Led Lolly Yellow Lolly

Meh, I never minded being called a young'un when I was young, I no more care about being called old. It is what it is. The world needs to get a sense of humour.

Personally, covid hasn't changed my life at all (other than crippling one of our businesses). . . I have more in my in-tray than ever before. Frankly I'm kind of enjoying Thailand more now there are no tourists. I can even walk down the main drag here without a phukcing tuk tuk driver shouting 'TUK TUK,TUK TUK' at me. . . so for me, this has been the change in demographics, the locals know that whatever farangs are left are teflon coated, so just don't bother even trying.

Now is surely the best time to holiday in Thailand. A few months ago we had a very nice family break at the Sheraton in Hua Hin. Empty hotel, swimming pool to ourselves, empty beach. Wonderful.

I've suffered with mental health issues since I was around 7 years old, so this can easily be associated with parental issues, but I'm wired up the way I'm wired up. I had cause to visit a local head shrinker a few years ago. She was a very talented GP, very warm and understanding, but all I got out of the meetings was some Sertraline and Alprazolam. I took the Sertraline for two and a half years, and made the decision to ween off it by myself, but I had the respect for her to consult with her about that first. I still take Alprazolam 2 or 3 times a week as a sleep initiator. . .

But the nub of it is that I don't think she really helped me at all, even though she wanted to, and what she did for me was infinitely superior to anything I experienced on the British NHS, other than make me realise I have to deal with my issues myself, and that I have the power to do that. I am also fortunate to have a loving wife and kids.

Good luck to you in any case, I hope you find what you need, friend.

Won't argue with that. in 20 years I only had to visit the British Embassy once, and twice to renew my passport. I managed to largely avoid the place by doing everything through local channels.

I gives me a wry smirk when I read 'Depends on the Amphur' regardng pricing because you never read 'Depends on the DLT' when you go to renew your driver's license. The fees are mandated at a national level and are the same everywhere, and the pink ID card is issued free of charge. Any fee charged for it is just plain vanilla theft.

I have the Tabien Baan, Work Permit, Social Security card, Pink ID, everything you can think of I have it. . . I never used the Pink ID once, for anything. The only thing I can think of where it MIGHT be used it for getting out of some kind of translation hole. In any case, it took 30 minutes to get and cost nothing, so why not have it? IIRC, I believe there is some law that states you are SUPPOSED to get it anyways if you're on a Tabien Baan.

I still watch The Sky At Night, been watching it for 40 years. . . but as for news, Auntie is just too parochial for me, and whatever is watchable is mired in the editorial foibles of the middle class ultra liberals that run it. Al Jazeera is my go to news outlet.

Without seeing the specs for the ventilator (detailed manufacturer specs) I wouldn't advise this, you risk damaging the ventilator catastrophically through an overvoltage (a car battery or any SLA will easily exceed 14 volts for example). If the ventilator is rated for, say, 9 ~ 19 Volts DC, then you'd be fine, but you need to verify that first, second, and then verify for a third time. Also, sometimes those barrel connectors have the polarity reversed. Getting that wrong even for an instant and the magic smoke will come out of the electronics.

Also, 5 Amps for six hours. . . that's gonna be a BIG battery and it'll have to be on wheels.

Ahh, the age old WAF excuse. Maybe paint the RCBO pink and make it glitter in the sunlight?

21 hours ago, Pilotman said:

what the <deleted> is this all about, get a life,  it really doesn't matter a damn. 

Not arguing with you, but I offer an anecdote. . . Many years ago, maybe 20+, my mother used to work night shift in an old folks home. When it was taken over by a private company, all staff were informed they were no longer allowed to call the old folk 'old folk'. They were from now on to be rereferred to as the 'Service Users' and the old folks home and company was now to be called the 'Service Provider'. You can call it progress or whatever it is they call it. To me they'll always be old folk in an old folks home.

Sure, I'm just using those figures because you won't find an MCB that opens at any less than 6 amps.

I never measured accurately so I'm just throwing around wild figures about evaporation, but our commercial pool (around 300,000 litres not including surge tank) is topped up constantly with a ball valve in the surge tank. It runs constantly, we probably lose thousands of litres a day due to evaporation, maybe tens of thousands in certain conditions. As we pump our own bore hole water and carbon filter it, these costs add up annually, but there's not much you can do about it. Pools cost work and money.

On 3/1/2021 at 8:58 AM, Tuvoc said:

 

Anyway, lack of RCD doesn't worry me. As I said, our house in the UK that we lived in for 12 years had no RCD and tens of thousands of older houses are no doubt the same. I had the electrics checked when we bought it, and it was raised as something we might might consider getting done as it would improve safety, but it certainly wasn't considered necessary, dangerous or unsafe. 3 or 4 times over the years when cutting the hedge I cut through the power cable. It tripped the relevant  circuit breaker or switch whatever you call it,  which then just had to be turned back on, no other adverse effects

As I keep trying to hammer into anyone I work with, MCBs are to protect cables, RCDs are to protect lives. Your body will happily take the 5 or 10 amps it needs to expire without tripping an MCB, and take anyone that tries to save you along too, leading to my next comment. . .

On 3/1/2021 at 9:42 AM, Tuvoc said:

 

Sorry to hear that, accidents do happen unfortunately.

You don't seem to accept why the regulations change, or that reducing your exposure to risk is a good thing, and inexpensive to implement. I'm interested to help you as you're so nearby (as a courtesy) , but I haven't PM'd you yet because I suspect I'd be irritated by your reluctance to take on board what's being said to you.

On 1/18/2021 at 6:51 PM, GrandPapillon said:

 

 

they are not entirely wrong, hence why technical support for hardware has completely died in the western world, nobody wants to serve low paid tech work with no upside

 

On 1/23/2021 at 1:49 PM, BigStar said:

 

 

Some like yourself eventually look in the mirror to realize they're unable to unlearn the old lessons and must remain forever clueless.

I must be fuggin bored tonight to get sucked into a dimwit Thailand is $#!t topic but FWIW the above comments are sticking out for me and I'll explain why. . .

20 years ago I lived in Hong Kong. One of the things that really opened my eyes was the availability of cellphone repairs shops on every street corner in places like Wan Chai, well pretty much everywhere in Hong Kong actually. Break your phone in the UK it goes in the bin, throw away culture, not economically viable repair, whatever. . . in Hong Kong, any part for ANY phone was available, on the spot, repaired in a couple of hours or pick it up the next day, right there on the street. I never forgot that. . . So yes, it's not a cultural thing, it's about the economics of the repair and who makes some money for it. Works in Thailand, Hong Kong, the UK, anywhere. . .

And about culture, next time you go for a drive, count how many farangs are riding around on mopeds without helmets. Then go to the UK, or any European country where there is a Thai diaspora, and watch them follow the rules of the road like a native. P!$$ poor governance is not a cultural problem. Fix policing, Thailand will still have it's culture. Everyone get it?

About the OP, nobody in the shop gives a $#!T about your stupid notebook fan of the tooting it occasionally toots. No matter how much you think they should give a damn, no matter how much you want them to care, they don't, unless they can make some money out of the problem. You think this is about Thai culture? Seriously man, you're waaay off.

I've not read through this thread but I'm deeply involved in the IT industry in Thailand and just have to comment. I lost count how many times people come to me to say their in-to-net not working, only to point to one site they can't visit while everything else is fine. It's entirely legitimate to highlight the likelihood of the hosting server as being the source of the plomplem, but the user will just blame the IT guy, or 3BB, or whoever is nearest. Bleh, pfffft, idiots.

I also work with some Australian companies. The speeds they have on site are laughable compared to what we enjoy in Thailand. Same with the UK, the BT monopoly has turned the UK into a backwards state with regards to modern communications. I live in mountains, yet I have 3 separate 1 Gig fibre lines from different providers coming to my house (plus a 4G backup gateway of last resort). It costs pennies for what we have compared to what you pay in Europe.

About international speeds, it used to be the case that things slowed down internationally, but it's not really an issue any more. . . and actually, everyone's internet slows down internationally, in any country. Many new submarine cables are coming into service, recently I was surprised to see latency to my UK rackspace of less than 170 milliseconds. Amazing actually, must be pretty close to the theoretical best case.

Be careful with those speed tests by the way. 15 or more years ago I used to see comedy speed tests posted on ThaiVisa by posters boasting about their awesome speeds to the UK. . . except the ping times were often under 10 milliseconds. The ISPs back in those days were tricking customers by using local proxies for international speed tests \;-)

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

Sometimes it's interesting to see what they've been up to lately. The girl never did act again apparently.

 

My son spent a few nights in hospital last year, Aliens was on the telly. so we watched it. It hasn't aged at all and it's still a blast, although the SFX haven't stood the test of time. . . but why I mention it, the young girl that played Newt, she's 44 years old now. Scary right?

4 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

and NEC style N-E linking (same principle as Oz just a different method) 

About that, did you notice the OPs CU is installed as a TT system? ????

That would be fine, if there was RCD or an RCBO (which MUST be double pole isolation), but there is not. This system is already dangerously unsafe and the installer is grossly incompetent. I know it's not what the OP wants to hear, but it is what it is. I'll bet everything's twisted together with vinyl tape in the roof with bootleg ground to the building's rebar. I've seen it a thousand times, there's just no point in trying to argue with them, they're clueless.

On 2/24/2021 at 8:12 AM, Tuvoc said:

 

 

 

I'd certainly be interested in taking a look at your business installation.

OK I'll blast you a PM. We're just the other side of the police checkpoint south of Mae Chan.
You will never find a competent electrician locally. Give up, unless you can accept reversed LN everywhere is mai pben arai and that it's safe to ignore regulations because the lights come on. If you can find the electrical contractors that fit out departments stores and malls, they are competent but you will pay ฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿

About changing regulations and what was previously acceptable. They regulations change BECAUSE they were previously not fit for purpose. The regulations as they stand in Thailand are fine, there is just no enforcement. Thailand essentially copied the Australian electrical system word for word.

I would go further than Crossy and suggest you skip the Aluminium and use the same heavy gauge steel cables the PEA use on the long 3-phase runs from the low voltage side of transformers, and then at your end use bi-metallic clamps to connect some 16 mm copper drop wires into your building. You could probably get away with 10 mm drop wires even. Your poles are a long way apart and you're going to have them falling over with this kind of weight if they weren't buried well. It's going to be costly in any case. This should have been done properly from the outset.

On 2/20/2021 at 12:06 PM, mikey88 said:

 

 

Is that a false memory...?

 

Your memory is wrong. I can only talk about Chiang Rai, I don't spend much time in CM, but the air has been unbreathable for 6 months of the year for as long as I can remember (been here 20 years). It easy to verify this by checking records, the air is only 'truly' clean May to October.

I'm about a 20 minutes drive from you, so I could come and take a look at it for a cold beer. You can read through my posts to know I know what I'm doing. Problem is, I guarantee you won't like what I have to say and I WILL find endless problems and condemn the system. As Crossy pointed out, RCD/RCBOs have been legal requirement on all new installs for years, so your electrician is incompetent, a thief, or both. I also hate those piece of $%!t Chang CUs, the case is thinner than a coke can. I could also invite you over to our business to take a look at what a pro job looks like.

The problem with these consumer UPSs is they drain the batteries so low it permanently damages them, even after a few charge/discharge cycles. Yes, they're called deep cycle batteries but this is a misnomer, you should never drain less than 50%. In my own system I never drain below 70% state of charge. This gives me very long battery life, 5 years+ even with frequent power outages (server room, critical system with their own extended run UPS systems designed by myself). . .

These little UPS units you have under your table get their '20 minute' specs by hammering the battery down to near zero. You will be wasting your moeny putting big batteries in them just to have them wrecked by excessively deep discharges.

 

On 2/12/2021 at 10:02 AM, chrisjinla said:

I currently have a UPS which I use to power my Wifi Router and a fan in case of power cuts

That APC model you have is a Stepped Approximation to a Sine Wave output. You risk wrecking your fan motor running it on that. You need a pure sine wave inverter for motors.

7 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Wrap it in one of those old Tesco, sorry Lotus's, bags we used to get for free.    LOL

The modus operandi is milk cartons, still available at no cost.