Electrical problems

[encantotom]

hi all,

this morning i went out and caulked the passenger side windows and when i was done went inside and saw that the 120v power was off. it was blowing the house circuit breaker. i had heard arcing in the transfer switch panel before and it was on my list to investigate. guess that was today.

in one of the bays was a new auto transfer switch that was left from the previous owner so they must have anticipated problems.

power worked with the generator but not with the house power.

so, i changed out the transfer switch. that fixed the power not staying on and blowing breakers but now the xantrex prosine 3.0 inverter charger has a hard fault and says error 195, total system shutdown.

the error code says it might be a result of a short that burned out traces on the control board for the prosine or might be something else and to call xantrex. i called a local xantrex repair center and they said they cannot repair the 3.0 and it has to be sent back to xantrex. in addition, they dont make a 12v version anymore, only a 24v.

so, think i found a used one for 1400, new ones are not 12v. online you cant find alot of good to say about xantrex saying they dont help much.

i will call them on monday to see if there is a way to reset the error or check for it. i suspect the short in the transfer switch caused a problem with the inverter charger.

while i was doing it, the compartment was rusty and yukky so i sanded it down, primered and repainted it, polished the stainless panel on the front.

now i just have to figure out the inverter.

gee, i wonder if anything else can go wrong...

pictures of the compartment after being redone below.

if anyone has any wisdom on the inverter charger, let me know.

tom

[Chester B. Stone, Jr.]

Tom, so sorry to hear about your electrical problem. I cannot help with the inverter, but I had a similar problem once with the automatic transfer switch. If you check inside the transfer switch, you may find that only one of the two solonoids is burnt. Save the old one for parts if this ever happens again.

[encantotom]

an update.

i did a lot of research on the prosine 3.0. first of all they stopped making the 12v version a couple of years ago. online and the few xantrex repair shops i talked to all said the same thing. they are not field repairable and they didnt think xantrex repairs them either. the fellow steve ward gave me was very informed about them and said if you need to replace it, replace it with something different even if you could get the exact same one somewhere. he said xantrex did not give out schematics or parts to repair them at all to anyone.

he suggested i go physically disconnect the battery cables AT the inverter and let is set for a little while to totally reset (vs using the battery disconnect switch) and then hook it back up. i must say i was not optimistic on that since i had such a hard fault and clearly had a short in the power system to take out my transfer switch. but i did it anyway and i am glad i did. it came up just fine.

then the coach started drawing the incoming voltage down to 100 volt or so and the surge protector in the transfer switch would shut the power off. it was because my batteries were getting low and the charger was hitting them hard at first. even though i have the incoming set at 15a on the control panel it was still more than the house could provide. so i ran the genny for an hour to get some charge back in the batteries and then plugged it in after that and all is well.

guess it is better for all of this to happen in my driveway rather than on the road. at least i will know most every system pretty well before i hit the road.

the new inverter chargers use a cat5r network cable for the control panels and this one uses a phone line, so while i have all the chases open i will run a couple of cat5e from the inverter area to the control panel up front. is easy now that i know how to do it.

so i am back in power again.

thanks for all the advice

steve w, your inverter guy was great.

tom