Are you Happy with your Zappi

I am in contact with the Head man from Zappy due to severe radio interference from the unit which of course has a serious impact to me having an Amateur radio license anyway they pulled out all the technical specs and all the list of regulations is passes and all that which is fine but I know what happens, they come up with a prototype with all the hardware and components necessary to pass these tests then for production removes components and/or alters the circuit to save money.

So I said to them, that's all lovely to have all the technical jargon lads, thanks but I just proved that your Charge Point breeches many regulations so fix it, that's several weeks ago now, so they're supposed to be sending me a test charge point and if that works then they'll replace the one on the wall.

Why does this matter to anyone ? well, I can contact COMREG which can make Zappy investigate and fix every single Zappy with this issue because I'm damn sure they're all the same not only that, anyone with a Zappy or any other EV charge point or electrical appliance for that matter can be made remove it because it breeches local, EU and international regulations as the radio spectrum is protected, obviously there are far more uses for radio than most People realise but the effects to more of the radios people have in their homes they can relate to are their home WiFi and internet modems as this interference travels through the mains wiring and can cause intermittent issues such as loss of internet connection to ISP and/or random WiFi disconnects as this interference travels through the mains wiring from source back to the grid picked up by the power supply of the effected device. COMREG have all the equipment to track the source of this noise to your door.

I can/should also contact Ofcom and E.U Regulator.

If anyone has a radio that can work on the AM/MW band bring it close to the zappy and turn on the radio and charger mains wire that comes from the house electricity to power the zappy ( or any charge point ) and if it causes the radio to make loud noises it's definitely got issues and should be fixed.

There's a solar PV Inverter manufacturer banned in Germany for this same issue.

Hopefully myenergi sort this for future models also but if this is an issue with your Zappi then you'd be wise to contact them to fix it but they're not the only devices, everything from no name off the shelf led light bulbs in woodies or Ikea can cause lots of issues and bad laptop power supplies, don't buy electronic stuff from China directly.

Not caring about something can have implications for others and could fall back on you in the end, for instance if you don't care that your appi could be interfering with some other electronic device down the road, neighbour etc and wouldn't be willing to try resolve it with the manufacturer because you don't care about the effects to someone else then this person being effected probably won't care about making you resolve it through COMREG. If it's their internet, then their ISP will do this on their behalf, if it's a mad lad on a radio I have to do this myself or if an Neighbour is trying to listen to BBc R4 on Longwave it doesn't matter but it would matter if it effected you in some way or another, for instance you'd be pretty p1ssed if your internet kept dropping out......

My licence means I'm authorised to use certain parts of this "protected" radio spectrum.

Well for starters having the zappi in the condition it currently is in my installation is illegal under local, Eu and international law because the Radio spectrum is protected legally and nothing is allowed to interfere with it because there's so much that use the radio spectrum other than than millions of mad_Lads talking on a radio.

Internet connections can be knocked out due to this noise carried from source back to the grid and picked up by other modems power supplies.

And yes, LED light bulbs can be a huge source of noise. stick to philips and osram and other quality brands and stay away from no name brands which can also cause a strobing effect which can have other implications even if you don't see it.

from comreg

General Public

Where a member of the public believes that their, broadband or mobile phone service is experiencing radio interference this should be reported to the service provider. If the service provider determines that an external interference issue is occurring, it will contact Spectrum Intelligence and Investigations directly by submitting a case of suspected interference. In such cases Spectrum Intelligence and Investigations can only deal with the network operator and updates cannot be provided to third parties or members of the public.

Where a member of the public is experiencing disruption to Saorview or satellite television reception, a television reception system installer should check the installation for faults. System faults such as damaged cables & aerials are common sources of disruption to reception. Should it be determined that the disruption is caused by external interference, this should then be reported to Spectrum Intelligence and Investigations directly by submitting a case of suspected interference as per process outlined above.

Examples of Type B cases could include:

• Instances where a radio link is experiencing harmful interference such that it cannot operate as licensed;
• Harmful interference to a base station on a mobile network such that a single sector of the base station has to be turned off; and
• Harmful interference to a base station such that there is a degradation in the quality of service being provided to the end users.

"I dont think I understand the issue mad_Lad, nor do I understand the potential fallout. Maybe if you explain it I ( we ) would care.

An electrical appliance interfering with my AM radio isnt an issue for me ( or is it and I dont know ? )

please inform"

Different types of modern electronic equipment today can emit much higher levels of interference than others and can cause issues for other people which can have implications for you if this interference is traced back to your home which isn't too difficult to track down with the equipment COMREG have. Someone's internet can suffer drop-outs caused by their modems power supply picking this interference up from a device in your home and if in a built up area this can have a much greater impact all because of a bad quality LED light bulb, Laptop power supply, Tv etc, this list is long and growing as people import more and more electronic junk from china directly and even resellers here in Europe. Stick to quality brands and even then it's not guaranteed there won't be issues.

Not knowing a device is causing interference is not an excuse, it's up to you and your installer to make sure the device meets regulations and in my case the Zappi on paper does meet all these requirements except in reality it does not as I proved to myenergi which they claimed they couldn't replicate but I seriously doubt I am the only one with such noise coming from my zappi.

I have to admit that I was quite shocked that the zappi emitted this level of noise. we'll see if they fix it.

Ah no not going to contact any regulatory body at this time as long as they fix the issue and can tell me they will issue a recall for any zappis effected they will know themselves.

See as I said earlier, the specs on paper are all good and legit and of course the prototype passes all tests then that applies to all charge points of that model after because it's designed properly, then production comes and some change to the circuit design ends up causing some issue like this.

For safety zappi is one of the best and it's a really good charge point, I am really happy with it apart from having the RF issue which I hope they will resolve, I'm still waiting for the test charge point.

More and more these issues are cropping up, Solar PV installations are causing more issues and One brand of inverters that I know of has been banned in Germany.

Anyway, I'm doing them a really big favour but I can't compliment Barrow Automation and FAAC enough for their amazing service and speedy replacement of my Mothers Electric Gate control board.