Hello everybody
In this thread, im going to review the 3.5ch infrared RC Microheli, from tmart.com
First, I have to mention that the price is amazing! for $19.99 with free shipping (you choose your warehouse, they ship from China and United States). Mine came from the US warehouse, and take less than 2 weeks to arrive to Ecuador, in South America.
When it arrives, the first thing I notice is that the shipment was very carefuly packed. Double layer of bubble wrap (with bigger bubbles in the outside layer)
When I opened the wrapping, I was amazed with the box. The quality of the presentation box is excellent, nothing like the cardboardbox you expect from a $20 heli. The clear case includes the heli (locked with a plastic base), the remote control unit, and a USB charger cable, inside a seecret door in the bottom of the enclosure.
The plastic bag that contains the USB charger cable, also contains a spare rear propeller
The remote control requires 6 AA batteries, and there is an heli charger cable in the right side of the remote. The transmitter uses IR light to transmit signals to the heli, thats one of the main issues when trying to fly outdoor.
The heli is very well constructed. The frame is made of aluminium, and it includes the battery inside. Its a 150mah battery, Its an amazing piece of hardware.
The electronics inside contains the IR receiver, the battery charger circuit, 3 speed controllers, and 1 gyro. Having a gyro in an helicopter this size, really helps a lot, making flying so easy for starter ones
Time to fly!
Using the USB charging cable, the heli gets charged in arround 10 mins. You need to notice that the USB cable has a led light inside the connector, that lights up when the charge is ready,or nothing is connected.When you plug in the cable to the charging port of the heli, that led goes off until is fully charged. My first tought that was the charger wasnt working, but it charges fine.
Before fly, you need to power on the heli and the transmitter. There is a signal led in the back of the heli that blink until the unit is bound with the transmitter. It takes arround 20 secs to bind, and also, in the TX, there is a channel selector. From what I see, there are 3 different channels, so you can fly with 2 more friends using the same heli model.
To control the heli, you have 3 channels on the TX: throtle on the left stick and rudder and elevator on the right one. The controls are proportional, but the rudder and elevator are not so responsive. This is good for begginners because it allows to make smooth movements to control the heli
How it flies? Well, its amazingly stable! hovers "hands off", I cant belive it! As I sid before, the controls have very slow response so dont expect to do some crazy acrobatics. For the first flights I recommend to apply short stick movements, until you get comfortable with the flight. When you get used to the heli response, you can try more faster movements
How durable is a $20 heli? You have no idea!!! Im not an expert heli pilot (I came from cars and planes), and I smashed the little heli a lot! and nothing happen. The heli blades and the flybar are made from a very flexible plastic, so it can handle bad landings and wall crashes
To resume:
Pros:
Price (for $20 you cant be wrong), free shipping
Nice package, will make an awesome gift for everybody
Heli almost ready to fly
Very easy to fly, because of the gyro help (hands free flight)
Charge from remote or USB charger
Flight times arround 5 mins, and 10 mins charge time with USB cable
Small size, ideal for home or office
Cons:
Need to supply 6 AAA batteries.... may be a candidate for a lipo transform
2 weeks delivery time, for outside USA shipping
IR remote, can catch easily interference
Short range remote (arroung 5 meters max.)
Almost imposible to fly outdoors
I can recommend this heli 100% for anybody interested in start with helis, It´s a very good starter heli, and better fly and crash a $20 heli, than a $400 450 size heli (belive me, it happens ). I havent searched about spare parts, but you can buy 2 or more for spare
You can get this heli from this url http://bit.ly/139h0ZJ You wont regret
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