Wi-Fli Copter Broken? Harvest The Parts!

[Nick] was somewhat disappointed when the Wi-Fly helicopter he bought his son broke in less than 10 minutes. The main gear that turns the rotor split in half, rendering the copter WiFi enabled trash. [Nick] however decided that he didn’t want to waste an opportunity and harvested the receiver parts.  To test them out, he wired them up to the controller for an R/C truck. This gave him a WiFi truck with a nifty android interface. It actually works pretty well, as you can see in the video below. [Nick] points out that, while this works fine, he could ultimately repurpose this fancy little WIFI controlled 3v switch to whatever he wants. He mentions garage doors and lights (and terminators), so this might be an opportunistic way for him to get into some fun home automation.

10 thoughts on “Wi-Fli Copter Broken? Harvest The Parts!

  1. Anyone out there have any links to tutorials about setting up electronic speed controllers and building a quadcopter. I have a quadcopter project going but I am so new to this I sure could use help. I figure someone reading this post the person that posted it may be able to help. I am so close yet so far away with this quadcopter. I believe I have all the parts I need I just lack the expertise. I have read some pretty awsome posts from some very intelligent people so I am reaching out. liveone1232003@yahoo.com is my email if you can help.

  2. I got a broken wi fly in my attic somewhere but never thought of repurposing the parts..this is awesome.. and to kevin you can check out instructables.com for what ur looking for..i seen a couple posts about the quadracopter on there

  3. Too bad the Wi-fli requires a Ad-hoc connection instead of an AP connection. If it could do AP connection, then it would be great hack for a wireless wifi enable garage door opener or any other type of automation. Target stores have these wi-fli choppers for $40 right now. So thats cheap compared to a arduino + wifi or ethernet.

  4. Might be possible to reprogram by replacing the e2prom on the board (BT headsets also have this) to enable the extra features.

    I also worked out how to use a Bluetooth headset as a general purpose low speed interface.
    LM567 + some components takes care of that.

  5. 3D print a new gear?

    which would have sadly been a tragic loss of an excellent Hack report. NICE reassign of this hardware!

    RE: Ad-Hoc Vs AP.

    Perhaps that’s by some intent?

    Having an AP mode device at any decent elevation could cause issues of too many valid or just “there” signals. Seriously, it’s a potentially big win or loss deal. As it can cover rural areas or an event if it’s properly used or be a DoS vector. Copters have an advantage of being able to “perch” and be retrieved under their own power too.

    Hmn- using this hardware to reset a locked mesh node?

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