PowerSwitch

I have Osram GU10 LED lamps in one string with a couple of cheap chinese led clusters and a couple of Philips masterled lamps all mains voltage. The cheap chinese ones were put in by my land lady, blue white, terrible light and when they go they go with a bang! So far in two years we have a 60% fail...

Interesting. Looking at the paper it seems a strange way to go about measuring the system. I'm not a real science guy more practical engineering in product development. Thermal imaging seems to be a strange way to measure the setup, if I was looking at a gas burner I would build something to extract...

Keep your eyes out for more coming, we are starting to see a shift to looking at power over ethernet and DC/DC systems and drivers.

I'm also enjoying your blog. Especially the post on Shetland. I spent part of my childhood on Bressay just across the sound from Lerwick. At the time I didn't appreciate what a special place it was. I'm looking forward to the follow up posts.

The problem is some fixtures and retrofit lamps are using low end LEDs (designed for back lighting applications on screens) without taking care to make sure what they need to do to secure reliable operation. This begs the question, as a consumer, how do we tell the difference between good and bad q...

I've just been reading about LED lifespan and it's apparently ludicrously long. So who knows, maybe a home made led panel will still win out on the cost? They have to be well ventilated though to allow for heat dissipation. When we launched our first serious LED spot we were predicting around 70k h...

The story is not new in itself but I was quite surprised to see it making it into the news so directly. Especially the tone of the ending paragraphs which as well as indicating Iran as mad, bad and dangerous paints Israel as the party most likely to initiate the opening acts in what would be a messy...

I'm not sure it's even possible, but given the choice of spending what's left of the money on encouraging consumer spending or helping what's left of our industry the choice is clear to me. I had this discussion with some friends who woke up recently and started to realize that actually manufacturi...

Tarrel wrote:The whole rental market is a gravy train, with letting agents and a whole bevy of service-providers all with their noses in the trough.

You do realize this IS the current economic model

SNP and WNP for the win? Thats easy, the Tories exist in neither Scotland or Wales, we can offer full independance, what does a Lib/Lab coalition offer? Interesting view. I've always said to my fellow countrymen who worry about independence that the SNP can't win this BUT the Tories could win it fo...

Just because these countries are members of the European Union doesn't mean that it is happening, covertly, in a 21st century manner rather than blackshirts walking down the streets. Instead it is smooth politician-thugs in designer suits in the corridors of power crushing democracy. I have no idea...

One of my ex colleagues worked in Dounreay for a time as an engineer. He described the management of waste as a game, no one took most of it particularly seriously. The standard practice was out of sight out of mind, a hole, the sea or under something else was enough. The size of the hole seems to h...

From what i have read, if you use a fluorescent light for 3 hours before shutting it off the lamp will last approximately 20,000 hours but if you leave the light on for 6 hours each time, the lamp will last about 24,000 hours. Given the price of fluorescents, it must be possible in principle to cal...

The issue I think is discussions on future proofing for smart grids, using the car also as a battery. In this case communication is needed and the plugs need to avoid have exposed pins on either size of the connection.

We are the 7th biggest assembler of overseas produced components . Assemblies that are then re-badged as "made in Britain". Maybe the badges are made in Britain :) More seriously as someone who previously worked making parts for industries that aren't there any more I recognize the pictur...