RADIO CONTROL
HOPPER-FLY HELICOPTER
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Somebody set up us the bomb.

Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter, retail $64.98 (www.thingsyouneverknew.com...)
Manufactured by Megatech Int'l (www.megatech.com)
Last updated 10-07-10




This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have flashing LEDs 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) 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 has flashing LED navigational lights, spotlights and searchlights, and it is designed to be flown outdoors - though it can be flown indoors if a modicum of care is used.

Instead of a single main rotor and a tail rotor, this aircraft has two main rotors that rotate in opposite directions - and *NO* tail rotor.
This allows the unit to hover with excellent stability - no unwanted spinning here...but o noooo!!! All it can really do *IS* hover.


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 Radio Control Hopper-Fly 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.
Seven LEDs on the outside of the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter's body will now come on (four that blink and three that remain steady-on) - a movie clip farther down this web page shows this.

2: Place the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter on a flat surface approximately 10 feet in front of you; the sidewalk is a good place - though closely-mowed grass can also be used as a makeshift "heliport".

3: Aim the antenna more-or-less up. Press the buttons on the upper and lower surfaces of the remote to get the helicopter to rise.

4: The Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter should now lift off the ground. Congratulations, you're now a pilot!!!

5: While still holding in the "Hover" button on the upper surface of the remote, release the "Turbo" button on the remote's underside to slow the motor slightly and allow the unit to hover. Since there is no way to manually steer it, you're pretty much at the mercy of the breeze as to where it flies at this point.

For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
Actually, I've pretty much outlined the entire procedure right here on this web page.
Read the instructional materials for the landing procedure...I can't tell you *EVERYTHING* on this web page ya know.

Turn the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter off when finished using it.
Same switch as before, but slide it in the opposite direction this time.



The battery in the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter itself is rechargeable and is not designed to be changed; however the batteries in the remote and in the charger 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 and for the charger.




To change the battery in the remote, use the tip of a ballpoint pen to push in on the small intented circle near the upper edge of the battery door. While pushing with the pen, slide the door back toward the tail of the remote.

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 strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Remove the used 9 volt battery from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle it as you see fit.

Insert a new 9 volt transistor radio battery into the compartment, orienting it according to the polarity markings embossed into the bottom of the battery chamber.

Finally, slide the battery door back on until it stops, press in on the button near the top of the battery compartment with the tip of a ballpoint pen, and slide the door the rest of the way until it clicks shut.
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 change the batteries in the charger, unscrew & remove the two phillips screws from the battery door on the underside of the unit, using a phillips screwdriver that you furnish yourself. Set the screws aside.

Remove the battery door, very gently place it on the ground, and kick it down the stairs so the hungry, hungry carpenter ants will think it's something yummy to eat, drag it to their nest, find it unpalatable, take it to the queen, and have her pee on it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.
Yes, I had a pet rat that squatted over some nuts I brought home to her from the foodbank and then she relieved herself on them!!!

Remove the used C cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.
Be certain to empty that garbage can every now and again; you don't want baby tarantulas or Goliath Beetle grubs (larvae).

Insert eight new C cells into the battery compartment, orienting them so their flat-ends (-) negatives face the springs in each chamber.

Finally, place the battery door back on, and screw the screws back in.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that battery door down the stairs with the queen carpenter ant with a full bladder now?
And aren't you glad you dumped that garbage can into the wheelie bin or dipsty dumpster too?




To charge the battery in the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter, you'll see a thin cord with a small plug on the end coming out of the upper surface of the battery charger unit.

With the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter turned off, plug this into the receptacle for it on the underside of the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter's body.

Press the yellow button on the charger and then release it. A red LED on the unit should now begin flashing.

After a maximum of 10 minutes (appears to be less than seven, but I have not yet actually timed it), the red light will stop blinking and turn off. When the red light turns off, gently unplug the cord from the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter.

Fully charging the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter's battery should give you ~3 to ~6 minutes of flying time.

According to the instructional materials furnished with the product, you should wait 15 to 20 minutes before recharging the battery after you've run it down in order to allow it to cool.



This RC helicopter is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area outdoors, not as a flashlight designed to be thrashed, trashed, and abused. So I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the toylet bowl or the cistern, run over it, swing it against the concrete floor of a patio, use a small sledgehammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoņata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (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; the cannoņata (also located at Piņata Central) is only used to shoot piņatas to piņata parties away from picturesque Piņata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piņata Island {In the episode "Les Saves the Day...Again", Paulie Preztail says "Hey, ever wonder why this park's called 'Mount Erupto' anyway?", then Franklin Fizzlybear says "I think its an old native term. Means 'very safe.'"}), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or inflict upon it punishments 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.

*** VERY IMPORTANT!!! ***
When you first unpack the helicopter, it may appear broken (the main rotor blades may look very "off"), but it's not!!! It's ***SUPPOSED*** to look like this!!! The rotor blades swivel on the X-axis (horizontally); they will "straighten up and fly right" as soon as power is applied to the motor.

There is a thin black wire on the helicopter; this is the copter's antenna. It is absolutely necessary for this wire to be in place so that it can receive signals from the remote. Do not under any circumstances pull or snip this wire off, or you'll be SOL.
To avoid it getting tangled up in the main rotors, you can wind this wire one and a half times around one of the skids and then push the remaining wire through the small eyelet on the back of the skid you wound it on - this eyelet is specifically made for this purpose.

The Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter has what's called an "auto stable" system, in which the product has two main rotors, spinning in opposite directions. It also has two weighted bars above the main rotors. These help keep the helicopter more stable during flight, and helps ensure that even beginner pilots can fly the toy.

The body of the Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter is made of a very lightweight, rather highly compressed foam (known by most people as StyrofoamŪ), so it can withstand crashes and it won't damage bushes, hedges, gardens, most flowers, etc.
The rotors may cause damage to some annual plants (plants without woody stems in specific), but the helicopter's body will not.

The radio control has a maximum published range of 200 feet.
The remote controls for these units have frequencies of 27MHz and 49MHz, allowing two models to be flown simultaneously.
One frequency will have a helicopter with blue rotor blades; the other frequency will have orange rotor blades, so you know which is which right off the bat.

The helicopter is advertised to rise up to 100 feet into the sky; however my testing area is littered with trees and apartment buildings, so I am not able to actually test this for you.

One major thing that pissed me off about this helicopter right off the bat (yes, shortly after I received it and unpacked it) is that there's just two buttons on the remote - one allows you to lift off ("turbo mode"), and the other allows you to hover in place; so you're pretty much at the mercy of the breeze as to which direction the helicopter flies once it lifts off the ground.

The battery compartment in the remote control appears to be just slightly too long; I had to fold up a small amount of paper from an envelope and stuff it on the bottom of the battery to get it to connect; and even then, I had to gently smack it several times while shooting the "flight" movie clip below in order to get it to transmit when the buttons were pressed.
Folding a second small piece of paper over the original (to make the battery fit even more tightly) appears to have been successful.



Photograph of its remote control & charger assembly.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the white "searchlight" LEDs in this helicopter.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the white "searchlight" LEDs in this helicopter; newer spectrometer software & settings used.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the amber flashing LED in this helicopter.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of one of the red flashing LEDs in this helicopter.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the yellow-green flashing LED in this helicopter.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the red LED in the pushbutton in the remote control for this helicopter.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the fluorescence of the orange charging base when irradiated with the Handheld Blue (violet-emitting) Laser Module.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the fluorescence of the orange remote control when irradiated with the Advancedmart High-Powered 365nm Rechargeable UVA LED Flashlight.



Spectrographic analysis of the fluorescence of the orange body of the remote control for this product when irradiated with the Yellow DPSS Laser Module.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of fluorescence of the orange remote control for this product when irradiated with the Wicked Lasers Spyder 3 Arctic 445nm 1W Blue Diode Laser. USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.



WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flashing LEDs on its body.
This clip is approximately 2.19 megabytes (2,207,928 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than nine minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

That sound you might hear is an episode of Star Trek Voyager playing on the boob tube.
This product is not sound-sensitive; the sound may be ignored or muted if desired.



WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the helicopter flying (hovering low; but blown by the breeze) outdoors in our courtyard.

This clip is approximately 2.81 megabytes (2,887,076 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than ten minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

There were 9 other clips made; but they just show the helicopter tipping on its side before lifting off; some of
them also contain some rather juicy toliet words uttered by me that would not be appropriate for this website.



WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the helicopter flying after sunset so you can see the lights on it.

This clip is approximately 4.255 megabytes (4,269,780 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
Movie was taken at 8:16pm PDT on 05-12-08.
Sunset in Sacramento CA. USA on this day was at 8:08pm PDT.



WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the helicopter flying after being hand-launched outdoors in our courtyard.

This clip is approximately 2.418 megabytes (2,427,710 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than ten minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

*** VERY IMPORTANT!!! ***
According to the instructional materials, hand-launching is a rather severe no-no!!!


There were 15 other clips made; but they just show the helicopter tipping on its side before lifting off; some of
them also contain some rather juicy toliet words uttered by me that would not be appropriate for this website.


WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the helicopter flying very low after being hand-launched.

In this clip, you can hear me say "Flight number eight", in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Looping'', followed by the helicopter taking off and flying very low to the ground (even with both buttons on the remote held down).

This clip is approximately 3.67 megabytes (3,718,672 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fifteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

*** VERY IMPORTANT!!! ***
According to the instructional materials, hand-launching is a rather severe no-no!!!




Video clip on YourTube showing the Hopper Fly lifting off and then crashing into a wall.

In this video, you can hear me say "Entering sector zero point nine" 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 nine", in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Looping'', followed by the Hopper Fly lifting off and then crashing into a wall shortly thereafter.

This clip is approximately 2.899984231243 megabytes (2,860,444 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than forteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.





Another video clip on YourTube showing another very brief flight of the Hopper Fly Helicopter.

In this video, you can hear me say "Entering sector one point zero" 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 ten", in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Looping'', followed by the Hopper Fly Helicopter lifing off (though just barely so), losing altitude, and then crashing into the side of a bed.

This clip is approximately 2.476345245555 megabytes (3,173,328 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twelve minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.





Video clip on YourTube showing the LEDs (steady and flashing) on this helicopter.

This clip is approximately 4.000845676642 megabytes (4,262,560 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.












TEST NOTES:
Test unit was ordered from the Things You Never Knew Existed website on 05-05-08, and was received at 3:32pm PDT on 05-12-08.

I see now that I made the incorrect decision (it cannot be steered - not even remotely) - I just want to throw it on the floor, pile some of those pink uranator deodouriser mints on top of it, discharge an entire can of Tag brand First Contact fragrance aerosol armpit deodouriser spray on it, dump a very large (economy sized) bag of Arm & Hammer brand "Odour Alert" kitty cat litter on it, and {spoken like Beavis} THTOMP ON IT!!!).


Photograph of the helicopter being THTOMPED ON - minus the uranator deodouriser mints, the kitty litter, and the Tag aerosol bomb.
(No, I didn't actually destroy it - this is just a humorous photograph!)

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: 08-25-08
I took it out for a test "flight" in the large park across the street yesterday morning.
As evidenced by the video I made, I met with limited success - no crashes though.
I made certain that the flight battery was fully-charged; but still could not get the aircraft to lift very high off the ground even with the "Hover" and "Turbo" buttons depressed simultaneously. I could also hear the motor "cut out" very briefly but frequently in each flight I made on 08-24-08 - even with the helicopter's antenna wire fully extended.

I'm going to replace all of the batteries in the charger this morning, charge the unit, and see if that makes any difference.


UPDATE: 08-26-08
I did replace the batteries, but it was just too windy to "fly" yesterday morning...so I'll try it again later this morning.


UPDATE: 08-27-08
The test flight I made yesterday morning was about as successful as the flight I made a couple of days ago - replacing the batteries in the charger had little or no effect here. The helicoper did take off on its own, but flew very low to the ground and set down approximately 15 seconds later even with both buttons on the remote held down.





PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Megatech Int'l
    PRODUCT TYPE: RC helicoper
    LAMP TYPE: 3mm LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 8 (3 white, 3 red, 1 green, 1 yellow)
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off on underside of product
    CASE MATERIAL: Compressed foam & plastic
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: 8xC cells (charger), 1x9 volt transistor radio battery (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: Decals for customisation
    WARRANTY: 90 days

    PRODUCT RATING:

    R/C rating





Radio Control Hopper-Fly Helicopter * www.thingsyouneverknew.com...






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