HELP! Norcold not working on LP

[chasfm11]

Originally Posted by "007"

You do not need battery to relay you need it to the 12v feed to the board with all moved wires in place as they should be.
Some fridge have a 12v connecting block at base of fridge feeding the control board.

Sorry, I wasn't clear.

I did connect the aux battery to the board in place of the normal 12v from the RV and the ground from the RV. I did that with everything else that I had taken off back in its original position. Nothing changed on the symptom - the LP still fails with an "F" code.

My Dinosaur board does have the 12 volt inputs as though it is a 3 way power. But the fridge itself is a 2 way. Since the control board and the eyebrow board interact with one another and I don't under if there would be a problem or not, I didn't want to add any more variables and trying running the refridge off 12 volts. I'm guessing that takes a fairly high amp line and there isn't one of those available in that area of the RV. My little lawn mower batter that I was using substitute power has a very low CCA rating. I doubt that it would be up to much of a load.

[jesilvas]

Originally Posted by chasfm11

My Dinosaur board does have the 12 volt inputs as though it is a 3 way power. But the fridge itself is a 2 way

All boards have 12V inputs. That's how they run, 3way or not.

Now what about the board having the jumper correctly set for the board you replaced?

[chasfm11]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

All boards have 12V inputs. That's how they run, 3way or not.

Now what about the board having the jumper correctly set for the board you replaced?

I believe that it was correct when I put it in in 2010. I'll double check that. I've had no reason to be there since.

["007"]

Last thing left is the gas valve turned on at tank and the feed into your fridge.
If you have cooling with the AC elements the board is OK I would say the fridge is looking for LP gas.

[chasfm11]

Originally Posted by "007"

Last thing left is the gas valve turned on at tank and the feed into your fridge.
If you have cooling with the AC elements the board is OK I would say the fridge is looking for LP gas.

Earlier, I indicated that I applied 12 volts directly to the gas valve. When I did that, the gas valved and I lighted the burner manually. The flame burned solid blue until I removed the 12volts from the valve.

I still believe that the failure of the ignitor to even attempt to fire AND the gas valve never attempting to open leads me back to a control board failure. I had hoped that it was a tacked relay point and that banging around over the roads might free it up. I've bounced the devil out of the RV today and it still fails. A/C still works fine. I'm going to try to contact Dinosaur tomorrow to arrange for a board repair/replacement.

Thanks for all of your help.

Charlie

["007"]

Charlie after your last post I would agree, if you have cleaned all the leads into the board and its still not sending the 12v to gas valve to open it, what else is there.

[chasfm11]

Update:

We've returned from our trip. The fridge functioned flawlessly for 2 weeks on A/C. It would never work on LP. I was in contact with Dinosaur Electronics via e-mail. They sent me a link to a history reset procedure. They claimed that sometimes, the history has to be cleared before the board will work on LP. I never had an LP failure (and therefore should not have had a history prior to my posting on this thread) since putting the Dinosaur board in the fridge. I religiously tried the reset procedure a number of successive days with no positive results.

Dinosaur has a agreed that the control board is under warranty and I've sent it to them. Prior to shipping it to them, I told them that I had no desire to send them a working board so if they had any other ideas about why the failure was happening, I was all ears. They had none so the board is in transit.

I'll just have to wait and see what happens with the board now. I still cannot understand what other possible cause there could be if neither the igniter nor the gas valve turn on.

Charlie

[chasfm11]

Update:

Dinosaur confirmed today that they are sending a replacement board. I sent back an inquiry, trying to find out what happened to the original. I hope that they will tell me but don't expect it.

I'm assuming that the new board will arrive by the end of this week or early next week. I'll install and test it immediately. I have my fingers crossed that there are no more issues.

[chasfm11]

Update:

Subtitle: Confusion runs rampant.

1. The replacement Dinosaur board arrived. During the replacement process, they questioned me about the part number for my optical control board and I sent it to them.

2. When I looked at the Dinosaur replacement board, it was plugged in the "Dino" position. I sent them a query about that but they never responded. The installation instructions say "67" if the original Norcold board part number was 619353. I'm a pack rat and have that old board in front of me. That is the number. When I plugged the Dino board in and pressed power, the mode light flashed at me and the fridge won't do anything. I replugged the Dino board to position 67 and it comes on without the flashing.

3. The new board works on A/C as the old one did. The new board fails on LP as the old one did but this time with fault code "F". The old one failed with fault code "E". Unfortunately, I cannot find anywhere on the Dinosaur website where the fault codes are explained. CAN ANYONE HELP?
I went back to the Bryant website and pulled down the Norcold manual and examined the flowchart for code F. Answering the questions leads me to "replace power board."

4. When I worked on the original trouble for which I ordered the Dinosaur board, I had bought an igniter. So I have a working spare and put it in. No change in the symptoms.

5. Fearing some sort of an environmental problem, I double checked the voltage. With the RV plugged into shore power, the voltage on the wire to the fridge shows 13. 23 with no ripple. I also checked the ground. It was not the zero ohm short that I expected. Poking around, I found the end of the ground wire had been routed to the passenger rear wheel well and was somehow fastened to thin metal that surrounds the wheel well but that it has broken loose and was just hanging there, touch that metal. I added a small piece of wire to it and bolted the result to an open hole in the chassis rail, cleaning the contact area thoroughly. I now show a solid zero ohm short between that wire, the frame and all of the surrounding metal in the outside fridge compartment.

I'm stumped. Clearly, the control board controls the ignition sequence. Neither the gas valve is opened nor the igniter activated during that sequence. There is dead silence. From my troubleshooting before the trip, I confirmed that the gas valve comes on when 12 volts is applied directly to it and I'm able to manually light the burner which burns robustly with a solid blue flame.

One last piece of information. My optical board failed many years ago. (symptom: no lights on fridge, no response to controls) I took it to a local RV dealer who had a replacement board. I put the replacement board in and the fridge worked fine but I did not verify the serial numbers between the old and new ones. I'm wondering if this is somehow a compatibility issue with the Dinosaur control board.

I'm open to any and all suggestions. Absent a revelation before then, I plan to call Dinosaur tech support tomorrow afternoon and see if they have any ideas. I sure am frustrated.

Charlie

[jesilvas]

When you say it was plugged to Dino, you mean the small contacts were jumped together? That's a test mode.

When you say no ripple, you mean no AC current on the DC input?

[chasfm11]

Update:

Subtitled: Are you ready for this??????

1. I put back the original Norcold board. It immediately fired on LP. The gas valve is activated, the igniter is activated and the burner has a solid blue flame.

2. Then I remembered the reason that I bought the Dinosaur board in the first place. The Norcold board will not flame sense. I swapped back and forth between both igniters. The same thing happens - the igniter continues to cycle even though the burner is on and, after the timeout period, the gas valve is shut down as part of the safety circuit.

So the original Norcold board will turn on the LP completely and it works great until the safety timeout. Neither the Dinosaur board that I bought in 2010 nor the replacement board that they sent to me on Friday will even try to turn on the LP firing sequence.

My hair is naturally thinning but I'm going to be completely bald before this is over. It is just NUTS!!!!!!!


Responses, even commiseration are welcomed. Why can't I have "normal" problems to troubleshoot like anyone else? Why do I get these bizarre ones?

Wallowing in frustration.......Charlie

[chasfm11]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

When you say it was plugged to Dino, you mean the small contacts were jumped together? That's a test mode.

When you say no ripple, you mean no AC current on the DC input?

That means that the voltage shows no sign of variation on my lowest possible scale. I don't have a 'scope so I cannot see whether there is anything else on the power line.

The Dino board has a jumper on it that has multiple positions. When I was talking about "plugged" that is what I meant. The Dinosaur electronics website has the installation manual for my board which describes the reasons for putting the plug in different positions.

[jesilvas]

Originally Posted by chasfm11

That means that the voltage shows no sign of variation on my lowest possible scale. I don't have a 'scope so I cannot see whether there is anything else on the power line.

When I hear ripple, I think AC current on DC lines. Put your meter to the AC mode, and check across 12V+ and 12V- and see if you have any AC current.

The Dino board has a jumper on it that has multiple positions. When I was talking about "plugged" that is what I meant. The Dinosaur electronics website has the installation manual for my board which describes the reasons for putting the plug in different positions.

That's what I thought you meant. I had one that was left in Dino mode for years without issue. Then came back and had an LP issue, and that's all it was. They were surprised it lasted so long in Dino mode.
The reason for the jumpers is because they make one Norcold board for basically all Norcolds, and the circuits change with different jumpers.

Replied in red. Maybe Norcold can tell you what board should be on your refr from the model, serial, and group numbers inside the box. I'd ask them first, then make sure your jumper is right.

[chasfm11]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

Replied in red. Maybe Norcold can tell you what board should be on your refr from the model, serial, and group numbers inside the box. I'd ask them first, then make sure your jumper is right.

Thanks for your reply. I'll check the voltage with my meter as you suggest.

I will call Norcold tomorrow and ask them about the eyebrow/optical board part number that I should have. I'm not sure what part that might play in the LP failure but who knows. Assuming that I have the correct optical board, I feel like I'm going to have to go "dance" with Dinosaur. They have a good reputation for standing behind their products and, unless I somehow have a two bad igniters and their board is sensing that and not working, this is a problem that I will look to them to solve. The Norcold manual has instructions for measuring the resistance of the igniter. I'll use that.

Thanks again.

Charlie