no power to micro and converter??

[Rockcrawler]

We went out this weekend and when I got there there were no hookups available. No Problem...wrong.

My power control panel in the mh for the conv/inv is lites out. Normally the little led's are telling me volts and status of the batteries. If I press the charge button, the lites come on for a minute or so and go back out.

I started the generator and there is no power to the micro and invter. No battery charging.

I have put a meter on the power switch and have 120 at the lines in and the lines out. Its almost like a breaker is tripped. I can only find 1 breaker panel near the floor across from the shower. Do I have a panel I am missing.

Also...if I press "Inverter" the micro comes on and with all the breakers in the panel OFF the micro is still on.

Help

[sgtjoe]

Just a shot in the dark, but the inverter box inside the rear pass. basement side of my 2001 7390 has two flip switches that look like light switches and they do control elect. power. Make sure both are on. Hope this helps.

[Rockcrawler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgtjoe Just a shot in the dark, but the inverter box inside the rear pass. basement side of my 2001 7390 has two flip switches that look like light switches and they do control elect. power. Make sure both are on. Hope this helps.

I'll check it out in the AM. I dont recall seeing anything like that.

Thanks

[sgtjoe]

Here's a picture of the box I mentioned. Note the two switches, check these.

[Rockcrawler]

Sgt Joe,
My conv is a mod 2530 and doesnt have those switches. I have a tech coming by next week or so to take a look at it. I'm not making any progress by myself.

Thanks

[bdpreece]

Just to check remove the small white panel at the bottom of the inverter box and check the wire nut connections for the AC wires that are behind it. On my 04 Tropi Cal the connections had vibrated loose and I lost AC inside the coach.

[GaryKD]

Hi Rockcrawler,
My assumption is you have a XANTREX FREEDOM 458 INVERTER/CHARGER 2500 Watt 12 Volt 130A CHARGER Freedom 458 Inverter/Charger or similar unit. Is this correct?

If the information in the OP is correct, the generator and inverter part of the Xantrex are working properly. It sounds like the charger portion of the Xantrex is not working.

When was the last time you checked the coach batteries for water and being fully charged?

Do you have a portable charger? If you do, charge the coach batteries. Do not wait for the tech. The longer they stay discharged the worst off they will be. With a portable charger it will take a couple of days for them to recover to full charge.

The next step is to determine why the charger is not charging the batteries. I do not know your coach brand. That being said some places to look are:
1. Bad/poor/loose battery ground(s)
2. Bad coach battery(s)
3. The charge part of the 2530 may be bad
4. Most of these units have a reset button located somewhere. See if you can find it an press firmly to reset it.

The following assumes there is 120 VAC to the charger.
5. With a meter, check the VDC reading for the out bound line of the 2530 charger. Do you have 13.5 VDC +?
6. If #5 is yes, the problem is in the batteries, a component between the batteries and the charger or the wires to the batters.
7. There may be a 12 VDC fuse between the charger and the batteries.
8. If the answer to #5 is no, the charger portion of the unit is not working. Check for a reset button or fuse on the charger unit..

[Rockcrawler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD Hi Rockcrawler, My assumption is you have a XANTREX FREEDOM 458 INVERTER/CHARGER 2500 Watt 12 Volt 130A CHARGER Freedom 458 Inverter/Charger or similar unit. Is this correct? If the information in the OP is correct, the generator and inverter part of the Xantrex are working properly. It sounds like the charger portion of the Xantrex is not working. When was the last time you checked the coach batteries for water and being fully charged? Do you have a portable charger? If you do, charge the coach batteries. Do not wait for the tech. The longer they stay discharged the worst off they will be. With a portable charger it will take a couple of days for them to recover to full charge. The next step is to determine why the charger is not charging the batteries. I do not know your coach brand. That being said some places to look are: 1. Bad/poor/loose battery ground(s) 2. Bad coach battery(s) 3. The charge part of the 2530 may be bad 4. Most of these units have a reset button located somewhere. See if you can find it an press firmly to reset it. The following assumes there is 120 VAC to the charger. 5. With a meter, check the VDC reading for the out bound line of the 2530 charger. Do you have 13.5 VDC +? 6. If #5 is yes, the problem is in the batteries, a component between the batteries and the charger or the wires to the batters. 7. There may be a 12 VDC fuse between the charger and the batteries. 8. If the answer to #5 is no, the charger portion of the unit is not working. Check for a reset button or fuse on the charger unit..

Hey Gary,
Yes that is the unit I have. The batteries are less than 6 mos old and respond very well to the external/portable charger I hooked up to them. They took the charge and are holding well.

The answer to #5 was no. Ther is only one 30 amp reset button on the unit and it appears to be in all the way. This points me to thinking that the XF458 has a problem internally.

I have an extended service policy from Good Sam, looks like I might get to try it out.

To me...the mystery is, why does the micro work on inverter and not on shore or gen? Maybe they are switched/controlled in the XF458?

Thanks for the reply.

[rvgrandma]

A few years ago we had a problem with no power when we were using the generator. Turns out there were two breakers on our generator that we did not know about that had tripped. After that, when we first hooked up to shore power we had no 110 for about an hour and then all was fine - haven't had a problem since. These things are so complex weird things happen!

["007"]

If you have a transfer switch you could have a open or loose wire through it.
Your shore power line enters it on one side and your Gen on other side than line to your load center.

[Stillwater]

Although my coach is different I had the same inverter as in post #4. Mine had the two circuit breakers, one was wired to the 110 volt circuits and the other to the microwave. The inverter has an internal transfer switch which is either switched to charge the batteries and have throughput to power the 110 volt outlets and microwave when there is shore power incoming or when switched to inverter uses the batteries to power the microwave and 110volt circuits. My inverter was stuck in "inverter" mode so when I was plugged in to shore power I got no battery charging, no 110 volt outlets or microwave but unplugged as mentioned I had microwave and 110 circuits. After researching and looking at cost of repair plus the terrible reviews for the Heart inverter service nowadays I decided it was time to replace it with a new one. Repair shops don't even want to deal with these inverters anymore which is unfortunate as these used to be one of the best.
After more research I ended up installing Magnasyne which is pretty much a direct replacement. The remote was direct replacement installation including just plugging in the cable so it was very easy. Also the heart was a modified wave and the magna is pure wave so is much easier on newer electronics which don't like modified wave.

[Rockcrawler]

The weather turned to below freezing for the next few days with high winds to boot. The tech will come next week when he can feel his hands. We have about decided that the Freedom 458 has issues internally.

Come on Spring!!

[Rockcrawler]

UPDATE.....

The 458 Freedom was the culprit. As it turns out the micro is wired direct to the inverter. Something went wrong in the inverter that killed the charging circuit and the 120v circuit for the micro. I will have to replace, or have repaired, the charger/inverter unit.

[Stillwater]

Before you have it repaired do some research on the web, you will find Heart is not being very responsive to the RV/Marine inverter consumer any more. Maybe time to trash it and go new.