Aldi bargain laser level

[andrew lynerParticipant @andrewlyner71257]

Posted by Sam Longley 1 on 15/07/2019 20:02:03:

I would back the accuracy of my Sestral Handbearing compass aimed at a single point up against my sextant held horizontally, whilst trying to fix on 2 points any day.

You don't have to "fix on" two points. You adjust th sextant until the two objects coincide. It doesn't;t matter if they are jigging about.

What sort of accuracy can you rely on with your hand bearing compass and have you ever tried a HSA reading?

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by andrew lyner on 15/07/2019 20:04:37:

Posted by Sam Longley 1 on 15/07/2019 20:02:03:

I would back the accuracy of my Sestral Handbearing compass aimed at a single point up against my sextant held horizontally, whilst trying to fix on 2 points any day.

You don't have to "fix on" two points. You adjust th sextant until the two objects coincide. It doesn't;t matter if they are jigging about.

What sort of accuracy can you rely on with your hand bearing compass and have you ever tried a HSA reading?

You have just said something that conflicts– that you have to get 2 points to coincide. Of course it matters if they are jiggling about. have you never tried tossing about in a swell aiming a sextant at a target. I have enough trouble aiming binoculars in a 2 metre chop, let alone aiming my sextant at 2 shore targets at once. I have to admit that my sextant does not lend itself to horizontal use, I have had it 40 years & it does not have wheel adjustment. I certainly have tried( just testing really) & given up as a bad job. Easy vertically. Lack of use in the last 20 years makes it difficult to pick up now

My Sestral compass is about as good as they get & i can get fairly good top hats depending on boat motion.I use it regularly in places like Channel Islands

To each his own- we are not going to agree- but does that matter- Of course not

[Ian Johnson 1Participant @ianjohnson1]

Ah ha! After a rummage around in my camera bag I found the 5/8" to 1/4" adaptor I made for fitting on the surveying posts. It is indeed 5/8" UNC. I can sleep easy now!

[Frank GorseParticipant @frankgorse]

Oh dear,

I am well aware that the three point fix by hand bearing compass was,and probably still is,the basic position fixing technique in traditional coastal navigation. But when I did the course at the local tech in 1980-something we also covered running fixes,doubling the angle off the bow,and other arcane stuff I can’t remember now. I’m not sure whether hsa’s were mentioned,probably not.

However,in ’Yachtmaster’ by Langley-Price and Ouvry,published by Adlard Coles,covering the RYA syllabus we read:

“If the sextant is turned so that it is held horizontally,it can be used to measure the angle subtended at the observer between two shore objects. A distance off is not obtained………..but a position circle can be plotted. Two such circles can be obtained from three landmarks,where they intersect is the fix.”

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

I am beginning to recall the method now. One doubles the angle & forms a triangle with 2 equal angles at the base & the top angle is  the observed sextant angle- (or is it twice the observed angle, or was the base angles each half the observed angle- cannot recall?). The base being the line between the 2 observed points. From that top point one strikes a circle through the 2 stations. But i seem to recall that one had to know which side of the stations one placed the triangles. Trial & error based on dead reckoning. Or obvious from the position of the land I think !!

Now I am going to have to find a b..y book & read it up for no other practical purpose other than reminding myself how !!!

Trouble is that reading a sextant horizontally through 2 points is almost impossibly on any small yacht in any sort of sea. The method possibly stemmed from the days of square riggers with a stable platform. There was also a special protractor for setting out the triangles. Forget the name. Will have to sleep on that one.

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 15/07/2019 22:46:41

[RMAParticipant @rma]

Posted by andrew lyner on 14/07/2019 10:41:37:

That's a shame. Language is a fluid thing and, by ignoring the recent additions, you can miss out on a lot of useful stuff. If TTFN and ITMA mean something to you, then you were part of the new wave of acronyms in the past. Stay in touch; you won't regret it.

I've just got in and I see this thread has now taken a completely different direction, but I have to respond to a couple of people on here regarding my innocuous request to refrain from using acronyms.

The above quote I find patronising and unnecessary.

Neil makes a comment about my username,,,,why? It's not a posting.

On another thread someone queried what MSM meant and got a two word brusque response from another member, …..Google it'!

Another thread was started called 'Recent threads' and was closed because that was getting out of hand.

I don't understand why some people wish to try and show their 'superior knowledge' to anyone asking a simple question. Maybe they think they're impressing others by knowing something other's don't. I'm afraid it just reminds me of project management meetings we had back in the 70's and 80's when 'managers' would include as many acronyms as possible in a presentation, and if anyone dare ask what they meant, they were totally shown up as being 'ignorant'. Of course we all had a name for these people, and it wasn't an acronym! This behaviour was also picked up by the comedians of the day….too PC for that type of humour these days!

I'm all for a bit of banter…..but rudeness is quite unacceptable. This is a great forum and there's a wealth of knowledge and experience just for the asking. No one knows everything, so for the few that appear to spoil things, please stop. The original poster was pleased to share his experience at Aldi and good luck to him and I hope the final project is a success. It didn't warrant all the opinions on the product…..he didn't ask for that!

I've said my bit and I will refrain from responding to any further negative comments.

[andrew lynerParticipant @andrewlyner71257]

"The above quote I find patronising and unnecessary."

I could say exactly the same about your complaint about using (well known) abbreviations. You are successfully using one part of the Internet so, instead of being grumpy about an alternative style of (informal) communication, why not just take it on board?

Using letters for well known phrases goes back to the very early days of morse so it's not a new idea.

I really didn't want to upset you.

[Ian Johnson 1Participant @ianjohnson1]

Posted by RMA on 15/07/2019 23:27:58:

I'm all for a bit of banter…..but rudeness is quite unacceptable. This is a great forum and there's a wealth of knowledge and experience just for the asking. No one knows everything, so for the few that appear to spoil things, please stop. The original poster was pleased to share his experience at Aldi and good luck to him and I hope the final project is a success. It didn't warrant all the opinions on the product…..he didn't ask for that!

I've said my bit and I will refrain from responding to any further negative comments.

Thanks RMA I tried my best to get my original post back on track! But 3 pages and over 2500 views! best £3.49 I ever spent!

Ian

[andrew lynerParticipant @andrewlyner71257]

Posted by Ian Johnson 1 on 16/07/2019 00:11:30:

Posted by RMA on 15/07/2019 23:27:58:

I'm all for a bit of banter…..but rudeness is quite unacceptable. This is a great forum and there's a wealth of knowledge and experience just for the asking. No one knows everything, so for the few that appear to spoil things, please stop. The original poster was pleased to share his experience at Aldi and good luck to him and I hope the final project is a success. It didn't warrant all the opinions on the product…..he didn't ask for that!

I've said my bit and I will refrain from responding to any further negative comments.

Thanks RMA I tried my best to get my original post back on track! But 3 pages and over 2500 views! best £3.49 I ever spent!

Ian

Ian. I just found out form myself (today) that, if you put your message on the line below the verticals, it appears outside the quoted text.

And I think your laser 'level' was very good value and the same bit of tatt as the one I have!

TTFN

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Ian Johnson 1 on 11/07/2019 21:48:25:

Thread mystery solved! I checked it again and paid a bit more attention this time! It's actually a very bad cast plastic M16 x 2mm pitch at 15.25 mm dia nowhere near 16mm or 5/8" diameter come to think of it!

I wrongly assumed tripod fittings were imperial thread sizes like camera mounts. Although I am pretty certain I machined an adaptor for theodolite survey posts, which were used to check a massive bridge being built locally, which had a 5/8" UNC stud on top of them to accept a 1/4" x 20 camera mount many years ago.

Ian

.

Ian,

Now that this forum thread has had its 'run round the park' …

I will, if I may, return to your first comment regarding the screw thread:

"just needs a little thread converter making from the weird 5/8" x 13tpi to 1/4" x20tpi"

.

Given that you have "checked it again" and and found another unlikely size; I think it advisable to try measuring once more …

There is, of course, no obligation upon Aldi to use any standard thread; but if they have tried to follow convention, the most likely choice would be 5/8" x 11tpi.

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 15/07/2019 10:03:22:

I posted this in the 'Aircraft Radio Scanner' thread – with my tongue in my cheek

I got a USB (Universal Serial Bus) SDR (software defined radio) for my laptop PC (personal computer). It cost about 16UKP (United Kingdom Pounds). I use it for meteor detection using RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging) scatter with free software, but it will pick up almost anything you can make an aerial for, and you can switch it between FM (Frequency modulation), AM (amplitude modulation), USB (upper side band) and LSB (lower side band) or even stereo FM.

As SOD (Silly Old Duffer) says, this is a really cheap and easy way to experiment.

Neil

One relevant [and perhaps unfortunate] point being that you have therein used USB to mean two different things.

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Enough.

Go to a sailing forum if you want to play sailors and your abreviations will be known and not anoy members here.

Keep to the subject about the tripod please.

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Jason

Apologies

I did try to delet the last post when i realised it was totally out of context but the edit was stopped

sorry

[Ian Johnson 1Participant @ianjohnson1]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Ian Johnson 1 on 17/07/2019 00:32:58:

[ ….]

But did you actually follow-up on my recommendation, Ian ?

… made yesterday morning at 06:54:33

MichselG.

[Ian Johnson 1Participant @ianjohnson1]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 16/07/2019

Given that you have "checked it again" and and found another unlikely size; I think it advisable to try measuring once more …

There is, of course, no obligation upon Aldi to use any standard thread; but if they have tried to follow convention, the most likely choice would be 5/8" x 11tpi.

MichaelG.

Thanks Michael but there is no need to, it is a very sloppy M16 x 2 (which I haven't got any taps or dies for) so I'll re-cut the thread to something I have got. Something like 1/2"UNC / Whit, then make an adaptor to suit. It needs a chunky thread because it's cheap plastic rubbish and if I make mess of it, it goes in the bin! It only cost £3.49 after all. Bit of a bargain I think.

Ian

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for the confirmation, Ian

MichaelG.

.

P.S. Bargain status 'seconded' 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/07/2019 09:38:54

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by RMA on 15/07/2019 23:27:58:

Neil makes a comment about my username,,,,why? It's not a posting.

Just humorously pointing out the irony ..

But the forum seems to have had something of a humour bypass. There seems to be something in the air these days.

Neil

[Frank GorseParticipant @frankgorse]

What this thread is short of is a bit of pedantry so may I point out that it’s only an acronym if the letters form a word,such as UNESCO,RADAR etc. Otherwise it’s just a TFLA (three or four letter abbreviation) You’re welcome.

[DanielParticipant @daniel]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 17/07/2019 19:28:47:

Posted by RMA on 15/07/2019 23:27:58:

Neil makes a comment about my username,,,,why? It's not a posting.

Just humorously pointing out the irony ..

But the forum seems to have had something of a humour bypass. There seems to be something in the air these days.

Neil

Perhaps a bit too much sun,

Posters have become very grumpy, recently

[Ian Johnson 1Participant @ianjohnson1]

My 'Threadlocker' photo didn't work very well did it!

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 17/07/2019 19:28:47:

But the forum seems to have had something of a humour bypass. There seems to be something in the air these days.

Neil

Isn't that a fact Neil!

Read, and move along if you don't like it, is my mantra.

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

271 thread locker is supposed to be the permanent one.

[Ian Johnson 1Participant @ianjohnson1]

Not permanent enough it seems! This thread just refuses to die!   (edit: I forgot the emoji) 

Edited By Ian Johnson 1 on 18/07/2019 22:12:52

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Ian Johnson 1 on 17/07/2019 09:30:18:

… it is a very sloppy M16 x 2 (which I haven't got any taps or dies for)

.

Ahah !

That's probably why the thread won't die

[Author]

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