Apollo Injector in domestic situation

captaincaveman · May 8, 2018

Hi.

Could anyone shed some light on this unit and whether it is worth scrapping please. It's in a 2 bedroom house with the tails from the meter going through it before several CCUs

Inscription:
Apollo injector.
part no. 56000-200.
Input 1.2v @ 500MA
7MW @ 117.5 KHZ NOM

Cheers

captaincaveman · May 8, 2018

For a 2 bedroom house I personally think the owner has gone a tad too far...
I think it's 6 or 7 consumer units (some are hidden behind woodwork)

littlespark · May 8, 2018

Sorry, I have no idea about the injector, but that is a mess of cable!

Go check the attic for cannabis plants and a few SON lamps

Deleted account · May 8, 2018

Same as above?
What is its function?

littlespark · May 8, 2018

It appears to only have tails running into it. Possibly nothing in it but a connector block?
Sticker on lid could mean nothing.

captaincaveman · May 8, 2018

As much as I can see down into it, the cables just pass through the hole in it with no termination. My suspicion is it's got a paramagnetic material in it. A ferrite bead with a conductor through it is an inductor and so is used as a low pass filter. Typical use is for power cables to reduce electromagnetic interference. But don't quote me...

And yes, what a mess. I'm looking at doing an EICR which I suspect will be double the usual time it takes me.

I don't think there's a drugs issue little spark, although I could probably do with some when I tackle the job lol!

marconi · May 12, 2018

I have a suspicion that what you are looking at is a low bit/data rate inductive coupler operating somewhere in the 3-150kHz band - 100kHz according to the markings - which enables RF communications over the mains wiring - Power Line Communication (PLC). This injector is used to connect a source of signals onto the mains wiring without galvanic connection using the physics of inductive coupling instead. At other points on the mains wiring there are similar inductive couplers to receive these signals or special adapters perhaps which plug into a socket to do the same thing and provide an output signal. What is the source of the signals I can only guess at. I would be curious to know what the black rectangular box with some white cables going in to it connects to in the home and whether there is a connection between it and the Apollo injector.

I think that the input to the Apollo is a 1.2V dc signal which powers an RF oscillator at 100kHZ. The dc input is pulsed/switched/modulated to superimpose a coded data stream faithful to the source of signals on the 100kHz RF carrier for transmission over the house mains wiring and reception by other equipments ( - I know not what).

captaincaveman · May 15, 2018

You are a wise man (dare I say god) Mr Marconi and indeed right! It's for a control panel timer for the 3 storage heaters & immersion. Bit over the top for my liking. I have a better picture now of all the installations glory.

The customer wanted me to replace 3 light switches that were grouped into one triple switch. Now, apart from the mess (and I won't start to waffle on about the abnormal configurations or the pendant bases being used as junction boxes in the void above the ceiling) what I don't understand is, although each cable had cpc's, why they were all cut back and not used esp as the switches were metalic!? and why, if you look closely at pic 3, the cables curve around going up the wall? I had to be very careful with my chissle I'll tell ya!