Onan EC 30 Auto Start short cycle

[jerichorick]

This is what I am experiencing:

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/ona...to-476342.html
I had a bad neutral situation. My brother-in-law tried to add a circuit to the 50A RV service I had installed at his house. I was unaware he had been in the outlet box. We arrived late in the evening, plugged in, set the breaker on and started running systems. We heard a sizzling from somewhere and the generator started. I disconnected from shore power for the night and ran on the generator. We couldn't see any problems YET.
The next day I found that the outlet neutral was burned off and the outlet was trashed. After all the wiring was corrected and we were back on shore power we started to find problems.

When we had the generator in Auto Start, now on shore power, and the A/C unit was called for, the generator would start.
Because of weather and travels I didn't try to troubleshoot for several months.
To make things a bit more interesting we had a A/C controller causing problems with the thermostat. Well, if I was going to fix one thing I might just as well jump into the deep end of the stinky pool and fix both problems. My original thinking was the controller was causing the start call problem. I was very wrong. Yes, the controller had communication problems with the thermostat but that had nothing to do with the generator.
In my research I found that the EC 30 was looking line voltage. The RV service panel has a transformer in it to feed a low voltage AC signal to the EC 30. I replaced it.
The above link to the old thread tells the story of what is happening to me. Why this problem started after I had the neutral failure I can't say.
I am going to run a wire from L1 or L2 of the power cord connection in the ATS to the transformer hot lead. This will isolate it from the generator power on the RV service panel to the transformer.

It only stands to reason. The transformer has no idea where the line power is coming from. So, in turn, the EC 30 is satisfied when it sees the power signal from the transformer and will switch into "Cool down" mode, shut down, see loss of power signal and restart after 10 seconds! And the dance goes on.
This short cycling is very had on all the equipment. I will do the wiring modification tomorrow morning and post back the results.
Rick Y

[chuckftboy]

Rick, you nailed it. This in why the majority of manufactures don't set up their coaches for auto Gen start on loss of power. I had the exact same problem on my last coach. My fix was to install a 115 V receptacle wired to the line side of my ATS and this is where I plugged in my transformer.

[jerichorick]

Originally Posted by chuckftboy

Rick, you nailed it. This in why the majority of manufactures don't set up their coaches for auto Gen start on loss of power. I had the exact same problem on my last coach. My fix was to install a 115 V receptacle wired to the line side of my ATS and this is where I plugged in my transformer.

Sadly this is NOT my problem. I think when the neutral failed it put a surge in the transformer before it failed. This surge damaged the EC 30 timing clock.

I rewired the transformer to the L1 and neutral in the ATS with romex. Now, as soon as shore power is applied, the generator shuts down even though it is still under load with the A/C running. I won't finish the load satisfaction function and 10 min cool down function. The EC 30 is toast. Bummer. One more thing to fix from the neutral failure.

I found a used one on ebay. I'll post how it works when I get it installed.

[jerichorick]

I have not received the EC 30 yet. Got it on ebay used.

I did run romex from the L1 & N of the ATS power cord connections with an inline fuse, 3A, for protection.
One thing I didn't mention is what happened when I did the Auto Start test with the transformer rewired. As soon as I turned on the shore power breaker the generator stopped. It was under the load of the A/C! No 10 min cool down. This is another indicator that the EC 30 is bad.
The pictures are for show & tell.