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35236

General Discussion Area / Re: Got a fine :(

« on: 06 March 2007, 16:20:39 »

The post office came in very handy for emptying my wallet and providing said tax disc. As it was raining it also doubled as a shelter for a while.

Fortunately I was spared the expense of supplying my own post office, having found one dumped on Thatcham high street.

Kevin
 

35237

General Discussion Area / Re: Got a fine :(

« on: 06 March 2007, 12:47:36 »

Taxed my Omega about 10 mins after picking it up using the little stub from the V5 and a post office.

Kevin

35238

General Discussion Area / Re: Garage Door Control

« on: 06 March 2007, 19:53:59 »

I'd say a bell push across the bottom left terminals would do it in that case. You can then locate the button remotely if you want. Failing that can you have a look at the faulty unit and see what's broken? Looks like there's a proper push button on the PCB for the other two buttons but a crude contact strip for the main button. Might just be a case of cleaning up the contacts.

Kevin

35239

General Discussion Area / Re: Garage Door Control

« on: 06 March 2007, 13:31:30 »

Ahh, now I understand. I think you've got 3 switches connected to a single pair of wires so presumably there's a resistor network or similar to allow the controller to distinguish between the buttons. Best to wire across the spring contacts on the RH side in that case. Where does the ribbon cable go?


Kevin

35240

General Discussion Area / Re: Garage Door Control

« on: 06 March 2007, 12:43:35 »

Hi Bo Bo,

The bottom left wires look like connections to the door button. Is this photo of the button itself or the door controller? Normally the button wiring is low voltage (I certainly hope so looking at that!) and a doorbell button will do the job nicely. Make sure you get one without a built-in light though as this can interfere with things.

If you can get a closer photo of both sides of that PCB I might be able to analyse it a bit further.

Kevin

35241

General Discussion Area / Re: Comfy

« on: 06 March 2007, 13:37:55 »

just makes resale a problem

I agree, if you tend to sell cars when they've still got significant value. I tend to buy cars once most of the depreciation is over and keep them until they're pretty much worthless so depreciation, service history, etc. doesn't matter.

Kevin

35242

General Discussion Area / Re: Comfy

« on: 05 March 2007, 23:12:45 »

Tere's the badge thing as well. Plenty of people will pay double the money for the same car with a BMW badge on. Don't ask me why.

Most of my mates suck through their teeth when I tell them I've just bought a 3.2 Omega but they've borrowed up to the hilt for a newer, mundane diseasel and my extra fuel costs wouldn't come near paying their monthly payments.

Kevin

35243

General Discussion Area / Re: Is my built-in phone legal?

« on: 05 March 2007, 10:08:14 »

.....sometimes the base operator wants to speak to me.....and calls me on the SW radio.....to talk to them i have to hold a mike and obviously speak into it.....how does that fare with the new rules??  undecided

This question was asked with relation to whether amateur radio operators could use hand held microphones. I think the outcome was that as long as the radio itself was not hand held it wasn't an offence, however, like everything else, if you're driving without due care and attention as a result...

There are some good wired hands free mics for mobile radios these days.

Kevin

35244

General Discussion Area / Re: Is my built-in phone legal?

« on: 04 March 2007, 17:23:07 »

how do you change the cassette,

Ahh, that's what the other little slot in my CDR2006 is for. Thought I vaguely recognised it!

As for phones, I think, like everything, if a traffic cop has the opinion that it's causing you to drive without due care and attention you'll be nicked anyway. If not, they're unlikely to try to get you on a technicality like what button you used to answer it.

Using a hand held phone is a separate offence on its' own so it doesn't have to have affected your driving for you to be nicked.

You've got to be unlucky enough to be seen by a traffic cop first though. Only ones I've seen in ages have been on blues and twos or at the side of the road attending to a saxo embedded in the bushes.

Kevin

35245

General Discussion Area / Re: Airbox mods?

« on: 06 March 2007, 17:35:21 »

I'd be rather careful of standing water with the air intakes that low.

TBH I think if there was a significant gain to be made from a simple change to the induction system it would have been there on the standard car. VX obviously put some time and money into designing what is a pretty complex induction system on these engines.

Still, if it makes a noticeable difference...

Kevin

35246

General Discussion Area / Re: Sunday evening mystery?? But i think i know!

« on: 05 March 2007, 15:05:49 »

At my local dealer, you pay for the parts (a transponder comes with key blank), around £35, plus £45 to do the programming. All + VAT.

I just ordered a spare key (blade only, no programming) and it was 44 quid inc. from a main dealer. Came with a transponder chip.

Which reminds me, TheBoy, I've got a spare transponder. I'll put it in the post to you.

Kevin

35247

General Discussion Area / Re: Sunday evening mystery?? But i think i know!

« on: 05 March 2007, 09:54:54 »

I think a neighbour of his has gone and got an illegal transmitter of some sort....and its interfering with the remote fobs .....makes sense too me.

433 MHz is shared by several users. Firstly, a load of license exempt stuff is on that frequency (weather stations, garage door remotes, etc...). These are restricted to brief periods of transmission so in theory wouldn't cause a problem..

I've heard that railways use frequencies in that region so if he's near a railway line that might explain it.

I think the military have some claim on part of that band. There are certainly places where you're not allowed to use it for military reasons.

It's also part of the 70cm amateur radio band so licensed amateurs can up to 400 watt transmitters at and around that frequency. A few milliwatts from a key remote will never break through that!

Do any of his neighbours have any interesting looking antennae on their homes?

Kevin

35248

General Discussion Area / Re: Best Petrol Stations

« on: 05 March 2007, 16:08:48 »

The poor quality of the modern grads is very dissapointing....theory is reasonable but engineering is real world....I am no longer shocked by the lack of basic skills and knowldege any more....

Most of the guys in my course just memorised stuff parrot fashion, and that got them a 1st in some cases. I can't do that. Once I've understood and used something it's locked up top forever. Until then it's a waste of time me trying to memorise it.

I guess the bottom line is that practical work costs more than churning out reams of notes to memorise so it's that which suffers when budgets get stretched.

Having said that I've had to deal with computer science grads who have never used a command shell. If I had to use a computer 100% using a GUI it'd feel like someone had cut my arms and legs off!

Kevin

35249

General Discussion Area / Re: Best Petrol Stations

« on: 05 March 2007, 15:10:52 »

Actually, at the time I struggled to see the point (and wasn't explained to well by my incredible smart teacher who couldn't teach).  When I went to collegue to do electronics, I did have an advantage over those who hadn't covered the subject before.

Sounds familiar. I quit my further maths A level because I couldn't get my head round all this imaginary number stuff.

Then I went and did an Electronics degree. First lecture on first day of first week of first term.... Maths lecture and they're back AAARGH!

I was the only one who knew which end of a soldering iron to pick up though. Not that that really helped until the 3rd year project which was worth about 5% of a degree.

Kevin

35250

General Discussion Area / Re: Best Petrol Stations

« on: 04 March 2007, 12:06:39 »

Probably worth sticking to the big names. In addition to supermarkets, avoid all the budget stations with unknown brand names in the SE. Who knows where their fuel comes from and they'll probably be less inclined to write off a batch of fuel than those with a brand name to look after.

Kevin