Mutt Daeng

Argyles          https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Duke of Argyle's

12 minutes ago, tomgreen said:

 

Would it be possible to normally run the laptop ,if the battery has been taken out , but its still plugged into the mains power supply that came with the laptop?

 

 

Tom

 

. 

Yes

I am now in a position to purchase a UPS (Most likely APC or Zircon). Thanks to all who took the trouble to respond to my post(s). Mods please close.

12 hours ago, pasathai said:

if you plan on  depending on it a lot,  get a system that you can add a large external  battery

 

TBH it's to protect me from the ever increasing number of brownouts and 1-5 second blackouts that i have experienced recently, so I don't really need a belt & braces solution, but I appreciate the advice. Thanks

12 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Ok, so it's either it's the shop that's got it wrong, or your power monitor is telling porkie pies. Which one to trust.

 

The simplest way to establish which is to find out the current flow. Can your monitor display the voltage and the current drawn? If it does then it's a simple matter to calculate the power yourself. Volts x Amps (P=V x A) 

 

Let's know how how it goes.

I've done a bit of research on the power meter plugs and measuring power on small AC devices.

This is my source: https://brian-candler.medium.com/rediscovering-the-power-factor-9dbf4187c311

Power = Voltage x Current works for Direct Current (DC). But as it turns out, it doesn’t necessarily work for Alternating Current (AC). For AC, the real formula is: Power = Voltage x Current x Power Factor.

So, with my PC, TV, USB Hub plugged into a 4 gang socket connected to the mains via the power meter plug:

Voltage reading (fluctuating) = 222V

Current Reading (Fluctuating) = 551mA

Power Factor (Fluctuating) = 0.714

Power reading Fluctuating) = 88.04W

Calculated power = V * A * PF = 87.34 W

Only a difference of 0.7 watts between calculated power and the reading from the meter. That's good enough for me.

8 hours ago, pasathai said:

if you plan on  depending on it a lot,  get a system that you can add a large external  battery

 

Thanks for the advice @pasathai.

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

This is what PowerChute, the APC software, shows me.

My PC was off for most of the day.

 

Thanks for your reply @OneMoreFarang.

5 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

I buy APC UPSs. They are now fairly old models: "Back-UPS Pro 1500/1600".

I have them on my 2 TVs and 3 on my computers etc.

Thanks for your reply @JetsetBkk.

8 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

So then, why not just plug several light bulbs into the socket and see if it add up, approximately, to the resistance you have connected.  If you attach four 25-watt bulbs, then the meter should read approximately 100 watts, or measure AMPs, and then do the calculation.

 

Or, just hook up a large fan turned to max, and see if the power consumption is close to the rated power on the fan.

 

Or, maybe hook up a toaster.  Or, I would hook up three microwave ovens and then check the meter.

 

(My guess is that the meter on that plug is not accurate.  And accurate meter, like the FLUKE, will cost several hundred...USD.)

 

But, you do not need to so accurately measure your power use in order to select a suitable UPS.  You just need to approximately estimate what you intend to plug into the UPS.

 

 

Measuring a bulb of known wattage is exactly what I am going to do. Thanks for your help.

3 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Ok, so it's either it's the shop that's got it wrong, or your power monitor is telling porkie pies. Which one to trust.

 

The simplest way to establish which is to find out the current flow. Can your monitor display the voltage and the current drawn? If it does then it's a simple matter to calculate the power yourself. Volts x Amps (P=V x A) 

 

Let's know how how it goes.

I think the monitor can display voltage, current and power. That's a job for tomorrow as my degree of compos mentisness is currently disadvantaged by the number of Changs that I've swallowed so far today. Thanks for your assistance so far.

46 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

If it were I, then I would just buy a FLUKE, such as one of the following, and then I would test the multimeter that you purchased on Lazada.

What brand did you buy, and which type.

If you purchase one with the clamps, then you can test anything....including testing to see how many amps the power-strip is drawing.

 

 

I like the looks of a FLUKE...

 

CONCERNING UPS:  I have always used APC brand.  JIB has them for about 3500 Bt.

I  purchased two, about 9 years ago.  When the battery wears out, then I buy an aftermarket battery replacement and replace it myself for about Bt.800, or so.

 

Careful when replacing the battery, or it's easy to fry oneself. I wear rubber gloves. When you short a terminal, then....  Sparks will fly BIG TIME, so don't try this yourself unless....you are experienced, or so old that you are ready to go.

 

Note:  Why not just test your Lazada brand multimeter with some known resistance, such as a light bulb from a reputable manufacturer.  Or, it's better to buy the Fluke, maybe....

 

 

I haven't bought a multimeter.

This is what I bought. It plugs into the mains and my 4 gang power strip plugs into the universal socket shown in the image.

30 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Why do you ask, don't you trust it?

I was expecting more than 100 watts. I contacted the shop where I bought all the components for the pc and they said I would need to have a UPS capable of supplying more than 650 watts (the psu I chose to install was 650 watts). I didn't think that was correct, so I bought the power meter plug to do some investigating of my own.

I'm looking for advice/guidance/comments to determine the specification of a UPS to protect my (oldish) main desktop pc. It has an i5-7400 cpu, 1 M.2 SSD on the M/B, 1 sata3 SSD and 1 mechanical sata3 HDD. Intel UHD graphics on the cpu. O/S is Win 11 pro 64 bit. It has a 650 watt Thermaltake PSU. It connects to a 40inch Skyworth TV. I just bought a power meter plug from Lazada to see what power was being used. I plugged the PC , TV, external USB HDD and an 8 port USB hub into a 4-gang power strip, which was plugged into the mains via the power meter plug. I then played a video on the pc, started word, excel and outlook. The power meter showed that less than 100 watts was being used. Does this seem right? 

Killer

37 minutes ago, marin said:

Speaking of TGM sausages and bacon, just made this up for the wife and I. 

 

 

Looks pretty tasty to me

55 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

Smokey Mountain snags go half decent.

 

 

 

https://smokeymountainfoods.com/

All of the above look very appetising.

15 hours ago, impulse said:

16 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Intel NUC i5, 16 GB RAM, 500 SSD has served me admirally for 6 years, with no problems whatsoever, Windows 11 Pro. HDMI into my 55 inch Samsing telly. Perfect.

Music production is the main use using Cakewalk.

 

I ditto that ref: Mini PC's.  I've had great luck with mine, which is a Voyo brand.  In other words, an off brand.  Bought it for my GF's father who was living in a retirement home with minimal space for a PC.  He kept it in a drawer and plugged it into the HDMI of his big screen TV when he used it.  It worked great for him for years, and for us since he passed about a year ago.

 

But if money's tight, I'd look into a 2nd hand PC from one of the IT malls like Fortune Town, the old Pantip Plaza (is it still there?) and some in Chinatown.  I'm sure every city in Thailand has one... 

 

For less than half the price of a new one, with specs that more than match today's entry level PC's.  For example, an 8th generation I7 will match a 13th generation I3 for benchmark speed.  Then you just need to make sure it'll take the desired OS.  For example, my 8 year old Asus won't take Win11, but the more I read about Win11, the less sad that makes me.  It's still plenty fast and very stable.

 

Caveat: Don't go too old lest you end up with serial ports and old timey video instead of HDMI.  Unless, like me, you have a real old printer or plotter that needs a serial or parallel port.  In my case, a cutting plotter.

I'm also a fan of mini-pcs. I bought a low spec intel NUC (Celeron)  and upgraded the Ram to 16GB the M2 SSD to 512GB from 256GB. It came with Win 11 Pro pre-installed, which I removed and put Ubuntu on instead. The reason being is that QBittorrent (the main application) runs much better under Ubuntu than Windows IMHO. It's plugged into my main TV. I use it to find & download & play media, as well as general web browsing and music. It works very well. If my main pc (self assembled) ever dies I will have no hesitation in buying another NUC with a higher spec than my existing NUC to replace it. 

Masters of the Air complete season 1 is now available on TGx. It's already been mentioned on this forum.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2640044/

Zoo

Since changing browser from Brave to Iron browser, I no longer get the error. Mods, please close this topic.

Isosceles

Earlier in the week, I watched season 1 of Hit & Miss. It was good and worth a look IMHO. I got it from TheRARBG.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2232345/