Member postings for Howi

That would look nice on the mantlepiece!

have a look at this "https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/gps/"

Relatively cheap to make and works well.

Seems he has his method i.e squeeze the pipe, set in his mind and wants everyone on here to agree with him so he can go ahead. When the pipe DOES split, he can then blame us

I doubt whether he will listen to the advice given here as it is not what he wants to hear.

Best leave it till the better weather is here then bodge it as he see's fit.

Seems to me that if you are seeking advice then one should accept the advice rather than poo pooing (aka Black Adder) the advice given.

Hi all

my post about 5v v 50v, I know that current determines electromagnet strength, I was aluding to the fact that a lower voltage would require a lot more current than higher voltages to produce a reasonable amount of electromagnetic force.

Oh! well, back to sleep, somebody wake me up when an interesting post arrives.

Phone cables went over to ali because of the cost of copper.

Turned out to be a real waste of money.

As for this 'post' I thought we were supposed to be engineers?

Crimping copper pipe! really!

Oh! my lordy lord.

I would have thought 5v power to the coils would not be enough to move a long pendulum and weight.

My recolection of the master clocks in telephone exchanges is that 50v was used.

Made my oiwn strings years ago, recurve strings easy to do, compound bow strings need a lot more effort.

Then you have to consider cost of string material for the different bow types and serving material.

What and how many colours will you be using, good quality string material is not cheap.

Will they be single or multiple colour strings?

Would you trust a home made string on a £1500 bow?

Seems to be a right of passage to do your own strings, most end up buying commercial made strings after the novelty has worn off.

To make pro grade strings needs more than just a string jig, it needs a fair amount of investment to cater for end user requirements AND a fair amount of knowledge/skill.

Don't let me put you off though.

been there! done that!

All depends on what you intend doing with it.

There is a difference between a power supply and a 'bench' power supply.

the latter will give a voltage range,normally up to 30 v, some will go higher.

they will have current limiting capability (can save your projects from emmiting magic smoke).

they will have volt and amp meters so you can see what is happening.

A lot of modern bench/lab supplies are now switch mode, smaller,lighter, cheaper than linear power supplies but electrically a lot more noisier with respect to RF emmisisons.

My bench supply is 0 to 20v at 1 amp and was built 40 years ago, has been rehoused many times and is my go to for all my electronic testing, current limiting being the most used feature that can prevent magic smoke.

I have been tempted by the cheap Chinese offerings (they are good value) but find my old mate is enough to do what I want.

As I stated at the beginning, it is down to what you are going to use it for.

I concur with you PaulG, Display will only get worse over time.

laser devices usable as center finders can be had from hundreds of sources for next to nothing.

YouTube needs to be treated with much caution, just look at all the FREE ENERGY devices touted on the platform and the numpties that believe the crap.

There is plenty of good stuff on YouTube, one just has to be selective.

Am I missing something here?

One buys a washing machine/dryer etc because it fits in ones kitchen and is a reasonable price (and it is the one SHE wants).

Then one buys one of these energy monitoring devices that tells you it is using X number of Kw's, shock! horror! stop using the device, it costs too much to run.

So! your expensive device noiw lies idle, what was the point in buying it in the first place?

YOUR electric bill is what it is, based on what devices you have/use. If you are not going to use a device, then, what was the point of purchasing it in the first place?

If you don't now use the device, it is an expensive lump sat there doing nothing.

Yes! I did think about buying one of these energy monitors, but decided the money would be better spent on the gas/electric bill rather than on a device that actually tells me nothing I don't already know.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I counted all the devices I have that are on all the time (internet router etc) or on standby when not in actual use and was initially shocked at how many devices I have.

However, looking at my smart meter in home display, the actual energy used by all these devices actually costs very little. i can check usage when I get up to make a cuppa first thing in the morning.

See what the display reads, then take off the daily standing charge and it amounts to about 40p for the 7.5 hours from midnight when the device starts to chart your daily consumption.

I don'y know about the rest of you, but that amount to me is very reasonable and does not persuade me to turn everything on standby off. the convenience outweighs the cost to me, you may differ of course.

Over the years I have done everthing I can to cut down electrical consumption, LED bulbs, buying energy efficient washing machines dryers etc that there id little more that I can do.

So! one buys an energy monitor and checks all the devices in the home - then what are you going to do about it?

Only time will tell

For those still ussing veroboard - WHY!

There are a number of alternatives available that are much better suited to todays electronics.

Various sized boards in fibreglass with the standard hole spacing and plated dots at the hole positions.

Point to point wiring is then done with a wiring pen (mine is nearly 40 years old, bought when TTL was all the rage.

Spools of insulated wire are available in multiple colours and this method is ideal for prototypes where a one off board is not worth the time or cost of poroducing a PCB.

The wire used needs a slightly hgher temperature than normal to burn off the insulation coating, a (variable) temp controlled iron costs very little these days.

With this method you can layout your board how you like without having to think about where the tracks go.

Look! all you Bah! Humbugs, Santa is real, ask any 4 to 8 year old.

I was recently cajoled into playing Santa at a Christmas fair at the school two of my grandchildren attend.

I was surprised at how many older children wanted to see Santa. You only have to talk to the children to see the magic is still there.

Having done my stint at Santa, I handed my costume back only to be told I would need it again on the last day of school before Christmas, to hand out books to all the children in school. Aaah! panic!

I had to go round each class do the Santa bit and hand out the books to every child.

I must admit, the whole experience nearly brought tears to my eyes, the children were wonderful, well behaved and polite. They ALL wanted hugs from Santa (High 5's from some) and they were reluctant to let me go onto the other classes.

It certainly made my Christmas

I know, but I could not resist it, it's Christmas, we need to chill out more.

OMG have not sat an exam for years, aahh! panic.

please make the questions easy.

Why not make a clock that is driven from a GPS locked 1 second pulse, easy enough to do.

The 1 second pulse could also impulse a pedulum to keep it swinging, there does not need to be any connection between the pedulum and the clock mechanism and most people would not know.

Bobs your uncle, an accurate(ish) clock with a swinging pendulum, or it that too simple?

Ho!Ho!Ho!

merry Christmas everyone

Scams and scam calls and emails are a fact of life these days, ignore them and move on.

Some simple things to think about :-

How have they got your phone number or email address?

This particular scam has been doing the rounds for years as has most of the scams (Microsoft, internet provider, parcel needing to be delivered etc)

It never ceases to amaze me how gullable people are.

I do think phone companies and internet providers (and banks!) could do a lot to aleviate this problem, but at the end of the day it is down to the individual to use some common sense.

Interestingly, since moving onto full fibre (i.e no phone line) I have only had 1 spam call(on my mobile) and that was so obvious it never got answered.

There are lots of more sophisticated scams around at the moment that are more relevent to todays problems such as Covid related scams, energy payment scams etc.

Why do people believe them? probably because as a nation we are too trusting to believe whatever we are told.

Plus, of course greed comes into a lot of scams, Yes! I would like a large payment into my bank account from the tax man, but a few seconds of logical thought would soon indicate that is not going to happen.

Unfortunately some people are easily persuaded otherwise.

Lots of scams (usually old ones) are regularly posted on here, I woild like to think ALL on here are somewhat above average inteligence and would not be taken in.

Would you really give your bank details to a phone caller or email sender????

Do you really believe you will get millions of pounds from that nice Nigerian man who somehow got your email address.

There are hundreds of millions of computers in the world running Windows software, how can anyone let alone Microsoft be able to track every single one and get their phone number and/or email address?

Have you ever had to PAY for a missed parcel delivery?

Does that nice Russian/far eastern lady really want to talk to you about model engineering.

It is strange they all want financial help in getting to the UK (and/or ttheir families).

I could go on and on but I am beginning to bore myself now, use your common sense, you have worked hard for what you have got. Don't let these low lifes win.

JUST THINK

Have a nice scam free Xmas everyone, I hope you all get what you wish for.

Howi

it all depends on the country, and the sellers VAT status, countries such as USA,Canada etc you will have to pay inport duties and VAT on the total plus any carrier charges for handling.

As for EU, if the seller is UK vat registered then there should be no more to pay, an example, in October I purchased a watch from Germany, the price I paid was that quoted on the web site, so very fast delivery and no more to pay the courier (DHL)

Having an Amadeal lathe and an ArcEuro SX2P mini mill(a package deal at the time) I can safely say that I would buy again from EITHER.

Both items have been reliable in opoeration and did not need any fettling before use.

Both have had a number of mods over the years.

The lathe came with a number of extras and a good toolkit in a plastic toolbox.

I have also purchased a rotary table from Amadeal as theirs seemed to be the best quality/price tradeoff for what I wanted as I intended to put a stepper motor on it.

I have also put an electronic lead screw on the lathe, it is only a simple afair not like the higher end offerings that can do multi thread pitches.

The main advantage is that I can get rid of the banjo with the change gears which makes the lathe almost silent in opoeration, I can get feed rates down to 0.02mm up to whatever I like depending on roughing out or finishing.

The above is just to highlight whatever you may purchase you WILL end up modifying/.adding to as you go along.

Final comment, while not essential, a quick change toolpost is a nice usefull adition.

Whichever company you choose, I doubt you would go wrong with either, YOU just have to make your choice

Edited By Howi on 04/12/2022 10:28:11