Powerline Energy Mgmt System Prob

[Matt1616]

Good evening,

I wanted to post a question to the forum. I have an 2003 Adventurer 35U and an gettign it ready for the first road trip of the new year.

I cranked the generator and noticed although it cranked right away it was not providing power the coaches electrical system. No lights come on at all on the Powerline Remote Display Panel co-located with the thermostat and tank guages.

I plugged into shore power and everything works fine. The Remote Display lights up just as it should and everything works.

My next check was keeping the shore power plugged in and starting the generator. The Poweline system detected that the generator was running and everything seemed to work normally.

SO I dug into my black Bag and pulled out the Powerline 2000 EMS Installation and Service Manual. It states under a descriotion of the system that there are 2 components
1.The Control Module which is housed in the standrad main distribution panel, a sheet metal enclosure with removeable front paneland
2.A Display Panel which is mounted to a wall or suitable surface remotely from the distribution panel.

I read the troubleshooting guide and determined the following from TroubleShooting step VIII

Problem - All load indicators do not light and GEN SET service indicator on the Remote Display does not light with the generator running
Remedy - Check for the presence of +12Vdc at Jumper J4 pin #8 on the Control Module.

So here is my Electronics 101 question. If I use a voltmeter and discover there is no +12Vdc at J4 pin #8 then what? What might prevent having +12Vdc at that particular pin. All of my +12Vdc breakers have been reset.

Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Matt1616]

Good evening,

I wanted to post a question to the forum. I have an 2003 Adventurer 35U and an gettign it ready for the first road trip of the new year.

I cranked the generator and noticed although it cranked right away it was not providing power the coaches electrical system. No lights come on at all on the Powerline Remote Display Panel co-located with the thermostat and tank guages.

I plugged into shore power and everything works fine. The Remote Display lights up just as it should and everything works.

My next check was keeping the shore power plugged in and starting the generator. The Poweline system detected that the generator was running and everything seemed to work normally.

SO I dug into my black Bag and pulled out the Powerline 2000 EMS Installation and Service Manual. It states under a descriotion of the system that there are 2 components
1.The Control Module which is housed in the standrad main distribution panel, a sheet metal enclosure with removeable front paneland
2.A Display Panel which is mounted to a wall or suitable surface remotely from the distribution panel.

I read the troubleshooting guide and determined the following from TroubleShooting step VIII

Problem - All load indicators do not light and GEN SET service indicator on the Remote Display does not light with the generator running
Remedy - Check for the presence of +12Vdc at Jumper J4 pin #8 on the Control Module.

So here is my Electronics 101 question. If I use a voltmeter and discover there is no +12Vdc at J4 pin #8 then what? What might prevent having +12Vdc at that particular pin. All of my +12Vdc breakers have been reset.

Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Ed Gardiser]

I would believe the house batteries are dead or very low on charge.
Ed Gardiser
Escondido,Ca.
04 Vectra
87 Nissan PickUp
FMCA

[Matt1616]

Ed,

thanks for your reply. The House batteries are showing a charge or 13.7 on the power panel and other onboard +12Vdc electrical appliances are working.

Could I be getting a false reading on the power panel and the house batteries are actually low?

[Cruzer]

The EMS gets it's 12 volt signal from the "B+" feed off the generator. This signal is the one that also runs the hourmeter and is supplied from the genset when it is running.

Based upon your description I'm going to take a guess at what happened. If you had no coach power when the genset was running then it wasn't putting out any AC power. But when you plugged into shore power you had power. Then when you started the genset the "Generator" LED on the panel lit but you still were running off of shore power?

The first thing I'd check is that the two circuit breakers on the genset haven't tripped. That would cause the above scenario. If the "generator" LED never lights, then I'd check the DC fuse in the genset that feeds the B+ wire. The third possibility is that the LED did light and the genset did puit out AC but the automatic transfer switch stuck and didn't switch over. Anyway, I'd check those things in that order.

[AFChap]

I had the same problem once on my coach ...the transfer switch had not functioned. I had heard of others have the transfer switch stick. I smacked the box in my power compartment with my hand, heard a loud "clack!", and then everything worked like it should, and no problems since...

[troth]

Matt1616, follow Cruzer's advice and report back to us. I suspect your coach is wired for 30A. When your generator is supplying power into the coach, your Powerline info center should switch automatically from the 30A LED to the 50A LED. (-Assuming your generator breakers are "on" and the transfer switch kicked over).

[MrTransistor]

Hi Matt1616,
Transfer switch! If whacking it doesn't free a stuck contactor, take it apart and look for a loose or disconnected ˜fast-on' connector. See photo in my photo section. Normally, the two contactors are de-energized and allow either single phase 120VAC 30 Amp. (20 Amp.) or two phase 240VAC 50 Amp. power through to the PowerLine control unit. It's the PowerLine that detects 30 or 50 Amp. service.

The transfer switch energizes it's contactors when the generator is supplying power. A problem in the transfer switch which prevents the contactors from energizing prevents AC form reaching the PowerLine from the generator even though the light is lit on the PowerLine indicating generator is supplying power. Because the contactors are de-energized, shore power continues to pass to the PowerLine.

Been there, done that, on two coaches and decided to replace the transfer switch with a microprocessor controlled ESP intelligent transfer switch (also pictured) which has surge protection and also pre-qualifies the power connection before connecting the coach. I left the old switch in place, disconnected, as a fall back.

[Matt1616]

Finally got around to troubleshooting last weekend and Cruzer was spot on with his troubleshooting advice. It was the breaker on the Onan generator itself. I flipped the switch and everything was working just fine.

Thanks for all of the help. This community of Winnebago owners is just great!