The Robot Hacker

Helicopters Abound

2010-08-02T02:33:00.000-07:00

I got a new helicopter the other day, and now I have some questions:

Can it carry a business card "sign"?

Yes- I started with a paperclip hook and a luggage tag and it flew ok. It also flew ok with a business card wedged between the skids in both horizontal and vertical positions.

What happens if I attach it to a balloon? (taped to skids seems easiest.)

Helium filled?

If there is enough lift from balloon, can I fly inverted?

Air filled?

How does it fly in a mini-van?

Stationary or Constant speed
Accelerating or Decelerating
With helium balloon?

Answers to follow, stay tuned.

Good flight

2009-10-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

First flights with a strong battery. A little on the windy side, but got some good take-offs and at least one good landing. Had to wait longer than I would have liked for the battery to charge up (the manual say about 40 minutes to charge and I plugged it in just as I was leaving for the school to fly it, a 2 minute drive.)

Non-Flight

2009-10-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

I found a post somewhere that someone mentions their battery getting stronger each flight. I tried charging and discharging the battery and it is getting stronger. Hopefully I will get a successful flight in soon.

More learning flights

2009-03-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

My last try I took it to the school down the street (grass field) and tried it with a slightly larger battery.

First try the prop was loose. I throttled up and the prop just spun lazily.

The rest of the time it drifted off to one side or the other and the battery wouldn't hold a charge for very long.

Oh yeah, link to the plane's company page. I also picked up the Night Flight Module and the Aerial Drop Module, but haven't used them yet.

Flight

2009-02-16T23:30:00.000-08:00

I went to fly my plane today, it was too windy so I returned home to apply a temporary patch to a hole in the floor.

At work I studied for Electrical department and learned quite a bit for the rewiring that I need to do around the house.

After work I got to do some nighttime flying in the parking lot at work. I need to work on the trim for the plane. I broke a piece of the battery holder and scraped up the battery a bit. Lessons learned: practice over grass for a while, plane needs trim adjustments.

So much for that idea

2007-09-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Now that it is deep into 2007 I guess I'm not updating my blog as much as I thought/hoped I would.

It lives again

2006-01-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

Time to bring the ol' blog back. Maybe this Time I will post more.

2002-10-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

And don't go here either. (parent website of game.)

2002-10-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Note to self, stay away from this cool game (from MetaFilter)

2002-08-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, and thanks to Cranky for the CSS to do the ramble level thang. <voice type="Cameron from Ferris Beuller's Day Off">Cranky you're my hero.</voice> :)

2002-08-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

P.S. Yes, in the future the ramble setting will be stored in a cookie. Shawrk had suggested to make the ramble text shrink into the string "(ramble)", but we'll see how that goes.

2002-08-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Note to self, test other colors.

2002-08-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, now you can set the ramble level that you want to see. I figured it would be a cool feature so I just added it. And if you don't like it, tough, because its going to stay! But anyhoo, go ahead and try it out, it is cool.

2002-08-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Don't mind me, just adding links to my blog template. :)

2002-08-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll go ahead and start this up before Cranky and Shawrk start harping on me to start a blog.