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.

MEGATECH AVION MICRO AIRPLANE

Megatech Avion Micro Airplane, retail $99.98 / $41.78* (www.thingsyouneverknew.com...) or (www.amazon.com...)
Manufactured by Megatech (www.megatech.com/)
Last updated 09-08-12

This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but since I love things that fly, what the hey.
I have only evaluated a few remote controlled (RC) flying toys before, so please bear with me here.

This is a very small, lightweight, easy-to-fly remote controlled biplane. It fits in the palm of your hand, and is very light in weight (just 8.4 grams). It is designed exclusively to be flown indoors; its construction is such that you won't gouge holes in walls or break lamps when you crash (note I said "WHEN", not "IF", because you WILL crash it at least a few times while learning to fly it!!!).

And yes, it really is a biplane, not a monoplane.

* This price is from Amazon.com where I ordered on the morning of 04-27-09 to replace the original one that went down the tube.

SIZE

This toy is remarkably easy to use for an biplane...here's how to get it flying:

As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below), and then you can pretend to fly a dragonfly (well, that's what the kitty cat thinks it is).

1: On the bottom of the biplane's fuselage (body) toward the front, there's a tiny on/off/charge switch.
Use a fingernail to slide this switch toward the right (as the biplane is facing you) to the "on" position.

2: On the remote control, turn the "on/off/charge" switch to the "on" position.

3: Hold the biplane level, and push the left hand stick on the controller up (toward the front).

4: Gently throw the biplane forward; it should now be flying. Be certain to aim the remote control at the biplane at all times.

For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.

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

The battery in the biplane 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, slide the battery door on the back of the controller off, 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 for their little insect tummies and subsequently strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

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

Insert four 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.
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 biplane, swing the door on the lower portion of the top of the remote control open (it's on a hinge, so it does not come off).
In the compartment you just exposed to atmosphere

, you'll see a thin cord with a small plug on the end.

With the biplane turned off, plug this into the small receptacle for it on the bottom of the biplane's fuselage (body), toward the front.
This connector is keyed to fit the receptacle on the biplane only one way; please do not force it or you may irreversibly damage the biplane.

Turn the switch on the biplane to the "CHG" position, and turn the switch on the remote control to the "CHG" position. A red LED on the remote should now come on.

After a maximum of 30 minutes, the red light will turn off and a green light will come on. When the green light turns on, turn the remote control's switch to the "off" position, turn the little switch on the biplane to the "off" position, gently unplug the cord from the biplane, stow the cord in the remote control's compartment, and swing the door back closed.

There is no mention of flight time per charge of the biplane's battery; however it will probably be in the range of 7-10 minutes.

According to the instructional materials furnished with the product, you should wait 10 to 15 minutes before recharging the battery after you've run it down in order to allow it to cool.

The Megatech Avion biplane is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, rained on, 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/potentially destructive test 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 transmitter uses IR (infrared) LEDs, not radio signals, so you do not want to fly this biplane outdoors in the sunlight.

The remote control's maximum range is not stated.

Photograph of the remote control.

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flight...well, sort of.
This clip is approximately 3.6 megabytes (3,744,806 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fifteen 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 "Flight number three", in the same manner as the speech synthesizer in the coin-op arcade video game ''Looping'', followed by the diminuitive little thing flying offscreen and eventually crash landing.

It was near sunset when this movie was made; the biplane was kept out of direct sunlight.

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flight.
This clip is approximately 3.4 megabytes (3,497,430 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twelve minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

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 cute & loveable little biplane flying low to the ground.
As I did last night, it was near sunset when this movie was made; the biplane was kept out of direct sunlight.
Our living room is simply too small to fly indoors.

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flight.
This clip is approximately 6.588 megabytes (6,603,650 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty four minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

As I did with previous flights, it was near sunset when this movie was made; the biplane was kept out of direct sunlight.
Much of this clip just shows the apartments across the courthouse; the airplane only appears near the end.
But you can use the video's length to imagine how long it was in the air (~22 seconds in this case).

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the flashing red light on the R/C cum charger.
This clip is approximately 2.2657 megabytes (2,320,190 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twelve minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the Avion lifting off the floor by itself.
I allowed it to crash intentionally because there was insufficient space here in which to execute a turn.
This clip is approximately 0.96798 megabytes (974,972 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than 5:10 to load at 30.80Kbps.

Video clip on YourTube showing the studly little biplane lifting off on its retrofit wheels.

This clip is approximately 1.344323468532 megabytes (1,405,990 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than seven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

Video clip on YourTube showing the NIR LEDs in the remote for this airplane.

This clip is approximately 3.777845365745 megabytes (3,938,666 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eighteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

A video montage showing multiple outdoor flight attempts and one indoor flght attempt of the Megatech Avion Micro Airplane in rather restricted space. This plane was intended for indoor use (it uses an infrared Tx rather than one using radio frequency radiation); it was too windy outdoors this evening to have a successful flight.

That music you hear is the song "Ode to Ziploc the African Albino Claw-Footed Water Frog" by Worm Quartet.

This bipe (R/C hobbyist talk for "biplane") is not sound-sensitive; the audio may be ignored or even muted if it pisses you off.

More info. about the band Worm Quartet on their website at www.wormquartet.com.

This video is approximately 3.309764563372 megabytes (3,505,767 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than seventeen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

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

Spectrographic analysis of the LEDs in the remote control.
These LEDs radiate farther into the IR range than the spectrometer can register; probably close to 920nm.
USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

Spectrographic analysis of the LEDs in the remote control, using a spectrometer that registers deeper into the IR.

Spectrographic analysis of the red "Power" LED in the remote control.

Spectrographic analysis of the yellow-green "Power" LED in the remote control.

Spectrographic analysis of the tricolor red + yellow-green "Charge cycle initiated" LED in the remote control (both dice energised).

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased at the Things You Never Knew Existed website on 07-21-07 and was received on 07-30-07.

UPDATE: 08-03-07
The airplane has a cutoff that will stop the propeller if it loses contact with the remote control for more than one or two seconds; thus the model will not "fly, fly, fly away!" (as Seattle Mariners baseball announcer Dave Neihaus might say when somebody hits a home run) if it goes out of range of the remote.

UPDATE: 08-05-07
I had a successful test flight in the courtyard at sunset last night; the little biplane flew well and did not crash at all. I actually guided it to a very gentle landing in the grass.

UPDATE: 08-10-07
I had quite a few additional successful flights in the courtyard after sunset tonight; my sister was even somewhat interested this time.
The few crashes I had were intentional; I purposefully crashed the airplane so that it would not fly somewhere I would not be able to reach.

UPDATE: 08-12-07
Once again, I had quite a few additional successful flights in the courtyard after sunset last night; this drew the attention of the neighbourhood children, so I said that the batteries in the controller were pooping out and that I had to leave for that reason.

UPDATE: 09-04-07
Yet once again, I had quite a few additional successful flights in the courtyard after sunset this evening.
It was a little too windy, so I didn't make quite as many flights as I made the last time.

UPDATE: 04-19-08
On 04-15-08, I was charging the cute and loveable little biplane on my bed, and the cat stepped on it, breaking the tail (horizontal stabiliser) and causing the rudder to become "stuck" to the left. To wit, here's a photograph of it:

The next day, I was able to repair it with some household tape (it stuck remarkably well to the styrofoam) and "unstuck" the rudder; it appears to function properly now.
Again, to wit, here's a photograph:

UPDATE: 05-15-08
The Avion has quit working (I wanted to shoot another movie clip of it flying); I do not know if the fault lies with the airplane itself or the remote control.

As a result, I must now display the " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon next to its listings on this website.

UPDATE: 05-15-08
No, you aren't seeing things.
Yes, a same-day update.
Turns out there was nothing wrong with my Avion airplane more severe than a dead battery...apparently, the switch on the airplane was misset on 04-15-08 and the battery in it was totally discharged. When the battery was charged fully (until the light on the remote went from red to green), it functioned properly again.
Therefore, the " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon will not have to be used after all.

UPDATE: 05-16-08
For some reason, the airplane's battery is discharging by itself rather rapidly (within a matter of hours), even when I am absolutely, positively, 100% certain that the switch is set to the "off" position.

UPDATE: 05-18-08
From a fan of this website - somebody whos knowledge of electronics I implicitely trust, comes this message:

I suspect that when you left the switch on and discharged the battery completely, one or some of its cells got drained past zero.

The cells are likely to not be perfectly equally charged - they are unlikely to be perfectly matched in capacity or self-discharge characteristics. Discharge until all cells are completely drained can easily have some cells experiencing current in the discharge direction even past the point of those cells being drained to zero.

The "overdischarged" cells experience "reverse charge". That can do actual damage.

UPDATE: 06-15-08
The magnet assembly that is necessary to operate the horizonal stabiliser (tail) fell off sometime after it was packed to be moved; if it is still in the box when I arrive at my new destination in mid-July, a repair is highly probable. Therefore, the dreadful "

*" icon has been added next to its listings on this website. However, if this static magnet assembly is not found, the "

*" icon will be replaced with the even more dreadful " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon.

UPDATE: 04-27-09
The battery in the airplane appears to have gone totally tits-up now.

When the charger is connected, it displays a green LED almost at once - instead of the red LED I'd have expected.

Looks like I'll be needing that " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon after all.

UPDATE: 04-28-09
As stated in yesterday's update, the battery in the airplane appears to have gone totally tits-up now.

The charger now displays the flashing red light, but the battery fails to accept a charge - not even when the unit was left on in "charge" mode overnight. Therefore, the dreadful " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon will be displayed until the replacement I ordered arrives.

UPDATE: 05-01-09
The replacement arrived at 11:16am PDT on 04-30-09.
Therefore, I can now get rid of the dreadful " Failed or was destroyed during/after testing

" icon next to its listings on this website.

The R/C cum charger light is steady red, not flashing red. I connected it to the original Avion (the one that went down the tube), and was presented with a flashing red LED, not a steady-on one. This tells me that the problem is in the airplane itself rather than the charger.

Here's a photograph of the new one, just for posterity sakes.

UPDATE: 05-02-09
Landing gear (weels) are available for the Avion; I wasted little time in ordering a set.

Here's what the landing gear look like installed on this cute, loveable little airplane.

UPDATE: 05-08-09
The landing gear arrived at 4:38pm PDT on 05-07-09.

UPDATE: 05-02-12
OOOOOOO NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
I was flying it in the senior park I call "home", and it went out of range of its remote control and kept going...and going...and going until I could no longer see it.

Since is is now lost, the dreadful "

" icon will have to be used for the very first time on this website -- additionally, the "

" icon will also be displayed because I really did like this little baby bipe.

Video on YourTube showing eight "craptacular" flights of the Megatech Avion Micro Airplane and the ninth where it goes out of range of its R/C and flies far, far, FAR away and becomes permanently lost because the motor does not disengage when it loses contact with its remote control.

You don't see a whole lot of "airplane" in this video montage; at 2:08 begins the final flight where it flew away forever...last I saw of it, my poor little doomed Avion was flying at an altitude of ~200 feet (~60.96 meters) & it was just a barely visible speck.

This clip is approximately 10.046345273232 megabytes (10,228,133 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fifty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

UPDATE: 05-04-12
A replacement Avion is on the way!!! So those dreadful "

" and "

" icons won't be here forever!!!

UPDATE: 05-12-12
The replacement arrived on 05-10-12, so those horrible "

" and "

" icons can now be removed!!!

Here is a photograph of it:

MANUFACTURER: Megatech
PRODUCT TYPE: Remote controlled indoor airplane
LAMP TYPE: N/A
No. OF LAMPS: N/A
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Slide on/off/charge on bottom of product
CASE MATERIAL: Carbon fiber, styrofoam
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 4xAA cells (remote), 3.7 volt Li-Poly rechargeable (biplane itself)
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND PEE-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
SIZE: 8.75" long, 7.50" wingspan
WEIGHT: 7.40g (0.260 oz)
ACCESSORIES: Display stand
WARRANTY: 90 days

PRODUCT RATING:

Megatech Avion Micro Airplane * www.thingsyouneverknew.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.