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bigclive

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Everything posted by bigclive

  1. It does look like the old cotton reel track. Which used to cause the replacement wheeled runners to sit at an angle and rub along the side.
  2. I wouldn't be so sure about that. While some very good power supplies are made in China, there are some where the person designing it had zero understanding of electrical separation. That can involve mains to low voltage track or pad separation of a fraction of a millimetre, or a transformer with the secondary windings wound tightly right against the primary side windings with just a layer of varnish between you and a bad experience. Even if it doesn't happen straight away, it could happen later due to the degradation of the varnish at elevated temperatures in an undersized transformer. With a lighting desk that could also be the kiss of death to random lights on a network.
  3. My experience of many of those modifications is that they are done so haphazardly that they make the software unstable. While the clone desks might be OK for a hobbyist who would otherwise never be able to afford the real thing, they would be a liability for a pro. Sometimes I wonder who wrote the original software that is frequently butchered in the generic cheap Chinese lights with the classic four digit and four button interface.
  4. These days, software has become such a key component in products that if companies wish to outsource hardware manufacture, then by by all means do so, but NEVER share the software if you can lock it securely in a microcontroller. The design and layout of a lighting desk is useless if the company wanting to copy it can't get their hands on the original software. They can get someone else to emulate the software, but if it's written by someone who doesn't have a deep understanding of what is needed, then you get bug-riddled software that looks the part, but is so unstable and unintuitive that it renders it unfit for professional use. Having written what turned out to be a very desirable bit of software in the past, I quickly learned (the hard way) to only supply it on locked microcontrollers. I was really surprised by the manipulative and sometimes aggressive techniques people used to try and get me to send them the hex file or assembly code so they could remove me from the equation. A really good example of a slip-up allowing your product to be mass cloned is the classic ELM327 vehicle diagnostics interface. Elm Electronics is a British company who released a very clever bit of software on a PIC microcontroller, but didn't lock the first version. If you go on eBay and simply search for ELM327 you'll find thousands of listings for clones of their product with the stolen software in them.
  5. Let's do the simple checklist. Is the soldering tip clean and shiny? If not, use a tip cleaner which is basically a mixture of flus, solder and a very mild abrasive. If the tip is pitted then get a new one. Never file a tip, as it's usually a copper core with iron plating to ensure longevity. As soon as you file the iron off it will pit very quickly. Always apply solder directly to the heated joint. The flux is very important to ensure good mating of the solder to the surfaces being soldered. If you melt solder onto the tip and then carry it to the joint, the flux evaporates and you apply "dry" solder to the joint. It can be "fixed " by reflowing it with a touch of fresh solder (with the important flux) or just some raw flux. Note that some solder sold on eBay is an unknown alloy and some is factory reject solder with a missing or intermittent flux core. Although lead based solder has been banned by the eco-hippie-wanktards there's a reason lead was used in the first place! It forms an easy flowing malleable solder joint. Don't use lead-free solder as it is just a disaster. If your supplier tells you that they can only supply lead based solder to companies then tell them you are a company to tick their box. They are just looking for you to say that so they can supply you. Oh, and ignore the digital readout on your soldering station. It's wrong. Go by soldering-feel. The traditional irons like the Antex XS25 were thermally balanced and just did a random temperature affected by ambient temperature. I did tens of thousands of flawless solder joints with my old Antex XS25.
  6. With advance apologies that I would never want to disagree with statesman Clive, but out of respect for those involved I feel it necessary to mention LM had a delivery lorry turning round in their neighbour's yard explode in 1989 killing one, an explosion on site in 1990 killing one and another explosion on site in 2018 killing one, so whilst there is no doubt truth in what you say, it appears on the surface at least that LM did have an entirely unblemished safety record. Is there a single pyro company that hasn't had incidents? The very nature of the industry makes it very hard to allow for every conceivable scenario.
  7. If you do a real apprenticeship in a common trade you'll get paid while you learn and be very employable when the apprenticeship is finished due to the real-life experience. If that trade is useful in the event industry (all general trades) then you'll also find work in that area when you choose to do it. If you go to university you will get a bit of paper, a huge debt and find it hard to get work due to lack of experience.
  8. Who actually gets the money when HSE issues "fines"? I see so many seemingly excessive fines for petty things that I wonder if this is just another facet of the lucrative safety industry.
  9. I'll be making a video showing how some lamps can have extra components inserted in series to reduce the current and extend their lifespan. It only works with some types though.
  10. A local company was saying that getting a container from China has momentarily doubled in cost.
  11. Given the incompetent way that this has been implemented in the first place, I wouldn't hold my breath about that being soon. Hopefully it's not going to illicit a knee jerk reaction against the UK by other countries doing the same thing.
  12. For a while HMRC was twisting eBay's arm to block Chinese sellers who didn't do it their way. When you tried buying something you would get a message saying that HMRC had blocked that seller from selling to the UK. The Chinese sites responded by setting up regular new accounts, usually with lower prices to get their feedback rating up, and would then continue trading as before. I don't really see the Chinese sellers being too bothered by HMRC's empty threats. They'll simple work around them, or charge the VAT and then keep it. At the moment I have suspended all online sales for the foreseeable future. I used to sell quite a lot to the USA, but the Trump-initiated and Royal Mail multiplied American postage charges are now huge and complex to the point that I have to send orders as lots of separate packages to try and make it affordable. Initially I thought I was just going to have to exclude the USA from sales for a while (which I hate doing as it feels like discrimination) but right now things are so embroiled in red tape and dummy-spitting bureaucratic tantrums that I simply don't want the hassle of selling online right now. Less income for me and less tax for HMRC.
  13. Yes I agree. With a little bit of polishing it would make a good TV program. No need. Scott Manley is doing just fine on YouTube. He'd probably find it extremely frustrating working with the old fashioned television industry. It would reduce the quality and quantity of his content. Modern media is much more honest, relaxed and engaging. And you can actually chat with the presenters online.
  14. Perhaps they could build one in the UK? Here's the plan:- Strike while the iron's hot because of public emotion about the current collapse. Award the contract to a building company with zero experience in that area, but owned by a lord. Employ casual labour and qualify them as radio telescope experts with a one day slideshow and an orange boilersuit. Make sure the labour is outnumbered by people in suits with white hats and clipboards, to prevent work being done. Make sure the project repeatedly over-runs its budget by billions. Announce that the project has sadly failed and brush it under the carpet.
  15. bigclive

    Snow!

    I've never seen one of the cheap ones producing blobby foam like that. The high pitch suggests that the blowers outlet holes might not be lined up properly on the front of the unit. To get decent throw from those machines usually requires an additional external blower. But even then the throw isn't good due to general air resistance. These things are best for snowing from height.
  16. bigclive

    Snow!

    It's usually the pumps that fail in classic wet-foam snow machines. They can be changed or maintained by someone with reasonable technical skills. The snow fluid is basically 99% water with a surfactant, so it tends to be unfriendly to pump components during a years storage.
  17. While attending an asbestos awareness meeting at the electrical engineering company I served my apprenticeship with, one of the older electricians described how they used to have snowball fights with the loose fluffy asbestos fibre at the shipyards.
  18. The only time I've knowingly found blue asbestos (one of the most dangerous types) was in an ex-cinema, in the wall between the projection room and auditorium. The small hole was immediately covered and all work on that wall stopped. It's often better to leave existing asbestos undisturbed if possible. For reference, blue asbestos (crocidolite) looks like blue fluffy tumble dryer lint. The most common asbestos in building materials was white asbestos known as chrysotile. It poses much less risk as the body can naturally expel it. But again, it's best left undisturbed, and in the case of suspected asbestos in sheeting, a spray of water with a squirt of PVA glue mixed in will help bond loose fibres. Most of the older people here will have been routinely exposed to asbestos when younger in the construction industry. Fortunately in the case of the most common chrysotile asbestos we probably haven't suffered significant effects. (So don't let it prey on your mind.) For the cable in the original post, I'd suggest taking the light outdoors, wearing a mask, and just cutting it off cleanly and putting it in a bag, then another bag. You can get packs of asbestos marked double bags online. The disposal usually involves it being placed at the bottom of new landfill sites. I'm sure that plenty of stuff like that gets bagged and binned quietly behind the scenes. A thorough hosing should wash any residual dust out of the light. China still uses white asbestos and gets through so much that they actually import it from Russia. (Keep this in mind when dealing with grey imports.) Most asbestos disposal is profit motivated theatre. I'm not a fan of exploitation of minimum wage labour in paper suits to do the dirty work. By using the same labour all the time the companies expose them to risk over years of work. It's often better to leave sheet asbestos in place than remove it, as no amount of drama and polytunnels will prevent the disturbed asbestos from causing more contamination than if it had just been left in situ and sprayed with PVA. It's worth mentioning that everyone has asbestos fibres in their lungs, as it's a naturally occurring fibre that is carried by wind. As with most industrial hazards, it's the deliberate concentration of it that caused the problems. Does anyone here know of theatre workers who have succumbed to asbestosis purely from theatre related work? Keeping in mind that white asbestos was used as fake snow at one point.
  19. If the lamps are as reliable as they sound then they won't be interested in selling them anywhere else. Most current LED lamps are pushed quite hard thermally, resulting in a lifespan that often doesn't compare favourably to traditional tungsten lamps. If they're under-running the filaments and using enough in parallel to give inherent built in redundancy when one or two filaments fail, then the only limiting factor will be the LED driver components. And as the highest power lamp is just 3W, even the base should remain fairly cool. For theatre use I'd suggest trying some filament lamps from CPC to see how they fare regarding colour and flicker.
  20. The LED industry is already pushed trying to keep up with demand for the LED filaments. They are without doubt one of the most efficient and visually attractive LED lamps. Whereas a typical western lamp uses 1 filament per watt, the Dubai version is using several filaments per watt, which eats up the filament stock and will make for cool running, efficient and reliable lamps. That's great for users, but terrible for lamp manufacturer profits.
  21. I'll edit this post to make it much less cynical. It's interesting to note that the lamps are using several times the number of LED filaments as standard lamps. That reduction of current to the filaments will result in much higher efficiency (possibly where the claimed efficiency comes from), better lumen maintenance and longer lamp life than one of the "pushed" equivalent lamps here that would typically run each filament at 1W. So maybe there's an advantage to the enforcement. That said, it would be counterproductive for Philips to make a lamp that never fails. If Dubai does standardise on just a few lamps (which seems a bit weird) then it's going to make the lives of maintenance workers much easier if they just have to stock six lamps in their van. 1, 2 and 3W in 3000K and 6500K (warm white and cold white). I actually kinda want one now.....
  22. If there are other capable 4G services in your area, it might be worth trying a different network experimentally.
  23. MOVs are a consumable. They gradually degrade with each transient they clip. It's a cheap and (usually) easy thing to replace. Double check supply voltages to make sure it didn't die doing its job. Another similar MOV-a-like that is failing more regularly is the black disk NTC inrush limiters. Some of them seem to have an issue dealing with inrushes and split in half.
  24. I tried a coworkers rechargeable LIDL soldering iron and it was surprisingly good. More recently I used one of the humble USB soldering irons with a power bank to do some wiring repairs on my brothers motorbike in a location without power, and it did a good job on medium sized wires.
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