Recent content by smokeyJoe

On drilling joists, remember: A loaded joist will bend slightly, the top edge gets shorter as it's under compression while the bottom edge gets longer as it's under tension. The mid point stays the same length & so it's under no stress, this is called the neutral axis & is the best place to...

So, andy Mullin, It seems that your question is answered. The things to consider are: Cost & ease of installation - which would lead you to prefer 10mm2. Thermal effects - 10mm2 will run hotter than 16mm2 which will shorten its lifetime. 10mm2 is likely to offer a reasonable lifetime...

Which rule(s) are we using to determine compliance here? voltage drop (525-01-02)? disconnection time assuming a TN system (413-02-08)? impedance of the protective conductor to the main equipotential bond with a guess at the type of protective device (413-02-13)? Please point me at the...

Those clever people at Friedland designed door chime solenoids that worked with AC as well as DC. I suspect that the output from your Friedlland bell transformer is 6V AC, which might read around 9V AC with a multimeter or even higher with no load (bell) or doorpress lamp being driven; the...

My recipe for using old Christmas lights is to rewire them in parallel and power them from a suitably rated transformer (something like 12V, 20VA). The transformer has to be chosen carefully otherwise your bulbs will go up in smoke. The transformer will probably cost you £10-15 as well!

This has got me wondering what the mode of failure is for the transformers. Perhaps using a 'trailing edge' type switch with a 'leading edge' transformer causes high voltage ringing in the primary, causing it to breakdown? I can't think why there would be a problem using a 'leading edge'...

I have read the contents of the metronet security pages. One of them describes setup for a netgear modem router. One of the more useful links is probably http://www.grcsucks.com/ The contents are aimed at metronet customers - standard pc users.

Some free possibilities: The GIMP is a good graphics program that supports text/fonts etc. You could also try Inkscape which works with scaleable vector graphics format.

Please don't be taken in by Steve Gibson. He's just a marketing man turned self proclaimed "security guru". His company have trouble writing software to do the most fundamental tasks such as authenticating a TCP connection request effectively. Metronet have a good introduction to security &...

I've not heared about this derating dimmer switches for halogen, I know that some dimmer switches don't switch efficiently when they're underloaded - symptom is that you can't turn the brightness down very far without the light going off. Crafty - that's interesting about the halogen cycle...

Are you sure that it's a MCB thats tripping and not a RCD tripping on leakage to earth? You might also measure phase (live) to earth resistance (with everything switched off of course) although as you've hinted, these low voltage tests are insufficient. If you can't lay your hands on...

Have you checked the tachometer at the back of the motor? (I think it has 2 white wires).

You need a distribution with a good installer Suse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, etc but has the option of giving you a low-power graphical environment such as fluxbox, you might also consider trying BSD.

Thinking further on this, the best test is probably to try a high-power non-inductive load like an electric kettle or fan heater. If it can power one of these without tripping, then I wouldn't worry.

I don't think that you've got a problem. Isolating transformers like the one you describe can have a huge initial current as the field builds up in the transformer core. Try plugging it in then switching on the socket several times. You'll probably find that it doesn't happen every time...