Member postings for Howi

i just cannot believe this is being discussed, just go and buy the right tool for the job, After all, what does a new 'proper' tap cost?.

I think gentlemen, that some of us have too much time on their hands.

I'm a Yorkshireman, so not used to spending money willy nilly, but even I would just go out and buy one, lifes too short as it is.

that phone number is a mobile number.

I took my RAE in the early 70's, followed by the morse test at Trusthorpe near Mablethorpe. I held G8LWD followed by G4GPF. I stopped ham radio in the late 80's but resurected my licence when I retired.

So Yes! still valid and having looked back at the RAE exam (a web site has all the old papers) I can see why.

If you passed the RAE you were considered to be techy enough without a seperate Tech exam.

When the morse requirement ceased G8's were given full licence status as the class A and class B designations ceased.

Looking at the current state of licenced amateurs technical knowledge (or lack of!) makes me wonder if we should reinstate the old RAE.

you are overthinking it, whats wrong with an ordinary auction?

My radio club has a 'junk' sale every year (I use the term 'junk' loosly).

if the seller wants a minimum price, that is stated before offers/bidding otherwise goes to whoever wants it/highest bidder.

yes! I did too, the Ender 3 has a good support base but requires a lot of input from the user in terms of upgrading, great if you like to tinker.

the Artillery Genius is na different beast altogether, it comes in two parts that takes 5 minutes to assemble (4 bolts and a few connectors and you are ready to print, it has a direct extruder, colour touch screen, Volcano hotend and was available for around £180 (around half price if you look around). The Ender 3 does not even come close. There are lots of 3D printers around now to choose from, I go on best bang per buck principle.

I chose, after much deliberation, the Artillery Genius at a price of £340 over the Ender 3 at £280, but then stumbled across Banggood where price was £180 ish, sent from UK warehouse arrived in less than 48 hrs. Definitely a no brainer.

BUT, it is down to you and what you want out of it, you must make your own mind up depending on what you want out of your printer,

Just a point to note, Resin printers have been mentioned, without telling you the problems of mess and smell which can overide other considerations in a domestic environment.

Whichever printer you get, there will be a steep learing curve, despite what people may tell you, to get the best out of it.

Oh! and one final thing, you may have heard of automatic bed leveling, there is no such thing, it is nothing more than a software fudge - bed leveling is the ONE thing you have to get right (manually).

Edited By Howi on 17/06/2022 09:24:24

just to point out, Virgin landlines are BT land lines, just provided to the premises by Virgin, so all BT "codes" will work.

ALL land lines will go as a consequence of going full fibre (FTTP), ALL the copper infrastructure will dissapear as it is too costly to maintain. There is a lot of HOOHAA about it but it WILL happen - it's called 'progress'.

The box that plugs into the router to make normal phones work over Fibre are nothing more than a fudge.

Land lines are a dying breed, but the dinosuars on here won't want to get rid of them.

Bite the bulletr and move on.......

This is where the Chinese have found the loophole, PayPal states the item MUST be returned to the seller and you MUST submit proof of posting and seller MUST state that the returned item has been received.

They price their sale item at usually less than £20, knowing that UK post will charge almost as much to send back to China, so YOU lose every which way.

By clever advertising and (if you look carefully enough) wording in description, 99% of images of the item you THINK you are buying have nothing to do with what you actually get, it is the 1% you have to look out for.

If you think PayPal is going to look after your interests when buying anything from China, think again.

I still purchase lots of stuff from Chinese sellers but I choose who I buy from very carefully.

The likes of Hobbyking, Banggood and Aliexpress are good to deal with and I have had no problem buying high poriced items as well as the very low price stuff.

Beware buying ANYTHING from China via Facebook adverts, Wish is one to definitely avoid unless you know what you are ordering is EXACTLY what you want, read the descriptions very carefully and compare with UK sites.

I can give you an example, I recently bought a new watch, a very specific SEIKO 5 watch retailing at about £150 in the UK. Those in the know, will know that ALL Seiko 5 watches must have the following atributes:-

It must display Seconds, minutes, hours, day and date on an automatic movement, mine also had Crystal glass front AND rear where you can see the movement, called a display back.

Looking on the "dodgey" sites where the price was less than £30, while they looked like the real thing (I am convinced the photos were of the genuine Seiko), These cheap? nockoffs were Quartz movements with Acrylic glass and no display back.

I eventually bought from a UK based Chinese seller who sends orders from HongKong and I paid less than Half the UK price + no import duties etc

you JUST have to be CAREFUL.

yes! i've been caught out like this too, PayPal was useless, DO NOT rely on PayPal to reimburse you.

the item had to be sent back (to China) at more than original price paid, so not worth it, one lives and learns.

Just be careful what you "WISH" for........

Another scam to watch out for (usually Ebay) is ordering an item that shows a quick delivery date, which usually means item is located in UK but then receiving a delivery notice showing item in transit (by Yodel) but appearing to be held up at some depot. Meanwhile your item is en-route from China.

I complained to Ebay and left bad feedback for seller who then refunded my money asking me to delete the bad feedback. I did NOT delete the bad feedback but then got another communication from the seller saying, "you have received item please now pay for it".

I responded that I HAD payed for the item, but he had refunded me (without me asking) as a bribe to remove the bad feedback.

A double wammy for the seller

Nil Illigitum Carborundom, as they say

the basic NEMA stepper motors do not normally come with integrated drivers, 12v should work fine so long as the load is not too great. When I made my Ward controller, I used an old laptop power supply at 19.5v and 3.5 amps and is more than sufficient to drive the NEMA 23 stepper. The more demanding your application on the stepper the higher you need to go on the stepper voltage, 24v is typical if windings in parallel but NOT critical.

Hi

I too use arduino devices in a lot of projects, I also use ESP8266, ESP32 etc as and when,

Yes! I agree the Arduino is a great learning tool with lots of info BUT my suggestion to go with Yuri's solution i.e the TI board was to save having tyo re-invent the wheel, Yuri has done all the hard work on youre behalf.

The board is cheap and easy to program so why noit use it. I have biult it and it works great. This post reminds me of someone who wanted an electronic rotary table and was insistant in using an arduino board, when again there is already a solution out there (a number of solutions as it happens but one is much cheaper than the others).

Circuit boards and kits of parts were available when I built mine and again it works poerfectly.

I look at it this way, do you want a working solution or do you want to start from scratch, all the effort going into programming the arduino and learning all about C++, then if and when you have successfully created your program you have to implement it mechanically.

It is wrong to think anyone can program the arduino with little effort as they soon find out.

Touch DRO using the TI launchpad is a complete working solution, why re-invent the wheel just because you have bought an Arduino. All the hard work has been done for you. You either want a working solution oir you want to design your own, one route is simple, the other can lead to a lot of frustration.

I do not know why people think the Arduino is the best/easiest solution, it is like saying I will only use a particular make of end mill rather than ones that suite my particular use.

The solution is already out there, save yourself a lot of hard work/frustration and cost, Yuri has put a lot of work into the proiject, it's cheap and it works.

The Arduino IS NOT the solution to everything.

the test is easy, have the rules and regs open while you do the test paper.

After you pass you will have to pay £10 to the Gov. you will get an OPERATOR ID and a FLYER ID, Flyer ID is foir you the flyer of the drone, the OP id is for the owner of the drone. The OP id is in the form GBR-OP-############ and should be displayed on the drone. Drones under 250grams are subject to less restictions than larger drones and can be flown just about anywhere ( subject to official no fly zones such as airports, prisons etc.

Another important must have is INSURANCE, what damage can a sub 250gram drone do?

Try telling that to the judge when you are being sued for taking someones eye out........

Basically the rules and regs have almost put paid to larger drones apart from commercial use.

the biggest impact has been on model aircraft flyers who are now subject to the same rules and regs..

ALL model aircraft are classed as drones.

they are good fun though........

with that many blobs and seemingly random, i do not think it is a retraction poroblem.

Are the blobs solid or hollow?

What material are you using?

How old is it?

One thing I would definitely do is reduce the teperature and see if it improives things.

It could be moisture in the filament that is expanding in the extruder pushing out more filament than is needed.

hence the randomness of the bubbles.

Edited By Howi on 24/04/2022 10:05:56

Me too, it should not matter what computer or what printer.

I suspect the printer has not been set up properly and rather than sort out the problem, some have chosen to go for a work around.

What alternative reality world do you live in?

Electricity costs 30p per KWh gas cost 7p per KWh, so how is heat from a gas boiler more expensive than heat from standby electricals?

No! not lazy, but under extreme pressure to deliver far too many parcels in too short a time. This leads to delivery drivers taking the least path of resistance - it's human nature.

Getting old is a state of mind, I have seen and talked to people in there 60's who I would consider older than me (75 this year) because of their mind set. I know I am not 18 any more (thank God) but neither do I feel 74, I can outrun my grandchildren (for now). Yes! I have had my medical moments (Two lots of cancer, major operations etc), type 2 diabetic, worn glasses since I was 18 and currently going deaf, but I consider myself quite healthy. I have had all my flu and covid injections and still caught covid (I would not have known without a lateral flow test!).

I can pretty much do what I want when I want, My income is not large but enough to enjoy a reasonable life style and fund my many and varied hobbies.

Life can be challenging but one should always be up for it, as was said in "Monty Python" Always look on the bright side of life

I think you have answered your own question.....

My latest extension strip (10 sockets) has a bottom entry, bet that would confuse you?