American Coach: Inverter starts on its own.

[Jimalberta]

Hi everyone....I hope someone can help me with this. I was working in my MH yesterday and did not have the shore power hooked up. Then I noticed that the inverter was running with a cooling fan on. So I shut it off at my control panel and an hr or so later it came on again and I shut it off. This happened several times and this am I went in the MH and the inverter was running and the batteries were low...had to plug it in to shore power and recharge the batteries.

Has anyone experienced this? I dont want that inverter on unless I tell it to come on as the cooling fan will just kill the batteries.

Hoping someone has a solution
Cheers. Jim


2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[BFlinn181]

Is this a stand alone inverter or an inverter/charger? If it's just a stand alone inverter, you could install a switch in the line from the battery to the inverter. Many modern inverters send out a small pulse of 120 v power to search for a load on the line. If you have an appliance, or phone charger, or some other thing that's triggering the inverter, you could unplug those devices or plug them into a power strip that can be turned off.

[Jimalberta]

Its a Heart inverter/ charger. I was wondering about the ac demand and I'm trying to think of what might be causing the inverter to kick in. According to the manual I can disable idle mode ....might try that as it could be something like a flat screen tv bringing it on....I dunno....


2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[Jimalberta]

Well I tried unplugging all of the electronics in the coach such as both tvs, dvd,vcr, satellite, microwave and the inverter still seems to have a mind of its own. Puzzling.


2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[Jimalberta]

Man I cant believe no one else has had a problem with these things.....its coming on every five minutes or less and is gonna kill my batteries. There has to be a way to shut it off.


2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[BFlinn181]

It really sounds like it's not functioning properly. Is this the manual for your system?

http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Dis...ner_manual.pdf

It suggests there is a switch to turn the inverter off when no shore power is present.

[RVingDutchman]

Hi Jim,
I wish I had a good answer but I don't, I have the same unit as you and I read the manual to see what I could find but it baffle's me too.
I think at this point If you have not already I would pull the fuses from the Heart and disable it even if that means you will have no charger either!
Use an outside Charger to bring your voltage levels back up to par and then Phone the service dept. for help!
I think that Heart is now owned by someone else like Xantrex but not sure.

I wish I could help, mine so far is OK, hit wood

Regards,

Ed

[Jimalberta]

Ed I took the top off of it and I dont even see any fuses. I would like to disable the entire Heart system but there is no way that I can see how. We are boondocking right now and the solar and my gen will keep the batteries up....I might have to disconnect the heavy 12 volt cables from the battery bank to the charger/inverter if I can do that.



2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[Jimalberta]

Ok another update....I turned off the main battery switch in the battery compartment.....the big rotary dial. It killed power to the rest of the coach but not to the Heart system......strange. Took the switch off the wall and checked the back and the cable coming out of it to the converter/inverter is still hot....now I am wondering if that switch is faulty or its it meant to be like that. So I took that hot lead of the switch and turned the switch back on....now I have 12 volts to my lights and pump but nothing to the Heart system.....good! Only thing is the Heart system is also the transfer switch so I told my wife to not start the gen unless I am around and maybe I should hook that wire back up first.


2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[RVingDutchman]

There are Fuses right on top of the unit itself Jim, Unless your's is different, mine is the Source Manager II from Heart Interface!

Did you get your Solar system finished and hooked up JIM?
I wonder if that could have triggered something ?

Keep us informed please will you? you never know.

Regards,

Ed

P.S. I just finished my Solar system, all looking good and working!
Just learning how to read all the information from the remote screen and how to interact with the old monitor system.

[RVingDutchman]

Dummy here I forgot to refresh the page before I wrote the last post so when it went through I saw your last 2 posts!!!!!

The big Rotary switch is 12v DC only so no that would not change anything, The switch on the wall ???? where is it located in your coach and you're not talking about the rotary switch are you? If you are I am confused?
But that said It seems that you are on to something as you are getting the result you're looking for.

I would definitely try to get a hold of the service department before the weekend and see what they think before you go and replace the switch and find out it's something else!

I Know now you do have your Solar working and I know that things like over-voltage and overcharging can set off alarms in the Inverter that will make it do things out of the ordinary, Are you Sure that your Solar Controller is setup right and not with too high voltages that could cause these things to happen like you're equalizing voltage set too high or even your charging voltage too high!
Are al the dip switches set up properly for your usage ?

It could all be a simple error causing a chain reaction of errors. the only reason I bring this up is because I know you just did this work like I did and it is so easy to overlook something.

Good luck hope you find it quick and that it will be simple!

Regards,

Ed

[wa8yxm]

On some devices the fan can come on because the box says "I'm feeling a bit warm" This need not have anything to do with operational modes..Charging,,,Inverting, Or just sitting there in ye old sun can start up the fan.. I have at least 4 fans..er, 5 that work that way.

There should be a master switch somewhere that kills it dead but alas. On that model..I am not sure.

[Jimalberta]

It is definitely the inverter coming on along with the cooling fan.

Ed....first of all I found a way to unpower the converter/inverter...had to remove a hot cable from the big rotary disconnect switch in the battery compartment. If you turn off that big switch it kills power to the coach...EXCEPT to the converter/inverter.
Left it off overnight...hooked it back up this am and its working as normal now. Go figure......must have reset some electronics in it....I dunno.

Secondly I did get the solar installed but cant set the controller up as I am out boondocking in the mountains and this device did not come with a manual ....you have to download the manual...grrrr. So that will have to wait till I get home.


2001 American Eagle 40 US 8.9 ISL, towing 1999 Cherokee or 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 with Polaris RZR in the back.

[RVingDutchman]

Well I'm glad you have it under control for now!
From what you just told me I think the new Solar installation may well have had something to do with it, what kind of controller did you get, (brand and size?) ?

Hope you have a great weekend with out anymore drama, enjoy!

Regards,

Ed