Recent content by Sawkins

I've got intrigued by this now, so this afternoon I tested all the combinations of both thermostats, the time period and the controller setting. I found that the room thermostat could start the heating in 'H off W twice' mode during the twice period, and in 'H twice W once' mode during the once...

Hello again all... I came on here intending to post the 3-way valve question below, but got sidetracked into reading this thread about how the A side of the valve is supposed to go to the radiators and the B side is supposed to go to the cylinder. I checked mine and it's the other way round...

That's it exactly. Today I connected the PSU to the device I bought it for, and it worked fine, but the device did indeed have this same apparent 115V between its chassis and earth, and between its leads and earth. Can I do anything about this? I don't like getting a nip off the device phono...

RF, have done with a 2K ohm/volt analogue meter. I didn't get consistent results - 50V in the 500 and 250V ranges, 10V in the 50V range. That means your suggestion is right doesn't it? Having said that, it feels like it's there - if I hold the meter lead instead of earthing it I get a tingle...

RF, yes I am. ricicle, that's interesting, as the supply that shows 113V is a switched mode one.

I was testing a newly bought 12V DC adaptor yesterday and found a nice steady 12.1V between its positive and negative terminals. For no particular reason I then tested the voltage between one terminal and earth and got an odd fluctuating reading. I switched the meter to measure AC and found...

Engineer came and found the connection between the drop cable and the junction box on the pole was on its last legs. It's now replaced and the crackle has gone. Apparently the 'clicking the phone on and off the hook makes the router sync' thing is characteristic of this kind of fault.

Thanks - it's the older type of socket so it doesn't have a test socket inside. The test that I did was with the phone plugged into the master socket, rather than at the end of an extension as it usually is. The crackle was just the same (even with a different phone).

My phone line has a lot of crackle and broadband connection is lost on average about once an hour. The crackle is still present right back at the master socket with no other extensions connected. The weird thing is that pressing the rest on the phone up and down 10 or 20 times reduces the...

I'd like to replace the master, but I'm paranoid about BT coming round one day and saying 'We last visited in 1986 to install a fixed plate socket, but this is a detachable front type socket from about 20 years later. You're going down' But, I disconnected the downstairs secondary socket from...

Proper terms duly noted Downstairs front (presumably at other end of Cable A). 1 green/white, 2 blue/white, 3 brown/white, 4 white/orange, 5 white/blue, 6 white/green. Downstairs back (the 'newish' one at the other end of Cable C). White/blue to terminal A, blue/white to terminal B...

Close-up photo taking was harder than I expected: Left: Cable A (blue/white to 2, brown/white to 3, white/blue to 5) Centre: Cable C (not connected to anything except that tangle of wires right) Right (very short, seen end-on): Cable B (green to 2, black to 5, white not connected, two...

My master socket has 3 cables coming through the wall and into the back of it. Cable A is connected to terminals 2, 3 and 5 and I'm guessing this is the one that goes to the phone pole in the street. Cable B is connected to terminals 2 and 5 and it goes down the front of the house and in...

I discovered today that when undoing the nut on a tap connector, 'lefty loose' means 'when you are looking out of the connector.' If you are looking into the connector, like I was, you might end up putting a nice artistic twist in the supply pipe (and wondering how well copper stands up to...

As far as I can tell there never was a newel at the bottom - one of the previous owners took out the wall that the string was up against. The string leans out from the vertical about 1.5 degrees and the treads are off level by about half that. Checked with a level they're borderline...