Maplin can be pricey alright but I bet you got that solar panel cheap in there.
I got the same one myself if my thinking is correct. You don't necessarily need a leisure battery to get started. However, that depends on what you want to run off it. It will take about 3 days to charge a 12 volt battery with that panel but if you're just running low energy lights for example, you will get about 4 days out of a half decent van battery. What are you planning to use it for?
I sell garden lights but I'm afraid they aren't €2 each

floatingingalway wrote:

Maplin can be pricey alright but I bet you got that solar panel cheap in there.
I got the same one myself if my thinking is correct. You don't necessarily need a leisure battery to get started. However, that depends on what you want to run off it. It will take about 3 days to charge a 12 volt battery with that panel but if you're just running low energy lights for example, you will get about 4 days out of a half decent van battery. What are you planning to use it for?
I sell garden lights but I'm afraid they aren't €2 each

Actually I did get it cheap in there now that you say it. I've seen other stuff that might have been a bit saucier.

I don't really know what I'm going to run - computer, television, some lights I suppose .... more to see how effective or not it is. I think I do need a battery though - the "deep cycle" leisure ones apparently last longer ... ?? I suppose I should play around with a car battery first though or I might end up fecking up the other battery.

Getting 4 days with running the lights should be ok - some computers are low wattage or voltage so you could potentially run one of those netbooks for a little while off it.

Now that you have one panel would you not get a second one and connect both in series(?) and charge your battery in half the time. Would that work??

There are a couple of ways of wiring up more than one panel. This is a very useful article. Solar power basics

floatingingalway wrote:

There are a couple of ways of wiring up more than one panel. This is a very useful article. Solar power basics

That's a fecking brilliant little site - thanks. I've looked around on the web before but there's so much out there. That's a neat little link now. I'm still trying to get the picture into my head of what power any battery can deliver. We're sort of getting more and more used to batteries I think - you have an idea hwo long your laptop battery lasts, how long your mobile phone, portable DVD player or radio batteries will last and I'd like to be able to have an idea of being able to gauge how long it would take to drain a battery of X power if you have an item of Y power.

I'm getting there slowly.

I don't know if I have a properly functioning regulator either ...

The only way is trying it out. Things with motors or elements will make shorter work of your battery than something that is low energy. I'm only at the start of this learning curve too. From what I can see so far it's a lot more straightforward than I originally thought. What have you tried running off it so far? I can give you some tips re lighting etc.

I still need to get a battery. I have my eye on that Leisure one but I can't remember what amperage it was now.... I could chance using my car battery and then getting a new one for the car first. It could be nearly due a change anyhow.

I'd be thinking of running desk lamps, a portable DVD player, a television, a computer - that kind of thing. Computers are 19V. I suppose I could just plug these devices into the battery socket in the car to see how quickly they would empty the battery. I know a nice hill I can park on while doing my experiments.

Do you have instruments for telling you the powers and voltages of stuff? I have. I got a meter in Maplins for half nothing which you plug into your power source and then into which you can plug your device.

I also have a yellow meter with a red and a black pin for testing power. I'm only half aware of how to use these yokes still.

Electricity isn't easy.

Quote :

Do you have instruments for telling you the powers and voltages of
stuff? I have. I got a meter in Maplins for half nothing which you plug
into your power source and then into which you can plug your device.

The only instruments I have are of the musical variety. That sounds like a very handy meter you got there.

This is a multimeter and you can connect it to stuff to see if there is a voltage out of it. I suppose if you put the pins on the electrodes of a battery of car it should read 12V. I don't know if it can tell you how full your battery is though.

Did you see Nationwide the other day - there was a woman from Galway on it - Miriam Sheehan (?) - who built her own wind turbines - blades and motor - it was really really interesting. She was running her whole house from the wind.

I missed that. I was actually going to put you on to her to get a leisure battery! She runs courses on building your own wind turbine. I'd love to go to one. Let me know if you want her number, I'll pm you.

Thanks if you have it - wouldn't mind attending a course but a 10 meter wooden turbine around here ... way too big. I can imagine a small upright windmill alright - I'm sure that even a small motor would trickle a fair bit of amps into a battery even on a still day around here. As Cromwell didn't say about Clare, "No trees to hang a man, no water to drown him, enough wind electricity to electrocute half the barstrds in Clonmel". Must try to get into these things a bit more this term.

And for something a little different: Is the computer industry cannabalising itself? The Indo has an article on Netbooks - smaller, cheaper 'laptops' which could knock laptops off the consumer list. Is the likes of Dell imploding itself

On the energy theme it's probably good for energy production because there can be growth of laptops (everyone could have two for the price of one) yet the electricity demand shouldn't grow so dramatically. Plus, lower energy items like the Netbook could more easily be powered by alternatives for longer periods of time.


ASUS eee --> €269

Quote :

Is the computer industry shooting itself in the foot with the netbook?

Just one year ago, netbooks were still a novel concept – the now legendary minuscule Asus Eee PC was just beginning to generate buzz, while mainstream PC manufacturers such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer were yet to release their versions.

Fast-forward 12 months to January 2009 and the public is spoiled for choice with the range of netbooks on the market. Various screen-sizes, hard drives and operating systems are on offer, but all netbooks have one thing in common – they’re cheap.

For the first time in the history of computing, we can really say affordable computers are now within almost everyone’s reach as the average netbook sells for under €400.

How is this affecting the market? In 2008, 10 million units of ultra-mobile devices (this encompasses netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices) were shipped, according to a report by US technology market research firm ABI Research.

This is expected to swell to 200 million by 2013. If consumers are buying netbooks – which currently make up 90pc of all ultra-mobile device sales – what happens to the garden-variety laptop? Is the computer industry cannibalising itself? Is there room for the high-end notebook anymore?

More>>>> Irish Independent

Auditor #9 wrote:

Broke again? What happened before to it? They should last eight to ten years, shouldn't they?

Ah I found it. It's the washer temperature sensor.



Same as this one. I substituted it with a 20K resistor and the machine ran fine. Will try to find one tomorrow.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

AaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrGGGGGhhhhhh !

Washing Machines. I hate them. It's broke again.

Code:

for (n=1; n< 10 Trillion; n++)
echo "I hate effing washing machines";

Even in this egalitarian age a woman's work is never done.