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Smallest RC Cars?
fredhsu writes: "My brother-in-law bought two micro RC cars in Japan for me. They are both smaller than a matchbox. DigiQ from Takara is infrared-controlled, has two independent rear wheels powered by two tiny motors, and comes with a pistol-style analog controller. Bit Char-G from Tomy (Tomica) is radio-controlled, single-motor rear wheel drive, front wheel steering, and comes with an awkward controller with forward/backward + left/right switches. You really need to see the video clips to appreciate how small and maneuverable these cars are. I personally like DigiQ more, because of its powerful motors and analog controls. On the other hand, Bit Char-G has an extensive line of hop-ups and accessories. DigiQ sells for $50-$80 and Bit Char-G for $30-$50."
About five years ago I used to have a Tomy Char-G and played around with it in the office. In the UK there was a limited range, of around 4 colours, each with their own frequency (ie. red controller with red car etc).
;)
As a result syncronised char-g races occured, with several cars of the same colour being controlled by one handset! Quite fun
I have a Bit Char-G, and it is pretty cool. It comes in kit form and you build it yourself. To drive it is ok, but better if you leave the chasis off (you can spin a lot better with less weight). You place the car on the side of the controller to charge it up before you use it, so no heavy batteries are on the car. The charged up car lasts about 2-3 mins before needing charging again but it is pretty cool.
...but i'm holding out for nanocars. four rotating carbons for tires... a few silicons for the body... and you can drive them in your bloodstream! :D
mp3s by me
bit char-g
BITCH ARG!!!
Am I the only one who started wondering what they're not showing us?
If they're selling things this small and relativly cheap under the name "toys" I wonder what the army and their "toys" are capable of...
Anataka suki desu. Itsumo. Itsumademo.
thinkgeek sells little mini "desk rovers" like these, which look too damn cool.
Now attach an X10 cam to this and have all those upskirt views you've always craved :)
At the intersection of computation and biology.
I can just imagine making my way to the euphamism on a dark night and CRUNCH - there's eighty bucks down the drain.
Personally, I'd rather have RC helicopters. Yes, I know their batteries wouldn't last long... but in an office environment, tiny cars aren't going to get very far, given the amount of clutter which would obstruct them. Helicopters, on the other hand, could fly over cubicle walls to attack people...
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they say: World's fastest - up to 4 times faster than other micro R/C cars
So how fast do the others go?
Inquring minds want to know....
Is the HPI Micro RS4. They are 1/18th scale, I think that makes them around 7-8 inches long. These use standard radios & servos, and are all wheel drive, while still being small enough to rip through the office. They can even be run off standard alkaline batteries, or the standard R/C rechargable packs. (And can drive for up to 40 minutes on 4 AA's)
I've had my Mini-z for more than a year now, they are really neat. But quite expensive here in sweden, around 150 USD.
And you can spend a fortune on extra parts...
http://www.kyosho.com/cars/kyod01x1.html
We've got a couple of these in our office, that someone brough back from Tokyo.
They're so much fun its just silly. Incredibly detailed too - we've got different suspension kits, bodytypes and drift tyres, so we can do powerslides around the desks. Amazing little things. Fast as hell too.
Why are they so hard to get hold of in the UK? I'd gladly buy a raft of these.
In the UK, Robot Wars had a 'flyweight' category, which they played in a miniature version of the main arena, about a metre square. The robots were a bit bigger than matchboxes, but some had flippers and spikes. Great to watch the little things whizzing about, and it wasn't long before half of them were just running round in circles.
I think one even got flipped right out of the arena.
15 minutes at 350 degrees.
C, F or K ?
This is the commercial version, but spies are known to use rc cars half this size, with tiny cameras and ranges of up to a mile. Saw it in a movie. They really do.
quite nice, but the WLS made me gag.
Where do one buy these nifty things in Europe?
It seems its all US and Japan.
Best regards,
Steen Suder
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45 seconds of battery charge? I guess they designed it so it wouldn't run out of power during the commericals to sell the thing.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
If you want a really cool toy - get one of these.
Snelflight hoverfly helicopter
It's a tiny little tethered helicopter which uses a motor and propellor at the end of each blade, so it doesn't work quite the same as a normal rc helicopter, but the control box means that the controls are the same.
Quite expensive, but very cool
Not totally unrelated but i always found this interesting: Have a look at Seiko/Epson's EMRoS or "Epson Micro Robot System" here and here
Neat little buggers, not made with pager parts as these Radio/IR Cars are, instead made with watch parts.
Isn't running into a salt shaker an automatic failure on most driving tests???
I think someone needs a refresher course on the proper driving skills.
_________________________________________________
The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy and drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears and to gather to your bosom his wives and daughters - Genghis Khan
There is a review of the Bit Char-G here.
It includes some better images.
I made a site for them with some good info!
http://www.intercityinc.com/bit
Man, that is expensive. I can get them for less than $22.5US. Then again I live in Hong Kong so maybe I don't have to pay VAT or something.
An AC has this website and has this pic of the inside of one of the cars.
Uhm linking directly to videoclip is that clever? I'll bet that the sever is already busy sending spam or "exchanging business cards" as they say over there.
Keyence (Japan) has an heli and something called Gyrosaucer, which looks like it could be pretty cool. They also have a mini tractor tralier .
the link: http://www.marine-monsters.com/front/products/digi q.html
Take a look at the Piccolo helicopter. A definite flyweight, but bigger than the cars! It is meant for indoor flight.
It looks as if these cars use may a
Microcontroller, perhaps not, but definitely an H-Bridge. And H-Bridge is a specialized push pull amplifier that can be used as a Motor controller. You can order this as Quad 2 Channel Drivers,
In a DIP Package.
Gee I'd love to
Hack one of these babies like
this fella
did.
But, it's really tough to find chips at those sizes.
On, the short battery life. I'm reminded of BEAM Devices which charge up a capacitor from a solar cell, then release the energy in a spurt, then go back to charging the capacitor. Here's a cool one
are so damn spoiled by technology. What i wouldn't give to have something like this when i was 7 years old. i guess i shouldn't complain since i did have a nintendo, but it does makes ya wonder what the toys will be like in another century and so forth. how will your great grand children spend their afternoons?
2-4 of these cars
some Lego figures
iMovie + digital camcorder
Why wait two years for the sequel to "The Fast And The Furious" when you can make your own?
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
This could top even the classic laser pointer
cat toy.
Hm... image processing for feline paw
auto-evade seriously needed.
I liked this quote from the DigiQ page:
"Keep away from pets & children! Imagine your cat's and dog's reaction to this cute little gadget and the consequences once it is being ingested."
Must be translated by the same guy that did "All your base are belong to us". Ha ha ha!
Not so long ago my girlfriend imported an Epoch Indoor Racer from Japan. While a little bigger than the cars talked about here, they're a whole lot neater. Real suspension, proportional steering, limited slip differential, and charge up in about 20 seconds. Extremely cool. It's built on a 1/42 scale, making them slightly larger than matchbox cars, but smaller than a CD.
Also, if you're more the tinkering type, check out Tyco's Canned Heats. I have four of those things lying around in varying states of completeness. They're really easy to modify, so you can make then go faster and whatnot. Pretty fun.
I just bought a different brand from a duty-free shop at Tokyo/Narita airport a few months ago. It was a bit larger (about 10cm long) but it had fully digitally proportional steering and throttle with a pistol-style controller, which really comes in handy when you're trying to do tricky maneuvers. It was $45 US and came with 4 spare tires (?!). The transmitter took a 9V battery, and the charging station took 6AA's, so you wouldn't have to get an extra 120V A/C adapter. It's pretty fast, can probably keep up with a jogger. The car's battery lasts about 5 minutes, depending on your lead foot (or finger). My only complaint is that the radio range is only about 10-15 meters :( . But they have at least 4 cars that supposedly run on different frequencies so you can play with friends. I'll try to post a link when I get home tonight.
:) . At least my in-laws seemed to enjoy it a lot, trying to parallel-park between two saltshakers...
I remember reading about R/C cars this size in magazines about 8 years ago, they were $100 - $200 then, and I'd always wanted one. I'm glad the price came down enough for me to convince my wife to spend money on a toy
here (Cosmogames.com).
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It was fun for about 5 minutes, but the little bugger never wanted to go straight and the IR didn't always seem to connect solidly. Plus, the flooring you use it on has to be perfectly smooth. The kitchen tile we tried it on made the thing hop around and change direction.
/ piccolo /piccolo.htm
My wife is Japanese, so when we were seeing some Japanese friends in Amsterdam they had all the cool Japanese toys for their kid. Lots of fun!
Someone mentioned RC helicopters. If you want to have a good indoor one, I've got an Eco Piccolo that works great indoors.
Here's some random guy's site with good Piccolo pics:
http://www.modelaviation.co.uk/heli/models
My first RC car was a brown Bronco from the Sears Wish Book. It was $40+ bucks and ran for about 10-15 min on 5 C Nicads. It had two gears, switchable on the car, high speed and a torque setting (low). I took it apart to put a Lego body on it, and don't remember what happened to it. (It rocked.) When I grew up (ha), I bought an RC 10 (far too expensive - $250+ ow.) and that was fun! Got rid of it later, though - you run into a tree at 35 mph, and something's got to give (not the tree ;) Parts for the thing were crazy $$$, but at least you could fix anything that went wrong.
Toys that actually defended themselves would be altogether too damn cool! Now if I could only rig something to attack the cats on the kitchen counter...
Hmmm... if I were to attach a small piece of string or cover the car in the fake fur (found on cheap toy mice) I'd have a very easy way to keep my cats entertained and in shape!
I can only imagine these things, lots of fun, until somebody loses an eye. At least when Mabel from HR walks into one of these things and needs facial surgery, she'll sue your employer and not you.
Freedom: "I won't!"
by Anonymous Coward
OK, that's it. I've been trying to quit /. for some time now... but being bored at work was too much, and I kept coming back.
This story, however, has done it for me. Posting this was the proverbial straw for me.
So, I'm out. See ya'll later.
Whelp, that does it. All those people who wanted to see Slashdot restricted to just registered users just won. AC just left. Not coming back. We won!
I can only imagine these things, lots of fun, until somebody loses an eye.
Remember, it's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye. Then, it's just fun.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
small, maybe...
but if my real car was that "maneuverable", every light pole in town would have my name on it!
:-)
--- sig moved for great justice.
The car's are neat, but those fighting Dream Force robots look cool....
What is it the Japanes people get all the cool Robot stuff?
link:
Dream Force 01
Wise men speak because they have something to say, Fools because they have to say something!!!!
A few months back, there was a link to a tiny remote control car/rover thing with a wireless camera so you could beam images back to your computer monitor. Does anyone have a link to this? I can't find it anymore.
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There was a guy at the MN State Fair two years ago with a RC car that had a fake (I hope!) skunk fur attached. He would quietly run it up to people walking around. Pretty amusing to see some of the reactions. No one quite climbed up on top of a table, but they came close.
+5 informative, if you can lay off the crack for 5 minutes
update comments set karma=-1, reason='offtopic' where sid=26315
The cars are not RC but do include capacitors in them so they can run for 3 or so minutes to so on a 30 second charge. Lots of fun. Come to the Molson indy to see this year's track.
Note: I am a volunteer on this group. I am only paid in the priviledge of playing with toy cars normally available only in Japan. This was not an advertisement ;-)
Just how do these little things run on shag? I thought so.
You can pry my Tyco Super Rebound out of my cold, dead hands.
The dogs hate it, but it's too big to eat.
...is one cool cat toy :) Probably even better than a laser pointer.
Look, it balances out the Japanese tendency to get attacked by Godzilla. It's all fair in the end.
1. I don't have a moustache
2. I'm not a liberal
3. I will die, but not for you.
4. No one has faught a war on my behalf, ever!
5. Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Why is slashdot posting this news?
Pixel
(a micro helicopter)
is waaaaaaay cooler and a already few years old
I just came back from the New York Toy Fair in February, where I made note of 4 different distributors of these devices.
The original was by Tomy, being imported as "R/C MicroSizers". The others were Chinese knock-offs (very common in the toy industry...) called "Z-Cars R/C". I think the other was called "Canned Heat, where the cars were packaged in transparent cans. Can't recall the name of the last one.
All the cars at the toy show only had the FCC clearance for the 45 and 27Mhz frequencies, unlike the Tokyo/Tomy, which offered those plus the 57 and 35MHz. Hard to play 4-man R/C car soccer on only 2 frequencies...
The price will come down when they hit North American shores in volume, especially with the Chinese knock-offs costing almost 1/2 as much as the Tomy models, although the $40USD/ea I paid for my originals from Hong Kong were well worth it!
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high...
In one of my CS classes (I think it was AI but memory is such a flimsy thing) we watched a video on some crazy Japanese micro cars. These things were less than 1 centimeter in length. The wheels were so small that if you lubricated the axels it would cause them to bind. They looked pretty cool darting around on a table. You could really bother your cats with one. Didn't work too well on carpet though....
Lasers Controlled Games!
Tomy is a strange company - they used to sell quite a few "neat" products here in the States back in the 80's (Omnibot robot line, Air Jammer vehicles) - but lately all you can find are "toddler" toys. It is interesting that they (if it is the same company - Tomica=Tomy?) are selling these small racers now.
What is more interesting is the fact that Tomy made, in a limited silver-plated edition, given only to top executives (or some other such), an "ultra-tiny" (like, about the diameter of a quarter and a couple of inches tall) programmable "omnibot" (it was of the Omnibot line - just not available to general public). Very, very few of these robots were made. I have only seen one come up for auction on Ebay - it went for several thousand dollars, IIRC. These robots were made and given out in the early-to-mid 1980's.
The tech behind all of this has a long history - it is by no means "new"...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Imagine this: The Pentagon offers to transport, arm, and fuel home-built drone aircraft to fly against Al Qaeda. Your aircraft must meet the following requirements:
- On-board GPS
- On-board video capability
- Must be controlled via a soon-to-be-built wireless IP network in (let's
say Somalia)
- 500-pound payload
From the comfort of your home, you can patrol your Pentagon-assigned territory, and engage targets as designated by the JSTARS targeting system.I figure the Pentagon can probably turn a profit by charging fees as they provide what is essentially the world's most realistic flight simulator. As an added bonus, they could sell the TV rights to the on-board video. Wouldn't it be fun to watch "The World's Most Terrified Terrorists"? Imagine what the MIT folks could build for this mission!
I think the most ironic part of the whole idea is that it turns the tables on the bad guys. Under this scenario, their most terrfying time of day would be when school gets out in the US. "Oh no! Schools out! Everyone head for the caves!"
What a neat application for embedded Linux.
I can't believe they would steal cars from Smurfs then sell them to people. They can't get away with this!
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
3D Studio Max
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And a damn good lawyer
One of the most thoughtful features (IMHO) in the Bit Char-G is that there is a lever under the car that you can use to "trim" the front wheel alignment. This really helps the car go straight. Also some word of advice on motors. There are four motors for the Bit Char-G. The MicroBee 1.0, 2.2 and 2.6. (I say 4 motors because the 2.2 is available in two part numbers. GS-01 as the stock motor in a kit and S-04 as an addon) The Japanese packaging was somewhat ambiguous as to what the numbers meant. When my friend and I bought one each, we soon learned that it correlates to speed, with 2.6 being the fastest. If you want to race, I obviously recommend the 2.6. I personally have a 2.2, and I frequently find myself spinning out the car. On the other hand, my friend's 1.0 is just the right speed to navigate on smaller desks and ad-hoc obstacle courses. BTW, I landed mine for US$15 whle I was in Japan. ;)
Yoshi
I also have a Mini-Z (honda S2000) and highly suggest everyone buy one since they're built to scale, have their own mini servo, nice accessories, fully adjustable for steering and speed. they're also pretty fast.
Think a program could be hacked out so that the DigiQ can be controlled by a Visor or other infrared device? Are there any really small, good quality infrared controllers?
Thanks,
Spaco
no shit!
0xC3
check the main planes page here and just to pre-emt they do have a spitfire
0xC3
It's made by Epoch and officially called the "Indoor Racer RC 1/43 SPEC-1. The car has a URL on the rear spoiler that points to e-kuruma.com , but that seems to be a car auction site.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a web page on it, so I guess I'll have to make my own... I threw a bunch of pictures and movies up at my webserver
Sorry for the shoddy Quicktime anims, it's kinda hard to drive while holding a camera :P
Post if you can find any info on it!
Not so much a problem with cars, but with RC helicopters and such, it's not so good when the batteries just die.
And what about practical applications? RCToys.com sells at least one of their products as something that can actually have industrial applications. But with just 5-6 minutes of uptime, I can't see many practical uses. I'll be impressed if they come up with something that can go for 20-40 minutes without recharging. Maybe fuel cells will solve this.