A new arrival!

Out there, in the wilderness of the internet I came across a brand new type of flying platform. It was a mutation of a helicopter. There was no tail rotor. But 4 smaller main rotors. This technological advancement is known as a quadcopter, quadrotor or a quadrocopter. Whatever you call it it is great. With balanced rotors this can be a very stable and agile platform. This is great for aerial videography. Just strap on a GoPro or any camera your quad copter can lift and just film. If you are really into it, then even get a gimbal attachment between the quadcopter and the camera and you have a stable platform that records very smooth video. Not only are there quadcopters, there are hexacopters and octocopters! These have 6 and 8 motors respectively.
I will write more when I have time!
Feel free to comment!

Thanks
Sreeteja

I'm back!

Hey guys! I have been away for a while, sorry I was a bit busy.
An update!! I have received my hobbyking 6 channel rc transmitter. This was great! The build quality is great for its price. Unfortunately I couldn't test it out before the accident.
one day i took out my receiver and an unassembled power system to show my cousins. When i turned around to get my transmitter one of cousins, who was 8 years old, decided that it would be a good idea to assemble the power system. But unfortunately it went horribly wrong. The JST connector was pushed into two of the pins on the ground rail. This created a short circuit and a lot of current began flowing through the pins. This made it extremely hot and by the time i managed to pull the battery connector off, the two reciever pins had melted and were infused inside the plastic connector housing. Oh well, it still works though!

RE: Hobbyking transmitter

Still waiting on the Hobbyking transmitter. The delivery is taking ages! Its taken ages so far! I read that it will take a long time, but I didn't realise it would be this long! It's been around a month, and it still hasn't arrived. :( At least I won't have to use the Hong Kong warehouse, because the UK warehouse is up! I'll just have to wait for a bit! :/

Sreeteja

Faller Car System

The Faller Car system is a clever way to add moving cars to your model train layout. It uses various things, such as infra red leds, photovoltaic cells & ambient light sensors to automate the cars on your layout. The cars can run in a loop, or by using electromagnets, can change the car on to a different track. So, thats the intro done, lets look in more detail. It has two key parts, the car & the road

Car

Forward/Backwards movement

The cars using the Faller Car System are driven by a motor. The motor spins forward or backwards, dictating the direction of travel. They use a spiral gear on the motor turning a normal gear attached to the car's rear axel, giving power.

The picture gives a better explanation. This system is used because then the cars motor will not turn if the rear wheels are manually turned. The worm gear jams it. This is important as if it turned, a small electrical impulse could be sent back to the micro-controller, killing it. It also acts as a braking mechanism, creating more friction that if it were allowed to freewheel. 

Turning

The car turns using a clever front axel. It uses a small magnet that protrudes a bit from the wheels. Mounted very close to the road, the magnet follows a magnetic line in the road-that will be covered later. As the magnet follows the magnetic line in the road, it turns using the two points connected to the front wheels. Once again, the picture is better than the written explanation

Automation

The cars have various gadgets and sensors that will allow it to turn on items that would also happen in real life. First, I will cover headlights. The headlights on the car are just LED's. The colour, intensity and position are dictated by their real life counterparts. The LED's are turned when a value from an ambient light sensor mounted on the top, falls below a certain level. The sensor feeds the values to a micro-controller that then know whether or no to turn on/off the LEDs. When the values fall below the set level, the micro-controller will know that it has to turn on the LEDs. This gives the impression that a driver has turned on his headlights because it is dark.

Another feature is the automatic object detection and stop feature. This compromises of two parts on the car, one at the front, and one at the back. The front part is two photovoltaic cells mounted on the front bumper. This will generate a small electric current when light hits it. This current is fed to the micro-controller that knows that is has to stop the motor, giving the impression of 'braking'. It is usually mounted in a pit so that outside light will not cause the car to randomly stop. The second part of the system is the infra-red LEDs mounted on the back. The IR light emitted from the LED's will create the current on the photovoltaic cells. This means that it will work with all the cars on the layout. IR LEDs are used because they are invisible to humans so it will not detract from the scale look and ruin the layout. This will stop collisions if the motors are running at different speeds (another feature). Also, if wanted, when the micro-controller tells the motor to stop, it can also turn on some red LEDs at the back of the car to turn on, creating brake lights.

A picture from the internet that explains the above exactly.

Road

Wire

Imbedded in the wooden baseboards of a Faller Car System layouts are magnetic wires in lots of grooves that direct the cars above it. It attracts the magnet in the cars steering system, directing it.  This will then send the car on a different track. Many more cool features can be added to a road, although I am currently just trying to find them out.

The road without it's overlay on.

F645 transmitter find!

Playing with the transmitter that came with my new RC helicopter, I found out that I could change the sensitivity of the servos and throttle. This is great for new pilots. Why? Let me tell you. A new/beginner pilot will have very sharp, quick responses to the helicopter's movement. Usually they will max the stick which ever way they are going. If they are going forward or to the side, and the sensitivity was on full, the helicopter would shoot forward or to the side. This would probably end up with a crashed helicopter and a very sad owner. Putting the sensitivity down dampens these so the owner is less likely to crash. I recommend putting sensitivity down if you are a beginner. It will also help veteran pilots on new aircraft. You can turn it back up when you feel that you have very good hand-eye coordination and are very confident in your flying skills. Full sensitivity is good for cool trick like a loop-de-loop or rolls. Have fun and don't crash!

Sreeteja

Cool scale addition

After a small bored period after returning from dubai, I was on the Internet and found a cool new way to have moving cars on a model rail setup!! It's a surprise for you lot!!! I will reveal it very soon, with a full debrief of what it is. Hang on in there people!

Sreeteja

Full review of the F645 helicopter.

Okay, so I finally opened up and flew my new helicopter. I will give the flight summary a bit later. Now though, lets have a look at it closer. Here is a picture of everything in the box, the actual helicopter, the 2.4GHz transmitter and a charger.

Everything in the box

The helicopter is fully built so no pre-flight set up. The 2.4GHz transmitter can change between modes 1-4. This is very good for veteran pilots who are used to a certain mode, like me. After selecting sides with the sliders, you select either 1 & 3 or 2 & 4. I use mode 4 as I am used to it. You can also select the sensitivity and the parameters of each channel. The servos on the helicopter are very good and reliable. They turn at a good speed, not to fast or slow. The blades are big and take a good beating.

Close up of the transmitter, everything is reversed due to my camera.

You can also add a camera to the helicopter to film your flight. I did not buy this as I saw no need for me. You may want to buy it from MJX to film your flights, but I like to mount my own if I am flying. There is a button on the transmitter to make the camera start taking videos or even take pictures when you want. The camera module clips on the underbelly of the helicopter and a few wires clip into a small port on the circuit board of the helicopter.

Flight

The helicopter flies very well. Even in the mild wind the helicopter can stay true. The trimming of the helicopter is simple but very hard the perfect, although that may be due to the wind. I could not get a good flight today as it is quite windy, but I shall try later today.

Thats all for now! Thanks for reading