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| a pre-series X-UFO |
In February, 2005, a new R/C flying toy was demonstrated at the Nuremberg Toy Fair: invented by two German boys that could have been my fellow students, built and mass-marketed by Silverlit
from China, the flying object christened "X-UFO" consists mainly of technology already available on the RC model market, but for 1/10 the price!
At a ready-to-fly weight of about 300 grams (comparable to the Ikarus Piccolo), it has four propellers, gyro sensors and a small computer ensuring stable hover flight, all protected by a rather "chic" and supposedly "unbreakable" assembly of EPP rings. There are other devices using the same concept of four rotors and a sophisticated stabilization system, like the "DraganFlyer" and the "Intellicopter", but these lack the protective foam rings and due to their high price (600 to 1000 Euros compared to 120 for the UFO) cannot be considered "toys".
There has been a lot of rumours and discussion about the X-UFO on various forums including Microheliforum and Roboternetz (both in German) - and this thing actually seems to be a "14-year-old's dream come true" and may occur at birthday parties around the world this summer... while also making a perfect backyard toy for experienced model pilots.
For my aerial imaging project, I expected the UFO to be easier to control and less susceptible to technical problems than the Piccolo helicopter, while carrying the ZTV camera to altitudes of up to 100m above ground (according to Silverlit). I ordered one at the beginning of March 2005.
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| My summer 2005 aerial video equipment: bicycle, backpack, laptop, ZTV camera with receiver, radio control, and the X-UFO |
So far I have done only three serious flights with my ZTV camera on board - nothing worth publishing - but some other users at "my" X-UFO forum have succeeded in hovering around and above their houses and even landing on a neighbor's coffee table! You can find these videos in the forum's flight video section (in German).
I also purchased a "Verbatim 5in1 USB Key" video camera from Amazon, which seemed promising as to video quality, frame rate and low weight - but now I can only warn you to buy it; at least I was very disappointed and managed to return it and get my money back. This "Store'n'Go" device is advertised to be able to record 640x480@30fps for about 6 minutes, with sound. What it actually does is record 320x240@30fps plus a flag for the awful eDVRcreate conversion software to interpolate to 640x480 before recompressing to ASF. I found a very useful review of this camera on an Australian techie site.
As of December 2006, my own X-UFO has had every single part of it exchanged several times, because the mainboard and motors failed, the mechanical gyro was replaced by an "X-3D" heading-lock piezo module, aluminium heatsinks were added, and finally I replaced the whole airframe with one made by Hammer from the forums, an "X-Frame Allround". Oh, and it's currently grounded because my lipoly batteries are worn down and I'm too busy to decide which new batteries to buy. It should all clear up after I'm through with the exams... I'll keep you updated.
Basically, my idea is to get fresh batteries, install the X-BL and X-BASE components once they are available, and then use the UFO as a low-altitude aerial imager with good payload capacity, and as a piece of sophisticated and fun "sports equipment" of some sort. It won't interfere with the Sky Surfer as a high-altitude imaging platform though.
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