Not laser but still very coool

[Zoof]

and another money pit
Not sure about their exact setup but guess the whole system is implemented in the blades only.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYGGG...eature=related

[James Lehman]

That is WAY cool.......... as art.

I have a feeling we might see thousands of these things zooming overhead bombarding us with advertising!

Oh well.

James.

[buffo]

They're doing this with car rims now. While the voice-over is a bit, well, over the top, the rims do look kinda cool - if you're into the whole "pimp my ride" thing anyway...

I have one of the original Bowen Vectron flying saucers, and it has leds on the perimeter of the ring that are used to spell out messages while it flies. Pretty cool for a toy that came out in 2002... There are plenty of youtube videos out there that show this thing in operation. (It's not easy to fly at all.)

Adam

[Stuka]

Cool - but I would think WAY distracting for the "pilot"

The R/C helicopters aren't the LEAST bit forgiving, and one moment of distraction can lead to a pretty expensive WOOPS (voice of experience, unfortunately )

I wonder if someone would be willing to try that with a REAL helicopter - I find they're easier to fly than the R/C models....

[buffo]

I thought some of the newer R/C helicopters (at least some of the more expensive ones) had auto flight stabilization? Granted, flying a helicopter is still damn hard, and flying it from a 3rd person view point has got to be even more challenging, but haven't there been some advances in this area recently?

Hmmm - doing it on a real helicopter would require a lot more optical power. I think batteries on the rotor disc are out of the question, so you'd need to figure out some other way to power the LED array. (Kinda hard to run power up through the mast head to the rotor disc!)

But if you did manage to get enough power to the blades, I can't see any other reason why it wouldn't work on a large scale. And it would be cool as hell, that's for sure.

Adam

[Stuka]

Yeah, the R/C electronics are getting pretty sophisticated these days - gyro stabilization on the tail rotor channel is pretty much the norm now, and a few companies are offering multi-axis "auto pilot" control, and even UAV-style onboard video & telemetry!

The wiring on a full-scale is "doable" (I'll have to show you how we mount and control the mast mounted sight platform on my aircraft sometime!), but I don't think Uncle Sam would be too keen on experimental LED arrays strapped to the main rotor blades!!

Still, wouldn't that be cool......

[Zoof]

Actually when I was in Hong Kong I picked up one of those small coaxial RC helicpters for about 40 euros. When well trimmed they can fly very stable, just let go of the cyclic and it will settle in a hover. Stabilization of roll and nick axis is mechanical through the flybar. Heading stabilization is done by a small integrated piezeo gyro. Forward speed is very limited and flying outdoors with a stock coaxial is a no-go. But still very fun little machines.

If you look up 'paparazzi UAV' online you will find a complete opensource autopilot system that can be bought for around 600 euros if I'm not mistaking.

[Zoof]

again not laser but cool light effects with long time exposere and thos blades. Not mine and don't know the source

[laserLips]

Both Vids exceedingly cool.

Advertising takes on a whole new avenue.

[Things]

I remember building a kit that used this very same concept. I havent seen it around much lately, but it did the same kinda thing, except it just went through its own automatic patterns. There was 1 LED arm, and all the LED control circuitry was on the spinning board. The connection to power was made by 2 spinning contacts, and it also had a 3rd contact for timing. It was by far the coolest kit I have ever built!