Wittenham

Very good and I do think this thread would be improved immensely by assigning real CWF user names to the Poster letters.

That is really too bad, and thanks for the insight. I see a growing trend of 'right to repair' legislation and I would support that. the old hob feels a high quality, heavy thing... quite a waste to just throw it in a skip.

in ~2015, I bought an ex display kitchen set up that included an induction hob. Last month the hob gave a generic error code and stopped working. A local firm came by and for **only** £500 they said they would replace the 'Power PCB' [which was >£400 of the total bill]. As a ceramic hob was about half that, I now have a non-working induction hob sitting in a back room. Is there an option to getting working? An organisation to donate it to who can fix it and use it? Seems an awful waste to just chuck it in a skip.

UPDATE... it is working and the good reputation of the quality of Oxfordshire electrons is preserved. I am a bit perplexed, though... and realise in retrospect i should have added another fact. The camper [actually a demountable that sits on the back of a pickup truck] is from Sweden, and has a Swedish consumer unit. Is it possible that has a different wiring set up than British? The polarity checker found a problem with the CU, although that may have been introduced by the adaptor used to fit the round pin socket? The rest of the sockets in and out of the van checked out correctly. My confusion is because this morning I ran a separate cable in to the van, bypassing the Swedish CU and... the charger turned on and went to work. Except I had done the same thing the other day and it did not work, including from the neighbour's house. Perhaps the batteries were charged and the charger does go to standby after float? Except that I also ran the fridge for several hours to bring the batteries down a bit and that did not get the charger going...? 😐 So, thanks all for the help and the lessons on what polarity means, etc.

There is no apparent switch, other than the one that moves into set up mode... pushing that has it flicker green, but does not enter set up. The button did take me to set up when the charger was working [I set the battery type]. Any thoughts on the polarity question? I note that the adaptor has the brown wire on the left pin, whilst the charger has it on the right - not sure if that is an issue?

...that would be seriously embarrassing... I don't think so, but I will go try that in a minute. Meanwhile, here are the pictures.

the only thing lit is the red light, none of the bars.

Thanks TB and i bypassed all of the van connections for some of the scenarios and plugged directly into a cable coming from three separate Oxfordshire sources . From what you have said, some combination of two of [1] the dongle, [2] the charger, and [3] the Northumberland connection are reversed and cancelled each other out. I will take photos of the dongle and the charger. So that I am clear, that means unscrewing the cover plate and showing how the three wires are connected?

polarity tester now ordered. my challenge is now to find a socket that works... the nearest one I know if is 300 miles away...

It is almost certainly my lack of understanding... where would the reversed polarity be in the system? from the grid side: Northumberland grid connection --> dongle --> original cable --> van consumer unit --> suspect charger = it all works changing it to: Oxfordshire grid connection --> original cable --> van consumer unit --> suspect charger = it does not work different Oxfordshire grid connection --> original cable --> van consumer unit --> suspect charger = it does not work Oxfordshire grid connection --> different cable --> suspect charger = it does not work different Oxfordshire grid connection --> different cable --> suspect charger = it does not work a third different Oxfordshire grid connection --> different cable --> suspect charger = it does not work Finally, is testing for reverse polarity, something that a [rank] amateur can do? many thanks Just answered one of my questions, thank you.

UPDATE: I still have the grumpy red standby light, no happy green charging light. I bypassed the van's internal panel and the original cable, by plugging the charger directly into a different [working] extension cord. I plugged that into the two separate supplies [at least i believe they are separate...] at my property, and also into the neighbour's house. No change. So, the only difference between when it worked and when it did not is - the dongle that converts the standard domestic plug into one that works at the caravan site. It looks like this. - a Northumberland electric supply, rather than Oxfordshire Are there any other suggestions on what might be the issue here?

I switched on a few electric things to push the system past what solar is giving right now and the max 5kw the Powerwall will give/take at any one point. This is what it looks like. Thanks all, I really value the combination of expertise and willingness to help in this forum. Where we are now is: - charger works outside the home [in at least one place] - charger does not work in either power supply at home [one solar related, one not] ..........but need to confirm they are actually separate power supplies. We built all this, so I am reasonably confident that they are separate, but i note the point above about being entirely confident. - I have switched off the power to the van, and put the fridge on high to run the batteries down a bit. Will power up the charger later and see what happens. - if i am still looking at a gloomy red light, I will ask the neighbour if i can borrow their supply I will update if any of the above changes/changes anything.

I will do that, thanks, and note that I **think** I have already tried a separate supply from an outbuilding. I am now wondering if that is in fact separate [but pretty sure it is]. one other point I should have added. There are solar panels on the roof of the van connected to a Chargemaster MPPT. I am going to turn everything off, whack the fridge on full for a couple hours, then turn the charger back on and see if it comes to life. I think that is how it is set up. This is one company offering it [not the one I used]

I have just tested this and the 240v sockets in the van do have power. Chargemaster still showing just a red light. another thought: the cable is long.... 25 metres maybe? Is that likely to be a factor? Note that the same cable [plus a short length of adaptor] worked at a campsite.

I am no expert but is on a separate meter with a separate electricity company supplying it. [and separate bills]. I think that means it is separate? I am afraid i do not know the answer to that... i know there was a fair bit of pre-work to be done for SSE [I think, possibly someone else] to validate the whole solar panel set up for when we returned power to the grid.

I think it is the other way around... at the moment, the cable terminates in a domestic three pin [I am rarely in campsites, but often at sites/homes where I can get domestic supply]. So my adaptor is an extra link to be fitted when using those posts at caravan sites [apparently in contravention of caravan site rules, as I have just learned]

>> Answer - turn the charger off. That is what I did! I am in inside the ring road in Oxford, but i do have that solar panel set up as I put in another response. However, bypassing that did not fix the issue.

My mains supply may be a bit outside the norm. My house has solar panels connected to a Tesla battery which powers the house via an inverter until its empty, then switches back to grid. However, when that gave me only a red light on the charger, I bypassed it by plugging into an outbuilding that takes its supply from a separate feed, and got the same red eye.

thanks for the quick reply, answers above.

My campervan has a second hand, newly installed Chargemaster 12/25-3 [procured from this parish] and two new 110AH gel batteries. When I plug in at a campsite, the charging works, green light goes on, fan makes too much noise, batteries get charged. When I plug into a three pin socket at home, the Chargemaster light shows red, no noise, no charging. Any ideas on what is happening and - even more importantly - what I can do about it? The manual suggests AC input frequency out of range [whatever that means...] or AC input voltage too low. thanks in advance for any help. Especially if it includes how to turn off the noisy fan for night time [manual is silent on this point].

We have a winner... they were 20mm M5. Thanks all. As always I am humbled by both the expertise and the willingness to share it. [There were other correct answers, DM was first]. If anyone needs info on 1970s Canadian professional ice hockey players..... sorry, that is all I have got.

my guess is miscommunication between the starter and the RIB, and the RIB pilot panicked when s/he realised the race was one. Fortunate that the restart did not have to swim through chopped up bits of triathlete.