diff --git a/lib/encode.rb b/lib/encode.rb
index 9daf07bd1..c6cb5f7c5 100644
--- a/lib/encode.rb
+++ b/lib/encode.rb
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 #require 'iconv'
-class Encode
+module Encode
   def self.conv (charset, string)
 
+    # return if string is false
+    return string if !string
+
     # if no charset is given, use LATIN1 as default
     if !charset || charset == 'US-ASCII' || charset == 'ASCII-8BIT'
       charset = 'LATIN1'
     end
 
-    # return if string is false
-    return string if !string
-
     # validate already existing utf8 strings
     if charset.downcase == 'utf8' || charset.downcase == 'utf-8'
       begin
@@ -22,10 +22,16 @@ class Encode
         string.encode!( 'UTF-8', 'Windows-1252' )
 
       rescue EncodingError => e
-        puts "Bad encoding: #{new_value.inspect}"
+        puts "Bad encoding: #{string.inspect}"
         string.encode!( 'UTF-8', invalid: :replace, undef: :replace, replace: '?' )
       end
       return string
     end
+
+#    puts '-------' + charset
+#    puts string
+    # convert string
+    string.encode!( 'UTF-8', charset.upcase )
+#    Iconv.conv( 'UTF8', charset, string )
   end
 end
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