Issue With Water Pump Circuit

[barmcd]

Originally Posted by dpinvidic

See my comments above...
AND, with what you have done, you have proven the controller is bad.
I think the last thing to do, is turn the pump on, then disconnect the SW terminal. IF you have a test light, connect it between +12v, and the disconnected wire.
When you activate the switch above the door, the test light should come on.

I will bet you $1.37 that when you try the switch above the door, it will blow the fuse.

ONE ADDITIONAL THOUGHT: Take the panel apart above the door. Make sure there is only TWO wires connected to the switch. Does this switch have a internal indicator light? If it does, the terminal connections are tricky sometimes because they can have a internal connection to make the light work.

Regards,

Dan

Dan, I have a lot more than two wires connected to the switch. I have a white ground wire that sends the signal to the controller if you push this switch. I also have a purple and white wire which supplies the signal to the controller if the other two switches are pushed. I also have a red and purple wire which appear to turn on the light when the controller is in the on state.

[barmcd]

Originally Posted by Dr4Film

I am late getting into this thread but hopefully I can shed some additional information that may be useful.

The Intellitec Water Controller Relay is a Latching Relay meaning that once you send a signal to the relay from any of the switches it will LATCH on or off depending on what state the controller is in.

The switches are generally momentary switches BUT don't have to be. If they are ON/OFF switches that simply means you have to toggle the switch back to OFF and back ON to send another signal to the controller. These switches are all wired in parallel such that it doesn't matter which one is used to send a signal to the controller. There should also be a red indicator light adjacent to each switch to indicate what state the Latching Controller is in, ON or OFF. Sometimes these incandescent indicators will fail so you need to know whether the red indicator light is working correctly. There are LED snap in replacements available which will last thousands of hours of constant use. Since I usually have my water pump active "most" of the time, I have changed all of my indicators over to the LED ones.

Some coaches are wired in such a way that will include an additional relay in the circuit to toggle the 12 VDC LOAD to the water pump motor because the wiring to the Intellitec Latching Controller is not a heavy enough gauge to handle the amps needed for the pump motor.

Others here have offered many troubleshooting steps to try so until those are completed and reported back as to the results I hesitate to offer more of the same.

Myron had posted the wiring schematic of the water pump circuit in post #23 which is a very simple design. Should not be difficult to troubleshoot where the problem lies. The only thing that is missing in that diagram is the second relay but as I said earlier it is not used in every situation, depends on the size of the wiring used at the 10 AMP Latching Controller.

I have included a few photos of my water pump and control system. You can see the additional relay in the lower right hand corner of the closeup photo.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

Your setup is slightly different than mine. I don't have the relay to the right of the controller in the picture.

[barmcd]

I also have a 7 amp controller which was apparently replaced by the 10 amp model.

There is not much in the controller, an IC chip which is probably a J-K latch, a J-Fet, a large electrolytic capicator and a few other misc discrete components.

[barmcd]

I can see the controller isn't working. Like Dan said, grounding the signal wire should have turned it off or on.

I still don't know why I'm blowing fuses when I push the switch over the door. If it were the wiring from that switch to the controller, would it not also blow the fuse when pushing the bathroom switch? The ground potential follows the same path from the overhead door switch to the controller. If anything, the bath switch would be more likely to blow a fuse since it uses the wire from the bath to the overhead and down to the bay.

[Dr4Film]

Originally Posted by barmcd

Your setup is slightly different than mine. I don't have the relay to the right of the controller in the picture.

I also have a 7 amp controller which was apparently replaced by the 10 amp model.

Since you have a smaller water pump which pulls less amps then you would not need the extra relay to switch power to the water pump. My pump pulls 10 amps or more therefore it needs heavier gauge wiring to carry the amps for the pump.

You most likely have smaller gauge wiring connected directly to the the 7 amp Latching Controller.

Intellitec stop making the 7 amp controller. It has been replaced with the 10 amp controller.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

[barmcd]

The controller board came in yesterday. I also received what were supposed to be two momentary toggle switches, but they are held position switches. No matter, they should work, I'll just have to flip it on and off to get the controller to turn the pump on or off. We're heading to a local state park today for our first trip and I hope to be able to get the switch circuit working correctly today or tomorrow.

[YC1]

May I suggest you use a jumper to test it before connecting the switch circuit. This way you will know that part works.

[barmcd]

The controller fixed the issue. Now the switches turn the pump on and off every time you push them. The light doesn't work in the wet bay though. I'll see about replacing the incadescant light with an led at all the switches.

[jacwjames]

Great news, sometimes we over think things.

Does this also include the switch up front in the overhead compartment?

[barmcd]

Yes, but I put in a new, unlighted switch.