Community Forums

TomTex · 12-19-2021, 06:31 AM

Hi, My 2015 Anthem has had a few issues recently with night shades not going up when the button is pressed. I'm up to 3 shades now in recent weeks that go down just fine but will not go up. I have the non-Vega Touch system (the one with the backlit square black button panels). I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has experience trouble shooting these and how did you do it?
The first one I had repaired while the coach was at Entegra. Entegra state on my receipt they did not replace the shade. In the 2 weeks since leaving Indiana I have had 2 more develop the same issue.
Thanks.

brobox · 12-19-2021, 06:38 AM

Very common in the 14's and 15's Entegra went through 3 sets of motors before giving up and no longer replacing them. First ones were green in the 13's without much problem. Then the 14's with the yellow motors that failed constantly. Those were replaced with the red motors that were better but still failed. Entegra finally dropped United shades and went back to MDC with the white motors, called Black Pearl. Those solved the problem, but at $150. each.

Might try a 12v reboot for a temp. fix, but the motors unless they are the white ones will continue to fail.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ente...earch=irv2.com

TomTex · 12-19-2021, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

Very common in the 14's and 15's Entegra went through 3 sets of motors before giving up and no longer replacing them. First ones were green in the 13's without much problem. Then the 14's with the yellow motors that failed constantly. Those were replaced with the red motors that were better but still failed. Entegra finally dropped United shades and went back to MDC with the white motors, called Black Pearl. Those solved the problem, but at $150. each.

Might try a 12v reboot for a temp. fix, but the motors unless they are the white ones will continue to fail.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ente...earch=irv2.com

Thank you.

Magic-carpet · 12-19-2021, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

Very common in the 14's and 15's Entegra went through 3 sets of motors before giving up and no longer replacing them. First ones were green in the 13's without much problem. Then the 14's with the yellow motors that failed constantly. Those were replaced with the red motors that were better but still failed. Entegra finally dropped United shades and went back to MDC with the white motors, called Black Pearl. Those solved the problem, but at $150. each.

Might try a 12v reboot for a temp. fix, but the motors unless they are the white ones will continue to fail.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ente...earch=irv2.com

I never had a reason to think about it but are the MCD black pearl motors compatible with the older United Shades?

brobox · 12-19-2021, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic-carpet

I never had a reason to think about it but are the MCD black pearl motors compatible with the older United Shades?

They are, but some said they have had to adapt the mount, others said the slipped right in. I sold my 14 with the red motors still holding up. I was fortunate and did not have to move on to the 3rd try for motors.

Gary.Jones · 12-19-2021, 08:08 AM

Anytime the shades dont work, the first simple thing to try is to reboot the 12 Volt DC system. This is particularly true of any Entegra with the VegaTouch system. Simply turn off the salesman switch inside the door (one of the big switches at the bottom of the panel) and wait 30 seconds and then turn it back on. Lots of 12 volt transients will confuse the programming of shades and almost any other system on the coach so reboot the 12 volt system first.

As Chuck says, any shade motor other than the black pearl shade motor is essentially garbage. The worst were the ones on the 14 and 15 coaches and they failed at an amazing pace. The fact that the dealer who worked on your shade said he fixed it without replacing the shade motor tells me that your problem is likely a problem with "programming". All shade motors must be programmed for where they stop and where they start going up and going down. The motor and shades are used on different coaches with different vertical size windows so there is no "one size fits all" shade motor. You must program how far you want your shades to come down and then stop and you must program them going back up. You need to figure out if you have original shade motors or replacements and then call Entegra (or do a good search for shade motor reprogramming here on iRV2 using ENTEGRA: shade motor programming or similar wording. Try several different wordings after the colon and see what you get).

The programming sequence is a bit complicated and not obvious on the earlier cheaper shade motors. The new version Black Pearl motors have several buttons to assist the process, but the programming is still something that you will probably need to read about before you are successful. They are expensive.... but they work and they last. Even these motors sometimes get confused and the 12 volt reboot via the salesman switch cure most of those problems, but they are worth the money.

If the motor moves the shades at all, then the motor is probably fine and the programing has failed. Both complete failure and programming problems were common in that vintage coach. Entegra CS should be able to help you with the instructions, however, if you still have the original motors, then you are one lucky coach owners. They failed at a high rate and if you were lucky, and bought the coach new, then Entegra paid to replace the failed one (but not unless it failed) but they sent me a bunch of "free" equally bad motors) I had all of mine replaced.... every one. The front shades were used the most and failed the quickest.

Gary

Magic-carpet · 12-19-2021, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

They are, but some said they have had to adapt the mount, others said the slipped right in. I sold my 14 with the red motors still holding up. I was fortunate and did not have to move on to the 3rd try for motors.

Yes, that sounds right. The Black Pearls have four little posts that slip into position on the bracket and then two screws if you can get them started right. You really don't even need the screws since the posts do such a good job of holding the motor in place. The posts could be shaved off to fit a bracket that didn't accept them. The wiring position is a little different too but you can work around that as well.

Gary.Jones · 12-19-2021, 08:15 AM

Jeannie

As Chuck says, some say they are a direct replacement and some say they had to drill out some mounting holes at the ends of the motor where they attach to the metal brackets.

Luckily, I have had none fail on this 19 and the black pearl were not available when I owned my 15 Anthem, but a version of MCD motors were available then also but not called Black Pearl.

A person with your technical skills would have no problems getting the new motors to adapt. You could probably buy new mounting brackets and make it easy, but I think you can drill a few holes and you can get them to mount.

Gary

Turbojack · 12-19-2021, 08:17 AM

I would try and reprogram before I would try replacing the units. Just do a search for the instructions. The only thing I will add is the instructions say to start with the shades open If your shades are closed you can start reprogram them also, Just reverse the instructions for when it says open change to close and via vera. I had the same problem and the instructions say if the shades are closed to call for tech service. I did and the answer they gave me was above.

ECVB · 12-20-2021, 09:44 AM

I found a few on ebay and picked up 3 @ 50 bucks each .. I had to replace one so far on my 14' ... had some issues with some of the front shades stopped working and pulled the fuse for the shades to reset as opposed to 12v reboot. that seemed to work .. also on side shade was cutting into the wire causing all the other front shades not to work.

darjacob · 12-20-2021, 12:49 PM

I have intermittent problems with the front day shades. When it happens, the switches next to the driver's side window always seem to work. Go figure.

brobox · 12-20-2021, 01:53 PM

The 14 shades could be rebooted and work a few more times, until they didn't.

Usually that happened in the down position, then the shade had to be rolled up and clipped until the shade motor could be changed.

J Gunter · 12-20-2021, 06:16 PM

I replaced 11 old style motors on a friends coach with the black pearl motors. The motors fit the tube fine, but the end bracket for the old motors have a slot in them that the motor end fits in. The black pearl motors have 4 small post that fit in holes in the end bracket. The old style brackets do not have those holes so I made a cardboard template to center punch and drill the holes. I had to elongate a few of them, but it didn’t make a difference they still fit pretty tight and then put in two screws that secures them permanently. All of them work great.

TomTex · 12-21-2021, 07:34 AM

Many thanks to all those who shared their insights. Very helpful and much appreciated. Since my original post a few days ago yet another shade has failed. This one sounds like the gear box is fried because I can hear the motor running but the shade does not move. The 12V power system reboot did not solve the issues with any of the problematic shades. I'll try the reprogramming steps but on the whole I think I'm going to order a half dozen motors today and keep a few spares on hand. Looks like I'm on my way to becoming a "Shade Repair Master Technician" whether I want to take that class or not. LOL. The adventure continues... Have a great holiday everybody.