I have done a similar thing with LED’s. I’ve used a RGB+W strip & a Gledopto controller that hooks into the Philips Hue system, I can then set rules/etc for when it turns on and off. This will work well if they have/use Alexa/OK Google/Hue/Etc.

You may find the light from the strip produces a sharp light with hard shadows. To get rid of this I used LED strip channeling with a diffuser.

Easiest option would be an inline switch of a smart plug if you are not wanting to do anything like change colours/etc.

Knowing of 2 very big international companies close to our industry that have been hit by ransomware this week, I would not want to skimp on protection for the extra £1k PA it may cost you. imo windows defender is not acceptable even at home.

I’m looking at BitDefender protection for work atm.

First car I bought at the age of 18 (1999) was a mk2 Escort 1600 Ghia X.. Red, with a black vinyl roof. Bought for a pricey £100. Sandpaper was smoother than the bonnet, the boot had faded to white and it had a lot of drainage holes (aka rust holes).

The windscreen leaked, the brake servo also leaked, so you would have to pump the brakes just to stop in traffic. Going under 30mph would also cause it to overheat, that was fun in London traffic!

I learned a lot in the 2 years of ownership, basically how to fix everything on the car! My dad quickly booked me on to a skid pan course after seeing me snaking down the road. I got rid of it when I got banned from driving for doing in excess of 90mph… It won’t go that fast officer! ;-)

Roll on 15 years…. My friend inherited a Mk2 RS2000 one of the original Janspeed Turbo’s, sans turbo, as the others had gone up in a flame of glory. It had been sitting in a bubble for the past 15 years.

We decided to drive it the Alps, so we built a custom roof rack. We were leaving on the Friday night and on Tuesday the engine and gearbox were still about 20 feet from the car. Luckily these things are so simple it was fitted within an hour and running within a couple of hours.

What we found out on our first trip to the Alps in the RS was we couldn’t go above 70mph without it overheating, and travelling that distance with bikes on the roof killed the fuel comsumption especially with twin 45’s!!!

2nd Alps trip was much the same, lastminutedotcom. Built another Pinto engine and fitted it 2 days before leaving, then had to get MOT and do a test run! Luckily we had already upgraded the brakes, radiator and the candle flame headlights.

Everything was going fine until somewhere near Chambery… Coming out of a tunnel I heard what sounded like a pin dropping on to the road. We both looked at eachother and I said “Ah it can’t be important, we’re still going!!”.. Stopped in Bourg to fill up, it wouldn’t start… Long story short, we had no starter motor and no handbrake. Some of the lads push started us at the Whiteroom for our return journey, we didn’t turn off the engine until we were on the Eurotunnel 8 hrs later! Only stopped for fuel once, the petrol tank is in the boot, we got some funny looks filling up with the engine running with the passenger leaning over to hold the brake on, with the nozzle going into the boot. << One of my favourite cannonball runs.

Tried uploading some photos to imgur, they are on the app, but the web versions says no go. :(
We have been discussing fitting a S2000/ST170/Tuned Pinto/SR20DET, when time allows.

Gaming and Movies the z906 is pretty damn good as its surround sound. For stereo music I would go for a high quality soundcard and hi-fi amp/speakers or some nice active monitors.

Using both. Smart speakers for a little bit of background music, usually while doing something. Separates for listening to music as the smart speakers are poor quality.

I’m finding there are less people (friends/kids/etc) interested in high quality audio and they definitely don’t want big ugly speakers in their rooms, it’s all about having music on demand, even if the quality is horrendous.

Last time I bought something Hi-Fi separate related is about 6-8 years ago and I’m hoping that amp will last at least 20 years. I can understand why some Hi-Fi places have gone under, good quality gear last a very long time.

I’m not sure, mid/late 90’s its all a bit of a blur!!! Pete Tong Essential Selection on Radio 1 was the best radio show ever.

Late 90’s was mainly Hard House being mixed on the 1210’s, here’s a sample of a mix.
https://soundcloud.com/milkiekula/hard-house-sampler-clash-of

Mid 90’s I was attempting to mix House/Trance music, using mum’s tape deck and turntable with a little Gemini 2 channel mixer with my Sony Discman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oiBPtT48h0

The only album I was listening to in the late 90’s was Reverence & Irreverence..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iOojt3a1Yw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdFgYwRsdS4

^^Some great tunes in this thread!

Wow, not much love for the Park Tools stand!

PCS-10 here, its been great for the last 10 years or so. I had a cheap £20 one, but that was way too unstable for a 26″ full suspension bike, let alone a LT 29er. Park Tools takes heavy bikes and its still stable and no hint of it wanting to fall over even when extended high. I don’t find it heavy, but it is heavy compared with other workstands.

I would definitely recommend one.

Feeling hungry just reading this!

For main I’ll be doing American Pancakes with Buttermilk & Eggs Benedict, Parma Ham, bit of crispy Bacon & Canadian Liquid Gold that I brought back.

For desert.. Crepes!
Crepe Suzette
Kinder Egg
Dairy Milk & Fluff (spreadable Marshmallow)
Strawberry Compote with Thick Cream

Oh I’ve ran out of baking powder! Thought I could use Bi Carb, now been told I can’t, couldn’t find any in the shop!!

I tried registering and ordering, but it comes up with the following

“We are unable to process your registration at this time. Please contact support if this problem persists.”

:-(

The rack on the Elise was a work of art! So many nice shiny CNC’d parts. I still can’t work out how you guys managed to get 4 peoples kit in an Elise and a tiny Fiat!

*Waves* I’m one of the guys that was in the Escort that year.

Disappointed this is a serious thread.

I use various Hue lights around the house with Alexa, along with a remote for the living room, placed over the top of the original switch, for the people that insist on using a light switch. Also have some smart plugs for lamps, which turn on and off automatically. I find the Alexa/Hue very handy when you have your hands full or cannot move.

If you turn off the light with a physical switch, when you turn it on it will default to whatever setting you previously had it on.

The lights in the Hall/Landing do not get used with a switch, they are on an automatic setting, so they turn on an hour before sun set and go on to a night light late at night until a specified time. You can go a step further using the motion sensor/light sensor, but I haven’t got one of those yet.

Without Alexa it would be a PITA to use smart bulbs for those odd occasions you want a bit more light. Unlock phone, find app, open app, wait, choose light, select scene, set scene.. or you can just say “Alexa turn on movie scene in the lounge”.

My use of Chinese bulbs was about 5 years ago when they wouldn’t even light a little box room!

Built mine 8 years ago! I’ve only added SSD’s x2 and Raptor drives x2 for on fly video processing of 1080p/PIP/effects. Oh I bought a cheap RX580 last month as I’m using a 4k screen now, my previous GTX670 did not support 4k. Buying a new GoPro this year, so I think it will need some upgrades for 4k editing, hoping it’s only RAM and GFX card.

I like the Volvo Amazon and always wanted to a Restomod… Someone beat me to it and did a much better job than I would ever do!

Apparently the Guy who owns it rides bikes too!

Probably a daft question, but can you access non-bike park trails from the lifts? Currently off the bike due to injury and not quite sure how much fitness I’ll have for going uphill!

Not really, most of the off piste/non bike park trails are on the other side of the valley. You have to pedal to get to the top, its not easy, but then I don’t really do uphills! Have a look on trail forks, there are a few trails off the back of the bike park mountain (from TOTW), they are amazing trails (eg Kybers) but can be quite hard.

As above: If it’s one day, then bike park with a TOTW pass.

Blue’s are a great warm up too, these two runs are not jumpy:
B-Line > Funshine Rolly Drops > Smoke n Mirrors > Blueseum > Devils Club
B-Line > Ninja Cougar > Karate Monkey > Samurai Pizza Cat > Ho Chi Min
Crank It Up – Jump trail, but it doesn’t matter if you case or overshoot these and they are a lot smaller and more forgiving than A-Line

Personally I’m not a fan of Una Moss or Blue Velvet, wide open trails, a lot of speed and some blind crests, then add a million braking bumps, I don’t find it that interesting

Then when you want to step up from Blues:
Angry Pirate – Black & Blue
Original Sin
No Joke

I always find everyone is super helpful, I’ve had people show me the way down when I’ve asked what the trail is like.

Watch a couple of videos on Youtube to give you an idea of what each trail offers.

Have you actually tried it? Worth actually taking it over the different bolts on your bike. e.g. I can’t tighten brakes using mine as it fouls the caliper. Also, the top fell off one I bought

I use mine quite a bit as it’s a lot closer to hand than the tools in the garage. What part of your brakes are you trying to tighten? I don’t think mine fouls anything as its about the same size as the multitool it replaced. The bits seem OK, the fit is good, not perfect, but a lot better than a £4 multi tool.

I did contemplate re-designing and 3D printing the body to make an extra lightweight version, but I couldn’t figure how to dismantle it, I think it might be glued as well as bolted.

Milkie – Like that crank option. Any chance of a link?

Yup, here it is…. Damn its even cheaper now! £8

Cheap Crank Multitool

I nearly pulled the trigger on of those tools! I found this tool for £16..

It works well and its a nice cheap alternative.

How have you mounted the pi cam to pi and pi to the printer?

Ummm.. Not very well! I designed a mount for my Printer/PiCam. The problem is the PiCam focal distance seems to be 50cm and I need it to be 20-25cm. I tend to get blurry photos, also the FOV isn’t great, so unless I’m printing dead centre, you only see a little bit of the print.

Same as zilog… Pi3B+ & Pi Cam, running Octoprint with a Pi touchscreen. I don’t have a WiFi plug for the printer, but it seems like a good idea, especially if you need an emergency stop. I also use Telegram plugin so it sends me a message & photo when it starts/finishes/pauses, you can set it to send updates during a print too. You can also send commands via Telegram to pause/stop/etc.

That Jet Engine looks really good!

… Didn’t realise it was going to be so big.. Mine shows about 60 hours to print, if I had a build plate big enough to print all of them at once! :o I won’t be printing it. :-(

Wow!!! How expensive!? Seems rather overpriced and can’t find specs on speakers/output/spl/etc.

I would have a look here:

https://www.gear4music.com/PA_Equipment/Single-Speaker-PA-Systems

Can’t give you any recommendations, I would stick with well known brands such as Bose/Denon/Yamaha/Peavey/etc

NordVPN user here, as above, BBC works in foreign countries most of the time, C4 or Amazon Video does not.

On holiday NordVPN is turned on all the time and I do not ever notice slow speeds. I would recommend NordVPN and have been using it for at least 3 years.

Cheers Tom! ;-) I knew there was a reason I haven’t used those in a while! Dirt VR and GT Sport for me. Waiting for Air Combat 7 to come out, VR flying!!

I’m into Sim Racing/Playing and spent a lot of time looking at sim rigs and deciding if I was to go with PS4 or PC. I ended up designing my own rig and a friend built it. Here’s what I found:

PC Vs PS4
PS4 is a lot cheaper, this is the way I went due to budget. A decent GFX card will cost more than a PS4 Pro. GT Sport / Asseto Corsa / Dirt Rally VR / Project Cars are the games to have for PS4.

Sim Rig
You need space, the GT Omega Pro seemed best bang for buck vs build quality, they are about £400. I had a wheel stand and it was OK, the biggest problem was trying to stop the office chair spinning and the wheel tipping over due to the force feedback. Checkout GT Omega, they have some good stuff and reasonable prices.

Monitors
You might need a monitor stand, or mount it on the wall, I have a 40″ TV that is 3ft from my face. For 3 screens you will need to buy a proper stand, these are £100-£200. Or go VR and do away with fancy monitors, VR is the future of sim racing, but to play online in VR (15+ cars on track) you will need a fancy GFX card and CPU.

VR Vs 3 Monitors
There is no comparison, VR is a lot more immersive you will not want to go back to monitors after a few days using VR. PSVR is under £200, which is a lot cheaper than 3 monitors. For PC VR I thnk you will want a minimum of a GTX1080 if you want high FPS VR. I can notice if racing games/sims drop to 30fps from 60fps as my apex’s aren’t as tight. I am not sure if a 1060 would cut it, I’m trying not to look! ;-)

Wheel & Pedals
Best bang for buck is the Logitech G29, you can get these for under £150. They do a PS4, a PC and an XBOX version. The PS4 version works with the PC and shift lights/etc work, it will not work with an XBOX, basically its PS4 or XBOX, they both work with a PC.

I have gone with a PS4 VR sim rig for the last year or so and it has been great. People are blown away by the whole VR/sim rig experience.
I will be upgrading my PC/GFX card this year, as I am still using the rig and it isn’t a fad. This is where it will get expensive, new CPU/GFX/VR Headset, probably looking at over £2k, but its a lot cheaper than track days!

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/legal/speeding-fines/

Would suggest 4-6 points or <28days disqualification + 100% of weekly income, another Google would suggest its now 150% of weekly income.

1) Is led type tech it worth it?
Yes, its still very good, OLED is much better, but the price increase is a lot.

2) Is there anything coming down the pipe that will make a current 600 quid HD telly obsolete in 5-10 years?
HDR battle is still on, you want a minimum of 10bit HDR, who knows which format will win HDR10/Dolby Vision/Etc.
HDMI 2.1 is coming out soon, I expect it will be used for new consoles etc in a few years time for higher frame rates and HDR content.

I’ve used very cheap filament and it can be a headache trying to nail down your settings, you end up chasing settings and using more filament and even more time.

I use ColorFabb as its really consistent, I haven’t had to change settings for different colours/weather/etc. I would go on someones recommendation, as above, if you want a cheaper filament.

avdave2 – That’s what I thought, which is why I don’t stop! ;-)

Glad to see most people here seem confused too! There are 8 of these spaced about 100-200 metres apart.

Uploaded to a different site, hopefully everyone can see it now.

I should also say that the double dashed white lines appeared recently, which has made most think the minor has priority over the major.

I’d recommend the G29, I have the shifter, but do not use it, it feels rubbish/cheap, but the wheel and pedals are fine. I’ve added a harder spring to the brake, so at least I can feel the pedal now. Some of the really quick racers only use a G29, so I wouldn’t get hung up on getting a really good wheel/pedals. Highly recommend the PSVR for Dirt Rally and GT, I now only play GT on VR.

Buy a G29 and save the rest of the money for a simrig!

Basically your van has faded, but the lettering hasn’t. You can try a clay bar and t-cut. A machine polish might be the only way to go.

Refurb’d Pioneer DDJ-SB2 for £160, comes with Serato DJ Lite software. Unsure on the Spotify DJ integration, due to DRM’s.

Checkout ArcadePunks. Some great guides and cab/table plans. I was planning on doing a coffee table Pi arcade using RetroPie. It’s all working, but ditched the coffee table arcade idea and got a PiNES case. I had 1000’s of games, I now have about 100, but it’s games that I know, rather than scrolling endlessly through games I have never ever heard of.

Worried that I can’t support my caffeine addiction.. 1 Kilo of beans in 3 days for 2 people, we were at work for one of those days too.

I have a Samsung, if you have a PS4, do not buy a Samsung.

Why?

Compatibility issues between PS4 Pro and Samsung TV’s. Mine has a blackout every time, usually lasts a couple of seconds, but it does seem to be getting worse, lasted 10 seconds yesterday.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ps4+samsung+issue&rlz=1C1GCEU_enGB820GB820&oq=ps4+samsung+issue&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.2711j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I don’t really like tinkering with the machines. 3D printing isn’t the hobby for me – it’s creating/prototyping/designing things. I want the machine to ‘just work’, or as close as I can get for my budget.

I have a Wanhao Duplicator 5S Mini and it does just work with no setting up required between prints. I haven’t leveled the bed in 6 months, if not longer. I just turn it on, dust off the bed and start printing. I’m also sure I could get a lot better prints, if I could be bothered to spend hours and hours adjusting settings, but its good enough for prototypes/models/jigs.

I have Simplify3D too, I bought it a few years ago when most of the other slicers were pretty rubbish. It seems a lot of the other slicers offer similar features to Simplify3D now.

Space Mouse looks interesting but expensive.