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05-03-2021, 08:28 AM
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#1
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 3
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Electrical problem 2017 Anthem
so I've been having an issue with my batteries on the vega touch showing low voltage on chassis and house batteries..... the house batteries were changed a little over a year ago when i bought the coach.....
one issue is that when i flush either toilet the lights dim and sometimes it won't even go through the flush cycle.... i constantly have to shut the power off for a minute or so and power the system back up to get the rear bath toilet to come back online..... the water pump will dim the lights also.
I've had technicians out and checked batteries and inverters out and they check out fine... even changed the water pump out as well. they also reset the inverters and even went into parameters and reset them as well.
it seems like the batteries aren't as low as the vega is showing..... not sure why or where the vega picks up the voltage, thinking there may be some sort of loose connection that is causing this..... i've checked the areas that i can see where all of the battery lugs connect in the lower compartment areas with the little removable carpeted panels.
thanks in advance,
John
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Entegra Anthem 44B
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05-03-2021, 09:09 AM
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#2
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SW FL
Posts: 31,569
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If the batteries were changed, and everything mechanical is checking out, I would start with all of the battery cable connections being clean and tight, even those to the inverters.
__________________
Chuck in SW FL
Digital 2021 Cornerstone "B"
A "Digital" 2019 Cornerstone "B" Traded
A "Classic" 2014 Anthem 42 RBQ---Sold
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05-03-2021, 01:22 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 11,530
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You should not be having any problem with your water pumps and small engines like those lugging down your electrical system. That is very strange. My lights don't dim for any reason on this coach or my Anthem.... those are low power motors that should have no impact on the electrical system but the fact that your water pumps are dimming your lights tells me that there is a serious electrical problem on that specific circuit. Here are some suggestions. Pull the fuse that operates one of your toilets, either macerator or drop and maybe you have one of each. Then try operating the other and see if both toilets are on the same electrical 12 Volt wiring circuit. Also see if the lights that dim are on that same circuit. Now, if they are all on the same circuit, then I think that you can focus your attention to everything that is on that 12V circuit. You will need a DVM to carefully measure DC voltages. Then have the meter on the circuit and have your wife or partner activate one of those toilets and see if your voltages fade down from 12 volts to 5 or 6 or some lower voltage. If it does, then you are looking at the symptom and now you need to find the cause. I'd trace back through that circuit (you can ask Entegra for a wiring diagram of the circuit that includes those items) and find where that circuit is being fed its voltage. Probably a main 12 volt trunk line or distribution point. Recrimp and re-tighten all connection points from the source and see if that resolves the problem. If it doesn't, then measure the voltages at the source junction and see if the source is also dropping voltage when the toilets are activated.
On my brand new 2019 Cornerstone, I had some squirrely AC voltages that I had to trace the wires and voltages back to the source, and the source was a circuit breaker that fed that line and swapped breaker and the problem disappeared and then swapped back and the problem returned. Then I examined each wire going into the breaker and discovered that the tech that installed that circuit simply had not fully stripped the wire insulation fully (maybe an additional 1/8" inch needed to be stripped, and when the wire was inserted into the circuit breaker, the clamp screw was clamping down onto the extra wire insulation and not making contact with the conductor. Obviously, no one bothered to check something that basic and they OK'd it to get to the new owner. Amazing that an installer would make such a dumb mistake, but it happened and it took several hours of my time to trace circuits to figure it out. Dumb stuff happens and I'll bet it is something equally dumb in your case.
Gary
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Gary and Dee, Zowie and Bowie (traveling cat sibs)
2019 Cornerstone 45B, X15-605hp, Imperial, Spartan K3,
2013 Honda CR-V toad, Demco Excali-Bar II,
Demco Baseplate, Demco Toad Light system, 73 de W5FI
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05-03-2021, 01:41 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 1,399
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Bad ground somewhere
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Kert and Angela
2018 provost marathon h3-45
2018 Ford F350
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05-03-2021, 03:38 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Caldwell , Ohio 43724
Posts: 1,442
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Flash4212,
Check with Entegra and find out where they put the breakers for the toilets. Once you have located them check that the nuts are good and tight. I had this problem on our coach where the nut was very loose and the toilet won’t flush at all.
Richard
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Gasman 2
2016 Anthem 42 RBQ
Toad 2017 GMC Sierra 4X4
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05-03-2021, 05:06 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 11,530
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In my post above, I made one mistake in memory.
When I tried a new identical relay, the problem persisted (above I said it went away... that was wrong). So new, different relay and still the same problem. That is when I checked the wire and insulation on the wire going into the clamp terminals on the circuit breaker and found that the insulation was not stripped back far enough. Because it was not stripped back far enough, the screw clamp on the circuit breaker was making no electrical contact.
Sorry, I re-read my post and realized that I had that section wrong.
Gary
__________________
Gary and Dee, Zowie and Bowie (traveling cat sibs)
2019 Cornerstone 45B, X15-605hp, Imperial, Spartan K3,
2013 Honda CR-V toad, Demco Excali-Bar II,
Demco Baseplate, Demco Toad Light system, 73 de W5FI
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05-03-2021, 07:37 PM
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#7
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Windsor Colorado
Posts: 435
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If I read this correctly, it would appear to me that your house batteries are in a low charge state. Vega touch is likely reading correctly.
The first thing I would do is go to the basement of the coach, with external power removed, and do a soft reset of each inverter. The procedure is quick and easy and explained in your Magnum manual in your bag of books.
After a successful reboot of the inverters turn your DC power switch off for 2 minutes. Then restore your power first from the external source, then turn your DC power switch on
Verify the proper vega touch charging options are set by going to and holding the inverter button . These setting can be found on this forum.
__________________
My other RV !
2017 Anthem 44B
2016 Ram 4x4 via Blue Ox
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05-04-2021, 05:55 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Greenwich, RI
Posts: 2,288
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Can't say why regarding the Vegatouch readings, but toilet/water pump symptom sounds to me like the classic loose or corroded (high resistance) connection.
Voltage reads normal with a meter, but when under load it drops due to the high resistance. I agree look for a loose connection. Possibly also a bad cable lug crimp.
Not suggesting this is your specific issue, but on a friend's 2017 Anthem when fairly new we found the nuts on the back of the round inverter switches had never been fully tightened. Caused all kinds of weird behaviors. Suspect your issue is of a similar nature.
If the bad connection isn't obvious, troubleshooting will be tricky, you will need to put the system under load (perhaps run the water pump), then starting near the batteries, follow the power path probing with a voltmeter until you find a significant voltage drop.
Vegatouch is getting the battery voltage values over the RV-C (Firefly/Spyder) network. I don't know for sure who the sender is but suspect the house battery reading comes from the Magnum ME-RVC. The chassis voltage comes from somewhere else. I say this based on eRVin testing I did on a friend's 2018 Anthem where house battery voltage was on a legit defined RV-C parameter and easily found, but the chassis battery voltage is apparently proprietary and undefined and so far we haven't been able to decipher it's value.
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05-04-2021, 07:57 AM
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#9
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Les1951
If I read this correctly, it would appear to me that your house batteries are in a low charge state. Vega touch is likely reading correctly.
The first thing I would do is go to the basement of the coach, with external power removed, and do a soft reset of each inverter. The procedure is quick and easy and explained in your Magnum manual in your bag of books.
After a successful reboot of the inverters turn your DC power switch off for 2 minutes. Then restore your power first from the external source, then turn your DC power switch on
Verify the proper vega touch charging options are set by going to and holding the inverter button . These setting can be found on this forum.
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yes sir.... the techs that came out a few times for this issue tried that on the first couple times..... and on the last time they had the inverter manufacturer on the phone and adjusted the parameters and that seemed to temporarily help the problem but the issue quickly came back.
i would suspect as others pointed out that i either have a bad ground or a loose connection somewhere.... it's just puzzling that the vega reads low voltage but the inverters aren't charging at that time.... i sometimes have to equalize the batteries to have things operational.
__________________
Entegra Anthem 44B
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