Counterfeit mains cable warning

Approved Cables Initiative will publicise details of fake or counterfeit cableThe UK is being deluged with tens of thousands of kilometres of dodgy mains cable – sub-standard, counterfeit mains cable is entering the supply chain from overseas and is passed off as genuine product.

However, the fake cable's actual specification and quality are anything but safe, and they could burn out and cause dangerous electrical fires or even worse. They may all bear authentic markings but even ordinary flexible mains flex can be faked, using under-rated copper cores that have a higher resistance; these will overheat and burn out under load.

Cables destined for emergency lighting or alarm systems that should withstand heat for hours can burn out in a few minutes and emit poisonous fumes at the same time, because cheap PVC insulation is used instead of fire-resistant materials.

Up to one in five reels of electrical cables sold in the UK could be fake and about 20 million meters of this dangerous, non-compliant electrical cable were seized in just nine months by UK trading standards. It's shredded and the copper is recycled.

High metal prices have made it more attractive for disreputable manufacturers to cut corners on cable quality. One well-known UK DIY chain has been struggling to ensure that sub-standard Turkish-made cable had been withdrawn from sale. Some product slipped through the safety net and the same Atlas Kablo brand of cable may also have been used in the trade by electrical contractors.

The Approved Cables Initiative (ACI) has been established in the UK to address the issue of unsafe, non-approved and counterfeit cable entering the UK marketplace. Thay say their role is to investigate and publicise the findings of cables found to be faulty, counterfeit or non-compliant with British, European or International Standards.

It's hard to tell whether cable is genuine or not, so buy from reputable sources only that have a quality-controlled supply chain. More details, news and videos on the ACI website at http://www.aci.org.uk.

Hang on to your cables...

I’ve a multitude of computer and photo peripherals, mobile phone accessories and electronics that all have to be plugged into something or other. USB mice, Firewire video cameras and scanners, mains adaptors for mobile phones, cameras and radios... a problem I often have is how to keep the USB cables or power leads handy and stop them disappearing behind the desk when I disconnect them for any reason.

Handy stick-on cable-clips stop PC connection cables from disappearing off the deskI found these handy stick-on cable clips that will retain any leads up to roughly 6mm diameter. You can stick them on the desk or tabletop and feed the cables through them, and the connector plug will always be to hand and won’t vanish, whip-lash style, out of view the moment you unhook it.

They keep the PC lead for my camcorder handy, as well as my wireless mouse mains adaptor, portable radio PSU lead, USB extension leads too. They also tidied up some errant wires that trailed down from the top shelf.

The soft and rubbery plastic clips are available in bright colours and sized just over 1” diameter, fitted with double-sided foam disc. You can buy them on eBay for a couple of pounds for twelve. I repeated my order for a dozen more of these handy things.

They could also be used to grip pens, CF memory cards or maybe the edges of card etc. What else could you use them for?

 Sticking up four fingers to Android

KitKat 4 mega-bite Mobile version

The next version 4.4 of Android will be dubbed not Key Lime Pie but..... KitKat.  They have a sweet tooth at Google HQ, and Nestlés iconic four-fingered chocolate wafer bar has been chosen as the face of Android’s next iteration, following hard on the heels of the current Jelly Bean.

Nestlé has joined in the fun, being impressively quick off the mark by re-engineering its website in anticipation of this latest upgrade.  KitKat 4.4 has arrived, says the home page, and by scrolling down the page you can learn more about KitKat’s hardware and accessories.

KitKat 4 mega-bite version will be ideal for mobile or i-Tea workersKitKat 4.4 features include adjustable orientation, allowing data to be consumed in landscape or portrait mode. Accessories include mugs of coffee in various colours, and it comes with 2 mega-bites, 4 mega-bites or Chunky options. It’s Mobile, too, so you can take one to work.

To learn more about this essential accessory for i-Tea workers, head over to www.kitkat.com and slowly scroll down to immerse yourself in the benefits of KitKat 4.4. 

More details on www.android.com. Let's hope you don't have to keep your Android 4.4 phone or tablet in the fridge during hot weather though...

EPEMag.Net revisions

Today EPEMag.Net - the independent website supporting EPE - was slightly re-jigged in order to better carry product reviews, reference articles and generally make navigation more direct and clutter-free. The legacy PIC micro source code page from the original EPE website (which I handled until the USA took over – then I took it back over again!) is still there and the site has been groomed for broken links etc. and some redundant pages have been removed.

A new How-To’s page is the start of a collection of various technical projects for enthusiasts, not necessarily purely electronics-based  but involving electronics tech. somewhere.

The Reviews page is a bit ad-hoc, I know.  I wanted to cover some useful bits and bobs that I’ve had in mind for a long time and is still relevant today, so I started by examining some interesting battery rechargers.

The FAQ page has been updated to reflect current developments at EPE. I think it’s safe to say that the subject of Silicon Chip involvement is now a settled question and most readers accept the situation, so there’s no need to bang on about that.

The changes should make it easier to add web pages, reviews, articles etc.  as I have a mountain of material in the pipeline that I’d really like to share, including PICmicro-related articles. So hopefully EPEMag.Net will start to expand into a useful resource.

Visit the site at www.epemag.net

New Basic Soldering Guide (Kindle Edition) launched

In association with Antex (Electronics), the UK's leading maker of soldering irons and equipment, I'm pleased to launch my new Basic Soldering Guide Kindle Edition.  You can read a bit more about it  here.

Not just Pocketmags

Many views have been exchanged about the new Pocketmags version of EPE. Readers who don’t get along with it too well don’t hesitate to let their feelings be known, but at the same time a good proportion of mobile & tablet users have found EPE for the first time and think EPE Pocketmags’ version is great – just the job, and they tell us so.

When the PDF version was replaced by the Pocketmags service, it would be true to say that EPE grafters, especially Stewart and I, were all but kicked to death by a small number of vocal readers and in the recent past we’ve been subjected to some pretty vile emails from individuals. Stewart has attempted to patiently reply to each and every one, but in one or two examples readers’ comments have been extraordinarily obnoxious and aggressive: judging by their tone, anyone would think that life support had been withdrawn when EPE Online (the PDF version) came to a halt. I usually find that hardened engineers are happy to shoot from the hip and they couldn’t really care that real human beings are on the other end. Such behaviour is nothing to be proud of, and sadly there were one or two whom we eventually refused to deal with any further at all.

Why was the PDF version withdrawn?  The online version of EPE was engineered many years ago by Techbites in the USA, who designed the reader download and subscription system, which was all bespoke coding.  In mid-late 2012 the servers, which were based on the Joomla CMS, were subjected to repeated hack attacks which eventually damaged the website beyond repair and made the service unsustainable. As fast as it was repaired it was wrecked again.

It’s more complicated still: the fact is that the original design firm in the USA no longer existed by that time and the owners had gone their separate ways. EPE Online was being run single-handedly by Alvin, who did his best to keep it afloat and provide a service to EPE subscribers but the codebase was obsolete and couldn't be updated readily. EPE PDF was also being pirated to death by then, to the detriment of our paying subscriber base, and we weren’t willing to let that continue.  

It was never going to be possible to rewrite the entire bespoke system from scratch, and the difficult decision was made to relocate back to the UK at very short-notice at the end of 2012. None of this was of our making or choosing but if we did not act fast then EPE readers would have had nothing left to download at all. Much credit goes to Alvin and Dean for helping in the transition back home.

A new website was built (www.epemag.com) at short notice, domains were transferred back to the UK and the entire EPE database of back issues, updates, cover shots, source codes, PCBs had to be totally rebuilt by hand – work that is going on to this very day. I prioritised the latest issues and worked backwards through the pile, and I update the website with Dreamweaver every month.

There’s no disputing that the Pocketmags service has had a mixed reaction, and for some users it plainly will not work and they have been quick to say so. The days of selling an unprotected  PDF of EPE are over. Given the costs and niche volumes involved, it will probably never be possible to cover every platform though. A replacement PDF-based system has been under trial for some time, which requires a plug-in that is designed for Adobe Reader for Windows only. We can say that the PDF can be stored and archived on disk: it is unlocked in the reader’s software and the plan is that several licences will be made available to let the PDF be read on e.g. two Windows machines.

Other platforms may follow in due course (no promises) but for now it is felt the Windows Reader will satisfy the requirements of most of our readership. Trials have generally been encouraging but it takes a long time for a very small company to introduce a key service like this, and we’re determined to ensure it meets our needs as well so that we have a sustainable service for the foreseeable future.

EPE Chat Zone: cabal-stripping

The EPE Chat Zone forum - basic but solid and well-mannered. Usually.I've run the EPE Chat Zone electronics forum since the 1990's, which is provided to enable hobbyists to help each other out and exchange views in a (I insist!) good-natured, civil and abuse-free professional  environment. It's based on the now obsolete but very robust Perl-based Discusware program which has withstood the test of time, unlike many other PHP programs. Discus disappeared out of business but kept the support pages up for several years, which I'm grateful for.

My first Chat Zone in the 1990s used Matt's WWWboard program, which (unbelievable now) was open to anyone to post. It was OK until it was destroyed by Russian pornographers of the illegal kind. I hope to modernise the entire forum when I get the chance: IPBoard or Xenforo are on my short-list.

The EPE Chat Zone forum has never been a formal channel of communication with me or the Publishers as we have a deliberate policy of providing individual replies to individual queries. Why is that? Partly because Email is more manageable than having a live forum. Otherwise I end up fighting battles on multiple fronts in real time which diverts me from other more productive work. Sometimes the forum could take up an entire evening of herding cats and I've emerged from it all pretty well drained or exhausted. The feeling of being kicked to death is not a pleasant one.

Life gets difficult when I am put into a position where individuals want to grab the steering wheel and use our forum for their own ends, or (often) to try and provoke a tussle with the Publishers.  Users would never be allowed to do the same in counterpart forums and I think I generally apply a light touch only to the running of the EPE Chat Zone. History proves that only a tiny fraction of posts are deleted, and that's because they contain damaging mis-information or abuse that we should not be expected to tolerate. It is better than the other option of having a 100% pre-moderated forum which kills the fun for everyone.

If now't else, EPE has been highly successful in developing reader loyalty and it's absolutely recognised that some users might have a complaint or grievance they wish to air, especially following the unforeseen demise of the USA EPE Online site and the rapid introduction of Pocketmags. Most users observe the  Chat Zone forum's AUP and rules of netiquettes well enough, but the whole of the rest of the Internet is available in which to form cabals or garner support for user's own views. I might do something in EPE Net Work to help get people started on Facebook, once I puzzle out their 54 privacy settings.

EU Business Register Alert!

It's back again - I received the same old EU Business Register mail (previously, World Trade Register)  - with the €995 price tag hidden in the small print. Don't be fooled by the 'updating is free of charge' - read my post here.

===  email spam ===

Dear Madam/Sir,

In order to have your company inserted in the EU Business Register for 2013/2014, please print, complete and submit the attached form (PDF file) to the following address:

EU BUSINESS REGISTER
P.O.BOX 3079
3502 GB UTRECHT
THE NETHERLANDS

Fax: +31 205 248 107

Updating is free of charge.

Writing for Amazon Kindle? Tackle the US Withholding Tax.

UPDATE

It may now be possible to use your UK HMRC Tax Reference Number to claim 0% Withholding Tax. I posted an update in 2015 here.

Practical tips for handling US Withholding Tax from the UK perspective

Links and rates were accurate at the time of writing, May 2013

If you’re a UK Amazon Kindle contributor then your royalties will be subjected to US Withholding tax (currently 30%), unless you apply for exemption under a US-UK tax treaty. Unfortunately, the US Internal Revenue Service criteria have tightened in recent years and you’ll face some stringent rules and bureaucracy if you want to deal with your tax affairs properly. I wanted to apply for exemption but found that some of the info. dotted around on the web was out of date, so I’ve summarised what I’ve learned, valid as at May 2013, after several days of surfing around US Gov’t websites and corresponding with the US Embassy in London. This isn’t a thorough analysis, nor was it written by a qualified tax advisor, but it should steer UK contributors with the basics of US tax.

Firstly, as a “non-resident alien” you need to file an IRS tax return once your US-based income exceeds the year’s personal exemption amount (the IRS equivalent of a personal allowance), so says the IRS website Taxation of Non-Resident Aliens.

• For 2013, the personal exemption amount is $3,900 so you don’t have to file an IRS tax return if you earned less than that. See Publication 501 for an introduction to filing tax returns.

As regards your earnings, you can (will!) automatically pay US Withholding tax on ALL royalties and you could opt to leave it at that, or (a lot trickier) you can pay 30% Withholding tax and file an annual IRS return (Form 1040NR  Tax Return for Non-Resident Aliens) and claw it back again. In other words, even if you earn less than the personal allowance, you’ll automatically pay 30% US Withholding tax on your royalties unless you apply for an exemption. Once you earn more than $3,900, you’re supposed to file an IRS return anyway: I don’t know what happens if you don’t file such a return. Maybe the MiB's come and take you away.

In order to be exempted from Withholding taxes and receive your full royalty, individuals should apply for an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) with the US Internal Revenue Service. You cannot do this if you have a US Social Security Number (SSN). If you are a limited company or employer, you could apply for an Employer’s Identification Number (EIN) instead of an ITIN. This isn’t discussed here but this link may help.

Basically ITINs are obtained from the IRS using Form W-7. Complete it following the notes in Instructions IW-7. When you get your ITIN a few weeks later, send a Form W8-BEN to Amazon Digital Services in Seattle to complete the process. An ITIN is not for life and you now have to repeat this process every five years. All sounds easy enough...  

Note about Photo IDs

As per the Instructions for Form W-7 (here), one way is to simply fill in the W-7 form and send it with original ID (note, a current passport is the only stand-alone ID accepted), and an Amazon covering letter (q.v.) to the IRS in Austin, Texas, USA. That means you’ll be without your ID for 6 weeks+. Hopefully it wouldn’t get lost along the way... 

However the W-7 Notes explain other ways of applying for an ITIN, and also list the other forms of ID that can be used to prove your foreign status. If you don’t want to mail your original passport with your Form W-7, then two pieces of ID are required, one of which must (still) be a valid photo ID issued by a UK government agency, or documents certified by the office that originally issued the documents. For most of us in the UK, that still means (a) an original passport anyway or (b) other ID document + photo driver’s licence is needed. There’s no such thing as a ‘certified copy’ issued by the UK Government agencies. As you hold the original already, the UK issuing authorities don’t certify duplicates of passports or driving licences. It appears that a birth certificate could be used for ID, but a UK Photo ID would still be needed. See these IRS notes for information about the ID needed when applying for an ITIN.

In practice it looks like sending an original passport is the easiest route. Contrary to what I’d read elsewhere I found that the US IRS will [now] only accept copies of photo ID documents if they are notarized by the US Consulate in London. That’s right: if you want to use a photocopy of your passport only, you’ll have to pay them a visit to get it certified. It’s free of charge.

For many routine purposes, ID documents can be certified by a UK Notary Public at your expense. To repeat, unfortunately these won’t be acceptable to the IRS. A service such as the Post Office Identity Document Checking Service won’t be acceptable either. As the IRS clearly states: they only accept US-Consulate notarised copies of photo ID, or [UK] Government Agency certified copies [= no such thing].

So unless you send either (a) your original passport to the USA or (b) a suitable photo ID + 2^nd item of ID to the USA, you’ll have to visit the US Embassy in London and get a copy of your photo ID notarised by them, which is indeed what they invited me to do.  

The address is:

Internal Revenue Service
United States Embassy London
24 Grosvenor Square
London
W1K 6AH

You can walk in, but read the times and security information on the US Embassy website here.

An Authorised Acceptance Agent can handle the form-filling for you, for a fee, but I learned that they are now undergoing forensic training in identifying ID documents. It’s not clear if they can submit a copy of your photo ID and let you keep the original. See http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Acceptance-Agents--United-Kingdom

Obtaining an ITIN with Form W-7 for Exemption from US Withholding Tax

Let’s look at the Form W-7. To start the process, download the IRS Form W-7 from here and you must fetch the Instructions for W-7 (IW7) here. The PDF can be editted and saved/ printed directly in Adobe Reader, so type your answers into the W-7 and print off a hard copy. The basics that cover most ordinary applicants are below, which I found were acceptable to the US Consulate.

Reasons you are submitting Form W-7
[a - tick] Non resident alien required to get ITIN to claim tax treaty benefit
[h - tick] Other (see table in notes IW7) > type in Exception 1(d) ROYALTY INCOME (Why? See my note* below.)

Name 1a Type into the boxes your First / Middle/ Last name
Also fill 1b Name at birth, if different from 1a.

Fill 2 with your full mailing address, zip code and country.
Fill 3 with your non-US address if different from 2.

Fill 4  Date of birth (in US format mm/dd/yyyy), country/ county.

Tick 5 Male or Female.  Don’t overlook this box, it’s over on the right of the form!

Fill 6a  UNITED KINGDOM

Box 6d is tricky. You’ll probably have to tick 6d  Passport

Underneath, fill 
Issued by : UK   No: [your UK passport number]  Exp. Date [expiry date mm/dd/yyyy]

Box 6e tick No/ Do not know

Sign it,  Date it [month/ day/ year] 

Phone number best in International format + 44,  e.g. 01234 5678910  is  +44 1234 5678910

* Due to ticking box 1h claiming Exception 1d (per the Exception Tables in W-7 Notes, “Third Party Withholding on Passive Income”), remember to attach a duly completed Amazon ITIN supporting letter with your form.

According to IW-7 Notes you then either send it WITH ORIGINAL ID DOCUMENTS to the IRS in Austin, Texas (see notes in IW-7) or you must attend the US Consulate in London in person to have a US-certified copy of your passport made. The IRS will then complete the W-7 application and your ITIN will follow from the USA within ~ 60 days.

Don’t simply post your form and passport on spec. to the US Embassy in London and expect to receive an ITIN. They will RETURN it if it lacks an IRS-certified copy of your Photo ID, which you have to arrange in person. Alternatively you can send your W-7, full passport and Amazon letter to the IRS in Austin, Texas – if you want to risk it.

Nearly there!

When you finally get an ITIN, complete Form W8-BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding downloadable from here with Instructions from here. It is very straightforward and needs to be snail-mailed to Amazon Digital Services in Seattle, USA. Write your KDP Publisher Code somewhere in the top margin. More details are on the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) site.

Hopefully these details will help you complete your application successfully. You'll have to repeat this every five years.

• As I said at the start, this isn’t a thorough analysis, nor was it written by a qualified tax advisor, but it should steer UK contributors with the basics of US tax. Unfortunately I cannot help with US tax advice but I welcome feedback or comments.

Useful Links

Amazon Tax information

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A1VDYJ32T5D3U4

Official Amazon covering letter required with W-7 under Exception 1(d)

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/opt/general/test/AmazonDigitalServices_ITIN_Letter._V163067125_.pdf

IRS website links

There is plenty of online information on the IRS website. It is comprehensive but quite turgid and US bureaucracy is as bad as anything you get in the EU. Here are the main IRS links that I found most useful, correct May 2013.

Publication 515  Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p515.pdf

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxation-of-Nonresident-Aliens

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/General-ITIN-Information

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Individual-Taxpayer-Identification-Number-%28ITIN%29

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/2013-ITIN-Updated-Procedures-Frequently-Asked-Questions

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Revised-Application-Standards-for-ITINs

http://www.irs.gov/w7 Form W-7, and
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw7.pdf Instructions and notes for Form W-7

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040nr.pdf  Form 1040NR Tax Return for Non-resident aliens, and
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040nr.pdf  Instructions for Form 1040NR

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Acceptance-Agents--United-Kingdom

http://london.usembassy.gov/irs/ London Embassy

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf  Form W8-BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding, and

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf Instructions for the W8-BEN.

Please report any broken links.

HD TV or not HD TV, that is the question...

At my local Tesco Electricals desk I got chatting to a chap who was cogitating their flatscreen TVs.  He’d just bought a Panasonic 50” (wow!) “1080p HD Ready” flat screen TV from somewhere, but was extremely hacked off because it doesn't receive Freeview HD television channels, he said. Ouch....

A week earlier I’d replaced our 10-year old Sony analogue TV, with a Samsung 40” Smart TV, described as "1080p HD Ready". But it receives Freeview HD channels and we like it so much that a week later we bought a 22” Samsung “HD Ready” for the kitchen. The smaller TV does not receive Freeview HD. Both came from Argos (good service*, great prices.)

The guy’s dissatisfaction was very understandable.  Many people got over the ‘digital switchover’ hump in 2012 by using a cheap set-top box (STB) in an older analogue telly as a stop-gap.  Now they’re swapping old analogue sets (I took two cathode-ray tube TVs to the tip - good riddance) with proper digital flat screen TVs, with HD, HDMI ports and maybe ethernet built in.

The problem is that the retail sector is playing fast and loose with the terminology of High Definition Television and I sense a lot of confusion still out there. Even I admit, as a techie savvie sort of guy, that I almost got caught out by some simple misunderstandings.

It’s high time that the retail sector got its act fully together: I sometimes wonder if the blind are leading the blind, and I cite as a prime example the current Argos Spring 2013 catalogue and its description of its TV sets.

Argos Spring 2013 Catalogue: can all Argos HD-ready TVs view Freeview HD? Answer, not directly, no.On HD Ready sets Argos says that “All our TVs are HD ready... this means you can enjoy high-definition pictures from HD sources such as Freeview HD, Freesat HD and Sky.”

This gives the layman the impression that you can watch High Definition [Freeview HD as a minimum] programs on every TV set supplied by Argos, but you can’t. You’ll generally be stuck with a Standard Definition picture. Only if you supply an ordinary HD-ready TV with an HD program (say, from a separate HD recorder or an HD set-top box), can you can enjoy an HD picture on such a set.

People usually know that satellite (Sky) is an extra cost but a Freeview tuner is built into all new sets. There is of course a critical omission in the Argos blurb: to watch Freeview HD your TV needs a Freeview HD Tuner, or, you need a separate recorder or STB with Freeview HD built in. It’s just wrong for Argos to imply that you can enjoy HD TV like that.  Without a Freeview HD tuner then the TV will show the picture in Standard Definition (like my smaller Samsung TV - the penny dropped later!). In fact that’s what most of Argos’s TVs  do. Freeview HD TV is supplied on a minority of sets only.

Over on the extreme right of their catalogue is the gotcha: “Watch out for our Freeview HD televisions that let you watch High Definition, subscription free.”

• Remember – if you want to see Freeview HD channels, then your HD-Ready TV must have a Freeview HD tuner built in, or, you must use a separate HD tuner, perhaps in an HD hard disk recorder.
• Freeview HD+ means it has two tuners, so you can watch/ record two programs at the same time.

 Watch for the Freeview HD logo on a TV set if you want to watch Freeview HD programs directly on it. Otherwise you'll see a vanilla Standard Definition image.

Check the Freeview FAQS and be careful to check the specs when looking for a new telly.

To quote the FAQ: "Remember that an HD ready logo on your TV doesn’t mean that you are already watching HD channels on Freeview. When you’re buying a box or TV, look out for the Freeview HD logo to ensure that you’re buying an approved Freeview product, so you’ll be able to access all the Freeview HD channels as well as the standard 50* Freeview channels."

I contacted the Freeview consortium and received the following comments from their press office:

“We would advise anyone looking to buy a Freeview HD TV to look out for the Freeview HD logo. Use of this logo requires a trademark licensing agreement which ensures that the product does, in fact, support the Freeview HD service.

“Whilst it is true that the majority of TVs in the market today have Freeview HD [sic] built in, it is important to look for this logo as a guarantee that no additional equipment is required. We work with retailers to ensure that store staff members are clear that ‘HD ready’ isn’t the same as ‘Freeview HD’.

“Freeview ensures that this distinction is clear in all of our marketing and in-store signage. We will continue to encourage retailers to do the same.”

* No sooner had I paid and sat down than the TV was waiting for me at the collection desk 30 seconds later. Remarkable!