Chris_Cook

It looks like one of these. https://www.amazon.co.uk/PATCHBOX-PBXEXE-Setup-exe/dp/B0784R2HKK I've been tempted to make one in the past, but never bothered so far.

Have you got anything setup to stagger the update deployments? There are some settings in group policy for this.

If you put oil in it, don't do too much or else you might hydro-lock it. You are probably ok without for a relatively new bike. Maybe try it if it doesn't start. You might want some fresh fuel if it doesn't start, but its probably fine. I'd let it idle for a few minutes before riding it so that the oil gets round the engine. That's probably the main thing for the engine if its sat for more than a few days. Its worth giving it a good going over - tyres, brakes, lights etc. If you've got the manual, it might be worth going over the regular service items and checking they are all good. Otherwise, just go out and enjoy it. There's some nice weather at the moment.

GP and energizer are normally good. I've never really tested it though. Duracell if its from a proper shop - but I think there is too much temptation for people to fake these. I think the babysafe just means its a pain to remove from the packaging. Its probably more important to match the battery type (long life, lithium, alkaline etc) than the manufacturer. I'll stick to pro-cells (Duracell) for radio-mics out of habit.

Is step 10 (setting full control for Everyone) not a bit of a security risk? Or is this just on your development machine? What's to stop a student from modifying/adding to your scripts? I'm not a powershell expert, so please forgive me if I have missed something.

If you want to learn the diagnostics for this, then there are some great youtube channels: Scanner Danner, Schrödinger's box, and South main Auto repair. Other possibility's are blocked air intake/air filter, blocked exhaust/CAT, or fuel issues (blocked fuel filter, bad fuel pump).

Dumb question, but why do you need Gb ethernet on a UPS? Price is a bit much, but most of the compute power is going to be on that card, so its not just an ethernet interface. A lot of customers won't want it, so they can save some money. It also means other options can be put in in the future if they want a different kind of interface. Its also similar to what APC and others charge for a similar board. Creating circuit boards in relatively low volumes is always going to be more pricy than if they are mass produced as you have to spread the cost of design and testing across fewer purchases. The only other option is basing it on a raspberry pi, but the form factor doesn't lend itself to that, and the UPS / cards might have been designed before that.

If its an audio file, then there are a number of tools you can use, but they might be called different things in different audio editors. Audacity could help, Reaper and Adobe Audition are also good. I'd start with a parametric EQ, boost somewhere between 500 Hz and 1.5 KHz. Possibly a cut above 2.5 KHz if it sounds too harsh. Be careful not to over do the boost in case it goes into clipping. Then you could try a compressor to bring up the quieter bits. A multiband compressor might be better if there is one. Probably set quite a fast attack and release time. I quite like multiband compressors for this kind of thing. If there is sibilance, then a de-esser can help clear things up. If you get a chance to re-record them in the future, then make sure you use a good mic (preferably a dynamic one like an SM57 or SM58) and get it close as possible with a pop shield. This should improve the sound. Depending on your sound mixer/pre-amp, you might be able to apply some of the above suggestions as well. Its probably never going to sound great, but if you work in the 1-2 KHz frequencies, then you can improve the intelligibility of it at least. You might find however that you just end up boosting the background noise which there might not be much you can do about;

I do like my personal Framework laptop, but not sure I'd use it for students. The bezel is just held on with magnets, so will be pulled off frequently. As above the side modules would go as well, and at £10-20 each that's going to get expensive. They do take a bit of work to get out though, and would save you from port damage. I wasn't impressed with the recent data breach either. Otherwise its a great laptop for Staff.

Provided the cable to the reader is correct, or the acu is next to the door, then it should be fairly easy. I imagine if it's using the Paxton reader already, then it probably is. If the wire on the new reader is long enough, then I would tape the new to the old and pull it through. That way you don't have to worry about splicing cables together. The reader cable is fairly generous. There are some settings in net2. I think they are in the normal client rather than the server manager. On the reader tab under each door the reader needs to be on Paxton rather than wiegand. Again if it's already Paxton this is probably already done The other thing is registering cards, but I guess this is part of a bigger project. For the wiring. Ferrule crimps are good when wiring stranded wire into screw terminals. I also like using solder seal connectors when joining cables together. They can be hid in mini trunking and give some degree of waterproofing. Wagos are also excellent if you have the space in your junction box.

Most staff will probably do ok with a session on the basics. Personally I've found the Arbor documentation to be pretty good, and a number of things I understand much better now than I ever did with sims. Things like Census are much more streamlined on arbor, and the guide is much shorter. Where you will need to focus is on Exams, Behaviour, Attendance, Permissions, and parent/student communications, etc. These will require some development and setup to ensure they work the way your school wants them to. This will need to be fed back to staff so they understand how to log incidents etc. Much of this will be on-going over a period of time - Sims will have been tweaked and learned over a number of years so getting staff up to the same speed on the new system probably isn't going to happen overnight. You might also see ways the new system can work better/differently so its worth engaging with one of their experts and having an open mind/taking a list of things you always wished sims could do.

There's probably still a need to communicate issues with the buildings clearly to the LA or Trust. If they do a survey in the summer then they might not see the heating issues in the winter. That and having long term strategies in place. How long to you want to keep throwing money at buildings that really should be replaced? There are also varying levels of technical/maintenance debt between schools where things might not have been taken care of by previous staff/management.

Some other options - see if you can build a short extension on the side of the platform - like a wooden box but strong enough to stand on. Or what we have done in some rooms is rotate the room 90 degrees and put the screen/PC on the side wall. We then just use the podium for experiments. Doesn't work in all rooms though. Its probably worth mocking up the setup with a screen and PC before committing to cabling as the monitor on top of the PC can block the students viewing the screen and the teacher seeing the students. We've also had issues with the sink being too close to the PC.

I'll double check who we use, but I think PSA Parts has sorted us out before. Its still around £100 for the parts though depending on the time of year. Its a shame Lenovo only seam to sell parts to consumers via their website. I do like they publish the service manual though so you can see how to do the repairs. Parts availability for the Asus seems good. Again, I'll see who we use as a supplier, but we seem to have most parts in stock now, including screens, keyboards and casings.. I'm not sure on the actual usefulness of it, but touch screens seem to grab the kids attention more, so it does have benefits.

We have similar issues and run a 1:1 scheme. If you've got students who are not looking after the devices then they will do the same with the 1:1 devices as well. It really needs pastoral support to get to the bottom of the issues. Otherwise you can end up with students constantly without and then you still have to keep spares around for them to use in lessons - otherwise you can be seen as discriminating against them. 1:1 does have other benefits in terms of incorporating IT into more lessons, but you need to have a plan to deal with damages. It does give you a better idea of who is doing the damage, as you will constantly have to deal with there devices and those of the students who they sit next to. Its probably a relatively small number of students causing issues.

We have all three types and they do us well. I think lenovo are between versions of products and looked like they were moving to the more expensive 500e series. The only thing I didn't like on the CR1s is the screen pops out too easily at the top. But then it pops in quite easily without taking them apart. Asus were making a big point about repairability at the last Bett show. We get Max Cases for the lenovos and Asus devices. They offer a bit of protection against drops.

We've almost been exclusively APC. We've been recommended Reillo for our new build which look interesting. Not had enough time to fully review them and not tried them, but the documentation looks good. There are some Lithium units now, but I'm not sure if LiFePO4 is more specific.

I certainly wouldn't cheap out on TVs if you go that route. Stick to one of the higher end makes like LG, Samsung or Philips. We've had some of the cheaper ones fail quite quickly, but only one of the better brands failed. Large sheets of perspex arn't cheap (unless you have some Covid screens left over). They can also scratch easily. So worth factoring that in to your costs. You would also need to work out how to mount it in a way that doesn't cause the screen to overheat. I've seen some of our staff write on the TVs directly. I wasn't best pleased, but it does seem to work, and none are broken from this so far. Not something I'd ever recommend though. With Bett round the corner, its worth getting some of the staff who will use them to go and see the interactive screens in person. I think most manufacturers will do demos and bring screens along for free. Its also worth looking at licensing costs for things like Smart Notebook and Active Inspire as these normally need to be plugged into hardware to be used. I think it was the LX series of promethean I saw that had a lower cost. I've not seen them in person though, just on the AV Parts master website. This is really a decision to be made with your teachers. As above, the IT depts / SLT view of what's being used day to day might not be as complete as we think it is. Its all a big trade off between features and reliability and cost.

We've previously used Milestone Xprotect, but were put off by the licencing costs once you go over 48 cameras. If you've got the hardware, then this might be worth looking at. Its a really nice system as long as your server can keep up with the load.

We've been doing this for a number of years now. There is 3 main problems: + no commercial use warranty from most suppliers (Richer Sounds does do this for a cost) + Weaker screens - has only been a problem in a couple of rooms for us, but then we aren't as bad a school as some with behaviour. + No freeze function - this is the big one for our teachers as many struggle with extended desktop, as our rooms don't have the best layout without having dual screens on the teachers desktop. Its probably worth looking at the cheaper options from Promethean and other suppliers as this can bring the cost down quite a bit. Still not as cheap, but not as bad as it was a year or 2 ago.

I'd recommend looking at the NAS selector: https://www.synology.com/en-uk/support/nvr_selector We have about 90-100 cameras in each of our secondary schools, so have a pair of RS3621RPxs's in each. We use the built-in CMS to link the two and spread the cameras evenly between them. We also have a couple of Synology NAS boxes for other purposes that have lasted coming up to 9-10 years now.

Yes to comply with the current rules/insurance, but whether updates have been released and installed is really a different question to if the software is being analysed + tested and patches developed for any issues being discovered. Developers aren't always going to know about issues unless someone has told them. And they might not develop patches for issues they know about, and issues might not be made public. That's not aimed at Techsoft in particular, but it applies to all developers. And especially when looking at older software that isn't getting many updates. Something we need to start looking at as software purchasers is what technical expertise does a developer have (or is hiring in) with regard to cyber security. Its a specialism that not all developers are going to have.

Its low tech, but have you checked the side of the fibre cable on the back of the cab? It often has distance markers in meters written every meter. You may be able to subtract the smaller number from the larger to get the length. OTDR and TDR length testers are almost always going to have a large margin of error. You might also be able to hire a fluke tester if you only need it for a little bit.

Our Head of DT has found this today, but we've not looked into it yet: https://www.focuseducational.com/focus-2d-vector-graphics-designer/

A sandwich (age unknown) 100 Fluorescent tubes and starters (it looks like it took them a while to notice the fitting was broken - burn marks didn't give it away). Pass through connectors and keystones are the way forward. Most other panels these days are rubbish and break in use. Its twice the cost, but half the time. You can also use the outer cat6 cover to un-twist the pairs as well. Separate the last twist, then get the wall of the tube between the 2 wires and spin it in your fingers while siding it down each pair. Its also worth getting quality tools. CK do some good wire strippers, as do Knippex. The last lot of passthrough connectors I got of Amazon had some pretty good wire strippers as well. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solsop-Through-Ethernet-Crimper-Connectors/dp/B0B519WGWK/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1KBNIN884FMK3&keywords=passthrough%2Brj45%2Bconnectors&qid=1702471976&sprefix=passthrou%2Caps%2C91&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1 I hear good things about the Knippex Ergo strip, but I've not used one yet. The other tools I've used from them have been top notch. https://www.amazon.co.uk/KNIPEX-16-95-01-ErgoStrip/dp/B01BPW2C6Q/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11Z3BW12W3ASH&keywords=knipex%2Bergostrip%2Bcat6&qid=1702472050&sprefix=knippex%2Bergostrip%2Bcat6%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-1&th=1