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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
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bit char-g
BITCH ARG!!!
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 wonder what the army and their "toys" are capable of...
murdering people in unimaginably painful ways
oh, and eating 4 year old macaroni cheese!
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
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...
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
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.
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.
There is a review of the Bit Char-G here.
It includes some better images.
An AC has this website and has this pic of the inside of one of the cars.
Keyence (Japan) has an heli and something called Gyrosaucer, which looks like it could be pretty cool. They also have a mini tractor tralier .
Take a look at the Piccolo helicopter. A definite flyweight, but bigger than the cars! It is meant for indoor flight.
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.
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.
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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
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.
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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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.