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1201

General Car Chat / Re: Airmatic problems now

« on: 05 March 2016, 17:21:05 »

....
Its not a Land Rover incognito is it? 

I've to keep looking at photo's to remind me what it looks like ...... it's now about 6 weeks since I first took it to MB 

Go in armed with £100,000 to buy a new S-Class and the customer service may improve.

Sadly,most main dealers are dismissive of customers with older cars. They'd rather you didn't bother them.

That doesn't work sometimes.....the boss of company I work for....runs an exec car service....he had on his shopping list 3x E classes and an S class for himself....nearly £200k of cars.....he went to the merc dealer where I live to start with.....he wanted a £5k option for his S class thrown in free....salesman said no....Mercedes of Southampton now get all his business 

1202

General Discussion Area / Re: Now its the landline

« on: 05 March 2016, 17:00:57 »

I swapped to Southern Electric for my landline...yes an energy company doing phone lines.. 

They did a deal a while ago...but its ended now...

2 years £12/month for line rental and free broadband.....unlimited download or it might be 40GB per month....carnt remember now....but I don't go anywhere near the limit.....

I'll swap again when that deal runs out 

Oh and I don't use the line for calls, except 0800, use my mobile for all other calls....01/02/03 come out of inclusive minutes, any other number I need to call, as said previously, I use saynoto0870.com for finding an alternative number 

1203

General Discussion Area / Re: Broadband speed before and after.

« on: 02 March 2016, 18:00:45 »

To Infinity and beyond. 

I often think back to the early days of Internet. I was working for a cable company and had a business customer who kept pestering me to become a cable modem beta customer. The marketing guy told me no. He couldn't see the business case for 600k ! The company is still thriving in the Virtual Reality field.

I remember having ISDN 2 in the house, which was almost unheard of from a domestic point of view. 

Ist line was 64K speed via a 0800 BT freephone number, but if you was feeling brave and didn't wont to use phone for the rest of the day, you could double up and use the 2nd line for another 64K (128K in Total) but you would then start paying 10p a minute for the privilege. Qtr'ly Line Rental charges weren't cheap either.   

Is that what they classed as shotgun technology.

<shudder!> It's easy to forget how far we've come since then.

I can remember when I had a 9.6k analogue moden....then 14.4k.....next 56k modem....and that was quick 

1204

General Discussion Area / Re: My illness

« on: 29 February 2016, 18:17:25 »

Glad you've recovered from a terrible illness 

1205

General Discussion Area / Re: A bit of homework, Project E

« on: 29 February 2016, 17:50:07 »

Today is the first time I have looked at the before/after side by side:

Nothing wrong the first pic imo 

You will need those outside lights moved now as well, as they probably just light up the roof of the extension 

1206

General Discussion Area / Re: It was only a matter of time - Nissan Leaf hack

« on: 28 February 2016, 17:15:30 »

Nothing illegal or which would contravene a warranty agreement in a passive pentest/vulnerability assessment.

I think the DMCA prohibits probing security software and as long as we have extradition to America there is a theoretical risk of being whisked off to Lakenheath and onto a flight to the US.

If I keep any non passive tests to the car which I own there is no juridiction from the DCMA, especially in the uk . Otherwise any penetration tester would be at risk of prosecution for doing what is a legitimate job.

That's sounds a good job 

1207

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 28 February 2016, 16:59:50 »

Of course it could be that Vaillant want you to buy their new controller called Vsmart  Similarly priced and does weather compensation but doesn't use an outside sensor. It uses t'internet to find out what the temp is at your location.....and uses an app for your smartphone to set/control it 

Run... Just run. Fast!

I can see another 'Leaf' thread .... Vaillant boiler hacked.....house turned into a sauna 

1208

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 28 February 2016, 16:21:35 »

Ugh, I am suitable humbled, TD - I was expecting a slightly posher version of a resistor and a bit of wire!
This is technological over-kill with knobs on, surely? Doing it "because they can"?
As for determining the operational temperature of a boiler using weather forecast information - can they see where they went wrong, there?
It's a pity they didn't leave you the faulty sensor to play with - can it really be worth best part of £200?
Ok, my searches clearly mimicked yours and I found nothing useful, but in idle moments I'll keep looking......

Ron.

Thanks

Worth £200, umm No! I suspect the reason it wasn't left and probably why the whole kit was changed, is Vaillant get them repaired and then use the repaired kit as a warranty replacement item

If it goes wrong again outside of warranty , I shall probably leave it broken (the outside temp on the controller defaults to 0c) and reduce the heat curve on the controller so it wont be so aggressive ( ie so the boiler doesn't run at too high a temp and the modulation of the boiler still works)

The only other markings on the back of the unit where molding markings

1209

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 28 February 2016, 11:47:08 »

TD, I suspect that a complete kit is all that they would sell you, because they make loads more money that way - the "excuse" being that it aids diagnosis and speed ot repair and there might be other faults, so best to change the lot!
Might I suggest that you check the sensor for identifying part numbers and manufacturer, because it's likely to be a supplied part, and research via RS Components of Farnell catalogues - and get one whilst you can.....

Ron.

I'll have a look into that.....thankyou 

Well, ive had a look and the only numbers on it is on the rear, 'VR20' which is name for the sensor and a barcode.
Put in VR20  in the spares website of Vaillant and it comes up with a price of £186.85+vat 

Other plumbing sites are similar price 

You can buy the whole kit for that price 

Of course it could be that Vaillant want you to buy their new controller called Vsmart  Similarly priced and does weather compensation but doesn't use an outside sensor. It uses t'internet to find out what the temp is at your location.....and uses an app for your smartphone to set/control it   

1210

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 28 February 2016, 11:35:26 »

I don't understand why a Glow Worm 'engineer' turned up? I phoned the number on vaillant website.....and a Vaillant 'engineer' turned up in a Vaillant van. After changing the parts.....he connected a device that was the size of a tech2 via usb (it looked like a usb port) which put the boiler through its paces and checked for faults....It doesn't sound like the guy you had that kit 

Glow Worm, Vaillant .. they're the same company My boiler is Glow Worm so I booked it through their website.. his van said "Group Service", "Vaillant" and "Glow Worm".

The boiler is about four years old - maybe not quite as fancy as your Vaillant, but it does have a digital screen and when the pressure drops below minimum logs an error code ("F9"). Which would just tell him what I already told him - the pressure drops to minimum and then the boiler shuts off..

Ahh ok 

1211

General Discussion Area / Re: Dont see many of these on the roads these days!

« on: 27 February 2016, 17:43:20 »

I wonder how many washing machine motors he's gone through 

1212

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 24 February 2016, 18:19:12 »

I don't understand why a Glow Worm 'engineer' turned up? I phoned the number on vaillant website.....and a Vaillant 'engineer' turned up in a Vaillant van. After changing the parts.....he connected a device that was the size of a tech2 via usb (it looked like a usb port) which put the boiler through its paces and checked for faults....It doesn't sound like the guy you had that kit 

Doesn't matter, because it couldn't have told him the filling loop is knackered anyway. You need a pair of eyes and a brain first and foremost. Like using a Tech 2 to diagnose a puncture!

True, but it may have error codes stored.....that may have helped in diagnosis....if AAron's boiler is new enough to have what is basically an ecu... 

1213

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 24 February 2016, 18:11:37 »

Indeed not - the second plumber (local firm) listened to what I said about the filling loop, unscrewed it at one end, realised that water was dripping out of both the CH side and the cold water side and said "Yep, looks like both valves are passing. I'll get them ordered up if they're not already in stock".  Took him oooh, at least five minutes.

Which is less time than the Glow Worm engineer spent trying to look clever with his multimeter..

I don't understand why a Glow Worm 'engineer' turned up? I phoned the number on vaillant website.....and a Vaillant 'engineer' turned up in a Vaillant van. After changing the parts.....he connected a device that was the size of a tech2 via usb (it looked like a usb port) which put the boiler through its paces and checked for faults....It doesn't sound like the guy you had that kit 

1214

General Discussion Area / Re: Good service from Vaillant

« on: 23 February 2016, 17:48:40 »

They don't sell the bits separately as they know dam well that a van will turn up outside your house with a person inside pertaining to be an engineer, they will then change willy nilly parts until the fault is fixed because they have not a clue the system is doing so have no means to intelligently fault find it (I note boilers now display fault codes to......so we are into the automotive world!)

far easier for them to supply a single 'electronics' pack so the lot is changed in one go rather than many visits.

Oh yes! A service is made easy for them as well....they just hook up an equivalent of a tech2, attach a pipe to the gas feed, shove a sensor probe into the flu and then let the 'tech2' put the boiler through it paces.....5 mins later its supposedly tested the boiler and its safety features, measured the flue exhaust and gas pressure. The only other thing they have to do is clean out the magnetic filter....job jobbed!

And in the mean time the thin metals heat exchanger is getting merrily clogged up because they no longer hoover the salt formations out. 

I'm undecided about that, but it did cross my mind....its the same heat exchanger that does the radiators and the hot water in my case (combi) . The boiler shuts the rads down when there is hot water demand. So, not knowing really how it works, would the heat exchanger be sloshing the chemicals about that's in the rad circuit?  when the rads are on? Plus my hot water temp is set to 43C (gives a lovely hot shower at that temp) so how much limescale deposit would there be 

1215

General Discussion Area / Re: Smart TV / Phone

« on: 22 February 2016, 19:05:52 »

Managed to get the display of my Samsung Galaxy to display on my TV when I 1st bought the TV but never managed to sort it since.

Am turning on Bluetooth on both devices, the phone finds and can see the TV and allows the pair.

TV just searches and searches, last night I tried my S4 and a friends S6, am I doing it right or is old age well and trully kicking in.

Please explain to an old fart the reason for wanting to do this? I have the same items, but cannot imagine why I would need it, no doubt I do, but just haven't discovered why.

I'm struggling to understand why, as well, unless its for viewing photos, videos etc