Crossy

Here's a pic of what I have and I agree about getting it open. I can't see any way of opening short of using a small Dremel type tool to cut it open.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, it requires lateral thinking

PM me your details, I'll drop the beastie in the post when I get home along with my return address

Hmmm, didn't even know Vista had this facility, I'll give it a go.

Others have suggested Dragon so we'll try that too.

As to the mechanical tottie, must be some reason she looks vaguely like my wife

Any suggestions for a superb online VCD player ?

I think you're going to have to define exactly what you want this unit / software / aardvark to do, coz I have no idea what you actually want

I'm still interested but I want to cut a deal.

I have an unmodified unit that a friend carried from the US over to me. Never been used.

Can we work out some trade or something?

For a fellow TV'er I'll do a straight swap. Cost of modification is about 10 Baht (6 resistors) and a few minutes of my time (the hardest part is getting the bloody thing open).

If you're local to BKK / Pathum Thani we can have a beer whilst performing the exchange of prisoners, otherwise I'll bung it in the post (PM me your details)

I'm theoretically back on the 20th IF I can get a flight and the PAD don't close the airport again

I have a few (3) of these testers that I got from the Good ol' US of A (courtesy ebay). I've modified them for 220V and checked they work.

Anyone wants one PM me, 350Baht (deposited to my Bangkok Bank account) will cover my costs including postage within Thailand

First come, first served obviously.

If there's demand I can get some more but this is never going to be a money making venture (postage from US is nearly twice what the beasties actually cost)

I'm back in LoS next week after an extended foray to sunny Bangalore.

I have couple of these units left if anyone wants one please PM me. First come first served

I need some GOOD voice to text software, the idea being that we feed a recording of a meeting in and out pop the minutes ready for editing. Meetings are in English although we have Germans, French and Indians participating, they don't often degenerate into shouting matches (well once or twice per meeting).

A colleague has asked for this, personally I think it's a big ask but it's a loooong time since I played with this type of software.

Anyone know of an application that comes anywhere near doing what we want, whilst cost is relevant we are willing to pay for this stuff.

I bought some low-end life insurance, just death cover of 1/2 million US.

Having seen the problems the wife of a close friend who was killed in Phuket had before she managed to get hold of her inheritance (one2die haven't bothered paying anything as yet) I just wanted to ensure my missus wasn't going to go through the same pain should the worst happen.

Crossy-- Are UK plugs ever installed ground pin up? It is the standard practice for hospitals in the US, and is preferred practice for many other facilities.

UK outlets are (almost) always installed ground up. In this position the cord hangs vertically down parallel to the wall.

I actually didnt. However, the website does not specify to which office you have to go. I will just try my luck in BKK.

Let us know how you get on in BKK, we're in Pathum too (Bangkadi), never had any issues previously but you never know.

Do you think I can safely tie the 6mm with a 4mm & use one circuit or just get another breaker? If you have space install a new 25A breaker for the 4mm² run to the shower. It would be unsafe to have the 4mm² protected by a 32A breaker so if you have to use a single breaker you must use 6mm² for the full run.

Interestingly, my internet banking (Raiffeisen in Luxembourg) ONLY works with Firefox

It will be a new install with 6 mm wire to the 6000w & 2.5 mm to the shower heater. & Grounded!

Unless cost is a significant issue I'd run 6mm² (or at least 4mm² good for 5kW or so) to the shower too, just in case you decide to upgrade the heater in the future. It would be a real bind to find the 3.5kW shower unit hasn't quite got the oomph and have to replace your wiring too.

Also-

Unless you use 6mm² for both you must NOT (that's NOT) use the same breaker to control both heaters, the breaker must be sized to protect the smallest cable connected in the circuit.

And-

Please ensure the heaters are protected by an ELCB

Crossy can I run 2 heaters into one 32 amp breaker as I won't ever use them at the same time.

Welllllll, it would contravene UK (and probably Oz) codes but yes, you could run both off a single breaker. Turning the two on together would simply drop the breaker.

You should really run a separate cable and install a second breaker. If you do decide to extend the existing wiring please use a decent ceramic connector block (the plastic ones tend to melt at high currents).

These simple heaters have no thermostat pre-se just a safety cutout that operates somewhere around 80^oC (bloody hot). They simply get the water as hot as the flow rate will permit, more flow = lower temperature attained.

You could try:-

• Looking if the safety cutout is adjustable, but remember it's not intended to work as a thermostat and so may fail quickly.
  
• A thermostatic mixer tap (not cheap).
  
• If you suspect back-feeding into the heater add a non-return valve in the outlet (no idea if this would work, just a thought).
  
• Maximise the flow though the heater to reduce the temperature it attains.
  
• Insert a 50A 600V rectifier diode (it will need a heatsink) in series with the heater element to reduce the power available by supplying half-wave rectified mains.
  

Or my personal favourite, ditch the thing or at least relegate it to heating water for taps only and not the shower.

If you're a hobby electronics enthusiast why not make a 'super' lamp dimmer with a BTW67-600 (50A 600V) TRIAC for continuous power adjustment, you could likely modify a regular lamp dimmer with a bigger TRIAC. Not sure I'd bother.

Rewire the lamps to 220-240

Thanks for the insight Liz.

Exactly how would you recommend doing this? Did you even bother reading the rest of the thread (or for that matter the OP)?

EDIT I'll take it all back if you can come up with a source of 220V 3-way lamps

I don't know if Norway issue emergency travel documents.

But it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they went to a cop-shop somewhere, reported passports stolen, and with the police reports in hand went to their embassy and got emergency documents. Dunno how much checking is done by embassies when issuing new PPs but I suspect not vast amounts, even if they do check up I doubt the BiB have a functional network to share such info as to whose PPs have been seized.

I also suspect that they will not be coming to Thailand again any time soon.

Yup ^^^ I think it's a year. Mine was 8 months out, exchanged for a 5 year without a blink

You could use a 220V bulb in a 110V supply, just wont burn as bright thats all...

Assuming you could find the 3 way bulb of course ??

Of course, if he could find the 220V 3-way lamp he wouldn't need the transformer

So I turn the xbox on so she can watch a movie.. And the xbox 360 dies with its first ever 3ROLD !!! Not recovering either.

Not your day for technology is it

Perchance are you suffering from low mains voltage?

Yup, I'm getting the denied page for the original link.

On KSC.

Since posting signal has dropped totally twice, gone for a few mins and come back.. Currently gone..

We've certainly not had any total losses since you posted (been watching the V8 Supercars on AXN). May be a combination of a UBC issue and your setup

I've noticed this occasionally over the past few days, don't think it's just you. Signal shows 100% of course.

We have a 3-way splitter and wireless card-splitter.

What really made me start to think is that all laptops will have the same problem, no? And in all two pin outlets (potentially)?

My old Dell (3 pin cable) would bite hard if run from an ungrounded outlet. My new HCL (2 pin cable) has no such issues.

The answer I always use is "if it has a 3 pin plug then it is expecting a ground".

You don't need a very good ground to remove the tickle it has a large source impedence.

This looks like a typical 3-way fitting that uses a special 3-way lamp which has two filaments. Both filaments are wired at one end to the threaded part of the base. The other end of one filament is wired to the center of the base bottom, (this allows a standard bulb to be used in a 3-way lamp socket). The other end of the other filament is wired to the ring at the bottom of the base. Turning the switch connects power to the ring, the center, or both thereby determining which filament/s receive current with the circuit completed through the threaded part of the lamp base.

If you want to retain the 3-way function then you'll need to use a transformer, I've never seen 220V 3-way lamps, here or anywhere else

Just replacing the lamp with a regular local 220V one should work fine, but as noted before the 3-way functionality will be gone, of course you could then add an in-cord dimmer for similar operation.

You will be given a 13 month Under Consideration Stamp.

I wish mate, it's 30 days