Synergy

[crokett]

A very nifty utility that somebody told me about. It is a client/server app that lets you share keyboard and mouse across two systems with no additional HW. The 'server' is the system with the mouse/keyboard attached. I tested it at work and it is neat. I will definitely use it at home to move between laptop and home PC. This will give me a full size keyboard and mouse when I work at home.

Link:
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

[lrogers]

Darn, David. When it saw the thread title I thought you had jumped into r/c helos BIG time and bought a Synergy N-9! For the record, that's a world class, 90 size, 3-d machine.

[crokett]

I had to google the helicopter and here it is:

http://www.synergyhelicopters.com/us/

It looks very impressive. However it has 2 main rotors and a tail rotor. Are the 2 mains so it can have smaller rotors and still have enough lift? Or do they counter rotate?

[cgallery]

Virtul KVM, very kewl!

[lrogers]

That smaller set is called a flybar and the "blades" are called paddles. It is also known as a stabilizer bar. That is the common set up for model helicopters. The servos attach to the swash plate, the swash plate attaches to the flybar and the flybar attaches to the main bladegrips. Think of it as power steering assit. They rotate the same direction as the main blades.

There are more and more flybar-less helo's coming out now, but they pretty much require some form of electronic stabilization to make them fun to fly. Without, they are a hand full, especially with a 2 blade head. The 5 blade head I'm using for my Sea King isn't too bad, but it is different.

The flight characterists of a helo can be altered by changing the weight of the paddles, heavier paddles slows the cyclic response(roll and pitch forward/aft) and the lighter paddles speed it up. Since the N-9 is designed for 3-d flying (hardcore aerobatics) it has VERY light paddles. Just thinking about it is almost enough to make it flip upside down!

It is a VERY nice, but advanced machine.