IEEE Spectrum November, 2007 - 40

Last year's holiday review featured an
electric miniature helicopter that could
lift off from the palm of your hand. But
because the chopper couldn't stall and
didn't need a sensitive hand on the
remote control, it was almost too easy
to fly-more an executive desk ornament
than a toy an actual child would be bound
to respect.
The Palm-Z Indoor Flyer, made by
Silverlit Electronics of Hong Kong, costs
half as much as the copter, which is good,
and it is considerably more challenging to
fly, which is also good-in a way. The IEEE
Spectrum staff took some time just to get
the plane to sail in a straight line without going nose up and then dropping; it
took even longer to get it to turn smartly
enough to make it around office cubicles
and other traps.
The pilot controls the speed of the
motor with a small console, using a vertically sliding throttle and horizontally

sliding yaw control, which
broadcast in three infrared frequencies. That means one person
ought to be able to fly three models,
but with only one plane on hand, we
couldn't test this. The manufacturer
warns that the infrared signal may
get swamped in sunlight, but then
again, this product isn't meant for
the great outdoors, where any puff
of wind would knock it for a loop.
With that possibility in mind, the
manufacturer has thoughtfully included
an extra rudder, probably the single most
vulnerable part.
The superlight, plastic-foam plane
has a wingspan as long as your hand,
a tiny electric motor, and a rechargeable lithium polymer battery, which
charges from the same small console
used to steer the plane in flight. A full
charge keeps the thing buzzing for about
5 minutes. The control works to a radius

of about 5 meters. The manual notes that
the console will accept an optional infrared signal booster to extend the range to
30 meters, but neither the manual nor the
Web sites we checked quoted a price for
the booster.
-P.E.R.

You can buy the Palm-z Indoor flyer at
http://www.playasia.com for US $28, plus
about $16 for shipping. The charging console
requires four AA batteries.

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IEEE Spectrum | November 2007 | NA

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SILvErLIT ELECTroNICS

Why, a Child Could Fly This

http://www.playasia.com http://www.spectrum.ieee.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum November, 2007