I've not done a questions and answers video in a while, so i asked the patreon supporters give me some questions and i'll answer them and if you've got questions you want to ask for a future video, then you can leave them down in the comments down below. So, let's start with the first questions and i'm going to divide this. I've got a lot of questions here, so i'm going to make this a round about a 20 minute video and if there's any more left after that i'll put in a separate video just to avoid too many too many questions and answers all at once. So, let's start with the first question, baz said: did you consider building a shop in glasgow instead of the isle of man? It would be really nice having a workshop in glasgow, but glasgow is a big city and like most big cities in the uk, gentrification has taken over and it has been invested in by property speculators, which means that the only place i'd be able to afford uh Premises if i could get them would be just on the outskirts of glasgow in an industrial estate, where not only would it involve like hours of travel every single day to go there, but it would involve security issues.

Uh, big cities are not a place to have a workshop. These days in the uk, gadget boy asks i've really been enjoying watching glass, slinger, make tubes tube sizes and tubes and valves, but i'm no closer to understanding why they work. Would you be interested in doing some videos on the theory? I am not the best person to answer stuff like that. There are people on youtube who are totally into tubes and valves and they're the best people, but the basic theory is you've, got uh heated filaments that emits electrons and those electrons are steered by metal plates with fields on them, um to provide various amplification and steering Effects, that's a very crude summary, as i say, i'm not the best person to answer stuff, like the closest i get to using anything resembling a tubes is a little gas discharge, tube a little neon, but not an actual cathode ray tuber stuff.

I suppose cathode ray tubes, they're quite interesting but again they're kind of rare, too now kind of mcmahon says i always enjoy walking talk, drop for lots of cool stuff to see now, there's an idea that would have been an idea i could have recorded this out In the local park, where there'd have been a scenic background, there would have been other people that have probably been kids, which are not really keen in the idea of them appearing the videos um, but um yeah. Also, wind would be an issue in background noise, but you know that's something i'll consider in the future. That's well worth uh, considering uh aaron nadler says: do at lewis, rosman style bicycle ride. That would require a bicycle.

Walking is more my style. I work a lot derrick bisset asks name five of your favorite youtubers. This is where you'd might expect me to name some of the prominent electronic youtubers in reality. In the same way, the software guys watch electronic channels for recreation, the electronic guys.

Although we do watch each other's channels, we tend to go for mechanical or or art types of channels and stuff like that. So for me, um, my favorite styles of channel are like ave, um, south main, auto, steve summers, a bomb and sort of channels like that unlock picking lawyer, who also gets mentioned later on in these questions and answers. But you know those aren't necessarily my five favorite. I i can really pick favorites peter harkins asks i've asked in a live stream, but don't know if you seen it or avoid the question, may you ask, did you ever come out to your parents? If so, how did they react? My appearance were well, particularly my dad was very religious, so um, i didn't really officially come out to them, but i think they gradually worked out over time.

It wasn't a decisive coming out experience. Gareth ashley asks reusing 18650s from battery packs. Any tips in dealing with welded nickel strips i've been grabbing the hands and peeling them back slowly and it was kind of working. Then i did one which let out a hiss when the world popped, which is the nice sound, we're opening an mre ration, but i'm guessing not for lithium ion batteries.

It was long dead and nothing happened, but it made me think there must be a better way. Any suggestions i if i find that because the little nickel tabs have been spot welded on, if you try pricing them off, the chances are you're going to puncture the cell, so i don't actually recommend taking them off at all and what i do is if i Want to keep them short i'll fold them at the point that they meet the welds and i'll fold it back and forth until they snap off or as someone else mentioned here, mustafa's fleas mentioned. I do the exact same thing. On the positive end, some of the cells don't have a little button on them, the tabbed cells.

So i will sometimes fold the strip a couple of times to make a little pipe at the end, so it goes into battery charger properly. Josh meyer, oh it's a political question. Any interest in touching the third rail of independence there is about to avoid pissing off everyone in the currently united kingdoms. I don't really get involved in that anymore.

Technically speaking, i have to place votes. If i'm going to do votes on the isle of man, the isle of man is not part of the uk and so on and kind of um and kind of for scottish independence, but only to show the rest of britain that they don't need. The west minister to show them what to do, but you know what controversial subject we'll see what happens? I have a horrible feeling: it's just going to be political and political and that they'll run these referendums and they'll always just lose by a little margin, because i think it's all a fix. Baz says: are you interested in doing a youtube series set up as a class electronics? 101? Not really, it would be an interesting idea.

I should cover more subjects in greater detail. I've not really done that um, but uh. Generally speaking, one of the best ways and most enjoyable ways is just to pick little snippets up uh randomly from different videos. I'm not sure, maybe that that isn't the best option.

I'm not sure i'll. Consider that lawrence soloneck asks what technical videos have you done in the past, that you'd like to do a redo and why mainly the old potato vision, videos, but also there are some videos that were good but because they were back, then they didn't get much viewing And more information has come up since in those particular subjects, so they're quite kind of good to actually redo, but i can't think of any thing in particular. We're told with towsky says: what's changed in glasgow since i've last been there glasgow covid is kind of like past in a way everybody's kind of wearing masks or not wearing masks and there's huge conscious people everywhere. Mingling, it's like the hustle and the bustle is back in glasgow, but some of the big shops have closed and some of the smaller shops are just fine but everything's, not quite right yet, but glasgow's getting there looking forward to spending a lot more time in glasgow And when i'm spending a lot more time, there's going to be proper glasgow meets like we can get together for a decent, a decent chat and drink.

I'm cautious doing that at the moment, because i don't want to get gatherings of people and risk becoming. You know associated with a spread of covert from that point, but right now, everybody's, it's like every other town and city they've, basically said screw it. If you you're offered a vaccine, if you've had your vaccine, then you should be fine. If you didn't, that's your tough that they're taking that thing and ebbed is just basically just saying screw it we're done with this covered thing and as a result, it's gone apocalyptic.

What can you do? It was predictable nuts and brown said selfish question. Do you see two euro super chats when i say bonsoir, you missed some here's the thing. If i, if i'm doing the live streams - and i look down at the chat - i get distracted very easily and when i get distracted um, it puts me off what i'm talking about. So i tend not to look at the chat, but normally the super chat contributions which i appreciate all of uh.

They appear as a little flag at the top, but the little two dollar ones are two euro ones at the bottom. Don't appear as flag the bigger the contribution a little, but tab appears with a timer on it just so it hangs about longer. So it's more likely to be seen um. I do try and acknowledge every single super chat, no matter what value it is um, and i find it awkward and i watch other streams where people are just completely ignoring the super chats uh.

I think that's kind of selfish, but that's just just. I prefer that nuts and proud did you fly or drive to glasgow. I flew and i have to say that the covidish thing was causing major problems of flights. The flight over was a bit awkward, it wasn't too bad.

It was wearing masks in the plane and all that um, but when we got there we had to sit in the plane for ages because there was no staff to come and escort us into the airport terminal um on the way back uh there was a huge Delay, not the fault of uh logan air at all. I could see their staff were just working long hours, they're having a bad time because of their covet, taking number staff levels down and also the the icing the cake we finally got to gla the isle of back to the isle of man uh. I was waiting in the baggage conveyor and you know that little siren that goes off before the the conveyor starts moving the luggage. It was really loud, it turned out, it was a fire alarm and may all get evacuated and our luggage was still in there.

That was quite annoying, but that's what happens? What can you do? It's just everything happened. It was a very tiring day, jerry bvr says: have you ever had an interest in motor railways, meccano or lego? Ralphie was the one with the model railway um. I did play with meccano mikado in the metal form in plastic form and lego great. I really like those they're good practical toys to play with when you're young uh, the plastic meccano was rubbish because it's just the scale of it.

It's just suitable for building big stylized things. The metal mechanic was much more useful, but because it was my dad's set of metal mcconnell, he didn't really like the kids playing with it. That's what happens. Daryn watson says: are you going to do more videos with your brother as i like them i'll try, but ralph is quite fussy he's the one that makes that difficult.

He doesn't really like doing the sort of other joint videos mike hanley asks. Do you think laser diodes will eventually replace leds? I don't think so, because ultimately, a laser diode is a more complex device than an led. I wouldn't say it's much more efficient, and so i think laser dodge will be laser. Diodes and leds will be leds, but i see the progress of instead of like say, for instance, the green lasers, instead of or the blue ones.

Well, the ones that use dpss down, pump, solid state that used a whole cascade of crystals to convert infrared to a different wavelength and then double it and so on um. I could i see those being reduced to just a little chip on its own, which is kind of happening, which is quite good. I'm not keen on these car headlights that use lasers to stimulate the phosphors. It just seems like they're, really cremating the phosphorus, and also they pose a high eye hazard risk for the people who work on them, although you're not supposed to repair them.

Of course, james zverse says: have you ever played around with tesla coils, not specifically test the calls, but i've used high voltage calls. I went through a whole phase of building and winding my own little inverters, usually around ferret cores or little tv flyback transformers, and i got some pretty monstrous voltages like, for instance, i was able to drive about six feet of neon tube from a 1.5 volt d Cell, that's also when i discovered how insulation can break down so easily and how easy it was, if you left them open circuit for the even just a fraction of a second um, they would uh arc over between the windings that was it ruined. I spent many many evenings meticulously doing layers of windings on tape, backwards and forwards, thousands of turns and then i turn it onto your and you'd - see the little glow inside and it'd be wrecked. But i don't really do i stopped doing that because one day well, the neons are coming back again.

One day i was doing it at my bench in glasgow and a little tub on here and just lit up on the in the component cabinet or thinking. Oh, that's the that's the voltage gradient, causing that and that's not going to be good for other components. So i kind of stopped it that's. Why, when i did the darson valve violet wand, video uh, i started it through the staircase away from my bench and then brought the other stuff through and recorded that at the bench james zveres asks.

What do you most like about the isle of man and miss? Most about glasgow, the isle of man - i love this storminess. I like i like the fact that it's a very down-to-earth industrial farming fishing type place with lots of beardy men uh, but glasgow. What i miss about glasgow is the hustle and the bustle. It's absolutely it just pops, it's a great city, i'm going to have to now that kovid's getting passed.

I want back because i just when i went back to glasgow there. I managed to get a blister on my feet after just two days with just walking and walking and walking and within five days, i'd worn out the insoles i just glasgow, i just because there's so much to see uh and so many shops, and things like that. I just walked. I walked my socks off literally in that in glasgow.

Ah emmett pickerel says i live in a bridgeless island as well vashon island near seattle, quite a lot less remote in the isle of man, but i'm always fascinated by the challenges faced by living on an island. We have some. We have some here delivery of large items, lack of enough postcards as people order online, more power, outages and stuff, like that, it's one of the things that rattles me is when you order stuff it happened recently. I ordered a pine sill computerized soda iron and when i went online i went to their website because ebony was saying: oh it's great, you should try and i thought i'll give that a go.

I ordered it uh. It said: where are you based? I love man that gave me the postage charge for the isle of man, which was typical what it was for the rest of the uk as well, because it's probably using the royal mail for the final delivery, and i placed the order and then a while later They contacted me and said uh. We can't deliver it to you, because you're a nail of man and we can't find md, delivers there and so uh you're going to have to um you're going to have to uh give us a uk address for it and that's not really practical. I could get it sent to friends but uh, i'm just going to see what happens, but that's the sort of thing that happens here.

It's also quite difficult getting certain chemicals because they're hazardous and it comes by ear freight laser lord asks. Is there a good way to stop piling on side hobbies and still feel like i'm progressing in each? Essentially, i have a hobby hoarding problem and don't want to give up in any of them, and i bet a lot of us here feel similar. I think that's fairly common, i skip from project project and sometimes go into different areas like the glitter, lamps and lava lamps, and you do a whole load and then you go back to another project. It happens.

Most of us fleas says i had a small farm in my workshop and i can recommend that myth for cleaning out old, abandoned projects because uh the smoke ruins everything. That's i don't want to do that that that's very decisive, but it's something i want to avoid. Sell says, thanks to you, i bought my very first ozone ear purifier the white rechargeable one for fridges. I've noticed it smells similar to the plasma globe lamp.

Are they similar um? The reason it's similar? If you touch the plasma globe lamp, it's the energy. It's been coupled capacitively through the glass creates tiny little arcs at your fingertips. You don't see them, you might feel a slight fuzz, but you don't really see much, but it's creating like just like plasma the violet ones. If you sniff your fingers, they'll smell like ozone, because it's the same principle uh of a corona discharge on the surface of the glass merck, says of all the things you've carbonated.

What is your favorite alcoholic and non-alcoholic carbonated drink? Favorite non-alcoholic carbureted drink is just plain water. I like carbonated, water, the favorite alcoholic one was probably the whiskey. It was a surprise. It was quite nice chris harvey asks which of your videos.

Do you enjoy the most making and what's the biggest most prominent project, you've ever worked on your working career or most famous uh, except youtube um. I, like all the videos, every video is different. I quite like the build videos, but they always turn out really long, and i know when i'm hiding to nothing when i do a big long, build video, because not as many people watch the longer videos but the the trashy clickbaity ones are also quite fun. Just for the naughtiness of making a clickbait video, most famous projects, probably disney, really are some of the props.

I've done for productions for a bbc programs, in particular um hard to say in particular, but quite proud of certain things like say. For instance, i was quite proud of my involvement with the george square christmas lights in glasgow, and i was quite and proud of my involvement in this of the most the final uh generation of the spectrum and and the spectromagic parade. I had my software in their outfits and control systems. James asks.

What do you think has been the most important safety creation for electrical work. Rcds gfcis singularly one of the best devices for safety. David ward says: if you could spend a day, have a meal and drink with anyone past or present? Who would it be? Most people think i'd want to choose somebody like uh nicola tesla, or something like that. But to be honest, if you did travel through time, i i wouldn't be able to resist telling him what was happening in the future and his it would change the direction he took.

So you couldn't do that. The whole paradox thing, but really there are certain people who took their own lives and if i could choose to go into a meal with someone at any time, i'd go back now to save their life. Fundamentally, i'd talk them out of it. That's what i'd do would you ever consider doing videos about more retro technology? I really should i quite like the retro technology um, particularly some of the older elevator stuff, which i have some of here, which will be appearing gtr car 5 says.

Do you believe in silicon heaven um? Well, i believe in silicon heaven as much as i believe in human heaven, which isn't really that much bit awkward, talky, toaster, etc. That's a reference to crichton and talky toaster on red dwarf, gregor de bruyne says what was an electrical concept or component that took you a long time to understand. Oh tricky, i'm not really sure component wise. The triax were quite complex initially because they can be triggered with different polarities in different quadrants, but with different sensitivity and the way they latch.

I'm not really sure, then there's a some odd uni junction type, transistors programmable uni junction transistors that have never really explored properly. I'm not really sure about that. That's, i guess ultimately, microcontrollers probably classes as one of the most complex program devices right at this point in time. I've hit the 20 minute mark.

I've got a little timer here to keep these at modest length. So i'm going to stop the video here uh. Remember that you can leave more questions down below in the comments and i'll, maybe comb through them and pick some out and make them do another one. But in the meantime, i'm going to record an episode.

Two of this uh, which will cover the remaining questions here, so that is the end of this current version.