R/C Vehicle For The Desktop

Slide100 writes "Just found the coolest desktop toy while browsing my latest R/C Aircraft magazine ( It's a 4" long tracked R/C vehicle with plenty of torque and a 200 foot range. Four frquencies are available (racing, anyone?). You can also get a single board B/W UHF transmitter for remote telepresence! Check the website for more information"

Comments

Nice... but

[snake_dad]

can you cluster them with only 4 frequencies? :-)

On a more serious note: the site seems to be slashdotted already. Mirrors anyone?

Re:Office spy...

[TallG]

Its better than that, you can use it to make sure that your friends and collegues have not got any cooler gadgets than you have - a geeks dream..

Same thing at non-slashdotted (yet) site

[jedwards]

http://www.desktoprovers.com/

Re:Same thing at non-slashdotted (yet) site

[gad_zuki!]

Whats with the guy in the photo? It looks like he's trying to escape the webpage through that circle.

Misleading Subject

[Controlio]

Heh, when I first read that subject line, I thought that RC had actually came out with an RC car that drives around on your computer's desktop, with a wireless control like a normal RC car. :) Plug a little RF receiver into a serial port, and you're good to go. With a little thought and innovation, it might even be a decent replacement for a wireless mouse (though the little RC car tire skid marks might be a little distracting on a webpage...)

Now THAT would be a great time killer... and would finally force me to erase that cute little sheep.exe program.

How realistic?

[JohnTheFisherman]

Inspired by NASA Planetary
Exploration Missions, Plantraco's
Desktop Rover is a Telepresence
Capable R.O.V. (Remote Operated Vehicle) that enables the user to
have a little taste of what it feels
like to actually explore an "Alien Landscape" remotely!

I hope you can turn off the 20 minute delay feature.

Learning experience

[cavemanf16]

Now this sort of simplistic toy would be a pretty cool project to put together from kit form. I'm thinking a big boys set of Lego's type kit. That's what my computer has become to me, another way to have fun while building and constantly changing the design to try and make it better. I have one original Lego design I could still put together in several alternative configurations because I spent SOOO much time refining it, I memorized the design. Anyone have any links on cool kit projects to build little toys like this that are sold specifically as electrical/mechanical learning kits? It's been awhile since last I've played with toys. :(

Obligatory Google Cache Link

[H0NGK0NGPH00EY]

Site down. Found at the Google cache here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:TWUhtrUri0E:w ww.plantraco.com/product_dtr.html+&hl=en

God bless Google

For great justice.

A helva lot cheaper...

[SnapShot]

than some other options if you want to crash them into the Iraqi desert.

mirror (aka karma whoring :)

[cetan]

http://www.necrosys.net/mirrors/desktop-rover.html

It's just the page linked to from the article, nothing more.

Specs?

[marcop]

Anyone have any specs on the thing? I would like to know:

How fast does it go?

How much noise does this thing make? It's small but is the noise low enough so that it can be used for simple spying.

How big an incline can this thing handle?

Options you're not considering

[Bonker]

Of course the perverts have made their posts. Yes, we all know this little guy has the power to land you in sexual harassment prosecution hell.

There is a use for this guy that you may not have considered.

Cabling. This is the number 1 most dangerous job that most techies will face, what with asbestos insulation and danger of falls etc. Putting a hook and a small light on this guy for cable running purposes will completely eliminate that small bit of danger and give techies more time to have fun doing things like rock-climbing, sky-diving, and bungee-jumping.

Prefer race cars? 1/43 scale is available:

[Saurentine]

Search Ebay for "Epoch" and "1/43". (Ebay seems to be down now, otherwise I'd link to an auction of one of these.)

The Japanese maker's web site is http://www.rc-mtech.com but it's in Japanese, so I can't read it.

You'll find tiny, roughly 4" long (110mm long, 48mm wide) race cars that are the latest R/C rage in Japan. They're just a little bit larger than a "Hot Wheels" car. They're fully proportional, so they steer smoothly, and they come in many frequencies, so you can have your own little table-top NASCAR circuit going if you want. They look like Asian rally cars. (Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline, etc.)

The winning bids for these Epoch 1/43 scale race cars on Ebay are usually about $110-$130.

Shameless Self Promotion

[derrickh]

I'm working on a short action film using nothing but RC cars. It's called MiniMall Security and the teaser is at http://www.diabolicalfilms.com.

ObSlashdot..ummm the server it's on runs Linux.

D

Still more cool r/c desktop toys

[cloudmaster]

Manufacturer page: http://www.kyosho.com/cars/kyod37x1.html
My preferred supplier: http://www.towerhobbies.com/promos/00so/kyod49sm.h tml

Real mini R/C cars. That little tank thing looks like some low-quality stuff. These things are fairly fast and have a real suspension, but they do cost a shade more than the crap tank and are a whopping 5" (instead of the tank's 4")... They've got 7 frequencies, though.

Obvious uses

[Col. Panic]

Womens' dormitory/lockerroom "surveillance"

Password capture a'la Sneakers

Chasing pets around the house

Making the geek next door jealous

Producing amusing video's to send Bob Sagget

corrected supplier page

[cloudmaster]

Sorry, part numbers on that supplier page don't seem to work. Go here http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0097p.pgm and search for "mini-z" with "kyosho" as the manufacturer... Lists some hop-ups and the cars themselves.

I prefer the kind that shoot

[Wee]

I love RC tracked vehicles. I have no idea why. Anyway, the little guys are neat and all, but if you want the kind of desktop toy you can really play with, get an RC tank that actually shoots.

The T90 is a wee bit big for most desktops, but it plays well on the kitchen counter and the like. Dogs and cats don't mind them unless you shoot them... in which case they don't like you to get the tank down off the shelf at all. The little Airsoft pellets do sting, and leave a mark: my wife ended up with a tiny welt (completely accidentally, of course).

The model itself is very well done and it's easy to put together. No painting needed, though. Contrary to what Dan says (at the link above), the tank does work in grass. It'll climb a stack of books, up to about a 60 degree incline. It'll go right over a bunch of bananas, a 2x4, Doc Martens, etc. Works great on tile, kinda good on carpet (turning isn't so great on carpet). The pellets have a decent range. You can can them bounce off your neighbors house across the street for instance. (Nothing works better for keeping the young kids off your lawn, BTW, than a couple pellets headed down their direction.)

Anyway, fun stuff. You can also get red and green 6mm paintballs for your tank as well. I haven't tried them yet. My wife is upset enough without having to see little red and green splotches all over the house. Maybe for Christmas, though...

-B

Re:I prefer the kind that shoot

[Daniel Rutter]

> get an RC tank that actually shoots

Aww. There's me thinking "I should probably pimp one of my R/C tank reviews now", and wouldn't you know it, someone goes and does it for me. Whadda guy.

What the heck; I'll pimp another one of 'em anyway:

Tamiya 1/10th scale R/C Sherman tank

Much bigger than the little Plantacro critter, much more powerful than the Marui Airsoft tank, though of course also much more expensive than both of them put together. Tamiya even have a version with turret control, flashing guns and sampled sound effects now (see it here), for people who just can't spend money fast enough.

There are also some nice Russian gentlemen who'll sell you a model tank big enough to ride around on, for $US2500 or so.

Mirror

[Marvin_Runyon]

There is a great mirror located Here:
http://www.necrosys.net/mirrors/desktop-rover.html

Much faster response time, seems this server won't be slashdotted as quickly as the original.

I want a BIG one

[BroadbandBradley]

with a mulching mower, GPS, proximity sensors, a few cams,audio, all over 802.11. then I want to control it using my Playstation via usb-802.11 on my tv set.

then I could mow the yard from my tvset using my force feedback steering wheel.
am I asking too much?

Needs time lag for real emulation

[AJWM]

That's a nice toy -- and a heck of a lot cheaper and easier than the telerobot "Tycho" that some friends (Will Smith, Henry Vanderbilt) put together about a dozen years ago. (That was based on the "Clodbuster" R/C car, a Sony WatchCam, transmitter, etc.)

Teleoperating something on the Moon is going to have about a 3-second delay between the time you send the command and the time you see the result. Gets worse the further you go (at least 20 minutes for Mars, more depending on relative positions in the orbit.)

The Tycho machine (wish there was a web page for it, maybe I'll grab some stills from the video we made) incorporated the time-lag in software: control input went to the computer, three seconds later it sent the commands to the vehicle. We watched the video feedback live in the living room while the vehicle roamed around the parking lot. (Had remote pan/tilt on the camera and a digital voltmeter in the camera's view to give "telemetry" on the battery. It really needed an artifical horizon, otherwise the only clue that you were sideways on a hill (and about to roll) was that the trees were tilted...)

Even in real-time driving one of these things takes a bit of getting used to. (But it's fun!) With a three-second delay it takes a lot of getting used to...

Here's a 10oz Micro Helicopter w/ 20" rotor diam.

[alienmole]

The Piccolo is an electric helicopter which can be flown indoors. Although the 20" rotor diameter and 19" fuselage length may not sound that small, those are the measurements of the bits that stick out - the rotors and the tail boom - and don't reflect the small size of the main fuselage, which can be seen sitting on someone's hand on the above site.

Compared to the "full size" Raptor helicopter I fly, with its 48" rotor diameter, the Piccolo is tiny. The smaller size and lighter weight of the Piccolo's rotors also means that they store less energy when spinning, so it's possible to crash a Piccolo without completely destroying the rotors every time (my Raptor's heavier rotors turn into toothpicks when it crashes...)

However, don't buy a model heli and expect to be able to fly it straight off, if you don't already know how - it's not as easy as it looks. One of the simulator software packages like RealFlight Deluxe will help you learn to fly and save lots of money in parts (ask me how I know).

The name is Bond...

[Robotech_Master]

Didn't I see this sort of thing in For Your Eyes Only? The traditional "James Bond is interrupted during post-climax (of the movie, sickos) nookie" scene involving a little remote-control robot with a camera?

Lego sells you *two* for $89

[Russ Nelson]

Lego will sell you two remote control tracked vehicles for $89. They call them Manas and are part of their Bionicle series. But nevermind that -- you get two IR remote control vehicles with three channels. Plus you can control them from the Mindstorms RCX.
-russ

Re:Lego sells you *two* for $89

[fleener]

Sorry, Lego.com requires cookies. They won't even let you look at their products without cookies. Such hostility toward customized cannot be excused.

Here is an English language site

[Randy Rathbun]

Nippon Hobbies is located in California and imports a lot of these cool Japanese toys, including the Epoch cars. My quick glance over the stuff put 'em at $110 each.