This is something most Heli guys should find interesting. On those indoor flights that just seem to be bla. Give this a look and let me know what you think. Also I'll post a link to his facebook page for you to follow. I'm not a sales rep,selling this item or getting anything from this. I just think it is a cool item to have and the best part is it will be American made.
http://www.facebook.com/RCHeliPad




The facebook link will tell more on this product. These will work wirelesly with other pads. So you can set up multiple pads to work together for hops,routines,patterns chance. Or make it contest for youself,your buddies or a club event. The possibilities are endless. Hope you find this cool and exciting for a hobby that needs more cool stuff to use.

Any comments of the link or the use of it for mini indoor heli use?

Comments about what? You havent said anything worth commenting on. To start the comments flow, you can tell us what is it first.

Rafael

It's just a landing pad with lights dude, I'm not bashing it or anything
but its seriously not something anyone's gonna go crazy about except for maybe a younger audience.

It's really not something that someone's gonna buy and take to the field and attempt to land there 700 size helicopter on.

But that's just my 02 Cents

I have included the link to the designer of this pad. It's a little more than a pad with lights. As I stated in my post it will be able to link with multiple pads for pattern landings or hover control ect. The lights will go out one by one the closer you get to the pad. So if your doing a game with a friend to see who has the best control of their heli. You can pick the number of lights you want to be illuminated and see who can get that target first. With  the wireless sync mutiple pads can be linked together to do take off and landing patterns. Or skid hops from one to another for fun challenging routines or garage comps with friends. No sir these heli pads are for smaller indoor helis. So no offense taken at all it won't be for everyone as with a 700 sized heli lol. With a few of this linked you could do a low control pattern chase sorta like flying through gates or obstacles. With smaller indoor helis in mind.

We have a 3ft x 3ft piece of plywood at our field. Some of the guys have a hard time setting a 500 on that square that is as big as the helicopter. I can't imagine trying to land in a square that is barely larger than the landing gear of the helicopter that is intending to receive.

Good luck.

Rafael

Yes sir. Yea this is for the mini heli's not the big boys lol. I'm still learning to fly the MSR and couldn't imagine what the big dogs are like. I will hopefully get a couple of them when they come out. To use in the garage or living room to have more fun then hovering and flying under the tables lol. But thank you sir.

I went to photo the local PD's Jet Ranger for a scale project. They land those on a wheeled platform just a little bigger than the skids. I was pretty amazed.

As for landing one of those mosquitos on a pad a little bigger than the skids.....someone would have my respect if they could do it.

Dog, if I get a sense this is advertising.....

Not trying to make it advertising sir. I'm friends with the designer only. Just hoped someone might find it cool for boring indoor flights. I want one of these so I'll stop using coffey cans for landing marks lol. Landing on wheeled platforms that is way out of my skills lol. I got more replacement blades than good landings . Hopefully soon I'll get good enough with my mosquito to land exactly where I want it .

I give the guy who came up with this credit...at least he's trying to be inventive.  And whats the old saying..."Necessity(sp?) is the mother of invention"...or something like that.  I just dont see this type of thing as necessary, at least not for me. 

Im sure some will like it...those that probably havent gotten past small coaxial micros...maybe even fixed pitch.  But I cant see anyone thats flying say an mCPX actually wanting to use this.  The rotor wash when close to the ground on my mSR and mCPX would make it more "luck" hitting the pad than "skill".  I used to try and land onto unburned decorative candles, you know the like 3 or 4 inch ones...as well as soup cans.  I could do it, but not very often and when I did do it successfully, it was more of a "luck" thing than skill.

Not bashing your friends product here...I think its cool that he came up with it and Im sure it might garner a very small market.  But again, I think it would satisfy more people that are in the micro co-axial stage.

just my .02's.</p>

I understand what you are saying. I do better at landing than I do flying lol. I don't get rotor wash being a problem with my msr. It may be due to me being an amateur. When I'm flying in the garage I got good at hovering at 3"s off the ground moving in and out around the table legs.

I got to see it in person today in action. I think it's pretty cool if you like a challenge when flying your mini heli's. The rotor wash is not much of a problem when landing on it. Just your flying skills are put to the test. I am ready for one.

Bill, it was fun bringing the helipad out of the lab yesterday and thanks for sending me this link where you have mentioned it. First, hello all, my name is Mark and I am the design guy behind the pad that "is just a bunch of lights". Please be nice to Bill, he just saw something that he thought was cool and wanted to share it with the community.

I make my living as an electronic design engineering consultant, but enjoy flying RC heli's as one of several hobbies. The pad idea came about 2 winters ago, when all flying was limited to indoors. The original prototype was a circuit board only, on cheap standoffs, which I built and took to different customer sites and labs, where I would get several of the techical folks to have some fun. From those original fun flying indoor days, I took away alot of feedback and promised that if I ever got the time, I would incorporate them and we would have a better widget to play with. So, this year I did just that. Its now has a bigger surface, its completely enclosed, it has a multitone buzzer, it has more memory so more than 4 patterns can be stored, and it has the ability to communicate with a PC terminal (or application) over USB and each pad has a wireless transceiver that allows it to find and join the network of other pads. That last part is extremely geeky I know, but the idea is to have the pads create a "fly here, now fly there" random hopping pattern so competitions could occur.

The basic premise is, a microcontroller runs an algorithm that goes along with a proximity sensor (in the center) that senses how close an object is. At the objects closest, lights will either turn on, or off, depending on the pattern. At is farthest, the light pattern will be doing 1 of many different patterns, along with different optional sounds, etc.

The circuit board itself WAS designed for an outdoor sensing pad as well, however this first enclosure obviously was not. It was designed for the mini and micro flyers. The good news is, the outdoor enclosure is in design. I'm working with a custom wood-working shop on this to make sure I can properly house and protect my circuit board and sensors, etc. It will be ready when its time to bring the bigger heli's out this spring.

I posted up a few more pictures and a video, showing it with an MSR.

Next step is for a local RC group to play with it and get some good video and some good feedback.

There is no advertising or marketing plan, etc. At the moment, the plan is to have fun with it....

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He is having a contest for mini heli pilots on his Facebook page. If your good enough lol.

Hey guys who have the bigger helicopters. He is talking about an larger outdoor pad on his page if your interested.

Hey guys his pad is has been sent out to a few. They have really enjoyed it so far. I can land on it just not as good as some of the better pilots can. He is wanting some ideas for a name for it. If you wouldn't mind. I like Rotor Pad lol.

After reading the designers post, I am beginning to like this more. Not that I would be in the market for one per say...I mean I dont fly the mSR much since getting into the larger CP helicopters. But I can appreciate the design details better now that its been explained.<div></div><div>Before, I thought it was just a pad with blinking lights that would be hard to land on. His details made me aware that it is much more than that.</div><div></div><div>I could see it being marketed like that company that is marketing the combat planes tethered to a pole. I could see being able to buy a new mSR X heli that comes with one of these for X amount of dollars. Your friend buys one of the combos too and you have 2 of them that can communicate with one another...another friend..one more to the mix, and so on and so on. Of course sell them as stand alone packages as well for all of those who already own a micro heli.</div><div></div><div>Pretty neat idea. Not that I bashed it before, just thought it wouldnt be something I was interested in. Guess I was wrong. lol

Feel free to send me one for an unbiased review. lol</div>

I understand that sir. I just trying hard not trying to turn it into advertisement instead of something cool. He has told me that he is thinking of making a larger scale pad for bigger helicopters. I am waiting to get one myself now lol.

<h5 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; text-align: center;"><h5 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 255); font-size: 11px; line-height: 21.59375px;"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">I also have </font></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 13.95pt; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 255);">4 CH Single Blade Imvader Micro RC Helicopter look like your heli but with out pad. How i set this pad with this.If you arelooking for all the thrills of a proper single blade helicopter,each and every thing is perfect.Although it  issmall in size but big in features with twin independent servos and a built inworking gyro.</span></h5></h5>

Some vids of my Rotor Pad. <div>The first is showing how sensitive it can be set. </div><div>http://youtu.be/fkm5UOfhnJI</div><div>This was my second try at controlled landings.</div><div>http://youtu.be/QrpVRmFLzCs</div><div>Any tips for better flying I'm all ears.</div>

If any of you would be interested he has launched a kickstarter for this.<div>http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2146643143/the-roto-pad-by-mdg</div>

It's OK. Hook it to the mute button on the TV when you land. You would get good real fast if you want to turn the game back up before the next commercial.
z