kevinlms

13 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Perhaps he measured the output with the ac scale on his multimeter (I don't actually know whether this would make any difference as I've never tried and as a mere mechanical engineer I can't do the sums)?

I have to confess that I failed mind reading class at trade school!

12 hours ago, melmerby said:

What's the point of buffers if you don't use them occasionally?😄

Of course they need testing every now and again, otherwise they might not work!

10 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Yes, I know that.

 

But Hogan22 has suggested that he has a new 24V AC transformer, but the output of the CDU he says is 24V DC.

 

Either the power supply is not 24V AC or something is wrong with the CDU.

Going back to Hogan22 post of 25 April

also, I believe I am using 16v DC not AC, that stuff does sort of confuse me a bit, but the output of the power supply adapter reads 16v DC.

Since the output is apparently replicating the input voltage - except converting to DC. That indicates that the CDU is not working correctly, for some eason. Or as Smokebox says, the way it's wired.

The CDU is certainly not working as intended.

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Both the rural fire services and the state emergency services in the various states are volunteer forces, or at least those who do the frontline work are. In times of significant disasters like the 2019 bushfires they can be asked to travel across states, for weeks at a time, leaving families and jobs.

 

Often the strain on funds is so great that they have to pay for their own travel, meals and protective clothing , on top of being on unpaid leave for weeks at a time.   Some state governments did tend to take them for granted, relying on the grace of volunteers to save on having to pay professional fire and emergency personnel, but since the recent major disasters the government (at least in NSW)  has been coughing up for decent equipment that is up to spec for doing what these blokes expect it to.

 

These guys are all volunteers, the truck the camera is on stayed there in order to protect properties on the left once the firefront had passed  over. Rural firetrucks have the ability to drench themselves in a curtain of water to protect the crew, which is what this one did as it sat there.

 

 

 

In Victoria, it has been recently stated that a fair number of fire trucks are over 30 years old and are a few years away from being replaced. Not good enough.

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

If you are in a remote area and require medical assistance and you are an Australian citizen, then it is definitely free. The question of where you have to be in order to be considered remote enough for the free  service rather than the states ambulance service can be open to contention though 

 

I have a bookshelf full of those charity teddy bears that the RFDS sell you to fund raise off of and I'd better get my moneys worth if ever I  cop a heart attack west of Lightning Ridge! 

As I said before.

Conditions must be met.

As Gwiwer said and he claimed he used to work for them (RFDS).

A fact which catches many a visitor and indeed some residents out. 

Ambulances are within the emergency service response when required (dial 000) or provided for patient transport when needed. But they are not free at point of use as they are in many other nations. 

Have it your way, but if you expect it to be free, you're in for an expensive trip, if you don't meet the criteria - but perhaps you personally do. But don't give out wrong advice, that it's free to everyone.

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The nearest thing here in the UK to the RFDS has got to be the RNLI which is also funded by charitable donations. The main difference is that the lifeboats are crewed by volunteers who are unpaid (with a few exceptions). And of course they often put their own lives in danger.

Probably a reasonable comparison. Plenty of fire and other services like SES, which are volunteer organisations largely.

Australia is tricky for medical stuff. Much is covered under Medicare (similar to NHS), but not everything is. Ambulances is one that isn't generally free, nor is dental.

Medications fall under the PBS mostly, but certainly not all. There was a guy on radio a couple of days ago, who was saying that the medication for a rare disease, costs him $3000 for 3 weeks supply, with no subsidy at all! Although the PBS were looking at the issue.

9 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

DC - a capacitor cannot "store" AC.

Crude solenoid based point devices don't care if it's AC or DC anyway.

Yes, I know that.

But Hogan22 has suggested that he has a new 24V AC transformer, but the output of the CDU he says is 24V DC.

Either the power supply is not 24V AC or something is wrong with the CDU.

3 hours ago, stewartingram said:

Don't take it out to reverse it and risk demagnetisation (likely).

There are 2 ways to correct a loco running wrong way.

1] change the polarity of the magnet (I'd do that with my remagnetiser).

2] reverse the wiring to the motor brushes. If you have already swapped them and there is no difference, sorry, but double check that! Swap them again - label the 1st wire you remove just to make sure you are doing it right.

If you swop the wires to the brushes it MUST change the direction.

The last point is true if using DCC too!

32 minutes ago, faulcon1 said:

Some way wish to visit our great land but what if you venture into the vast interior to watch trains. Miles from anywhere without a care in the world until something goes wrong medically and with the nearest hospital hundreds of miles away who are you going to call. Well not Ghostbusters but the RFDS the only angels I know of. It's the only flight you'll ever take without paying for it although you'll be in no state to enjoy the flight, at least not to the hospital but once better they'll fly you back to where your family and friends are waiting for you and that flight is free too. The RFDS also flies dentists to outback locations so that the people living out there can receive regular dental care.   

 

 

Sorry, we had this discussion before and this service is NOT generally free.

Conditions must be met. See this and following posts.
 

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Interesting. With a 24Vac input, I'd expect the output to be about 34Vdc (RMS and all that).

Which makes me wonder if the input is DC and not AC.

4 hours ago, PhilH said:

I live in an area of extremely high growth not matched by provision of medical facilities. To get an appointment at one of the two doctors surgeries serving this area you first have to do an econsult. You are then advised by text within two days whether you should book an appointment or not, either same day for more urgent cases or routine for the more normal stuff. Note, you are not given an appointment you are given permission to ring up to try and book one. You cannot book a routine appointment without having done an econsult.
 

Routine appointments are only released at 11am on a Wednesday for the week ahead. Additionally you are allowed to ring up on Thursday at 4pm to see if there are any cancellations or such. As I said earlier you can only ring for an appointment if you have an econsult on record.

 

I enclose an image of my attempts today to get through to my surgery starting at 10.58 am today. The number next to the phone number is the number of attempts I made before I gave up. Mostly I could not even get through, a recorded message telling me that the phone lines were full. This is the reality of trying to get to see a doctor round here in the 21st century.

 

So the American Republications and insurance companies are correct in their claims about 'communist countries with long queues to see doctors'?

Don't drop your screwdrivers across the bus bars!

2 hours ago, RailWest said:

Assuming that the models are quiet old, then the lamps are likely IMHO to be typical grain-of-wheat type rather than LEDs. Almost certainly the voltage is too high - you're probably lucky you haven't blown them already! Try 6V or 9V and see what happens - you want a 'gentle glow' not a mega-searchlight :-)

The original mercury vapor lights I believe were very bright.

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

Not very useful if you hardly ever use it. No-one's going to get in the habit of keeping a phone charged that they never use.

The answer was in response to the fact that it isn't taken in the house to recharge. It could be left in the charger, in a car indefinitely.

9 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 She kept it in the car, but never remembered to bring it in and put it on charge.

Plenty of car chargers around!

2 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

And once you drive out enough of those who service it, the whole edifice begins to collapse anyway.

 

Most pubs and restaurants in popular areas have had "Staff Wanted" boards out continuously for the past two years and one beach front cafe I formerly frequented only plans to open during the university summer break this season. 

Here's is an old workers village, which is being revamped to cater for a shortage of hospitality workers. Shows that it's a world wide problem. The shortage has killed off the underpayment of those same people, not too many years ago. It was rife in Australia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-10/can-revived-bogong-village-ease-vic-alpine-accommodation-crisis/103673830

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Is it a SUV?

Replace the arrow with a finger and ask again!

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

George V and Prince of Wales bodies?

 

The "tenders" have their wheels, which is something... 🤪

You could always put the wheels in the LRM kit!

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

A van, not a caravan.

Plenty of people refer to their caravan as a 'van'. At least that was the point of my previous comment.

On 18/03/2024 at 11:46, Reorte said:

I've had to present my driving licence to the police zero times in the thirty years I've been driving. Whilst I can't rule out the possibility of it happening the frequency that it does is low enough that any hassle involved even without having it on me is too negligible in the grand scheme of things to care about.

Oh I have and I was doing nothing wrong, but the police didn't know that.

I was driving my wife's car and I got stopped 9 times in about 18 months. The police system recognised her car as belonging to a suspended driver - which was true, due to medical issues. So yeah, I got used to the procedure and had my licence in my hand by the time they got to the window!

They took it back to their vehicle and it came back clean, without an issue everytime.

I would rather 2 minutes of inconvenience, than having people driving around without a licence or other issues related to the car.

The law says that in Australia (well OK, licences are mostly issued by the states with almost identical laws), that the licence should be carried at all times WHEN DRIVING and that I believe is part of the priviledge of being allowed to drive. Yes, there are other ways of them proving it's you with modern technology, but usually it's quicker if you have it with you - I like an easy life.

A drivers licence is NOT technically an ID card, although many people assume that it is.

On 18/03/2024 at 04:58, Tim Dubya said:

 

My dad's (he's 85) surgery swapped to this system a month or so back and he was invited in and given lessons on how to use it.  Patients at his practice can also still phone in for appointments etc if they don't have a smart phone or computer to access it's services. 

 

This is how it should be, never a MUST.

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

We have, its somewhere upstream...

 

I remember similar ones, such as a building being demolished with a heavy duty version, but not that particular one, but you're probably correct!

6 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Still quite a lot of phone boxes around here but not all that many have phones in them, a lot have been repurposed in to defibrilator stations, book exchanges and various things like that.

None of that happend here, shortly after disconnecting they were recovered.

Are the repurposed ones repainted a different colour, or some other distinctive feature, such as a new logo, so people don't waste time going to them, hoping to make a call?

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Excellent, not one we've had before!

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

Seen on the side of a van this morning:

 

"No persons to be inside this vehicle while it is moving."

Depends entirely what sort of vehicle. If it's a caravan, absolutely no persons inside while it is moving!