openrcforums

Hey guys. I just came back from the customs (Zoll in German) to get my hall sensors. I found strange that such a small light envelope ended up there for a start..
well, when I got there I had to answer a bunch of questions about it. what does it do, what do I need it for, what are they made off. What is the name in German, uau, it sounded like the old inquisition.. And when I said they were magnetic sensors they didn't know what that is.. I had to explain that they are switches that turn on when you put a magnet near them, so they would understand..

When I came home I realized a little sticker on the envelope saying:

möglicher verstoß gegen verbote und beschränkungen

which means in English:

possible violation against bans and restrictions

well if a couple hall effect sensors cause a problem like this I can imagine the arduino boards and FTDI adapters I am waiting for..
Not even mentioning radio gear

Anyone else having problems with electronics here??

João

Welcome to the world of half witted semi-sentient morons or politician/bureaucrats it's the EU and its only going to get worse!

My problem is not having to pay tax on this stuff. My problem is them saying that it is FORBIDDEN??

João

Hi João,

in these days this suspicious parts with wires/pins could have been electric igniters .

Never had such problems (except the seller didn't declare
the contents on the outside, no bill or s.th. else).

Klaus

It's strange cos my bag has a customs declaratiion value that is higher than what I paid for the order See the pictures. Also in Germany they gave it another tracking number, different from the one I had. Then on the paper they sent me, the only info is that I had a registered letter from China, and then not the real tracking number that I had, but the new one they gave. So, I had no idea of what they were talking about. Lucky this was my only registered order..
How stupid is that? On the envelope they had all the info about my order, but they just sent me those 2 pieces of info, and one I had no clue about it..

Someone at customs had a bad day.

Tough luck!

br KH

Hy
kommt mir alles sehr bekannt vor.
Ein Widerstandarry ist Teil eine terroristischen Vereinigung!

Ja, bem Zoll arbeiten nicht die Intelligentesten.
Und jetzt haben dort vor 4 Monaten Stifte angefangen,
denen muss man zeigen wie man den Bürger drangsalieren kann.

Dummheit siegt !

Helle

Maybe they are checking for LIPO.

I ship a couple a month to Germany. Havent had any real problems. I do have to watch my weight. One combination of product/packing is just exactly at the 2oz mark. Well it might be a little bit over . I've seen them get held up in customs in Germany/France and then eventually sent on. I just cut the packing slip in half for those orders . My guess is an automated scale kicks them out then they are later verified to be within the weight allowances by hand. Then again it all could be in my mind .

South America takes the longest.

My order was 10 Allegro A1302 linear hall sensors. They are tiny, even smaller than normal TO92 transistors. So weight was not the problem. There's a sticker saying "Possible forbidden material". This is what worries me. And the amount of questioning over these little sensors.
I spoke with another friend that also had problems. A board for his 3D printer got sent back or destroyed because they said the electronics weren't complying with the CE norm I understood. So any electronics we get from abroad could be affected
Will see in a week or so when the arduinos start arriving.

João

Have, at the moment, 4 small item separately on the way somewhere between China and Germany.

Lets hope the best ....

Meanwhile we learn, that there are people around here in Europe, who keep a Kalashnikov in the cupboard

My best guess would be that these guys might be looking for counterfeit parts which could result in insecure products when installed, therefore the note "Produktsicherheit" - product safety.
Considering my experiences with the friendly, but admittedly not too bright guys behind the customs counter, this is doomed to failure..
My 200mW 5.8gHz video transmitter went through without any further questions asked, albeit the 50mW regulation. 'RC Parts' was sufficient as a description of what it is and what it does. Paid my customs and fees and went back home.

I've got some electronics on the way from china, I'll happily report if they arrive and if my cheap, harmless ESP8266 serial to wifi adapter will be tagged as an Iphone compatible detonator...
(Note to BND and CIA: Sarcasm. No harmful intentions. Take a break..)

What are your plans for the ESP8266? Anything on RC?

Mike.

I'd like to convert the four cheap Ikea LED lights that I have around my room to PWM controlled smart-lights, meaning that I can control them from the pc or mobile phone, maybe even tying them into the alarm clock of my phone.
I've no idea how complex this might turn out, never used these things before, I've only got some basic experience with MSP430s and Arduinos, but would like to use the ESP8266s standalone, without a seperate micro, since they only have to control one PWM pin if I fit every light with its own ESP8266..
For starters I will try to connect the doorbell to one of these to send me a push notification whenever somebody rings..

Another idea that is floating around my head is to connect the serial output of my Graupner Trio 16 to it, so that I can monitor the charger in the basement from my computer upstairs using Logview or the default program.
EDIT: Well, ditch that, it's USB. Might be possible to plug one of those cheap linux capable TP-Link routers into it though. Unfortunately no time for that currently..

Mike, if installed in a transmitter, it could send you a notification to the PC or smartphone if you forget the radio ON. Most of the time, when I forget mine ON is at the field after turning the model OFF. I just go chatting with the others and completely forget the radio. In addition with making a lot of noise, it could send me a notification to my phone.. Don't know how hard that would be to implement though
What about communicating with eeposkye? what about if eepskye could run inside a browser? You could have it everywhere you could use a browser, and that includes your phone at the field.. This is just what crossed my mind.. Oh I forgot trainer capability between 2 transmitters, between eepskye and a transmitter, between ?tx and PC as joystick?. I believe being able to power it OFF when not in use is mandatory as it seems to take quite a bit of juice from the battery. Not a problem with the i2c implementation, right?

But we should continue this discussion in another thread

João

Well, look at what arrived today:
No customs, no fees, delivered by the regular mailman to my doorstep.
Label in green reads "Von zollamtlicher Behandlung befreit - Deutsche Post" which lousily translated means "free of customs treatment".
I just ordered some parts and some tiny 250mAh 1S lipos from Hobbykings NL Warehouse. Coming from the Netherlands those should not be examined by customs either, but I'll report nevertheless.

Philipp wrote:... from Hobbykings NL Warehouse. Coming from the Netherlands those should not be examined by customs either, but I'll report nevertheless.

Philipp. Coming from the Netherlands? With Chinese markings on the package?

That package came from far east, for sure. Or did I get you wrong?

br

I understand that is another order from the HobbyKing EU warehouse..

@Philipp, please keep us posted of any progress you make with these. João got some and sent me a couple, but I haven't had time to look into using them yet.

Mike.

kalle123 wrote:

Philipp wrote:... from Hobbykings NL Warehouse. Coming from the Netherlands those should not be examined by customs either, but I'll report nevertheless.

Philipp. Coming from the Netherlands? With Chinese markings on the package?

That package came from far east, for sure. Or did I get you wrong?

br

jhsa wrote:I understand that is another order from the HobbyKing EU warehouse..

João got me right, I'm talking about an order I placed yesterday, the pictured ESP8266 were ordered some weeks ago from china and arrived today.
However it is not uncommon that chinese packages are forwarded from the big harbors in Hamburg or the Netherlands, since the cheaper shipping options might use container vessels for that.

MikeB wrote:@Philipp, please keep us posted of any progress you make with these. João got some and sent me a couple, but I haven't had time to look into using them yet.

Mike.

I'll not make any progress with these till the mid of March, first exam is due next Wednesday..
This sounds very promising and interesting, though: http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html
I'm tempted purchase their nice breadboard friendly development board, too..
I might tinker a little bit with them for now, not much more.

Just want to chime in, my HobbyKing package from the Netherlands arrived today, no customs, no fees.
Contained just some inexpensive stuff totaling below the 20€ threshold, but some small lipos as well.

Coming from holland is never a problem nor will it go into customs as it comes from Europe.. That's the only place to buy cheap lipos from here I guess..

João

Just received an order from Banggood, relayed through the Netherlands as well, although ordered from China. Interesting

Another funny situation.. The German post assign another tracking number to the orders And then the customs send it to you. The problem is, you have no idea what what that number relates to because you never seen it before.. I guess that people are complaining because today I received another letter from customs to go get an order from HK, and they took a picture from the label allowing me to see the original tracking number..
I really can't understand why they change the original tracking number.. It is not very intelligent, is it? People have no idea what the order is, to print the right documents to take.. I must drive 30Km one way to get the stuff

João

I just found an interesting, if a bit off topic, bit of information.
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins had to sign a customs declaration when they imported "moon rock and moon dust" back in 1969.

Mike.

If it was here,they would have paid 19% of the total amount including transportation.. If they insisted they didn't buy the rocks and the dust and that was the reason why they didn't have a paypal invoice, the customs people would go to internet and try to find the commercial price of the moon rocks and moon dust. If they didn't find any info on the items, they would find something similar and charge them the 19% tax based on that value..

That is what happened to me when I received some FREE testing material that unfortunately was held by the customs. Luckily the person who sent me the samples had an online shop,and the samples themselves weren't manufactured on the Moon.. uuffff!!

João

I don't understand the criteria our customs people use. I'm in Ottawa about 100km from Ogdensburg NY and shipping is typically cheaper and faster within the US, so for major items, it's worth the drive. Generally they don't charge tax (13%) under a value of about $100 Cdn. But I bought a Taranis and receivers a couple of years ago for well over $200 and they just waved me through.

Most stuff from China comes through the mail without being stopped, but if it comes by UPS, etc. there is often a brokerage fee of $20 or so on top of any tax that's due.

The big hit now is the low Canadian dollar -- around $0.72 US.

I had the same here with DHL.. Ordering from HK with DHL, never again.,. Slow boat is cheaper..

João

To show the speed German customs is working

I ordered the AR9x board and the latest tracking information is:

2015-12-22 07:57 DEFRAA, Arrival at inward office of exchange
2015-12-14 15:13 INCHEON, Flight number : KE905

So it arrived on Dec 22 at DEFRAA (that's I assume Frankfurt airport) and is still sitting there, waiting for me

Reinhard

Unbelievable..

João

The board finally was delivered today.

According to the tracking system:
Delivered ( 36 Days )

2016-01-14 08:10 DEFRAA, Departure from inward office of exchange

2016-01-12 14:31 DEFRAA

2015-12-22 07:57 DEFRAA, Arrival at inward office of exchange

Stayed most of the time in Frankfurt.
But at least, I was charged with the correct VAT of 6.42€ that I could directly pay to the postman.

Reinhard