1997 Royale Gen Con by Westhaver Question

[Jeff Bayley]

Anyone else with a similar vintage may by able to answer this. I think I recall that the Trace remotes need to have the "GENERATOR" settings set to "Off" for the Auto start to work properly. It has not functioned for 3 years and I haven't missed it that much to be honest but I'm stopped over here in MD where the manufacture is going to see me tomorrow to look at it. I'd like to replicate the issue for them. It's been so long I don't recall exactly what it was doing and in the morning I want to run the batteries down and do some testing to recall. Anyone know if that is the correct setting on the remotes and also where the two toggle switches on the Gen Con should be set on ? I had to disconnect the Gen Con because I THINK it was letting the generator start and run all the time.

[nrhareiner]

Hello Jeff,

On my coach with 2 trace 2440 inverters, the Gen Con needs to be set on Auto for the generator to start when batteries reach a predetermined level. Hope this helps.

[Jeff Bayley]

I THINK it might be set different on different converters. Somehow I seem recall that mine should be set to "off" on Royales set up. I have a feeling the owners parter and son might not recall Royales set up. I wonder how many converters used the Westhaver brand. I'm up a couple hours early and have the inverters turned off to bring the power down yet still have A/C.

[Jeff Bayley]

I meet with the owner and manufacturer of the Westhaven Gen Con and got things sorted out. He said out of all the units he sold, only a couple of them came back. Rather than carry on with this thread and tax the internet more than I have already, anyone that has this auto start that wants the skinny can PM or email me but bottom line is that the unit was not deffective and everything is sorted out. When your having a dialog with yourself you know it's not a high demand subject.

[Ray Davis]

So, what setting was needed? On my coach, I have to set the main generator panel to "auto"

[Jeff Bayley]

Ray, mine is set up to work with the Remotes in the "off" position as I had remembered. So you can't go by mine if yours if a Marathon since I have a Royale. The owner and electronic engineer explained that all the converters set them up differently. Not just the "auto" or "off " setting but also the voltage in which it kicks in and the length of the charge cycle, He used the word "Watch Dog" for one of the components inside the control box when we cracked it open to inspect it. He just sold the boards to the converters. The converter assembled the control boxes the boards go into. I believe Liberty uses the work Watch Dog on their auto start. Maybe they got their boards from him also. ?? He said he sold thousands of these boards spread out among many converters. They're is a 3 position toggle switch and a 2 position toggle switch on my control box that I didn't understand the functions of since I got no manual with my coach and Monaco could not produce one. He explained the operation. Can tell more if needed. I'm attempting (but mostly failing) to shorten my posts.

[JIM KELLER]

Jeff, I would like to hear more about the Westhaver product. Country Coach has it also. Perhaps at Kerrville although I don't see you on the attendee list. It is my understanding Nick Hessler has completed a replacement for this board and I would like to know more about his product also.

[GSwaim]

Royale autostart clarification: The inverter generator auto start feature is not used on my royale #332. According to Glenn, the electrical engineer for Royale conversions, Royale decided not to use the inverter auto start so they didn't connect it to anything. That means it doesn't matter what you set the inverrter autostart settings to in this vintage Royale. The auto start is a seperate controller that is controlled by three switches on the driver's dash - "Gen Start, low 12V, Low 110". Gen Start manually starts and stops the generator, low 12V auto starts the genrator at around 11.8V, and low 110V automatically starts the generator anytime AC power is lost at the power cord.

[Jeff Bayley]

Jim- We haven't registered yet but hope to make the rally. Meanwhile, Westhaven's web site has some reading on the board and how it works here:

http://www.westhaverassociates.com/GenCon/GenCon_9232.asp and here http://www.westhaverassociates.com/GenCon/Connections.asp and if you go to the Gen Con tab there's some more reading.

Gary- The set up on yours in improved over my 97 Royale. The rocker switches you describe are more straight forward and replace the toggle switches that must be accessed on the control box in the battery bay on my vintage. You loose nothing as regards user settings in the remotes because that is all pre-set on the board with potentiometers. I mean to say the voltage thresholds and length of charge and so forth that are user settings in the remotes do nothing on the Westhaven auto start. I didn't specifically ask Larry if the boards ever changed over the production period but I don't think it did from his end at least. The adjustments are all done from the board but it's not designed for the user to be able to adjust it. The remotes setting should be limited to an ON/OFF control (if that). I'm not positive if the remotes actually even do that until I do bit more testing. The on/off function may very well be on the toggle switches on the control box but I know if worked with my remotes set to "OFF on the Generator field of the remotes yesterday. The remote's WILL of course be were you set your charge voltages including the length of time for bulk and float but the overall length of the charge is not adjustable there. It's 2 hours on most set up's including mine Larry explained. The overall time for the generator to run is what is fixed from the board settings.

If anyone wanted they're settings adjusted, it can be sent into Larry and he'll put a new chip in it to upgrade the firmware (pointless in my opinion) and/or set the board where ever you want the adjustments. You can adjust the number of seconds for pre-heat, number of seconds (or minutes) the generator waits before attempted restarts, length of the charge (or more accurately the length the generator runs for). He can also change the length of the charge and also the voltage at which you want it to kick on. If you like 12.2 volts for your batteries to get help instead of 11.8 for example he can change that. He said some converters specified they wanted it to engage the generator at 10.8 volts and despite him telling them that was not good for the batteries they had him configure it like that anyhow. Sounds about right. Mine starts at 11.8 just like Gary's which seems about right.

[johnklopp]

SO.... Can I assume my coach has automatic start on the generator and I have no idea how to use it?

[Jeff Bayley]

John- Sorry to have missed your post on this. Yes, I think your assumption is correct. If your at the rally you'll no doubt find someone there to show you. If your not you can ring me at 760-644-1543 and I can try to help. We have exactly the same year coach. I need to know where to find my aux air compressor. I have a breaker for it but no clue where it is. It does not appear to work wherever it is.