Flurry of broadband activity in the town as Netomnia are installing their infrastructure just as Virgin Media are expanding their existing network. A blog on this is HERE.
Please Note – I’m not employed by Virgin Media and this Blog is based on my observations and assumptions, I have no insight into where, when or the extent of their program including properties to be ‘Openreach Duct’ ready.
Virgin Media – Phase 2 Infrastructure
In June 2017 Virgin Media contractors began the infrastructure works in Chatteris, digging over 37 miles of trenching to lay the microduct bundles which bring fibre optic cable to the home.
In late April 2022, I noticed that Kelly Communications on behalf of Virgin Media, were installing a number of BT marked footway boxes in front of existing street cabinets and this was due to the following :-
“In 2019 a Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) statement was issued by OFCOM enabling other service providers (Alt-Nets), to use Openreach’s ducts and poles at a cost (Openreach Pricing)”
So this is the start of Virgin Media taking advantage of this arrangement in Chatteris enabling consumers to have a greater choice on service provision.
I’m assuming that as the cover had BT embossed in it, further civil works will be needed to duct to a nearby BT footway box.
While out and about in New Road, I noticed the new installation of a Nodal Cabinet, BT marked footway box and signs of interconnect works to a Openreach footway box by a Principle Connection Point which tweaked my interest :-).
I wondered why a Nodal Cabinet (right hand side) had been installed, then I remembered that a development of 52 dwellings in Lancaster Way were not included in the initial Project Lightning rollout and therefore did not have any ‘Toby’ boxes or microduct infrastructure installed.
The conventional way of getting a Virgin Media to your property is by a microduct (Virgin workers refer to these as ‘Straws’), from a Grey street cabinet directly to a ‘Toby’ box’, which will usually be on the pavement near the property boundary, once service is requested a fibre optic cable is blown down the microduct and terminated on the outside wall of your property.
With the duct sharing agreement in place, the lack of a ‘Toby’ does not necessarily now mean you can’t have Virgin Media installed, which is great news.
I’m not sure if Virgin Media are going to use telephone poles or stick to only using ducts at this time.
Due to the nodal cabinet in New Road, I had a look around Lancaster Way on the 4th May 2022 to see if any above ground infrastructure had been installed, and by pure chance Kelly Communications were installing a fibre to a property using Virgin Media assets within an Openreach footway box and they kindly allowed me to take a few pictures.
Emtelle OFDC – Click image for data sheet
It looks like a single microduct has been installed from the Virgin Media street cabinet in New Road (AF0409), using the Openreach ducts to cross two roads in getting to the footway box in the picture, a total distance of some 193 metres, (the advantages of Virgin Media sharing the ducts are obvious as the civils cost would have been considerable).
The fibre, via the microduct from Cabinet AF0409 is connected to an Outdoor Fibre Distribution Closure (OFDC) which is a ruggedised splice tray giving a 12 fibre outlet ports.
The OFDC is housed within an original Openreach footway box (Type 4), from when the estate was built, the OFDC uses a hinged, bespoke bracket, and shares the space with an Openreach Connectorised Block Terminal used for Ultra Fast Fibre Broadband by BT and other providers, (further details can be found in my blog on Future Fibre).
In the picture you can see a black with green strip microduct, this was installed by the Engineers and uses the same duct to the property as the telephone cable, the green microduct with a yellow label is ready to be joined together with a ‘push fit’ coupling.
The OFDC has the green microducts ‘tails’ already installed to make the process ‘standard’, mimicking a traditional, non shared duct installation.
Once the microduct was in the footway box and the connection made to the OFDC ‘tail’ , the fibre was blown from the property through the microduct and connected to the first port on the OFDC.
The ‘push fit’ coupling is a ‘Gas Block’ designed to prevent any dangerous gasses (if present), leaving the footway chamber via the microduct and causing a hazard.
John Guest Gas Block – click image for data sheet
The OFDC hinged lid was then clipped closed, the assembly then folded down and the manlid refitted, so their are no visible signs that Virgin Media is available in the area, unless you spot a physical Ominbox on the wall of a connected property.
Microduct emerging from the Openreach duct to the Omnibox.View showing the footway box fibre equipment.
The pen markings on the OFDC (AF040903) indicate that it feed originated from Cabinet AF04 and sub fed from cabinet number 09, I would presume the 03 represents that their are at least two other units OFDC’s in use here, and would expect a few more to provide estate coverage.
The picture above shows neighbours, one with a BT Customers Splice Point (CSP) for fibre, with this system the fibre connects to a Optical Network Termination (ONT) box inside the property, whereas the Virgin Media fibre terminates in the external Omnibox where an ‘optical to coaxial media converter’ is located, before the coaxial cable enters the property.
Joint Footway Type 4 ( 55cm x 100cm) containing the ODFC serving a property to the left of the picture.
Looking around Chatteris there are signs that Virgin Media are looking to try and include those properties which could not be traditionally served with a microduct service to the property, simply due to the distance from the boundary ‘Toby’ to the property.
Utilisation of existing Openreach ducts is the perfect solution, as per the example below:
The 4 ‘Toby’ boxes were installed in 2017 and the footway box was installed on the 6th May 2022 by Kelly Communications. The next stage will be to link the footway box to an Openreach footway box which contains the telephone ducts from the properties that the original ‘Toby’ boxes were provisioned for.
Once the Openreach footway box is located, an OFDC will be installed, ready for a customers connection should they place an order, if an order is forthcoming, the installation will progress as per the one in Lancaster Way.
It is difficult from this picture to show how far away the prospective Virgin Media consumers are, but you can see that if a ‘traditional’ microduct were to be installed directly from the ‘Toby’ to the property, it would involve a lot of Pave Block lifting and replacement (disruption and cost), not too mention gaining Wayleaves if required, so the use of existing Openreach infrastructure is ideal.
The distance from the ‘Toby’ to the furthest property is approximately 100m
This is another example of where 4 ‘Toby’ boxes have been installed ready to supply customers in 2017, but the block paved drive would make service provision costly, and this scenario is replicated multiple times in Chatteris, hence, the sharing of the existing telephone cable ducts will open Virgin Media to many more customers.
I’m not sure how Virgin Media will let you know you can have their service, probably a promotional leaflet through your letterbox or a knock on the door, but you can check availability HERE.
This is a comprehensive continuation of problem resolution of the ESi thermostat which can be found HERE.
Update
Due to the imminent installation of a new boiler with Priority Domestic Hot Water, I will be able to control the water temperature using the unvented cylinders integral thermostat making the ESCTDE/B redundant and therefore I have removed it.
Problem
After the cylinder thermostat was installed, I noticed that the boiler would fire up outside of any scheduled times, checking the programmer settings and wiring, I deduced that the supply to call for heat to the Hot Water Valve was being controlled by the ESCTEDE/B.
I spoke to ESi technical and they confirmed this to be the case when the cylinder thermostat was configured for legionella mode. In this mode, the internal timer of the ESCTEDE/B will call for hot water, (irrespective of the time of day or programmer setting) until the measured water temperature is at or above 60 deg C for 1 hour in order to kill water borne bugs.
As a result of this, I reluctantly disabled the legionella function.
After I received the prompting comment from a blog reader, I thought I would look at a circuit which would only allow the hot water to call for heat based on the programmers scheduled time setting, however, should the legionella mode timer be internally activated, this would proceed as normal, but only within the programmers scheduled time slots.
The simplified schematic below shows this can be accomplished using an interposing relay as a switch for the motorised valve trigger.
Solution – Method of Operation
When the programmer calls for Hot Water, a switched live is sent to the ESi controller HW -ON -COM terminal and also to a Normally Open terminal of a 230v AC Relay contact, the common of the relay contact is connected to the motorised valve (Brown Wire).
When the ESi receives a switched live to the HW-ON-COM, the ESi LED illuminates and an internal connection is made and a switched live appears on the HWS N/O terminal, this output is now wired directly to the relay coil, rather than the motorised valve.
The result of this modification is that when the HW programmer calls for heat, the relay will energise and supply the motorised valve with a switched live from the programmer, should the ESI enter legionella mode, the relay will energise or remain energised depending on the programmers time setting, however, if the programmer is not calling for heat, the switched supply to the motorised valve will no longer be present and the valve will close turning off the boiler.
The advantage of this arrangement is that the boiler firing is dependent on the programmers scheduled times set by the user, rather than the ESCTEDE/B doing this at random times.
The main thing to note is that the legionella setting from the ESCTEDE/B will not reset unless the water, reaches and maintains, a temperature of 60 degrees for 1 hour, this means that the programmers time window must be greater than 2 hours making the assumption the tanks contents will reach temperature in the first hour and maintain this in the second hour.
Obviously the boilers hot water temperature setting must be greater than 61 degrees for this to work.
Modified ‘S’ Plan Wiring Schematic to include Relay Control
My existing central heating wiring centre was the original one and modified when I fitted the ESi and as you can see it was a little bit ‘busy’ and desperately in need of a tidy up!
Looking around for a replacement wiring centre, I saw that a local Screwfix had one in which uses Wago connections rather than traditional terminal strips, the main benefit of this is the tool less connection of wires and a greater number of connection terminals avoiding doubling up of wires which makes installation messy and fault finding difficult.
The Screwfix part number is 621HV and the product is a Wago L32 Terminal Junction Box.
Even though the L32 had a lot of connections, I still needed additional connections for the earth wires and a cross connect marked as connector ‘A’ in the schematic.
Old wiring centre removed and cables marked up ready for re-termination.
The completed Wago L32 wiring centre is considerably neater than the one it replaced, the schematic terminal connections are faithfully recreated within the L32 to aid fault finding or future modifications if required.
Once this was done I changed the legionella setting to operate every 7 days, the installation guide on how to set this up is HERE.
ESi showing the cylinder water temperature of 50oC, the hot water is calling for heat as my setpoint is 55oC.
I’ve not done anything to my front lawns, other than mow the grass. This year (2022), I thought I would invest some time in trying to get them looking better without the weeds and moss, by the way, I’m certainly no lawn expert!
After treating the lawn with a moss and weed solution and after scarifying and aerating, I needed to level out the surface of the lawn by using a Top Dressing comprising of a sand and soil mix in a 70:30 ratio.
Their are a number of tools which can be used to spread and level the lawn, these are a Drag Mat (or variant), and a Lawn Lute.
Manufactured Lawn Lute, the one pictured is made from Stainless Steel and costs £130
The cost of a manufactured Lawn Lute can be well over £100, so I decided to make my own.
Dimensioned cutting plan of my lawn lute.
The tools needed were:
Welder
3.2mm 6013 Welding Rods
Angle Grinder – Metal Cutting Disc
Tape Measure
5.3m of 25mm x 25mm x 3mm Mild Steel Angle Iron
2.2m 25mm Galvanized Conduit
25mm Galvanized Threaded Coupling
Hinge assembly
The construction was fairly straightforward, once the angle iron was cut to length, the outer frame was welded and then the internal cross pieces were added.
The cross pieces are welded so that the ‘V’ is on the inside, meaning the ‘sharp’ edge is in contact with the ground when in use.
‘Old Faithful’ – Weldmate 140 Stick Welder.
The hinge was made by using a small length of angle iron with the ends cut to allow a flap to be formed, this was then bent over and welded, 6.5mm hole was drilled in each end to the hinge and this was then lined up the two other lengths of angle iron which sit on-top of the cross pieces.
Once all ‘square’ everything was welded into place, the last step was to weld a 25mm coupling onto the hinge, as these are galvanized I needed to grind off this coating due to the fumes when welding.
The handle is a 2.2m length of 25mm galvanized electrical conduit which screws into the coupling when needed, but unscrews for easy storage.
The cost of construction was £44
Welding rods (I did buy a big box for other projects) – £22
Angle Iron – £12
Cutting discs – £10
Coupling and conduit already had
If you do zoom in, please don’t crucify me for my poor welding 🙂
I have always struggled with water temperature control on my Trevi CTV thermostatic shower valve, typically it was always too cold and we ended up running the cold sink tap at the same time as having a shower, in order to reduce the cold water pressure, this then allowed warm water flow.
My first thought was that the problem was within the mixer tap, I downloaded the manual and disassembled the mixer to check that the hot water strainer was clear and nothing obvious was wrong, what I did notice was the temperature limiting plastic ‘stops’ were missing.
These ‘stops’ are a means of maximum temperature regulation and also act as an ‘anti scold’ devices, so the removal of them meant the installer knew of a problem 🙁
I went on the UK Plumbers Forum to ask advise about this and the answer came back almost immediately.
In order to explain, I need to show how my domestic hot water is plumbed:
Looking at the diagram above, the high pressure mains water supply enters from the right into a balancing valve, this valve performs three functions:
Reduces the incoming cold water pressure to 3.5 bar to feed the unvented cylinder
Provides a cold water connection at the same water pressure as the unvented cylinder
Contains a Pressure Relief Valve which will discharge to drain if the pressure exceeds 6 bar.
Monoblock/Balancing valve.
My unvented cylinders reducing valve doesn’t have a cold water take off, so instead of fitting one, the original installer simply took the cold fee to the mixer shower valve directly from the incoming supply, which is at a greater pressure than the pressure reduced hot water, so it would never have worked properly from day one.
The person who fitted it must have known this, so removed any overtemperature controls, what an idiot!
In order to fix this, I needed to either fit a balancing valve and re-pipe the shower to the cold take off, or, fit a 3.5bar pressure reducing valve (PRV) near the shower, this is what I did.
The plastic pipes from the shower mixer run under the landing floor, so I used a multitool and cut an access hatch in the floor to locate the pipes, turning on the shower for hot water whilst holding the pipes, soon identified the hot one.
The PRV needed to be fitted to the cold water, so the stopcock wat turned off and water drained by turning on the kitchen taps, once drained the plastic pipe was cut and inserts fitted.
I used a short length of 15mm copper pipe tails from the PRV inlet and outlet compression fittings and made the connection to copper/plastic pipe with ‘push fit’ sockets.
The hatch cover was then screwed down and marked up, so anyone lifting the carpet back will know what’s under the hatch.
It was not an expensive fix, and its made a huge difference, don’t know why I put it off for so long.
On the 18th February 2022, Storm Eunice arrived bringing disruption to many parts of the country and a record number of Red weather warnings being issued by the Met Office.
I recorded wind speeds of 52mph and this was enough to dislodge a roof tile which slide off the roof and smashed,
We are lucky in this town to have a distributor for the make of tiles I have, and they ordered a replacement for me.
The type and description of the tile I needed :
Sandtoft concrete double pantile right hand cloaked verge tile Rustic
The tile cost £11.50 and the roofer is due any day to fit it.
Update
15 March 22
I got let down by a roofer from Sommersham who promised they could do the job and in the end just didn’t bother coming or contacting me.
So I called the company I bought the tile from on the off chance they knew a roofer they could recommend, they gave me Matts number, and by 4pm on the same day, the new tile has been fitted.
While he was there I noticed a gap where the ridge tile meets the roof tiles, Matt said the plastic infill is missing so he nipped up and mortared this up, so we are watertight again 🙂
Matt did a great job and charged a very reasonable fee.
Very pleased with the job, the tile I lost was due to it not being secured with a nail, as nailing the replacement would mean removing all the preceding tiles as they overlap each other, so the workaround was to use an adhesive to bond the tile down.
I saw this article on hiding the reCaptcha v3 badge which automatically displays on the bottom right hand corner of the screen if reCaptcha is enabled in your Contact Forms.
I needed to hide the v3 badge was as it clashed with the location of a ‘Scroll to Top’ button, the implementation of the code to hide the badge was very simple:
Locate Appearance on Dashboard
Select – Customise
Click on – Additional CSS
Add the text in the box and save, then check you can send mail.
Google does allow the badge to be hidden, but their are conditions which the linked article above refers which need to be implemented.
In my case I added the statement – ‘This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply’, to my left hand sidebar, directly under the Contact Form using the Wiget menu.
I laid my first block paving path over 20 years ago at a different property, so I knew the basics when we needed to give my existing path a makeover.
Broken flags due to delivery lorries delivering materials.
We knew it was going to be paving blocks, but the colour and pattern needed to be worked through. We did know that only pedestrian traffic would use the path, so the block thickness only needed to be 50mm.
Looking online. the colour of block which is in sympathy with the house brick is Buff, Wickes turned out to be the most competitive at the time of purchase.
Block Setout Plan
Drawing a plan, gave the overall number of blocks required and we went for a very simply laying pattern to reduce block wastage to an absolute minimum after comparing laying options, (my previous attempt used a ‘Heringbone’ pattern which looks really nice but is very cut intensive and generates a lot of waste).
Materials
After ordering the pave block, I needed the following:
Concrete edgings
Metal edgings
MOT1 hardcore
Sharp sand
Kiln Dried sand
Skip
It was time to get the shovel out and get rid of the old path!
Yellow arrow indicate lighting cable duct.We decided to widen the path to allow for a bench as this is a sun trap in the afternoon.
Once all the path was dug up, it was time to run a string line out for my straight edge, the width of the path isn’t that critical at this point, as I can take space from the lawn to add width.
Concrete edging cemented into place, taking time to follow the string line for both height and straightness.
Getting the sand level correct
Once the edgings had set, we laid MOT1 and used a friends ‘Wacker Plate’ to compact this, before applying a 50mm layer of sharp sand.
My spirt levels height was the same as a pave block (50mm), the base sand was compacted and I used two lengths of 25mm galvanised electrical conduit as runners which were embedded in the sand.
The level was then used to scrape the sand using the conduit as rails, adjusting the depth until the sprit levels top edge was 10mm proud of the edgings top, this was to allow for the bricks compaction at the end of the laying process so they lay flush with the edges.
Where the blocks butt up to the lawn, I used Corten steel edgings, as these are very thin, strong and will last for decades.
With the blocks laid, the ‘Wacker Plate’ was again used, after a liberal layer of kiln dried sand was added, to vibrate the sand into the gaps and effectively ‘lock’ the blocks in place.
The lawn was then reseeded, hence the mesh.
One good thing to come out of this apart from a path, is that the house builders had simply filled an air brick hole up with gravel which was below the paths grade, so hidden.
This was sorted very quickly with a new air brick installed, but the builders should have known better, but the quality of construction in certain areas is questionable!
Conclusion
The weather was very kind to us when we were doing this project and their was no rush, so it turned out to be a pleasant job to do, still physically hard work, but it does look good for an amateur job, (although I do say so myself :-))
I installed my original alarm system in 2006 which was monitored by Custodian Alarm Receiving Centre with a police response. The Control & Indicating Equipment was Scantronic 9851 with two remote keypads, all detection devices throughout the property were hardwired and both front and rear sounders were live.
The end station was installed out of the way in the loft:
I decided in March 2020 to ‘get back on the tools’ and install a new hybrid system with App functionality, the system also had to be remotely programmable, have flexible circuit input/output attributes to allow for third party integration and have a comprehensive range of detection and system devices.
Looking at the marketplace range of products, training packages offered by the manufactures and distribution availability, I opted to install a Pyronix Euro 46.
I must admit to not liking the old CastleCare range as they looked a bit too clunky for a domestic environment when compared to their competitors offerings, hence, I originally installed a Scantronic panel, however, after installing it, I really like the no nonsense, intuitive keypad and the area LEDS showing the set status is really handy as a quick visual verification that the system is armed.
The wiring architecture is very straight forward with a data buss from the blind end station going to either or Zone Expansion Modules (ZEM8), Wireless Expansion Modules (ZEM-32WE), Output Modules (EURO- OEM8R8T) or Keypads or a mix and match of these to suit the systems design configuration.
In my case I needed two 8 circuit zone expanders, 1 output module, 4 keypads, 1 wireless 32 zone expander and 2 remote key fobs, as this is my test system as well, one of the keypads is local to the panel acting as the engineers keypad.
The Scantronic system used resistors in each detector enabling a Fully Supervised Loop, this means that two wires can monitor the following circuit status:
Device Open
Device Closed
Tamper – Open Circuit
Tamper – Short Circuit
Detector Anti-Mask
Installation
I decided to bring the end station out of the loft, two main reasons for this, the first being access for servicing and the second is the elevated temperatures in the summer are not healthy for batteries and will shorten their life.
I have a small unused cupboard which is ideal so the cabling was re-routed from the loft, or new runs installed.
Cables ready for second fixing.
Access to zone expansion modules is less critical, so one ZEM8 is in the airing cupboard and others modules are in the loft, as below.
These pictures below show the installation of a ZEM8 –
The house was prewired for an alarm system during construction with the intention of the End Station going in the airing cupboard, as this was not the case when I first fitted the system, all cables were extended using junction boxes.
ZEM8 mounted on the wall with detection circuit cables entering via rear access slots.
Completed ZEM8 with circuit descriptors clearly visible to aid fault finding or servicing.
The control equipment is able to monitor all ZEM8 parameters, such as voltage, circuit status and circuit resistance for remote diagnostics or virtual servicing.
The end station was mounted on a stand off board, this board was also home for my external GJD lighting system which is integrated into the alarm system along with CCTV recording and notification.
Smoke detectors were incorporated into the alarm system after a modification to a interlink monitor, details are HERE.
Completed setup, comprising a 3A Power Supply Unit, Euro 46 end station, relay output expansion module, external lighting end station and Sonoff external lighting override module.
I’ve not gone into detail regarding the type and specific location of detection devices for obvious reasons, that said, adding devices to the system is incredibly easy and the programming using Pyronix InSite UDL software is a doddle once you have an understanding of their menus and command functions.
As I had not used Pyronix equipment before, I made a circuit test switch box and explored on the bench all the programming options of the euro 46 before I started my system swop over, this worked really well for me, so money well spent in making it.
One aspect of the installation that was a bit tricky was the cabling to the rear door keypad.
I’m old school and prefer to home run cables wherever possible, plus the option to use the keypads onboard detection circuits was not possible as this allowance had been used elsewhere, this meant that the existing rear door contacts cable could not be converted to a data buss.
I could have opted for a wireless keypad, but where would be the fun in that!
Making sure I avoided any cables in the switches safe zone, I drill at a tight angle into the cavity void.
With the external fan guard and sleeve removed, the cable was fished out from the keypad location, the external lighting sensor was then removed and the cable fished to that, before going up into the loft, all completely hidden.
All done 🙂
Sounders
The external sounders are Delta Bell, one is configured as a Self Activating Bell whilst the other is configured as a Self Contained Bell, monitoring is via an Ethernet module to the Pyronix servers (this is an annually charged service).
I’m very happy with the system, it is easy to use, responsive via the app and flexible, integration into Hikvision cameras is a bonus, really enjoyed this swop over, not like some I’ve been involved with in the past!
Updates
6th December 2022 – I noticed that on the furthest keypad (RKP0), that everything was fine when using the tag to set & unset, but if I were to enter the code to unset the system, the display would be very slow to respond and after a short while a Comms Error would be generated.
Although the supply voltage was within tolerance, it was in the lower band, I therefore installed a Euro-ZEM8-PSU, this now feeds the RKP directly and I also took the opportunity to remove two detection zones from the keypad and migrated them to the ZEM8, making for a more logical installation, also the ‘Area Set’ LED programmable output was also moved from ZEM address 02 to the new ZEM8.
The issue has now been resolved.
3rd January 2023 – Added automatic garage locking controlled via outputs from the Euro46 panel, blog on this can be found HERE.
This is a thing I’ve wanted to do for years, in 2016 eRice budget shared hosting service reseller simply went off line, leaving me and hundreds of others unable to gain access to our files and offline sites.
Fortunately, a user managed to get in touch with the data centre and a small window of time opened up where we could download our files, hence I ended up with GoDaddy as I knew of them!
GoDaddy have been a reliable host but the costs are rising, especially as Secure websites are the norm, meaning SSL certification is needed at a renewal price of £71.99 per year, excluding the actual cost of hosting and backup resilience, as a hobby site it was becoming unaffordable.
Any move of host is a daunting prospect as I’m not a scripter, but I bit the bullet and set up an account with Hostgator as they provide free SSL certification and their shared hosting package is quite competitive.
As with most web hosters, the longer the term entered into the lower the costs as does the use of discount coupons; the table below compares my hosts based on what I pay as of April 2022:
Per YearCosts
GoDaddy – 2 Year Term
Hostgator – 3 Year Term
Plan
Economy – £86.25
Baby – £38.47
SSL Certificate
£71.99
Included
Backup
10Gb @ £28.65
1Gb @ £21.93 5Gb @ £17.41
Domain Renewal
£23.89
N/A
Domain Privacy
£9.58
£11.41
Transfer
N/A
£5.39
Total
£220.36
£94.61
I will update this table when I know what the Hostgator Domain renewal costs are.
Migration
My first step was to transfer my domain name to HostGator, I did this as my GoDaddy SSL certificate was coming up for renewal and I didn’t want to pay for a renewal, so this was the trigger for the move.
My domain remained pointing to GoDaddys servers until I had transferred all my files, folders and databases.
Main details to note when setting up a database with a new host are:
Database Name (including any wording automatically inserted in front of it)
Database User
Database Password
I had the most trouble with WordPress, I did try a number of migration tools, but my site seemed too big for them to work and I missed the 30 day window for Hostgator to do a free migration, so I did it all using Filezilla, (links below).
I would be telling a fib if I said it went smoothly, it turned into a bit of a nightmare.
The two key issues were:
I copied the WordPress wpconfig.php file and changed the database details for the new host, but I missed the table prefix type setting, this should have been ‘wp’ but it contained a legacy prefix from GoDaddy
I host the WordPress files on my shared server, rather than use a managed host service provided by HostGator. It looked like both instances were working against each other, I called tech support and they disabled the WordPress managed service, and the blog then fired into life.
I also had a 1Tb USB drive to keep downloaded files on and as a transit drive which worked well.
The process was made easier as I had access to both hosts cPanels for creating database backups, filezilla did the main file transfer work as I’m more familiar with that than some of the cPanel features.
The migration was a good opportunity to weed out files and folders that have amassed after 6 years of change, now its over I feel a whole lot better, I have a better understanding of the process than I did before and the site loads a lot quicker than it did before, so I wouldn’t be so hesitant next time 🙂
Chatteris Weather uses a high specification Davis Vantage Pro 2 wired weather station, various sensors are connected to the Integrated Sensor Suite, this in turn is connected to the Davis display console. Data is exported continuously from the display console by a data logger which uses a USB to connect to the Meteobridge Pro which was installed in mid December 2016.
The Meteobridge Pro replaced a PC which was running 24/7 in order to keep Weather Display software live and updating to the internet, the Weather Stations hourly power consumption dropped from 250 Watts to just 2 Watts and has paid for itself in energy costs.
The IP Hikvision webcam is powered over ethernet (POE) cable via a POE injection unit, Meteobridge Pro is configured to view the images generated by the webcam, every 5 minutes, the Meteobridge Pro updates my stations image on Weather Underground.
The Meteobridge Pro is also configured to send scheduled data to a wide range of weather site as well as Tweet weather conditions every half hour.
Chatteris Weather uses the Saratoga Template, the displayed Hikvision webcam images is linked back from Weather Underground.
The weather station and all downstream devices are powered via an uninterrupted power supply (UPS), this will run the station independently in the event of a power outage, for approximately 2 Hours before turning off.
Meteobridge Pro is cabled to a TP network switch which is connected to a eero6 router. From January 2022, Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) was installed, (hence the Optical Network Termination), giving a download speed of 75Mbps and upload speed of 20Mbps.
Chatteris Weathers internet service provider is TalkTalk (managed by City Fibre).
The above wall mounted rack is the central hub for my IT network and weather station hardware.
This blog is to document the process, equipment, installation and performance of TalkTalk’s Future Fibre 65 Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and not to be confused with Fibre 65 which is a Fibre to the Cabinet and then a copper cable to your home.
FAQ
What size is the Customer Service/Splice Point (CSP)
H:166mm W: 144mm D: 33mm
What size is the Optical Network Terminal (ONT)
H:90mm W:82mm
How near does the power socket need to be to the ONT
1m
Typical distance from external CSP to ONT
10m
What diameter is the Customer Lead Outside/In Cable
The cable is 5mm diameter, best to drill a 10mm hole to avoid any damage
Customer Lead Outside/In Cable kit diameter hole needed
12mm
What is the minimum bending radius of the Lead Outside/In Cable
the radius of a £2 coin is the minimum bend
What is the physical size of the Sagemcon FAST 5364-3. TB/AV3/C1
260mm Width, 170mm Height & 60mm Thickness compared to the Huawei HG633 – 200mm Width, 130mm Height & 30mm Thickness.
Timeline of installation:
4th December 2021, TalkTalk cold called and said I was eligible for an upgrade to FTTP, after sleeping on it, I called them back the next day.
5th December 2021, Ordered TalkTalk Future Fibre 65 FTTP after confirming the details and a provisional installation date of 4th January 2022 was given. A pre-installation survey will need to be undertaken and I will be contacted regarding this.
14th December 2021, Rang TalkTalk Future Fibre team on 0345 172 5221 to check that a new router will be sent out as my existing router does not have a WAN port, they confirmed a new one would arrive a week before the installation date.
21st December 2021, Text from Openreach confirming installation appointment on the 4th January 2022 between 8am – 1pm. As a side note, I have since ordering FTTP from TalkTalk on the 5th, received 3 separate calls from TalkTalk sales asking me about upgrading to FTTP!!
23rd December 2021, email from Yodel letting me know the TalkTalk router will be delivered on the 30th December.
28th December 2021, Text from Openreach confirming installation appointment, the text also includes a link to an Openreach Fibre Checklist.
29th December 2021, Yodel delivery of TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub (Sagemcom Fast 5364)
30th December 2021, Swopped my existing TalkTalk HG633 router with the new Sagemcon router and added device Port Forwarding rules for my CCTV and games console.
4th January 2022, Openreach knock on the door at 8:30, and all done by 11:30, very pleased 🙂
5th January 2022, Checked my TalkTalk account which has not yet been updated, however, Openreaches online availability checker has been.
8th February 2022, TalkTalk account not updated to show I’m on Future Fibre 65, but it does show I have a bill for £0.45p to pay, ironically TalkTalk upgrade team called again (third time!) regarding FTTP , also I received an email for customer experience on Future Fibre, so at least someone knows I have it :-).
26th February 2022, Not a clue how they have worked the bill out, my account still shows my original package but they have made adjustments so that I pay the agreed amount, not ideal but as long as it works I’m happy.
1st August 2022, Replacement Sagemcom Router (FAST 5464 -2.T4) sent out as my original router could not be seen on my account dashboard or at TalkTalk Tech support:
Unfortunately, as of a few hours in, it is still the same 🙁
This router is an improvement on the one it replaces as I have a future connection on the rear for VOIP:
2nd August 2022, Spoke to TalkTalk tech support and they can see the router and logs, so I’m ignoring the error message on my system status dashboard.
20th February 2023, My existing contract was coming to an end in March, contacting TalkTalk I upgraded to 150Mbps for £23pm/18m contract.
22nd February 2023, eero 6 mesh router arrived via Yodel.
23rd February 2023, Service speed increased from 75Mbps to 150Mbs:
Background
I have previously blogged on the installation of Virgin Media to my home and this can be found HERE, unfortunately Virgin Media did not match up to their performance promise and I therefore cancelled within the cooling off period, and I stayed with the TalkTalk FTTC service, which is a copper pair from the house the a roadside cabinet (Fibre to the Cabinet), to add to the confusion, this is referred to as ‘Standard Fibre’ in the diagram below.
My existing FTTC service delivers a download speed of 60Mbps and Upload of 17Mbps which is more than adequate for my needs.
Speedtest carried out on 9th December 2021 using Ookla
the other benefit of a copper cable service is that I retain a land line phone, although the only calls I receive are from scumbag spammers :-(.
Future Fibre
Openreach Roll Out Map which misses out Chatteris but has been done, go figure! – LINK
1st July 2021, BT Openreach started installing the fibre infrastructure to support full fibre broadband in my road, TalkTalk have named this ‘Future ‘Fibre’ and is the differentiation between the FTTC & FTTP fibre services.
Moving forward five months to 4th December 2021, TalkTalk got in touch with an upgrade offer to FTTP which was a surprise as I mistakenly thought the Openreach Full-Fibre Broadband was only open to BT customers (Openreach’s Full Fibre network is open access – ISP choice is BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, EE, Zen, Andrews and Arnold, Aquiss, Cerberus, Fibre Net, Giganet, Orbital Net, Pine Media, Spectrum, Structured, Syscomm and Uno and growing).
Based on what I was told (and recorded) during my follow-up call back to TalkTalk on the 5th December, I accepted the offer of Future Fibre 65 for £23.50 for an 18 month contract, this also includes retaining my landline and Youview box.
The average TalkTalk download speed on Fibre 65 is 67Mbps and the average upload speed is 18Mbps.
Openreach FTTP Network
Infrastructure
I like to gather and be informed as much as possible on the technology and installation methods for this new service into my property.
I have an aversion to cables being on show, so if I can gain an understand of the end to end process, I may be able to do enabling works which will not only make the installation easier for the engineer, but will meet my needs for equipment location and neatness.
The above schematic shows the Openreach FTTP infrastructure which TalkTalk will carry my fibre broadband service, I was assured that my copper cable wired landline will still work, (I do know that all BT copper phones will cease by 2025), so if it does stop before that, I will go over to VOIP using Sipgate.
To check on what BT know about my existing service I used the Broadband Availability Checker, this gave the information below:
I used this LINK to check if the Full-Fibre service was available to me.
My house was built circa 2002/3 and the developer installed a dedicated BT duct from the house to a pavement manhole where the connections are made.
In the broadband checker document, the duct is identified as being a Type 56 with a dimension of 2.5″, so, as long as the duct hasn’t collapsed or is blocked, getting a Customer Lead In new fibre cable to the house should be fairly easy.
For Information :If you have an overhead telephone service, a 12.5mm ladder securing point hole/s will need to be drilled in the wall, following the Tetra Ladder Safety System.
My understanding is that the Customer Lead In cable is a pre- terminated cable which is plugged into either a pole or chamber mounted CBT (connectorised block terminal), the unterminated end is the one which is outside your house for termination to the customers Lead Out/In Cable.
The above picture shows a Customer Service Point this is also can be known as a Customer Splice Point where the Customer Lead In fibre cable is spliced to the Lead Inside/Out cable which passes through the wall using a Cable Lead In Protector Kit to connect to the Optical Network Terminal (or Optical Network Termination Point).
From the wall mounted ONT, an Ethernet cable cable plugs into a modem, the ONT needs power which should be within 1m of a socket.
If the ONT does need relocating, a DIY kit is available from HERE.
My Installation – Pre Works
The phoneline to my house comes via an underground duct to an external junction box which connects to the internal house phone wiring which was installed when the house was built.
I wanted the neatest possible installation with the ONT going upstairs, so I decided to buy EZbend fibre optic cable, install conduit and get everything ready for the engineer to (hopefully) terminate and test.
I ran 20mm heavy duty PVC conduit from where the BT duct surfaces round to the side gable wall observing Openreach guidance document regarding minimum bending radiuses and avoiding any sharp bends:
I used a 16mm flexible conduit to get from the ground floor to the loft, this gave plenty of room for the fibre cable and a spare draw cord should it be needed in the future.
The best location for the ONT was in a small room which houses my IT cabinet.
EZbend fibre (20m) was bought off eBay for £13 and is surplus from a builders home developers kit, I could have waited for Openreach to arrive rather than buying the fibre, but I thought it prudent to install it, if all goes well, Openreach will connect it, if not, I will use my fibre to pull theirs in, not really a big deal.
With the fibre all pulled in, slack was taken up in the loft.
The above picture shows the fibre emerging from conduit, also their is a green Cat6 cable which will go from the ONT to the WAN port of the Router, also their is a low voltage extension to supply the ONT from within the IT Cabinet as this is UPS backed up.
Brushed outlet with the required connectors all ready for the ONT installation.
The Sagemcom router is a lot larger than the Huawei HG633 it replaces.
New router LAN cable ready for connection to the ER605 gateway.
I have left 2 meters of fibre ready for the engineer to connect to in the Customers Service Point (CSP), I have measured the space needed by the CSP and its going to be a snug fit.
Future Fibre Installation Day
Not sure what happened to texting before the appointment or an initial visit first, but it didn’t matter, knock on the door at 8:30 on the 4th Jan by Andy from Openreach to install and commission my Full Fibre broadband.
His first job was to rod from my house, through the existing duct to the JBF104 (Joint Box Footway – Type 104) which was approximately 50 meters away and contains the 12 port Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT).
It was during the pushing of the rod that Mark joined Andy for the installation.
Once the rod was in the JBF104, the pre connectorised customer lead-in cable was attached to the rod and drawn back to the house.
The pre terminated lead-in connector is simply coupled to an allocated port on the CBT, in my case port 1.
At the house end, a customers slice point (CSP) was mounted on the wall, ready to accept the incoming fibre from the CBT.
The lead-in cable was striped ready for splicing, the next job was to install the internal Nokia Optical Network Terminal.
All did not go exactly as planned here, I had originally ran in some EZBend fibre from the CSP to the ONT location, it turned out that fibre tools that are issued for stripping lead-in/lead-out cables, were not compatible with EZBend fibre outer sheath as the fibre did not have a rip cord to aid sheath removal, consequentially, it was decided to use the EZBend fibre as a draw, and pull in a Openreach supplied fibre optic cable which was my fall-back plan anyway.
Openreach supplied fibre cable was not all pulled through to the CSP deliberately from the upstairs ONT, the excess is stowed neatly in the loft allowing me to relocate the ONT should I ever need to.
Drawing in the new fibre using the draw fibre only took a short time as the cable was ran in containment making the installation very easy, plus of course, many hands making light work.
Once the new fibre from the ONT was at the CSP, Andy and Mark started working on the fusion splicing of the two fibres.
Once the splice was completed and the cable neatly stowed in the CSP enclosure, the ONT status lights were checked for service, a speed check was undertaken and Andy explained what the status lights on the ONT meant.
Light
State
What it means
Power
On
The ONT has power
Power
Off
There is no power to the ONT. Check the power cable is properly in (the left-hand most one) and that the mains connection on the other end is switched on.
LOS
Off
You have a working fibre connection
LOS
On
You have a fibre connection issue – check the fibre connection in the bottom of the ONT.
PON
Off
No network connection has been made.
PON
On
You have a working network connection.
PON
Flashing
The ONT is negotiating a connection on the network. You’ll find this might happen a few times after initial installation.
LAN
Off
There is no data transmitter to your router – check the LAN cable!
LAN
Flashing
The shows that data is transmitting successfully to your router
So, a full working connection should look like this…
My package with TalkTalk is Future Fibre 65, so I’m very pleased with my speeds:
Speedtest 4th January 2022 – day of installation
Speedtest 18th January 2022 @ 21:40, TalkTalk suggest average speeds settle after 10 days of service.
The last job was to put capping over the cables to the CSP making the installation look very neat.
Job complete, the guys left at 11:30, so the installation took 3 hours.
I was very impressed with the Openreach engineers, nothing was too much trouble for them and they were respectful of my property, removing boots before coming in etc.
The whole process (to date) has been hassle free and everything asked has been delivered 🙂
Once the guys had gone, I re-routed the power to the ONT and Router so that it is fed from a UPS supply in my IT cabinet, this meant extending the 12v power cables.
The ONT uses a 2.1mm x 5.5mm type and the Router needs a 2.5mm x 5.5mm one, both available from Kenables, I also disabled the Routers Wi-Fi and connected one of the Routers LAN ports to my ER605 WAN port supplying my home network.
Updated Openreach details highlighted the day after installation.
Neighbours Installation Woes
My neighbour three doors down was having FTTP installed on the 11 Jan and I noticed a lot of head scratching by the Openreach engineers as they walked back and forth to the Joint Box, and it transpires that the duct from his property to the Joint Box Footway is blocked, meaning that a civils crew will need to come out, excavate and clear to obstruction once all permissions and permits have been obtained.
X marks the spot of the duct blockage
The distance to the Joint box is a lot further than me and the blockage is just upstream of my connection to the common duct, in talking to the install guys they mentioned that the ducting swept Tee to my property was fitted incorrectly and they said I was lucky that they managed to get my fibre installed.
They discovered this after sending a camera down the common ducting to locate the exact position of the blockage.
The swept Tee should go in the direction of the Joint Box so as not to impede the pulling off the cable:
Example of buried duct system showing the duct elements.
18 January 2022
Openreach civils turned up and excavated where the previous engineers had indicated, unfortunately no telecoms ducting could be found.
The civils guys re-rodded from the Joint Box back towards the blockage and they think the duct blockage is a metre in from the pavement on the neighbours property, so this will need his permission to dig his drive and find the damaged section, this will be done on a return revisit.
30 January 2022
Openreach civils were out on a Sunday to try and locate and repair the blocked duct. The duct was only a few feet away from the first excavation on the 18th Jan and they made a small hole in the duct in order to push a rod into it, from this they could determine accurately the distance to the blockage.
Openreach civils returned and finally located the damaged section of the duct, it appears that at some point in time, a large amount of concrete was poured which crushed the duct and partially filling it!
Damaged section located under concrete.
The picture below shows the number of tries to locate the damage, the good news is that once the section has been repaired it should be plain sailing for my neighbours installation of FTTP.
1 February 2022
Success – Openreach returned and finally managed to get a rod from the neighbours property, through the open, damaged section, to the Joint Box, they then used this to pull in the fibre cable.
While they were their, they applied forward thinking and pulled in a draw rope from the neighbouring property to the Joint Box in case its needed by them in the future.
Blue draw rope being tied onto a flexible rod enabling future proofing of the neighbouring property should a cable needs to be drawn in from the joint box.
All the guys were great, very approachable and amenable to me asking questions 🙂
Excavations made good, shrubs all replanted and the area grass-seeded, great job Openreach.
Web Addresses
https://dexgreen.com/collections/single-dwelling-unit Dexgreen Single Dwelling Equipment
A blog about stuff that interests me or I have done.
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