Pixel 290

like Pixel III, but better...

Pixel 290 owes much to Pixel III. It is slightly smaller however, but the baseline concept was kept: develop an easy (relatively I mean) to make, affordable micro helicopter. Construction is 100% carbon (except for the Canopy and tailfin). Main motor is a reworked Speed 280 motor, tail is ran by a DC 5 2.4. Servo's are the 6 gram feather series available through about any model shop. Receiver is an indoor Multiplex receiver. Gyro is a standard Ikarus.

Flight performance is excellent, and 5 minutes hovering on 7 cell 270 mAh NiCads is what you get.

Canopy was vacuum formed from white ABS with a self made 'machine' using a wooden wine box as a base.

Simplicity and further reduction in number of components make of the Pixel 290 a 214 gram helicopter, including the 7cell NiCad pack.

Rotorhead exists in two versions. The first one is a simple flex plate head. Forward flight improved a lot by switching to a flapping rotorhead, i.e. where the rotor blades can rotate up and down around the bell-bar. The beauty of this model is that, because of the more practical size, it is easier to redesign components for testing alternative solutions. I developed an ultra simple swashplate system, that only needs a couple of parts (and no ball!).


The elliptical shape if the Pixel rotor blades is one of the contributing factors to the high aerodynamic efficiency		This was one of the first flights, performed in my office. The plants are really only inches away, showing once again that this is a real indoor helicopter


This picture may not show a lot, but I simply like it. It looks quite arty. Picture is take on my office desktop (the real one, not the one from Bill Gates). The light spot showing in the middle is simply the reflection of the office lights...		This is me in tie and suit, preparing for a next flight. You would not want to do that with your oily gas machine.


It may not shows all details, but it is quite clear that the rotorhead design is very simple.		This is me, in between my parents, who are as fascinated as most are by the little helicopters. They pushed me into modeling when I was 10 years old, whereas none of them had even a clue about how a hobby knife looked like...