I’ve been having a bit of a problem with the OBU fitted to my wagon.
Although it tots up the tolls and pays them without any problem. Some of the time the sensor fitted on my windscreen doesn’t communicate with the MAUT bridges or the equipment carried in the BAG vans. So every now and then my boss gets a letter from Toll Collect, telling him there is a problem and my wagon has to report to a Service Partner for the OBU to be tested, roughly once a month.
Our nearest service partner is a 2 hour drive away from the yard, the testing takes about 45 minutes, plus any waiting time. So my wagon is ■■■■■■■ for half a day, which is also rather annoying for the boss.
Last week he managed to get Toll Collect to send one of their technicians to meet me, to try and figure out exactly what the problem is.
It turns out that it’s my inverter.
When my inverter is switched on, it produces a signal which interferes with the windscreen sensor.
This signal is carried by the cables of anything plugged into the inverter. So my laptop, which is on a dashboard table, and my GPS receiver which is plugged into my laptop, all carry the signal. Even when my laptop is switched off, as long as it’s plugged in it acts as a carrier.
The technician said that he is only called out to solve problems, so he only knows what causes these problems, not what doesn’t. But he has never had a problem caused by an inverter which produces a pure sine wave. Mine is a fairly cheap Sky-Tronic 24 - 240v 300W inverter which produces a modified sine wave output. Neither has he been called out to solve a problem caused by a 12-24v charger / power supply.
I guess I’ll have to splash out and get a charger / power supply. probably from http://www.laptop-chargers.co.uk/. 