Brando Tiny USB Rechargeable RC Helicopter prettifies your desk, might fly
By Vladislav Savov 
posted Jul 22nd 2009 8:19AM
posted Jul 22nd 2009 8:19AM
[Thanks, Louie]
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Intra-office memos just got more interesting...
I was thinking the same thing... string tied to landing gear with a roach clip on the other.
tail rotor looks suspect though
This is better than the Picoo Z because it has forward/reverse thrust like a typical 3 channel helicopter for $40 does.
Only thing I hate, is that counterrotational blades on heli's like this don't allow it to fly as stable as the traditional single blade + counter rotating rear.
and if you crash it even once, the damage will throw things so off balance it may never fly again.
Crapgadget!
Not at all.
No, my friend has a similar one and it's pretty fun. It flies well but it has a couple major weakpoints: 1) It is IR controlled and therefore line-of-sight only, and 2) It's not very durable; hair a dust and carpet fibers get in the rotors pretty quickly and after a few days, it became hard to control
usb charge the helicopter while the remote still eats 10+ AAs
That's my only complaint about my Air hogs(?) chopper I bought similar to this years ago. The remote takes up so many batteries, I would have preferred a direct power supply hookup to it. I won't be using it outside anyway, as the slightest breeze knocks it off course.
Who needs to go outside anyway?
I have a PicooZ which charges directly from the remote, even the charging wire can be rolled up and put in a compartment inside the remote. This is a genious idea.
USB charging makes sense for many things, but i think RC helicopters aren't one of them
# Two-way charging for Helicopter: 1. USB Cable 2. Remote Control
Brawndo RC Helicopter: The work productivity mutilator
Brawndo! the thirst mutilator
Brawndo's Got What Plants Crave
What ARE electrolytes?
It’s what they use to make Brawndo!
They are acolytes for the electric god.
I have this exact RCH. It lasts about 3 minutes before it needs recharging again.
RC Helicopters have two flags:
1) They are so damn hard to manage.
2) They can be broken so easily (and read 1)
Think in the Titanic.. expensive, one trip and thats it. :-/
Yep, but the bigger they are, the easier they are to fly. Strange, but true. Small helis are very lightweight, and so tend to be put off course by even the slightest of gestures or errant wind. Also, since they're so small, their parts have to be machined/manufactured with extreme precision, and that's not usually the case, leading to weird behavior.
If you really want the experience of RC helis, fly a nitro powered .50 size one. They're the most common, and handle really well, compared to small electric helis. You can hover one quite steadily in fairly strong winds. They can also do all the required tricks (flying upside-down, backwards, rolls, flips, kaos, etc). Bigger than that are .90 size, but those guzzle fuel like there's no tomorrow.
However, they're also waaaaaay more expensive than the gadget above (total expenditure at least $1000), so you'd better like flying RC helis.
I officially request a detailed review of under 50 buck RC Helicopters.
seconded
throw a flash drive on it.
get those TPS reports to your boss in style
The USB connector to the helicopter should be magnetic so you can lift off without having to manually unplug it ;-)
In my experience, the Picoo Z remote doesn't eat batteries. The fact that you need to CHARGE THE HELICOPTER WITH THE REMOTE eats batteries.
This USB charging heli would take the work load off the AA batteries but, I think it woulda been smarter to make the remote and the heli rechargeable and then have the heli charge from the remote.
It would be more fun if you could actually control it from your computer with IR attached to a USB port. You could use a mouse or keybord to control the flight while indoors. Next upgrade could be a small camera that could trasmit video back to the computer so you could fly completely by computer and attack unsuspecting victims.
If you were going to fly a RC device you'd want to have RF, not Infra Red because then, you could go around corners out of line-of-sight.
There is a head mounted device that lets you fly from a 1st person perspective, but these lil copters are much too small for that.
In ten years when that technology becomes more affordable, You'll be damn near able to build your own UAV drone.
First, let me say that the coaxial blade helicopter is inherently more stable than a single rotor system; annoyingly so in these small models. The flybar dampens any movement of the rotors, including those caused by the pilot via the transmitter. The free floating upper rotor and flybar provide for greater stability in a hover, at the expensive of maneuverability / forward speed.
Adding to that stability is the fact that helicopters such as these inexpensive ones have no cyclic control. This means the only forward / reverse that it is capable of comes from that vertically mounted motor on the tail. By pushing the tail up or down it tries to initiate forward or reverse motion, which the upper rotor and flybar dampen, so even if you can actually get moving, it will not be for very long or very fast. There is no side to side control at all.
To get a helicopter of this size with more movement, you're looking more in the $100 range, such as an E-Flite Blade Mcx. If you want full collective pitch single rotor capabilities, then around $200 or more depending on size. You’ll definitely need flying lessons and/or preferably a lot of simulator time before being able to handle a single rotor bird.
And now for a quasi-review.
I don't have this helicopter but I have flown some like it, except for the USB charging capability they were identical. They hover exceptionally well. You could even put your hand under it and land on your hand. However, as I said above, forward speed was almost non-existent. Rotational control on some left a lot to be desired. You would end up being only able to control the altitude, and were just along for the ride on where it wanted to go. The slightest wind will make it move, climb, and dive. It will be fun to play with for a while, but will ultimately end up being a desk decoration.
I also agree with solmar, the bigger they are, the more stable they are. The cost increases exponentially in relation to size though.
so useless.....yet so want!!!
Recession antidote time!
26.50 w/ free shipping from ebay. I have two, I've had other indoor helicopters and these are the most stable onces I've seen. Very durable too.
Hey, I got a demo flight video testing the gyroscope inside. Please check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0tlt-XPVGE
I have had one of these for a little while now and have been getting used to flying it not too bad. It's come down a little hard a couple of times but nothing major- nothing broken and after a charge (it would turn off and seem to discharge the battery after a hard landing so you'd have to charge it back up again but then it would be fine) I'd be flying again. Just in the last couple times I've gone to fly it everything seems to work but as soon as it gets going and is a couple of inches off the ground the copter goes dead. It's like the battery isn't fully charging or holding the charge. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm stumped.