My latest daft project.
on: 26/11/2018 | 18:25
So brace yourself for a shock everybody . . .
I managed to set up the new wifi printer without breaking anything or excessive swearing 
Once I gave up on the useless "easy set up" tool and did what I'd usually do and use the manual setup it didn't actually take me long, bit of an anti climax, still it's all sorted now so I'm having a beer to celebrate being able to print wirelessly 
Ganted I could do that with the old printer via the network anyway but still . . . 
and thanks the the printer coming with 5 months free instant ink and @toxiic 's links from his tips page here - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Tips-Guides/How-to-save-money-on-ink-using-HP-Instant-Ink-Toxiic-s... I've got 7 months of free ink before I have to pay for any, and that's only after I run out the ink that came with the printer, until then the clock doesn't even start ticking
on: 26/11/2018 | 18:40
I do still have to disconnect the old printer, pack it away ( somewhere
) until I can set about it, and relocate the new printer into the mancave, which could be fun as it's a lot deeper than the old one At the moment the new printer is balanced on a unit the opposite side of the room
on: 26/11/2018 | 22:43
So, I got a bit bored having expected a big fight with the new printer only for it to set up nice and easy
Good job these came in the post on Saturday
Not bad eh ? £3 the pair So now sat with the earphones in 'ed boppin' away
on: 26/11/2018 | 23:32
on: 27/11/2018 | 02:10
@dtuxcomp wrote:
So I figured before I started in on anything else I'd give the mancave a long overdue tidy up as it was getting a bit chaotic.
I'm sure you'll all agree it's looking sooooooooooooo much clearer now
@tuneintestaccount @sypamele @couly2018 @themzbiker @dolly247 @frenchielove @vickyjakesmum @cass905 @drakanstyr @magsiebee @andyslc @ceecee2110
Looks quite organised, albeit the shelves a bit on the bendy side.
Got some here like that, where albums used to live, now loaded with books never look at but can't bear to get rid... wonder if will all crash to floor one day?
Got a little cupboard in kitchen with a dangerous mix of herbal teas and lightbulbs - all precariously balanced, have to watch how open it for sure! Every now and then have a cull on the ridiculously out of date stuff....
on: 27/11/2018 | 11:36 - edited: 27/11/2018 | 11:47
@dtuxcomp wrote:
@tuneintestaccount To be fair most of the gear that died on us was donkey's years old and had been bounced about a lot over our many moves before we got into this flat, it was only two years ago we got our first flatscreen TV
Yes the transmitter here is the same 5 main SD + 1 local & 3 HD. As the PVR only has 8 USB ports that could get interesting when I get up to 9 USB tuners
The canibalised booster again is a test rig to see if I could get away with daisychaining the boosters, once I get to the point of going all in I'll swap it out for a better quality one and use proper cables, but as all the soldered cables are 1 - 2 foot at the longest there's not any issues with interference, although I do have to go back into it at some point and resolder one as it's not working very well
Thankfully with 8 to chose from there's no urgency as it's not shorting. I'll dig out some pics when I get round to it.
As I don't drive a car aerial's not really high on the wish list, although I do remember back in the days of car CB's the insane aerial setups they used to do, when one lot was banned there was a trend for hiding the aerials so it didn't draw attention, my Dad ran his own garage and used to run a thin aerial wire into the door lining and round the edges of the window frame, that way you had quite a run of aerial but nothing visible
Here you go, the cheapest I can find with a quick search, I've not used either of these so can't vouch for how well they'd work especially on Windows or Mac as I only run LInux.
Ebay :- £5.99 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TV-Tuner-USB-DVB-T-Stick-Dongle-FM-DAB-Digital-Freeview-Receiver-RTL2832U...
Amazon :- £6.91 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldmore7-DVB-THDTV-Receiver-Definition-Compatible/dp/B07GJDQBPB/ref=sr_1_6...
The Ebay one has a standard aerial connection, the Amazon a MCX or whatever it's called, and ignore the bit in the blurb that says it does HD TV, it's a standard def tuner, but they can get away with it because in other countries they transit HD over the DVB-T standard, but not here in the UK.
I'm sure you could find plenty of similar ones in that sort of price bracket, I've not been keeping an eye out as I have not only the 6 in use but a couple of spares just in case
That explains why everything failed all at once then, it must have been just a coincidence and that it was just a stack up of older technology that has reached its EOL all of a sudden. Cor, I do still remember CRTs, but we switched to a flat screen ages ago, as wel upgraded our TV before the digital switch over so that we didn;t have to have separate TV boxes etc, we could just have the standard aerial lead going straight into the TV and it working on Freeview as expected. Of course, now we have Virgin TV as well, meaning HDMI is a necessity, which also wasn't available on old CRT boxes.
Might actually not be worth getting 9x TV tuners, and just sticking to the main 6 (or 7 if you want the local), because I read up somewhere that the lower powered HD multiplexes (multiplexes 7 and 8 - DVB-T2) might be switched off sometime after 2020, when the "700MHz clearance" is fully complete ready for new mobile broadband spectrum (a bit like what happened when the 800MHz band was cleared for mobile broadband).
Yeah, USB hubs are always great when you are running out of USB ports, especially on laptops now and in the past, which didn;t have the same number of ports as a traditional desktop (and is now being slimmed down even more - laptops often have no optical now, no VGA, and some even no HDMI/ethernet/USB-A, just going for a couple of USB-Cs and nothing else).
SFF machines are more difficult to expand but the RAM should still be relatively simple to upgrade, yes they may be laptop RAM modules instead of larger, desktop RAM modules, but they will still be easily upgradeable.
4GB is fine for most things but 2GB would likely be pushing it a bit, especially if running Windows 10. Windows 7 era machines (certainly the early ones) were OK on 2GB and Windows XP machines often shipped with 2GB (or less), though of course Windows XP is too old to use nowadays.
Well, if it works at the moment, what's the point in replacing it? Personally I wouldn't used such a cannibalised rig, but if it works, there's no problem with continuing to use it. Yeah those cables do tend to be short, which also leads to the point that, if they are connected to one of those short stubby aerials, how are you supposed to move the aerial about to try and get the best possible signal - assuming that you use the supplied aerial, which is what the manufacturers are assuming? (Not that the supplied aerial will work in anything other than a very strong signal area, anyway.)
I always use the satellite grade cable (usually CT100/WF100 or equivalent) when doing cable runs for an aerial because it just works the best and has the lowest losses. In fact, I have a spool of PF100 cable which I will use for when I have to put another aerial point in (and add an FM aerial to my TV aerial).
Haha yep, I have heard of the CB style radio aerials that used to be about, though you don't see those at all nowadays! I suppose a hidden aerial would work as well if it was relatively long enough, which your Dad's setup certainly would have done (based on what you described). My parents have a car each, as they need it for driving to/from work, and though most cars tend to have the proper style external whip aerial, a few modern style cars are going more towards the inbuilt solution, hiding the aerial in either the rear or side windows. These never perform any good and I can always tell that the signal is weaker (often substantially weaker). In fact, the first thing I would do, if I purchased one of the aforementioned vehicles, would be to do a radio test, compare it with something decent, then retrofit a solution into said aforementioned sleek stylish vehicle with no antenna (i.e. add one that the manufacturer should have done in the first place) 
Thanks for the eBay and Amazon links, shame about the MCX but I'm sure you can get adapters if needed? Most of them do tend to be MCX but I've seen a few that are the standard co-ax socket. I've also seen this and would like your opinions?
They are claiming that it is DVB-T2, which would do UK HDTV, and apparently they also do FM? Would something like that even work for FM?
This is the complete set for what you linked me to, so also has the aerial (which can be retrofitted as a radio aerial, or used in strong signal area) and driver disc:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RTL2832U-R820T-TV-Tuner-Receiver-DVB-T-SDR-DAB-FM-Stick-PC-Laptop-Compute...
And this is another DVB-T2 set:
If any of those are in fact DVB-T2 then it might be worth getting.
