What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Floatylight]

Shame this nice young man has decided to give up on his indoor gardening hobby.. seems in a rush to sell his equipment.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/profile/100004059653632/?ref=permalink&tab=listings

[garbaldy]

Today's grin is I'm down in Sussex but hasn't cost me this time and I'm getting paid to drive this and eat.

 

[Remspoor]

On 2/19/2023 at 6:41 PM, Spurious said:

 

https://twitter.com/Sandford_Police/status/1627237991474253825?s=20

 

On 2/19/2023 at 7:26 PM, richardmorris said:

How can you miss a moving train? Or more to the point, not miss.

Miss spotting a train, miss spotting a tram.

 

[RoverFolkUs]

Erm....

😂😂😂

[jmsguzzi]

On 2/18/2023 at 12:17 PM, horriblemercedes said:

I was just looking at a house to buy on Rightmove. Decided to check it out on Google Streetview

 

There was a Nissan QX on the driveway

This one?

[cobblers]

[Markeh]

Work's been shit for the past few months, one factor of which has been disagreements/lack of support from our manager.

He got sacked today. Short term grump while we scramble to cover what he was doing, but long term grin I think.

[grogee]

Recalling a conversation with the young lady at my favoured garage from the weekend. Annabel is great, keeps her dad and brother in line. Anyway she's fairly car literate and we were talking about the fuel system in Mrs Grogee's Rennow. I was describing the fuel bleed bulb and she said, "Yeah you squeeze it until it goes hard..."

There was a brief moment where I thought I'd pick her up on it, but Master Grogee was there, so I let it pass. He hee!

[LightBulbFun]

On 22/02/2023 at 08:27, Floatylight said:

Shame this nice young man has decided to give up on his indoor gardening hobby.. seems in a rush to sell his equipment.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/profile/100004059653632/?ref=permalink&tab=listings

Hah amusingly I took delivery of these 2 items the other day and yesterday, and was testing the ballast today with a couple lamps from my collection

the ballast is what I really bidding for, its designed for driving "400V 3 phase" lamps off 240V and its electronic so I thought id grab to mess with (most US spec 1000W Discharge lamps are of this high voltage type so can be tricky to run in the UK, although I already have a couple magnetic ballasts for them I thought an electronic one would be fun to mess with)

and since he also had some bulbs 3 for 15 would be rude not too, and they are cheap Chinese knock offs of this Philips type so I thought for 15 quid would be interest to get a few to study/mess with

http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec Sheets/D SHP Philips SONTD GreenPower 1000.htm

but it feels proper dirty buying anything with "Hydroponics" in the title, its the lighting collectors version of "its not what it looks like!" as you get spotted with an incognito browser window open or such LOL

 

ballast works well tho, here it is running a couple pre-existing lamps in my collection, it runs the lamps at very high frequency 100-125kHz means i can photograph them without 50Hz scan lines which is handy, tho obviously Ill always prefer nice robust magnetic ballasts  

if you stick a shiny on both sides CD in-front of the camera it acts as a poor mans ND filter and you can get some nice close up arc shots

note how the arc is thicker at the top and thin at the bottom due to convection currents in the arc tube caused by gravity  

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

400V 3 phase" lamps off 240V

Can you enlighten(!) me there please guv'nor - am familiar with 3-phase motors, but why would you need to have a lamp run on 3 phases rather than just a 240v lamp on one of the them?

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Can you enlighten(!) me there please guv'nor - am familiar with 3-phase motors, but why would you need to have a lamp run on 3 phases rather than just a 240v lamp on one of the them?

basically the fundamentals of it all dictate that a total lamp system is most efficient when the lamp arc voltage (that is the actual voltage drop across the lamp itself) is half of that of the voltage driving it

so on 240V mains you want a lamp that runs at about 100-140V or there abouts for maximum system efficiency stability and total lamp life, however there is also a sweet spot in the drive current of a given lamp power rating, too low or too high can affect system efficiency  

for example the Metal halide lamp in my picture above is a typical American Sodium Scandium iodide (Na-Sc) type 1000W and itself runs at 265V 4.2A

and has a cumulated electrode voltage drop of 11.5V so that is 11.5V*4.2A so theres an electrode loss of 48.3W, now if this lamp was designed to run on 240V mains it would run at 130V 8A and thus you do the maths 11.5V*8A=92W of losses suddenly you can see how that would impact lamp efficiency, and a higher voltage lower current means less losses in the ballast driving it

so when it came to developing these high power lamps, especially such that they would be used in mainly industrial/large scale applications many where developed to just between phases for maximum efficiency as it let them boost the arc voltage and lower the drive current

and thats what I mean by 3 phases the lamp does not actually run on all 3 phases just between 2 of them to get 415V ) so hopefully that clarifies what I mean by that and explains to you why you would want to have a lamp run between phases

 

to  further expand on this, while this is especially true of the 2000W Mercury/Metal halide size* 

however 1000W lamps tends to be right on the cusp of this point, so many 1000W European lamps are of the 100V-130V for 240V mains design but there also plenty of between phases lamps as well! 

for example here is my 1000W Osram MBF/U Mercury lamp for running on 220V/250V mains, this runs at 145V 7.5A-7.75A

and heres my 1000W Osram MBF/U for 400V/450V mains, this runs at 300V 3.3A

note the different length neck used to differentiate them (the Short High voltage lamp was the first 1Kw Mercury lamp introduced in the UK and was followed later by the low voltage lamp with a long neck to differentiate it) and again the high voltage lamp is a little bit more efficient outputting 58000 lumens vs 54000 lumens for the low voltage lamp (thats 58 lumens per watt vs 54 lumens per watt)

*although there are do exist low voltage 2Kw lamps simply for where between phases is not available and also because the more compact arc tube of these lamps can allow for better optical control of the light emitted from them

as to make a high voltage lamp often times (but not always) you need to physically have a longer arc tube to increase the arc length thus the voltage drop of said arc, this can be quite easily seen in this comparison photo I have taken of a European 1000W HPS lamp compared to a US 1000W HPS lamp (the former runs at 110V 10.3A and the later runs at 250V 4.7A, note the shorter and thicker arc tube of the "low voltage" European lamp compared to the long and slender arc tube of the US "high voltage" lamp

however I mention US lamps specifically in my initial  post above yours because in the US the mains voltage is 120V in a lot of cases and this is simply just too low to do anything really with, so their ballasts are often of an autotransformer type, that is a they contain a transformer to boost the mains voltage from 120V to say 240V and ballast the lamp at the same time, now this makes for bulky lossy ballasts which is why for example, we in Europe/UK do bother with separate "low voltage" and "high voltage" lamps, since we could make an autotransformer ballast (and in-fact that has been done here and there) to drive a high voltage lamp, but the losses of the ballast often negate the efficiency gains

anyways since in the US they where having to step the voltage up anyways, they designed their high wattage lamps right the get go pretty much to be high voltage lamps at the maximum efficiency point so from about 700W and upwards all their Mercury Metal halide and Sodium lamps are of a high voltage 250V-265V arc voltage design and are thus are very tricky for a collector in the UK to run, because to run here in the UK you either need 400V mains which most people dont have at home! and a suitable choke ballast on top of that,,or a rare auto-transformer ballast that does all that in one

so thats why you would "need" 3 Phase, or more specifically 400V-450V mains/supply to run certain discharge lamps

unless you manage to get your hands on a rare auto-transformer ballast like I did  (these where designed specifically for running US 1000W metal halide lamps off 240V mains)

and are literally a 240V-450V autotransformer then 450V 1000W Metal halide choke all in one big old case! the fun thing is because of that, you can string multiple together, I am fortunate to have a couple of these which has let me light various high voltage lamps off my 240V mains supply  

like this 2000W Sports stadium lamp!  

and thats one of the reasons I picked up the electronic ballast to really see what it was all about because even tho I am fortunate enough to have some pretty special ballasts on hand not every collector

however as @Floatylight points out there are plenty of people out there giving up their "indoor gardening" hobby and as such you can often find the ballasts for quite cheap on eBay etc, thus if I could find one that would be good for high voltage lamps I could say to fellow collectors "yeah just keep an eye out for one of these" and give them a cheap workable solution to allow them to light their high voltage lamps

 

hopefully this all makes sense!  

 

also just for note, expermentally Tesla (the company what made the clock in @Yoss's Skoda) did make an actual 3 phase mercury lamp!

[cobblers]

Pulled out of my house this morning on the way to work at 6AM and followed an incredibly clean and shiny Mk1 Reliant Robin for a few miles.

It's easy to forget how dinky and nippy they are. A really lovely bit of design. Bloke really wasn't hanging about either. It cheered me right up on what would have been a shit morning.

[hairnet]

@Skizzer

video

stat

diolch

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

basically the fundamentals of it all dictate that a total lamp system is most efficient when the lamp arc voltage (that is the actual voltage drop across the lamp itself) is half of that of the voltage driving it

so on 240V mains you want a lamp that runs at about 100-140V or there abouts for maximum system efficiency stability and total lamp life, however there is also a sweet spot in the drive current of a given lamp power rating, too low or too high can affect system efficiency  

for example the Metal halide lamp in my picture above is a typical American Sodium Scandium iodide (Na-S type 1000W and itself runs at 265V 4.2A

and has a cumulated electrode voltage drop of 11.5V so that is 11.5V*4.2A so theres an electrode loss of 48.3W, now if this lamp was designed to run on 240V mains it would run at 130V 8A and thus you do the maths 11.5V*8A=92W of losses suddenly you can see how that would impact lamp efficiency, and a higher voltage lower current means less losses in the ballast driving it

so when it came to developing these high power lamps, especially such that they would be used in mainly industrial/large scale applications many where developed to just between phases for maximum efficiency as it let them boost the arc voltage and lower the drive current

and thats what I mean by 3 phases the lamp does not actually run on all 3 phases just between 2 of them to get 415V ) so hopefully that clarifies what I mean by that and explains to you why you would want to have a lamp run between phases

 

to  further expand on this, while this is especially true of the 2000W Mercury/Metal halide size* 

however 1000W lamps tends to be right on the cusp of this point, so many 1000W European lamps are of the 100V-130V for 240V mains design but there also plenty of between phases lamps as well! 

for example here is 1000W Osram MBF/U Mercury lamp for running on 220V/250V mains, this runs at 145V 7.5A-7.75A

and heres a 1000W Osram MBF/U for 400V/450V mains, this runs at 300V 3.3A

note the different length neck used to differentiate them (the Short High voltage lamp was the first 1Kw Mercury lamp introduced in the UK and was followed later by the low voltage lamp with a long neck to differentiate it) and again the high voltage lamp is a little bit more efficient outputting 58000 lumens vs 54000 lumens for the low voltage lamp (thats 58 lumens per watt vs 54 lumens per watt)

*although there are do exist low voltage 2Kw lamps simply for where between phases is not available and also because the more compact arc tube of these lamps can allow for better optical control of the light emitted from them

as to make a high voltage lamp often times (but not always) you need to physically have a longer arc tube to increase the arc length thus the voltage drop of said arc, this can be quite easily seen in this comparison photo I have taken of a European 1000W HPS lamp compared to a US 1000W HPS lamp (the former runs at 110V 10.3A and the later runs at 250V 4.7A, note the shorter and thicker arc tube of the "low voltage" European lamp compared to the long and slender arc tube of the US "high voltage" lamp

however I mention US lamps specifically in my initial  post above yours because in the US the mains voltage is 120V in a lot of cases and this is simply just too low to do anything really with, so their ballasts are often of an autotransformer type, that is a they contain a transformer to boost the mains voltage from 120V to say 240V and ballast the lamp at the same time, now this makes for bulky lossy ballasts which is why for example, we in Europe/UK do bother with separate "low voltage" and "high voltage" lamps, since we could make an autotransformer ballast (and in-fact that has been done here and there) to drive a high voltage lamp, but the losses of the ballast often negate the efficiency gains

anyways since in the US they where having to step the voltage up anyways, they designed their high wattage lamps right the get go pretty much to be high voltage lamps at the maximum efficiency point so from about 700W and upwards all their Mercury Metal halide and Sodium lamps are of a high voltage 250V-265V arc voltage design and are thus are very tricky for a collector in the UK to run, because to run here in the UK you either need 400V mains which most people dont have at home! and a suitable choke ballast on top of that,,or a rare auto-transformer ballast that does all that in one

so thats why you would "need" 3 Phase, or more specifically 400V-450V mains/supply to run certain discharge lamps

unless you manage to get your hands on a rare auto-transformer ballast like I did  (these where designed specifically for running US 1000W metal halide lamps off 240V mains)

and are literally a 240V-450V autotransformer then 450V 1000W Metal halide choke all in one big old case! the fun thing is because of that, you can string multiple together, I am fortunate to have a couple of these which has let me light various high voltage lamps off my 240V mains supply  

like this 2000W Sports stadium lamp!  

and thats one of the reasons I picked up the electronic ballast to really see what it was all about because even tho I am fortunate enough to have some pretty special ballasts on hand not every collector

however as @Floatylight points out there are plenty of people out there giving up their "indoor gardening" hobby and as such you can often find the ballasts for quite cheap on eBay etc, thus if I could find one that would be good for high voltage lamps I could say to fellow collectors "yeah just keep an eye out for one of these" and give them a cheap workable solution to allow them to light their high voltage lamps

 

hopefully this all makes sense!  

 

also just for note, expermentally Tesla (the company what made the clock in @Yoss's Skoda) did make an actual 3 phase mercury lamp!

Thank you. 🙇‍♂️

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

but it feels proper dirty buying anything with "Hydroponics" in the title, its the lighting collectors version of "its not what it looks like!" as you get spotted with an incognito browser window open or such LOL

If I remember correctly we already had an "it's not what it looks like" discussion in relation to your lightbulb collection on one of the Zoom calls.

[Wack]

On 2/22/2023 at 10:20 PM, RoverFolkUs said:

Erm....

😂😂😂

I was at a car boot sale last summer, some travellers were chancing their arm trying to sell a load of castrol oil in 4l cans, none of the caps were sealed 

 

[cobblers]

5 hours ago, Wack said:

I was at a car boot sale last summer, some travellers were chancing their arm trying to sell a load of castrol oil in 4l cans, none of the caps were sealed 

 

Tale as old as time, dodgy Mark who I used to buy weed off when I was 18 always had top spec oil in his orion, because he'd buy a bottle of magnatec from a supermarket, drill a hole in the bottom right on the moulding "sprue", let all the oil drain out and then refill it with water and using a soldering iron melt a bit of plastic back over the hole, he'd got it down to an art, you really couldn't tell even under very close inspection. Then he'd take it back saying he'd bought the wrong stuff and get his money back.

He had to stop going back to Morrisons at Rotherham because one of them started leaking water onto the customer services desk as he was waiting for someone to come over.

[w00dy]

A new shorter leisure battery, custom earth lead and some insulation later and my van is back to functional again. I finally broke open the Feu Orange to celebrate and mask the smell of cooked wiring.

[Rust Collector]

The ropey S210 I picked up recently has been returned to a driveable condition, and today is the first day that my partner is out using it. She's taken both dogs and our son out to the woods, and whilst seeing photos of them all out enjoying themselves makes me very happy the cherry on top is a text saying that she loves the car as it's so easy to drive and comfortable.

It's not often that taking a gamble pays off though, so I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment 🤣

[privatewire]

This has appeared on my youngest brother’s car, being a serial Renault molester he is much more relaxed about it than I’d be…..

[Wack]

On Facebook somebody ( a foreigner) asked the question, why do the British think they're so important, they're just an insignificant little island. 

I pointed out I was proud to be British, when the DEC launched the appeal for aid after the Turkish / Syrian earthquake the British people including £5m from the government donated £32.9m in 24 hours 

We also sent specialist teams the same day 

The total raised so far is £93m 

Insignificant Little Island my arse 

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, privatewire said:

This has appeared on my youngest brother’s car, being a serial Renault molester he is much more relaxed about it than I’d be…..

That message appeared on my old Scénic when I first bought it.  It cleared itself on the run home and didn't reappear after that.

[somewhatfoolish]

Engine Failure are really good, 'hazard' is excellent considering it's that difficult 2nd album.

[808 Estate]

[Mally]

Octopus inform me that I am £500 in credit.

They also say I can apply for up to £412 repayment direct to my bank.

I feel another holiday coming on.

[Wack]

Hmmm

[Wack]

Another collection, long day 5½ hours on 3 trains 

I'm not wearing enough clothing it's bastard freezing and the Costa shop is shut 

 

[privatewire]

12 hours ago, wuvvum said:

That message appeared on my old Scénic when I first bought it.  It cleared itself on the run home and didn't reappear after that.

Aye, his car is a Scenic as well, as you’ve probably noticed. It rattles like a bag of spanners when the light is on, but disappears above 60. He’s taking it on a 180 mile round trip tomorrow, which he claims will be “nae bother”

[Wack]

1 hour ago, Wack said:

Another collection, long day 5½ hours on 3 trains 

I'm not wearing enough clothing it's bastard freezing and the Costa shop is shut 

 

I think there's a Walter mitty on the train which is full of people heading for the rugby in Cardiff 

One that can't stop talking 

So far he used to be a professional footballer, has a PhD, his daughter is a Harley Street doctor, he's met and knows all the rugby players 

I'm expecting the train driver to come and ask him for advice in a bit 

[Wack]

8 minutes ago, Wack said:

I think there's a Walter mitty on the train which is full of people heading for the rugby in Cardiff 

One that can't stop talking 

So far he used to be a professional footballer, has a PhD, his daughter is a Harley Street doctor, he's met and knows all the rugby players 

I'm expecting the train driver to come and ask him for advice in a bit 

This is going to be a long trip, he's now been to Africa with David Beckham 

Met Terry butcher, we went in a tunnel so I missed if they were best mates 

Still got his bobble hat on