Crosland

I've had two faulty Zimo Plux 22 decoders (albeit not rebadged Bachmann ones) recently and the supplier had experienced others. The 2nd was a replacement for the first. I needed a particular decoder type for testing, and the Plux22 was all that was available at the time. I replaced that 2nd one at my own cost with an 8-pin decoder, as I couldn't be 100% sure I wasn't doing something wrong. The supplier has now taken the 2nd Plux22 decoder back, which reminds me I must chase them up to see if I am due a refund for that one. Definitely talk to the supplier.

It will also make the switch contacts last longer, if the electromagnet takes any appreciable current, as DCC is AC and any tendency to arc will be prevented every time the voltage crosses zero.

Did you set the JMRI connection preference to SPROG or SPROG Command Station? You need the former for programming on the programming track. Use the firmware version tool in the SPROG menu of JMRI. Does it report the SPROG version? If so, that confirms the USB connection is good. If not, do you have the correct port selected ion the JMRI connection preferences? What did you do to determine JMRI isn't sending any commands to the SPROG?

If you ask on the SPROG specific group https://groups.io/g/sprog-dcc/topics someone with direct experience may be able to help. I don't, unfortunately, have access to Mac hardware. As Nigel says, it's best to state the specific issue, if there is one. Andrew Crosland sprog-dcc.co.uk

To send a moderately heavy small parcel from the UK is well into the teens of £s when you add tracking and, maybe, insurance. The £19 may be high, but it's not a total rip-off, depending on the size and weight of the parcel.

Its a USB interface, not just cable and passive components.

So what doe the Radio on and radio status indicate?

The requirement for suppression is a basic requirement, not related to TV and, in any case, terrestrial digital TV still uses the same frequencies as analogue. Most interference caused to TVs, at least in more recent times is due to poor aerial installation and wiring.

What happened to soaking in coke (the liquid, drinking variety!) or scrubbing with Cif 😀

Exactly! I may have an advantage in having a technical background including coding, but there are free open source solutions with plenty of help available on the web. Hosting doesn't cost an arm and a leg and the maintenance is very low effort, apart from infrequent major upgrades that can be more painful. There's plenty of help available on line on various forums. That's not necessarily true. I added new products and they were indexed and ranking top three within a month. The ranking does probably depend on the search terms used and they are, admittedly, fairly niche products, so little competition. I guess that depends on the margins, but it's only a few percent of the sale price with PayPal, less with something like Stripe, even less if you have the volumes to get good rates on a merchant account. If you take card payments at shows or in your shop then it's not an issue as you are going to pay these fees anyway. Some customers pay by bank transfer which is free on both sides. A shop or show stand taking cash or cheques will may incur fees for paying in to the bank account. That's true if you have show or shop sales. For a purely on-line presence a decent e-commerce package will manage stock levels in real time. To avoid accusations of advertising I will leave off any signature. Those that matter know who I am :)

Have you looked in your spam folder?

Someone made an offer that was accepted?

Hmm. It's still there, despite saying it has been withdrawn. Having read this page it seems you have to first e-mail your requirements. It may be they provide their full address in reply, before accepting the order, in which case they are probably compliant. A PO Box is not sufficient. It must be a full geographic address. As a small trader myself it irritates when others do not follow the legal requirements. I see it all too often. One fairly well-known supplier was claiming to be a Ltd company when they weren't. Again, that was illegal. I won't name them as I believe it's fixed now.

It's not only unreasonable not to have a contact address, but most likely against the law. I'm thinking of switching to Stripe, for this reason, but will probably offer both. A lot of payment processor require a sizeable volume before they beat PayPal (or at least did last time I checked). With a small hobby supplier you are most unlikely to be entering details into their website. The rules around security, etc., and the cost of developing the site, would be too onerous for a small cottage industry. I would be VERY worried if I wasn't redirected to one of the well-known payment processors. Even major on-line retailers often use the likes of World Pay, etc. And that price list should have a contact address. The only way around this is if they provide the contact address before they take your order, which would be a bit of a faff with the required to-and-fro.

On-line selling rules are in addition to distance selling rules, see https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses I didn't realise you couldn't order online. How do you order? The distance selling rules still requite them to provide the address before you place the order.