Member postings for Howi

read up on conditiional formatting, simple to use but very powerful.

use the fact that if a cell is blank, to reformat other cells to white text on white background (i.e hide entry) otherwise leave text as black on white.

there are lots of ways to do what you want, you just have to pick the one you find easiest to use.

when I worked in IT I did a lot with spreadsheats, what I couldn;t do with conditional formatting, I would do with a macro, I just feel that using macros is a bit of overkill.

If you are up to date with happenings at DVLA via current news channels, you should know that postal applications take months (bit like tax office). Online application has always been simple to complete, same as poasspoirt renewal and tax renewal, and item received very quickly.

If you have applied via post, don't hold your breath.

I see you have started on the Christmas spirit (allclohol) early.

does that £60 include postage? If not, any taxes/duties will be paid on the total amount + you have to add the couriers inport handling fee of about £8 to £12.

You will find you are paying a lot more than your original £60.

Paranoia reigns, we're doomed captain Mainwaring, doomed!

If you can't read this, then your Tesla probably won't start either.

EV's are NOT the future......

Sort codes and bank account details can be entered online and checked for validity.

as an example - i recently had some roof work done (costing an arm and a leg.), the roofer wrote down the details for me rather than in an email, i went online and put the details in - the roofer is based in Worksop, the bank account details also came back to Worksop.

there is a simple solution to this type of scam is to send a small amount (say £10) then ask trhe recipient what amount they have received, before sending the rest.

3d printers have improved tremendously in the last couple of years and come down in price quite a lot.

I took the plunge this year and started to research what was available, after much 'umming and 'arhing settled for an Artillery Genius as it offered a lot of bang for reasonable bucks. The average price seemed to be about £340 which compared well with Ender 3 and others (at about £250). I was about to do the deed when I spotted an advert from BangGood with a price of £178 - too good to miss. Came from UK warehouse in less than 48hrs and has been superb. I too use Sunlu filament and found it a quality product. Only had one filament jam caused by an overlap on a different brand filament reel. Reel of filament sits on top gantry like most 3d printers but the real sits on ball bearings and puls of realy easily. It also helps having a direct extruder rather than bowden tube. Heavy learning curve to begin with, lots to learn about type of bed, bed adheasion, bed temp. bed leveling, first layer deposition etc.

the only mod I have done other than print extra covers for various parts of the printer and heater cable support, is to replace the (good quality) yellow bed leveling springs with silicon replacement springs. The bed now needs very little in the way of adjustment between prints, in fact non over the last dozen prints.

One thing I have learned, is that, auto bed leveling DOES NOT level the bed, it just tries to fool the software that the bed is level - go figure.

Just to set the record straight, What we have been led to believe about EV chargers. There is NO charging circuitry in them at all. All the charging is done in the car (EV) itself. The 'BOX' has some minor electronics that talks to the charger in the car, may provide wifi access so that an APP can be used to monitor the charging process. It is this 'NEED' for an APP to do everything these days that adds to the security flaws. The bean counters won't allow the extra to provide simple WIFI security.

As has been said on here before EV's are NOT the solution to greenhouse gasses, you only have to look at the logistics - How much electricity would be needed if all petrol/deisel cars were replaced with EV's, how do yoiu charge an EV if you live in a terraced house, who is going to provide the infrastructure and at what cost?

Governments have not thought this through at all, it is just an attempt to show how 'GREEN' they are.

Anyone foolish enough to think they are saving the planet by having an EV, think again.

There will ultimately be a viable solution but WE will still have to pay, goverments cannot afford to lose the tax revenues whether we all have our own transport or use public transport.

EV's are NOT the solution.........

you have opened a real can of worms, having played around electronics for more years than I want to remember, my advice would be a cheap Chinese temp controlled iron. I recently bought one from Amazon, just be aware prices can vary wildly for the same item, even on Amazon. A lot are the same item with different name, go for the cheapest.

mine cost about £25 ( I could have paid £60+ for the same solder station and that was on Amazon)

If you are happy to wait a week for delivery then Banggood, Aliexpress etc are worth looking at, I have used Banggood for both cheap and expensive items, recent purchases are Digital scope, 3D printer, plus some very cheap electronic bits. If they have the item in the UK warehouse, delivery is a couple of days tops, recent Chinese warehouse purchase took about 6 days.

Even though I do a lot of electronics, I would not consider paying silly prices, As for teperature accuracy, I have found mine to underestimate slightly but was easily adjusted. My normal temperature would be 380-390 going up to 420 if the extra heat needed (they will go higher) for certain tasks i.e tinning enamelled copper wire.

Some will probably point you to Antex and other premium makes, my advice is ignore that advice. The Chinese stuff is far better bang for buck, Yes! I have had Antex and Weller and would still go for the cheap Chinese.

What you now do with the advice is up to you, the choice is enormous and bewildering if you are not sure exactly what you want.

Once you are into electronics and once you have had time to use the cheap end, you may want to go further with SMD components and go for an all singing all dancing solder station with hot air /desoldering options for a lot more money but at this stage a cheap temp controlled iron will do you for the next few years.

you might be a little older than me but we still have our marbles.

enjoy the SX2P, best thing I have bought, apart from the lathe of course.

Ah! a man after my own heart, I have often pondered on whether it is better to be able to turn ones hands/mind to many varied tasks or to only do one thing well.

I think if you can do either then you are truely blessed..........

only thing that I backup properly is photographs (raw), everything else is on Mac Time Machine.

Even 4Tb is overkill for most people, other than that it is a case of 'mine is bigger than yours' syndrome.

My pet hate is people who store treasured memories on USB sticks/phone/computer withou t a backup, then come to me to try and recover them.

At work we distributed USB stick to staff (fatal mistake on a number of issues) but we were told to do it by senior management.

They now tend to trust what we advise...... lesson learned.

I thought it was something my gran knitted to keep my ears warm in winter......!

Buy a bungalow.........

there are more dinosaurs on this site than in the natural history museum

A cheap and effective power supply can be had by using a laptop power supply, there are plenty that give 19v at 3.2 amps, perfect for steppers.

You might just be surprised if you look inside one............

have Canon TS8250, best printer ever, after my last Canon had to be scrapped due to foreign object being sucked into the printer mechanism (Yes! my fault).

After supplied ink cartridges run out, I always use after market inks,

A full set of inks (6) from Canon cost more than the printer did,

The after market inks are much cheaper and work really well, I could not tell the difference.

Forget Epson and HP.

simple piece of advice DO NOT buy at the cheaper end, pay a bit more and go middle to top of range depending on depth of pocket and anticipated usage.