New Issue, Charging

[10Boomer]

Originally Posted by YC1

It is worth checking this fuse.

Will do what is the relay in the front. I have the diagrams laminate and velcrod to the bay door inside.


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[YC1]

I wish I could be positive about that relay in the front. Mine has a circuit breaker in its place. It could be they used it as the BIRD relay. That is, the combining relay to charge both banks of batteries and then later just sent the signal to the big trombetta and used it as a dual device. One for combining when a charge voltage is present, and the other use for jump starting via the emergency start switch.

I could sort it out with a voltmeter. Start the engine,generator, or use shoreline and after a couple of minutes measure the voltage on the violet wire on the solenoid in the battery compartment. Measure the voltage on the small wire on the solenoid in the front compartment too. This should help me sort it out.

[10Boomer]

Picking up coach on Monday, I will post my results for you.


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[Stan&Jacquie]

Originally Posted by 10Boomer

Seems I may have an issue don't know were to start kinda. Starting engine my chassis batteries are not getting charged. Turn on generator they get charged. Weird. I may have a had start to this issue when I left camping site. Seems charging in shore power didn't work? I don't know, all I know is the generator charges all the batteries. Not sure about shore power or engine running from alternator. A little guidance would be appreciated.


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Most Monacos of this vintage do not charge the engine batteries except for the alternator. Best bet is to install a supplemental charger (Echo Charger, Magnum Smart Charger or other facsimile). These units will monitoring the engine batteries and will divert coach battery power to them to keep them up but will not let the coach batteries get low.

[10Boomer]

Originally Posted by Stan&Jacquie

Most Monacos of this vintage do not charge the engine batteries except for the alternator. Best bet is to install a supplemental charger (Echo Charger, Magnum Smart Charger or other facsimile). These units will monitoring the engine batteries and will divert coach battery power to them to keep them up but will not let the coach batteries get low.

According to the BIRD information it suppose too?


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[YC1]

10Boomer, I am 99% sure your alternator should charge both banks. However, if the generator is running it will not.

Stan, you too probably have a bird. It is easy to identify in any case. However many bird systems have had failures and unless one is looking for it or does not understand it well it is easy to miss.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by 10Boomer

According to the BIRD information it suppose too?


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If that's a question, the answer is in the name.

"B"i-directional "I"solation "R"elay with "D"elay.

The Bi-directional discription means it will sense charging voltage from either battery bank and close a contactor to combine it to the other.

There is more features to some of them but that's the basics.

There are IRDs that only work in one direction only. With that style, only the chassis charging source is sensed, to combine to the house bank.
Without some other device, the chassis battery is on its own, while connected to shore power.

[10Boomer]

Originally Posted by YC1

I wish I could be positive about that relay in the front. Mine has a circuit breaker in its place. It could be they used it as the BIRD relay. That is, the combining relay to charge both banks of batteries and then later just sent the signal to the big trombetta and used it as a dual device. One for combining when a charge voltage is present, and the other use for jump starting via the emergency start switch.

I could sort it out with a voltmeter. Start the engine,generator, or use shoreline and after a couple of minutes measure the voltage on the violet wire on the solenoid in the battery compartment. Measure the voltage on the small wire on the solenoid in the front compartment too. This should help me sort it out.

YC was out at the Coach I did the check while out at storage. I checked everything except shore power( no connection) charging. Everything checks normal. 14-14.4 with alternator, genset 14-14.7. Further back in the helpful thread I also tested the relays as described ( helpful everyone). I didn't see any issues. The one item I wanted to mention, the weird relay that was on the PC board I showed a picture of earlier in thread was now working on the leg I couldn't read when I had the bad alternator.
I will update when coach comes home for our trip next week.


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[Happycarz]

Boomer, the "Alt Fail" terminal on the alternator goes to the metal 6v relay in front run bay. That relay is normally closed, and goes to ground. The "Alt" light has 12v on one side of bulb and the other side goes to the relay, which goes to ground, turning on the light to check the bulb. When the engine is running and alternator is outputting, the coil wire of the relay is energized, opening contacts. Still 12v on one side of bulb but open on other side and bulb is out.

The output on the "Alt Fail" wire is closer to 5v, but enough to open the contacts in the metal 6v relay.

Just another piece of information for your brain. Monaco has no schematic for the alternator wiring. I had to draw one and will be glad to share, along with all the wiring schematics for the coach. The schematics also pertain to '08 HR Scepter and much of the '08 Contessa.

My email is: (Username) @msn.com

[10Boomer]

Originally Posted by Happycarz

Boomer, the "Alt Fail" terminal on the alternator goes to the metal 6v relay in front run bay. That relay is normally closed, and goes to ground. The "Alt" light has 12v on one side of bulb and the other side goes to the relay, which goes to ground, turning on the light to check the bulb. When the engine is running and alternator is outputting, the coil wire of the relay is energized, opening contacts. Still 12v on one side of bulb but open on other side and bulb is out.

The output on the "Alt Fail" wire is closer to 5v, but enough to open the contacts in the metal 6v relay.

Just another piece of information for your brain. Monaco has no schematic for the alternator wiring. I had to draw one and will be glad to share, along with all the wiring schematics for the coach. The schematics also pertain to '08 HR Scepter and much of the '08 Contessa.

My email is: (Username) @msn.com

Thx Happy, I plugged coach into 30 amp shore power yesterday ( my garage) today after work the Magnum remote showed float charging 13.3- 13.4 v. I was testing all the equipment like I do before departure pressed the button to check tank levels and it has battery state it shows " fair" with LEDs. Weird, been charging all yesterday and the next, this is a head scratcher.
Went outside checked batteries they show 13.3 volts assuming charger works with shore power.
Question; I don't think the batteries have been "equalized" yet. I opened the caps the plates look white, they are a year old. Should I do this?



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[YC1]

Harry, is this any help?

Hold down your ctrl key and hit the number 5 and the lines will sharpen

[Happycarz]

It's nice that you were able to get an alternator wiring schematic. When I bought my coach in June '07, Monaco didn't even have an owner's manual. I finally obtained 50 or so wiring diagrams for the 08-09 Camelot/Scepter/Contessa with geek labels. I renamed them, laminated them, and put them into spiral bound book. Actually, AZBob gave me the files, I did the renaming and sorting, and Exlaminator did the laminating and binding, making three sets.

2008 was a major change to the wiring on the Camelot/Scepter. I don't know about the rest of the line. For example, my front run bay has 85 fuses on a large green PCB, along with about 20 relays.

I see your alternator is a self exciting model, whereas mine needs an ignition signal. The alt fail circuit looks the same though.
Pardon the crude drawing below. We'll se how it appears.




2008 Monaco Camelot 40' PDQ

[YC1]

Harry, how did you determine that was a 5 volt relay? That is quite interesting. It pins out like an ordinary Bosh relay.

[Happycarz]

Someone on another thread, I believe Roy McBrayer, mentioned that the alt light used a 6v relay and I started investigating. The Alt Fail wire uses a stator tap for voltage source, therefore less than the full charging voltage.

I had one metal relay in FRB with wire labeled "Step out Light." Tracing wires, I found that not to be case as this relay was factory spliced into existing circuit. They just grabbed some white wires on hand to do the extension. First clue was I don't have a Step Out warning light on my coach.

Looking closely at this metal relay, I found it marked 6v. With a little tracing and testing, I figured it out. The relay circuit is same as a Bosch 12v relay, with the coil being 6v as the only difference.


2008 Monaco Camelot 40' PDQ