Net Work
Alan Winstanley
This month’s Net Work looks at the latest developments in the electricity generation sector and
ideas for streaming favourite radio and music channels. But first, a practical ‘Net Workshop’ topic!
H
alf a century ago, when
the author took his first steps in
constructing amateur electronic
projects, most designs were built on
stripboard and housed in aluminium
or plastic Veroboxes, or universal BIM
boxes (the 1970s answer to Australia’s
Jiffy boxes). In the writer’s case, a meagre
assortment of workshop tools centred
round a hacksaw, a few files and a handcranked drill for preparing panels for
switches or controls. A teenager could
manage it, but any tough steelwork, such
as drilling or punching large holes for
panel meters in a steel chassis meant
calling for Dad and his electric drill.
All the tools you need
These days, hobbyists are totally spoilt
for choice, with a dazzling variety of
power tools and accessories that empower home constructors like never
before. Since the 1980s, cordless drills
and drivers have caught on, although it
was soon discovered that rechargeable
Ni-Cad batteries had a short lifespan
with a poor ‘memory effect’ and seldom
were they ready for action when needed.
Worse, if spare batteries weren’t available then usually the whole tool had
to be scrapped once the battery failed.
Tired of wasting batteries and throwing
away expensive tools, in the mid-2000s
Ryobi’s OnePlus 18V tool system includes
a soldering iron, rotary tool and USB
powerbank adaptor. Note that 18V batteries
and chargers aren’t included with ‘bare
tools’. Third-party battery and power takeoff adapters are sold separately.
10
I invested in Ryobi’s OnePlus system
which uses an 18V Ni-MH battery to
power a range of ‘bare’ tools. It was a
forward-thinking idea that would prove
to be well ahead of its time. The product’s major USP was that batteries were
exchangeable, and one battery fitted
every Ryobi OnePlus tool: no need to
invest in multiple battery packs. Initially, barely a dozen such tools were
available, but Ryobi now offers more
than a hundred in Europe, catering for
a wide range of domestic tasks. Their
cordless drills and drivers will appeal
to DIY users and hobbyists but there
are Ryobi OnePlus tools to help tackle
many other home and leisure tasks:
mowing, trimming, cleaning, power
washing, vacuuming, grinding, sawing,
spraying, stapling, tyre inflating, illuminating, cooling and more.
Some readers might be interested in
the Ryobi ONE+ soldering iron R18SOI0, a self-contained iron that clips onto
their 18V OnePlus battery and would be
good enough for quick repairs or working
in the field. A mini rotary tool (R18RT0) has a flexible drive shaft for hobby
projects, or there’s the new RRT18-0
pencil-style rotary tool. Ryobi’s mini
18V air compressor R18AC-0 might
suit bench-top use, but single-phase
oil-free compressors can cost much less.
There’s even a USB accessory that turns
a Ryobi 18V battery into a high capacity 5V powerbank, the R18USB-0. This
and a Ryobi lantern are on standby here
at home (along with an always-on battery charger) during the current season
of stormy weather and power cuts. A
variety of Ni-MH battery capacities
is available from Ryobi – ‘starter kits’
often include a tool and battery or two
bundled with a mains charger, and are
a good place to start.
All such tools have limitations, and
sometimes you just can’t beat the clout
of a mains-powered drill. One old ONE+
power drill/driver expired with a ‘phut’
when trying to screw tannalised timber
sections together, but all was not lost
as the battery was re-deployed on a replacement drill. In fairness, not every
implement quite hits the spot, as some
disappointed owners of Ryobi 18V
lawnmowers have found, so it’s worth
checking reviews first. Details of Ryobi’s European range will be found at,
https://uk.ryobitools.eu
For readers in the US, there’s a much
larger market – view the nearly 200(!)
attachments at: www.ryobitools.com
Build a cordless toolkit
If you are just starting out in DIY or
hobby electronics, it’s worth considering
gradually building up an 18V toolkit as
the expanding Ryobi OnePlus system
has withstood the test of time – check
Amazon and use the Cameliser plugin
in your web browser to alert about price
drops. Alternatively, Bosch offers its
‘18V POWER FOR ALL’ system while
Hitachi, DeWalt, Makita, Festool and
others have pricey 18V and 40V systems for trade users.
More recently, unofficial adaptors
made by third parties now allow other
brands of 18V battery to be fitted to Ryobi
tools. So-called ‘power wheel’ adapters
also allow batteries to be harnessed for
kids’ motorised cars or bicycles, skateboards, portable lights, signs and so
on, and hobbyists might be interested
in using these wire-ended adaptors to
power electronic projects or, say, LED
effects. Search eBay and Amazon for
them but, given the high capacity of
these Ni-MH batteries, check cable ratings closely and do add an inline fuse.
Streaming sensations
Another ONE+ accessory that caught my
eye was a new Bluetooth loudspeaker
(Ryobi PAD02B) sold in the US by Home
Depot (America’s answer to B&Q) but
only just arriving in Europe. Amazon.
com lists the Ryobi Bluetooth speaker
at $29.00 + $10.00 shipping and duty to
the UK, say £30. (The UK Ryobi website
lists it at £51.99). It would probably be
ideal for kicking around on the workbench, but it also reflects the trend
towards listening to streaming audio
via Wi-Fi or a mobile phone, which is
the subject of my next topic.
For home network users, gone are
the days when radio listeners had to
rely on receiving a strong FM or DAB
signal, with all the aerial jiggling and
Practical Electronics | February | 2022
are widely available), but
versatile Bluetooth Tx/ Rx
transceivers will work in
either mode. These adaptors are rechargeable or
might draw power from
a USB port, but they can
sometimes be frustrating
to set up.
Secret source
tuning that it entailed. Some recent
‘retail therapy’ saw the delivery of a
Bluetooth loudspeaker made by JBL.
The JBL GO 2 is a very compact waterproof (IPX7) speaker that enables
streaming audio to be enjoyed in, say,
the shower or garden. It has a surprisingly rich tone for such a small unit
– not ‘tinny’ at all. Available in several colours, the rechargeable speaker
can last several hours between charges,
and it paired fuss-free with an Android
phone. A separate 3.5mm Aux In jack
is fitted for times when Bluetooth isn’t
available, and it can double as a speakerphone for hands-free conference calls
or for quizzing Google Assistant out loud
(both of which depend on using your
smartphone’s microphone). The JBL
GO 2 was remarkable value for a street
price of under £20. Newer models (the
pricier GO 3) are available, and there
is, of course, a plethora of Bluetooth
speakers sold by many other brands.
Some also have a MicroSD slot to play
audio files that way.
Bluetooth is also built into many
portable and tabletop radio receivers,
TV sound bars, hi-fi units and so on,
which enables audio to be streamed
wirelessly to them from, say, a smartphone, laptop or tablet. Some devices
incorporate NFC (Near Field Communications) which makes pairing as
simple as touch-tapping it with a compatible smartphone: look for the NFC
logo on the case.
Where Bluetooth isn’t included in
audio equipment then some easy options
are available. Inexpensive Bluetooth
transmitters are sold on eBay that plug
into a 3.5mm headphone jack, allowing
audio to be streamed, range permitting,
to Bluetooth headphones, a sound bar
or earbuds. Similar Bluetooth receivers
are sold that fit an audio system’s Aux
In socket (phono to 3.5mm adaptors
Next, what about a streaming audio source? Spotify
Free offers unlimited songs
sprinkled with adverts, or
a paid-for service costing
£9.99 per month. Amazon
Prime membership bundles a selection of two
million songs to enjoy This SONRU Bluetooth 5.0 Transceiver has both a TOSLINK
optical and a 3.5mm Aux jack. Select Tx or Rx mode as
on a PC or Fire TV Stick,
needed. (amazon.co.uk)
which is also searchable
using Alexa voice commands. Access playing CDs. (It’s also worth noting
to Amazon’s full catalogue of 75 mil- that vinyl record and cassette tape
lion songs costs from £7.99 a month. sales are resurging.)
Apple Music sells a variety of plans
Keen audio enthusiasts might like
with different monthly tariffs as well. the Brennan B2, a self-contained CD
There’s more than just music available ripper and amp which has a built-in
online: Amazon’s Audible package offers Raspberry Pi module and will rip and
podcasts and audio books for £7.99 a store thousands of CDs. A 2TB disk
month, while https://audiobooks.co.uk can host up to 9,000 CDs as MP3s or
(or .com) has a free 30-day trial then 4,400 in lossless FLAC format. The
£7.99 for two books a month. Audio Brennan B2 will also stream Intermagazines and meditation or natural net radio stations, rip vinyl records
soundtracks might be available as well. to MP3, back up to external drives
As alternatives to DAB or FM radio, or appear on a LAN as a NAS music
a myriad of radio stations stream their drive. Dongles are needed for Wi-Fi
programmes online, accessible through and Bluetooth. Brennan also claims to
apps or websites such as the free radio be the first such device to pair with a
player (go to: www.onlineradiobox. wide number of Sonos speakers. For
com). Sometimes, your scribe will be network media users, Brennan states
found outside, tuned into Spain’s Spec- DLNA can be installed separately via
trum FM Costa Blanca streaming over a software patch (check for details).
Wi-Fi from the router indoors, with
The Brennan B2 2TB model lists at
earbuds offering a convenient hands- £569 and readers can check the specs
free listening solution when paired to at: www.brennan.co.uk
a smartphone. This system works well,
and the range of the author’s domestic The winds of change
Wi-Fi has proved surprising. (A mobile In last month’s issue I outlined some
app such as WiFi Analyzer displays any bold plans by Rolls-Royce Group to manSSIDs in range and their signal strength.) ufacture small modular reactors (SMRs),
which are nuclear-fuelled power stations
Back indoors, another option is to
that are ‘assembled’ onsite from sepastream Internet radio channels onto
a suitable radio receiver such as the rate factory-built units. More countries
PURE Evoke or the much-missed PURE are looking for ‘clean fuel’ SMRs as an
Avanti Flow (which is exactly what the answer to the energy crunch, especialwriter is doing as he types this month’s ly as fossil fuel supplies are becoming
copy). Radios usually need Wi-Fi, al- more restricted, and geopolitical tenthough some have Ethernet ports as sions between Germany, Ukraine and
well. A few pricey streaming radio sets gas-supplier Russia are creating a great
deal of uncertainty.
are sold under the classic Roberts name
It’s early days for SMRs, but Rollsand countless other Internet radios are
Royce has ambitions to produce them
sold under less familiar brands.
Whether to migrate one’s listening at a rate of up to ten power plants a
pleasures entirely to downloads is a year based on small, pressurised water
reactors, and has submitted plans to
matter of personal taste. Most music
is now streamed online, but many of regulators for its 470MW design, accordus still enjoy the tactile experience of ing to World Nuclear News. Two sites
Practical Electronics | February | 2022
11
The JBL GO 2 is a compact but punchy
waterproof Bluetooth speaker for streaming
audio wirelessly.
For audio enthusiasts, the Brennan
B2 plays and rips CDs onto built-in
storage, plays Internet radio and
drives Sonos speakers directly.
Check the website closely for the
full specifications.
in north Wales have been earmarked
as possible locations for Rolls-Royce
SMRs, and a Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed with
Sheffield Forgemasters to fabricate precision castings for them.
Rolls-Royce faces stiff competition in
the global SMR market. America’s NuScale Power is backed by multinational
engineering giant Fluor, and has already
gained approval for its own scalable
SMR power plants in the US, claiming to be the first company in America
to do so following lengthy pilot trials
dating back as far as 2003. NuScale’s
77MW ‘VOYGR’ power modules will
be factory-built and can be shipped by
road for final assembly onsite. Multiple modules can be strapped together to
build larger capacity: a VOYGR-12 will
generate over 900MW of electricity, they
say. The first completed VOYGR plant is
expected by the end of the decade, and
NuScale has also been an eager participant in the UK’s SMR plans since 2013.
Possibly with current geopolitics in
mind, the US Department of Energy
is collaborating with the Ukrainian
government to fund a ‘safety analysis report’ that would be ‘available
to any utility [company] in Ukraine
pursuing US SMR technology’. This
would undoubtedly pave the way for
the adoption of American SMR
power plant in Ukraine; Romania is also signing up to a
6-module NuScale SMR, following a feasibility grant paid
by the US Trade and Development Agency, says World
Nuclear News. Two years earlier, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
announced collaboration with Poland
to manufacture a cost-effective 300MW
SMR for the Polish market. More recently, the same SMR was ordered by
Ontario Power Generation for completion by the end of the decade as Canada
moves towards a fossil-free ‘clean fuel’
future. There’s more: America’s Holtec
International has teamed up with South
Korea’s Hyundai to produce a 160MW
SMR for installation in the US and then
worldwide. The direction of travel away
from fossil fuels is clear, but it will likely
be the end of the decade before SMRs
come on stream, doubtless leaving existing gas and electricity supplies under
greater pressure until then.
The roll-out of Britain’s wind power
programme continues as GE signed off
last month the ‘financials’ for the third
tranche (Phase ‘C’) of the Dogger Bank
Wind Farm sited off the east coast of
England. They claim Dogger Bank will
be the world’s largest offshore wind
farm, and Phase ‘C’ will use 87 uprated 14MW Haliade-X wind turbines, the
largest currently available, making 277
turbines in total. The UK Government
is also investing another £20m in tidal
stream projects, with some developments aimed at the Welsh coastline.
Unlike wind power, tidal energy is predictable and consistent. UK Government
1455F extruded flanged enclosures
T-shaped pylons in Cambridge Science
Park. (Image: Google Street View)
reports state that £285m is being invested annually in this form of marine
technology across the UK.
Another Model T (pylon)
In last December’s issue I mentioned
a new T-shaped design of electricity
pylon that is putting in a limited appearance in the UK. My thanks go to
reader Andrew Parker of Cambridge, who
writes: ‘I really enjoy reading your Net
Work column every month, and I was
particularly interested in your December
article about the first new pylon design
in Britain for more than 100 years. While
they may claim to be the first redesign
to be deployed in quantity, these new
T-pylons in Somerset, England aren’t
radically different to similar single-pole
pylons erected nearly 40 years earlier,
when the Cambridge Science Park was
extended in the 1980s.
‘To enhance the site, a more elegant
design was used for the short section
where the electricity cables passed
through the Science Park. Quite an
impressive feat, and presumably very
!
w
ne
Learn more: hammfg.com/1455f
Contact us to request a free evaluation sample.
uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812
12
Practical Electronics | February | 2022
costly, showing the power and influence of Trinity College – the landlord!
I think they were replacements for the
existing conventional pylons. These
four Cambridge pylons can still be seen
on the latest Google Street Views. They
need a coat of paint! A picture of one
of them is on the first page of a website dedicated entirely to photos of UK
pylons, of all things, at: www.gorge.org/
pylons/envision.’ Andrew kindly sent a
screenshot. The pylons are quite striking and it’s a shame that they are being
allowed to decay.
Other news
At the time of writing, all eyes are on
French Guiana as we await the launch
of the James Webb Space Telescope,
currently being installed on board an
Ariane rocket for launch on 22 December. The space observatory is a
joint venture between NASA, Europe’s
ESA and Canada’s Space Agency, and
it carries a 21-foot mirror made of 18
gold-plated hexagonal segments. It
will gradually supplant Hubble as the
West’s key space observatory. More
information about the instruments it
carries can be found at: https://bit.ly/
pe-feb22-obs and space fans can see
details of various JWST deployments
at: https://bit.ly/pe-feb22-webb
Satcomms firm OneWeb is aiming to
relocate its satellite production from
Florida to the UK (see Net Work, May
2019). Partnered with manufacturer
Airbus, OneWeb’s second-generation
satellites are expected to roll out from
the middle of the decade. Satellites are
mostly launched from cosmodromes in
Russia or Kazakhstan.
Rolls-Royce has made what it
claims is the world’s fastest flight in
an all-electric plane (dubbed The Spirit
of Innovation – see December issue).
It’s emerged that the airframe was an
off-the-shelf kit – the Nemesis NXT
racing plane, which Rolls-Royce chose,
sensibly enough, as a testbed for its
electric propulsion technology. More at:
www.nemesisnxt.com/kit/index.php
In the UK, the dilatory roll-out of
electric vehicle charging points lags
well behind the uptake of EVs among
consumers. Britain’s Society of Motor
Manufacturers (SMMT) says one in five
new cars sold in November was an EV,
and in fact I can’t remember when I last
saw a TV advert for a petrol or diesel
car. New British homes, supermarkets
and workplaces, as well as any undergoing major renovation, will be forced to
install EV vehicle charging points from
2022, forthcoming Government regulations will state. That is all well and
good for urbanites living in new homes
or shopping in new supermarkets, but
Good news for the UK’s successful satellite industry – OneWeb is aiming to relocate
production to the UK, in partnership with Airbus.
Practical Electronics | February | 2022
13
those of us living in rural areas – places
where a diesel 4x4 is often essential
transport – face great practical challenges. I doubt EVs will fare well in
typical wintry storms or countryside
snow or mud. The National Farmers
Union (NFU) hopes to work with InstaVolt to build a network of charging
points on private land or at farm shops.
Judging by the PR, the deal struck with
NFU Energy seems to be as much about
helping farmers and landowners cash
in by offering a charging service, as it
is about encouraging rural motorists to
somehow adopt EVs.
Car breakdown service Britannia
Rescue says that 37% of callouts for EVs
were due to wheel and tyre problems –
blaming the [up to] 50% extra weight
EVs carry due to their battery packs. This
is twice the call-out rate of petrol/diesel
cars having wheel problems. Interestingly, EVs were also three times more
likely to break down because of wheel
and tyre problems rather than their batteries going flat, Britannia Rescue said.
Planet of the Apes
Elon Musk, of SpaceX, Tesla and PayPal
fame, is not only into space-based
broadband or electric cars: in between
times his Neuralink technology company is addressing the thorny topic of
interfacing technology directly with
the brain. I struggle for words when it
comes to describing the implantation
of chips directly into one’s brain, so I
will offer the Neuralink YouTube video
of a cheerful monkey happily playing
Pong at: https://youtu.be/rsCul1sp4hQ
instead. Neuralink hopes its technology will initially help those with spinal
cord injuries.
Amazon Fresh has expanded its
UK bricks-and-mortar real estate with
two more ‘Just Walk Out’ stores in
London, making ten in all (see Net
Work, May 2021). UK supermarket
giant Sainsbury’s has also opened its
own ‘Smartshop Pick & Go’ till-free
store in Holborn Circus, London. The
store is Amazon’s first partner internationally to utilise Amazon’s own Just
Walk Out systems. The Smartshop
app is needed on a smartphone, a QR
code is scanned on entry and then
payments are charged to the linked
payment card on exit. A ‘till receipt’
is emailed afterwards.
Finally, this month, onto the Net Work
naughty step goes Google, after the author’s Home Hub (now called Nest Hub)
LCD display locked up without warning. Readers will know that I opted for
Google Mini smart speakers (I have three
dotted around) plus a desktop Home
Hub LCD screen, but several months
ago the LCD screen suddenly froze
solid. Many hours were wasted rebooting, reinstalling and reconfiguring it on
the Google Home app, all to no avail.
Online forums highlight other Home
Hub users having the same problem,
with lock-ups of these first-generation
screens being blamed on a firmware or
system upgrade gone wrong.
It’s unacceptable for new-ish and perfectly workable products to be ‘bricked’
this way through no fault of the owner.
Attempts to reach technical support
go unanswered, and Google’s PR has
yet to respond after I contacted them.
It’s no surprise that the global total of
electronic waste has reached 57 million tonnes this year, according to the
WEEE Forum, and it looks like my perfectly good bit of hardware will join
it. Instead of buying another, I’ll use
Google Chrome on a PC and my webcam’s microphone.
Last, a reminder that all links
will be ready-made for you in the
blog on our website, so do check:
www.electronpublishing.com
Join me next month for another tasty
serving of Net Work!
The author can be reached at:
alan<at>epemag.net
