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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette

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Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot

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Speaker 1: com and sitting across from me, as he always does,

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Speaker 1: senior writer Jonathan Strickland. In my younger and more vulnerable years,

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Speaker 1: my father gave me some advice that I've been turning

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Speaker 1: over in my mind ever since. With a shovel. Uh

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Speaker 1: possibly if you know the source of quote, let us know.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't go to a library people. All right, So, um,

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Speaker 1: today we're going to talk about something that that several

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Speaker 1: listeners have requested over the past well probably two years

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Speaker 1: or so, but we've had a lot of people ask

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Speaker 1: about radio controlled toys. I think RC helicopters is the

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Speaker 1: one that we tend to get the most requests for,

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Speaker 1: but we've also had for r C cars and and

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Speaker 1: and just radio controlled vehicles in general, and they all

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Speaker 1: work at least on the radio side, with the same

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Speaker 1: basic premise. So we're going to cover that and then

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Speaker 1: maybe we'll get into some specifics. Yes, and oddly enough,

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Speaker 1: I have a little history, and boy do I mean history,

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Speaker 1: because this goes back to eight and one of our

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Speaker 1: old friends who messed around with radio in its very

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Speaker 1: very early days, and who had believe it or not. Actually,

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Speaker 1: you probably believe it if you know who. We're talking

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Speaker 1: about a patent for it. So there was an electrical

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Speaker 1: exhibition in Madison Square Garden and a guy named Nicola

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Speaker 1: Tesla faced off against Marconi in a no whole bar,

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Speaker 1: two out of three falls match. So not not this time.

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Speaker 1: Madison Square Gardens has a special place in my heart

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Speaker 1: as a wrestling fan. That's go ahead. Uh no, actually, uh,

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Speaker 1: this was a let me see hold on. Oh yes,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure I was right. It was

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Speaker 1: a radio controlled boat, basically a steel boat about four

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Speaker 1: ft long or so. And um, he brought out this

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Speaker 1: radio controlled boat and people thought he was controlling it

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Speaker 1: with his mind powers because you know, radio was still

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Speaker 1: pretty new at that point. Remember, if a technology is

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Speaker 1: sophisticate enough, it would be indistinguishable from magic. Yes, however,

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Speaker 1: Tesla had his boat powered by several batteries on board. Um. Also,

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Speaker 1: there were like eight guys underneath the water, just pushing

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Speaker 1: it along holding their breath. Uh, this is Tesla we're

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Speaker 1: talking about. You know, he had access to future technology.

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Speaker 1: Eight robots underwater holding their breath. That's more like it. Um.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it wasn't in a way, it

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Speaker 1: was not terribly different from from our current r C technology.

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Speaker 1: And there did there so there were switches that were propelling, propowering,

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Speaker 1: powering the propeller, the rudder, and uh running lights. Oh

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Speaker 1: so he could even make the lights go on and off. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And he even had a coherer, which is a switch

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Speaker 1: that act that was activated by radio. Um. And uh

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Speaker 1: had it had it set up so that he could

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Speaker 1: power or or control it by radio. And uh people

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Speaker 1: were freaked out by it because again it was magic

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Speaker 1: like to a lot of the people. Yes, he has

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Speaker 1: a U S Patent number six one eight zero nine

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Speaker 1: for a wireless remote control nine. Yeah. Now, A a

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Speaker 1: reporter from the New York Times was covering this and

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Speaker 1: he said, hey, you know what, you could make this uh,

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Speaker 1: this boat go under water and carry explosives and uh,

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Speaker 1: Tesla basically said no, no, no, no, no no no,

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Speaker 1: this is not a torpedo. It's a robot. They to

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Speaker 1: help humanity not destroy it. Yeah, thanks for the Mitchell

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Speaker 1: and Web fans in the audience. Yeah, but yeah, basically

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Speaker 1: they suggested you, oh, you could use this for a torpedo.

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Speaker 1: They said, no, no, this this could be used to

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Speaker 1: help people, not destroy people. Um. And then it turns

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Speaker 1: out the military really wasn't interested in it. They were

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Speaker 1: it was too it was too much of a novelty

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Speaker 1: at the time for it to be of course, you

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Speaker 1: know now you know, we've got unmanned aerial vehicles and

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Speaker 1: all sorts of other remote controlled technology less. Um. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: at the time, back in the late late nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: they weren't interested. Yeah, technology ahead of its time, really

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Speaker 1: really Tesla and technology ahead of its time Tesla. If

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Speaker 1: Tesla had, if if he had been able to hold

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Speaker 1: onto his patents and his sanity, um, I think I

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Speaker 1: think the world would be would look a little different today. Yeah. Probably.

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Speaker 1: We'd also probably be in fear for our lives whenever

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Speaker 1: we stepped outside about being zapped by some sort of

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Speaker 1: mac huge electronic rays. Anyhow, we're broadcasting power over to

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Speaker 1: New York, stay inside. Well no, no pun intended, I'll

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Speaker 1: fact you some electricity. Um. And that was a Delbert reference. Um, so,

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Speaker 1: so yeah, it's sort of if you uh, we'll pardon

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Speaker 1: the pun, it's sort of submerged for a while. For

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Speaker 1: for a few decades, it really didn't have a lot

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Speaker 1: of remote controlled stuff. Um, there were people who were

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Speaker 1: into the technology, I would I would say hobbyists probably

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Speaker 1: more than anything else, who are into different kinds of

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Speaker 1: radio controlled technology, But it really didn't come back again

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Speaker 1: as something that people were interested in until I would say,

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Speaker 1: at least, according to my research, around the nineteen sixties

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Speaker 1: was when you started seeing people with remote controlled cars

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Speaker 1: and planes and and gidsmos for toys. Yeah. Yeah, The

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Speaker 1: basics behind us are are fairly simple. Uh. The you

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Speaker 1: hold a controller and that controller has inside it a

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Speaker 1: transmitter and uh we actually talked quite a bit about

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Speaker 1: transmitters when we did our podcast about how radio works.

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Speaker 1: But in case you don't remember, the basics behind a

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Speaker 1: transmitter are well, it's all based on on things like

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Speaker 1: magnetic fluctuations and the way that the the relationship between

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Speaker 1: magnetism and electricity. That's about two thirds of our podcast. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it sounds might sound really familiar to those of you

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Speaker 1: who have been listening to tech stuff for a while.

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Speaker 1: But uh, here's a very basic transmitter. You let's say

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Speaker 1: you've got a battery, and you've got two different lengths

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Speaker 1: of wire, okay, and one length of wire you connect

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Speaker 1: to either end of a some sort of voltage sensor.

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Speaker 1: So you've got a meter there that's going to register

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Speaker 1: whenever voltage passes through the wire. But it's not connected

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Speaker 1: to anything else, not connected to a power source. And

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Speaker 1: then you've got a battery and another length of wire,

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Speaker 1: and you connect the length of wire to the two

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Speaker 1: ends of the battery. Now, the moment that current begins

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Speaker 1: to flow through that wire, that change in voltage creates

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Speaker 1: a magnetic field. That magnetic field will induce electricity to

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Speaker 1: flow through the second length of wire, the one that's

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Speaker 1: not connected to a power source. It's only connected to

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Speaker 1: the voltmeter, and the voltmeter will register that there's a change.

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Speaker 1: Now it only will have electricity flow as the magnetic

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Speaker 1: field changes. Yeah, so you can't have a magnetic you

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Speaker 1: can't create a magnetic field, and it just perpetually creates

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Speaker 1: this flow of electricity. It's only whenever the magnetic magnetic

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Speaker 1: field itself changes. So by connecting and disconnecting the wire

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Speaker 1: from that battery, you are going to change the magnetic field,

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Speaker 1: which will and then induce electricity to flow through that

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Speaker 1: second wire. That's the idea of transmission there. It's the

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Speaker 1: idea of transmitting radio waves is essentially doing the same

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Speaker 1: thing you're really You're You've created a power source and

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Speaker 1: a circuit, and by making the the opening and closing

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Speaker 1: the circuit and a regular but rapid way, you can

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Speaker 1: create this um this change in magnetic fields. And then

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Speaker 1: if by putting it through an antenna, you can direct

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Speaker 1: it and and even uh amplify it in such a

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Speaker 1: way that you can detect it from a distance. And

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Speaker 1: then depending on how you do this and depending on

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Speaker 1: how you've UH programmed the receiver on the other end,

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Speaker 1: that's where you get the response. So, for example, if

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Speaker 1: I were to do this with you know, by recording

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Speaker 1: music and then encoding that so that it converts the

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Speaker 1: sound into electricity, the electricity then is essentially converted into

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Speaker 1: uh this this changing magnetic field. A receiver would have

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Speaker 1: would receive this changing magnetic field, convert that into electricity,

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Speaker 1: and then have another encoding device that would convert the

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Speaker 1: electricity back into sound. That's a very high level way

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Speaker 1: of looking at it. Well, we're not just limited with sound.

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Speaker 1: We can transmit in from other kinds of information this way,

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Speaker 1: including directions essentially to a device. So in this case,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about a controller that let's let's take a

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Speaker 1: very basic controller. Let's say you've got a controller that

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Speaker 1: has a trigger and a wheel, and the trigger is

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Speaker 1: essentially your your your throttle, your accelerator. So if you

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Speaker 1: pull the trigger, it's sending a series of pulses. It's

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Speaker 1: it's a very specific series of pulses through a very

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Speaker 1: specific frequency. And if your receiver is within range of

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Speaker 1: the whatever your transmitter's power is, uh, the receiver receives this,

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Speaker 1: this series of pulses and then interprets that as that's

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Speaker 1: the accelerator button. Hit the gas. Although it's not necessarily gas.

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Speaker 1: There are r C cars and other vehicles out there

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Speaker 1: that use gas, but not all of them do. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: many of them will use electricity, but there are others

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Speaker 1: that will rely on some form of fuel besides elect uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, an electrical current. So that's a but. But

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Speaker 1: the the series of pulses from that accelerat ratar is

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Speaker 1: going to be different from the series of pulses. Then

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Speaker 1: if you were to twist the wheel uh to the right,

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Speaker 1: which would tell the vehicle, let's say it's an r

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Speaker 1: C car to turn right, that series of pulses is

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Speaker 1: going to be a different series. So that way, when

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Speaker 1: the r C car receives that message, it can interpret

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Speaker 1: that as saying, oh, this means turned the wheels to

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Speaker 1: the right, as opposed to hit the gas. Yeah. Now, UM.

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Speaker 1: It's also important to note one of the things from

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Speaker 1: our radio podcast that radio has can take in a

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Speaker 1: number of different forms. I mean, we use there's a

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Speaker 1: broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation UM, of which radio is apart,

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Speaker 1: and the radio frequencies. It all depends on UM a

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Speaker 1: number of factors amplitude, wavelength and frequency UM. But just

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Speaker 1: you know, so it sort of depends on the shape

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Speaker 1: of the radio wave basically if you want to get

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Speaker 1: right down to it, and how many there are UM

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Speaker 1: but over a certain period of time. But the there

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Speaker 1: are a couple of frequencies that are specifically in the

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Speaker 1: United States devoted to consumer electronic consumer electronics and UH.

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Speaker 1: This is this is something that's regulated by the Federal

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Speaker 1: Communications Commission in the United States. The c UH and

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Speaker 1: it's the reason you might wonder why there needs to

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Speaker 1: be such an entity. Uh, the reason for it is

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Speaker 1: that if you had all of your different electronics and

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Speaker 1: it was unregulated, there's a lot of potential for interference.

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Speaker 1: Because if you've ever had a let's you've had a

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Speaker 1: remote control car before, right, Yeah, If you have a

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Speaker 1: remote control car and your buddy has a remote control

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Speaker 1: car and they're both running on the same frequency and

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Speaker 1: there's no way of differentiating it, then you can't race

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Speaker 1: your car against your buddy's car because every time you

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Speaker 1: press up on your control both cars start to move

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Speaker 1: because they you know, they can't differentiate between two signals

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Speaker 1: sent along the same frequency. So imagine that multiplied by

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Speaker 1: an astronomical number. If all devices were unregulated. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's all you could have the argument of, well, if

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Speaker 1: it's unregulated, what are the odds that the frequency you

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Speaker 1: chose it's going to be the same as someone else.

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Speaker 1: Those odds are pretty good. Actually, if you look at

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Speaker 1: the entire breadth of radio, everything that relies on radio transmissions,

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Speaker 1: because it's not just radio, it's television, it's all these

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Speaker 1: other sort of devices. Um, So that's why you had

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Speaker 1: to have a some sort of of body that would

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Speaker 1: regulate this and say, all right, we are dedicating this

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Speaker 1: part of the spectrum of the radio frequency spectrum to

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Speaker 1: consumer electronics. Yeah we can. Uh, I mean there are

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Speaker 1: a number of of real world non RC examples. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's the reason why, um, wireless hubs in

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Speaker 1: your house have the ability to change channels to ensure

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Speaker 1: that you don't interfere with the neighbors and vice versa. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, their their tales of pilots being able to

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Speaker 1: hear baby monitors. I don't know if that's the old

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Speaker 1: wireless phones. Yea, the wireless phones to uh, they've they've

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Speaker 1: changed the frequencies on which they broadcast simply to avoid

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Speaker 1: all the radio transmissions in the home. Now that they're

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Speaker 1: people have wire wireless networks and things, um, the interfere

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Speaker 1: with one another. Yeah. I remember having a wireless phone

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Speaker 1: where if you turned it on, sometimes you can hear

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Speaker 1: other people's conversations, like like not not conversations that were

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Speaker 1: happening in your home. Yes, but you know you turned

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Speaker 1: it out, you turned it on, you Yeah, you like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I can even make a phone call,

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Speaker 1: and I don't know if I want to, because if

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Speaker 1: I do, then maybe someone else is hearing what I'm saying. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So yeah, that that's the reason for the regulation. And

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Speaker 1: I remember to our conversation about the remote controls. They

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Speaker 1: used to use sound to change the channel, and I

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Speaker 1: used to, uh, I would drop magnets on this toy

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Speaker 1: that I used to play with at my grandmother's house.

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Speaker 1: She had one of those early TVs with or TVs

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Speaker 1: with early remote control, and I could change the channel

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Speaker 1: simply by uh the magnetic or actually it was a

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Speaker 1: sound thing, so it was the sound of the magnets falling.

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Speaker 1: It was an ultrasonic system as opposed to infrared or

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Speaker 1: radio waves. Yeah, I had the same thing with a slinky.

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Speaker 1: But you happen to have that say that that interference,

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Speaker 1: and it was a sound interference, not an electromagnetic interference.

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Speaker 1: But it's it's funny when those little things happen. And

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Speaker 1: this is uh their courting off so that that people

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Speaker 1: can enjoy their radio controlled stuff and uh not interfere

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Speaker 1: with other people in and vice versa. Right, And a

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Speaker 1: lot of the the RC toy uh toys out there

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Speaker 1: are at least the older ones anyway, are dedicated in

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Speaker 1: either the twenty seven mega Hurts or the forty nine

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Speaker 1: Mega Hurts ranges. Some of them are actually capable of

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Speaker 1: doing either, so that you know, if you have a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of friends together and you all want to

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Speaker 1: race your vehicles, you can switch from one frequency to

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Speaker 1: the other, so that way, you know, you you avoid

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Speaker 1: this interference problem. And also you can get more specific

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Speaker 1: within a frequency. So let's say that I'm say twenty

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Speaker 1: seven mega hurts is what my my vehicle runs on.

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Speaker 1: Like that, that's it doesn't can't accept information from the

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Speaker 1: forty nine mega hurts spectrum or frequency range. But I

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Speaker 1: could possibly if you this is all up to the manufacturer,

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Speaker 1: but you could create a device that could accept different

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Speaker 1: channels within the twenty seven mega hurts frequency range, so

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Speaker 1: twenty seven point one, twenty seven point two, twenty seven

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Speaker 1: point three, so you might have multiple channels that you

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Speaker 1: can switch on and that way, um, if you do

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Speaker 1: have a bunch of friends and you want to raise

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Speaker 1: your vehicles, you can all try different channels to make

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Speaker 1: sure that you know your signals aren't uh uh conflicting

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Speaker 1: with someone else's UM. And this is you know, that's

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Speaker 1: of course really important if you're in a competition, because

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Speaker 1: there are plenty of actual events out there where people

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Speaker 1: are building our C cars or our c whatever's and

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Speaker 1: competing them against each other in various races or obstacle

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Speaker 1: courses that kind of thing, um, And some of them

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Speaker 1: are kit based, and a lot of them now are

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Speaker 1: really you buy. You spend a lot of money from

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Speaker 1: a particular manufacturer and buy a racing our vehicle. But

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Speaker 1: of course skill comes into play too, So just because

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Speaker 1: you have the fastest car doesn't mean you're gonna be

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Speaker 1: the best driver automatically, that's true. Yeah, I mean there

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Speaker 1: has to be a receiver, of course, on board the

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Speaker 1: device that you're controlling. That's that's the second part of this, Right,

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Speaker 1: You've got the transmitter in your hand, but the vehicle

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Speaker 1: itself has to have a receiver, and of course it will.

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Speaker 1: The receiver will be attached to a micro controller of

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Speaker 1: some type that operates the servos on board the remote

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Speaker 1: controlled thing. Um. So you know, and it gets more

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Speaker 1: and more complex. Like for a car, you might have

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Speaker 1: ford in reverse and you know the wheels turning left

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Speaker 1: and right. That's that's pretty simple, you know, when you

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Speaker 1: get into something like a remote controlled airplane. Then you've

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Speaker 1: got other servos and other control surfaces. You've got uh,

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Speaker 1: the you know, the engine or engines you've which of

295
00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:03,160
Speaker 1: course you're going to have to maintain speed to keep

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Speaker 1: the airflow going over the wing and keep the plane moving.

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Speaker 1: But you've also got the rudder controls, you've got the

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Speaker 1: you know, the control surfaces on the wing to help

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Speaker 1: you go up and down, not not necessarily left and right.

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Speaker 1: And you've got to operate all of those things. Um.

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Speaker 1: For a submarine, you might have the same type of

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Speaker 1: thing where you have control surfaces that that move the

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Speaker 1: sub up or down, left or right through the water. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So the stuff that that you know, servos and motors

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00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,439
Speaker 1: are very important in these devices. Yes. And this is

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Speaker 1: stuff that takes electrical energy and converts it into mechanical energy. Yes,

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00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:43,760
Speaker 1: so we really the fascinating thing to me about an

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Speaker 1: r C car is seeing how many different types of

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Speaker 1: energy are being used. Yes, you know how many. And

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Speaker 1: it's relying on several different things. It's relying on uh,

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Speaker 1: it's relying on electricity, on magnetic changes in magnetic um states.

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Speaker 1: It's relying on radio frequencies, it's relying on on mechanical energy. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it's a great lesson in basic physics really when you

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Speaker 1: look at it that way. And when I said that,

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Speaker 1: you know, the older ones run on twenty seven Mega

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Speaker 1: Hurts and four nine Mega Hurts. There are radio controlled

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Speaker 1: vehicles now that are in have our work in the

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Speaker 1: giga Hurts range because the gig Hurts also opened up

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00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:25,919
Speaker 1: for some of the gig Hurts range open up for

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Speaker 1: consumer devices. So some of the professional I guess what

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Speaker 1: you can call it professional, some of the sports enthusiast ones,

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Speaker 1: the r C racing ones are in the Giga Hurts range,

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Speaker 1: not in the Mega Hurts range. Yeah, of course this

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Speaker 1: is This is yet another one of those hobbies that

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Speaker 1: you can get into for a fairly reasonable cost if

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Speaker 1: you have have some money squirreled away. But you can

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Speaker 1: also really get into things, build things yourself, more complex devices,

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Speaker 1: more expensive devices. You can move, say from a propeller

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Speaker 1: plane to a ducted fan, which is what people use

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Speaker 1: to sort of simulate a jet the appearance of a

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Speaker 1: jet basically the fans inside the engine, and so it

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00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:11,880
Speaker 1: appears to be to work on jet. Also, I think

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00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:15,640
Speaker 1: you can now buy jet engine real jet engines for

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Speaker 1: these aircraft, which I imagine need quite a bit of space.

335
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Speaker 1: And you know, we've even seen this sort of technology

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Speaker 1: used in actual vehicle vehicles, not model vehicles. Mean the

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00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:31,359
Speaker 1: MythBusters have done it. Yeah, where where they were trying

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Speaker 1: to recreate a stunt that was too dangerous to have

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Speaker 1: a human behind the wheel of a vehicle or behind

340
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,920
Speaker 1: the helm of a vehicle, whatever you want to call it. Um,

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Speaker 1: And so they would rig up a robot that would

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00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:46,080
Speaker 1: be remote controlled and they would uh use that to

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Speaker 1: manipulate the vehicle. And you know, so, yeah, it's there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of different applications to this beyond the

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Speaker 1: typical I want, you know, I've got little little remote

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Speaker 1: control four by four and I want to drive it

347
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Speaker 1: around the neighborhood. You know. Well, battle bots, you know,

348
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:06,560
Speaker 1: that was another type of remote controlled vehicle that uh

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00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 1: required things. Well, I mean that that actually is sort

350
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:16,840
Speaker 1: of another illustration too, because say you have a bot

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00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,639
Speaker 1: that has crawler treads on it, so you have your

352
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:22,960
Speaker 1: left tread and your right tread, plus you might have one,

353
00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 1: two or even more weapons on the battle bot. Then

354
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:30,640
Speaker 1: you have to have um your controller and you you'd

355
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:32,879
Speaker 1: have a couple of people on some of those crews

356
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,399
Speaker 1: where somebody would drive the bot, so they would be

357
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:39,200
Speaker 1: in charge of making sure it got where it needed

358
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,919
Speaker 1: to go or got away from the other body if

359
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 1: their weapons were disabled. And then you had somebody operating

360
00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:49,160
Speaker 1: the weapons. So that required several different frequencies UM and

361
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 1: the receivers and controllers, the transmitters and controllers to manipulate them,

362
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,040
Speaker 1: and the receivers and controllers on the device itself to

363
00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,439
Speaker 1: handle all those different things. They can get quite complex

364
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:03,280
Speaker 1: UM and again costly, because you know, those machines cost

365
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,479
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars. It's it can be uh, it can

366
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:09,400
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun, and it can be very expensive. Well.

367
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 1: And I mean I've also seen them in uh it's

368
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 1: it's not unusual to see it in applications like UM puppetry.

369
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 1: You know, the the Hinson Company has used remote controlled

370
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:27,400
Speaker 1: servos for some of their more advanced puppet characters in

371
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,000
Speaker 1: movies like Labyrinth and uh, you know, so that they

372
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:35,120
Speaker 1: could have more articulation in the character's face, but operating

373
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,920
Speaker 1: under the same principles as the remote control car. UM.

374
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:41,680
Speaker 1: It's just you have like a remote control goblin face,

375
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,160
Speaker 1: which I think it's pretty awesome, and unfortunately I don't

376
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 1: know anywhere where you can buy it. It's UM, it's

377
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 1: really funny that you know that's something that's ubiquitous is

378
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: actually fairly fairly easy to accomplish UM. And of course

379
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,800
Speaker 1: there are many different kinds of hobby stores UM. Some

380
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 1: may be local to you depending on where you live.

381
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 1: Others are online and pretty easy to access UM and

382
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,359
Speaker 1: they offer all kinds of different things. One of the

383
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:13,439
Speaker 1: big toys I saw for this this past holiday season,

384
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:16,159
Speaker 1: the one we just uh finished up since we're recording

385
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,640
Speaker 1: this we actually we're recording it before this happens, but

386
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 1: we're publishing in early were the UH air Swimmers line

387
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: of inflatable toys that have remote control. The it makes

388
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,000
Speaker 1: the there's a fish and a shark that can it

389
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:32,919
Speaker 1: looks like they're swimming through the air, which is kind

390
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 1: of an actually pretty cool effect to see. But I

391
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: mean they're they're using the same kinds of remote controls

392
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,960
Speaker 1: that we've had for decades more or less, just different

393
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,680
Speaker 1: frequencies maybe on the transmitter and receiver. Yeah, And I've

394
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 1: been I've been kind of UM searching since Chris is

395
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: wondering why I've been staring at my computer. I've been

396
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:59,359
Speaker 1: trying to figure you were just on YouTube again now. No,

397
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 1: but I've been trying to find a specific UM toy

398
00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:09,359
Speaker 1: because I owned one, and I can't remember what it

399
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 1: was called. But it was essentially a little toy battling robot.

400
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 1: They I think there was something like six different types

401
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: of this, these battling robots, and they all had different

402
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 1: colors and um uh. It was a robot that was

403
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: remote controlled and you would you would battle it against

404
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,359
Speaker 1: someone else's robot, and it had things like a little

405
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 1: infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver, so it's kind of

406
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: like a laser tag type thing where you could shoot

407
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:41,120
Speaker 1: at another person's robot and also could do physical attacks

408
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:44,639
Speaker 1: like an actual knock a robot over. Um. I totally

409
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 1: don't remember this toy it was. It was in a

410
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 1: way it was a really a brilliant kind of move,

411
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,679
Speaker 1: although I don't know how well it did in the market.

412
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 1: But it also had a sort of a card game

413
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: element to it. You could purchase packs of cards that

414
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: would give your robot different stats, so in other words,

415
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: your robot would be limited at how fast it could

416
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 1: go based upon the card that you could scan to

417
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 1: give it a speed, and the cards were ranked I

418
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:17,359
Speaker 1: think one through five, So if you had a speed

419
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:20,800
Speaker 1: of three, you're right there in the middle. If you

420
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:22,919
Speaker 1: found a speed of five, your robot could actually move

421
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 1: at a faster pace, and you would also have armor

422
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,439
Speaker 1: as well, so that would let it withstand more hits

423
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 1: before it registered an actual hit. Uh. It was a

424
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 1: neat idea, and I got one, and my buddy Oz

425
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,479
Speaker 1: got one, and we maybe had one fight and that

426
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 1: was it. And my lovely life has endured the fact

427
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: that I have this battle robot in a closet, this

428
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 1: little bitty thing. It's not like the ones that were

429
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:54,159
Speaker 1: in the Robot Wars or anything like that. Um but

430
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 1: and all of its accessories that I went on and bought,

431
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,119
Speaker 1: not to mention, a deck of cards where I was

432
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: trying to get like those those weapons and those abilities

433
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:04,639
Speaker 1: that would make them better. And some of the cards

434
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:10,120
Speaker 1: were specific only to particular robot models. So you've got

435
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 1: cards for robots you didn't know exactly, the idea being

436
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: that you would trade them for someone else's cards, where

437
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: they might have ones that are useful to you but

438
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 1: not to them. That kind of thing it's brilliant, brilliant marketing.

439
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: But it was all based on this same technology, and

440
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:29,160
Speaker 1: each robot worked on its own part of the frequency

441
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: band the robots all belonged to, so that way you

442
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about your UM your controls interfering

443
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: with theirs. And there are also some r C vehicles

444
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: that are not really radio controlled. There's some that are

445
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 1: infrared controlled, so it's more like a remote control for

446
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,640
Speaker 1: a typical television set, although some of those are now

447
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,160
Speaker 1: using radio frequencies in the form of WiFi, so that

448
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: you know, you could have the the cable unit or

449
00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,399
Speaker 1: uh DVD player or Blu ray player or whatever it is,

450
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,480
Speaker 1: you could have it out of view. And because it's

451
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:07,119
Speaker 1: using radio frequencies which aren't blocked, they don't need a

452
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: line of sight. Yeah. The disadvantage of using the R

453
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 1: for that, yeah, you can't. That's the thing about it

454
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,199
Speaker 1: and I ARE vehicle or an I R anything, is

455
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 1: that you have to maintain a line of sight in

456
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: order for it to be UM controllable. Once it gets

457
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 1: like if you if you were to make something that

458
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: you're directing by I R go around the corner, then

459
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 1: you'd suddenly lose contact with it and it wouldn't it

460
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: would just stop or go on a killing rampage whatever

461
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 1: it's default settings. Right. So, but from the RC range,

462
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: you know, you you don't have to necessarily have a

463
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 1: line of sight. Now there is a only a you know,

464
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: a useful broadcast range that's going to be dependent upon

465
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: the power supply and the kind of antenna you're using. Um.

466
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: If so, if you were to say, fly a remote

467
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,919
Speaker 1: controlled helicopter around and it's sort to get outside of

468
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:05,439
Speaker 1: that rage, you might quickly have a search and rescue

469
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: operation on your hands. Mm hmm. Yeah, I thought I

470
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: was thinking back to some of the other stuff I

471
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 1: had that sort of emulated remote control, but not really.

472
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: I had a car UM that had a cam system

473
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,040
Speaker 1: on it, uh, and it came with a series of

474
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: plastic cams. It was actually a replica of a Porsche

475
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,679
Speaker 1: nineventeen race car, and you would stick a cam on

476
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: top and it would do whatever the cam had and

477
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: the cam would rotate and so the car would basically

478
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: you know, would go forward and then reverse and do whatever,

479
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: but it would do that according to the shape of

480
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: the cam. UM. And then of course I had the

481
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 1: big track which sort of appears to be remote controlled,

482
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 1: but you're really programming it before you even press go

483
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: and then it does what it does. And um so

484
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: I mean they're there are other ways of doing similar things,

485
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,719
Speaker 1: but it's just not the same like the old remote

486
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 1: controlled toys that would still have a wire attack them.

487
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: I had one of those two press up or down

488
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 1: and that would make a go forward or backward. But

489
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: it's all wired. It's not so you're tethered to it. Yeah.

490
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 1: The parent a r drone, which is something I saw

491
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: it CS a few years ago. It's been it's been

492
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: for a while. Yeah, it's been out for a while.

493
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 1: It's a four rotor copper copter chopper and it's uh

494
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like a helicopter because it doesn't have

495
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: that one uh blades up at the top. Yeah, it's

496
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,200
Speaker 1: got it's got four sets of them and uh it

497
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: looks like a weird hovering drone thing. But you can

498
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 1: control those through a smartphone device usually. I think it's

499
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: only um iOS. Actually, I don't think they have an

500
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: Android based system yet, but they they actually maybe they do.

501
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,240
Speaker 1: I'm looking at their website and they have a little

502
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: Android icon on it. Yes, a new Android app, so

503
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,120
Speaker 1: they do in fact have Android now. When I first

504
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: saw it, it was only for the Apple iPhone. But

505
00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 1: in this case, it's using WiFi to to let you

506
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: control the the device, and you do it through an

507
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: interface on your smartphone. And uh, it's similar to what

508
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: we've been talking about, except that you know it's it's

509
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,400
Speaker 1: a a WiFi frequency, not the same as the old

510
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:20,959
Speaker 1: direct radio frequencies. So uh, we're seeing lots of kind

511
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,719
Speaker 1: of experimentation with this this older technology, I mean technology

512
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: that dates back to the nineteenth century. Um, and it's

513
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: really neat to see the kind of toys that are

514
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 1: coming out. I was always a big fan of remote

515
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: control cars. I owned a few. Um, haven't played with

516
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: one in a long time because it drives my dogs crazy.

517
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: I would have figured you'd play with one specifically because

518
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: it drives your dogs crazy. They don't last so long,

519
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: the toys, not the dogs. The last all day long.

520
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: But no, they will like I had. I think it

521
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: was a remote control Plymouth Prowler, a purple Plymouth prowler,

522
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: because that's the only color they came in originally. And uh,

523
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: the dogs didn't seem to like those classic lines. The

524
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 1: same way I did. They're not roadster fans. On the

525
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: other hand, I do have a remote controlled mouse that

526
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 1: I use with my cats, and you know, so it's

527
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 1: it's it sort of works. It's a very uh low

528
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: end mouse, right, you plug it in, squeak mouse, not

529
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: a mouse, right, and it it stays charged for maybe

530
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: about five minutes of play. And by play that I

531
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: mean I play with the mouse and the cats stare

532
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 1: at it, like, what is that thing moving around on

533
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 1: the floor. Never mind, I'm going to take a bath now.

534
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 1: That's the thing that looks almost, but not exactly completely

535
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: unlike an actual mouse. Yes, that's pretty much how it works.

536
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: So we have fun, the humans have fun playing with

537
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: the remote controlled mouse, and the cats and sit there,

538
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 1: which is pretty much the way cats work anyway. You know.

539
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 1: We we worked for their amusement and they just sit

540
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: there and watch. So yeah, that's the that's the basics

541
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: behind the whole r C toy thing. It's you know,

542
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 1: like it is. It is simple, but it's it's relying

543
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: on some very basic, uh foundations for the way energy

544
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 1: and works, in the way the different kinds of energy

545
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 1: interact and influence one another. It's a it's neat stuff

546
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 1: if you want to learn more. We actually have an

547
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 1: article on how stuff works dot com about how r

548
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: C toys work and it has some useful information in

549
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:30,840
Speaker 1: there so you can learn more about it. And there

550
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: are a lot of sites, like I said, online that

551
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: cater to people who are into this in a hobbyist

552
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 1: level where they will learn more about building their own

553
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: and there are lots of kits that you can get.

554
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 1: Um there you can also find out about competitions if

555
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: you want to try and hone your skills as an

556
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 1: RC driver and go up against other drivers. And it's

557
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:52,480
Speaker 1: neat stuff. Yeah, if you can. If you can find

558
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 1: a hobby store near you, um, they're probably gonna know

559
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: about things like competitions and good places to go because

560
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 1: of course, actually that's something else. Uh. You know, we

561
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 1: were talking about the FCC regulating radio frequencies here in

562
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 1: the United States. Uh. You know, it's good to stay

563
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: aware of the laws in your area. UM, maybe not

564
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: necessarily as far as you know. If you can buy

565
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: a remote controlled car in your local store, chances are

566
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: it's probably legal, but you also want to make sure

567
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 1: that you are operating these devices in places that are okay,

568
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: especially things like planes, because the planes need quite a

569
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: bit of space um to operate, and there may be

570
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,960
Speaker 1: areas that are specifically off limits to stuff like that

571
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,320
Speaker 1: for safety reasons, or you might be near a residential neighborhood.

572
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 1: You also want to operate them in a safe place,

573
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 1: um you know, for obvious reasons. You don't want to

574
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: hurt somebody or yourself or destroy your your brand new

575
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: RC car. Yeah. Yeah, so it's uh when your RC

576
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: car met up with a real life car. Yeah and uh,

577
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 1: you know, so you definitely want to to do that,

578
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: especially if you're investing some some real money into these hobbies,

579
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: um you know. And plus you don't want to run

580
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: a foul with the law and end up with a

581
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 1: happy ticket na Um, Johnny Law might have some words

582
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,879
Speaker 1: with you. So so yeah, I keep that in mind.

583
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,919
Speaker 1: You want to operate these things safely and uh and responsibly. Yes.

584
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 1: And if you guys have requests for any other sort

585
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 1: of topic you think would be interesting for us to cover,

586
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:29,879
Speaker 1: let us know on Facebook or Twitter. Are handled. There

587
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: is tech stuff h s W. Chris and I will

588
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:38,359
Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Be sure to check

589
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 1: out our new video podcast stuff from the future. Join

590
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising

591
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:48,840
Speaker 1: and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The House Stuff Works iPhone

592
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:56,640
Speaker 1: app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes, Brought to

593
00:34:56,640 --> 00:34:59,760
Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

594
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:00,319
Speaker 1: are you