LEDs - Gallium Indium Nitride UV, violet, purple, blue, aqua, turquoise, green, white. Also Gallium Arsenide and others. New LED MUSEUM! GaN, InGaN, SiC, GaAs, GaP, GaAlP, ZnSe, flashlight, flashlights.

FLYING FRACK R/C HELICOPTER

Flying Frack* R/C Helicopter, retail $19.99 (www.thinkgeek.com...)
Manufactured by (Unknown)
Last updated 02-21-11

This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have a flashing LED in it, so what the hey. I have only evaluated remote controlled (RC) toys several times before, so please bear with me here.

I love things that fly; that's why I took the bate (I saw it in a catalouge while I was sitting on the john a few days before I ordered it - just like I did with another helicopter some time before this one and another shortly prior to that one), and is why I added a seperate section titled "PRODUCTS DESIGNED TO FLY" on my website.

This is a lightweight, easy-to-fly remote controlled helicoper. It is designed specifically to be flown indoors.

* The word "frack" is a substitute for a toliet word (the "F" word); it is used on the TV program "Battlestar Galactica" - where I believe the word originated as well. Because this is a child-friendly website, I'll use "Frack" instead of the F-word whenever I need to say the name of this product.
Notice too, that I applied a piece of paper with the letters "RA" over the "U" for the product photographs and video clip on this web page.

You've heard the saying "I don't give a flying frack" before?
Well, now you ***CAN*** with this product in your Arsenal of Freedom - er...uh..."arsenal" - there I go thinking about the TV program Star Trek: The Next Generation again.

SIZE

This toy is remarkably easy to use for a helicopter...here's how to get it off the ground:

As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below), and then you can fly this toy.

1: On the underside of the Flying Frack Helicopter's body, there's a small on/off switch.
Use a fingernail to slide this switch to the left (so it moves closer to the"ON" decal).

2: Place the Flying Frack Helicopter on a flat surface in the middle of a large room.

3: Turn the remote control on, point it at the helicopter, and push forward on the left-hand stick.

4: The Flying Frack Helicopter should now lift off the ground. Congratulations, you're now a pilot!!!

For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
This material was missing from the product I received; but I believe it to be a fluke.

Turn the Flying Frack Helicopter and the remote off when finished using them.
Same switches as before, but slide them in the opposite direction this time.

The battery in the Flying Frack Helicopter itself is rechargeable and is not designed to be changed; however the batteries in the remote will need to be changed from time to time.
The procedure for charging the battery in the helicopter itself is explained below the battery changing instructions for the remote control.

To change the batteries in the remote, use the included phillips screwdriver to unscrew & remove the small screw holding the battery door on. Remove the battery door from the underside of the remote control, very gently place it on the floor, use your foot to slide it out the door (front door, back door, patio door, etc.), and very firmly kick it into the garden so the hungry, hungry praying mantids will think it's something yummy to eat and strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Remove the used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Install six new AA cells into the compartment, orienting them so that their flat-ends (-) negatives face the springs for them in each compartment.

Place the battery door back on and screw in that screw you removed earlier.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that battery door into the garden with all those hungry, hungry praying mantids now?

Here is what a praying mantis looks like.
I found this guy on the morning of 09-08-06 clinging to the basket of my scooter.

To charge the battery in the Flying Frack Helicopter, you'll see a domed "door" near the bottom of the upper surface of the remote control's body. Slide this door down until it comes off, and gently pull out the thin cord with a small plug on the end of it.

With the Flying Frack Helicopter turned off, ***GENTLY*** plug this into the receptacle for it on the underside of the Flying Frack Helicopter's body.

Turn the remote control on; a green light should now turn on. When the green light turns off, gently unplug the cord from the Flying Frack Helicopter, turn the remote control off, stow the charging cord back into the compartment in the remote control for it, and slide the door back on.

This RC helicopter is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area indoors, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, trashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toliet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, let my sister's citty kats

or my parents' big dog's ghost uranate (go to the bathroom) on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a large claw hammer in order to smash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again

- candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piñata Central), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoñata (also located at Piñata Central) is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

The Flying Frack is ***SIGNIFICANTLY*** more powerful (ie. it has a lot more lift) than I expected; even with the "censor" paper attached to both sides of its body, I had to back off the throttle quite a bit so that it would not smack into the ceiling.

Photograph of the remote control.

Screen dump from the video clip shown below.

Spectrographic analysis of the flashing blue LED in the product itself.

Spectrographic analysis of the NIR LEDs in the remote.

Spectrographic analysis of the red "power" LED in the remote.

Spectrographic analysis of the yellow-green "charge cycle in progress" LED in the remote.

Spectrographic analysis of the fluorescence of the handle of the screwdriver included with this product when irradiated with the Handheld Blue (violet-emitting) Laser Module.

Spectrographic analysis of the fluorescence of the handle of the screwdriver included with this product when irradiated with the the 473nm Rechargeable Blue Laser.

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the product flying.
This clip is approximately 1.979 megabytes (2,076,808 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than ten minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

YourTube video allowing you to see the NIR LEDs in the unit's remote control.

This clip is approximately 2.3765676544 megabytes (2,589,848 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twelve minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video on YourTube showing a rather brief flight of the Flying ''Frack'' R/C Helicopter.
That music you may hear is the song "Techno Pop" by Kraftwerk; this product is not sound-sensitive, so the audio can be ignored or even muted if it pisses you off.

In this video, you can hear me say "Entering sector zero point five" in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Star Trek'' {it's supposed to be Mr. Spock saying this}, then say "I mean...flight number four", in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Looping'', followed by the Flying Frack lifting off, becoming broken (apparently all by itself), spinning wildly, and then crash-landing.

Because this video is on this website, the two center letters of the toliet word making this product were covered with black electrican's tape on both sides; effectively censoring the very naughty word.

This clip is approximately 3.70634572711 megabytes (3,856,570 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eighteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

I cannot provide these videos in other formats, so please do not ask.

TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on the ThinkGeek website on the morning of 04-02-09, and was received at 10:29am PDT on 04-07-09.

UPDATE: 02-13-11
Product has inexplicably failed in the middle of a flight; therfore, that dreadful " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon must now be appended to its listings on this website.

UPDATE: 02-21-11
I have determined that the problem (the lower rotor blade failing to spin with sufficient velocity) is an internal problem, not something simple that can be repaired with glue.

MANUFACTURER: Unknown/not stated
PRODUCT TYPE: R/C Helicopter
LAMP TYPE: LED
No. OF LAMPS: 6 (1 blue in aircraft; 3 NIR + 1 red + 1 yellow-green in remote)
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off on underside of product
CASE MATERIAL: Compressed foam
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: Unknown-type rechargeable cells (aircraft), 6xAA cells (R/C)
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND PEE-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: For Christ sakes NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
ACCESSORIES: Small screwdriver to access battery door on R/C
WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated

PRODUCT RATING:

Because this product is not intended to emit light, the standard "star" rating will not be used.
It *DOES* have a flashing LED inside its body, so it is at least a bit germane to this website.

Flying Frack R/C Helicopter * www.thinkgeek.com...

Do you manufacture or sell an LED flashlight, task light, utility light, or module of some kind? Want to see it tested by a real person, under real working conditions? Do you then want to see how your light did? If you have a sample available for this type of real-world, real-time testing, please contact me at ledmuseum@gmail.com.

Please visit this web page for contact information.

Unsolicited flashlights, LEDs, and other products appearing in the mail are welcome, and it will automatically be assumed that you sent it in order to have it tested and evaluated for this site.
Be sure to include contact info or your company website's URL so visitors here will know where to purchase your product.

WHITE 5500-6500K InGaN+phosphor 
ULTRAVIOLET 370-390nm GaN 
BLUE 430nm GaN+SiC
BLUE 450 and 473nm InGaN
BLUE Silicon Carbide
TURQUOISE 495-505nm InGaN
GREEN 525nm InGaN 
YELLOW-GREEN 555-575mn GaAsP & related
YELLOW 585-595nm
AMBER 595-605nm
ORANGE 605-620nm
ORANGISH-RED 620-635nm
RED 640-700nm
INFRARED 700-1300nm
True RGB Full Color LED
Spider (Pirrahna) LEDs
SMD LEDs
True violet (400-418nm) LEDs
Agilent Barracuda & Prometheus LEDs
Oddball & Miscellaneous LEDs
Programmable RGB LED modules / fixtures
Where to buy these LEDs 
Links to other LED-related websites
The World's First Virtual LED Museum
Legal horse puckey, etc.
RETURN TO OPENING/MAIN PAGE

LEDSaurus (on-site LED Mini Mart)

This page is a frame from a website.
If you arrived on this page through an outside link,you can get the "full meal deal" by clicking here.