Lidl Crowborough is selling electronic spirit levels @£25 (lartge box
full seen on Saturday). They appear to be robust and have the 2
normal vials at 90deg. Tucked in at one end is an electronic unit
with LED screen powered by 9v battery. No instructions, of course.

Strongly suspect wise counsel would whisper 'leave on shelf', even so
several Qs arise:

1. How do the levels work?

2. The electronics has a 'calibrate' button - how does that work?
Guessing - is the electronic section calibrated by setting the level
on a flat surface as shown by the vials and then pressing calibrate?
Or is it something more sophisticated than that.

3. After calibration does the electronic unit have its own level
detector which takes over independant of the vials?

4. Box shows supplier to Lidl is Paget Trading Ltd of Woodrow London.
Searched web to try to discover more info about the levels but drew a
blank. Internet searches reveal other people trying to contact this
firm! Is it bust? Where are these levels manufactured?

5. What are its pukka competitors?


It looks stout, so it could be a reasonable purchase provided the
vials can be reset and the electronic unit calibrated / validated,
but.....any knowledge or opinions out there?

TIA

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:44:57 -0700 Jim wrote :
4. Box shows supplier to Lidl is Paget Trading Ltd of Woodrow London.
Searched web to try to discover more info about the levels but drew a
blank. Internet searches reveal other people trying to contact this
firm! Is it bust? Where are these levels manufactured?

At a quick look on http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/WebCHeck/fastrack/
I couldn't find a company of this name. It might just mean it's a
company registered outside the UK

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk

In article .com, jim
says...
Lidl Crowborough is selling electronic spirit levels @£25 (lartge box
full seen on Saturday). They appear to be robust and have the 2
normal vials at 90deg. Tucked in at one end is an electronic unit
with LED screen powered by 9v battery. No instructions, of course.

Strongly suspect wise counsel would whisper 'leave on shelf', even so
several Qs arise:

1. How do the levels work?

2. The electronics has a 'calibrate' button - how does that work?
Guessing - is the electronic section calibrated by setting the level
on a flat surface as shown by the vials and then pressing calibrate?
Or is it something more sophisticated than that.

3. After calibration does the electronic unit have its own level
detector which takes over independant of the vials?

4. Box shows supplier to Lidl is Paget Trading Ltd of Woodrow London.
Searched web to try to discover more info about the levels but drew a
blank. Internet searches reveal other people trying to contact this
firm! Is it bust? Where are these levels manufactured?

5. What are its pukka competitors?


It looks stout, so it could be a reasonable purchase provided the
vials can be reset and the electronic unit calibrated / validated,
but.....any knowledge or opinions out there?

TIA


I don't know about the Lidl one, but I bought a Black and Decker
"LaserPlus" and was very disappointed with it. I forget what tolerance
it was supposed to have in terms of vertical tilt error per horizontal
metre, but mine was several millimetres out and with no means of
adjustment.
Trouble was I bought it in the UK to use here in France, so taking it
back is not an option.

The error came to light after fixing a batten supposedly level by the
B&D, but when I put the machine on the other side of the timber, the
level was showing way out - they could not both be correct.

I subsequently tested it by first holding it one way around then the
other. The tilt is quite clear. Great if you want wonky shelves. It
turns out my old trusty bubble spirit level is more accurate. At least
you can turn it around and it still shows the same level.

--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

David in Normandy expressed precisely :
I subsequently tested it by first holding it one way around then the
other. The tilt is quite clear. Great if you want wonky shelves. It
turns out my old trusty bubble spirit level is more accurate. At least
you can turn it around and it still shows the same level.

That is the standard method of checking any level, to turn it round on
the same surface to check for errors. It doesn't give any clues to its
basic accuracy - to check for that, you can place a bit of thick card
under one end and see how far the bubble moves.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

jim wrote:

4. Box shows supplier to Lidl is Paget Trading Ltd of Woodrow London.
Searched web to try to discover more info about the levels but drew a
blank. Internet searches reveal other people trying to contact this
firm! Is it bust? Where are these levels manufactured?

Found via TÜV Rheinland certificates...

Paget Trading Ltd. 1 Raffles Place
No. 21-01 OUB Centre
Singapore 048616
Tel +49 (0)2233 379953
Fax +49 (0)2233 373159
Mr. Willy Clev

Paget Services http://www.impo-global.de

The UK address is at Woodrow Business Centre - a warehouse.

Paget Trading Ltd.
c/o Paget Services
65-66 Woodrow
UK London SE18 5DH
Tel.: +44 1525-715-937
Fax: +44 1525-714-083

Above numbers are a mail/contact forwarding service.

--
Adrian C

On 2007-10-10 10:44:57 +0100, jim said:

Lidl Crowborough is selling electronic spirit levels @£25 (lartge box
full seen on Saturday).

Next to the bananas?

They appear to be robust and have the 2
normal vials at 90deg. Tucked in at one end is an electronic unit
with LED screen powered by 9v battery. No instructions, of course.

Of course.



Strongly suspect wise counsel would whisper 'leave on shelf',

Any reasonable counsel would shout that since everything else in the
store is cheap crap why would that be any different?



even so
several Qs arise:

1. How do the levels work?

2. The electronics has a 'calibrate' button - how does that work?
Guessing - is the electronic section calibrated by setting the level
on a flat surface as shown by the vials and then pressing calibrate?
Or is it something more sophisticated than that.

3. After calibration does the electronic unit have its own level
detector which takes over independant of the vials?

4. Box shows supplier to Lidl is Paget Trading Ltd of Woodrow London.

OK, so this is a firm that unpacks containers arriving from Shanghai.



Searched web to try to discover more info about the levels but drew a
blank. Internet searches reveal other people trying to contact this
firm! Is it bust? Where are these levels manufactured?

5. What are its pukka competitors?


It looks stout, so it could be a reasonable purchase provided the
vials can be reset and the electronic unit calibrated / validated,
but.....any knowledge or opinions out there?

TIA

Those are big "ifs" and it depends on whether you want something
vaguely decent or to waste £25 on goodness knows what.

If you are looking for a worthwhile product then there are a selection
from manufacturers such as Leica, Stabila, Bosch etc.

Here's a selection.

http://www.yorksurvey.co.uk/products/51laser.htm

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:39:12 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:


http://www.yorksurvey.co.uk/products/51laser.htm

That site barely works with Firefox...

--
Frank Erskine

On 2007-10-10 22:03:25 +0100, Frank Erskine
said:

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:39:12 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:


http://www.yorksurvey.co.uk/products/51laser.htm

That site barely works with Firefox...

It barely works at all but they will send a catalogue. They are in
rural Yorkshire, after all, so one can't have high expectations.

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:12:52 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:

On 2007-10-10 22:03:25 +0100, Frank Erskine
said:

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:39:12 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:


http://www.yorksurvey.co.uk/products/51laser.htm

That site barely works with Firefox...

. They are in
rural Yorkshire, after all, so one can't have high expectations.

Well that's more or less what I was thinking. I'm surprised they have
electric light, never mind computers.

--
Frank Erskine

On 2007-10-10 22:25:04 +0100, Frank Erskine
said:

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:12:52 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:

On 2007-10-10 22:03:25 +0100, Frank Erskine
said:

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:39:12 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:


http://www.yorksurvey.co.uk/products/51laser.htm

That site barely works with Firefox...

. They are in
rural Yorkshire, after all, so one can't have high expectations.

Well that's more or less what I was thinking. I'm surprised they have
electric light, never mind computers.

Exactly, and th'only running water is what goes down 't' walls.

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:12:52 +0100, Andy Hall wrote:

They are in rural Yorkshire, after all,

So's the British Library !

so one can't have high expectations.

Andy Dingley wrote:
On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:12:52 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:

They are in rural Yorkshire, after all,

So's the British Library !

so one can't have high expectations.

I can race round it at speed!

On 2007-10-11 00:21:45 +0100, Andy Dingley said:

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:12:52 +0100, Andy Hall wrote:

They are in rural Yorkshire, after all,

So's the British Library !

Presumably to avoid any risk of theft........ :-)




so one can't have high expectations.

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:44:57 -0700, jim
wrote:

IMHE, these things are OK so long as you don't need something to be
accurately level.

If you want a consistent incline, such as for setting out drainage, then
they're quick and convenient at delivering an acceptable accuracy.

If you want "level", then you typically need better accuracy. They're
not up to this.

1. How do the levels work?

IMHE, there are lots of methods in detail, but they all use a swinging
pendulum to establish a local datum. There's then a sensor to read the
offset of this from the level's body. Older high-accuracy models used
an optical scale, cheaper ones use a non-contact inductive or capacitive
sensor. These have linearity problems on larger angles.