Show Posts

76

General Discussion Area / Looking to borrow handheld radios

« on: 26 March 2015, 16:17:32 »

This weekend my tri club has it's annual Ironman training weekend and the bike course is in Preston Candover where mobile signal is, well none existant.

I was wondering if anyone nearby has a set of 2-way transeivers we could use to communicate with the various marshalls we have along the bike route. If not I will buy some, but for just one weekend it seems pointless unless some kind soul out there has some I can borrow

Thanks in advance

77

General Discussion Area / Installing leisure batteries in loft

« on: 16 March 2015, 12:36:00 »

One for the experts.

I an in the process of installing some raspberry pi powered services around the house, some of which must run on a battery in case of power failure. For this I have a 10W solar panel connected to a 60Ah leisure battery through a regulator. I am going to put the battery and regulator in the loft with the 12v feed entering in to the cabinet where I have my Pi farm and install the panel on the south facing wall. initial tests are positive and the voltage remains fairly stable but I have a second one available to add in parallel if needed. All good there.

My worry is that in the event of a regulator failure the battery *could* be overcharged leading to a release of hydrogen and oxygen in to the loft. Now, without hurting anyone's feelings we all know how that can turn out. So I looked in to a sealed battery box with a vent I can pipe outside to safety but found nothing suitable. Nor can I find any online advise about installing leisure batteries in your home, either there is nothing to worry about or it is a closely guarded industry secret.

Am I being overly cautious? Or will I have to look at building my own airtight box from MDF with all the necessary glands and vents?

78

General Discussion Area / Trade card

« on: 26 February 2015, 15:37:08 »

Anyone in the Hampshire/surrey region got a Helfrauds trade card I can borrow this weekend? Mine has ~~been trown away by the wife~~ gone AWOL

79

General Discussion Area / Christmas has come early

« on: 25 February 2015, 09:26:48 »

An EV and pedal bike all-in-one?!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1255345767/raht-racer-worlds-first-highway-speed-bike

80

General Discussion Area / Help required - vehicle identification

« on: 22 January 2015, 13:51:24 »

Following from my battery theft I have found some footage from my neighbour's cctv which just captures a car I would like to ID in the top right hand corner. I have had to piece the bits together to generate the whole car image and I have ideas as to the make and model but I would like you experts to help me confirm

Whole car:

Original bits:

Thanks in advance

81

General Discussion Area / Some people knock the police......

« on: 14 January 2015, 10:43:01 »

.....but I am well impressed.

I had a battery nicked from the driveway recently (my fault as i had put it under the car rather than back inside) and as it was for the jag it's a 110Ah meaty bugger worth about £80 on TC.

Anyway I consulted the cctv and sure enough I have the little scrote doing the deed so I called the police on 101 and they took all the details down. Not a few hours later I get a call back from the PC to gather the cctv footage including screenshots to take around the scrappies and to see if they know him already. They also saw that the neighbour has cctv pointing toward the road which may even have his number plate and they are taking that too.

Quite chuffed tbh

82

General Discussion Area / That moment......

« on: 05 January 2015, 15:45:01 »

....when a fault has been bugging you for a while and you could not understand it. Then you have a eureka moment while you calm down and realise how silly and obvious it was.....

I installed a little PIR sensor for the light on the porch. Fitted a 4th line so that I can over ride it with a switch. All very simple and tested in twilight all ok.

Then it was constantly on every night regardless of the settings I tried. During the day it functionned as it should (ie stay off) Convinced I had a duff PIR I was about to send it back for a replacement until I had a theory which I tested and proved correct. So simple I nearly smacked my head against a wall.

What do you think was wrong? Just for the record, the PIR and settings were completely fine. Let's see how clever you are

83

General Discussion Area / Speaker Question

« on: 16 December 2014, 16:41:44 »

I know a few people on here are audiophiles so I trust the views of people here more than perhaps an AV web forum.

I am in the process of setting a few things around the house on Raspberry PIs, one of them being a multiroom sound system using Logitech Media Centre with clients around the house to act as zones. The entrire system is running off a bank of leisure batteries topped up with a solar panel. The batteries have not been topped up for a while as i am in test mode and read 12.6V without load and 9.3V with load.

I have tested a setup with a Digital Audio Card (DAC) going through a Class D 2x20W amp out to two 40W (as written on the back) 8 ohms ceiling speakers. The sound was ok but lacking a bit of bass and it needed cranking to 60% volume before it was a usable level and at 100% it was loud but not deafening.

I guess that my amp isn't beefy enough but I am having difficulty finding a 12v class D amp for 2x40W. Should a just go for a bigger amp (even though it is not class D) or should I get some speakers rated at 20W? Or is the fact my batteries slightly low affecting the output? I prefer class D because of the efficency, I do not want to loose much precious battery power to wastefully producing heat

The speakers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000IUTOZ4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01
The DAC - http://iqaudio.com/?page_id=454
The amp: http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/adafruit-stereo-20w-class-d-audio-amplifier-max9744-a54qn

The idea is to reproduce this setup in each room so I need something that is fairly cost effective too

Not too much of an expert in this and I know how passionate you audiophiles can get, so go gently

84

General Discussion Area / Official recognition at last

« on: 04 December 2014, 10:18:06 »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2860044/Mamils-middle-aged-men-Lycra-make-Oxford-dictionary-debut-Word-1-000-new-entries-including-al-desko-lolcat.html

Now any derogatory comments can be classed as discrimination, init?

85

General Discussion Area / HDD - current quality trends

« on: 18 November 2014, 14:29:08 »

Just had a call off an irate missus, the computer aint working and from what i can gather the HDD is buggered (it's only 18 months old

)

Obviously I need a good one and quality level between manufacturers are always changing, what are the current bests one / ones to avoid?

TIA

86

General Car Chat / Car insurance - nice try!

« on: 03 October 2014, 13:31:58 »

Renewal quote from Adrian Flux, up a whopping £150 to £470 on the jag. Despite extra year no claims, no points at all, no accidents, etc....

First dabble online I get quoted £240!

Guess what AF qre going to get?

87

General Discussion Area / IT Security Head's up

« on: 17 September 2014, 08:10:25 »

the Sobig.f virus has been updated and rereleased hitting a peak last night affecting internet speeds.

It spreads through email, look out for headers like "Thank you", "Re: Details" or "Re: Wicked Screensaver". Let me know if you get infected as I have access to some cleaning tools

More info:

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/sobig_f.shtml

88