IKARUS Piccolo. Electric micro helicopter.

Latest news!

991201:
I addeed small pieces of solder to the paddlebar. This made the heli even more stable in hover. Weight of weights about 2 gram.

991128:
Replaced the thick servowires with thinner, AWG 32's from WES. Also removed the servoconnectors + thinner antennawire. This reduced the weight with 6,5 grams. Not bad!

Flying: Why not start with the part everyone reads first? It flies very well! Testflight was in my livingroom! Took one charge to figure out how to set it up. The potentiometers on the Piccoboard are mixed. they should be the other way aroud, just like it's shown in the instructions. (The markings for the pot's that is) This has now been changed on newer versions. I use 8 x 580 mAh NiMh cells. I have flown 8 mins on one charge with these cells. Without touching the ground. That is good! The NiCd 270 mAh pack (8cell, same weight about 100 grams) gives more power, but only about 4-5 min flights. Later I'll try the 800 mAh TADIRANS. I have heard that they'll fly this heli about 15 mins!

I have now flown it a bit. It flies better and better! I have both started and landed on my garage chair. It's 35 cm in diameter! (14")

Building:

Very simple to build. I finished mine in two evenings. All parts fits very well.Can't help thinking about all those who struggle with own designed micro-helis! What an effort!

What's in the box?

My son is taking a look...

This is what he want's to play with...

Motor... = 42,1 g

Swachplate= 2,3 g

Sold seperatley. Includes: Reciever, 2 pcs ESC´s, mixer and a gyro. Weighs 19,6 grams

One problem with the Piccoboard, is that it's not possible to chose witch channel to controll what. This presents a problem togeher with Hitec and Futaba TX's because the ail-controll will effect the pich and so on. It's possible to fix this by re-soldering the cables in the TX. As far as I can see, it would also be possible to change the connections between the "rx-board" and the "ESC-board" in the P-board. The rx-board, looks just like a normal RX. There are only two servo exits, but the other two (tailrotor and mainrotor channels) are connected to the "ESC-board" with pins. JR & Futaba crystals seems to work fine with the RX.

99 11 22: Andreas has now resoldered the connections between the boards. It was simple, and works perfect! The smaller board is the reciever. It has normal connectors for two servos. The other two are connected to the ESC board. It actually looks as if it is a 6 channel reciever!

Step by step...

• Start to break in the motor. I let mine run a couple of hrs on 2 x500 mAh cells.

• Build the landingear and mainframe. Time = 10 mins

• Mount the linkarms to the swashplate. If the balllinks are tight, squeze carefully with a pillar according to the picture in the manual.

...more steps will follow...

Here's the finished result:

Decals are now added.

Specifications:

Rotordiameter = 52 cm (20,5")
Weight RTF = 250 gram (8,9 ozs) (Weight of my heli with 8 x 580 NiMh or 8 x 270 NiCd = 244,1 gram)
Length = 50 cm (19,5")
Gearing mainrotor = 12:1, 10,6:1 or 9,6:1 (Selectable Standard = 10,6:1)
Gearing tailrotor = 6:1, 5,33:1 or 4,8:1 ( Selectable. Standard = 6:1)
Diameter of tailrotor = 145 mm (5,7")

Controlls = Left, right (rotordisc), tailrotor and lift. 2 servos are needed. Lift + tail are controlled by the built in ESC´s.

Size comparation!
The engine is an old OS 20 Max

My friend Andreas has a Piccolosite. Click! Includes videoclips.