Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Pretty much what the title says...it came out of the very well designed box (no dents or punchers), I followed the directions--and it didn't work.
Something electrical. The motor works. The red light on the saucer works. The red light on (what appears to be a voltage regulator)--that's the little black box coming out of the 'brick' you plug into the wall outlet...works. The 'green' charge light comes one for about 2 seconds then cuts off. This light is not suppose to go off until the saucer has charged. It will not come back on until I pull the charger wire out of the saucer then push it back in--for two more seconds of power. The saucer will not charge.
I have left it on the charger for over an hour--I still get no more than 5 seconds power.
I'm a techno...I don't know if this thing has warrenty or not--don't care either...I opened the little back box and took a quick look.....here's what I found.
1. Solder joints of many shades of solder (hand soldered--not machine soldered)
2. One dull gray solder joint. (cold solder joint)
3. Dark solder joints--several. (the board is close to being fried)
4. Dark solder joints with carbon scorching on the circuit board (the board's been worked on by somebody and they used a hot iron or gun (too hot)).
5. Taking a quick look through the box--no tears, scratches, rips, actually kind of hard to un pack leads me to believe this is NOT a refurbished unit...this unit never passed its final inspection point. The black box was opened, some of the joints resolderd, some almost fried--they plugged the charger into the saucer, then into the wall, and they unplugged it before the two second limit was up--then packaged it and sent it out to their vendors.
This unoperational unit is a factory second--get something else. (I don't blame the vendor)
UPDATE: 11:00 P.M. that same night (4hrs later)
Well, I got it up and running. It sure is slow go. Something is also wrong with the internal battery--must have been on the shelf for a long time or something. Or, something in the electronics is telling the charger it is fully charged when it is not. Remember I said it would only accept about a two second charge and then the green charge light would go off. Well, I kept charging, discharging,charging, discharging...etc...until I got it up to a one minute charge.
I figure by this time next week (GOD permitting) I'll get that five or so minutes out of it. So, let me continue with the review.
It is pretty big measures 12 1/2 inches in diameter by my measuring tape.
Pretty heafty blade--deep pitch--so so RPM.
Lots of mechanical noise from this thing--(gear train)
A visible 'out of balance' wobble that smooths out some with a higher RPM.
Diffinately out door only.
Stable flight
Better launched from a four foot by four foot piece of plywood than it's own launcher...it's launcher isn't any bigger than its' own footprint. I haven't tried it outside yet (snowing and dark over here)--let you know tomorrow.
When you launch--give it full power--it will never attain enough centrifical force (spinning) to get airborne--the propeller has to do it with brute force.
All in all, without the problems I've had with it, this thing would have pulled in a 4 stars (maybe just barely)...but worth the $24.00 I paid. The grinding noise of the gear train (loss of smooth propeller action and frictionless operation), plus that wobble keeps this machine from getting a higher rating. That wobble--looks like the trim might be off to me or it just isn't balanced right. Tomorrow, if I can--I'll take it outside for some real test.
UPDATE: Jan 24 2011
I got it to fly, sure enough it was old batteries that had to be recharged time and time again (inside the saucer) before they would hold enough charge to actually fly...now, the only problem is...you need a really 'BIG' empty area to fly this thing.
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