SI Coupling Stick

[RobL]

Can anyone recommend a household object that would serve as one of SI's coupling sticks?



Before the weekend I need to synchronise some of the newer SI boxes (that need a stick). Sadly I am currently stick-less, so any help would be appreciated..

Thanks,

Rob.

[Godders]

Screwdriver?

[Kitch]

sofa ?

[Adventure Racer]

If you have an old radio you're prepared to sacrifice, then the ferrite rod that acts as part of the tuning circuit (a black rod with lots of wires wrapped round it) should be an almost perfect substitute.

I'm not convinced a screwdriver will actually help that much.

[RobL]

Thanks Godders. Have tried the following without luck:

- screwdriver
- teaspoon
- fat pencil

Anyone know what's inside a coupling stick?? Is it graphite?

Cheers,

R.

[RobL]

I think that you're right about the radio solution, but I wonder how many years it's been since radios were made that way?

[openadventure]

An Allen key does the job - used it myself when I forgot the coupling stick at an event. Recommended it to a friend a weeks ago who phoned up in a panic having done the same - did the job.

[brooner]

An Allen key does the job - used it myself when I forgot the coupling stick at an event. Recommended it to a friend a weeks ago who phoned up in a panic having done the same - did the job.

hehe, we could have done with that in Bristol eh stodge

[pyrat]

mini dildos dont work.

[Ed]

mini dildos dont work.

for this purpose, or in general?

[Adventure Racer]

Trouble with anything normally ferrous is that it will also be conductive, so currents will be formed and the energy is dissipated. A ferrite rod helps transmit the magnetic field, but is not electrically conductive, so won't dissiate the energy. That's why things like screwdrivers don't work. I really can't think of any good substitutes for a proper ferrite rod - just need a radio old enough to have manual tuning, as that will almost certainly have one - otherwise Maplins sell them.

[NeilC]

Nice thread. On a related subject I found myself without a magnet a while back with the planner impatiently waiting for his controls to be programmed. Any magnet would do I thought, and I'd seen them turned on by walkie talkies in the past. Anyway all fridge magnets failed miserably, as did the microwave oven and hifi speakers. I was just about to resort to winding wire round a nail when the aforementioned planner decided to come back the next day. Has anyone out there used alternative magnetic sources?

P.S. Rob - I'll be driving past Lancing about 9:30 tomorrow en route to dumping the kids at JIRCS so can drop off the rod that I didn't give you on Wednesday then (assuming the vandalised radio approach didn't work).

[graeme]

dibbèr?

[Mrs H.]

dumping the kids at JIRCS

Oh yes!

[Crispy]

See you at the Pot O' Porridge Mrs H??