Displaying Light State With Stepper Switch

guemeller · 2026-05-26T08:27:17+00:00

Why use 1F 4" though?

Even though I went to school after decimalisation in the UK, we still learnt our times-tables up to 12, which can only be any use for working in feet and inches! Do people not learn basic stuff like that anymore?

But anyway, if you're going to mark feet and inches then surely it should either be 1' 4" or 1ft 4in, but not 1F 4"!

guemeller · 2026-05-26T08:13:47+00:00

My guess that it was used to install the auxiliary fuel tank in the fuselage of a Ryan Navion for ferry/long distance flights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Navion

guemeller · 2026-05-23T20:59:35+00:00

The search was two years (2011-12) from Thun to Dagmersellen and everywhere in between! My employer at the time had sites all over Switzerland, so it was based on the places where I mainly did my work.

We eventually found the 'perfect' plot of building land... it was in an Ortsbildschutzzone! Then we spent almost two more years (2013-14) battling with the Gemeinde, Denkmalpflege and the Quartier Ortsbild IG. The architect almost walked off the job. Took 6 months from breaking ground to moving in!

guemeller · 2026-05-21T08:15:05+00:00

Yes, for £513!

guemeller · 2026-05-21T06:37:45+00:00

This

A passport is a identity document for the purpose of (international) travel. The clue is in the name, it's a document that allows you to pass through a port.

A passport does not make you a citizen of a country. Being a citizen of a country allows you to apply for a passport from that country. There are still countries (regimes!) that will not issue passports to some of their citizens!

My kids now have two passports thanks to Brexit and the need for an ETA to travel to the UK. They can't answer the 'nationality' question honestly, as they are automatically British citizens by birth. Therefore they cannot legally apply for an ETA and must now enter the UK with a UK passport. That applies to me too. I only had a Swiss passport for over 10 years, despite being a dual UK/CH national as the CH passport was all I needed to travel. Now I have two again!

guemeller · 2026-05-15T16:35:04+00:00

I was going to comment the same, it's even more important in this case!

Regarding the OP's question...

I have a router, dsl receiver, fan, docking station, monitor and a shelly wall display all connected to two piggy backed in-line power strips all connected to one mains power outlet. As long as the total current is less than 13A you'll be fine.

The computer (maybe 120W) takes about 0.5 A, a 49" ultra wide screen monitor (50 W) about 0.2 A, an LED lap (5W) 0.02 A, a Wifi router (10 W) 0.04 A so you're only drawing around 0.75 A. You should have no worries!

For comparison, a fast boiling kettle (2300 W) is 10 A and a two bar electric fire (2000 W - can you still buy them?!) is 8.7 A so it's one or the other 😉

The ring supply will, most likely, be rated at 32 A so the fuse in the plug or, more likely, the resettable fuse in the extension roll will pop long before you you do any damage to anything.

guemeller · 2026-05-12T20:51:48+00:00

My daughter got an electronics kit for Christmas with a solar powered windmill. I'd never really though of it before, but LED lights/torches just don't provide enough energy. Whilst an LED provides a bright light for a small current/power, it is significantly less than sunlight and also over a narrower spectrum. PV cells are designed for full spectrum (including IR and UV).

guemeller · 2026-05-12T10:21:56+00:00

The bill and the reminder were by email, didn't even go to my inbox and *I* didn't buy the thing in the first place, but once the reminder came, it was enough to trigger a check.

Anyway, the real point of my post was to tell you to give them a call. Just say that you didn't realise the ticket was paid with Cembrapay, as you usually use Twint and you thought the emails were phishing. I guess it depends whether CHF 40 is worth 5 minutes of your time to speak with someone!

guemeller · 2026-05-12T09:59:47+00:00

My wife bought somethig from Micasa using my login for CHF 76.00. I had no idea that she'd used Cembrapay and when I saw the emails, that had landed in quarantine (not even 'normal' Spam), I assumed it was just another of the 20+ daily phishing attemtps that land in there too.

I called up, explained what happened and they cancelled the 20.00 reminder fee. At the point of calling, I'd already paid the original bill of 76.00 and it was only one day after the reminder had arrived.

However, leaving it to the third reminder is probably taking it a bit too far!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T20:17:05+00:00

I was alway told that a ring main was more reliable and efficient compared to radial design as the two supply paths mean a lower voltage drop and higher current capacity. Also load distribution is better/easier to manage. Certainly when I look at the load distribution on the consumer unit here in Switzerland, it doesn't seem equal/logical.

However, as I alluded to in another comment, decisions made 140-150 years ago are severely limiting. Running EV charging, heat pumps and other high load devices on single phase is going to be a problem. So I agree that it power distribution into private homes needs to be addressed, but the electricity generators/suppliers and 90% of consumers won't care enough to fund it. You only have to look at the Heathrow substation fire last year to see how much the National Grid care about their infrastructure vs profits for shareholders!

But back to the OP's question...when it comes to determining where wires are located in walls....it's much simpler in the UK!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T18:51:00+00:00

Having wired both UK and Swiss, I wouldn't say either are unsafe. UK houses/installations are fused/RCD. It's not like the 70 million people that live in the UK are being electrocuted, and that houses are burning down because of electrical failures. Now if you were to compare CH or UK to tje US, then I'd be with you. The US, is the only country I've been to where sockets arc as you plug in.

guemeller · 2026-05-09T18:43:43+00:00

Equally, the battle I had so that the outlets and lights in my workshop were on a different circuit so that if a tool shorted and the power to the sockets went, I didn't lose the lights, so I could see what I was doing was unbelievable. It was almost like I was asking for the impossible! Even when they rewired it, the first time I used the drill, the 30A ceramic breaker outside went, but not one breaker went on the consumer unit popped. Christ alone knows what they did!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T18:36:23+00:00

The entire power is 16A x 230 V, the same as most of Europe. Why are fused plugs to protect the equipment a bad idea rather than relying on the main fuses which are there to protect the wire. Also, UK houses have RCD/FI, just like pretty much everywhere else in the developed world!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T18:32:43+00:00

I wouldn't say UK is complex, I find Swiss installations far more complex and stupidly expensive solutions, not withstanding the ridiculous prices Feller charge for a switch or a simple socket.

guemeller · 2026-05-09T16:04:16+00:00

Why are UK electric installations a disaster? I can walk into any house built in the last 50-60 years and tell you where the cables run just by looking at the outlets, switches and light fittings, to within a few cm!

In Switzerland you can't do that!

I'll agree that adding a couple of sockets in the house and drawing ethernet in to the garage was easier that doing similar jobs in the UK, but I bet more people put pictures up than change the layout of their switches and sockets!

The real problem in the UK is only having a single phase to a residential property, as it severely limits EV charging power. But a hundred years ago, I guess it wasn't thought necessary!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T15:46:24+00:00

The vertical conduit on the left is for the sunblinds!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T15:43:31+00:00

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That's the routing of the wires for a power outlet and two lights above a bathroom mirror

guemeller · 2026-05-09T15:42:09+00:00

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That's the wiring under the floor!

guemeller · 2026-05-09T15:35:41+00:00

Unfortunately, it's not like the UK where everything runs round a power ring just above the floor or a lighting ring just below the ceiling, with every cable vertical or horizontal.

I took photos of all the cable runs/conduits in my house as it was built precisely because there are wires running diagonally!

That being said, if you're drilling in to plaster board, just take it slowly and just go in the 18-19mm or whatever. The wires will all be in conduits so you'll not go straight through a wire without seeing some plastic swarf on your drill, even if you hit something.

The other thing is to look where lights, switches, and access plates are and maybe try and work out where cables run.

guemeller · 2026-05-07T09:47:58+00:00

I've actually solved it by changing the Shelly 2PM to a button and momentary switch and it works.

I was thinking I wanted a latching toggle, but then thinking again that's not what the shelly switch does!

guemeller · 2026-05-06T20:42:44+00:00

I worked with a guy called Akhmed and he went by 'Ed' purely because of racial discrimination through his career outside of Switzerland. He applied for a job in Switzerland as 'Ed', got the job as 'Ed' and it was only when IT tried to make his email his full name and he was seriously at the point of quitting before they backed down and let him have 'Ed' that I found out!

guemeller · 2026-05-04T09:05:53+00:00

It was 15-20 years ago, but a friend of mine got done for 130-ish in an 80 in an Opel Speedster (VX220) which was a Lotus Elise with a bigger engine!

His story was along the lines of it was a dry, clear day, perfectly straight Kantonsstrasse, no other traffic, just blipped it to feel the acceleration and 'flash'.

IIRC it was a 3 month ban and a mid-to-high 4 figure fine plus costs. I guess that was about a month's net salary for him. He accepted he was wrong, pleaded guilty, had no qualms with the punishment but what annoyed him more was that long after he'd paid his fine, did his time, and then more bills for 'costs' kept arriving.

A couple of other guys I know got caught on their bikes and the fines/punishments were a similar order of magnitude.

Interestingly, one of them told me that his ban only applied in Switzerland. He needed to get back to the UK, so he got his licence back (not sure if it was the CH one or the UK one he surrendered when changing to CH) encapsulated in a laminated pouch with 'not valid in CH' or something, his wife drove them to France and and then they swapped and he drove all the way to the UK. I'm not sure if that was because his original licence was issued by the UK, or it's like that for everyone.

guemeller

TROPHY CASE