Gyn_Paul

Anyone out there with a Franco-Belge gas boiler? If so does the little resettable fuse (under the screw cover) on the front panel actually 'click' when reset? In one of the houses I look after, the boiler was out (as was the pilot), and the circuit to it dead. organised temporary volts (until I find where the fuse board is hidden) re-lit the pilot, but still no life. Given that it's a combi, I would expect it to fire up and heat the DHW even if the room stat wasn't calling. I'm beginning to think the house has had some sort of storm 'episode' as the boiler would be the only thing not unplugged during the owner's absence. So anyway, the resettable fuse thingy pushes in, but does't feel like it's resetting anything. is this right?

Having got my internet connection back at last, I'm hoping it will hang on in there long enough to finish and file my 2017 impots before tonight's midnight deadline. 2 questions: - 1 / - can anyone think of a reason why  having put shares dividend (now gross of course) in box 2DC of 2047, - and only in that box - it doesn't seem to be reflected in the final calculations (I've looked at the final calcs before and after adding the dividend data) ? and 2/ - where does building society interest go these days? many thanks p

I'm sure your right - much easier to deal with a catastrophic failure than a damned intermittent fault. It's about 10 years old so it's possibly chaffed wiring shorting, or the heater element going short-circuit (though unlikely given when in the cycle it died). Those sort of things are a doddle to fault-find compared to a circuit board nightmare. If it's the motor, though, then they're so expensive it's not worth the time and effort getting it out and a new one in. 21st C. built-in obsolescence and all that. Despite it being in the middle of the night, the mains failure woke me up and I got to the machine (by a process of elimination) in a couple of minutes, and there was no smell of burning, or hot mica circuit board, nor any water on the floor.... we'll see when I have the time to work on it. Unfortunately it has a plumbed-in gas tumble dryer sitting on top of it, so taking the top off will be preceeded by a good deal of furniture removing! [quote user="Chancer"]Gyn Paul   If you want to repair the machine it might be very cheap and simple, my domestic one would make a huge bang and trip the breaker and ID, then be OK, then do it again, I thought it was the element because it did it more on hot washes, turned out to be the RF capacitor had exploded and was disembowelled and every now and then the alu tape would touch metal and make fireworks again, 5 seconds to remove and worked fine without it, £2 for a new one to replace later. [/quote]

[quote user="NickP"]WB wrote: Which play was that Mrs Lincoln? She replied I don't remember but, it had a dead stop ending.[/quote] "... I just know it came to a dead end."

Yea ! Thank you all. Under the panel at the base. At first sight there appears to be nothing there but the sump plug. But when you get down on the floor you can see a YELLOW (in the case of Ariston) tab which unlocks the door. Just as well there was no water in it, or I'd have had a face-full of very cold possibly soapy water. Right. The damned thing can sit there until the play's over. many thanks people p

No, it's not the dead state of the machine I need help with (not yet anyway) it's more the fact that there's 9kg of wet washing in it! So does anyone know (short of the Manchester screwdriver + brut force option) if there is a secret way of opening an Ariston/Hotpoint Aqualtys washer.?  The machine developed a short some time towards the end of its cycle - probably between empty and spin, judging by the fact there's no actual water in it - which took out the whole house at four in the morning, so obviously I can't plug it back in and press 'stop'.  I did imagine there would be a timer (discharging C, perhaps ?) which would release the child-proof lock thingy, but - no - it's been mort now for some 4 days and it remains resolutely immovable.  I can't deal with it at the moment (producing and doing the sound design for a play which goes up next week) in fact I won't have a moment to myself until Sunday 10 dec, by which time the washing will be VERY moldy-smelling if I can't get it out. Help !

You wouldn't say that, Jako, if you could see the gradual pixilation and eventual freezing every time a storm cloud forms over North Africa ! After close inspection, I have a feeling that one of the huge oaks on the edge of our drive has lurched to the east during the storm when I was in hospital for a month, that plus 12 year's growth has possibly pushed a branch or two to the beam path (I wish it was as easy to eyeball the beam angle with an offset dish as it is with a prime focus one!). The solution would be to move the dish mounting further (eastwards) along the barn wall, but - naturally - the 8 cables run the other way so would all need replacing. Even thinking about that makes my head hurt! paul

[quote user="Chancer"]You have done all the things that I have needed to do occasionally over the years, what Freebox do you have? The one the free website call 'crystal' - white plastic with a '1' on the LH front. unlike the previous one this is ADSL only: not scarts or HDMIs or anything else to confure one. Not had a problem with it until now. I have 3 or 4 ethernet cables connecting into mine, one to the guest router, one to my PC (I get the weakest Wi-Fi signal) one to a Wi-Fi transmitter in my dwelling which the phone and tablette connect to but I find the PC is still more stable using the ethernet connection and one to a internet radio which at the moment refuses to connect either by ethernet or Wi-Fi.  On mine there is an additional ethernet socket for the Freebox HD (television) I no longer have the service so dont use it, could you be plugging into that by mistake? see above  Re the power supplies, I ran on a car battery while waiting for a new one and also bought a spare for the future, they were dirt cheap and came quickly from Free, if you are using a generic one or have any doubts then powering it from a car battery will remove any doubts as to voltage smoothing, transients etc.  I use good-quality German ones at least 500mA higher rating, but - you're right - nothing but a 12v mattery will really exclude the possibilty that it's suffering from transients etc. I'll give that a go. good luck, I reckon its something to do with the box that converts the fibre over to the old copper, maybe in remaking the terminations yours is barely making contact. Sorry cat recall the terminology, I should be getting fibre optic to my building very soon.   Editted, the addition or removal of the ADSL filter will not connect or disconnect the other phone wiring, I would remove the filter also disconnect the capacitor in the master socket and physically disconnect the wiring to the other dead legs, plugging the Freebox cable directly into a correctly wired late type conforming master socket (I forget the correct name) will in doing so disconnect all the wiring to phone extension points if it has been correctly connected but I would not assume anything. In effect I' did that.  Perhaps I didn't make it clear earlier. When I brought the box down from the studio, I undid the junction box where the FT black pair (what we in OB's who had dealing with BT engineers call 'drop wire') comes in to the house, disconnected it from the junction box and connected it directly to the freebox on a short trailer lead - no filters, no caps - using literally none of the house wiring, and the bugger STILL didn't work ! [/quote]

I know most of you out there are Orange/Livebox folks, and of the few Freebox people I don't suppose you will have had this problem, but here goes anyway... Subscriber to Free for some 10 years now. Box changed after storm damage a couple of years ago. We are on the end of 6kms of copper so half a meg is the best we can hope for. Nevertheless it does work - albeit slowly. The box feeds this pc in the kitchen by wifi, and 2 others and a radio or two via a cat5 cable network. Now, at last, our long-awaited fibre-optique reached the village a couple of fridays ago and into my inbox pinged a 'welcome to your new Free high-speed ADSL' email. We are still on the end of a piece of copper, but hardly more than a km now. And of course 5 minutes later the internet went off and stayed that way for the weekend and the bank hol. After a lot of messing about and soft/hard re-booting (in case the new - but still copper - connection somehow needed a software update), I lost patience and dragged the box downstairs and connected it directly to the incoming black dropwire. No better running solo, so added the master filter (which then feeds all the phones) back in circuit and went to bed. No better in the morning so rang FT and (after all the usual line testing business) booked a service call for 2 days hence. The following morning it worked! and stayed connected right up to 10 minutes after I cancelled the service call the following day! Now, after a little more investigation, it seems the box will work (although it does seem to take a God's age to synchronize, stop scrolling and show the clock) back upstairs in its proper place, but only on wifi. If you plug a network cable in the back (either directly to a laptop or PC, or to the network distribution box) it crashes within the following 2 minutes.  Why should a faster signal be more fragile? What could the change have done to the box? I know if I go back to FT they will just say, "well your line is working: you have both phone and ADSL... what more do you want?" Thoughts please anyone. And before you ask, I've upgraded the 12v power supply to the box (the supplied one does seem to run rather hot) and I've taken the capacitor out of the FT junction box. paul

Speaking of reductions.... is it true that when both partners in a household with no other occupants reach retirement age they don't pay Taxe Fonciere?  I had an idea that this only applied to some because it was income-dependent, but a friend seems to think it applies to everybody. anyone know for sure?

While we have this thread running, might I expand it a little and ask if there is anyone out there who has a French bank account which they can operate online (either partially ot fully) WITHOUT a working mobile phone? I have a BP account and - despite it using a card reader+pin for most operations, it still needs a (working) mobile number. Clearly the system was designed and built by children living in Paris with its solid 4G, with never a thought that there might be the odd 10,000 or so customers who have no mobile phone service chez lui. I need a new Cyber Plus password, and although the branch is happy to telephone me on the landline, write to me, or send me emails, none of these is, apparently 'secure' enough to tranmit a password! so yet again I shall have to drag myself into the branch. This gets old  VERY quickly.  The inside of a French bank may be all chrome and flash and very 21st century, but the staff - and especially their attitude to their customers - could have been transplanted en masse from Williams & Glynns in Water St, in Liverpool circa 1948, with clerks on high stools, managers in frock coats, and the customers bowing and scraping.! and... and... and... would it be TOO much to ask for a monthly statement with a running total? What possible use is a page of transactions with the balance on the 4th June at the top, and the 5th July at the bottom? Sorry. end of rant (it IS very hot here!) paul

[quote user="ericd"]Paul. It might be the right time to carry out a little census on a) Name of nearest town b) Dish dimension c) reception quality. I will add my bit when I go to our house in next 10 days.[/quote] 23160 Bazelat (nearest town would be La Souterraine) 120 cm reception: uneven ! I've spent hours micro tweaking the dish to get - what seems to be - the best compromise, which is why I wondered if a narrow beam attenuates the weakest transponders (those on the tightest footprints) on the satellites on either 'end' of the 28.2E cube ?

It sounds like a no-brainer, but I wonder.  I live in the centre of France, and have had decent reception with 80cm dishes when properly aligned, with the usual loss of signal during end-of-the-world storm systems when they progress our way from the south. In an attempt to curtail this loss, I changed my main dish to 120cm, and frankly found little improvement. We still lose everything during storms (perhaps not for quite as long) but the trade-off seems to be that we seem more prone to losing channels which I judge to be on the 'edge' of the signal beam. Is it my imagination, or is the 120's narrow beam acceptance less able to find all the transponders on all the satellites ? I ask now because I'm about to replace an octo on the 120, and am considering changing it back to a good old trusty 80cm.  Am I being daft? paul

That's fascinating (odd, bizarre, and French) !  What are the nature of these adendums (adendii?)? Changes the the mother's details, perhaps?

At the moment, the registration page is happy to accept non-uk addresses (so therefore no TV licence number). Which is, of course, good. But I can't avoid thinking that that would enable them - at a keystroke - to block every non-UK account. If/when they change the access rules.

Perhaps the Japanese Embassy could be persuaded to do a translated copy of the Japanese birth certificate?

Since FT/Orange only charge you for faults from the junction box inside the house onwards, I imagine the wire outside the house is FT's despite it being on your property. Although how you go about getting them to re-route it, is beyond me. Of course if it were to suffer an (erhumm) 'accident' while your builders were working on the roof.... then FT would probably move it anyway while they were repairing it !

Blue pass arrived yet Blodwyn?  From memory ours took about 6 weeks from the visit to the office until it arrived. First thing I did was make a duplicate for the other car, yet between putting it in handbags (when travelling with friends) and burying it in the glove box, because it won't sit on the dashboard when you are on the move, we still manage to arrive places without it !  

I'm going into CHU in Limoges early next month for triple by-pass surgery, and am keen to talk to anyone who has had this surgery here in France, to discuss post-operative recovery... what to expect, time-scales rehabilitation services etc. Anyone care to email or pm me with their experiences, please? paul

Thanks for that. I'll check them out once we actually have the long-awaited service (promised for June 2016, Jan 1 2017, Mar 1 2017, May 15 2017. Don't actually believe them anymore).

[quote user="EuroTrash"]I don't understand your problem. If you change to Orange, will you not simply end up with your VOIP line provided by Orange instead of a VOIP line provided by Free? Wouldn't you just stick your same plugs into a LIVEBOX rather than a FREEBOX?[/quote] I thought that with the all-singing, all-dancing Livebox, the ordinary house phone was derived   from the box. Are you saying that the Box is fed from a filter in the classic way  (thus leaving the POTS line untouched) ?

My miles of classic copper will - in a month or two - be changed to fibre optique (hooray!!!), and with it, one hopes, a blinding increase in speed from the lamentable 602 lousy bits (max) - frequently little better then dial-up - to 5 to 8 megs. When our NRA (Centre telephonic) comes on line we will be in a degroupe area, of course, but at the moment it seems Free telecom - with whom we currently are - are not joining the rest of them in posing their kit in the new cabinet. We currently have a 'free' 2nd line through the back of the FREEBOX, which I'm guessing I would lose if (as seems likely) I migrate to an Orange LIVEBOX. I have quite a complicated multiroom Panasonic phone system which takes up to 3 ('POTS') lines, so it currently has the FT and the Free lines in it, which we've rather got used to, so my question is, is there such a thing as a free-standing VOIP router-type box which I can daisy-chain from the Livebox, then into the Panasonic Unit as a 2nd phone line? Everything I find on the net seems to be base units for hands-free phones, which are obviously no use. 

[quote user="Chancer"]You have answered your own question, they dont know what your liability is until you file, in the meantime they take 10 payments of a tenth of last years liability with any excess (or refund) taken care of in the last 2 months, I have only just started paying and got all the avis' today, all in seperate envelopes of course.[/quote] No, I don't get that.. the data is all there in the on-line filing, There's the definitive total revenue for the year on one line, and on the next it calculates the impot due, and then there is the line: Total de l'impôt sur le revenu net...............................................4375, and the scale is 10 x 437 (jan to oct) Then the identical page the following year has 10 x 906 (ouch!) but for Oct, nov and dec of the earlier year (by which time the total tax for the previous f/y should be totally paid off)  it's 3 x 1259. ! So are you saying that the 'total d'impot [...] net' figures are estimates?  Why? what's the variable? even more confused now! p

Can anyone explain why the payments for the last quarter are always at variance (often wildly) from the avis echeances printed on the IR avis when the tax is filed?  for instance in my case, september was the 9th of E588, but oct/dec was E1259. I don't have to tell you that I didn't read it: by the time I'm printing off the avis at the end of the filing process, I'm just so relieved it hasn't fallen over and lost the entire thing that I go and lie in a darkened room for a couple of weeks! It seems that jan - dec is the 12/total of the previous years tax demand, (certainly, that's how they are listed) but then when you file the following one, the last 3 months are revised (upwards, of course).  Why is this? Confused (and now over-drawn) p

[quote user="idun"]SADLY, I hardly trust my french bank, well any of my french banks to deal with my accounts as they stand, never mind actually doing some proper work and doing a transfer. Would I try this, unlikely........ [/quote] Couldn't agree more... a few years ago our local Banque Unpopulaire changed its IBAN or sort code, or something, and they wrote to US, the customers, telling us to contact all our DD's and SO's to set up new mandates. If they couldn't sort out a change of their own making, I certainly wouldn't trust them to implement a change, where a customer was leaving them, in anything like a timely fashion .