4 channel RC Skywalker quadcopter aerocraft drone

My kid has a new toy, a remote control (RC) Skywalker quadcopter aerocraft drone which I bought at the price of RM110.

This is an ideal RC drone for beginners, as the quadcopter is protected by its cage, so that it is less likely to hit on something and break its blade(s). In the event of a crash landing, it is cushioned by the cage too.

With this kind of design, it can be set to flying mode or rolling mode by adjusting its battery position. In rolling mode, its cage acts as its wheel.

This is its remote control system.

The drone operates on a 3.7V 300mAh rechargeable battery, while its remote control system operates on some AA size batteries. Each charge can last the drone to fly for about 6-10 minutes. When its battery gone weak, the drone is intelligent enough to gradually land itself instead of a sudden crash.

The left RC stick controls its flying height and facing direction, while the right RC stick controls its movement (forward, backward, turn left, turn right). You can also see there are several fine tuning switches to adjust its position.

To take off, gently push the left RC stick upwards. Landing is more challenging. You cannot land too fast and have to slowly pull the left RC stick backwards, or else it will have a sudden drop and crash. Landing on a designated spot will need some practice, but it is not that difficult.

The more challenging part is when there is wind blowing. You'll need to control the drone to counter the wind and fly according to your desired direction.

Enhance Windows 8.1 usability with Classic Shell 4.1.0

I have replaced the IObit Start Menu 8 in my Windows 8.1 PCs with Classic Shell 4.1.0.

Classic Shell 4.1.0 is more stable, and more feature rich than IObit Start Menu 8. The Classic Start Menu in Classic Shell 4.1.0 can also display properly in high screen resolution of 3200x1800, but the IObit Start Menu 8 appears tiny in such high resolution screen.

You can download Classic Shell for free here.

The key component of Classic Shell is Classic Start Menu, which brings back the Windows Start Menu in Windows 8/8.1 similar to IObit Start Menu 8.

There are many settings you can play around in Classic Start Menu 4.1.0.

Besides, Classic Shell also includes Classic Explorer which will add a handy toolbar to Windows Explorer.

This Classic Explorer toolbar is configurable too.

The 3rd component is Classic IE, which adds the following functions to Internet Explorer:

Adds a caption to the title bar so you can see the full title of the page

Shows the security zone in the status bar

Shows the loading progress in the status bar

Gyro-sensing fly air mouse with mini QWERTY wireless keyboard

I find that using the remote control of my HiMedia Q5II Android 3D smart TV + media player box to navigate its screen sometimes has some inconvenience, especially when I need to do typing using the on screen soft keyboard, or I have to navigate in mouse cursor mode.

This inconvenience can be reduced by installing HiControl in my Android smartphone and/or tablet, and making use of the Android device's touch screen to perform the soft keyboard typing and also the point-and-click action.

Recently, I bought a gyro-sensing fly air mouse with mini QWERTY wireless keyboard to work together with the remote control of the HiMedia Q5II box to have much better control to the system. It cost less than RM70.

The size of this gadget is about the same as the remote control, as shown below.

In order to use this fly air mouse-keyboard gadget, I just need to plug its USB dongle into on of the USB slot of my HiMedia Q5II box. It is plug and play and can automatically perform the necessary wireless pairing, then it can immediately function.

This gadget turns into an air mouse when I press on the Android key at its center. The mouse cursor will shows on the TV screen, which I can control by hand movement.

In any text input area, this gadget becomes handy with its QWERTY keyboard. Note that the original HiMedia remote control is still handy when come to typing numbers, and both of these 2 devices can work side-by-side.

This gadget can also perform sound volume control just like the remote control. The remote control is still important, especially when come to turning on and turning off the TV box.

Beside being a better input device that compliment the remote control, some of the TV games are designed to work with fly air mouse, making it the preferred game control device.

During idle and when the TV box is switched off, this gadget will bring itself into sleep mode, conserving its battery usage.