Battery switcher charging deal broke

[Prepilot_3ck]

I've got one of those fancy deals in my RV that will charge your battery when you are plugged in or on the generator or whatever. Anyway, last weekend it stopped working. If I plugged my charger in to the 110 on the post at our site, the battery would charge. If I plugged it in to the little switcher thing, no workie workie.

What I've done to troubleshoot:

Drank a beer.

Opened up the switcher panel and played with the contacters and flipped the bypass switch. That did nothing.

Inside that panel there is a little green LED that supposedly indicates proper operation... it's NOT lit.

I measured the voltage at the 110 outlet that comes from the switcher... no volts.

I plugged the charger cord into the 110V outlet on the post at my camp site and the charger worked fine.

I half halfheartedly searched for a blown fuse somewhere. Didn't find any.


Does anyone have any suggestions beyond "I think it's broke"?

Thanks,
Brian

[NWJeeper]

Sound's like you covered it all. Definately seems like its "no workie workie" to me....

[tmmar]

Are there any circuit breaker or reset buttons on the unit? You could have a beer then look for one (lol).

[Prepilot_3ck]

Originally Posted by NWJeeper

Sound's like you covered it all. Definitely seems like its "no workie workie" to me....

See.. that's the kind of answer I was hoping NOT to get I was looking for something more along the lines of, " OH! that pssshh, happens all the time. What you need to do is turn the wheels all the way to the right, honk the horn twice and adjust the thermostat on the fridge for 52.4 degrees. That should reset the switcher."

Nothing like that eh?

Brian

[cfsoistman]

I'll drink a beer and get back to ya!

Burp!!, excuse me,

Sounds like it's no longer functioning. But it could be the switch is the problem since it's charging when plugged in.

The wheel needs to go to the left!

[E.S.P.]

I was thinking that your first step should have corrected your problem...it always seems to work for me when I'm perplexed at camp!!

[cfsoistman]

Originally Posted by Prepilot_3ck

I've got one of those fancy deals in my RV that will charge your battery when you are plugged in or on the generator or whatever. Anyway, last weekend it stopped working. If I plugged my charger in to the 110 on the post at our site, the battery would charge. If I plugged it in to the little switcher thing, no workie workie.

What I've done to troubleshoot:

Drank a beer.

Opened up the switcher panel and played with the contacters and flipped the bypass switch. That did nothing.

Inside that panel there is a little green LED that supposedly indicates proper operation... it's NOT lit.

I measured the voltage at the 110 outlet that comes from the switcher... no volts.

I plugged the charger cord into the 110V outlet on the post at my camp site and the charger worked fine.

I half halfheartedly searched for a blown fuse somewhere. Didn't find any.


Does anyone have any suggestions beyond "I think it's broke"?

Thanks,
Brian

I'm not sure how your system is set up but here's a couple questions to help me understand what is and isn't happening under what conditions.

Do you have to plug the land cord into a box inside the coach for operations when running the generator?
Have you checked power at that box while generator is running?
Have you checked the breakers on the generator?
If breakers are fine and you have no power within the box you'll need to check it out.
You stated it doesn't charge when you flip the switcher. So it's not charging under generator power?
Do you have 110 volts at any outlets with the generator running?

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by Prepilot_3ck

See.. that's the kind of answer I was hoping NOT to get I was looking for something more along the lines of, " OH! that pssshh, happens all the time. What you need to do is turn the wheels all the way to the right, honk the horn twice and adjust the thermostat on the fridge for 52.4 degrees. That should reset the switcher."

Nothing like that eh?

Brian

That only works after 5 beers though... You clearly stated you had only had one....

[Prepilot_3ck]

Originally Posted by tmmar

Are there any circuit breaker or reset buttons on the unit? You could have a beer then look for one (lol).

I didn't see anything and the manual didn't indicate that there was one anywhere. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist though. I'll look more next time I'm out.

Brian

[Prepilot_3ck]

Originally Posted by cfsoistman

I'm not sure how your system is set up but here's a couple questions to help me understand what is and isn't happening under what conditions.

Do you have to plug the land cord into a box inside the coach for operations when running the generator?
Have you checked power at that box while generator is running?
Have you checked the breakers on the generator?
If breakers are fine and you have no power within the box you'll need to check it out.
You stated it doesn't charge when you flip the switcher. So it's not charging under generator power?
Do you have 110 volts at any outlets with the generator running?

As far as the generator is concerned... it stopped working on the trip previous to this one (I have a post on that in the "Reflection" forum on this site). So all of my testing has been done with with 50 amp cable plugged in to the post at my site.

50AMP plugged in:

All 110 outlets in the coach work (although some weird stuff happens - more on that later)

House batteries are not charging and eventually die if 12V devices are used (some lights, fans, etc...).

If I take a 110V extension cord and use it to plug in my onboard battery charger, the battery charges (weird stuff goes away) and life is good.

Weird Stuff:
While plugged into the 50AMP outlet on the post, and the batteries are low, when you plug in a 110V device (laptop charger, vacuum, proton accelerator) the fan in the bathoom (assuming it's turned on) starts to spin REALLY FAST. When you unplug the 110V device the fan returns to normal speed.

I'm confused.

Does any of this additional information help lead to the miracle cure?

Thanks,
Brian

[Prepilot_3ck]

Originally Posted by E.S.P.

I was thinking that your first step should have corrected your problem...it always seems to work for me when I'm perplexed at camp!!

Yeah, I figured I'd start there and save myself the trouble of remembering to do that later.

Brian

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by Prepilot_3ck

As far as the generator is concerned... it stopped working on the trip previous to this one (I have a post on that in the "Reflection" forum on this site). So all of my testing has been done with with 50 amp cable plugged in to the post at my site.

50AMP plugged in:

All 110 outlets in the coach work (although some weird stuff happens - more on that later)

House batteries are not charging and eventually die if 12V devices are used (some lights, fans, etc...).

If I take a 110V extension cord and use it to plug in my onboard battery charger, the battery charges (weird stuff goes away) and life is good.

Weird Stuff:
While plugged into the 50AMP outlet on the post, and the batteries are low, when you plug in a 110V device (laptop charger, vacuum, proton accelerator) the fan in the bathoom (assuming it's turned on) starts to spin REALLY FAST. When you unplug the 110V device the fan returns to normal speed.

I'm confused.

Does any of this additional information help lead to the miracle cure?

Thanks,
Brian

The fan spinning faster is what bothers me. Have you tried a different pedestal or is this the one you have always used. Sounds like a problem with the neutral leg to me. Might get a circuit tester at Home Depot or other such store and check to make sure the wiring at the pedestal is still working correctly.

[Prepilot_3ck]

Originally Posted by NWJeeper

The fan spinning faster is what bothers me. Have you tried a different pedestal or is this the one you have always used. Sounds like a problem with the neutral leg to me. Might get a circuit tester at Home Depot or other such store and check to make sure the wiring at the pedestal is still working correctly.

I did move the cable to the neighboring site (hook ups on both sides of each site - NICE!) same result. I also used my multi-meter to check the voltage on each leg with respect to ground/neutral. Leg 1 = 110V, Leg 2 - 110V, neutral to ground = 0 volts (which is correct I would assume). No one else in the park seemed to be having the problem. (could be on another phase I suppose though)

One other thing I failed to mention was that I put on my 30AMP adapter and plugged in to the 30AMP outlet. Same result.

I'm beginning the think the first response may be correct. Switcher is broke.

Brian