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Net Work Alan Winstanley This month’s column has news of new energy-saving incentives for smart meter users, the ORA Funky Cat BEV finally launches, some of Logitech’s mice are considered and there’s more space program news. A s winter approaches, with another potential energy crunch looming, news recently leaked out in Britain that some consumers would again be offered cash to reduce their energy consumption during periods when the energy supply was under pressure. It’s now four years ago that I wrote about the country’s faltering smartmeter programme which, on the face of it, was being marketed as a benign scheme to help users monitor energy consumption and save money (Net Work, December 2019). Back then, I wrote that ‘ultimately, [smart meters] will change the way we manage our power consumption – and pay for it – for ever.’ I think the same still holds true today. In Great Britain, the National Grid ESO (Electricity System Operator) is responsible for delivering electricity to British homes and businesses: they own the wires and pylons, while separate electricity suppliers buy electricity from the power generators and resell it to end-users, as the National Grid explains at: www.nationalgrideso.com In Q1 23, the renewable sector’s share of total generation reached 47.8%, setting a new record. A network of interconnectors also enables gas and electricity to be exported or imported between the UK and other countries, see: https://bit.ly/pe-nov23-ofgem The National Grid ESO Electricity National Control Centre (ENCC) manages electricity supplies across the country. (Image: National Grid) A recent summary on energy trends by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero showed that the UK actually exported 41% more gas compared with a year ago, to help prop up mainland Europe’s energy shortfall. Furthermore, the UK has the second largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification network in the whole of Europe, the department says, allowing the UK to support mainland Europe’s efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. The transmission of electricity is managed at the National Grid ESO Electricity National Control Centre (ENCC). The huge problem we face is of course the lack of spare capacity, especially if a severe winter threatens. The idea behind Demand-Side Response (DSR) is to iron out the peaks and troughs by balancing the available 1557 IP68 sealed enclosures Learn more: hammfg.com/1557 uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812 10 Practical Electronics | November | 2023 energy with customer demand. Smart meters will enable demand for energy to be ‘shaped’ and, if necessary, consumers could be encouraged to turn down the lights at peak times by, for example, offering them cash rebates. Limited trials were held early this year when the National Grid implemented its so-called Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) for the very first time, which gave modest rebates to some users who reduced their demand. A further 12 DFS tests will be held this winter, says the National Grid, starting in November 2023 through to March 2024. This will help to show whether the scheme is commercially viable, noting that participants with a smart meter need to sign up for DFS through their own supplier. (As more evidence of the direction of travel, there really is such a thing as the 2023 Net Zero ‘Behaviour Change Campaign of the Year’ and National Grid ESO’s Demand Flexibility Service is shortlisted for an industry award.) In theory, smart meter customers could also be switched to other tariffs or pricier pre-payment packages, or ultimately be disconnected altogether, all by remote control. Since a lot of raw data is already out there, it’s not inconceivable that users could eventually be charged extra for using power on calm and cloudy winter days if wind and solar energy were in short supply, as another incentive to turn down the heating. Meanwhile, my own energy supplier, EDF, has tried contacting me more than 100 times by phone, text and mail to book a smart meter installation but I’m resisting for as long as I still have a choice. Despite having a mixed reputation, many users are very happy with their smart meter and find them useful in managing their energy accounts, but there are numerous problems with In-Home Displays not working properly and the UK Citizen’s Advice Bureau has now devoted a useful section to dealing with IHD problems, see: https://tinyurl.com/28oso42x Trading places To a layman, there may seem to be a lot of horse-trading going on somewhere if suppliers claim they offer ‘green energy’ or ‘100% renewable’ energy to their customers. After all, Britain’s electricity comes from various sources (power stations, solar, wind and so on) which all feed into the same National Grid. As far as end users are concerned, it’s just electricity coming out of the wall socket, whether it’s from a nuclear power station or a wind farm somewhere in the North Sea. So, if it’s all the same stuff, how can we know if our ‘green’ electricity actually comes from renewables and not, say, from a nuclear power station in France instead? Energy supplier E.ON is up front about this, stating that its renewables tariff is ‘Electricity backed by 100% renewable sources, E.ON’s renewable generation assets ... and the purchase of renewable electricity certificates. The electricity supplied to your home or business comes from the National Grid.’ The subject of electricity certificates is a complex paper exercise and it’s managed through the voluntary adoption of what are called ‘Energy Attribute Certificates’ (EACs). Trying to unpick how they work makes for some heavy reading, but essentially it boils down to having a system of verifying and certifying the output from energy producers in terms of where the MWh units of energy actually come from. In effect, this electricity generation data is then ‘booked’ or totalled up and it then goes into a virtual melting pot. EACs are described as ‘tradable digital certificates’ that contain factual details of how every The attractive-looking Ora Funky Cat has gone on sale in Britain starting at £32,000: it will face fierce competition from rival EV brands. Practical Electronics | November | 2023 MWh of energy was generated. They can then be ‘claimed’ or traded, regardless of where the underlying commodity (electricity in this case) originally came from. Suppliers can dip into this finite pot to buy or trade certificates, either as one-offs or under contract. Using this ‘book and claim’ method, the industry gains a tight understanding of how much energy is produced, and of what type, and rigid controls help ensure that electricity sources can’t therefore be ‘over-sold’. The same system of certificates extends to carbon capture and low-carbon hydrogen distribution. I can’t say how rigorous or robust the scheme actually is in practice, but in-depth details of how the system of EACs operates are provided by the non-profit International REC Standard body at: www.irecstandard.org A cool and Funky Cat Adverts have started appearing online for the ORA Funky Cat, a cute-looking battery electric vehicle (BEV) produced in China by Great Wall Motor (first described in Net Work, January 2022). It’s known locally as the Haomao (Mandarin for ‘Good Cat’). The BEV scored an impressive 5 star rating in Euro NCAPs safety tests and its makers hope that its attractive retro styling and equipment levels will win over many buyers. Prices now start at £32,000 which, like most BEVs, is a very tall order for many hardstretched drivers today, but finance and PCP are also offered. You can take a look at: https://gwmora.co.uk Car sales are 20% up on last year, driven mostly by fleet sales, as the sector emerges from the pandemic and problems with semiconductor shortages finally recede. While the sanguine motoring press claims that BEV sales are up by 72.3%, that’s only comparing August 2023 (17,200 units) sales with the same time last year (10,000). A quick glance at the latest SMMT statistics shows that, year to date, just one in six cars (16.4%) sold were BEVs. Petrol cars remain the biggest sellers, with 41.6% of the market, leaving 42% for hybrids of all types, plus diesels, remembering that hybrid EVs still have engines in them! The ORA will face fierce competition from a revitalised MG Cars with BYD (Build Your Dreams – see Net Work, May 2023) introducing soon its next EV, the well-regarded BYD Seal. China’s SAIC, the owners of MG Cars, is contemplating building its first factory in Europe and also expects to launch an electric sports car – the MG Cyberster – next year, with a teaser shown on: www.mgmotor.eu/model/cyberster 11 last decade, jumped ship in July to head up the clothing brand VF Corporation (The North Face, Timberland, Dickies). From RAGS to riches The 20-year old Logitech MX1000 is reckoned by the author to be one of the best full-size cordless mice ever made. Its microswitches, batteries and PTFE skids are repairable. With stock levels rising and availability improving, used car prices have fallen in the last five consecutive months, says Car Dealer magazine, but traders are still being very picky about stocking electric vehicles. Meantime, TV screens continue to pump out adverts for space-age BEVs that it seems five out of six car buyers can’t afford or don’t want to purchase. Totally IlLogitech Last month, I mentioned how some of Logitech’s early webcams utilised AI image-processing software that enabled the camera to ‘follow’ a moving subject. During the Covid lockdown, many staff chose (or were ordered) to work from home, which, along with semiconductor shortages, sent the price of webcams, laptops and gaming peripherals soaring. Supplies often dried up, and some readers might recall how I tried sourcing a Logitech C280 webcam for myself during the pandemic crisis. After I finally pinned one down, my triumph was short-lived as the highly prized (and over-priced) peripheral disappeared mysteriously while en route from Amazon in Italy. Logitech clearly made the most of the lockdown period: accounts filed in the USA show how Logitech’s gross profits more than doubled from $1.1bn in the year ended 31 March 2020 to $2.3bn in 2021, and net income before taxes more than tripled in the same period. Since then, sales of all product ranges have fallen across the board, with Logitech reporting that webcam sales have declined by 44% and net income has plunged by 60%. Perhaps hard-stretched consumers are making do with what they’ve got in, or the latest products offer few benefits and aren’t worth the investment in time and money. Logitech’s Chair and CEO Bracken Darrell, the name credited with transforming Logitech’s fortunes in the 12 Many seasoned PC users will have used Logitech keyboards and mice at one time or other and, in my experience, one of the best computer mice ever made was the Logitech MX1000 Laser launched about 20 years ago. This cordless mouse had a meaty, ergonomic form factor that fitted one’s (right) hand perfectly. Sought-after new old stock (NOS) models can fetch £200 ($250) or more on eBay today. Instead of throwing cash at expensive replacements, I service or repair my MX1000 every few years. The grippy, rubberised finish eventually wears off or goes sticky, something easily cleaned off with isopropanol. Eventually, switch-bounce causes troublesome double-clicking, but the Omron microswitches are repairable with some careful de-soldering. Not that I obsess about it, but the battery and stick-on PTFE feet (skates or skids) can all be sourced from eBay or AliExpress and I’ll sometimes buy tidy used examples for spares. One of Logitech’s legacies is their annoying habit of giving items a model number (M/N) as well as a user-friendly name, which makes searching for FAQs, tech support or drivers frustrating at times. My ‘MX™1000 Laser Mouse’, as they call it, is also known as an ‘M-RAG97’ but searching Logitech’s website for either phrase returned no results. Eventually, I scrolled through the ‘Support for Individuals’ section to find the elusive mouse and – more importantly – the legacy Setpoint driver software that’s needed to get the best out of it. However, I still hit a brick wall as several web pages were 404, and no software was available anyway – one reason why it’s a good idea to back up old drivers or keep old product CD ROMs. Despite all these setbacks, my mouse is working almost as well as the day it was bought, running perfectly on Windows 98 through to Windows 10. Pointing left Not that I’m against progress: a few months earlier, after checking out Logitech’s latest mouse range for a Windows PC that was going abroad, I chose a Logitech Signature M650 L ‘full size wireless mouse’ which seemed the best mid-priced choice for larger (hence the ‘L’ suffix) hands. A version designed for left-handed users is also offered, named the ‘M650 L LEFT’. Logitech’s Signature M650 L wireless mouse is described as a ‘large size’ mouse for large hands. It’s also available as a left-handed version. USB ‘Bolt’ adapter also shown; the mouse can also use Bluetooth. I found this latest cordless mouse was smaller, more lightweight and a lot more skittish than my old MX1000, but it also demonstrated the current state of the art in cordless mice design: instead of using a docking station to recharge an NiMH battery, the mouse holds a single AA battery giving up to 20 months’ operation; I use a (non-rechargeable) Energiser Ultimate or VARTA Ultra Lithium AA cell, which I expect will give several years of service. The connectivity side is steeped in Logitech’s trendy marketing jargon. Being cordless, a tiny USB receiver called the ‘Logi Bolt’ is supplied for PC use, but the same mouse can also use Bluetooth to connect to, say, a laptop or tablet. In this mode, Logitech says it’s compatible with Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, Linux, ChromeOS, iPadOS 13.4+, Android 5.0+ and Evo Laptops. For PC users, their ‘Logi’ software is installed, but instead of good old-fashioned drivers, users are offered ‘Logi Options+’ which it describes as the ‘next gen app for your mice and keyboards’. It seemed to install without a hitch, but I strongly dislike the sprawling software which takes up far too much unnecessary white space on screen and displays a bad case of designer-itis. Fortunately, you won’t need to use it very often. After some tweaking and localisation ready for its new home overseas, the PC was ready for shipping, complete with its new mouse. A few weeks later, I received an urgent call for help from the PC’s new owner – the Logitech mouse had suddenly stopped working and she urgently needed to print off a business document. An ordinary wired USB mouse would help at such times, but one wasn’t available. While searching desperately online for a user manual and FAQs, I found Practical Electronics | November | 2023 no good reason. Fortunately, users can easily revert to the old interface, which I very much prefer. You can download the program from: https://teamviewer.com In other news Antex Electronics, the UK-based manufacturer best known for its soldering equipment, has launched a hot tool designed for reworking and trimming 3D-printed objects. The Retouch3D is the world’s first heated tool to finish 3D prints, Antex says, and it has variable heat settings and interchangeable heads for specific 3D retouching and finishing tasks. Included are an international mains adaptor and various shaping tips. The new tool can be purchased from: https://bit.ly/pe-nov23-antex TeamViewer is among the best remote networking programs and it’s free for personal use. Logitech’s sprawling, over-designed website exasperating: their diagram of mouse buttons and features had no key to identify which is which, so I had to try describing to the user over the phone which buttons to try pressing next. The Logi software displayed a forlorn ‘Fix Device’ and a trashcan symbol, which would presumably delete the mouse altogether. I finally gave up when Logitech’s online support suggested the user opens and checks the Windows Device Manager for errors: how can you, if the mouse doesn’t work? (The answer is that you can, by typing Winkey + R to open a Run box, type devmgmt.msc and hit Enter – not that it would have helped anyway.) With the clock ticking away, I had one last stab at fixing the problem: I suggested unplugging and re-connecting the tiny USB ‘Bolt’ receiver again, on the back of the PC. She followed the directions and, lo and behold, the mouse immediately sprang into life again! The documents were then printed off just in the nick of time. I suggested she also goes and buys a cheap spare mouse from the supermarket, just in case. At other times, using remote access would allow me to log in and operate the PC as though I was sat in front of it, and TeamViewer has helped me to sort out PC problems remotely many times this way. Generously, TeamViewer is free for occasional personal use, although it’s now necessary to set up an account beforehand. TeamViewer has also suffered from bloated software designer-itis and it now has a sprawling interface that takes up a lot of screenspace for Antex Electronics has launched the world’s first heated tool for finishing 3D prints. A toolkit of tips and stand are included. Terrington Components • Project boxes designed and manufactured in the UK. • Many of our enclosures used on former Maplin projects. • Unique designs and sizes, including square, long and deep variaaons of our screwed lid enclosures. • Sub-miniature sizes down to 23mm x 16mm, ideal for IoT devices. MADE IN BRITAIN www.terrington-components.co.uk | sales<at>terrington-components.co.uk | Tel: 01553 636999 Practical Electronics | November | 2023 13 ISRO’s Pragyan Rover snaps the Vikram lander at the south pole of the Moon (ISRO/X) In August, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) saw its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft (translated as ‘Moon Vehicle 3’) complete a flawless historic mission. This ambitious project placed a lunar lander at the Moon’s south pole, making India only the fourth country to land on the Moon and the first country ever to explore the south pole. The moon lander, named Vikram after Vikram Sarabhai, the ISRO’s founder, carried the Pragyan Rover, which is shown exiting the lander at: https://youtube.com/shorts/ cYXMQ4UjjSk Both the lunar lander and rover were then hibernated and a re-awakening was expected around 22 September. In-depth details of the mission’s objectives and its equipment payload are at: https://bit.ly/3LqsBfy The Indian craft’s soft-landing celebrations are shown on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/DLA_64yz8Ss At the same time, Russia’s Luna-25 mission, also aiming at the south pole in August, was unfortunately lost during its final approach. Japan has just launched its own moon mission, the ‘Moon Sniper’ which should land next February. They hope to place the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) vehicle within 100m of the intended target. SpaceX’s Starlink is launching Starlink Mobility, a satellite-based data service aimed at enterprise mobile users such as trucks, buses and emergency services. The service offers downloads of up to 220Mbps and the ruggedised hardware will withstand pretty much everything the elements can throw at it. The price is strictly business-class, starting at £247 per month and a one-off hardware cost of £2,410, with a 30-day money back guarantee. More details at: www.starlink.com/mobility The Chinese electric VTOL air-taxi maker AutoFlight (Net Work, April 2022) has flown the world’s first formation of three generations of their Prosperity eVTOL aircraft. The full-size prototypes flew together for about 50 minutes at various heights, as shown at: https://youtu.be/_4eZ1LU2iFs The first certified aircraft should carry cargo next year and a passenger taxi version is promised later. In the US, a 6-motor electric aircraft is currently undergoing FAA certification. The aircraft, built by Joby Aviation, would carry four ‘ridesharing’ passengers and a pilot, see: www.jobyaviation.com Meanwhile, UK-based Vertical Aerospace suffered a setback when an unmanned prototype VX4 eVTOL craft fell to a runway from a height of about six metres during extreme testing. Details of the impressive aircraft can be seen at: https://vertical-aerospace.com Last this month, users of Microsoft’s Windows Mail, the email program built into Windows, will gradually be migrated to Outlook starting in 2024. New Windows 11 systems will start to ship with Outlook installed by default, but the Windows Mail app will still be available for download for the next year. Outlook for Windows will be free – more at: https://tinyurl.com/mwp28rs9 That’s all for this month’s Net Work. Don’t forget that the above links will be ready-made for you in the Net Work summary blog on our advert-free website at: www.electronpublishing.com The author can be reached at: alan<at>epemag.net AutoFlight displayed the world’s first formation of three eVTOL aircraft, which flew for 50 minutes at various altitudes. (Two eVTOLs shown.) 14 Practical Electronics | November | 2023