Wednesday 8 July 2015

Fitting Alde Battery Back Up For The Clock.

On the Alde 3020HE control panel the clock can be set to show the time and the day of the week.

If desired this can be displayed on the panel.

Unfortunately if the 12v is switched off for any reason then the clock settings are erased so it has to be reset when the 12v is switched back on again.

For those that aren't aware,Alde do a plug in battery back up for the clock ( why this couldn't be fitted as standard on a £21K van I don't know ) which has to be retro-fitted and contains two AA batteries to keep the clock running.

This is what I am talking about:-

Alde Battery Back Up

( Other outlets are available ).

Turn off 12v power supply before proceeding.

Having decided to fit one of these I was a bit nervous as to how to remove the front panel which seemed to fit tightly and I didn't want to break it..

I even bought a set of plastic car panel removers.

Fortunately and to my surprise the front cover pulled off quite easily.

You are then presented with this :






There is cross head screw at each corner which are easily removed ,the unit can then be pulled forward out of its aperture to reveal this :-





The black object is a black plastic cover which can easily be removed by unclipping at the sides to expose the innards :






Complicated little bugger isn't it.

Next take a soldering iron and some wire cutters..............................no only joking.

Now the instructions I received with the unit I purchased showed a diagram of the above which resembled it not at all,probably because it was old stock and for use with the 3010 boiler,so I had to plug the backup device cable into each of the four plugs in turn at the top left of the above picture until I found the correct one.

It is the one on the far left where the black and red wires are plugged into in the picture.

It was then I glanced at the inside of the previously removed black cover where there is a diagram which tells you where everything goes......................hmmmm.

I then attached the battery caddy complete with two AA Duracells ( well Costco really ) to the side of the cubby hole with double sided tape ( there are two pre-drilled holes for screws if you prefer,screws not provided ) then,in the words of the Haynes manuals " reassembly is the reverse of removal".

Unlike the Haynes this actually is.

Be careful to feed the cables out of the cut away at the bottom of the black back cover before clicking the cover back in place.

Screw it back to the van with the four screws and replace the grey cover.

Job done,switch on the 12v and set the clock and it will stay that way until the Earth becomes a Red Dwarf or Coronation St. ends which ever is the sooner.

If I can do it,you can do it.

Ian



4 comments:

  1. You would think they would have done this at build .Another revenue stream I suppose. As an ex Sparky my only concern would be the possibility of handling the devices on the board; as some today can be blown just by touching ;the amount of static from our body is enough to do this.But hats off to you for doing it.I haven't heard of anyone else.

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  2. Bill,
    There have been a few people on CT who have fitted the battery backup.
    Luckily I didn't touch the board itself so hopefully all OK.

    Ian

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  3. I have a double AA battery holder, redundant from something that broke and was chucked; might this do? I have looked online, and the cheapest 'true' Alde item seems to be about £15 + postage. Perhaps Maplin (or someone similar) might do the plug?

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  4. Richard,Yes you are right at the silly price.If you do a search on Google there is a chap done exactly as you suggest.I am on my phone at the moment so it is a bit fiddly to find it for you but how he did it is out there somewhere.
    Ian

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