what are you doing ?

[Nick]

None of which (interesting though it is) alters the fact that the car (not its designer) is the subject.

[andrew Ivimey]

Erm, no Dr Porsche-, no Adolf Hitler, it could be argued, no VW Beetle however it might be interesting then to ask a sample of foreign people, looking in, so to speak, to decide on the iconic 'British car'. Even if we here don't agree on the actual model ( Allegro... phroaaaaaar) we need a wider sample on this.

[Nick]

Whatever Andrew, yes, I agree the history of VW and Porsche and their, to this day strange connection is a subject of much interest. But the original question was (on another topic):

I saw a survey where Americans were asked "what is the most British car of all time".

[andrew Ivimey]

Well I missed that so 'pologies for that.

What did the Americans come up with?

[pre65]

I saw a survey where Americans were asked "what is the most British car of all time".

The answer was the Mini Cooper, the original early 60s one not the BMW version.

[andrew Ivimey]

Thanks Phil, persuasive? Perhaps. Did the source describe the sample and size of 'Americans' who were asked this question?

[pre65]

Thanks Phil, persuasive? Perhaps. Did the source describe the sample and size of 'Americans' who were asked this question?

Can't remember to be honest.

[shane]

Thanks Phil, persuasive? Perhaps. Did the source describe the sample and size of 'Americans' who were asked this question?

Given the size of most Americans these days, most of them wouldn’t fit in a Mini anyway.

[shane]

Thanks Phil, persuasive? Perhaps. Did the source describe the sample and size of 'Americans' who were asked this question?

Given the size of Americans these days, most of them wouldn’t fit in a Mini anyway.

[shane]

Thanks Phil, persuasive? Perhaps. Did the source describe the sample and size of 'Americans' who were asked this question?

Given the size of Americans these days, most of them wouldn’t fit in a Mini anyway.

[jack]

Thanks Phil, persuasive? Perhaps. Did the source describe the sample and size of 'Americans' who were asked this question?

Given the size of Americans these days, most of them wouldn’t fit in a Mini anyway.

A sample of them might... maybe a bingo wing or two... nobody mentioned integers...

[jack]

Whilst we were away enjoying the delights of Carmarthenshire (which was lovely), #2 son called to say that the house was cold and there was no hot water.

Heat pump had died for the first time in 19 years. It wouldn't even boot up - the control panel LCD just had some random error code on it.

By heat pump standards, it's quite old and the controller, a Conlego Rego637, is no longer made and no spares are available (allegedly). If it was a controller failure, IVTs recommended option is to upgrade to the latest suitable controller, a Rego1000, at a cost of between £1,500 and £2,500 depending on time taken to do the job. The high cost is due to about £1,000 for the controller and a complete rewire of the heat pump - a day's work at least and only a handful of engineers in the country have been trained for this, so we might have to wait weeks depending on availability.

I rang Alto Energy who serviced it last year and who are generally very good and helpful - they suggested replacing the control panel and the associated connection cable (a standard 1mtr CAT5 STP cable). I ordered a new control panel on sale or return to be available when we got back late Friday night - £340 including delivery.

As I suspected, replacing the control panel and/or the cable made no difference, so it was a controller issue; I'll return the new unused control panel for a full refund.

No way was I paying £1,500+ for a new controller and rewire without first having a decent stab at repairing it myself.

Opened the controller and immediately noticed some suspect caps and a brown patch round a couple of surface mount triacs.

Replaced the caps from stock and the triacs from similar 600V, 12A D2PAK ones I had around and... it worked!

Result. Zero cost (apart from the return postage for the control panel and an hour or so of my time) so loads of moolah saved, plus we have hot water and heating again.


The controller is the aluminium box on the lower right - you can see the ethernet Comms cable plugged in at the bottom of the control panel.

PXL_20231028_150804666_copy_756x1008.jpg (157.97 KiB) Viewed 718 times

Definitely dead 1,000uF cap.

PXL_20231028_131803615_copy_604x806.jpg (140.93 KiB) Viewed 712 times

[Tony Moore]

Nice work!

[Mike H]

I just don't get it.

I remember a programme about 2 guys who trekked across Antartica, or at least a piece of it. They ate nothing but butter and chocolate, and still ended up almost looking like skeletons at the end. The explanation was the body uses up energy just to try to keep warm faster that it can ingest... also they had to 'fatten up' before starting.

[andrew Ivimey]

Yeah that's the sort of thing... I love 'going for a walk' even in the rain but T.E.Lawrence and that Fiennes chap - what's the point! One can just 'stay alive' in slightly more habitable circumstances than a place which requires millions being spent on finding you, surgery and rehabilitation therein - pretty selfish and not a little 'entitled' if you ask me.

Now Richard Burton and that youngster Speke, I still marvell over Freya Stark but the Burnaby chap sums up a lot where no matter what he said the status quo in UK still ignored all he wrote and the first world war became inevitable.