An aside to the EV drivers thread

Electric prams and pushchairs seem to be all the rage ...

And electric scooters such as VOI and so are mobility scooters & electric wheelchairs....

Thread divert alert..

An elderly neighbour has just had to replace her mobility scooter because of an *unfixable* known fault in her old one.

Slows to a crawl in use but then recovers. Anyone heard of this? The suppliers do not seem to have any service capability.

Sounds to me like 'my battery is nearly flat so I will slow down, oh slowing down restores the voltage'

Dodgy battery connection?

A Rolec Wallpod with Opencharge is about £800 + VAT

The Wallpod Ready is basically a 13A socket and an RCD in a box, but looks like a charger and may be enough to satisfy planning authorities for £96

Owain

Just a generic comment, there are many people here who would almost certainly be able to fix it (perhaps by replacing all the control circuitry). Almost everyone in the "disability" industry is going to say "Unfixable, you need to buy another".

I've just discovered that there is a new "repair shop" in my area, I have been thinking for some time that I ought to offer my services for this sort of thing (except of course that I am too busy already).

There is perhaps a slight growth in the "repair" industry, we have a local locksmith who can do any sort of car key, he just boasted about recovering a modern Ford (locked, with no key at all) and supplying two new keys in an hour. Fords had quoted ten days, need to trailer vehicle back to main agent, and five times the price. And a second guy seems to be setting up in competition.

OK Owain. I'll have a closer look tonight. Thanks.

Buy a fire extinguisher.

Have you got planning permissions for a business would you then have to pay a business council tax?

Agriculture is generally considered a business use but not subject to tax. Empty buildings can be taxed after 2 years.

Where I have obtained business use for light industry (currently carpentry and robots!) the buildings are assessed for rates. Below a certain valuation, the tax is fully rebated.

I am attempting to convince the planners that there is some current/future benefit in what they consider to be added bulk to the Metropolitan green belt.

I'd guess the problem is that it's difficult to make it pay being a generalist repair-person. If you haven't seen one before you'd have to spend N hours on forums reading up about the faults of this particular item, which might be fine as a hobby but not when you have overheads that need to be covered. Plus people will expect no-fix-no-fee, when you can't judge whether any unfamiliar job is going to be successful.

However I think there's an opportunity for 'small motorised electric' servicing - mobility scooters, e-bikes, lawnmowers, power tools, vacuums. The basic components are battery - BMS - charger - motor controller - motor and it doesn't matter whether it comes in a scooter, a stairlift or a lawnmower, it's all the same idea. People that know battery and motor technology should be able to apply to all the things that have motors in these days - although whether it'll pay is another question.

Theo

Typical disability industry rip off.

Bill

Indeed, that make seems to have a reliability issue.

Sounds like a complete new building though. What was it roofed with before ?.

Tarred felt over a mix of tongue and groove pine/ chipboard and just about anything that came to the original builders hands. The roof had minimal fall and leaked sieve like. I topped it with some second hand box section steel but birds kept peeling off the patches over the original fixing holes. Woodworm, rot and the leaks made continued use impractical. The steel frame fits inside the original walls except where a toilet is set back leading to a small canopy overlap.

Photos here I hope..

In message <r81x$ snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk>, Tim Lamb snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk> writes

Oops I missed the forward slash after the co and that needs to be a capital K

In message <5sU1rGXdirjhFwT+@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk>, Tim Lamb snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk> writes

Oops again. I seem to have cocked up the address. Oh well. You have missed seeing the lean-to greenhouse on the other side:-)

It worked for me, with the slash inserted and the K capitalised.

As well as adding the slash, you have to make the K and the GS be capitals.

Then it works.