Eco-Racers Wind Powered Remote Control Micro Cars

The only one of the three models purchase at the same time that worked 100% properly. It would be nice if all models (wind, water, solar) had more detailed science descriptions and information. Also if some thing could be done that opperating frequency could be changed or purchased in more variety than just 27 so kids could effectively race without cross commanding others car.

My son is fascinated by turbines so I thought this was perfect. The wind outside in the middle of winter in New England wasn't enough (HUH!?!) so I tried using a fan and the light never changed indicating that it was charged. The little car is cheap quality and it never worked right for us.

This wind-turbine-powered remote control car was based on a marvelous idea, but that idea was poorly executed in practice. I wish to extoll the creators for trying to bring a unique, clever and thoroughly educational product to market. I just wish they had spent a bit more time engineering it so that it would work as intended.Let me begin by saying that I have 3 kids, and I thought it would be fun to by all 3 units (there are wind, solar, and water / hydrogen-cell versions) so that the kids could explore each source of alternative energy, and also have the enjoyment of racing the cars against each other. All 3 units are disappointing, but the wind turbine is the worst of the 3.Problems with the wind turbine: the gearing inside the turbine seems way too low. It would take a powerful and steady breeze to make this thing turn over enough to charge the car - so much so, that even though the turbine's base is fairly heavy, I doubt the unit would remain upright. I suppose you could turn a fan on to force the turbine to turn - but what is the point of the "renewable energy source" then? The hydrogen-cell unit is certainly nifty, and works as a fuel source, which is fun; ditto the solar unit. But each unit suffers from poor execution on the RC cars.Problems with all 3 units: the cars are poorly made. I didn't expect much here, but they still let me down. The electrical engines seem skittish, frequently shutting down for no evident reason. Range of the remote control units is also poor.Most disappointing of all: all 3 units were set with different frequencies, but the frequencies were set extremely close to one another; and there is no way to change the frequencies, at least as far as I can determine. As a consequence, all 3 units interfere with each other, and there is no means by which to conduct a 2-car or 3-car race - each unit will override the other.Overall: 5 stars for creativity and intent, 1 star for the end product. AVOID the wind turbine, and don't buy the solar & water units if your intent is to race them against each other. Eco-Racers Water Powered Remote Control Micro Cars Eco-Racers Solar Powered Remote Control Micro Cars Eco-Racers Wind Powered Remote Control Micro Cars

Waaaaaaaaaw. Vere good slre

My wife got me this as a Christmas gift because I am very interested in wind energy and she thought it would be fun to give me a working wind turbine. The RC car part of it is just a practical application for the wind energy the turbine is supposed to produce. It might appeal to a young child, but don't expect to use this to race up and down the block. The car is about the size of a Hot Wheels racer with a longish green wire connected to it that serves as an antenna. There is a remote control that requires two AA batteries, which instantly made me skeptical that the supplied wind turbine would by itself power this toy.The instructions are straightforward enough. They come printed on the reverse side of a colorful poster that explains how a wind turbine works and why wind power is a practical, freely available energy resource. The poster would be great in a classroom. The package consists of three blades that must be inserted into the hub, then attached to the nacelle. The nacelle must be pushed into a metal tube, which took a bit of elbow grease and probably is too difficult for a child. The tube tower inserts into a heavy base that seems pretty sturdy. Assembly took less than 5 minutes.There is a power cable that runs between the nacelle and the car charger station. The RC car sits on a connector on the base. When the turbine is powered by a wind source (which supposedly can be the wind or an indoor fan) it generates electrical current that causes a light on the charger station to flash red. The instructions say it takes about 6 minutes until the car is charged, at which point the light flashes green to let you know it is ready. Well, nice in theory.The first thing I realized is that the tips of the plastic blades bend back from the hub and come perilously close to the metal tower. A wind current forceful enough to move the blades would likely cause them to scrape against the tower. You might be able to compensate for this by leaving more of a gap between the hub and the nacelle when you assemble the turbine, but that's not the way it is shown on the package and would look sort of silly. Even if this weren't an issue, there is a lot of resistance in the rotor, such that it would take a strong wind to move the blades at all, let alone at a sustained rate to generate enough current to power the RC car. I tried blowing on the blades, then turning the hub by hand as fast as I could, and never did I get the red charger light to blink.Here's where the AA batteries prove their worth. The instructions tell you that you can optionally connect the power cable to the remote control instead of the turbine to give the RC car a guaranteed charge. I did this, and within six minutes got the flashing green light. I removed the car from the base, extended the telescoping antenna from the remote control, turned the car on (there's a small switch underneath) and got ready for some RC excitement. Eh.The remote has four directional arrow buttons. I found that no matter which ones I pressed the car insisted on turning in circles on my dining room table. Reverse worked pretty well, but who wants to spend all their time racing backward? The RC signal seemed to have very limited range -- like less than 6 feet -- and motion was herky jerky at best. After about 10 minutes of "racing" around on my table and kitchen floor (forget trying to use this on a carpet or other rough surface) I disassembled everything except the wind turbine and put it back in the box. I'm keeping the turbine to display in my living room because it does look like the real thing and is a fun conversation piece.Kids might get a kick out of assembling the turbine and there is some educational value to learning about the parts of a wind turbine and wind energy, but this will probably only keep them entertained for an hour or less on a rainy afternoon, add a few more minutes if it's a windy day.