Mario I. Arguello
09-05-2006, 04:28 PM
It is very interesting to see the evolution of products especially in this realm of the RC hobby so its the reason for this topic.
I received an invitation, from this forum, via Email, to post here, so I thought I contribute this thread. Hope it is as interesting for people reading it ,as it is for me writting about it.
I recently bought a PiccoZ because the use of IR, as a form of control, caught my attention.
Before there were any micros on the market I had designed a heli called the Robin IR back around 1996, which used IR for control instead of RF. I made this choice because back in those years RC equipment was still heavy. So I had requested from Z-Tron , a company making DIY IR kits for indoor airplanes, for a 4 CH IR unit that I could use with my small and lightweight heli developments.
At the time, the world was not as interested in small helicopters, as it is today. Z-Tron only had a 3 channel system and they provided me with a 4 Channel unit based on my request. I used this on the Robin IR and some other smaller and lighter helis I developed in later years which icluded larger 20", 4 ounce helis like the MIA Sport LE and even one of my very first House-FLY Sub-Micros and MIA PALM-SIZE(TM) helis that I have posted almost on every other micro heli or RC Micro forum in past years. Keyword search Mario I. Arguello, or MIA Designs or MIA Micro-FLIGHT or visit www.micro-flight.com for more.
The PiccoZ uses a similar IR system but only 2 channels with balanced mixing betwen the main and tail speed control for added simplicity, so it is not as controllable as my original 4 ch IR helis were/are, but it is good enough for a toy.
Designing, developing and making small helis fy with realism has been both a challenge and a long time passion of mine, the PIcco Z flies like a toy, out of the box, it is a toy, but I thought I could improve on such and I did.
Here are some pictures and a video of my original small helis, some have been sold and are still selling in kit form (i.e. MIA Bumble Bee Sub-Micro), and the PizzoZ with some of my own mods.
http://www.micro-flight.com/videos/MIA2006.wmv
http://www.micro-flight.com/videos/MIAPICCOZ1.wmv
I received an invitation, from this forum, via Email, to post here, so I thought I contribute this thread. Hope it is as interesting for people reading it ,as it is for me writting about it.
I recently bought a PiccoZ because the use of IR, as a form of control, caught my attention.
Before there were any micros on the market I had designed a heli called the Robin IR back around 1996, which used IR for control instead of RF. I made this choice because back in those years RC equipment was still heavy. So I had requested from Z-Tron , a company making DIY IR kits for indoor airplanes, for a 4 CH IR unit that I could use with my small and lightweight heli developments.
At the time, the world was not as interested in small helicopters, as it is today. Z-Tron only had a 3 channel system and they provided me with a 4 Channel unit based on my request. I used this on the Robin IR and some other smaller and lighter helis I developed in later years which icluded larger 20", 4 ounce helis like the MIA Sport LE and even one of my very first House-FLY Sub-Micros and MIA PALM-SIZE(TM) helis that I have posted almost on every other micro heli or RC Micro forum in past years. Keyword search Mario I. Arguello, or MIA Designs or MIA Micro-FLIGHT or visit www.micro-flight.com for more.
The PiccoZ uses a similar IR system but only 2 channels with balanced mixing betwen the main and tail speed control for added simplicity, so it is not as controllable as my original 4 ch IR helis were/are, but it is good enough for a toy.
Designing, developing and making small helis fy with realism has been both a challenge and a long time passion of mine, the PIcco Z flies like a toy, out of the box, it is a toy, but I thought I could improve on such and I did.
Here are some pictures and a video of my original small helis, some have been sold and are still selling in kit form (i.e. MIA Bumble Bee Sub-Micro), and the PizzoZ with some of my own mods.
http://www.micro-flight.com/videos/MIA2006.wmv
http://www.micro-flight.com/videos/MIAPICCOZ1.wmv