Snap & Fly
The battery mounts directly over the receiver (above left). To turn the system on and bind the receiver, the cell must be mounted first to the receiver before
and six are not proportional and have on/off switches on the back of the transmitter case. For the Snap&Fly planes they are not used and need to be turned off. Trim levers for the four primary channels
are sliders, not digital, so they stay where they’re put. One interesting note: When the trim is adjusted from neutral there is a gradually rising tone that stays on. At first I thought there was something wrong but then returned the trim to neutral and the transmitter went quiet. These audible tones also sound with application of throttle or moving the control sticks. The small lithium batteries with the mag-
netic attachment have been around since Plantraco first introduced them and they work well. To charge them, the transmitter has a “docking station” for the two that come with the package. It’s a simple matter of set- ting the batteries in place on the magnetic attachment points. Polarity has already been set so there’s no chance for reversed po- larity. There are also two small indicator LEDs to show the charge in progress, when it’s finished. Full charge takes about 40–60 minutes, and yields about a 5-minute flight. Even with the motor, prop, receiver, bat-
the trasnmitter is turned on. Two 90 mAh cells (above right) are provided with the system and the bottom view of one (R) shows the magnetic attach discs.
tery, and magnetic actuators, the Base Mod- ule is almost feather light but obviously con- tributes most of the weight in the complete plane. The small CD Rom motor nests in a molded cavity with a fair amount of down thrust and a slight degree of right thrust. Right behind it is the 4-channel receiver. It has a built-in ESC for the motor. Unlike oth- er micro receivers this one uses 2-pin con- nectors which are meant solely for the mag- netic actuators used in the planes. The wires for these are hair-thin magnetic wire. Both wires are twisted to give a little more sub- stance, but are also carefully held in place at a few points along their travel to the actuators. These two actuators rest firmly in tandem
at the rear of the module in molded cavities. Actuators like these have been around for a while but the Snap&Fly version has in- creased mounting surfaces. The increased surface area of these plastic pieces allow a much more secure mount. One of the most interesting and appealing features of the modules is the pushrod sys- tem. The flexibility of the Base Module would be thoroughly thwarted if the pushrod system wasn’t easily interchange-
able. So take a look at the very neat and ef- fective magnetic connections between the Base Module pushrods and the various air- plane modules. A quick look at the pushrod ends will
show that each has a small magnet shrink wrapped over the .005 diameter carbon fiber pushrod. Each time modules are changed there is that positive click that indicates they are engaged and the evidence is the neutral position of the control surfaces. The Biplane and the V-tail Modules were per- fectly set up but the Canard Module pushrods needed slight adjustment to its left elevon pushrod to set that surface at neutral. One final look at the Base Module shows
that it fastens to the chin of each airplane module with four tiny magnets, two at the front of the module, and two at the rear. Mating the two is easy and the Base Module will lock and align itself in place. If there were only one airplane module
that would be interesting enough. But there are three and each offers a slightly different flying experience. So it seemed sensible to start with the most convention- al of the three, the Biplane Module. Good
For its small size the 900 MHz system transmitter (above left) is pretty capable. It’s 6-channel, has an 8-frequency selection, eight mixing channels, and a Li-Po
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cell charging dock. Opening the red cover shows two cells being charged (above right). In the upper outside corners a small LED indicates charge status.
AUGUST 2012
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