cliveshep

I'll leave things the way they are I think, not stirring anything up with the Dept of Pensions. Just need to figure out how to get Wise to show the transfers come from my UK bank, my UK bank statement will show clearly where payments in come from and go to. Come to that the Statement clearly shows DWP payments in and Transferwise payments out and no other transactions month on month.

What happened? Well, I de-soldered the old 6-pin component off the pcb and fitted the Lazada one. It all works perfectly except for a persistent mains hum from the speakers which it has always had. Presumably a duff electronic thingy somewhere buy I am ignorant of these things. I was a Building Contractor before, not an audio engineer. BUT........ Confession time. Re-booting the lappie the next day with the USB speakers still plugged it and wow.............high volume from the speakers. So the repaired ones go in the cupboard as spares. The USB set are presumably plug n' play and the lappie adjusted drivers to suit them. The sound is good, volume fantastic, and I got egg on face! I am so pleased I can tell you, they are far better speakers than my old ones and take up less room on my desk. So to everyone who tried to help, in a similar situation you should advice a re-boot first it seems. Thanks all for your input.

No doubt of interest to many UK expats who live here pretty much permanently. In view of the recent tax bombshell by this new Government here that incoming money will be taxed, I assume this includes pension remittances. Now my pension is paid into my UK bank, being a UK pension it is pretty poor anyway compared to many. I use Wise to transfer it directly to my Bangkok Bank account. Gives me a steady thb30,000 a month, the balance remains in the UK as savings for big items when I then transfer it here. Given that my wife and I live simply that is sufficient for a comfortable existence for us although getting a bit tight these days. My question here: Thailand and the UK have a Double Taxation Agreement, my pension is taxed at source although given the relatively small amount tax is zero. So in principle the Thai Government should ignore it. But - the provenance of transfers is probably obscured using Wise so if I need to how can I show that these monthly amounts are my already-taxed pension monies? This assumes that the Thai Government actually honour the agreement in the first place of course. Does anyone know if I'll need to show where it comes from as it is less than the Thai average income amount anyway? Information on this proposed tax seems scarce, does it have a level after which it is taxed or is it a blanket tax for all incoming monies?

I got a Samsung phone and installed the app from Google Play. To open it I just type in my ATM card pin number it asks for and it works perfectly. Cannot recall if I previously installed it and had to put in any other details, name, password etc before and it remembered on my new phone or not. Google Bangkok Banking and it gives 1 method each for android phone or i-Phone. I only did it last week so current news. All I did was used Google play to install the app, and to open it I was asked for my 6-digit pin. So simple. Of course compared to my UK bank Thailand has pretty crappy security but for me simple is good.

Wow, guys, thanks so much for all the input. Forgive me if I tell you my lovely Thai wife has trumped all of you - with this from Lazada: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/vr-6-pin-20-b50kb100k-1-i2761938886-s17361932658.html? Costs 15 baht and for a pensioner 15 baht is quite affordable! I have one of those electric sucker de-soldering tools in my little box of tricks and I've already taken out the B50k 6-pin control in anticipation of the replacement. I'm quite pleased with myself - spent all my working life in Construction, hammers and power tools were more my line and digger and telehandler driving so it shows old dogs can still learn new tricks! Thanks again guys. If I cock this up I'll be glad of those answers!

I use an old Win 10 Dell Latitude laptop that does not have the power to run USB speakers and the inside speaker is too quiet for old ears. Either that or USB speakers are too quiet anyway. So for many years I have used a 220 volt mains powered pair of stereo speakers that have a jack that plugs into the lappie. First the on/off switch started to fail so I pulled the main speaker with the little pcb board apart and sprayed it with switch cleaner. That made it work but in the process the volume control got damaged - clumsy me - so nothing works any more. I got 2 sets of USB powered speakers - utterly useless - cannot hear anything, insufficient volume. If I could source a volume control for the little pcb board I got a de-soldering iron and all the necessary tools to swap the broken control out if I could find one which I cannot. 220 volt speakers are old technology it seems so please - if anyone has a working set from the UK or wherever going cheap please let me know - silent movies are not my cup of tea. BUT please - no USB powered ones. Thanks everyone.

Of course they are 6mm airsoft but they are badged as Beretta 9mm parabellum because they are replicas of the real ones, and they are good replicas as I know from shooting the real ones on the police range in the Phils. Even strip the same although once the slide/barrel is off then the differences are clear.

I too trained shot live fire but on a police range in the Philippines under a PNP (Philippine National Police) official trainer. Weapons were a 9mm Beretta parabellum, a .45 1911 Remington, a 9mm UZI and a 12gauge Remington Navy pump shot gun. All it cost me were several boxes of 9mm and 0.45 Teflon-coated cartridges, the 12 gauge contributed by my Chief of Police's friend, the Vice Governor of the region. We even had a shooting competition at the range on the property of the town mayor. Those were fun days but while I could own such weapons there I cannot here but I have kept my eye in like others on here with two Beretta 9mm airsoft pistols, one of which fires full auto not that I actually need that function. I have a range in the garden overlooking open farmland so strays and misses harm no one as the targets, little painted sardine cans dangling on a wire prove quite challenging from a decent distance. It's a sport using skill and eye and steadiness of hand, I am proficient either left or right handed but the guns are never taken outside the house and garden nor shot to endanger anyone or any creature. Friends and family get great pleasure from shooting So - are the naysayers mocking their use really just envious condo-dwellers with no place to use them?

Question - for those of us possessing those gas operated BB guns that shoot plastic balls - are they still legal or are the Thai Police likely to come round after us? We got them in our place and at around 8000 baht each don't want them seized just because some kid got around the laws to buy a live fire blank pistol and real bullets and killed people. Soldiers and police officers often go off the rails and go on shooting sprees but until now they leave citizens alone but t he current wave of raids and mass seizures is quite worrying if the toys are still legal. RTP: are very much a law unto themselves at times but what does current law actually say?

I got 3 of those! My wife, not realising we already got a spare, bought another last week when the lid of the current one lost it's latch. Didn't stop it working and it still shut off when boiling! The new one cost 200 baht from Lazada this time, the other 2 came from DIY. We now got 4 electric kettles plus an electric travel kettle 3 of which are pretty blue led lit glass ones. The only problem we faced is that I did all the plumbing and electrical work in our new extension and kitchen and put those universal double sockets up under the wall units and some of the kettle leads simply are not long enough to reach up and plug in. But following a succession of plastic and stainless steel jug kettles we now buy some cheap things 2 at a time so we have a spare. Thus far the blue-led glass ones seem good so long as one does not succumb to temptation and overfill them! Electric razors are another buy 2 use one thing, at a 229 baht each what usually fails is the rechargeable battery after 6 months to a year so I got 2 on the go and alternate them. At a fiver in English money each they are fine compared to the extravagant costs for say Phillips. Even expensive ones last no longer and need cutters and foils replacing and they cost more than the cheap razors.

It's a Thai news outlet so presumably those in Thailand should have no problem. Anyway, I was getting a blank screen until later this morning when it was sorted and I was able to log in. Still not received answers to various emails but then BP have demonstrated a lack of good manners in the past.

Title says it all - it simply freezes on sign in. So I got a new e-mail and signed up again - with a new name and new details not the same as the other name - same thing! Emailed them - no answer of course, posted on Facebook and sent a message on Facebook Messenger - response was diddley-squat. Standard auto response from messenger only. Am I the only one? Been a couple of days now. Clearly others can sign in as some posts have comments dated today.

@sometimewoodworker: Lacking knowledge is a bit steep when you don't know what I work on. The clutch is vital when working on electronics as I sometimes do, like our recalcitrant tv, lap top, kettle, coffee machine, freezer, washing machine, compressor etc all of which I have worked on in our home since we have been here. Availability of parts is far better than it is in the UK with it's "chuck it away not repair" culture. For example, the UK washing machine tub & drum bearings failed due to a leaking seal and it's pump and drive belt needed replacement. The replacement bearings, identical Timkin bearing numbers, came from an autoparts shop in Minburi, the oil seal from a different shop also Minburi, the pump from Amorn in Rangsit, compressor capacitor from a spares place in a Ragsit back street, and the washing machine belt from ebay. The cordless was invaluable in speeding up dismantling/repair/reassembly of all of these. You dare not use an impact wrench on a pcb, not if you only intend to de-solder duff components and solder in new ones so the cordless is perfect. I got a compressor and retractable hose reel in the workshop, and all the impact air tools if I get stuck with lug nots for example but for most things like cowlings and casing parts on the motorbike for example, or the dashboard elements on the lorry a cordless is ideal. You are right, an impact wrench would be a useful addition to the workshop, but my pension supports a wife, her family, a total of 3 large and 1 medium and 3 small dogs including my own Berger Picard, not a small dog by any means, owned by familt members so I got to spend wisely. No one is working, and two older of her relatives are not well, one requiring expensive medication, and that constrains me.

@xtrnuno41 - That is very informative, thanks. Had an epiphany this morning, at 77 and 78 at Christmas, chronic back pain, arthritis etc, realised that while Crossy and others are absolutely correct about an impact driver reality says 3 things. 1. I'm too old and decrepit to ever need it's massive power and 2. it would be useless to undo small screws in things as it would smash the item. Also 3, my wife will often use the cordless for her jobs and she won't want some super-powered tool that will rip itself out of her hands and when I am gone it is she who wants one available. So we cancelled the impact driver that was costing twice as much as the one below that might or might not use the same batteries although they look identical, Muscle Cow ordered and on it's way. As for the smoking old machine I can't open, as it is cooler in the mornings I'll take it into the workshop, clamp it in a vice, and belt the living hell out of it with a hammer and pry-bar as all the screws are out of it so it ought to come apart. Sh*t or Bust as they say, I suspect front thrust bearing is seized in the housing which is why the front won't come off although the main shell separates. But lots of gentle smoke wafting out of it in use suggests terminal short circuit somewhere. Still, it might be a capacitor and they are easily replaced.

@OneMoreFarang - all my corded tools bar two are Bosch or Makita. One exception is a 9 inch angle grinder which replaced a similar cheapo machine that had been cutting bricks and paving slabs for many years. If you are English you'll know of Wickes which at £40 is where it came from back in the late 90's. I bought a Chinese similar 9 inch one last year that cost me the same (converted from the baht) probably 30 years later! So far I have cut down the external wall openings in our house (rendered concrete block) for 10 new ali windows replacing old wooden ones, plus several hundred paving slabs probably, and loads of Sheera roofing sheets all with a cheap chinese diamond blade still showing almost no signs of wear. Frankly if the machine quit tomorrow it has earned it's keep already saving us many thousands of getting in a company to cut down the walls.

@Crossy - Sorry - got waylaid answering other posts. Taken your advice and ordered a really heavy-duty cordless impact wrench plus a chuck and adapter for normal drills. It comes with screwdriver bit attachment as part of the kit. So thanks for the advice there, it will do a lot more than originally anticipated. @ TimeMachine - see above and other posts. I'm ahead of you lol!

Wow, are you expecting to live that long that you can justify 50,000 baht? Sorry friend, for that amount I'd build the house as well! Out of my league, good tools can be had for a fraction of that and unless you are full-time working, for you as with most farang "lifetime working" is not daily hard use but occasional jobs around the house.

Brushless motor actually! I've now ordered a 24volt impact wrench 2260Nm as Crossy advised, plus a chuck and adapter for normal drills. Comes with a set of impact sockets although having an air impact wrench I have those anyway. Wife is a bit concerned as other buyers complained it is very powerful, told her if undoing lug nuts hang on tight! But she is unlikely to do much of that, her car got new "boots" all round and my lorry has too but is a bit too heavy for her to work on anyway. However, I will take the smoky machine to bits when I get a minute but like I say - 6 years of heavy use is good going really for a cordless.

@Crossy - I am calling you-hoo-hoo-hoo!................You know the song I'll bet!

50,000 baht - are you nuts? Look, if you got loads to chuck around I'll send you my bank details! I've bought good quality machines before, AEG, Bosch , Hitachi machines etc, I would not buy DeWalt - owned by the Woolworth's brand and from observation on site not a lot of good. TBH the expensive machines sell you their name but the quality and longevity does not warrant the extra expense. When you hammer a machine in professional use and it lasts 6 years to me that is a damn good bit of kit because few high-end machines would do as well. I speak as a former construction professional working on tools in the UK so I know from experience what I'm talking about!

Ah yes, he has been inestimable help on other matters before. thanks, I'll wait.

My 600 baht 5 year old 24 volt cordless drill/driver started pouring out smoke so I guess it's probably knackered. Can't complain, it has worked tirelessly doing sheera walls,and after 7 ceilings and sheera roofing on our new extension, plus sundry other jobs. Adapters allow it to be used with 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 sockets so it has earned it's keep many times over. The batteries are remarkably good and once charged will put up dry-wall all day almost and after 6 years do not seem to have deteriorated so while I will probably junk the machine choosing one that uses the same batteries makes sense. Found one called Muscle Cow 24volt on Lazada at 780 baht almost identical and one of the few 24 volt machines there. That's the background - here comes the question. Most offerings on Lazada quote what seem to be preposterous voltages, 98v (Makita), 149v (Bosch) and 259v (De Walt), Some cheaper machines offer 9980 Vf - what the hell does it all mean. Google says vf is "forward voltage", one customer is still awaiting an answer to his question "is this machine 12 or 24 volt?" so clearly the seller hasn't a clue either. I can't believe that a lithium ion battery gives 259 volts, or 149 or even 98. Can someone please shed some light on the numbers and what they might mean in terms of more prosaic 6, 12 or 24 volts etc? Help!!!!!!

Apart from being illegal also impossible as the British Embassy get notified and the passport is cancelled which in turn cancels pensions.

The UNIs will not accept older dead people - end of! Young ones - yes, for research or possibly as organ donors.

Good for her, she has been, still is, the best possible wife, loving and caring.