TheQ

Few wiz bangs last night and the second nearest neighbour didn't light their bonfire, probably due to the 50 mph winds the bucketing rain and the fact it would have blown toward our nearest neighbours thatched roof. Did rescue boat duty at the sailing club today, quite windy ( unfortunately with drizzle or heavy rain) so I put the buoys out long, but by the lunch time second race, I had to shorten the course as the wind dropped to a drift. The afternoon race the wind came up again but with a 90 degree wind shift from north west to north east. The outside temperature gauge registered a massive 8C so I'm now lying on the sofa after a hot bath, supping a Highland Park (whisky). Oh it's blowing 55mph according to the nearest weather station and the rain is hammering against the windows.

The model railway repairs didn't happen, but thats because yesterdays work hadn't set yet. I had to change the design of the foundations for the shed I just kept hitting too many roots. I got about 10 blocks down but I ran out just in time. As I was packing up the wind switched on shortly followed by horizontal rain. It's still blowing a hoolie out there now. So it was back to the house and time to earn some smarty points assisting in the house tidy up. Oh loo fixed.

ER time today at about 03:00, but only a few minutes of them wittering on about trumping Clinton and brexit it sent me off to sleep till 06:00. hmm the auto correct changed "brexit" to "need"! The work on my layout at the MRC went well, pity I slipped and dropped the board at home getting it out of the landrover. Luckily the board is in its early stages, so it's easy to repair. I must find a more safe way of loading and unloading the layout especially once I have more boards. We had a prospective new member visit and a member whos wife had been ill and then died returned for the first time in ages, so we were well attended. One old club layout being worked on (Minor ex show repair), one being rebuilt, one under construction, and the club test track being relaid. Plan for today, weather permitting, do initial repairs to board, dig more of the foundations for the new shed, clear up house as required by SWMBO for boiler repair men, fix the loo (the bits arrived yesterday.) Time for breakfast.

Oh, I've worked with many rotary converters over the years mostly to produce aircraft voltages from 240V mains. Yes it is a gert big transistor thing, 25KG (OK 54lbs) of metal box containing Integrated circuits and transistors and of course some fans to stop it overheating. A current amplifier will produce a known variable current while the voltage remains the same. Now in this case it's real name is a Transconductance amplifier and its a "Fluke 52120" http://us.flukecal.com/products/electrical-calibration/electrical-calibrators/52120a-transconductance-amplifier. Transconductance meaning, "the ratio of the change in current at the output terminal to the change in the voltage at the input terminal of an active device." The output the current from 0A to 120A on this unit. In this case with an approximately 8milliohm resistor being fed by 100A it generates a voltage of 0.8V across the resistor which is what is measured. All measurements on a DMM (Volts, amps and resistance) are actually a voltage measurement of a current being fed through a device and then converted into a meaningful value. The device could be outside of the measuring unit as in what I'm doing today or if you have a normal current meter, the resistance, the current is being measured across, is inside the DMM I need 2 of 52120s in parallel because if the measured resistance of the shunt, the current is fed through is high, then the output voltage would exceed it's limit. On the ranges I'm using today, 1V in = 100A out on a single 52120. However I could feed in a 1V fixed voltage input but with an adjustable current of up to 120ma and amplify that 1mA = 1 Amp out.

Don't worry I get serious brain fade at times doing the work, especially when I have to do the maths manually, it's one of the few times I like Microsoft, let Excel do the work.. The second to last line is the most important Long time since I was last at Bexley, sleeping in the TA hall during the first fireman's strike, running round Bexley and London in a Green Goddess. didn't get to find out if Bexley was boring or not I was too busy...

Sadly this is all manual, they don't trust Automatic Test Equipment at this level of accuracy, too many relays in the resistance / current scanners. I used to work with Atlas and Atal, when working ATE for testing radar. Can you come and fix my loo as well, I've got the parts on order for the "Dudley Turbo Flush 88" should arrive today.. (I'm not joking)

It occured to me that I keep wittering on about measuring Ohms or Current, or anything else and maybe 1% of you know exactly what I'm doing, 50% have some Idea what I'm doing and the rest have no clue what I do. So here's a little very abreviated routine for todays' main task: a 10 to 120Amp current transformer unit.. First assemble your equipment, in this case, Two 100A current amplifiers, One Calibrator that produces 0 to 2 V, A 8 digit display Voltmeter, six 20Amp Shunts and one 10Amp shunt, many high current leads leads, a computer and of course the Unit Under Test. Now all the above have to be in calibration, the 7 shunts were part of the work I've done over the last couple of weeks. Connect all this together... The voltage source to the two current amplifiers in parallel, to the six Shunts in Parallel, to the unit under test, back to the current amplifiers. The voltmeter front connections across the Unit Under Test, The Voltmeter rear connections across the Current Shunts, Go to the computer and find the spreadsheet for the unit under test, Also find each Spreadsheet for each shunt then copy and paste, the predicted value of each shunt into the UUT's spreadsheet. type in the date, and the asset numbers of the shunts used. A* Switch on and feed 0 Volts in, Zero reading on Meter for front / back lead differences and current amplifier offsets, The Voltmeter set to alternately read, front and rear then divide the results of front by rear and show the results. Then feed in 0.1 of a volt from the calibrator in to the two Current amplifiers for each 20 amps required. Wait 15 minutes for it to warm up and start typing this .... Start recording the results, typing a 8 digit + decimal point into the computer every 30 Seconds for 10 readings. reverse the current flow, type lab temperature into caluclation sheet. if temperature is 23+-0.5C then continue, wait a couple of minutes. Start recording the results, typing a 8 digit + decimal point into the computer every 30 Seconds for 10 readings. Switch off B* Observe the standard deviation calculation for each column, if it's low enough ( less than 1 part in a million) proceed , if not look for your error and check everything is connected up tightly and correctly. If required remeasure. If Ok copy and paste the result line ( which includes temperature , date and measured value), into the appropriate page of the history Spreadsheet for that value of current. Observe if the graphs are looking correct and the predicted line crosses with in the expected error bars of the measurement. If not start looking for errors, if no error is found remeasure, if the same results then that result will have to be passed to higher authority (my boss). B* Remove one shunt set for the next value down, start at A* and work through to B* for the next value. once you have measured 80A then unbolt the leads, single up the current amplifiers, rebolt the leads. so now 0.1V in,produces 10A. When you have measured down to 20A, replace the last 20A shunt with a 10A shunt measure that. You've now finished measuring, go to the history over all graph and observe the average line produced between the measured figures, adjust the intermediate markers values so that the alongside table shows the correct values for any value the is used with this UUT (there are six markers). By now you've lost 5 to 6 hours of your life . If you've understood the above then A, you can understand my bad english, B, you have a knowlege of electronics. If you haven't understood what's above, sorry for boring you.... 3 hours + to go....

Morning all, ET time was 03:00 as SWMBO woke early and bumbled off to the bathroom, to get some water for her pills, she has to take pills a couple of hours before her other pills, because the first set stops the second set (mostly but not entirely pain killers) eating away at her stomach. Normally she waits till I bring up her early morning cup of tea, but she's been cleaning the house like mad, and done too much, as our boiler failed and we'll have to get the repair men out. I went down to the Model railway shed last night to look at the section of layout I'm currently working on. I found that last weeks plastering had not yet set solid, I guess it's too cold down there, so I'll have to bring it into the house when I get back from the club tonight. Luckily we have two coal fires in the house which I'll be stoking away due to the above, though with one brick walls I'm fighting a losing battle.. Sat in a minor hold up on the way in this morning, I was at a fairly new round about they inserted into the main road between new and old housing estates. I counted the poles, there are no less than 37 new poles holding up road signs, lights, arrow signs and lights for the arrow signs. don't they ever think of using poles for more than one purpose? (and two have been hit already)... I'm about to measure a 120Amp shunt today, at every 20A setting up to 120A, that should warm up the lab nicely....

You'll have lawyers and politicians setting it, so there is no chance of anything sensible..

I'd agree with that but getting a representation of the grill right and the headlight surrounds on a die cast model could be difficult which is why suggested the Airfix Model. Anyway I think's time to give Waverley West back his thread for more wonderful pictures and modelling :no:

There does seem to be a shortage of Series 3 Model landrovers in 1/76, you can get an early Series 2, but that only brings the time period 3 years. As far as I can find, your best hope to get a series 3 would be to buy the Airfix Gs Military Hardtop landrover and do the conversions to a civi spec and modernise it a bit. However that would require some work and research to get the right bits of plastic cut off or changed.

Then they will appeal to the Supreme court, and which ever side loses after that the European court?

True, but most farmers didn't look after their Landies well. Even my 110 (looks like a Defender to most people ) is 32 years old, is red and white, eeerrrrr well, with an overlay of green slime, it doesn't get washed often. Quote from, Mullie " The scrapped ones were robbed of parts to keep the others going and there was a small industry in remanufactured parts." Your tenses are wrong, Were and Was should be, Are and Is. Although only crashed ones are scrapped these days, as even my 1984 Landy is going up in value. My 110 has only got a galvanised chassis, Bulkhead and door frames, stainless exhuast and a 200TDI engine instead of a 2.5N/A but it is the same Landy, Honest... Waverley West, in the late 1980s if the farmer had Bought a new vehicle after 1983 /4 then it would likely be the Defender style Body Shell (oxford diecast do them). For any of the others see the list below The dates for Landy production are and how to Identify them (roughly) Series 1 1948 to 58 , lights in grill, doors have two panels below the glass Series 2 1958 to 1961 lights in grill single panel below doors. Series 2A 1962 to 1971 lights in wings, single panel doors No Hollow in Bonnet Series 3 1971 to 1985 cruciform plastic grill, no hollow in bonnet Landrover 90 and 110 called the Defender from 1991, built 1983 to 2016 , flat or slightly protruding Grill, hollow in bonnet, later once Ford (2007) got hold of it, a bulge in the middle of the hollow in the bonnet. yes, Some of us are Model railway Nerds, Some of us are Land Rover Nerds, Some of us are Land Rover and Model Railway Nerds.

Morning All, ER time 03:30 ish not bad for me that's about 5 1/2 hours sleep which is good for me. You do worry about the driving today. Yesterday going home through a large village, a car stopped, waited and indicated right while a couple of cars came the other way. A Black Ford Focus coming up behind him didn't slow down much, but drove up someones lowered kerbing, drove along the pavement then back down onto the road a couple of houses down.... and carried on. Before I got to the car that was stopped on the road, it turned off as his road was now clear. I should point out this is about a hundred yards from a school with school children still coming out, although there were none on the bit of pavement, He? drove on. A couple of miles later, I find the Black Ford Focus on a wide open A road cleared for 60MPH bimbleing along at 50MPH you're an Idiot, Why do it? Leaving the road, I live on this morning yet again they are setting up traffic lights at the junction, there are three sets on my 25 mile route to work today, and thats with out the NDR (Norwich Distributor route) disruption. I suppose, I ought to arrange for the log man to deposit some logs near our back door again... Oh thats me, I'd better get the chainsaw out, wander down the garden and cut up some more logs to size... Tip if you are going to get a log / multifuel burner get a short wide one, not tall narrow one. Over time thats a lot's less log cuts needed.... don't ask me how I know... ENGLAND, CHANGE YOUR SHIRTS SO INSTEAD OF A CROSS FOR THIS MATCH, SO IT'S ONE BIG POPPY.

I'll bet the service manager loved his pint

Marvellous pictures as Usual. Your Series one land-rover would have been 30 to 40 years old by 1988 so would have been seriously distressed or highly polished as a collectors Item by then. Today a mint series one 12 inches to the foot scale and you're looking at £50,000 It's not just a farmer you need for the Land rover but a Border Collie to tell the farmer what to do.

It could be useful, but I see several errors the old MSWJR /GWR line from Ludgershall to Andover is missing and still occasionally used. The old M&GN line from Potter Heigham to Stalham is shown as abandoned track not razed track, it's been a tarmac road for at least 40 years since I first used it. There are also two branches into Salisbury missing and the Porton Down narrow gauge railway is missing. Though the back ground map is very good it's got my house, garage and garden marked although not the model Railway shed.

I remember the high inflation of the 1970s as well, In 1979 it was around 16 % and the labour government had given us in the Military IIRC a 3% pay raise on the back of several previous years small pay rises, M Thatcher came in and we got a 26% pay rise which went down well. But before you think that then made us wealthy, the Firemen, who we had to replace, went on strike for a week £100, my pay was about £100 a MONTH.

I remember that, We'd just got our first mortgage 6 months before when that happened, Ouch. We made a loss over the year, all our savings were gone and living on beans on toast. IIRC we were paying £600 mortgage plus about £150 endowement on a tiny house (two of the bedrooms were 6 foot 6 inches by 7 foot) We were getting smaller pay rises but every 6 months. Once the interest rates finally went down, we kept paying the same amount in, we were so used to having no money. This meant a lot less MUST pay on the bill, over the years it saved a lot on the total paid back. I talk to the youngsters here on their first mortgage and they don't see how they would cope with paying out that amount of money. Yet their wages are vastly more than my wage back then.

ER time 02:300 but I did get another hours sleep later. Another good run into work but a surprisingly large amount of cars out that normally means the Acle straight is blocked again (though they didn't mention it on the radio) Very chilly this morning with the wind getting stronger and from the north. I have a mobile pone but I've only used it maybe a dozen times in my life. I only use it for emergencies and the 6 monthly keep alive call. When I was a maintenance man for Tescos they issued mobile phones so we could be contacted but mobiles didn't work in our store as it was down in an old quarry. They also insisted we kept our phones on for an hour after work so we could be called back. But on my run home for most of they way home and at home it still didn't work. Even today to get a call you have to stand upstairs in our bathroom by the window to get a connection. I only ever received one call on it when I was in town getting bit for a repair, I stopped the van and answered the call and was some idiot trying to sell me a new contract.... Horning on the Norfolk broads was renown amongst the holiday makers as a black hole of no mobile coverage, so last year they put 3 repeaters in the village, one of which is on the roof of my sailing club. hence you now find the kids on their phones between races...

Having long past that and not noticed anything different in my life, I decided my life was one long crisis. Anyway: I've not got a mortgage, I've got a motor boat( I'm rebuilding ) I've got a sailing boat (I'm rebuilding) I've got a motorbike( that works ) I've got a landrover 110 (That works, but I'm rebuilding) I've got a huge garden( thats too big) I've not got a model Railway yet (But I'm finally working on it ) I've got a SWMBO (if you think I'm adding another comment here you've got no chance ) Who has time for another crisis???

Thanks, for you reply, That makes me feel old you started when I was already working...

err what time period were you at school ?

Here's an odd ball question, this is causing much debate on another forum I inhabit. Did you have halloween parties/ functions or anything to do with it while you were at school? Well I started school in 1962 and none of the 2 primary and 3 secondary schools I attended even mentioned it. Over to you Please

with or without water?