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Hi
Would it be possible to have someone buy something from S@H and send it to me?
Sets are cheaper in the UK and they don't ship to Estonia anyway...
WBR
Sonnich
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Sheffield man’s love of LEGO lands him with debt problems
Written on April 14, 2011 by Nathan Cameron
An autistic man from Sheffield has found himself with relatively serious debt
problems after over-indulging in his favourite hobby – LEGO.
Christopher Royston, 32, has a large collection of LEGO models and sculptures in
his house in Heeley. He spoke to the Sheffield Star newspaper about his debt
problems, explaining that he had continued to buy LEGO and other puzzles to
alleviate his anxiety. However, his excessive spending resulted in Mr Royston
falling behind with his council tax bills and months of rent payments to
Sheffield Homes.
After realising that his hobby was out of control, Mr Royston sought debt help
and arranged for his rent to be paid directly out of his Job Seekers’ Allowance
to Sheffield Homes. At this time, he owed £129.76 ($212 USD).
However, it seems that the payments Mr Royston was making through Job Centre
Plus were not enough to cover his debt. Sheffield Homes took the case to a
Sheffield county court, claiming that his debt had built up to £159.71 ($260
USD). He was ordered to pay this amount, plus £169.50 ($277 USD) in court costs.
Speaking to The Star, Mr Royston said:
“I was told that if I did not pay, I could lose my home.
“I don’t understand why they took me to court as I was already addressing the
issue and all it has done is meant I have a bigger bill to pay.”
A spokesperson for Sheffield Homes said that Mr Royston had informed them that
he had autism but had said that it wouldn’t affect his ability to make rent
payments. The company has waived around £25 ($40 USD) of unpaid council tax and
now considers Mr Royston’s debts to be repaid.
Chilterndebtmanagement.co.uk
-end of report-
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I’ve posted a new video of the MOCs
in my loft:
- PF trains and testing, including the first showing of my Class 14
loco working, and a new brake van.
- Flexi-track ballasted, canted and sloped
successfully at wide radius.
- Scenic modules.
Channel: http://youtube.com/mbellisbrickmocs
Hope it inspires you!
Mark
Mark J E Bellis 8mm:1ft scale LEGO Trains, Scenery, Power Functions and Technic
My Brickshelf Gallery
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In lugnet.general, Abner Finley wrote:
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Posted on BBC website on Thursday, 4 February 2010.
BBC News
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Very nice! I especially like the LDraw bits, good stuff from Chris Dee.
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There is a video 3:50 long. (just under 4 minutes)
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Be sure to watch the video -- there’s a neat bit at the end about how they used
LEGO for a conceptual model of the Falkirk Wheel, not included in the text.
Steve
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In lugnet.technic, Jetro de Chateau wrote:
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In lugnet.technic, Mark Bellis wrote:
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To celebrate, here are the pictures of my latest pneumatic system.
It allows the cylinder to be commanded to any position.
• not just the two ends
• not just two ends and one position in the middle
• yes, any variable position within its travel!
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Thank you for sharing this. Next up: implementing this in an automated
system...
Jetro
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Here’s a video tutorial that explains how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=mbellisbrickmocs#p/u/0/9jv73J8-4Zw
The demonstration model is an automated system in itself. It is the inner loop
of a control system. The (optional) outer loop would use feedback from a driven
device to move the red beam, but not all applications need an outer loop. The
cylinder pictured can be the cylinder that drives the model function, or
parallel cylinders from the same hoses can do that. It could be most of the
system or a building block for a larger system. I like the fact that few enough
pneumatic elements are used that it should be accessible to more people.
I thought of a few applications for the system:
- Truck suspension including centre lift or tag axle (redistribute the force to
the non-lifting wheels)
- With higher feedback gain, a show car bouncy
suspension or monster truck jumping function.
- Anti-roll suspension, putting
more pressure to the outside wheels when cornering.
- Power steering (add an
axle across the system, to keep the wheels in sync with the steering wheel).
-
Robot leg force balancing or body weight distribution for a biped.
- NXT
precise control of pneumatics. The NXT motor with its shaft encoder can tell
the position of the red beam if driven by a worm and rack. Therefore the NXT
can know what the cylinder position set point is and can use open loop control
with a suitable delay for the actual cylinder position.
I have a few more ideas for multiple applications in one model, which I will
think about further. A smooth drive steam engine should be possible, varying
the pseudo-steam pressure and hence implementing a real steam loco reverser
speed control function. The levers in the demonstration model do a similar
thing to the valve gear in a steam engine, adding together the piston position
and the reverser position. The gains of input, dither and feedback would be
adjusted for each application.
Hope you like the video, and find it explains things OK. I didn’t write a
script first, so a few “um”s and “er”s crept in. I was surprised it ended up
being 10 minutes long. Glad I found some free software to convert .mov files to
.mp4 as it cut the file size by 80%.
Enjoy!
Mark
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Mark J E Bellis LEGO Pneumatics
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=82736
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