Jeremy Harris

Should do the job OK, same GPU, looks like it will run pretty much anything that runs on Android, all the right ports, etc. I'm curious as to whether, in addition to being just a way of viewing network CCTV cameras on a TV, one of these boxes could also form the basis of a CCTV DVR, with motion detection. Attaching a big USB HDD looks easy, and the pretty crude android app that came with the cameras allows motion detection and recording, so in theory one small TV box could do the lot, perhaps.

I used my old SRT ascenders as rope clutches with a pulley. They are fail-safe, capable of handling high loads (IIRC something like 400kg) and being able to be opened on one side makes them easy to fit to a rope. They are not only a useful safety device in this application, but they allow you to take a breather at any time when hauling. If you want to do it on the cheap (but still be safe) then learn how to tie a prusik knot and use that instead. Before I splashed out on ascenders and harness, I used to SRT with home made webbing loops and prusik knots. My first trip out of Lancaster Pot was done like this, much to the amusement of the local guys, who had every bit of flash SRT kit going. Not much call for SRT kit in South Wales, as most of the caves are gently sloping, with very few potholes as such. Here's a link to how to tie a Prusik knot: http://www.animatedknots.com/prusik/ and here's a link to a full description of how the knot is used as a rope clutch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prusik

Different scenario, in that it was only a 'phone cable, but our long tale of woe from the Openreach main office meant that we had to have an "accidental" cable failure in order to get the job done. We'd already laid all the ducts, laid the new cable in the ducts and the DNO had taken down the power cable from the old pole, put up a new pole etc, so all we needed was for Openreach to come and take down the 'phone wire that was on the same old pole and connect the new underground cable we'd laid (that they had provided). The advice we were given was to let a digger "accidentally" break the overhead cable and then report it on the Openreach emergency repair number. Within about half an hour an Openreach van turned up, we showed them the problem, pointed to the new underground cable coiled up by the new pole and the guys grinned, named the local Openreach chap and said "This is one of ******'s jobs, isn't it?". Apparently this was a common trick to get a job moved up the priority list............. I'm not in any way suggesting that you do anything like this, but if it's an insulated cable, and if the bracket/eyebolt on the existing facia/soffit was to "come a bit loose", then I think you could do much the same, and get an emergency repair for an unsafe installation. Provided you're all set to go with getting the new uPVC on as soon as the guys have taken the cable down to replace the bracket, plus maybe slipping them a few quid to delay things for a short time whilst you fit the uPVC, then I think you could, perhaps, get this done for free. I did managed to get a hefty discount off the cost of moving the pole and putting the power underground, because the original incoming large overhead cable was buried inside the branch of a tree, that had grown around the cable. We'd taken the tree down, but left the bit of branch around the cable, as the tree guy wasn't happy about trying to get the cable out. A photo of this was enough to get the DNO to write off the cost of the new overhead cable, saving around £600.

Part of me wants to publicly name trades people that are incompetent, or that mislead and have poor customer service, primarily as a way of warning others about them. However, the more rational part of me reigns that in most of the time, and I just try hard to bite my tongue, and only warn people off privately. It does seem to be a significant problem, though, as can be seen by reading many of the threads here. I know people will tend to highlight badly done work, or problems with suppliers/trades people/builders etc, and perhaps be reluctant to praise those who do a competent job, but even so there seems to be a fair few here who have been on the receiving end of poor service, or downright shoddy and dangerous work. There aren't that many of us on this forum, and at a rough guess (I've not taken the time to try and gather data) I reckon maybe around 20% or more have experienced unacceptable work or service. Our build went pretty well, but this is the list of things that went wrong: 1. The brickie who was supposed to build the boundary wall on top of our retaining wall repeatedly failed to turn up, and after three missed start dates over a period of a month I had to sack him and get another chap in (who was brilliant). 2. The DNO kept delaying and delaying the work we had already paid for, to move a pole and lay a new underground cable. From the date I paid them to the date they eventually turned up to do the work was around 4 months. 3. Openreach were worse than the DNO, and in the end I only got them to do the work needed when I managed to find a number for the local engineer - their main office was a shambles. 4. The electrician who did our initial site supply installation left things in a dangerous condition, loose connections, a crossed line/neutral, no sleeving on earth wires, a wrongly terminated SWA cable, etc. 5. A labourer I employed on a day rate was permanently pissed. I found several empty half-bottles of vodka in the skip and eventually caught him red-handed, coming out of the site bog whilst slipping a bottle of vodka back in his pocket. He was off site in minutes. 6. Our window supplier were bloody appalling to deal with, and frankly couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. When the windows arrived they had got the order wrong and had to make a new window, delaying the build by a few weeks. The experience of all the above was one reason why I changed the way I'd planned to tackle the build and took over managing everything myself, with a lot of hands-on work. I felt it was the only way I could be reasonably sure that things would be right. To counter the above, I can say that we did have some really brilliant people on the job. The chaps that did the rendering, plaster boarding out and plastering were very good indeed, as were the electrician we used for first and second fix, the decorator and tiler and the joiner that fitted the doors and stairs. The chap that laid our drive and did all the landscaping work was also outstandingly good.

FWIW, I did all of our building control, Full Plans submission myself. There's nothing that demanding in there, it just requires knowledge of the key building regulations (mainly Part M, things like the compliance of the access route from the parking are into the house and to the entrance floor WC). If you want to see what's involved in a full plans submission then all the documents I put together can be downloaded from this blog entry here: http://www.mayfly.eu/2013/09/part-fifteen-the-site-is-finally-ready/

Anything between about £500 and £1000, depending on how far the surveyor has to travel and how easy it is to access the whole of the site, I would have thought.

Interesting that they quote from a company that seriously misled us, cost us a great deal of money by getting us to visit them under false pretences, is misusing material that is my copyright on its website, that is using false information about our build on its website (and that company had nothing to do with our build) and which refuses to take that information down, despite repeated requests from me over the past year or more.

That's my view, too. I've noticed with the RPi that when streaming video (using Raspbian, so with GPU hardware acceleration) then the CPU is barely doing more than feeding the Ethernet stream, and rarely works at more than around 10% of its capacity. I don't think that the main processor capability is the bottle neck with these things, it'll probably be the graphics processor (GPU). The low end Mali 450 GPU seems to be capable of a throughput of around 2.2 Gpixels/s, which is roughly equivalent to twenty 1080p video streams at 50fps ( 1080p at 50 fps = 50 x 1080 x 1920 = 103680000 pixels/s = 0.10368 Gpixels/s, if I've got the sums right).

Thanks @Declan52, I've ordered one and will give it a thorough test and report back.

Great news Declan, that's exactly what I was hoping would work! Which Android box did you use?

Sorry for the delay, I'm still trying to gather enough information to be able to try and pick something that will do this job relatively easily. I'm part way there, and I'm reasonably sure that a cheap "Android TV box" may well be able to do the job. The reasons that one of these may be a better bet are: - It's a ready-made small box, complete with power supply, Ethernet and HDMI connectivity - It already runs Android, so that reduces the amount of faffing around trying to get it to run properly - It should have reasonably good graphics performance, as these boxes are optimised for streaming HD TV. The question mark is really over how easy they are to modify, in terms of being able to load an app to control and view a network camera stream, how easy the interface is to operate via the supplied remote and whether or not the version of Android that is loaded into the ROM is up to the job, in that it will allow either access to the PlayStore to download the streaming app, or allow an app to be side loaded from an apk. If the stock Android ROM that's loaded isn't that great, I also want to see if these devices can be rooted and an alternative ROM loaded, like Cyanogenmod. I know that Cyanogenmod works fine with my HD CCTV network camera app, so if that can be loaded then there's no good reason why one of these boxes shouldn't be able to do the job OK. I'll have another look around tomorrow, and maybe later tonight, to see if I can find out if anyone else has tried to do this with one of these cheap Android boxes. If that fails, I'll just buy one to play with.

I'm really sorry to here this, but together with the story that's been slowly revealing itself over the past couple of weeks about the builder, I can't say that I'm surprised. Quite how builders like this stay in business I don't know. Out of interest, has the building inspector seen any of the wall structure yet? If it has been inspected, and these defects weren't picked up, then that would add to my growing concern that our system of ensuring that construction projects are built in compliance with the regulations (in this case primarily Part A) is seriously broken. If you want a hand, I could spare a week to help out, even if it's just moral support.

They do different versions, and some cover flush batten ends: http://www.kytun.com/p/slate-dry-verge-alu-t2-25mm-black-24m/c02nbl

That's the easy bit, you just create a self-cleaning overflow filter weir, that allows excess water to flow over the top of a grill and sweep the debris away. There will be lots of designs around on the web, but if you get stuck I can sketch up the system used at the caving club I used to belong to, that gets it's water supply from just such a system, that's then connected to a few hundred metres of large bore MDPE that runs down the mountain to the club house. In essence it's just like a hydro system, and there's no problem at all in just turning the water off at the end of the pipe when water isn't needed. Paul Camelli, up at the end of Raasay, has a similar setup running his hydro power system, and has documented what he's built pretty well on his blog - well worth a read: https://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/ (you'll need to search back a few years for his hydro stuff)

I think the advantages of the Stepoc hollow blocks, over the two layers of 215mm wide hollow blocks that we used, were that the Stepoc blocks didn't need mortar and looked a bit lighter to lift over the rebar. Our guys were sweating buckets lifting standard wide hollow blocks over rebar during some pretty warm weather. It was probably one of the worst bits of the job.

Two reasons, really. The first was that it's a lot easier to fix the uPVC to the extended counter battens that overlap the EPS (the uPVC is an inverted L shape, so caps off much of the end of the counter battens). The second was that the top 50mm of the 18mm thick uPVC is lapped under the cladding, giving the lower cladding board pretty much the same outward kick at the bottom as the rest of the boards.

One big problem is that the incompetent people around won't ever read a forum like this, or any other reputable source of information, as I doubt they are interested in doing a better job. In my experience, the only professional people who do bad work consistently are those who just don't give a damn; all they want is to get a job done, get paid and move on to the next job. Those who care about doing a good job frequent places like this, and other specialist forums, so that they can continue to learn, and share their knowledge with others to help them learn, too. By the same token, the best people are often those who don't advertise, and remain practically invisible to members of the public who are looking for a trades person, because they get all the work they can handle by recommendation and word of mouth.

The key thing is to look at where the real risks lie. There are undoubtedly lots of poor electrical installation around, but the incidence of deaths or injuries from them is pretty low. There are a lot more things that are likely to kill people than a bad wiring job, so the focus of those looking at enhancing safety regulation will always be on the highest risks. Gas systems have to be up there as being in that category, primarily because the consequences of a gas installation being faulty are usually a great deal more serious, like the house that blew up a fee days ago. The incidence of death from electrocution in the home UK is tiny, and the major risk is fire caused by an electrical fault. The majority of electrical fault fires seem to be appliances being misused, or objects too close to appliances that give off heat, rather than the installation. Electrical appliance faults are more common than installation faults, and although there doesn't seem to be any reliable statistics to separate out fires caused by appliance faults (like Grenfell Tower - caused by a fridge/freezer fire) from installation faults, it does seem that installation related faults only account for around 10% or less of death or injury from fires as a whole. Given that misuse of appliances is far more significant, followed by appliance faults, I can understand why there is not so much focus on purely installation-related accidents. Arguably, as primary installation standards improve, as they will as houses get rewired to newer standards, with better fault protection, then the potential for problems caused by bad DIY wiring downstream reduces, anyway.

I always use a meter, and check right at the CU first, checking the live side, then flicking the switch and checking the load side is dead. Finally, I check the end of the cable I'm working on is dead. Whilst I'd agree that some DIY work can be grim, it is worth remembering that DIY work by someone competent, but who no longer happens to hold a ticket, may well be fine. I'll hold my hand up to having done loads of DIY electrical work, from complete rewire jobs (before Part P came in) to allowable DIY work since the regs changed (and DIY electrical work is still permitted for some aspects of domestic electrical installations). It all comes down to competence and knowledge, and I think we have reduced the level of knowledge in recent years by changes in legislation. An example, when I was a small boy my mother (who was the practical person in our house) showed me how to wire a plug. To this day I still remember her drumming into me the "red on the right" rule, and why the green earth wire should always be left with slightly more slack inside the plug (so it would be the last wire to pull out under strain). This was long before the harmonisation of cable colours, and before we had BS1363 13A plugs, and still used the old round pin plugs. Even now, every time I wire a plug the old "red on the right" thing pops into my head. How many people today learn even the basics of something as simple as wiring a plug? Very few, I suspect, since the law changed to require every appliance in the UK to be sold with an approved plug already fitted. I'm not saying that this new law wasn't a good idea, it was, but an unintended consequence has been to dumb down the level of understanding of electricity and basic electrical safety knowledge by the population as a whole. Finally, just because I know full well that the above will raise a red flag about my personal views with one or two, I'm not advocating that everyone should DIY electrical work at all. Having a fear of undertaking electrical work, unless you are confident that you have the knowledge to do it safely is life preserving, and no one should think about even something as straightforward as fitting a plug, or changing a fuse, unless they fully understand what they are doing, and the consequences of them getting it wrong, let alone more complex work. There are a stack of semi-hidden gotchas waiting to cause a potential risk in even the simplest looking electrical installations, unless you understand everything about the job in hand.

That's loopy. Our last holiday was in this former windmill, that belongs to a flying friend, Vince Hallam. It's in the middle of a field, you can imagine what the access inside was like (space saver stairs to the living room at the top.....): In the past we've had holidays on yachts, a barge on the Caledonian canal, a former dovecot in the Lake District, a log cabin off a rough track in woodland alongside a lake in the Cotswolds and a few other places, none of which had disabled access.

[pedant mode] Nice to hear that you weren't electrocuted (killed by an electric shock), but just got a survivable electric shock.[/pedant mode] MCBs can stick on, as can RCBOs I've found (I had a DP RCBO fail like this), and I suspect any device like this can fail, given the pressure on manufacturers to reduce cost. Personally, I never trust any switch or circuit breaker, and routinely test to make sure a circuit really is dead. Having said that, I've taken risks from time to time, by just relying on a single pole switch/breaker to "isolate" a circuit, but, to be frank, I still tend to treat any single pole switched circuit as if it were live, unless I've tested it to be sure it's not. Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but over the years I've developed a healthy respect for electricity, having had a few near misses.

As this is an extension, you could avoid the need for building control drawings IF you can be satisfied that the builder will get the details right (and with SIPs the devil really is in fine detail, like making sure the design of the sole plate is free from thermal bridging, and that both skins of the SIPs panel are supported properly at the base). If you're happy that the builder can do things the right way, then go down the Building Notice route, which doesn't require detailed building control plans.

I agree, but with the proviso that self-builder and renovators are a pretty small part of the market, so many of the larger companies may well not be too bothered by what we have to say here. I'm sure some of the smaller companies that are more focussed on self-builders do read this forum, and I suspect they find the feedback they get from here useful.

Whilst looking around for a possible alternative solution to this problem, I've come across some cheap Android "TV boxes". They are probably aimed at running Kodi or similar, to view streaming TV, but underneath it looks like they are just a cased system, very like the Rock64, complete with Ethernet and HDMI ports, plus WiFi, that runs on Android. The basic ones seem to be around £30, complete with case, power supply and remote : http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_424949.html The big question is whether or not the Android version of IVMS would run on one or not. I can't see an obvious reason why it shouldn't, but the only way to find out might be to buy one and try it.

We had an break in years ago, in a house with an integral garage and a door leading from the utility room to the garage. The thieves got in through the back door whilst we were out and were trying to get into the garage when they were disturbed by a neighbour and ran off. The things I learned were that a standard back door fitted to a new house at that time (1993) was hopeless, I reckon it took them only a couple of minutes to force the door, and that the furniture on the fire door into the garage was equally hopeless - I reckon they would have got through that in a couple of minutes if they hadn't been disturbed. They didn't even look through the house at all, just went straight for the garage, even though there was no car in it at the time (not that they knew that). If it were me, then I'd go for the steel door and frame set, especially at that price, as long as it won't look too out of place when viewed from inside the house.