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Net Work Alan Winstanley This month, Net Work looks at some important backroom changes in the way eBay pays and charges its users; plus the latest news from space and upmarket electric vehicles. L ast month, I mentioned some changes that eBay has made following its lengthy divorce from PayPal. It’s the most radical shake-up in many years and it affects all eBay sellers who used PayPal for receiving payments. eBay has grabbed the steering wheel and created a payment chain called ‘Managed Payments’, which sees sellers waiting several business days or more before funds arrive in their current (checking) account. eBay has coined the buzzword ‘Seller Onboarding’ to describe the compulsory migration of private and business sellers to this new regime. eBay changes – for whose benefit? We know that ‘Caveat Emptor’ means ‘Buyer Beware,’ but what about sellers? At one time it was simple enough for private sellers to conveniently sell off unwanted surplus items, or maybe sell bulky furniture in ‘Local eBay’. Countless small kitchen-table businesses and cottage industries sprang up on eBay, selling their low-cost wares; and of course more expensive items such as cars, cameras, caravans and computers costing thousands are offered as well. First and foremost, eBay knows that without buyers, it wouldn’t exist, so its Buyer Protection Program goes to great lengths to reassure buyers about their safety and security (visit: http://bit.ly/ pe-jul21-ebay1). As eBay sellers know, if a buyer checked out promptly using PayPal, funds could arrive in the seller’s PayPal account almost straight away (minus a 2.9% + 30p PayPal fee). The UK’s Faster Payments Scheme made it quick and easy to transfer cash instantly into a current account, which was a valuable lifeline for small traders and private individuals. Residual PayPal balances could pay for couriers such as Parcelforce or My Hermes, or to buy other stuff. Incidentally, some useful tips and fraud prevention advice for consumers are worth reading at: www. fasterpayments.org.uk Farewell to PayPal After cutting ties with PayPal, eBay now steers payments through the Dutchbased payment processor Adyen NV (www.adyen.com). Many consumers might not have heard of Adyen (Surinamese for ‘Start over again’, apparently), but they provide high-end payment platforms, physical and virtual payment cards and back-office systems for many wellknown international brands. However, it now takes typically two business days or more before eBay sellers receive cash into their current account. Gone too is eBay’s monthly direct debit in arrears, Adyen is a high-end payment platform used by major brands. It’s now handling eBay sellers’ payments instead of Paypal. 12 in settlement of their fees; eBay now deducts their fees immediately before Adyen remits the balance. As eBay tells its private sellers about Managed Payments: ‘Fees and expenses will be deducted before you get paid, and the remainder of your eBay earnings will go directly to your bank account, not your PayPal account.... [This means] No more PayPal fees.’ What’s not to like? I recently purchased a few items on eBay without a hitch, using PayPal as normal, but delivery took a day or two longer than expected. To test eBay’s new sales regime, I listed a private item for sale timed to finish a week later, on a Friday afternoon. Sure enough, it sold and eBay confirmed it was ‘awaiting payment’; two days later (Sunday night) eBay advised that ‘the buyer has confirmed the payment’ and told me to post the item off. Still no sign of funds arriving of course, but not to worry, as eBay re-assured me that payouts are ‘initiated within two working days of order confirmation’. The proceeds (less eBay fees) arrived in my bank a couple of days after that, making four calendar days in total including the weekend. Bank holidays could extend the delay even more. eBay claims this timeframe is on a par with credit card transactions, as seen in business and commerce. That’s true, but many private sellers trying to sell humble bits and pieces on eBay won’t be impressed. There’s another catch: although sellers now ‘avoid PayPal fees’ as eBay claims, eBay UK has increased its private sale fees from 10% to 12.8% plus 30 pence per item, plus a similar fee on postage charges. (In fairness, eBay’s fees on postages arose after some sellers gamed the system by selling items at low cost (means, low eBay fees) but hiked the postage prices instead, because P&P was free of eBay fees.) Consequently, eBay’s new fees for private sellers broadly match the total fees that eBay would have earned if they’d still owned PayPal anyway. eBay is, however, so far maintaining its free listings offer for private sellers which allows them to list up to 1,000 items free of initial fees. Sellers have a choice of either signing up (sorry, ‘onboarding’) or quitting using Practical Electronics | July | 2021 the platform. That’s just how it is. Quite a few small-time sellers and individuals may be deterred from using eBay, especially when you consider the latest T&Cs, discussed next. A complicated business eBay’s new ‘Seller Hub’ has also come in for fierce criticism from many sellers. Instead of compact, at-a-glance web summaries (or ‘Classic View’) of transactions and their status, bloated screens full of flat-tiled drag n’ drop sections now provide an in-depth analytical view of items on sale: it’s mostly irrelevant for small one-off or occasional sellers. It can be customised and eBay says the new hub enables them to utilise modern data processing systems. Just as Google and Amazon over-analyse data for the benefit of high-end users with PhDs in computer science, eBay is doing the same. I gave up on it: for now, sellers can opt out of the Seller Hub but will be nagged into trying it again. The system for actually listing items for sale in the first place has also become mind-bogglingly complex, with screens full of myriad options and tick boxes now evident: selling on eBay has become a jolly complicated process. eBay’s new payment terms are spelt out at http://bit.ly/pe-jul21-ebay2 in turgid legalese that runs to 16 pages. The terms throw up some contentious points, particularly when things go wrong (for the seller). Sellers have to sign up for eBay’s ‘Money Back Guarantee,’ but this is vulnerable to customer abuse, such as buyers merely changing their mind and falsely claiming an item was ‘not as described’ and demanding a refund, sometimes many months later. The seller must then re-collect the goods at their own expense or risk losing them (and their money) altogether. eBay’s ‘Seller Protection’ policy claims to cover sellers against that sort of abuse and negative feedback, as long as sellers ‘create good buying experiences’, so sellers must ensure their services tick all of eBay’s boxes to begin with, to avoid the risk of losing their goods and money due to bogus claims made by buyers. The policy is at: https://tinyurl.com/7t7xbb6m Judging by forum complaints, some sellers just write problems off to experience as eBay will often side with the buyer anyway, some say, but it’s worth remembering that if things goes wrong, eBay ultimately gives itself permission to reimburse buyers and claw this back from your bank account directly, without so much as blinking. eBay in any case makes themselves the final arbiter in any disputes – just as PayPal was – and any disputes that do somehow make it through a long-winded arbitration do so at the seller’s expense, at least initially. Practical Electronics | July | 2021 Chilling out: OneWeb and Hughes will test LEO satcoms to connect Arctic regions for the US Air Force. Shown here, the OneWeb gateway in Svalbard, Norway, capable of 10,000 handoffs per second, is one of the gateways developed by Hughes that will orchestrate handover and tracking of gigabits of data for NORTHCOM. Credit: OneWeb/Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT). Worst case, eBay also gives themselves the right to lock accounts or freeze funds, which can have devastating consequences for innocent sellers. Some businesses cited crippling problems they suffered due to eBay withholding funds (double the amount necessary) as security to cover a customer’s refund. It’s true that many UK businesses face similar draconian terms and risks from ordinary credit card processing, including onerous PCI DSS conditions. In Britain, start-ups with no trading history can find it very difficult to open a credit card merchant account unless they pay a hefty security deposit up front, such is the risk from fraud and money laundering that the credit card sector is grappling with. Services such as Zettle (zettle.com, owned by PayPal) or Square (https://squareup.com) may be the only ways some traders can take debit or credit cards. Buyers using eBay won’t notice much difference, but eBay’s changes are here to stay, and sellers have no option but to ‘onboard’ them. It’s become more complex and time-consuming to list just a few bits and bobs on eBay. It’s worth sellers checking the Managed Payments terms and Seller Protection Policy closely and weighing up the risks, especially when valuable private sales are concerned, before deciding whether eBay is still worth your time and effort. Remember the phrase, Caveat Venditor – let the seller beware! OneWeb for all It’s been a busy month, especially if you’re in the business of launching satellites or people into space. As Net Work readers know, all eyes are on the constellations of LEO (low-earth orbit) satellites currently being assembled by SpaceX, OneWeb and (eventually) Amazon’s Kuiper. SpaceX continues to enjoy remarkable success with its reusable boosters that return to earth (or land on a ship-based platform) with pinpoint accuracy, to be recovered and made ready for its next mission. Some SpaceX vehicles will soon have been re-used ten times and about 1,400 satellites are gradually getting in position to span the globe, with the possibility of tens of thousands more (literally) of them being lobbed up in the future. Where available, you can order or pre-order Starlink satellite-based Internet at: www.starlink.com SpaceX also celebrated a successful launch and safe return of its stubby Starship vehicle SN-15 following a high-altitude flight test. After launching, it ‘bellyflops’ through the atmosphere before righting itself for a vertical landing, see: https://youtu.be/z9eoubnO-pE OneWeb progress Six months after emerging successfully from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after being bailed out by the UK Government and India’s Bharti Global, London-based OneWeb (or WorldVu Satellites Limited as they are properly known) is focussed on opening its own satellite-based broadband network before the end of the year, offering services to commercial, marine, aviation and governmental sectors. In April Arianespace launched 36 more OneWeb satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Federation, making 182 satellites so far, with 466 of OneWeb’s so-called ‘First Generation’ satellites still to go. This mission brings OneWeb a step closer to achieving its ‘Five to 50’ ambition, they say, offering coverage to areas 50° latitude and above, by the middle of this year. Several 3.5-metre ground-based antennae would be grouped together at gateway sites to allow access to multiple OneWeb satellites simultaneously. 13 Virgin Galactic’s latest space vehicle called ‘Imagine’ starts ground trials this year. The firm hopes to offer up to 400 flights a year to ‘private astronauts’. OneWeb is also expected to partner with telecoms providers and provide them with a ‘backbone’ for a satcoms service. There’s more encouraging news from OneWeb: global satellite operator Eutelsat is investing some $550m and taking a 24% stake in the network, subject to regulatory approval. OneWeb’s ambitions include a satellite constellation of just over 6,000 so-called ‘Phase 2’ satellites, a significant reduction from the nearly 48,000 units originally proposed. According to OneWeb’s FCC filings, their Phase 2 satellites will provide broadband internet to users anywhere on Earth, flying at a much lower orbit than geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites with a latency of less than 50ms, which is comparable to terrestrial networks, they state. The US’s Hughes Network Systems (www.hughes.com) is also a OneWeb core investor; in May Hughes and OneWeb announced they had been selected by the US Air Force Research Lab to trial LEO satcoms services to connect the Arctic region to sites located around the globe. The field of satellite-based navigation (collectively called GNSS, or Global Navigation Satellite System) may see OneWeb becoming involved with building a new network for the UK. Readers might recall how, following Brexit, Britain was unceremoniously ejected from the EU’s own Galileo satnav program, despite the UK’s substantial investment in its development. Galileo is intended to be independent of the USA’s GPS system and the UK has since been denied access to high-accuracy Galileo signals used by the military, for example. Last year, the UK Government announced that its Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Programme (SBPP) would examine alternative ways of delivering these critical ‘PNT’ services to United Kingdom infrastructure. It is becoming ever more imperative that a newly independent UK bolsters and safeguards such systems to meet the new challenges that are fast heading our way. 14 Out of interest, at one time an alternative to GNSS was LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation), a hyperbolic radio navigation system with roots originating in the Second World War and Britain’s GEE (‘G’ for grid) aircraft direction-finding system. LORAN gradually became obsolete, but modern electronics might one day see Enhanced LORAN becoming available as an Alternative Positioning Navigation and Timing (APNT) system that is ground-based and highly resilient. Military history or ex-Air Force readers might enjoy some WW2 background to GEE and LORAN in the PDF at: http://bit.ly/pe-jul21-gelo Space Hopper Amazon’s proposed Kuiper network has received approval to launch about 3,200 satellites delivering broadband services, but the service is ‘under construction’ and Kuiper is arriving late to the show. Scanning through some complex FCC rulings reveals that not everything has gone in Kuiper’s favour: a deadline has been set for Amazon’s offshoot to launch 50% of their proposed network by mid 2026 and the rest by 2029. Kuiper must also post a surety bond for an undisclosed amount, which will be forfeited if the FCC’s targets are not met, according to the ruling. Meanwhile, Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, is focussing his Blue Origin rocket venture on space tourism using his ‘New Shepard’ (NS) module (named after Alan Shepard, the first American to fly into space, almost 60 years ago to the day). Last covered in Net Work, March 2020, Blue Origin’s VTOL vehicle will offer tourists a straight hop up into sub-orbit and down again, and the first excursion is already planned for 20 July after a succession of tests flights. The booster stage lands vertically, SpaceX-style, while the passenger module parachutes to Earth separately. You can observe the latest test flight, callsign NS-15, at: https://youtu.be/domwsgorRW0 If Blue Origin’s rocket launches and bumpy landings aren’t for you, then waiting in the wings, so to speak, is Sir Richard Branson’s rival space agency Virgin Galactic, ‘the world’s first commercial spaceline’, which has now completed its first Spaceship III plane or ‘VSS’ (Virgin Spaceship) called ‘Imagine’. The firm faces a number of funding and legal challenges, but their latest mirror-finish space vehicle begins ground testing this year. Spaceplanes will be slung underneath a ‘flying catamaran’ carrier plane before being released at 50,000 feet, when the rocket-propelled spaceplane shoots upwards into space, experiencing zero G for a few minutes before returning to land on a runway. A small fleet of Virgin Galactic’s space planes hope to make up to 400 flights taking ‘private astronauts’ from its spaceports into space every year, they say. I got truly dizzy on my PC trying to navigate their website (www. virgingalactic.com) searching for more information, but there’s an early promo video at: https://youtu.be/_XiKFf9vpG4 Driving Polestar position More exciting new electric vehicle (EV) brands are making the news: the Polestar marque has started to pop up discretely on British TV in the first shots of a brand-awareness campaign, but this low-profile marketing belies a high-quality premium EV waiting in the wings from a brand owned by Sweden’s Volvo (and in turn, China’s Geely). The Polestar 1 is a 2.0 litre petrol/hybrid limited-production car, but all eyes are on Polestar 2, a svelte EV saloon with various battery and powertrain options. It will cost from £39,900 to £45,900. The BBC Top Gear Magazine has named Polestar 2 the best all-rounder electric car for 2021, and the car has been acclaimed as ‘Best of the Best’ by Red Dot in the international design competition’s hotly contested Product Design segment. As a sign of how the motor trade is diversifying, buyers will have to order exclusively online at www.Polestar.com, but should be able to see and test drive the Polestar 2 from September 2021 at one of more than 40 ‘Polestar Spaces’ in ten countries, the company hopes. Coincidentally, just as I finished writing this paragraph, a Polestar 2 drove right past my window, and it is indeed a sleek and distinctive-looking machine. At the other end of the motoring scale, many Brits will have fond memories of Austin J2 trucks and, later, Leyland DAF panel vans, the latter becoming ‘LDV’ whose vans were a common sight on British roads at one time. Admittedly, I wasn’t aware that LDV became Russian-owned in 2006 and was ultimately killed off by the recession. Just as Britain’s MG Cars was snapped up Practical Electronics | July | 2021 www.poscope.com/epe Polestar 2: a high-quality premium EV with Volvo parentage, heading our way later this year. by China’s SAIC (see Net Work, December 2020), the same happened to LDV in 2010. Judging by some recent Facebook pop-up ads, marketing of SAIC’s ‘Maxus’ brand of commercial vehicles is now under way in Britain, including, of course, two electric vans. See https:// saicmaxus.co.uk for information. Chinese EV brand Nio is set to start shipping EVs to Norway from September. Why Norway? The Scandinavian country favours electric vehicle ownership with subsidies and free parking, and more than 70% of all new vehicle sales in 2020 were EVs, according to Statista. Rival brand Xpeng has already started sales in Norway with 100 G3 SUVs, as reported in the March 2021 Net Work. These cars may well be heading our way. And finally The car industry, as well as other sectors, continues to grapple with a global shortage of semiconductor chips, caused by a perfect storm of a huge surge in demand for electronic gadgets during Covid-19 lockdowns, a winter freeze-up causing outages at the NXP semiconductor plant in Texas, followed by a fire at the Renesas Electronics chip foundry in Japan last March. The global chip shortages could last until 2023, says chip maker Infineon, as a number of big names brands including Samsung, Apple, and most major car brands are hit by shortages. The semiconductor industry is desperately trying to plug the gap by finding obsolete manufacturing tooling that use old, obsolete wafer sizes. The boardroom row at Nominet, the UK domain name registry, rumbles on (see Net Work, May 2021) after discontented members forced an Extraordinary General Meeting in March to vote four controversial directors out of office. The remainder of the board then refused to appoint the members’ preferred caretaker chairman, interpreted as a sign of the contempt that the organisation (still) holds for its smaller members, despite Nominet having stated that it ‘acknowledges that members have made a clear statement with today’s Practical Electronics | July | 2021 vote and will be working on a strategic change in direction.’ The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) told me that they expect Nominet and its membership to, ‘work together on shaping the future of the company... Nominet is a private company that manages the .UK domain space and its leadership is a matter for its members’, said the DCMS. It provides an ‘essential service’ that must satisfy the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 (NIS) and the DCMS continues to engage with Nominet and other parties hoping to resolve the current governance problems. A second rebel EGM that could, if successful, boot out the remaining board is a possibility. If you’re following my trials of Internet-enabled home security cameras, I’m happy to report that the Reolink PTZ types (see Net Work, May 2021) continue to perform very well, with no particular problems experienced. The Reolink app responds well on a smartphone using 4G, which allows up to four cameras to be monitored and controlled remotely in a single app. They are available on Amazon. Finally, next month’s column marks 25 years of Net Work, which first appeared in the August 1996 issue to welcome the new-fangled Internet, explaining how to connect a PC to a 14.4k modem or how to install anti-virus software. Society has since fully embraced the web, and the Internet now plays an everyday and essential role in our lives. I always enjoy reading readers’ comments and feedback and the PE team is delighted to hear from those who have stayed with us since those early days: thank you all. Net Work has moved on too, and tries to keep abreast of topical trends in areas that are likely to affect us either now or longer term. I’d like to thank all readers for their continued support and interest in Net Work and, as always, remember that I can be reached by email to: alan<at> epemag.net – see you next month! The author can be reached at: alan<at>epemag.net - USB - Ethernet - Web server - Modbus - CNC (Mach3/4) - IO - PWM - Encoders - LCD - Analog inputs - Compact PLC - up to 256 - up to 32 microsteps microsteps - 50 V / 6 A - 30 V / 2.5 A - USB configuration - Isolated PoScope Mega1+ PoScope Mega50 - up to 50MS/s - resolution up to 12bit - Lowest power consumption - Smallest and lightest - 7 in 1: Oscilloscope, FFT, X/Y, Recorder, Logic Analyzer, Protocol decoder, Signal generator 15