Hacksawbob

Acer reckon the motherboard has gone... time for out of warranty repair actually £55 for courier and assessment isn't too bad.

Hi I have an Acer P7280 It had a bulb replaced in October after the unit was turning off after a short time. the problem re-occurred, Unusual we thought after such a short time but we have purchased a replacement bulb and fitted. The projector gives 5 X 2 double beeps, shows a blue power light but no fans or light I have taken a look here but I cant find anything relevant (there is no sliding cover) ftp://213.147.98.168/Servisne_upute/Acer/P7270i_P7280%20Refresh%20V3.0(DDP%203020-USB,%2036.89K01G001)Service%20Manual.pdf Any ideas where to go with this?

Hi thanks for your post Alis I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it. We are now investigating a standard 55" smart LED TV possibly with a 5 year warranty and see how we get on. We are going to run this with an ipad and apple TV to have "remote touch" rather than bringing the pupil to the device we'll take the device to the pupil. The whole package would come in at well under £1500 on the wall. Also looking forward to trailing a chromecast with a Chromebook once it is released in the UK.

Hi, interestingly I cant see this option for this either, but in the meantime I would add education city as a startup tab ( Device management Chrome management User Settings Pages to Load on Startup . Have you contacted Google support? I have found it to be very good.

I am researching Chromebooks for use in our 6th form pupils (with the management add on from Google) For pupils going out into the world of work and college I can see it being a positive benefit that they start their careers with all their documents (CV's etc) and a knowledge of how the cloud based system works to make their transition as seamless as possible. Has anyone looked at them and found any pitfalls that i might be missing? Anyone using them and can feedback on their use in education?

I stumbled across this while investigating running Xibo on a Rasberry pi. here Xibo don't seem to be targeting this platform unfortunately. Cubieboard seems a bit more likely candidate as a small format display driver with enough grunt to do the job. Does anyone have one they can do some testing on? node-screen | Free software downloads at SourceForge.net

We are at the other end of an install from jigsaw24, lectern, lights and sound. For the lights we have two chauvet qspot 560 moveable head lights. We have the hall as a multi use space so we had to mount them high and permanent, We also use the hall in two configurations portrait and landscape as it were, so we needed to be able to change the lights around to account for this. There was no backstage area either so all in all they seemed like the best bet. They are OK, quite a tight beam so not ideal as a main flood light source, in daylight (we have no blackout curtains just pale blinds) they add a slight accent to people at the front of the hall. In an evening performance the were OK for a performance but as they were overhead they tend to create shadow over a persons face, we had to supplement with 4 cheap T bar mounted LED par cans although they tend to give off a weak purple light when red green and blue were supposed to give white. they also give out quite a bit of fan noise which can be off putting but you get use to it and it is not so noticeable in a hall full of people. We are running the lighting control from show express software via a USB/DMX dongle and then wireless Chauvet Dfi up to the lights. We had a faulty dfi unit initially so we had loads of issue but once we got the replacement everything seems to be working OK (be warned the chauvet USB dongle is supposed to be USB3 compatible but experience showed otherwise.) Ideally we will add to this setup in the future but its OK for now, we also used the lights for the school disco which was quite cool, gobos colour etc on an auto setting. I am not a great believer in radio mikes for schools, I have worked on a show in the west end where all the cast had them, and basically every 9 volt battery was changed daily for a new one at £5 a pop! unless you have someone who knows how to use them I'd stear clear, you can get scratchy noises from movement, drop outs from failing batteries, interferance and there are only usually enough for the main cast to wear one, ideally you would have a dedicated sound engineer to bring each mic on when the wearer comes on stage and turn off when they leave. We stuck with good 'ol SM57 on a stand with a cable. Cast would deliver there lines without and then come up to the mic to sing. we looked at various shotgun mics retracting mics etc but decided against them in the end to keep it simple. I do have a couple of audio technica choir mics Audio-Technica - Microphones, headphones, wireless microphone systems, noise-cancelling headphones & more : Choir which I have used for picking up from overhead in a primary school and they work pretty well for a nativity when used in addition to a mics on stands. Bit of a ramble there let me know if you want more info.

Hi I have been playing MC with my daughter for the last couple of months and really getting into it myself (Just managed to craft my first brewing stand last night!) . The obvious issue with an immersive world is that it removes you from "reality". Real world time suddenly seems not to matter any more and for people like me who are afflicted by an active imagination can get totally involved in a game and every thing else becomes secondary. MC requires a LOT of time to be rewarding when played in its vanilla format. I am sure they have their own creeper filled worlds at home which they disappear into of an evening, but I want to try something a bit different. I am going to do an introduction to programming/circuits with the use of redstone levers comparitors etc this allows the use of logic gates (AND NOT etc) . The idea came about when my daughter was learning how to use redstone and following some youtube video on how to automatically harvest with pistons and water while in creative mode. I had a lightbulb moment. So I asked her to create a "quiz chamber" for a multiplication that she found hard to remember 7X8=. Initially I though this would just help reinforce the answer so she wouldn't forget it. We set up a one way door with all sorts of "dare you enter the quiz chamber" signs outside. then on the wall we put the question with 3 answers and three levers. The correct one opened the door at the far end and gave you a prize (chest with gold block) the other two levers initially just filled the chamber with water... then we changed it so the incorrect answer flushed you down to the end of the world to your certain doom! The problem solving involved in setting this up testing, altering testing again to get it just right was every bit as challenging as writing a software program or programming an arduino. We changed the walls from cobble stone to bedrock so you couldn't dig your way out, I kept finding "bugs" in her design then she would redesign to get around it. Later we added additional chambers that each had a different form of "certain doom" for the wrong answer ie lava . So I went in trying to teach one thing and we ended up learning something far more valuable! I am going to be trialing this with some year 6 in the next couple of weeks to see how we get on. I have only got half an hour during lunch but it's saved so they can come back to it the following week. I have a ultraflat world with no mobs or nether so there are no "distractions" I am going to run it as a domain minecraft user account which can be disabled when not required. there is a MinecraftEdu :: Resources version which if it works out I may look into.

Hi Michael. Thanks for that. I have changed the machine name during the setup and the SID is reset by syprep generalise. Any ideas why I have a lingering machine name in the GPresult?

I am having a hell of a time trying to eliminate a group policy failure after image deployment. Built machine win7 64 bit and installed software. cloned with clonezilla and deployed to the other machines (no sysprep) added to domain and activated all seemed to be OK apart from the lack of printers being deployed so I did a gpresult and received Also i noticed that the computer name at the top of the gpresult HTML file was the name of the machine that was imaged not the new machine name. errors in Event viewer: So I put this down to some SID clone issue and ran sysprep with oobe and generalise options. Removed the machine name from AD. Rebooted and added back to domain then activated windows. I compared the machines SID with PSgetsid before and after sysprep to confirm the SID had changed. I still get this access denied error in gpresult and the machine name STILL shows the master image machine name at the top of gpresult . End of tether reached! Oddly the machines work quite well despite this issue and apart from the printers not being deployed you wouldn't know about it! But I really need to resolve this as I'm sure it will cause problems at some point in the future. Please anything further i could try to resolve this?

The remote flash triggers work off the old school principle of coining two contacts together. They take their signal from the hot shoe contacts and relay to a second receiver which does the same thing on the flash contacts. Although I'm not familiar with that particular model that is usually the way they work.

Hi it's a difficult subject you have chosen, and as you are finding getting the action caught is difficult. Low light photography and action just don't mix, at least with your setup. As jinnantonix says adding some off camera flash is the way to go and the manual adjustment of old manual flashes is much easier than messing with menus on the modern flashes. As for mounting the flash this is where you need to be creative. an old boot will hold a flash in position nicely! You could defininitley get set up for around £100. It might be worth thinking about an old manual focus lens with an adapter, there are a stack of cheap 50mm f1.8 for penny's. take a look on mflenses.com for more info. The trick then is to set a smaller aperture with predefined focus point and make the action come to you! Throw the ball or frisbee in the same spot and reward the dogs when they do it right! It can also be interesting to introduce some movement with the flash with a slower shutter and moving the camera, google for drag flash, and some gels to the flash for different colors, that sort of thing. You will have a low hit rate to begin with, so try experimenting on static subjects as well. Also try altering the balance of ambient light to flash by varying the aperture and leaving everything else the same, flash one side and sunlight the other can be quite dramatic! You won't be taking masterpieces straight off but stick with it it can be really rewarding. Looking at you images, I would also suggest changing your angle, the better ones there are when you were on eye level and close up, The portrait is a lovely shot. Taking pictures from your standard standing position gets very few decent shots IMHO.

Personally I would use one of the push type snapshot up-loaders that sends a snapshot to a website every 10 seconds, surely good enough for outside viewing? Now you just need some birds in the nest!

Dare I mention windows media encoder? I run it on an old Xp box and it's dead simple to setup for live audio or video streaming, webcams as an input are supported as well. Users just need a user to click a created m3u shortcut which starts media player and bingo! A delightfully simple to use, powerful and free Microsoft product! (had to happen sooner or later!) How you get that stream onto your signage is another matter, but if it supports WMV/ media player that should not be a problem.

Just an update for those interested. I managed to install the digital river Downloaded X64 disk used a product key from another WIN7 PRO machine to get it installed, Then added my software. Followed the none sysprep option here (it was going on same hardware anyway) http://answersthatwork.com/Download_Area/ATW_Library/Windows_7/Win7__2-How_to_SYSPREP_Create_a_standard_image_of_a_Windows_7_setup.PDF . I am not sure if I try to use this image past the grace period date whether it would still work though my machine had "3 days to activate" in the properties. Took my image with clonezilla, rolled it out to the new machines and then went trhrough the activation process on the phone. The fist few went through OK, then on the 4th one the phone activation failed. I tried again and second time I was put through to an MS operator who activated it for me once I said I was exrecising the down grade rights. I am guessing because they all have the same product key the automated system is throwing a wobbley. I was able to activate several machine with the same operator one after the other so its a good idea to have the machine all at the same activation stage ready to read out the codes.

Thanks. The problem we have is that some somftware doesn't work. I cant get google Earth working, and Uniservity Life doesn't work very well with IE10 (when editing) But the main issue is that half the suite is WIN7 and the other half is Win8. When the school purchased the machines from the LA the school insisted that the machines would be touch screen (to match the existing win7 machines) and the LA informed us them that DELL would only supply touch screens with WIN8 at the time. They have installed some software that makes WIN8 look like WIN7 but it's quite easy for it to go back to the WIN8 interface by accident. In a primary setting it is very difficult to explain that half the class perform a task one way if your on this machine and another way for a different machine. It's hard enough as it is. The general feeling is that we would rather have them all on the same OS for a consistent learning environment. The LA will do the downgrade... at a cost. So I have imaged the WIN8 disk and will attempt a downgrade today. If it all goes pear shaped I will hopefully be able to restore back to what is there now.

Thanks I'll take a look at that, From my discussion with microsoft they implied that unless I have the correct Dell installation media for my system it may not work as the product key is not available as it was in the past I am relying on the Disk picking up the key from the hardware. More specifically If I had a retail version installed I needed a retail disk, If it was a volume licence I need a Volume licence disk, but a 3rd way was the dell recovery disk for my system with Win7 rather than Win 8 Which is what I am trying to get hold of . The Ars Technica site mentions this "System Locked Pre-installation" BIOS based product key with windows phone activation. so fingers crossed!

Hi Anyone managed to downgrade a Dell to win7? I have the rights to do it just not the media. Microsoft pointed me in the direction of Dell as the OS was purchased with the desktop. The machine was purchased from a 3rd party who want paying to do the downgrade. From what I understand the product key is hard coded into the motherboard and as the system is approved for 8 or 7. All I need is that Dell reinstallation media and all will be well for a clean install. Apparantly its easier to acquire if you are in the US. (typical!) Any ideas where I can get hold of this?

Hi We are looking to downgrade some of these to Win 7. I see you can purchase them with win7 preinstalled so I am guessing that there would be no issue with the touch screen functionality?

Hi Sorry I'm a bit late to this. I created 3 suites of ITX motherboards (many moons ago) using the sub desk space as the case, Hinged panel panel in knee area, kitchen worktop on top) on the whole it worked quite well. We tried the same thing housing standard desktops but the heat build up was too much, we needed to add two external extractor fans (ventaxia) to shift air through the sub desk space.

One of the schools I am working at ordered one of these about six months ago. It was bought through an Apple reseller along with a number of Ipads (15). The cost of the device was not cheap! So lets see what you get for your money. There are 16 slots for ipads and one larger slot for a laptop, 16 short charge/synch cables, an internal 240V socket for the laptop charger and an external 240V supply socket. The external case appears to be made from extremely tough ABS type moulded plastic. There are numerous strengthening ridges around the outside and areas of potential damage like the corners have additional material to strengthen them further. Four sturdy clasps lock the lid onto the body and the area of contact between the two halves is made with a rubber seal which sits within a female channel on the lid. This interlocks with a small ridge on the lower rim that will provide additional rigidity to the whole case when closed. There are three handles with metal pins and one retractible handle for 'tow along' use when using the integrated wheels. I would say that the case would certainly be shower proof if you were caught in the rain between buildings, and I suspect it would withstand more. Everything about the outside of the case is extremely well designed and manufactured. On the inside of the lid there is a foam covering presumably to stop the Ipads moving around excessively if the case were to roll onto its top or fall downstairs. The hinge is made to the same design as the handles with metal pins running within the abs enclosures. The lid will only open just past ninety degrees, even with a sturdy hinge this could be a weakness should any pressure be put on the lid beyond its maximum travel. The slots are made from a sheet of perspex like material with stacked layers of foam below . Initially we could not fit the ipads into the slots with the cases on (STM Skinny) so we had to return the unit via our supplier to have the larger facia installed. It took about a month to turn this around even though the company are only 5 miles away. With out cases the screens would constantly be in contact with the perspex surround and would probably not be good for them long term. The case cannot be closed whilst connected to 240V or USB, as there is no cut away to allow for wires to pass through the case. I was told that in order to get "Apple Approval" this is one of the stipulations to prevent heat build up apparently. It's annoying that you cant charge the unit with the lid closed, it means you cant really leave the case unattended while it charges or keep it within a secure room. The electronics below the power area are vented by two small fan ducts when on 240V power. When plugged in the Ipad2s report "not charging" as they presumably are detecting insufficient power. This is well documented on the web for none apple chargers, the good news is that it actually is charging, but I suspect slower than if the device was plugged straight into a mains adaptor. I noted approximately a 5% gain on one Ipad during an hour (all the other devices were at %100). I'll have to compare this to a mains charge some time. But It means that you will need to leave your case lid open for longer than you would expect. The cables that plug in to the ipad are about 20CM long, this is just enough to remove the ipad from its slot whilst still plugged in, but it is very easy to dislodge so don't attempt it while syncing! These cables are the device's Achilles heal, they are easily trapped in the closure system mentioned above. Cables near to the hinge side have been caught more than once leaving a dent in the cable. Easy enough to keep an eye one if you are aware, but hinge cover would definitely be an idea to improve this design. The charge cables are easily knocked out if moving ipads around so you need to keep checking they are seated correctly. Also it is difficult to spot which way around the cable should be I may mark one side of them so you can see at a glance which way to plug it in. As for syncing the Insync behaves as though it were a powered USB Hub, which it basically is. When you plug the devices in they apear one after the other in Itunes on the IMac (I have not tried this on a Windows Machine it might not work like this, if at all). In Itunes you have all the functionality that you would with one device. you can update IOS, take and restore backup and synchronise applications. I choose not to sync photos, I am attempting to do that via dropbox to a windows server but that's another story! So 10 out of 10 for ruggedness, but the internal design could be improved. Electrically you might be better off with an extension lead and splitters, although less tidy it would be a lot cheaper! I understand that OSX 10.7 Lion allows syncing over wifi. I haven't tried this yet, but it may be an option rather than plugging in the USB.

Sorry I haven't been back to this for a while. Thanks for all your thoughts. I will try and sort it next time I see him.

Hi I'm just trying to help my brother out who works in the NHS. He has an old piece of equipment that runs on NT and needs a colour printer adding to it. I suggested a network or parallel printer but he would need to buy it new. Is there such a thing? I seem to remember using a HP 4L generic driver on my old servers to get printers working in the past. Is it still the case that this driver would work on newer printers? Any other suggestions? (The machine is running some proprietary hardware that cant be transferred to a newer OS and a replacement would cost around 25K!)

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I dont like wall plates, they introduce signal loss and are largely unnecessary if the the cable management is handled correctly. I would get a long enough cable and run it directly through the trunking.