The rest of us appreciate what you are doing as well. Something like this could have, and may yet, befall us too.
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The loss of support from a converter has always been somewhat of an issue because the stuff on a coach breaks or wears out and it is very helpful to know where and how to get replacement parts.
When some converters started using proprietary parts and systems controls the lack of support went from an annoyance to a serious problem. The issue is not restricted to our coaches. Try to deal with a problem on our cars of today without support from the manufacturer. Manufacturers who keep the proprietary information as secret as the plans to a nuclear bomb such as Mercedes almost insure that car is coming back to them for service. As long as they remain viable that is not a problem, but if they go out of business or if their costs get prohibitive owners are screwed.
CC is a good example of that relative to conversions. They had a lot of specialized components and until Mile's efforts it appeared the owners were at great risk. His efforts have greatly reduced the apprehension owners felt about future service. I suspect once that information is put to work to help owners maintain their coaches two things will happen. First, the components and systems will become less daunting and owners who desire will likely get comfortable with the system design and will be in a position to help all CC owners in need of assistance.
The second thing is how this impacts coach values. It does not take a Mensa member to understand now that the information is available, even if getting that knowledge has a cost associated with it the value of every CC, especially the later model coaches is going to stabilize and maybe even be comparable to coaches still getting support. Had the information been lost all CC coaches would have had plunging values. For that reason everyone should send Miles a check for $50,000. Or not.
Jon, I agree with your last post. I am rather busy at the moment, so how about sending Miles a $50,000 check for me. I'll pay you back as soon as I sell my airplane.
While I do not necessarily agree with Jon's assigned value to Miles' efforts, I do agree that there is substantial value there. I am more then willing to contribute monetarily to Miles in order to mitigate some of the cost he has incurred and will incur in assembling this CC data.
Miles,
Please do not hesitate to post the cost you incur as you endeavor to compile this information so we might as a group(those that are interested and willing) discuss appropriate reimbursement.
Hey Miles, I tried. This is going to be a tough crowd.
Lot 1B, the Intellectual property sold this morning. for more than we thought:eek:
I truly appreciate all the positive comments. As I mentioned earlier I am still under the Bankcruptcy Court's imposed waiting period. Once all aspects of the deal have been concluded and everything has made its way to me in Maryland in late February I will be happy to tell the rest of the story which I expect will make our orphaned Bus owners feel even better.
In addition, for all my pre-2004 Country Coach friends, I was able to get well over a THOUSAND of the hard to find SUNMULON switches used throughout your Buses. I know a number of you are currently looking for some replacements. As soon as I know exactly how many there are I will post how to get them from me. I was lucky enough to find them tucked away in a corner of the factory as I was rummaging through the place. There was no logical reason those switches were stored where they were and no reason why I should have been looking there. This is proof that even the blind squirrel can find a nut. They were part of a lot of unrelated items that I was able to win at the auction there today.
Miles Circo
2004 Country Coach 45' XLII D/S
Wittman, Maryland
BRILLIANT MILES. We had such a desparate time when we owned CC BUS #60449 obtaining replacement Sunmulon switches. I even tried thru the internet, but my Korean is completely lacking. The bases of those switches are soooo brittle. Our side dash switches in that coach with jake and such being used often during the driving operation couldn't hack the abuse of continual use.
That was one of our biggest peeves with the CC bus, that bending CC engineers and Brian Thompson and Star Wood's ears back in 2001 when the first LS bus was being considered, we implored CC to leave all the Prevost dash switches alone.
BRAVO on your magnificent find!!!!!!!!!!!:)
Button question? I had a button not working on Jamie's bus at Branson and Nick Hestler was helping me try to get it working. He explained that it was the circuit board the button was attached to and not the button. If I remember, the button has no bulb and attaches by little tiny connectors. So, how does the button get it's light? Nick said changing the button would have no effect.
Great find Miles, you are da man!;)
Tom,
Before I start working up an explanation, which button was it? What did it do or supposed to do?
The Country Coach has numerous buttons and switches, with a variety of uses, functions and feedback displays. I have repaired several of my own display boards, so I have knowledge of how the lamps work. The lamps in the Sun Mulon switches are actually LEDs that are driven by a combination of switch contacts and transistors. The manner that Country Coach manipulated the LEDs and colors are unique.
Each LED Sun Mulon switch assembly has two base colors, Red and Green. The amber color we all see when a switch is "off" is actually a combination of both the Red and Green on at the same time. When the switch turns green, the switch logic has turn off the red led.
It has taken some time to figure out, but it is very simple electronics.
Hector