FLYTECH™ R/C DRAGONFLY
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You have no chance to survive make your time.
This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have two flashing blue LEDs in it, so what the hey.
And this is only the second R/C product I've reviewed; the X-Smallest Copter was the first.
When I first received it, I "heard" the song "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot with a slight alteration of the lyrics:
I like big bugs
And I cannot lie
That big 'ol dragonfly
That swallowtail butterfly
Only a former entomologist (one who studies insects) could think of lyrics like these.
This is a lightweight, easy-to-fly remote controlled dragonfly. It is fairly large (over 16" long with a 16" wingspan), so it can't easily become lost if you fly it into bushes or if the wind blows it away.
The "R/C" this time refers to "Radio Controlled" (rather than "Remote Controlled" using infrared LEDs), so it can indeed be flown outdoors - assuming of course the weather is not rainy and/or windy. It is designed to be flown in calm weather (a sunny day would be preferable, but is *NOT* necessary). It can also be flown indoors if desired. It must not be flown outdoors if the wind speed exceeds 4mph, and if flown indoors, a room size of no less than 16' by 16' is recommended.
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This toy is remarkably easy to use for an R/C dragonfly...here's how to get it flying:
As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below), and then you can fly your robotic dragonfly.
You will need to attach the antenna to the controller before you can begin using the dragonfly.
To do so:
Screw the antenna clockwise into the top of the controller until it stops turning. Do not overtighten.
1: On the bottom of the dragonfly's "thorax", there's a tiny on/off switch.
Use a fingernail to slide this switch to the "on" position.
Two blue LEDs in the dragonfly's eyes will now come on. A movie clip farther down this web pages shows this.
2: On the remote control, press the "on/off" button and then release it; a blue LED will start blinking when you do this, and extend the antenna.
3: Place the dragonfly on a flat surface with a long stretch of clear area ahead; a sidewalk or a long hallway is a good place. Orient it so the tail faces you. Or hold it level by the middle of the body and gently push it forward as you would with a paper airplane. Do not actually ***THROW*** it; just give it a gentle push forward.
4: Aim the antenna of the remote at the dragonfly (whether you started from the ground or gently threw it). Gently push the left-hand stick on the remote control forward. NOTE: Push the left stick once first to arm the dragonfly and again to start the wings flapping.
5: The dragonfly should now take off from the ground or fly away from you. Congratulations, you're now flying a dragonfly!!!
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
THIS PART IS IMPORTANT!!! Turn the dragonfly and remote control off when finished using them.
Same switches as before, but slide the one on the dragonfly in the opposite direction this time - press & release the power button on the remote as you did for turning it on.
The battery in the dragonfly 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.
To do this, unscrew & remove the phillips screw from the battery door on the underside of the unit, using a small phillips screwdriver you supply yourself. Set the screw aside.
Remove the battery door, very gently place it on the ground, and kick it into the garden so the hungry, hungry praying mantids will think it's something yummy to eat and subsequently strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.
Remove the six used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.
Insert six new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces a spring for it in each chamber.
Finally, place the battery door back on, and screw the screw back in.
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 dragonfly, follow these steps:
1: On the controller, push down on the magnetic perch. The cord compartment door will open.
2. Gently pull the end of the cord from the compartment.
3. Hold the dragonfly firmly by its body, and then insert the cord into the socket on the rear underside of the dragonfly's "thorax" - the fat part of the body where the wings attach. Pay close attention to the orientation of the socket and the connector on the cord.
IMPORTANT: Do not force the plug into the socket – this can damage the socket. The exposed silver contact points on the side of the controller plug should line up with the cut-away side of the socket.
NOTE: The controller is equipped with a sleep feature. The LED indicator will turn off if the controller is idle for more than 1 minute. Therefore, when charging
FlyTech™ Dragonfly, the LED indicator light might turn off, however, the controller will continue to charge the dragonfly. To turn the LED indicator light back on,
press the power button on the controller until the LED indicator lights up again.
4: Press the power button on the controller to turn it on. If the connector on the cord is properly connected to the socket, the eyes on the
dragonfly will pulse slowly to indicate that it is charging. Note that the eyes will blink rapidly if there is no signal from the controller.
When charging the dragonfly, make sure the cord from the controller is properly connected to the socket on the dragonfly.
When the dragonfly is finished charging, the eyes will stay off.
Fully charging the dragonfly's battery should give you ~10 minutes of flying time.
According to the instructional materials furnished with the product, you can expect ~10 full charge/discharge cycles before you need to change the batteries in the remote control/charging unit.
The FlyTech™ R/C dragonfly is meant to be used as a toy, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, trashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toilet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, let my housemate's citty kats go to the litterbox on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, pee on it, or perform other indecencies on it that a regular 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 range is up to 50 feet (~15 meters).
The remote control uses radio signals; there are two channels (channels A & B) that will allow up to two dragonflies to be flown at the same time. In this case, the color of the insect is your cue: the dragonfly comes in green and blue; they occupy seperate channels.
It has "beginner" and "expert" modes available; set it to "beginner" when you're first learning to fly the dragonfly; switch it to "expert" when you have mastered the rudiments of flying. The difference appears to be in how fast the tail rotor spins (in either direction).
Until I learn how to fly this giant insect, I will not have a really decent movie of it being flown.
Photograph of the remote control.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED eyes in this dragonfly.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in the dragonfly's remote control.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED eyes in this dragonfly; newer spectrometer software & settings used.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED eyes in this dragonfly; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 450nm and 500nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 471.222nm.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in the dragonfly's remote control; newer spectrometer software & settings used.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in the dragonfly's remote control; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 440nm and 490nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 464.920nm.
WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flashing blue LED eyes.
This clip is approximately 1.6 megabytes (1,840,524 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than ten minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flight - well, sort of.
I really need three or even four hands to do this:
Two to operate the remote control, one to aim the camera, and one to launch the insect forward.
This clip is approximately 2.1 megabytes (2,255,984 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fifteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Video on YourTube showing the flight again...well...sort of.
This clip is approximately 4.8 megabytes (5,004,716 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Video on YourTube showing the dragonfly being hand-launched and briefly buzzing around a baseball field in Federal Way WA. USA.
This flight was made late on the morning of 06-19-09.
This clip is approximately 3.7251 megabytes (3,793,078 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 it in other formats, so please do not ask.
In this clip, you can hear me say "Entering sector two point one" 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 twenty one", in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Looping'', followed by the dragonfly being hand-launched and buzzing around a baseball field for a short time before crash-landing.
I cannot provide any of these clips in other formats, so please do not ask.
This is a screen dump (yes, it's really called that) of the video showing the dragonfly shortly after launch.
And this is the baseball field I made the above flight in.
I had a truly fan-freakin-tastic flight *IMMEDIATELY AFTER*
I had turned the camera off and put it back in my bag; the video
clip shown on this web page is totally miserable by comparison.
Video montage showing the FlyTech™ Dragonfly being hand-launched and having a couple of rather "craptacular" flights at the socker field in Celebration Park located in Federal Way WA. USA.
These flights were made late on the morning of 05-29-12.
Temperature at flight time was 57°C (13.89°C).
"Methinks" that it's time to replace the wings with the furnished set of spares -- if I can actually ***FIND*** them of course!
This video is approximately 0.91133453338 megabytes (939,575 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than four minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide these videos in other formats, so please do not ask.
TEST NOTES:
Test unit was ordered on 05-01-07, and was received on the afternoon of 05-07-07.
Product was made in China. A product's country of origin really does matter to some people, which is why I published it on this web page.
I know that TSI has some gun control horse puckey going on and that they should be boycotted by flashlight users, but this was just too cool (or "kool" or "kewl") to pass up. Besides, this isn't a flashlight or other product specifically designed to generate light.
UPDATE: 05-09-07
I received a nice email late this afternoon, containing the link for www.mydragonfly.info, where other owners of this cool toy can find tips & photographs of it, and even participate in a forum about it.
UPDATE: 06-30-09
I took the Dragonfly out for a flight late yesterday morning.
The flights I had with it weren't spectacular, but weren't horrible either.
MANUFACTURER: WowWee
PRODUCT TYPE: Remote controlled dragonfly
LAMP TYPE: Blue LED
No. OF LAMPS: 2
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off on bottom of product
CASE MATERIAL: Carbon fiber, styrofoam, plastic
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 6xAA cells (remote), 3.7 volt Li-Poly rechargeable (dragonfly itself)
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND PEE-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
ACCESSORIES: Spare wings, spare tail rotor, tail stabiliser
SIZE: (Wingspan) 16"
WEIGHT: ~28g (1.0 oz)
WARRANTY: 90 days
PRODUCT RATING:
Because this product is not intended to emit
light, the standard "star" rating will not be used.
It *DOES* have LED eyes, so it is at least a bit germane to this website.
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