There is nothing worse than getting a FedEx tracking number late on a Thursday, knowing full well that your package will not arrive until Monday. Even as an adult, I'll still obsessively refresh tracking information, even when I know something won't be delivered for days. Still, that didn't stop me from tracking the Parrot AR.Drone all weekend, or getting up and looking out the window when I even thought I might have heard the sound of tires on gravel in the distance all day today. Surely any self respecting geek knows the feeling as they anxiously await their newest techno-toy.Drone arrived mere moments ago, and after carefully opening the packaging I was greeted with the wondrous quadricopter that we've been drooling over since we first caught wind of it back at CES in January. Since then we've had a brief hands-on and later discovered that it would sell for $299.99 available for preorder through Brookstone. In the demos we've been given in the past, we've never actually been able to touch the unit, only fly it around for a few seconds inside of the controlled environment of the Parrot booth at conventions.

My first impression as I took it out of the box was just how amazingly light and delicate the whole unit feels. I suppose it makes sense that it's light because it has to fly, but it feels like nothing. In the box with the unit is a brief quick start guide which explains to first charge the battery, how to install the battery, and the basics of getting the Parrot AR.Drone in the air. Like any impatient man child, I immediately installed the battery, and paired it to my iPhone which was as simple as downloading the free Parrot AR.Drone Free Flight app and connecting to the WiFi network it creates. After that, you launch the app, it connects to the quadricopter, and you're met with a screen that looks like this: Unfortunately, since I skipped that whole "charge the battery first" step, the AR.Drone only flew for about 45 seconds before it ran out of juice. I'm currently impatiently waiting the light on the charger to flip from red to green, and daylight is fading fast. I hope to have some extensive video of how the unit works, how it is assembled, and flying it in the not too distant future.

(All depending on how long it takes to charge of course.) Following that, I'll be doing a full review of the Parrot AR.Drone, so if you have any questions that you'd like answered or anything you want me to do as I put it through its paces, post a comment on this story.parrot ar drone mexico df With the sun about to set I grabbed the battery with as much charge as the charger was able to give me and headed out to shoot some video. buy a drone australiaThe companion app initially showed that I was at around 30% battery, which seemed to last for about 10 minutes of outdoor flight time. parrot ar drone carrying caseHere's a video of my first real flight outdoors with the Parrot AR. Something that immediately struck me was how awesome the device is at steadying itself, even with the breeze outside.

In the video I am actively trying to get it to lose control, by having it bank in to the wind and the onboard flight controller just automatically leveled the quadricopter without any issues at all. Also, it's really cool how low it will fly to the ground, automatically adjusting its height as it goes up or down hills. Buzzing over the grass at about a foot off the ground was a truly impressive display of how accurately the AR.Drone can hold its altitude. While none of these things are really new revelations from our previous hands-ons at conventions, all of those were always indoors in a very small controlled environment with no winds at all. A part of me was expecting everything to fall apart once the AR.Drone got outside of the calm 10x10 Parrot tent on the show floor... But it performed flawlessly. The strangest part about flying the AR.Drone is trusting the iPhone display over just watching it fly through the air and controlling it like a normal RC helicopter. This is even more disorienting when you notice that you can see yourself in the image.

Drone is always controlled from its viewpoint, creating a brain-bending situation where you can see the device with your eyes, you in the devices eyes, and everything is backwards as you're facing it. At demos in the past, controlling the AR.Drone seemed really easy, and it is when you're limited by about 10 feet in any direction. When you actually get outdoors, and have tons of obstacles to fly around, piloting the device actually seems to take a bit of skill-- Even with all the automated flight systems it has. Just as I was getting good, I was met with this yet again: So far I'd really advise anyone who already had one of these preordered to buy as many extra batteries as you feel comfortable purchasing. Drone is really cool, but having it run out of battery, then sitting and waiting for the battery to charge sucks just as much as it did when I was a kid waiting for the NiCD batteries of my various RC cards to juice back up before I could play again.It has blown away every drone expert we've talked to.

It's not just a toy: it's a phenomenal piece of engineering that manages to solve some very difficult software problems in order to take flight. Hidden beneath the foam fascia lies some very sophisticated electronics, all of which makes flying the quadricopter very seamless. We were quite interested in seeing exactly what components Parrot used to make their awesome flying device. This holiday season, let’s encourage repair and reuse rather than buying more things we don’t need and won’t last. With our friends at Wired, we’re running a toy repair contest. We’re giving away a ton of awesome tools, so make sure to get started on your entry right away! This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Parrot AR.Drone, use our service manual.Drone remote-controlled quadricopter recently landed on our teardown table. What's cooler than one quadricopter? Two quadricopters, of course! Drone comes with two hulls: an indoor unit with guards over the propellers (grey/white) and an outdoor unit (orange/blue).

You might notice the lack of a controller with this awesome gadget. That's because the controls are managed via an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad by using AR.Free Flight, an application available for download in the Apple App Store. Android users can now enjoy the AR.Drone Android app from the Market!opening up the AR.Drone doesn't even require a screwdriver. (Compare this with some recent devices we have torn down!) The hull is attached to the body by a pair of magnets; one in the hull and one on the body. Much of the AR.Drone's body is made of expanded polypropylene (EPP), a common substance that is both extremely light and easily manufactured into complex shapes. The 1000mAh 11.1V lithium polymer battery is attached via a connector, making it delightfully easy to remove. The second connector is a balance charge connector, which ensures that each of the three battery cells is charging equally, thus optimizing capacity and prolonging battery life. The battery contains a protection circuit module, which prevents it from discharging too rapidly, over charging, or short circuiting.

Parrot claims the battery will only last about 12 minutes after a full charge, which takes around 90 minutes. Drone out to the park with only one battery won't get you much play time, unfortunately. Next, we turn to the underside of the quadricopter. After removing four T6 Torx screws, the lower plate can be lifted off to reveal the motherboard and navigation board. The navigation board is connected to the motherboard by eight pins and comes out without any hassle. The two large mesh cylinders make up the ultrasound altimeter, which stabilizes the quadricopter within 6 meters of the ground. The back side of the navigation board contains the Microchip PIC24HJ16GP304 40MHZ 16-bit microprocessor. The MEMS gyroscope, the Invensense IDG 500, is also found on this board. Parrot 6 ARM9 468 MHz processor. ROCm Atheros AR6102G-BM2D b/g Wi-Fi module. Each propeller assembly is made up of the propeller blade, gear, motor and motor controller board.

These are not your run-of-the-mill propellers. The design team behind these won a micro drone design contest put on by the French Army. The propellers spin in different directions depending on the side they are mounted on, and are marked either C (clockwise) or A (anti-clockwise). The propeller blade and gear are held in place by a small circlip on a stainless steel shaft. Parrot sells a special circlip removal tool, but we opted for a pick we had lying around the office. These little guys can definitely go flying if you're not careful. Luckily, they come as part of two different replacement parts packages available directly from Parrot. The four motors and their electronic controllers are each held to the central cross by six screws and a connector. Each brushless motor runs at 28,000 RPM while the AR.Drone is hovering, and as fast as 41,400 during full acceleration. The speed of the motor is managed by the electronic controller, which includes an 8-bit microcontroller and a 10-bit ADC.

The arduous task of peeling the protection blister from the body reveals the camera ribbon cable and the second magnet that holds the hull in place. A little bit of prying and the front-facing VGA camera comes right off. The 93 degree wide-angle camera can stream its video and images directly to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. With a resolution of 640x480 pixels, we doubt anyone will be filming HD movies with the AR. With Augmented Reality, objects captured by the camera become part of the AR. The central cross easily pulls right out of the foam shell. The two sets of wires in the central cross are responsible for controlling and providing power to the four motors. The tubes of the cross are made of carbon fiber to save weight and provide plenty of structural rigidity. The other plastic pieces are made of polyamide 6,6 (PA66), more commonly known as nylon. Yes, there are different variations of nylon, but it's not necessary to explain the differences between condensation and open-ring polymerization right now.