Connectaphone.net - Blog

Bring back "dumb" chargers

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:17:45 GMT

The Government bless them have mandated all chargers should be "smart". You are not allowed to sell a "dumb" charger anymore. They though every EV driver would come home at 5pm and plug their car in and charge immediately. The grid already being at peak demand would grid to a halt with the additional load.
A fairly pointless mandate because much of the required timers or ability to link with Octopus are built into most cars anyway, in which case you would just need a "dumb" charger.
Collectively we have 3 EV's and 2 chargers. With Octopus energy I can only link one smart charger, so the second charger needs dumb with a simple 23:30-05:30 timer. Then I can have all 3 EV's set to charge immediately and it doesn't matter which charger they are plugged into.
A better mandate would have been all chargers should have a SIMPLE timer, NOT "smart", not requiring an app or a degree in pigeon English.
Simple economics (night time juice being 1/4 the price of day time juice) would incentive most people to charge at night so please BRING BACK DUMB CHARGERS !

EV charger brain ache

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:05:52 GMT

New WiFi router and now my EV charger doesn't work.
So I have this Ecocharge Wheels charger because it was the dumbest smart charger I could find at the right price as a second charger. I could set it to stop & start charging to fit with Octopus intelligent go (you could only link one "smart" remote controlled charger at the time). Managed to get it working eventually.
2 years later a new WiFi router & I cant talk to the charger, so it needs re pairing with the new WiFi router. Nothing in the manual on how to factory reset the Ecowheels charger. Nothing on the website. No reply from the email / phone number inactive but the robot put me through to technical department that eventually showed how to reset it.
Push the button 16-20s until the light goes purple, then press the button twice. It should then revert to green. and be discoverable again via the SmartLife app.
Obviously 🤔

Now I just have to program the charger via the SmartLife app to scheduled the charger.
Simples 😭
To the right is what you are trying to acheive.>>>
First you have to Add the device technique shown in manual. Make sure your VPN is OFF, Location ON, Bluetooth ON. Make sure you are close enough for bluetooth <5M & your phones WiFi is on the same frequency 2.4G (not ending ending in _5G) If it cant find your device it may need resetting.

Now to create time schedules.
Hit the + sign - Create a scene. Schedule - Specific time - 23:30 - Repeat - every day - Confirm - Then (+) - Device - (select single device) - your charger - Switch ON - Save.
Now create another scene for stop charging
Some of it is in the paper manual which shows some of the steps but misses key steps which I'll try and show.

One niggle with the charger is you have it set to charge 23:30 - 5:30 but you come home at midnight & plug in - IT DOESN'T CHARGE -
Why- because it was not plugged in at 23:30 so you have to swipe the card to activate it.
My old "dumb" charger would have worked just fine.

Solar CT Clamp

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:16:48 GMT

Solar & EVs require data communications. Some chargers such as the Ohme require a CT clamp that measure the total current being drawn, then limits the charging to keep the maximum current below typically 100A. This generally requires a CAT5 or CAT6 cable running from the car charger to the fuse box. Shown below 2 x CT clamps one for the Solis Solar Inverter and another for the Ohme charger.
Some rearranging of fuse box/s are required to stop the Ohme charger draining the house battery when Octopus Intelligent go trigger charging outside the cheap rate time window.
The new arrangement on the left allows the Ohme CT clamp to "see" the full load on the main fuse. The only draw back is the Inverter CT clamp only see's the the load on the main fuse box so the data logged by the inverter is incomplete (not a issue). This has fully solved house battery draining problems.

BT Big Button phone faulty design!

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 10:41:19 GMT

Over the years I've bought many (now discontinued) BT Big Button 100 phones for the elderly and particularly the hard of hearing. These where good loud phones, wall mountable that would wake the dead.
Now BT or whoever manufactures them have changed the design to the BT Big Button 200. Ive bought more than 10 of the "Two hundreds" over a 2 year period, they are not wall mountable and most come back as faulty, one of the main complaints is they cant hear them. the volume when on loud fades after a few minutes, leaving the customer unable to hear them. This never used to happen with the BT Big Button 100 & the customers that are usually elderly do not really know whats happening. When taken to the shop and tested the sales person with perfect hearing tests then for 1 min & declares them to be fine!
They are a pile of junk that should never be inflicted on the elderly, Im never buying this phone again !

BT Big Button 200
❌

Current model

BT Big Button 100
✅

Old version, worked, wall mountable.

Fibre - Where does my Phone plug in ?

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 15:09:57 GMT

With Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) your copper wire no longer carries the "old fashioned" dial tone & speech, so now you have to plug the phone into the green socket on the Hub.

"But I have 3 plugin phones in the other rooms" I can hear every body shouting.
You could get a BT plug to BT plug adaptor and run it from the green socket to one of your existing BT sockets BUT, your original house wiring is still connected to the BT network and may have 50v stopped dial tone on it which could short out your router and generally confuse everything.
Options are -

Buy a set of 2 or 3 cordless phones EG BT4600 trio - plug the base unit into the green socket.
Have the house wiring altered to accommodate the new router.

Care Line / Care Link (Don't Care)

Tue, 11 May 2021 07:36:32 GMT

Ive had so many faults traced to Care lines lately, but when I ring up the care line people, they -don't- care or they just decide that they can diagnose a faulty care line from their office better than a Telephone engineer with 25 years experience that is actually on site 🙄
These clanky old devices are dished out to people with no choice and little ability to figure out these things are causing them problems on their telephone line, such as an intermittent short circuit making them Perpetually Engaged (cant ring in) and cant ring out. The poor customers are then made to feel even more vulnerable, as if its them not operating the equipment properly, and when the customer no longer has use for them they are passed on to the next victim.
If you suspect your (Don't) Care line demand a replacement. Wouldn't it be a real shame if a cup of coffee got spilled on it then they'd have to replace it.🤔

January 02nd, 2020

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 18:32:17 GMT

What went wrong ?

I've had 6 of these faulty from 3 different suppliers. I'm not buying these again. The Loud button doesn't work, they test faulty making your phone line permanently engaged.

May 23rd, 2019

Thu, 23 May 2019 08:10:31 GMT

BBC iPlayer / Catchup TV (samething)

Well lots of calls recently about Catch up TV not working. TV says sign in to your BBC iPlayer account.

BBC have started making everyone that uses it - Create an account and sign in on all there devices. Also the other channels ITV CH4 are following suit. lots of puzzled technophobes out there now.

Go to BBC iPlayer / ITV / CH4 on your laptop / iPad / Smart phone - Create an account - pair up your account to your TV with the pairing code. Simple !
"But I just wanted to watch TV"

High get out clause.

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 11:58:42 GMT

Here Im going to list companies with extortionate get out clauses. I.E. > £100
Most well know companies typically have a £55 get out fee.

Chess £1080 get out clause !?*

3 year tie in ?
Chess ICT
chessict.co.uk

Fibre to your house does now exist

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 11:51:06 GMT

Generally fibre is just to the green box then still same old copper wire up to your house.
Fibre all the way into the property is now available and being installed in some new housing estates. It can be installed at older properties but it might cost a bob or two.