing into the walls and ceiling at quite high speeds when learning that a little throttle can be a lot of speed. While you could crush the rotors easily if you tried, you do get an extra tail rotor in the box just in case.
Honestly, if you see one of these around and you still enjoy toys, pick if up. Totally worth the $40 bucks.
