Twister Police Helicam Review
Contents
1. for a review l wonder who would do that Ed So with the card safely installed the camera system is armed and ready as soon as the rest of the radio system is The transmitter has a fifth channel toggle on the top right and essentially you just hit this once and the film is rolling and again to stop An LED on the board will change from green to red when recording and it just keeps capturing until the memory is full For reference a one minute video at 30fps is around 40 45 megabytes so even a cheap low capacity card will give you enough space to record for an entire battery pack If you want to switch to stills mode then a three second pull on the toggle on the transmitter will change modes There is also something called serial single shot which automatically takes one photo every four seconds so you can get some quite cool looking time lapse footage with this mode should you wish to Once you have finished videoing your neighbourhood alll you need to do is connect a mini USB cable to the heli to import what is stored or remove the card and out it in your reader Importing via USB is very slow and downloading 5 minutes of footage took about 11 minutes to complete Using a card reader was a lot quicker in my testing though so if you have this option then it is preferable You don t get any software to import the movies with the package but found that it just mounted as a removable disk on both Windows and Mac2. OS X and used the standard tools available in the OS to grab the footage Another oddity was that the date of the videos was set as being taken in 1960 perhaps this equipment was a highly secret MI5 prototype from a 60 s Bond film originally Although it doesn t really matter it certainly confused the iPhoto software on my Mac with the videos being annoying placed right at the beginning of my photo library rather than the end with the rest of my recent imports Overall though the videos imported without much trouble and the quality is surprisingly good especially when you consider it is included for free with a very well priced RIF machine FLIGHT TEST Of course this wouldn t be a model helicopter review without some testing of the helicopter in flight and so as well as playing a lot with the FlyCamoOne system also flew it around at my regular indoor club and also outside at the park As this model comes test flown and guaranteed to fly then will soare any lengthy setup and tweaking speak because there wasn t any Model type RIF micro electric co axial Length 480mm Main rotor Dia 445mm Flying weight 220g RRP 149 99 Resolution VGA 640 x 480 pix USB 1 1 Mini USB FPS 28 Power 4 5 6 Volts Focus 0 3m Weight 17g Modes Video Serial Picture Single Photo This is truly a case of pull it out of the box and fly And fly it does very well too NO co axial is going to set th
3. TWISTER POLICE HELICAM OLICE CAMERA ACTION First of all apologise for the title of this review but it is fairly accurate this is a great looking semi scale replica of a Police chopper equipped with an on board video camera and whilst making the video that features on the Rotorworld website my cameraman shouted to me Action to which soontaneously shouted back Police camera and we then agreed this must be the title of the article Of course the camera part of this product is undoubtedly the most interesting feature of this package but having spent some time with the Police Helicam can report that the helicopter itself is a very nice machine and a much better flyer think than a lot of similar co axials on the market TOM STACEY NORMALLY FILMS AND PRODUCES A LOT OF VIDEOS f FOR ROTORWORLD SO IT SEEMED ONLY FITTING HAT WE LET HIM HAVE A PLAY WITH THIS LATEST HELI FROM dyPERKINS WHICH IS FITTED WITH AN ON BOARD FLYCAMONE ECO CAMERA a ax E Ga Features at a glance e Fitted with an FlyCamOne Eco to record your flights e So stable it almost flies itself e Checked test flown and flight guaranteed from the factory e With LBW amp MOPS low battery warning and motor overlaod protection e Comes with Planet Top 2 4GHz transmitter and R6M 2 4GHz receiver e Rechargeable LiPo battery 12V fast charger 240V power unit included e FREE fou
4. at flying co axial and is a fair amount larger than many in its class without being too big as to be a bit pointless It is primarily of course an indoor class helicopter but as you can see from our photos it works well outdoors if the conditions are right really liked the novelty of the camera and it certainly added an extra dimension to my normal flying videos by being able to combine first and third person views The lack of memory card or cables is a bit of a pain but it does keep the price down if you already have these anyway particularly liked the excellent m we cF i TE f 4 mz T A aa eo E EN TWISTER POLICE HELICAM and easy to follow manual and the scale appearance of the heli which especially with the LED lights is top notch Perhaps not a model for everyone but know for sure it will get plenty of use on my regular fleet A full set of LED lights adds to the scale appearance and are another bonus in a well rounded package SEPTEMBER 11
5. e it more stable when flying outside and also allows for the bigger blades and motors to provide the oomph to lift the extra weight of the camera system into the air The full fuselage is a beautiful looking moulding and like a lot of Twister s other helis isn t based on any particular real deal Behind the camera is the control unit which contains a slot for a micro SD card and a mini USB port A ribbon cable connects it to the camera TWISTER POLICE HELICAM Twister s familiar charger can be powered via the mains or usig a 12 volt battery or power supply The five channel Planet compatible transmitter features 2 4GHz technology and a toggle switch for the camera Tom reports that the Police Helicam flies great outdoors when the conditions are right i e not too much wind A slight coming together with a bush in the woods caused damage fo the canopy mount but this was easily and cheaply repaired SEPTEMBER 11 The 800mAh LiPo gives flight times of around five to six minutes and is charged through the balance port The excellent manual which will help beginners to understand all the ins and outs of their new but looks realistic enough as a generic civilian model Unlike most machines in this class where the fuselage is push mounted on rubber grommets the Police Helicam s is held on with screws that connect via silicone tubing directly to the frame and this is due most lik
6. e world alight with a dynamic flight envelope but indoors or outside on avery calm day the Twister flies very well indeed It is of course exceptionally stable and also provides very positive tail response and very little tail drift even as the battery pack drains In the instruction manual it says that this helicopter is capable of soeeds up to 20mph but trust me it isn t 2mph perhaps but this is not a machine built for soeed rather one built for stability and with the camera system this is quite understandable probably clocked up about an hours flying time before writing this review and it was always a solid and fun flying companion did however have one big crash where was too busy trying to play with the camera modes than looking where was going and hit a tree and then the ground Damage ran to one broken skid that could have glued back together two blades replacements were in the box and two broken canopy mounts The worst thing was the canopy mounts but as these are essentially silicone tubing most model shops would have some in stock and you would be up and flying quite quickly and cheaply Thankfully none of the expensive electronics were damaged and that goes to show that the canopy mounting system is as it is for a reason he E hal a The model looks great in the air and being able to capture bird s eye video is a brilliant feature Sw THE VERDICT Overall this is a gre
7. e to the competition but it is nice to have a good supporting package So what do you get in the box Well firstly a mains charger which is a foolproof design that charges the small 3S rechargeable LiPo battery which you of course fit into the helicopter This charger can be powered via 12 volts or 240 and you get a mains Here you can see the on board FlyCamOne Eco camera fitted under the heli The angle is adjustable before flight through around 110 degrees adaptor included The Planet compatible transmitter is 2 4GHz and usefully only uses four AA batteries rather than the eight used by some similar sets Of course in addition to all these bits you also get the helicopter itself and the FlyCamOne Eco system is pre fitted and ready to go minus oddly a micro SD card which you need to actually take any footage A cable to interface with your PC and download footage is similarly not included although you could always remove the Micro SD card and plug this directly into your computer or smartphone provided you have the correct socket m TWISTER POLICE HELICAM BUILT TO LAST With everything taken out of the box the first thing did was take a look over the construction of the helicopter itself As soon as you pull it out you notice the size of it this is a big machine certainly bigger than other scale co axials such as the E Flite Blade CX3 to which it is quite similar looking This should mak
8. ely to the mounting of the camera recording hardware and needing a little more security than gromits Another obvious feature that is worth comment is the tail rotor because oddly for a co axial which doesn t need one the Helicam has a tail rotor but it doesn t do anything It does turn round if you attempt to turn it but that s about it can only assume it is a cosmetic addition but it is strangely out of place Further adding to the cool scale features though are a full set of LED lights including a blue flashing one which flashes when the LiPo battery starts to get low It s a shame this doesn t flash all the time as the effect is perfect on a Police styled heli but you can t have everything plus the low battery warning feature is very useful to prevent damage to the helicopter and the LiPo battery The rest of the heli is fairly typical four channel RIF fayre but did like the fact that the motors have heatsinks on them as a common problem on co axials with fully enclosed fuselages is that the motors get pretty hot remember there are two of them rather than one with a single rotor The Planet compatible receiver is a five channel rather than the usual four you would get and this is to enable you to control the on board camera remotely And this of course brings us round to what is the stand out feature of this model the FlyCamOne Eco video and stills digital recording system This German designed a
9. nd built system is a radio controlled VGA resolution SD compatible video system that incorporates a camera module and separate control and recording module VGA resolution is 640x480 pixels which is somewhere between normal standard and high definition television It is comparable to a mobile phone video so it s not exactly broadcast quality but more than enough to have some fun or upload to YouTube for instance When say SD compatible am referring to the recording media it uses Micro SD cards are a fairly industry standard solid state memory chip that you can plug into most computers with the correct reader and usefully a lot of mobile phones This system is not one of the currently fashionable FPV First Person View systems that stream video back to a pair of glasses or display but rather you can take videos and pictures of the landscape as you fly This is of course a novelty more than anything else although this is what real Police helicopters do but is does provide a very intriguing new insight into RC flying How often have you wondered what the view is from your heli know have and watching back the footage is a surprisingly addictive activity MAJOR TOM TO GROUND CONTROL I m sure you are wondering how you control the video system so will report back that it is a very easy process Of course you mustn t forget to insert an SD card before attempting to take any video especially not when it is
10. r spare main rotor blades plus four AA batteries for transmitter TWIST AGAIN always like having the opportunity to review one of J Perkins Twister helis as they not only offer a great product for the money but in my experience have excellent user manuals and don t skimp on the few extra touches that make the buyer just that little bit happier mean A semi scale heli with a camera on board is the perfect distraction for Rotorworld s Tom Stacey The comprehensive package includes the heli transmitter spare blades tools battery and charger for example a set of extra blades which did end up using a set of batteries for the transmitter and a box that doubles up as a sturdy reusable carry case Okay a lot of RTF machines now come in a box that will do double duty as a carry case but the Twister one is a lot less of a fiddle to use and seems more robust to me The decent user manual is also a hugely important thing for beginners and can t count the number of times have spoken to those just getting in R C helicopter flight who have been disappointed by or destroyed their new toy due to not understanding fully how it should be used and controlled One of the common reasons for this misunderstanding was the manual was badly written or didn t cover everything the beginner should know in sufficient detail Aside from all this the design and quality here from Twister is pretty much comparabl
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