Destructive flying disco ball.

just arrived in mail, i live in a small 32square meter apartment, turn off lights and this is incredibly fun :D

Orkekum

Amazed at what cheap tiny electronic components make possible.

I don’t see the point of being set free without balls!

A coworker had a similar whirligig and I always would mess with him using an IR remote to change the speed or shut it off mid flight...

The problem will be that of torque-based rotation of the craft caused by all of the rotors turning in the same direction. Quads have counter-rotating props to mitigate this effect. In theory you could wire all four motors to a quadcopter flight control board; however, I'm not 100% certain what the results would be. The motor employed looks roughly the same as the ones used on smaller quadcopters, so it might fly stable, if still affected by rotation. Hmm, use the rotation to an advantage and have the craft trailing long fiber optic strands to glow and twist around in the downdraft. That might be pleasing to behold, but a lot of work to implement.

Michael Thompson

Hah. Nice phrasing, I'm squirming slightly in my chair. :D Just make sure not to do it under any flight paths, or you may be getting an unwanted knock on the door. What with the "idiot with a drone" phenomena on the rise, the authorities will not take that shit lightly.

Chris Talbot

But they don't have any controls, just "off" and "on". :) You could work out a way to link the IR receiver outputs so all the motors speed up simultaneously when encountering an obstacle, but by the time you've done that it would be easier and probably cheaper to just buy one of those $30 toy drones.

Chris Talbot

I've just purchased 10 of these and on a dark night, being irresponsible, I am going to remove their balls and set them free.

Chris Brown

would love to see if 4 of them could be fashioned into a poor mans quad , if the controls could be synced

TheDans34

It responds to a TV remote but just seems to be ramp down and stop, and start. The LEDs remain on.

Big Clive

Hm. I see they are also available with a remote? I assume just on/off.

09Klr650

A diminutive, uncontrollable, flying disco ball? What can go wrong? Expect to see these flying all over a rave near you!

£2.50 to cause a ufo scare? sounds like fun to me!

I bought one late last night when I saw this post before I even watched the video. I forgot that I bought it until I saw it again this morning lol. It was only like $3.93 total. Looked fun and if anything​ will have a few usable parts! Oh, also I find it amusing how they use the term "Infrared Induction." Not even going to ask...​

Josh Campbell

It does seem to respond to actual infrared codes. Presumably there is a remote available for it to turn it on and off. A quick test showed that a TV remote would make it slow down to land and then turn off while leaving the LEDs lit. Then allow it to be started again with the same code.

Big Clive

My wife and I got a couple for the kids last year, they don't last long for the kids, but for the price the parts they contain are worth it. So far I've only repurposed the batteries.

Hah, my wife got my one for christmas but it's with a remote and looks like a star wars jedi training ball. Lots of fun! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_pH3rz5u9I" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_pH3rz5u9I</a>

Tim Albers

If it uses a standard IR-Reciver, does it mean that you can control it with a normal remote instead of a hand under it?

Cute, but not for me this time. I'd love to see one set to full power twinkling its way up into the night sky. Might be neat.

Michael Thompson

Blinky LED stuff that autonomously flies around and dodges grabs? I'm in! 4 ordered.. Thanks for the silliness!

D. Stuart

Aaaaaaand buy!

blakethepatton