Community Forums

birdhunter · 06-06-2022, 06:01 PM

So yesterday, in almost 100° heat, all roof air had been working perfectly. I was in the bedroom and a burst of smoke came out of the ceiling vents for a few seconds! I quickly determined that the the old start capacitor on my old 13.5 Penguin, zone 2, had blown up. I replaced the start capacitor. I also checked capacitance on the dual "run" capacitor which is supposed to be a 20/10 mf. The 10 is 10, but the 20 for the compressor is an 11, so it is partially bad and I ordered a new one. Simultaneously with the start capacitor puking, Zone 2 disappeared from the Comfort control Center, but as long as the breaker is on, that zone 2 bedroom air conditioner will run forever, ice cold, as long as the rj-11 phone wire is plugged in. Unusually, the CCC will not reset if the zone 2 rj11 cable is plugged in. I had a long talk with Dometic and they say it's either the board in zone 2 or the five button Comfort Control Center. Any idea which or what it is? This is pretty unusual and I'm stumped.

bduemig · 06-06-2022, 06:36 PM

I changed out my 5 button ccc for a MicroAire win I had to change my front a/c. I don't remember if the ccc has more than 2 zones. If it does, I would try changing the dip switch on the control board to another zone to see if it shows on the tstat.

But my guess is, the board if probably fried. Btw, I am not sure, but there might be a fuse on the board that may have blown.

Smitty77 · 06-07-2022, 03:04 PM

Have you done the reset (Which you mentioned, but wanted to make sure it was the same thing I recall

!), of the actual 5 button thermostat itself? I thought it was an RJ-45 jack that came into the back of the thermostat, but maybe it's RJ-11

! Unplugging ours for a minute or so in our 04 Allure, would reset the many things...

And as I recall, on an 04 Allure, Zone 1 was sort the master. And then that would feed out to Zone 2. We found that the RJ-45 (Or 11?) male plugs, and the female connectors they went into, up next to the AC units themselves - had over the years built up enough condensation to allow mode and crud to grow. We replace the female to female couplings with new ones, and sprayed the male jack plugs with electronic cleaner. Let it dry, and then use a dab of dielectric grease on the contact points with a Q-Tip, before plugging everything back together again. (This solved some random problems that would seem to come up, including cycling of the AC units.) We added a yearly inspect and clean as needed these connections. AC 1 and AC 2...

None of this may help, but heck - only took 60 seconds to read it

!

Good luck,
Smitty

birdhunter · 06-07-2022, 10:31 PM

Hey Smitty. The cables that run between the units and to the five button are rj11s. Like you said unit 1 or zone 1 kind of controls everything and feeds zone 2. I've discovered I only have 4.7 volts coming off the rj11 from zone 1 that feeds zone 2. Should be 12 volts, so something is wrong I go up top again to look inside zone 1 and see what's wrong. Maybe the rj11plugs are crudded up like you said. Either that, or, God forbid, for some reason I might have a bad board in zone 1. Why this would happen with a start capacitor blowing up in zone 2 is beyond me.

bduemig · 06-09-2022, 04:54 AM

I am not sure the rj11 feeds 12 volt (but it may). My. A/c's both have 12 volt wiring to them. I am assuming the control wiring (rj11) is low voltage.

birdhunter · 06-09-2022, 11:19 PM

Updated report from the roof: I swapped boards between the two units. Zone 2 malfunctioned with the good board from zone 1 installed. Zone 1 malfunctioned with the board from zone 2 installed (it would only run on low fan). With its original board put back in, zone 1 functions perfectly. CCC will still not find or control zone 2, but with its original board zone 2 will operate at low fan speed constantly, as long as the breaker is on, but only if the rj-11 from zone 1 is connected to it, so there is definitely voltage going from zone 1 to zone 2 through the rj11. I'm not sure, since this is all very puzzling, but I'm beginning to suspect the CCC may be the problem, and maybe a partially bad zone 2 board. There are absolutely none of these boards available anywhere at this time. Dometic says 6 to 8 weeks. I'm thinking to start with replacing the CCC with the MicroAir Wi-Fi thermostat to see if that solves the problem. At least the front works perfectly and the bedroom works on low as long as the breaker is on so we're not baking.

bduemig · 06-20-2022, 04:47 PM

I was having issues with the furnace when I went to the micro air. Solved my issue. And it is great for checking it while away from the rv

birdhunter · 06-20-2022, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bduemig

I was having issues with the furnace when I went to the micro air. Solved my issue. And it is great for checking it while away from the rv

Thank you. I think I'll try that.

Fredward · 06-23-2022, 11:43 AM

Hey Rich,
Let us know how the MicroAir works for you. I've contemplated replacing our 5 button also. (but if it ain't broke don't mess with it is my motto)
Fred

MarylandRich · 06-25-2022, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fredward

Hey Rich,
Let us know how the MicroAir works for you. I've contemplated replacing our 5 button also. (but if it ain't broke don't mess with it is my motto)
Fred

I put in the micro-air, and since the 5 button wasn’t broke, it sits in a back cabinet as a back up if the micro-air ever goes down

rvnomads1974 · 06-26-2022, 07:32 AM

I replaced my front AC a year ago. Recently the relay on the bedroom AC went bad, running ice cold with no control. My 5 button thermostat and ACs were the old CCC for which no relays were avaiable. Replaced both controls in the ACs with Dometric 3312020.000 multi-zone ccc2 controls and installed the Micro-Air Easy Touch RV 350. Love the thermostat.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Twomed · 06-26-2022, 09:30 AM

https://www.irv2.com/rvclassifieds/s...-rv-354&cat=23

New one here for a little savings...he sold the coach, I bought his TPMS, PayPal and had it in 3 days, as advertised.

birdhunter · 06-28-2022, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rvnomads1974

I replaced my front AC a year ago. Recently the relay on the bedroom AC went bad, running ice cold with no control. My 5 button thermostat and ACs were the old CCC for which no relays were avaiable. Replaced both controls in the ACs with Dometric 3312020.000 multi-zone ccc2 controls and installed the Micro-Air Easy Touch RV 350. Love the thermostat.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Are you saying you had older Penguin 1's and you somehow Installed those 331220 Boards that come in those metal boxes design for the latest generation Penguin 2's in your old Penguins? That would be very interesting. How does that work? I didn't think they were compatible with the old Penguin 1's.