No Spark Here

[dalej]

Bruce, I thought your last fill was free!

[0533]

Bruce, I thought your last fill was free!

We did get a $20 grocery discount coupon and a $700.19 charge and lots of new friends in Canada.

[truk4u]

Tuga,

I always take the load off the system before I hook or unhook the shore power or go to generator. I push all the A/C temps up until they shut off, turn off the electric water heaters and sometimes shut the chargers off. I have found that plugging in to shore power with all these systems demanding power at once is not a good idea and can put one leg at or near the 50 amp max. Don't know if it's necessary, but I never have power issues, so it seems to work.

[phorner]

Just a thought, but try it without the Tweety's surge protector. I purchased a Progressive Industries P-50 at the FMCA rally and it turned out to be defective. Worked fine the first time or two, but then went south.

They did immediately send me a replacement and life has been good since. When I described my problem, they didn't seem surprised, so maybe they are aware of a problem....

We're also in Maine and so far the weather has been miserable.... but hopefully getting better tomorrow!

[0533]

I am still without AC power. Have been on the phone with Marathon for hours, Leon has been very helpful, but it seems that we have some other issues that I need to sort out. Its very odd, as this system has functioned perfectly until the other day.

Anyway Leon had me use my meter to determine where the source of trouble might be.

We have power to the main switch in D/S bay 2 (Marathon) all is good on either side, we have power to and through all timers (60 sec. delay) we have power to all relays, but one set the in box labeled "Shore Automatic Disable" will not pull in, in other words when I activate the power to all 4 boxes (Marathon) The power once released from the Timer delay travels through the Shore Automatic Disable PS262 box then to the Auto Aux PS262, then the "Aux Box", the Main PS262 box and to the Inverters, and so on. I am experiencing a problem at the "Shore Automatic Disable Box" the first one, if these relays do not pull in the rest of the system (AC IN) will not happen. We worked on a fix until 7:30 PM last night, "No Joy".

Leon (Marathon Tech) recommended a temporary work around, which I agreed to, wish I had not, but I was tired and it sounded fine as leon said he has had owners drive this way across the US without trouble.

Anyway, Leon suggested I take a few calling cards, and place a folded card into each relay ("Shore Automatic Disable") to defeat the system and manually pull the relays in. I turned off all power to the bus, all knife switches everything and performed this simple task. Powered it back up, and it allowed the inverters to see "AC IN Good" at each remote box. Leon said do not run or try and run the generator while in this override mode. I made sure the genset was not on auto start etc, it will not come on unless I turn it on.

Its now 8PM and I take a shower and break out the first beer. Pam is now cooking away, using burners, microwave, all the goodies, the electric heat, its 57 degrees out, really powered up.

I sit down to take a look at my emails when I notice the DC lights starting to flicker. I get up and take a look at the readout on the dash, Marathon display. Main is 121 volts, Aux is 105, never seen 105 on this leg. and the amps are rising fast over 50 amps now, I make my way to the inverters to shut them down but too late they both shut off as a result of an over current event on the "Aux" inverter side, the same unit that I over road (cards in relays) to pull in the relays.
I went back out and into Bay 2, after cutting off all power and pulled out the calling cards and turned the genset back on.

I plan n calling Leon in Coburg at 11 am my time when they are at work, but I am now suspecting a problem with the load. I forgot to mention that I asked Pam to reduce the loads quickly, and when she did the loads reversed from one side to the other and the amps continued to go up. Anyway this sucks and I am still at square one.

Cannot figure out why the "Shore Automatic Disable Box" will not pull in the relays, and why when I defeat this system the inverters are now seeing low voltage, high amps (over current) on the AUX side and normal on the Main side.

Marathon has a system called a T-50 manager??? When the T-50 sees too much power demand on a leg (when using 30 amps as I was when this all happened) it will staqrt to automatically power down the system, and will in fact cut off the AUX side completely to protect the Main, (Frig etc) When and after you have reduced the load and restored power one must reset the "AUX" reset in the DC panel in the head to reset the T-50 device and put everything back to an even keel.

This is interesting as well. When you are using your Genset (marathon) the genset by passes the the T-50 device as it can handle the larger loads.

I am suspecting the T-50 device. Every time we turned on the AC power to test various fixes the Aux Reset came on, we reset it with no result, something says the Loads are not right, and when I defeat the system the loads are not correct.

Ant thoughts on this.

I plan to post some of my schematics and pics from the bay in a few minutes.

I am in Maine, far eastern Maine in Harrington Maine. Does anyone have a great electrical person nearby, and this could be in New England area Maine to New York if necessary.

[garyde]

Hi Bruce. Rick May at Parliment Coach is the guy you need to talk to.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Whoever you talk to or get for trouble shooting advice, Bruce, that person needs to get to the nitty gritty. It is sounding like you have a basic transfer switch but with some add-ons for circuit protection.

My guess based on zero knowledge of your system is that the starting point for trouble shooting has to be the basic system, and then start adding back into the equation the various system protection devices.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Bruce, another guy to get would be Nick Hessler.

He closed his business, but he might still be available.

The last number I have is; 541-321-2545.

Many in POG will attest to his knowledge.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Maybe you shouldn't have announced you wanted to sell your bus.
You hurt her feelings, and now she's getting even.

[0533]

Thanks, I have met Rick, and will contact him if I am unable to get this sorted out today.

I have new parts coming in at noon today. Hope tonight is better