MICRO FLYERS HELICOPTER
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Micro Flyers Helicopter, retail $29.95 (www.brookstone.com...)
Manufactured by Excalibur Electronics, Inc. (www.excaliburelectronics.net)
Last updated 02-08-11




(In reference to the package I received from Brookstone at 3:27pm PDT on 05-20-08):
{sung like the Foreigner song "Feels Like the First Time"}
Feels like a flaaaaaash-liiiight...feels like a FLAAAA-aaaash-liiiight!!!
Feels like a flaaaaaash-liiiight...feels like a FL

BREAK IN 24577
READY.
CONT

?OUT OF DATA ERROR IN 49152
READY.
Let's try that again...as soon as I saw the address on the package, I *knew* it wasn't a flashlight...

CONT

?CAN'T CONTINUE ERROR
READY.
LIST

10 POKE53280,15:POKE53281,15:PRINT CHR$(147);
20840 READ A$
24576 PRINT A$
24577 PRINT A$
40960 END
49152 DATA "{b}Feels like a flaaaaaash-liiiight...feels like a {i}FLLLAASSSSH-{/i}liiiight!!!{/b}"

READY.
49152 DTTA "{b}Feels like a heliiii...copppppter...feels like a {i}HELLLIII-{/i}iccccoooopppterrrrr!!!!!!{/b}"
RUN

?SYNTAX ERROR IN 49152
READY.
49152 DATA "{b}Feels like a heliiii...copppppter...feels like a {i}HELLLIII-{/i}iccccoooopppterrrrr!!!!!!{/b}"
RUN

Feels like a heliiii...copppppter...feels like a HELLLIII-iccccoooopppterrrrr!!!!!!
Feels like a heliiii...copppppter...feels like a HELLLIII-iccccoooopppterrrrr!!!!!!

READY.
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 a short time prior to this one) and also 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.
Unlike the other indoor helicopters I've seen, this one has an all-plastic construction, not styrofoam.

According to the provided instructional materials, its official name is the "Micro Flyers Wireless Indoor Helicopter".


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 Micro Flyers Helicopter's body, there's a small on/off switch.
Use a fingernail to slide this switch to the left (as the nose of the helicopter is facing up) to the "on" position.


2: Place the Micro Flyers 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 Micro Flyers 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.


Turn the Micro Flyers 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 Micro Flyers 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, unclip & 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 swing it down until it clicks into place.
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 Micro Flyers 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 stops, and gently remove the thin cord with a small plug on the end of it.

With the Micro Flyers Helicopter turned off, ***GENTLY*** plug this into the receptacle for it on the underside of the Micro Flyers Helicopter's body (directly underneath the cockpit); orienting it so that the red arrow on one side of the connector faces the front end of the helicopter .

Turn the remote control on; a green light should now turn on. When the green light turns off (advertised at 25 to 30 minutes from a nearly-fully discharged battery), gently unplug the cord from the Micro Flyers Helicopter, turn the remote control off, and stow the charging cord back into the compartment in the remote control for it.



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 housemate's citty kats go to the litterbox 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 cannoņata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piņata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piņata Central), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoņata (also located at Piņata Central) is only used to shoot piņatas to piņata parties away from picturesque Piņata 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.



Photograph of its remote control.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this helicopter.


Spectrographic analysis
Same as above; newer spectrometer software & settings used.

USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.


WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the blue flashing LED inside.

This clip is approximately 2.07 megabytes (2,140,116 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eight minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.


WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the helicopter flying indoors.

This clip shows it taking off from the floor, flying across the room, and crash-landing in the far corner of the room. After the movie camera was turned off, one of the kitty cats went after it, but could not find it because it had landed on the inside of a magazine rack - the blue flashing LED inside the cockpit was what enabled me to quickly locate & retrieve it.

This clip is approximately 0.930 megabytes (955,932 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than four minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.


WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the helicopter and one of the kitty cats interacting.

This clip is approximately 4.17 megabytes (4,258,432 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.


WMP movie (.avi extension) again showing the helicopter and one of the kitty cats interacting.

This clip is approximately 1.02 megabytes (1,086,904 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than four minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

That sound you might hear in the two above clips is the game show "Wheel of Fortune" and a bit later, a commercial on the boob tube.
This product is not sound-sensitive; the sound may be ignored or muted if desired.




Video clip on YourTube showing the helicopter taking off, buzzing around in my room for awhile, then landing.
This flight was made early on the evening of 09-06-09.

This clip is approximately 3.794565 megabytes (3,824,454 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.




Video clip on YourTube showing an attemped flight of this helicopter after repairing the tail rotor ass'y (the motor itself had quit and the entire assembly had been broken off the tail boom after a very naughty kitty cat found it).

This clip is approximately 1.024083451849 megabytes (1,086,230 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than five to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.




This video on YouTube shows a second failed flight attempt I made of this helicopter after repairing the tail rotor ass'y (the motor itself had quit and the entire assembly had been broken off the tail boom after a very naughty kitty cat found it). This time, the poor, helpless, innocent, defenseless, pitiful, sad little baby "helicopopter" just spins around on the floor when a liftoff is attempted.

This clip is approximately 1.024083451849 megabytes (1,086,230 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than five to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.





TEST NOTES:
Test unit was ordered from the Brookstone website on 05-16-08, and was received at 3:27pm PDT on 05-20-08.

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.


UPDATE: 05-22-08
There's something rattling around loose inside the remote control - it sounds like it may be a screw.

Here, let's show you (and let you hear it) with a movie clip with sound:

WMP movie (.avi extension) allowing you to hear the loose object inside the remote.

This clip is approximately 1.14 megabytes (1,280,876 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.


UPDATE: 05-22-08
No, you aren't seeing things.
Yes, a same-day update.
I disassembled the remote, and sure as {vulgar term for feces}, it was a screw rattling around inside the remote.
To wit:



I found where the screw was supposed to go, but the screw socket is stripped - the screw just turns without tightening.
I removed it before reassembling the remote - this will eliminate any chance it might have of falling on the circuit board and shorting something out (and possibly blowing components like transistors, diodes, or ICs in the process) while the remote's power is turned on.


UPDATE: 02-05-11
One of the kitty cats (a ***VERY*** naughty kitty!!!) found and destroyed this poor, innocent, defenseless little baby "helicopopter"; the following (rather graphic) photograph shows you its cold dead body...er...FUSELAGE.



Until (or *IF*) I can repair it, that dreadful "Failed or was destroyed during/after testing" icon will be appended to its listings on this website.
This was one of my favourite helicopters too; if I am not able to repair it, I'll be rather sad.


UPDATE: 02-05-11
No, you aren't seeing things.
Yes, a same-day update.
The tail rotor no longer operates; this means that the helicopter is very probably UNrepairable; e.g. it can no longer be made to fly in any manner. Unless of course, I can find and repair the fault with the aid of a magnifying lens. This is not too likely, but the probablity of that occurring is not mathematically zero.


UPDATE: 02-06-11
I got the tail rotor motor working again; one of the wires had been pulled out. So I reinserted it into the sleeve it came out of, tested it for operation, and held it in place with a tiny dollop of white glue. The next step (probably tomorrow; allowing a full 24 hours for the glue to dry) will be to see if I can get the actual rotor assembly back on very close to the way it's supposed to go.


Here is a photograph showing the repair.
Once the glue has dried, I can pull the excess wire back through the tail boom so that it is in no danger of becoming tangled in or broken by the tail rotor.


UPDATE: 02-06-11
No, you aren't seeing things.
Yes, a same-day update.
I was able to get the tail rotor back on with the aid of some white glue; I'll give the glue plenty of drying time before the first post-repair test flight.
If this is uccessful, that dreadful "Failed or was destroyed during/after testing" icon will be removed.


UPDATE: 02-07-11
The initial repair was *NOT* successful; however, I am attempting another repair and we'll see what happens tomorrow.
The tail rotor repair was ***PARTIALLY*** successful, in that the rotor blades operate correctly approximately 80% of the time.

If successful this time, the repair will ***NOT*** be crashproof or even all that crash-resistant (the original repair was to have the same restrictions), but it should allow me to get this bird off the ground.


This is a photograph of "Part 2" of the repair -- the tail rotor assembly actually affixed to the tail boom.
This photograph makes the repair look a lot worse than it actually is -- the tail rotor ass'y is not nearly as crooked in relation to the tail boom as is depicted in this photograph...yes, the camera does indeed lie sometimes.





    MANUFACTURER: Excalibur Electronics, Inc.
    PRODUCT TYPE: RC helicoper
    LAMP TYPE: Blue LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 1
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off on underside of product
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: 6xAA cells (remote), 3.7 volt Li-Poly rechargeable (helicopter itself)
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER- AND PEE-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
    SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
    ACCESSORIES: Spare tail rotor
    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 a blue flashing LED in its cockpit, so it is at least a bit germane to this website.





Micro Flyers Helicopter * www.brookstone.com...






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