Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 October 23
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October 23 edit
Battery trouble edit
My Nikon 880 Coolpix camera seems to blow through the batteries after just 3 pictures. I have about 4 batteries and 2 chargers but no matter what I do, the camera seems to indicate a tremendous loss of charge after so short a duration. Any ideas? DRosenbach (Talk | Contribs) 02:40, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- My first thought is either it is the camera or the batteries, easiest way to prove that is take it back to the place you bought it from or if that fails go into an electronics store or department with the batteries at least and tell them you need to purchase those type of batteries and then try to have them test your original batteries in a like product to see if you might be in the market for a camera instead. There are devices that test the charge/effectiveness of batteries I believe if you are willing to make an investment in that (or get a friendly store clerk to test them for you). Market St.⧏ ⧐ Diamond Way 04:44, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- That's quite an old camera; came out in 2000. If the batteries are the same age as the camera, then that would be the most likely suspect. Otherwise it could be a leaking elco, or something else causing the camera to indicate empty battery when it isn't. With two chargers, it seems unlikely that they would be the cause... Ssscienccce (talk) 09:17, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- Try disposable alkaline batteries. If those last longer, that tells you it's the batteries/charger that's the problem, not the camera draining them too quickly. StuRat (talk) 16:17, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
Equipment with a number scratched onto it - why and how? edit
You know how you sometimes see office equipment with a number engraved / scratched / etched onto it?
I need to do the same thing but not sure what to use?? I don't want to put a sticker on instead because it needs to be wash-resistant, so I'm sure I want to scratch into it, but what kind of implement would do the job?
And on that note, why exactly do other companies do it? If it's to perhaps identify and track equipment, what kind of software do they use?
Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.180.120.153 (talk) 11:49, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- You can get stickers which won't come off in the wash. Better to do that than try scratching into it. And yes, it's so that the company can keep track of all the equipment it owns, who it is assigned to, what it's worth, how old it is and so on. Larger companies have asset software (ours is part of an Oracle ERP system) which includes barcodes in the sticker as well as a unique identification number. --Viennese Waltz 11:54, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- There's also UV markers to protect against theft. These are invisible to the naked eye and good for use on electrical and expensive things and tend to be waterproof. Otherwise markers and a file are also good. Thanks ツ Jenova20 (email) 12:05, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- These are inventory control tags. Businesses need these for accounting purposes (for both stocktaking and tax writedowns), warranty claims (if a machine breaks, you want to know when you bought it and whether you can still claim on the warranty or on an extended maintenance plan you bought), resource utilisation (e.g. if someone quits you want to make sure stuff allocated to them is reclaimed, so it can be used by someone else), and maintenance tracking (so if IT wants to increase the RAM in all the desktop PCs, they want to track which ones they've already upgraded). It's also useful for various kinds of loss prevention, including insurance claims (if there's a fire, the insurance company will want some evidence of what equipment was lost, so it's much better if you can quote them specific inventory codes) and in some cases theft and incidental damage. You'll find lots of different inventory management solutions online, which include numerical and/or barcode tags of various kinds (and the associated printers and scanners for those). There are lots of tags, from simple handwritten paper ones to embossed or laser-engraved plastic or metal ones, some with hard-to-remove glue or that are specified to withstand difficult conditions like humidity, weathering, etc. Some of these are very very robust, including those that add dot-matrix serial numbers as a bunch of small plastic dots which are insanely difficult to remove (requiring nothing short of a chisel). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:12, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- You need an hand engraving tool or a rotary tool like a Dremel with a small bit. Rmhermen (talk) 20:20, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- Yes, I used to mark lots of equipment this way. It makes it almost unsaleable on the second-hand market, so less likely to be stolen. Deep engraving is the only marking that's impossible to remove. I could remove the so-called "permanent" metal identification tags in five seconds, leaving hardly a mark. Dbfirs 20:34, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- The type of tool you need is something like this, as Rmherman has already suggested, from Engraver#Modern_hand_engraving, and a 'Dremel' brand rotary tool 220 of Borg 12:27, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
- You can also laser-etch serial numbers, bar-codes and such like onto almost any material. For metals, there is a liquid called "Cermark" that chemically reacts with the metal when the laser hits it to leave an indelible black mark. Most aircraft parts and many kinds of electronic parts are numbered that way. SteveBaker (talk) 18:22, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
- Does Coaches of the Great Western Railway#Numbering help you at all? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:59, 23 October 2013 (UTC)