EEVblog #686 - Mailbag

[nitro2k01]

A monster sized high definition 50fps Mailbag, with two special guest helpers!

SPOILERS:
uRad Radiation Monitor (Hack A Day Prize entry)
http://www.uradmonitor.com/

VFD Displays

Norand Pen Key 6100 USPS tablet computer
http://www.opalgmbh.de/datasheet/Inte...

Sagem & Keycorp EFTPOST pinpad

Electric Imp Internet of Things
http://electricimp.com/

Romanian MAVO30 Analog Multimeter

Casio FX-31 Calculator

2PrintBeta DIY BAM & DICE 3D Printer Controller for the Arduino Mega

[Porto]

Nice video! 

LOL @ 'the Unser Team' (= our team!)


PS: Mr. Wong for President! 

[nitro2k01]

Not your imagination! Let's increase the contrast a little. TIME NOW and AVG.

[MagFlux]

I have directed my purchasing department to add the Wun Hung-Lo Factory to our Preferred Vendor List of custom battery chargers. If they're good enough for Canon, they're good enough for us.

[84GKSIG]

mini blade fuses, I like that idea ill start using that when I run out of glass tube holders  as awesome dave awesome video, im getting ready to send you something for mail bag as well

[Flump]

i am not able to watch on the 1080p50 HD setting
as it goes all jerky, it's not a bandwidth problem
must be my video card i guess.

and dave sounds double hyper on 2x speed 

[84GKSIG]

^^ im having issues with my video card as well regardless of browser, net and computer are both fast enough had to push it down to 720 for it to be watchable for me 
full hd max frames even causes my audio to glitch with only half cpu usage

[RobertoLG]

Greetings EEVblog family

worked just fine for me, no issues with firefox 

[david77]

Those old analogue meters often used a transformer for the low AC ranges to transform the low voltages up before rectifying them. That was done to get a high enough voltage to turn the (often germanium) diodes on and to get into a more linear part of the rectifiers Vf/If curves.

In this romanian meter the transformer is used as a current transformer for the amps ranges, though.

[miguelvp]

When did the scope changed to right side up? I guess I didn't pay attention on the previous ones, but it's the first thing I noticed in this one.

[Detritus]

Dave,

I'd love to be able to watch your videos in 50 or 60 fps, I'd love the smoother video. The problem is my connection is awful out here in sticks and it just can't keep up with the higher data rates. A lot of mobile viewers will have the same issue.

[EEVblog]

I'd love to be able to watch your videos in 50 or 60 fps, I'd love the smoother video. The problem is my connection is awful out here in sticks and it just can't keep up with the higher data rates. A lot of mobile viewers will have the same issue.

You would be made to watch full HD on a mobile.
Nothing changes here, 720p, 480p etc at the normal 30fps are all still available.

[TheEnd]

The options I see are -

1080⁵⁰
720⁵⁰
480
... right down to glorious 144..

There doesn't seem to be a 720 (30fps) but it could be locality or connection dependent.

Certainly looks good in 50fps, it's a strange effect when you suddenly realise how choppy it was compared to now.


edit- ignore me.. as I'm just at the bit where Dave explains it...

[SL4P]

OK - here's  a new slant.    Content is far more important than the technology used to deliver it - even in a tech blog.

Sure - I can use 1.5Gbps HD-SDI to view EEVblog, but the information and personality that shines through has nothing to do with the 1920x1080 or 720x576 pixels 50i, 50p, ATSC, NTSC, PAL, ABC soup.   Stereo, quad, 5.1, 7.1
- To borrow from Dave' --- Who cares?

Marshall McLuhan (look him up) had it figured, but we've all trampled down the path of consumption over relevance.  Good on ya'

[Macbeth]

I have 100Mbps download - the last few videos in 1080 I had to switch down to 720p to stop the jitter. This video was perfectly good in all its glory. Though I doubt 60fps or even 1080p is really necessary for this kind of content.

I did like the cameo roles from SWMBO (with that Croc Dundee Bowie knife - haha - shame your Sheila only got to wield the craft knife in the video)

Also your good lad Sagan. I can imagine him presenting his own electronics vids for his peer group in a few years  Keep him interested

[delmadord]

Hello,
was there a spark gap in style you mentioned in one of the recent video on the motor board on 16:06 ?

Also an Electric Imp was mentioned on Hackaday a long time ago, seems to me that some superior IoT solutions popped out since then. Is there a really good software ecosystem around it to stand it out of the crowd or something?

The end of the video was hilarious  Great episode!

[LoyalServant]

Okay... the Wun Hung-Lo is a friggin riot. 

Whoever did that.... I love you.
I would frame that letter..... it's just classic.

[orion242]

Wun Hung-Lo

You have to be $hiting me.....

 

[Stonent]

Might be a bit hard to get much radiation through the uRad case. Info on the SBM20 tube used: http://www.gstube.com/data/2398/

I don't like that he is giving uSv as a measurement. You cannot calculate uSv unless you know what you're sampling, you can only count ticks.  Basically like trying to calculate traffic by counting vehicles and not accounting for mopeds vs big Kenworth trucks being different.

The standard is to calibrate against CS137. But then you can only read Sieverts for CS137 accurately. Sort of like saying you know the watts but don't know both volts and amps.

[Whales]

Representing the tiny proportion of Dave's audience that sometimes uses a video player, not a web browser, to watch videos:



All good at 50FPS here   No ad revenue for Dave though 

[84GKSIG]

can always contribute in other ways

[miguelvp]

So you are saying that the quality overall is good? because that's what the idiom refers to.

[Whales]

A continuation of my 50 hert experience: not much.  It didn't really bring anything to making the videos more enjoyable.

RE file size: IIRC doubling the frame-rate does not make an amazing impact on file-size as most of the 'extra' data is very similar to the frames either side of it (ie very little unique data is added compared to eg doubling the length of the video).

Side note: the highest quality YT provides (1920x1080 at 5541k per sec, 60fps) is also not worth it.  I think it's a higher quality preset than the original footage Dave recorded, or so close that the layers of video compression have rendered it no better than the other versions.  Most of all Dave's depth of focus seems to be very small so you have to tolerate the occasional blurriness anyway


[opinion]
@the ending sequence.  Some of the ideas were funny, but it does seem a little offensive in its generalisation of all Chinese products to be bad.  The language in the letter is not funny at all: this felt forced.

By all means keep up interesting gags and jokes, and if you are not the creator of jokes its great to play along with them, but I can see how mojo has had some issues in this particular case.  Be angry at my intolerance, it's just my few cents.
[/opinion]

[Hade]

Would have loved to see you get some characters appearing on that VFD display.

[iampoor]

I think Dave gets paid even if you don't see ads. At least, I hope so because I always watch on my Panasonic smart TV and it never shows any ads.

Regarding the video content... The bit at the end was borderline. Reminded me of those 1950s racist movies where they laugh at the funny little Chinese/Japanese man and his broken English and primitive ways. I know it's just a joke, but jeez...  I sort of wonder if in 20 or 30 years we will see nig-nog jokes come back as Africa starts to take over the low end of manufacturing, but perhaps the larger number of black people and decades of civil rights movements will be enough to prevent it.

Not cool bro. 

Borderline? I dont see how poking fun at the stereotypes of culture is offensive. Truth is the truth. I don think the Chinese are less intelligent (nor was that implied), but our languages are so different, it is mildly amusing to read. Whats next? Redneck jokes about Americans will become hateful? 

[SL4P]

BTW - sequential (concatenation of) encode/decode/transcode processes does nothing to help the spatial or temporal integrity of a compressed video sequence.

You may 'skate by' in one domain, if the field-frame-rate, or XY resolution and colour-depth are identical, but any other combination *MUST* by definition cause some interpolation or aliasing of adjacent data elements. 

No other possible option*.  Whether you can see it or not, how the (trans)codecs drop lines/pixels/frames is up to the algorithm and the content.  Not the cameraman or publisher.

* the transcoding engines can be very clever, but can't create original filler content out of 'nothing', and merged elements are a 'best guess' - there is no 'real' data to fill in the holes. That's just the way it is.

Physics and nature are a pain in the ass.

[nitro2k01]

Would you argue that it's true black people have fat lips, funny accents, bright white eyes like lightbulbs? Or maybe women are bad at maths and parking their cars? You can see where this line of reasoning takes you.

The difference is that the jokes in that letter are referring to cultural stereotypes. Your other examples are referring to genetic stereotypes.

[Artlav]

The extra hilarious part of the Wun Hung-Lo thing is what the Chinese text says.

"We don't care about quality, only care about income"
"Dave is awesome"
"Poisonous stuff"
"No safety was harmed (or used) in assembly"

[nitro2k01]

Artlav, you forgot the logo. "Smelly dog shit", or in canon "steaming pil of dog turd"!

[Fungus]

Isn't Canon a Japanese company?

China *can* make good stuff -  if you're prepared to pay them more than $0.02 per delivered item.

The fact that Canon is employing Chinese workers doesn't magically shift the blame to China. Canon is responsible for that particular battery charger, not WHL.

[Monkeh]

Isn't Canon a Japanese company?

China *can* make good stuff -  if you're prepared to pay them more than $0.02 per delivered item.

The fact that Canon is employing Chinese workers doesn't magically shift the blame to China. Canon is responsible for that particular battery charger, not WHL.

.. are you really operating under the assumption that's an actual Canon charger?

There are some truly gullible people in this world..

[Fungus]

Oh yeah, the video. I didn't notice any difference.

It's not like Dave's videos are fast action with lots of sideways panning or anything like that.

Maybe he's rotating the knobs on the multimeters too fast for some people's Internet bandwidth. I dunno.

[Fungus]

.. are you really operating under the assumption that's an actual Canon charger?

 

[Carrington]

About Wun Hung-Lo, I'm still laughing...   

[coppice]

The smaller battery in that multi-meter is a 15V thing that was used in quite a lot of analogue meters. There were at least 2 kinds - one square or round, and the other rectangular. AVO used the rectangular one. TMK used the square one. With such narrow uses the damned things cost a fortune.

[84GKSIG]

well now you got me worried and made me look at my canon charger    not everything out of china is bad, if theyre mass producing something for a big company they will have to produce goods which meet a standard set by said company, if big companies are closing their eyes and letting potentially lethal products out on the market made by their manufacture  for a price then thats no good on behalf of the company. You see this happen quite a bit sadly 

[conducteur]

I have a 1080 laptop, and it's not possible to watch the 50fps. Had to switch down to 720. I don't think the 50fps is an improvement, when i need to lower the resolution.

[Monkeh]

I have a 1080 laptop, and it's not possible to watch the 50fps. Had to switch down to 720. I don't think the 50fps is an improvement, when i need to lower the resolution.

Not the fault of the content, blame Youtube/Adobe/whoever wrote your browser/possibly yourself.

[conducteur]

Still watching now. Had to switch down further to 480. And that's low quality on a full hd monitor.

[Monkeh]

Still watching now. Had to switch down further to 480. And that's low quality on a full hd monitor.

Fix your computer, then..

[conducteur]

It's running windows 7 on a I7 quad core with 2GB on the video card, and 8 GB RAM.

[Monkeh]

It's running windows 7 on a I7 quad core with 2GB on the video card, and 8 GB RAM.

And I can successfully watch 1080p50 on a six year old laptop, so, specs are irrelevant, it's a simple enough task.

[delmadord]

It's running windows 7 on a I7 quad core with 2GB on the video card, and 8 GB RAM.

I have barely the half of your power on my machine and it runs without any problems on 1080 (Manjaro Linux x64, Chrome). I believe your problem is not in the video.

[pickle9000]

"We don't care about quality, only care about income"

It's funny because that's basically the motto of every American company ever. They only ever bother with quality if it is necessary to improve profits, and then moan because the Chinese company they paid bottom dollar did the same.

So true. I do it all the time.

One of the funniest bits ever,

Wung Hung Lo Factory really made my day. Nice one Dave!

[Supercharged]

I kinda feel sorry for the Wun-Hung-Lo guys.
But still stupidity is nothing to really feel sorry about so..

[NiHaoMike]

It's running windows 7 on a I7 quad core with 2GB on the video card, and 8 GB RAM.

All too often I see beginners buying a video card "because it has 2GB (or whatever) of RAM". In reality, the GPU itself is a lot more important. General rule of thumb is make sure the second digit is at least a 5, as anything lower is cheap junk. (A 750 is only about $100 so you won't save much going below that anyways.) 2GB is plenty if you're not running 4K, but if you are running 4K, 3-4GB is much better. I have seen GPU memory usage get almost to 2GB (with a 4K screen) when playing a video with lots of postprocessing enabled (which also takes a lot of GPU, but anything that can handle 3D gaming should handle it just fine), and get to about 2.5GB when playing a 3D game, though I downshift to 1080p120 for gaming as my 970 doesn't quite have the power to give a good gaming experience at 4K. (SLI is a must have for 4K gaming, and it is also noted that the memory does not add in SLI mode.)

[EvilGeniusSkis]

radhoo, would an ionizing smoke detector work for calibrating the uRads? they giv information on radation exposure on the package.

dave what about destroying some $2 multimeters with the big knife?

can you program the electric imp with a regular sd card slot on a pc? if you can't will some dunce pluging one into an sd card slot ruin it?


Is the package from "wun hung lo" a joke?

when are you going to teach Sagan to solder? when you do make a video.

[ealex]

i've got a display like the one that was totally smashed:
it's a panaplex plasma display, 320x256 pixels - very nice bright orange with a long persistence
the interface is synchronous, 1 bit: hsync, vsync, pixel clock, data and a active low chip enable
if i remember correctly the pixel clock is ~ 12.5MHz
the timing is very critical: if the pixel clock is not perfect it will show garbage / overdrive the pixels; if the hsync / vsync timing is off by 1 tick then it will not display a thing

i think i lost the fpga code to drive it, if anyone needs it, i'll measure the timing again

[SL4P]

And I can successfully watch 1080p50 on a six year old laptop, so, specs are irrelevant, it's a simple enough task.

Bravo!! - and that is exactly the point that should be made in this thread.
How the user configures his player has very little to do with how the producer decided to shoot his material.  A perfect example of 'caveat emptor.

""It left me fine.  FedEx dropped it.  It arrived broken"" - is not Dave's problem!

[moemoe]

All too often I see beginners buying a video card "because it has 2GB (or whatever) of RAM". In reality, the GPU itself is a lot more important.

But for watching video it's completely irrelevant, 1080p50 and p60 runs without any problems in chrome on my >4 year old mobile i7 with integrated graphics.

But I don't see any advantage in p50, especially if half the content must be interpolated from 60Hz.

[SL4P]

Still watching now. Had to switch down further to 480. And that's low quality on a full hd monitor.

Oh dear.
Bought a Nissan GTR/Ferraru/Aston*, and has to drive to work in traffic.
First world problem.
*example only

[PA0PBZ]

He sent me one for niks (2:40)

Dave speaking Dutch? 

[Monkeh]

He sent me one for niks (2:40)

Dave speaking Dutch? 

Comes from the German form, apparently. All much the same smorgasbord though.

[SteveyG]

""It left me fine.  FedEx dropped it.  It arrived broken"" - is not Dave's problem!

Actually for your above case, it is the person sending the item's problem. It may be FedEx's fault, but the person with the damaged item takes the issue up with the sender and it is up to the sender to compensate/fix the issue.

[SL4P]

I could be wrong, but as I understand - you claim on the carrier's liability insurance.
They identify where the damage occurred - and if 'guilty', compensate you with a settlement to the value of your purchase - excluding the shipping charge which was never completed.

If the damage/fault is identified as occurring prior to the shipment - you're correct.

[jancumps]

He sent me one for niks (2:40)

Dave speaking Dutch? 

Comes from the German form, apparently. All much the same smorgasbord though.

Sounds Dutch to me. Germans say niCHts, we say niKs.

[Monkeh]

He sent me one for niks (2:40)

Dave speaking Dutch? 

Comes from the German form, apparently. All much the same smorgasbord though.

Sounds Dutch to me. Germans say niCHts, we say niKs.

And the rest of us say nix.

[nixfu]

""It left me fine.  FedEx dropped it.  It arrived broken"" - is not Dave's problem!

Personally, I never blame the carrier.  To me it is up to YOU as the person packing it to ensure it does not arrive broken.


Never blame UPS, FedEx, DHL etc....just make sure you pack it properly to survive being dropped out of an airplane and being run over by a train and it will arrive just fine.   

9 times out of 10 broken items happen because the person sending it does not have any idea how to properly pack it. 

[c4757p]

Personally, I never blame the carrier.  To me it is up to YOU as the person packing it to ensure it does not arrive broken.


Never blame UPS, FedEx, DHL etc....just make sure you pack it properly to survive being dropped out of an airplane and being run over by a train and it will arrive just fine.   

9 times out of 10 broken items happen because the person sending it does not have any idea how to properly pack it.

This.

I'd like to see how anybody proposes to ship the volume of packages they ship for anything approaching what they charge for it, gently. Everyone's going to complain about cost, time, or dings and bumps. People just need to learn how to pack things.

The number of times I've gotten awfully nice equipment dinged up because some twit thought the front panel belonged up against the side of the box is staggering.

[delmadord]

Also Dave, please, since you mention the uRAD and  you were one of the judges would you do a rant on the Hackaday Prize? Or is there one somewhere already?

[84GKSIG]

Also Dave, please, since you mention the uRAD and  you were one of the judges would you do a rant on the Hackaday Prize? Or is there one somewhere already?

not sure if those links cover what you were after 

[delmadord]

Also Dave, please, since you mention the uRAD and  you were one of the judges would you do a rant on the Hackaday Prize? Or is there one somewhere already?

not sure if those links cover what you were after 

Ooh man I forgot to check EEVblog2

[ornea]

Good onya Dave, thumbs up for getting the family involved.

[Edgar Amalyan]

The video peaks at like 6500kbps. My 2 year old phone can play bluray with bitrates up to 40mbps... any computer can play the video, even w/o hw acceleration.

[coppice]

The video peaks at like 6500kbps. My 2 year old phone can play bluray with bitrates up to 40mbps... any computer can play the video, even w/o hw acceleration.

Yes, but some people's internet connections can't stream it fast enough to play smoothly.

[Edgar Amalyan]

Yes, but some people's internet connections can't stream it fast enough to play smoothly.

Well if they care about the quality they can download the 1080p@50, I use this: http://www.clipconverter.cc/

[alter Ratz]

Okay... the Wun Hung-Lo is a friggin riot. 

Whoever did that.... I love you.
I would frame that letter..... it's just classic.

Yes, I fully agree to this. I nearly sh**t myself laughing hysterically. 
Best mailbag item _EVER_ !

[SteveyG]

I could be wrong, but as I understand - you claim on the carrier's liability insurance.
They identify where the damage occurred - and if 'guilty', compensate you with a settlement to the value of your purchase - excluding the shipping charge which was never completed.

If the damage/fault is identified as occurring prior to the shipment - you're correct.

Nope. As the receiver I have no contract with the courier. I deal with the sender only, and it is up to them to make sure I am happy. It is then up to the sender to investigate/claim compensation with the courier as a separate matter.

[Fungus]

Still watching now. Had to switch down further to 480. And that's low quality on a full hd monitor.

Fix your computer, then..

Nope. If a lot of people have problems then it's the video that needs fixing.

There was nothing wrong with the old format, no need for everybody to upgrade their PCs just to watch somebody opening parcels.

[Monkeh]

Still watching now. Had to switch down further to 480. And that's low quality on a full hd monitor.

Fix your computer, then..

Nope. If a lot of people have problems then it's the video that needs fixing.

There was nothing wrong with the old format, no need for everybody to upgrade their PCs just to watch somebody opening parcels.

They don't need to upgrade their PCs, it's trivial to play.

You can still get 1080p25, complain to Youtube about how awkward it is to pick formats, not Dave.

[muffenme]

I stated on the YouTube page about the first unit talked about call uRADMonitor.  Its not free or low cost, it costly like $199  inc s&h.

When asked about it this was the responds

Hello Mike ,


The hardware cost is $199 (incl. shipping). For the moment I have a batch of 40 units available and ready to ship.

You can see availability in real time here: http://www.uradmonitor.com/buy/  . The remaining units will be allocated in order, to those confirming their units.


Thanks for your interest,

Best regards,
Radu Motisan
Founder
uRADMonitor network
www.uradmonitor.com

I know it looks good when you opened it up but is it really worth $199.00 for it, I assuming USD.  This is a little higher then free but I was thinking maybe in the worst caste $40 to $50.  No $199.00, and I just want one to give him a data point.  I can't afford this so I not getting one.  Cool ideal, but costly.  I not saying for it over priced, for what I wanted it for it just not worth it.  I don't know how much to build this unit as is build but it too costly for me.

Keep up the great work Dave.

[conducteur]

Who is "Mr Wong" from Sweden in Real-life? 

[electronic_eel]

I know it looks good when you opened it up but is it really worth $199.00 for it, I assuming USD.  This is a little higher then free but I was thinking maybe in the worst caste $40 to $50.  No $199.00, and I just want one to give him a data point.  I can't afford this so I not getting one.  Cool ideal, but costly.  I not saying for it over priced, for what I wanted it for it just not worth it.  I don't know how much to build this unit as is build but it too costly for me.

If you just want to build your own geiger counter:http://opengeiger.de/index_en.html

Or if you want the worldwide network of sensors then look here:
http://radioactiveathome.org/en/
Their sensors are a lot cheaper, but not constantly available. They sometimes do batches, wait till all units are allocated and then do a production run. Look in their forum.

[muffenme]

I was thing getting into arduino project to I can build.  I putting a list together and go from there.  I might start with $20 worth a parts per month til I got my complete kit.   This is something I take apart and build something else.

[Vito_R]

A monster sized high definition 50fps Mailbag, with two special guest helpers!

SPOILERS:
uRad Radiation Monitor (Hack A Day Prize entry)
http://www.uradmonitor.com/

VFD Displays

Norand Pen Key 6100 USPS tablet computer
http://www.opalgmbh.de/datasheet/Inte...

Sagem & Keycorp EFTPOST pinpad

Electric Imp Internet of Things
http://electricimp.com/

Romanian MAVO30 Analog Multimeter

Casio FX-31 Calculator

2PrintBeta DIY BAM & DICE 3D Printer Controller for the Arduino Mega

Wun Hung-Lo Factory OMG I laughed sooo hard I almost pissed myself   Dave's sarcasm was just classic this time.  A perfect example of chinese manufacturing. 

[fvdpol]

Didn't notice anything different on the video frame rate, but have the feeling that with the Sony camera the auto focus works much slower than with the Cannon.

Maybe it's due to lighting conditions or so, but especially in shots were something is held close to the camera it seems to take forever for the Sony to focus.

Also depth of field is quite shallow (I liked the sharp, in focus background over the blurry stack of test equipment in the back). Of course this can be personal but I like to see the equipment p*rn in the back :-)

[janengelbrecht]

I was happy to see that Wun Hung-Lo Factory is a legit manufacturer....i will surely keep and eye on its products in the future
 

[Rasz]

mini blade fuses, I like that idea ill start using that when I run out of glass tube holders

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/counterfeit-chinese-fuses/

[Macbeth]

What grinds my gears is that there is no reason whatsoever to make shitty fuses like this. I mean, by Chinese standards, surely the saving of that precious bit of metal by producing 1A fuses vs 50A fuses is worth it? But no, corruption and laziness is the order of the day.

Of course the same criminals killed thousands of children with fake formula milk, and even make fake eggs including the fake shell. What kind of sick mind comes up with this? The lack of animal welfare over there in China and battery cages, etc, should surely produce cheaper eggs than artificially manufactured ones?

One that really turns my stomach is . I will be sure to not eat any street food at all when I visit Shenzhen. I think I will have to pack some nice ham and cheese sandwiches with English mustard on Warburtons white bread when I pay a visit.

[84GKSIG]

mini blade fuses, I like that idea ill start using that when I run out of glass tube holders

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/counterfeit-chinese-fuses/

well. lol that explains the melted fuse boxes i get to see through work half the time, counterfeit fuses, why even bother though as macbeth said. there is no reason for it, other than being lazy. ive seen a few cases where a dodgy fuse that didnt let go almost set thousands of dollars worth of car on fire, its kinda scary

[GEuser]

Thanks to the person who sent dave the MAVO30 Analog Multimeter , I liked it .

[Fraser]

I looked at the uRAD monitor after this blog but sadly it was too expensive for what it offered me in my scenario. I just bought a GQ 300E plus for GBP50 (used twice so sold on ebay as used). It looks a decent enough design and has a good following on the NET.  The RRP is under $140 which isn't too bad either.

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4570

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/comersus_dynamicIndex.asp

GQ Forum:

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=14

Software download page:

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/download.asp

[jpelczar]

Is the package from "wun hung lo" a joke?

Apparently the text above "Wun Hung Lo" means "Oh Shit !"

[SeanB]

Don't worry, the genuine OEM parts also melt and die a horrid death. You know this if you ever drove an older car with Bosch or Lucas electrics.

[iampoor]

Don't worry, the genuine OEM parts also melt and die a horrid death. You know this if you ever drove an older car with Bosch or Lucas electrics.

Yes....hell on earth is trying to fix an MGB's electrical system. 

[SeanB]

MGB electrics is not that bad. There is a special dislike for Italian designed electrics here though, where the words Magnetti Marelli are particularly loathed. Then you get the French, who used the worst parts of all 3 to make electrical mechanisms in vehicles.

Then you get older American luxury vehicles, where they added hydraulic parts into the mix as well.

[SNGLinks]

Don't worry, the genuine OEM parts also melt and die a horrid death. You know this if you ever drove an older car with Bosch or Lucas electrics.

Yes....hell on earth is trying to fix an MGB's electrical system. 

MGB electrics aren't too bad. I converted my MGB-GT from +ve earth to -ve earth.

[iampoor]

MGB electrics is not that bad. There is a special dislike for Italian designed electrics here though, where the words Magnetti Marelli are particularly loathed. Then you get the French, who used the worst parts of all 3 to make electrical mechanisms in vehicles.

Then you get older American luxury vehicles, where they added hydraulic parts into the mix as well.

Werent their some budget Fiats and ALfa Romeos that are basically electrical deathtraps in the 70's? I think it was he Fiat Spider?

Don't worry, the genuine OEM parts also melt and die a horrid death. You know this if you ever drove an older car with Bosch or Lucas electrics.

Yes....hell on earth is trying to fix an MGB's electrical system. 

MGB electrics aren't too bad. I converted my MGB-GT from +ve earth to -ve earth.

A the end of the day I love the cars (have a 79) but the Lucas plugs should have been replaced he day we bought the car. Thats why I am not too found of the electrical system.  (Of course its my fault!  )

 O0

[84GKSIG]

ive worked with japanese italian and english cars electrical systems, most of the time its a case of running around doing 2 things:
1 
2 
and positive earth systems
and converted positive systems which still run an alternator.
one car was so confusing the wire colours meant nothing, the indicators were positive and some how you got a negative signal at the bulb and that was a hell, but i dont mind converting older car radios for folk who want to keep positive earth. ive done a couple now where ive added a switch and 3.5mm jack for ipod input to units which are am only, i actually find that fun.
working on the cars them selves not so much, ignition barrel in a s2 Bentley , combination light switch and ignition. theres something like 20 wires off the back of the thing and all the wiring is cotton insulated 

[SeanB]

Rolls Royce as well, those are nice cotton covered wire. Just do not disturb it if it is over 4 decades old, you will have grief. I replaced a few wires with PTFE wire and sleeving to fix flexing segments that wore out and shed insulation.

Older vehicles you cannot tell the engine is idling when it is working well, unless you look to see if the fan is turning. though to change the engine oil you do need a lot more than what is in a 5l oil can, that is what you use to fill up from low level to full, and the engine will happily burn that for you in around 3 tanks of fuel.

[Stonent]

radhoo, would an ionizing smoke detector work for calibrating the uRads? they giv information on radation exposure on the package.

dave what about destroying some $2 multimeters with the big knife?

can you program the electric imp with a regular sd card slot on a pc? if you can't will some dunce pluging one into an sd card slot ruin it?


Is the package from "wun hung lo" a joke?

when are you going to teach Sagan to solder? when you do make a video.

Smoke detectors use Americium which is mostly an Alpha emitter. Detectors that can pick up alphas are much more expensive. Alpha particles are blocked by anything as thick as a piece of paper.

Cesium 137 is the most recognized calibration isotope but depleted uranium is also used. Some older detectors used Radium but it has a half life that makes it unsuitable for long term use. Old detectors with Radium check sources can't be calibrated against it accurately if it is more than a few years old but ones with depleted uranium can for the next billion years and still be up to 85% accurate without modifying your calibration formula.

[timelessbeing]

I miss 720p25. My computer chokes on the 50p.

[8086]

I miss 720p25. My computer chokes on the 50p.

I was thinking the same as well. I like the resolution but the frame rate now makes the experience not very good with my machine. Drops frames sometimes etc and it is noticeable occasionally.


It's not even a very crap PC either.. 

[timelessbeing]

It's great that Dave is shooting such high spec videos and that we have the technology to be able to enjoy it. But if Youtube is able to resample videos into so many different formats (like 144p   ), I'm sure they could also manage 25/30 fps down-sampled video. I used to happily watch 720p25, but now I'm forced to choose either 720p50 (unwatchable) or 420p which is OK but Dave's content often involves tiny parts and the detail becomes important. Personally, I don't even notice the difference between 25 and 50 fps unless there's frequent and fast movement.

While I'm on the subject of quality, the mailbag videos in particular looks "soft" to me. They're not very sharp, and the highlights are blown out. For example, in episode #694, watch 3:34 when he pulls a white parcel out of the white foam beans. Everything looks like a white blob.

I know that juggling all of the aspects of camera work and getting everything right is a challenge. These are just the things I notice most of all. Everything else is great.