I have an old reddifusion switch on a wall which i want to remove but its still live..can anyone advise please

[Michael8240]

How can I remove an old reddifusion switch from a wall which is still live..thanks

 

[telectrix]

very much doubt it's live. Rediffusion ceased trading 30 odd years ago.

 

[Michael8240]

very much doubt it's live. Rediffusion ceased trading 30 odd years ago.

It's still lighting up my tester

 

[telectrix]

what type of tester?

 

[David Prosser]

What sort of tester ?
[automerge]1586785155[/automerge]
Jinx !

 

[Michael8240]

what type of tester?

It's a screwdriver tester

 

[telectrix]

It's a screwdriver tester

chocolate fireguard. bin it. rediffusion boxes never had mains voltage on them was just a tV/radio signal.

 

[Michael8240]

chocolate fireguard. bin it.

Lol...ok can I just tape up the old wires and bury them in the wall

 

[telectrix]

pull them back to outside.

 

[Michael8240]

pull them back to outside.

The switch is in middle of the wall

 

[pc1966]

Those light up testers cannot be trusted to prove something is dead, though showing live does suggest extreme care is needed. Equally they can light up with capacitive coupling, hence the view they are useless!

There are the sort of tools that should be used for voltage testing, simple and much less chance of life-threatening mistakes that you can make with a multimeter:

TIS Voltage Tester

• Voltage range 12V to 690V • Automatic polarity indication • One hand operation for testing sockets• Compact pocket size design• Probe tip protection• No batteries required• Extra bright LEDs• Does not trip RCDs

www.toolstation.com

Socket & See VIP150 Craftsman Voltage Tester

Socket & See VIP150 Craftsman Voltage Tester The Socket & See VIP 150 is a dual pole, six range voltage tester suitable for testing voltage on 6V, 12V, 50V, 120V, 230V and 400V AC/DC electrical supplies. Each voltage range is represented by a red LED ensuring clear voltage indication...

www.test-meter.co.uk

[automerge]1586785797[/automerge]
Obvious question about still being live is have you powered down the various circuits that are likely to feed it first? That could be the 13A ring (maybe from the floor the boiler was originally fitted to, not the floor where the control was) as many heating systems would just be taken from that, but sometimes it would be from a dedicated feed.

Also never rule out the stupid "WTF?" sort of ideas like someone having taken it from a lighting circuit in the past for whatever brain-dead effort-avoiding reasons.

 

[David Prosser]

Reddifusion boiler ?

 

[freddo]

Obvious question about still being live is have you powered down the various circuits that are likely to feed it first?

What circuits feeding it? Reddifusion was a cable system providing TV and radio signals to streets of houses over twisted pair cables.

Unless someone has re-purposed a reddifusion branded enclosure for something else. A photo would be useful.

 

[Michael8240]

What circuits feeding it? Reddifusion was a cable system providing TV and radio signals to streets of houses over twisted pair cables.

Unless someone has re-purposed a reddifusion branded enclosure for something else. A photo would be useful.

2 photos....1st is to show how far away from corner of room

 

[freddo]

Nice! The service went offline years ago, so just chop the wires and fill the hole. Any chance of a photo of the front of the plate? Reddifusion was only really available in Exeter here so don't often get to see the fittings now most have gone, that plate looks quite modern compared to the few I've seen.

 

[Michael8240]

Nice! The service went offline years ago, so just chop the wires and fill the hole. Any chance of a photo of the front of the plate? Reddifusion was only really available in Exeter here so don't often get to see the fittings now most have gone, that plate looks quite modern compared to the few I've seen.

I live in Leicester and my mum and dad had one back in the 1980's

 

[ruston]

Nice! The service went offline years ago, so just chop the wires and fill the hole. Any chance of a photo of the front of the plate? Reddifusion was only really available in Exeter here so don't often get to see the fittings now most have gone, that plate looks quite modern compared to the few I've seen.

Yes , 1984 on the pic.
Some of the old terraced properties still have the cables on the outside walls up here , even the junction boxes.

 

[freddo]

I live in Leicester and my mum and dad had one back in the 1980's

Thanks, that certainly looks more modern and purpose made, the few I've seen have all been a surface box with a hole drilled in it to mount an off the shelf rotary switch.

 

[Michael8240]

Thanks, that certainly looks more modern and purpose made, the few I've seen have all been a surface box with a hole drilled in it to mount an off the shelf rotary switch.

Ok...just cut it back and I'm still alive lol so thanks for your help mate

 

[telectrix]

2 photos....1st is to show how far away from corner of room

all dead. no mains cabling in there.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

If you've still got it, would you be amenable to me paying for you to post it to us for the museum?

 

[static zap]

I live in Leicester and my mum and dad had one back in the 1980's

I'm having similar thoughts for Hastings / Bexhill .. some still about !

 

[littlespark]

Call me naive...
What did that do? Was it a way to change channels on old tv’s?

my parents house had some form of communally cabled tv signal back in the early 70’s.... only lasted a few years, until they put up an aerial.
Back in the day when they rented a tv from a local shop.

 

[pc1966]

Radio Rentals. My parents used them for some years a long time back.

 

[telectrix]

Call me naive...
What did that do? Was it a way to change channels on old tv’s?

my parents house had some form of communally cabled tv signal back in the early 70’s.... only lasted a few years, until they put up an aerial.
Back in the day when they rented a tv from a local shop.

it was a TV switch. the Rediffusion TVs didn't have tuners. this was done upstream. al the TVs were modular construction. in the field, we replaced a faulty panel, returning the fauly one for the workshop guys to repair and re-issue. 5 times out of 10, the replacement "repaired" panel was worse than the one we were replacing.

 

[stevels4]

it was a TV switch. the Rediffusion TVs didn't have tuners. this was done upstream. al the TVs were modular construction. in the field, we replaced a faulty panel, returning the fauly one for the workshop guys to repair and re-issue. 5 times out of 10, the replacement "repaired" panel was worse than the one we were replacing.

The old MK1 hybrid colour TVs with the decoder boards that the colour dropped out all the time, croc clip across the test pins and turn the trimmer for the slowest Hanover bars. Rediffusion cable TV IIRC had 10V or 14V DC on the vision channels and 50VDC on the radio channels. It will be well dead by now, chop it and remove it.