I Need Some Multiplex Luck

[Fish]

One of my intellitec multiplex switches went dark and unresponsive. It was the big 10 button one. After doing all I could do I shipped it to a guy in Atlanta, he got it today.
Now IF he can get the programming off of it he can transfer it to a switch like it he has there and ship it back to me.
If not he'll have to lay hands on my coach and get into the intellitec system. This involves me going through Atlanta on my way to Florida and also having to go over Monteagle Mountain. And also going through Chattanooga. I hate all 3 things with the intense burning hate of a thousand suns, especially the Atlanta part.

Please wish me luck!!

 

[Fish]

I will be on the edge of my seat until Paul from Atlanta gets back with me on multiplex programming news later today.
This is a large life event for me.

 

[Fish]

No word yet.

I'm dying over here.

 

[marc2912]

Keeping an eye on this too. Could you have gone through the mothership for this without someone needing to actually get in teh controller?

 

[Fish]

Keeping an eye on this too. Could you have gone through the mothership for this without someone needing to actually get in teh controller?

Monaco went bankrupt in 2010 I think and has passed through 2-3 other companies since. Now REV Group and they won't do anything for us who own the coaches from the days when Monaco was really good. I don't think you can get much more than a pdf of an owners manual from them.
There's a place in Ohio that does this too, MM RV Electronics, but they'd be doing the same thing as Paul is doing and I'd have to go there if it didn't work.
Paul owns a Monaco and started doing this as a hobby and to work on his own coach. He also invented some kind of toilet part/electrical board deal for the electric toilets that so many Monaco owners were having failures on.

Also these switches aren't made any more, a few people have some of the old ones laying around like MM and Paul. The new ones are bigger so you have to cut a bigger hole in the wall.

 

[marc2912]

Monaco went bankrupt in 2010 I think and has passed through 2-3 other companies since. Now REV Group and they won't do anything for us who own the coaches from the days when Monaco was really good. I don't think you can get much more than a pdf of an owners manual from them.
There's a place in Ohio that does this too, MM RV Electronics, but they'd be doing the same thing as Paul is doing and I'd have to go there if it didn't work.
Paul owns a Monaco and started doing this as a hobby and to work on his own coach. He also invented some kind of toilet part/electrical board deal for the electric toilets that so many Monaco owners were having failures on.

Also these switches aren't made any more, a few people have some of the old ones laying around like MM and Paul. The new ones are bigger so you have to cut a bigger hole in the wall.

Aww man that is a really shitty situation, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Did you get an update?

 

[Fish]

Aww man that is a really shitty situation, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Did you get an update?

Not yet, I'm sure he'll get to it this weekend.

 

[Fish]

He just called me.

Bad news, he couldn't get anything off of the switch.

Good news, after asking me a few questions and deciding I was capable he told me how to find where each switch goes to, so I can jumper the modules, find what each fuse powers, and draw him a map and he can program the new switch from that. An led lights up when you power a switch on, I'll map all those. Then I'll have to jumper the ones that don't light up and see what they power up.
So I'm basically doing what he was going to have to do with me at his place. Then when he knows what each switch on the switch pad powers, he can program it and send it back to me.

It may take me a few days but that's ok, I'm retired.

Best thing is, now I can go to Florida through Alabama.

 

[marc2912]

He just called me.

Bad news, he couldn't get anything off of the switch.

Good news, after asking me a few questions and deciding I was capable he told me how to find where each switch goes to, so I can jumper the modules, find what each fuse powers, and draw him a map and he can program the new switch from that. An led lights up when you power a switch on, I'll map all those. Then I'll have to jumper the ones that don't light up and see what they power up.
So I'm basically doing what he was going to have to do with me at his place. Then when he knows what each switch on the switch pad powers, he can program it and send it back to me.

It may take me a few days but that's ok, I'm retired.

Best thing is, now I can go to Florida through Alabama.

Glad to hear that it'll save you a detour and you can do most of the pathfinding yourself. Def keep us posted through the process.

 

[Fish]

I didn't think walking and sitting could make a guy so tired and sore. Luckily the closet lights aren't on the multiplex system.
So I turn on a switch, walk to the back closet, step up on the motor hatch, then duck to enter closet (one of every ten times raise up too fast and hit my head on closet door header), find led on one of 3 multiplex modules. Then since they aren't lined up with their channel designation I have to count the unlit leds to make sure I have the right one.

Then turn liv rm lights back on, walk to dinette, sit down and write down which module and channel the led was lit on, what it controls, and which switch pad it's on. Then turn off liv rm lights, activate another switch and repeat.
Complicated by the fact I was 6 switches in before I realized the leds didn't line up with their fuses so I had to start over again.
3 modules, 10 fuses/leds each.

So I did all that. Today I'm going to go through each one of them again and check my work for accuracy.
I have 8 fuses that the leds didn't light by operating any switch. These obviously control the functions on my bad 10 button switch.
On these I have to remove the fuse, stick a screwdriver in the fuse slot, then run a cable with gator clips on each end from my hot to the screwdriver and go see what lights up. Then document all that.

 

[Fish]

Forgot to mention there's a set of dip switches on each module I have to document the position of.
One thing bothering me is I have 8 fuses/leds to check that came off the bad switch, but that switch has dupes on it that also work on other switches.
I see 4 dupes. That leaves 6. I have 8 on the panel. So I'm wondering what the other 2 power.

I guess I'll find out.

 

[marc2912]

Better type this all up, print it out and tape it or the inside of the closet door when done too. Sounds like you’ve been busy but making progress though

 

[Fish]

Better type this all up, print it out and tape it or the inside of the closet door when done too. Sounds like you’ve been busy but making progress though

Most definitely, and put a copy in the safe also. Just in case another switch goes bad.

 

[Fish]

All I have left to do is read the dip switches (magnifying glass) and document them, then put all this in legible form to email it to my tech guy so he can load the info on the new switch. I've learned so much from this I'm glad I did it this way.
There's a switch in the toilet room and one in the shower room, both have a button BACK LT on the pad, we always wondered why they controlled nothing. I found that there isn't a wire coming out of that terminal on the multiplex box, just an option we don't have I guess.

He called me last night and I told him I had identified where each button on the bad switch went to on the multiplex modules and he said You figured that out, that's great, saves me time. He was just expecting a bunch of stuff to have to decipher himself.

I'm seriously glad I didn't have to go to Atlanta and let the guy do all this with all that's involved in it.

 

[Fish]

Switch is programmed and on the way back to me.

 

[TheLooks]

So your going to miss Monteagle, the Ridge Cut and the Split, and Atlanta.....what a boring trip....lol.

 

[Fish]

So your going to miss Monteagle, the Ridge Cut and the Split, and Atlanta.....what a boring trip....lol.

Paul, the guy who programmed my switch, said he got back from a trip the other day and had to drive from the airport through Atlanta to his house north of Atlanta. He said Believe it or not, it seems it's worse than usual. Road construction everywhere, temp roads built off over the dirt to get around it. I'd have been going the other way but he said it was both sides if I heard him right.

Anyway, I'm good. Seen all that stuff pulling a travel trailer through there twice and a fifth wheel twice. I know my pac brake works, no need to test it on Monteagle.

Now on to other projects. Current one is trying to figure out why the ice dispenser auger on my dometic 1402 doesn't work. Actually all door functions are dead, water, ice, light. All last winter we had to dump the ice bin by hand instead of getting it through the door, the horror lol. I thought I tested all the fuses last winter. Now I have the circuit board in the door out. It's clear I'm over my head so I'm going to put it back together today and go back to checking fuses again. Circuit boards are unavailable anyway.

Popped my big curb side bottom slide seal out yesterday, it tends to want to stay in. Ordered grip tape this morning that will hopefully fix that.

 

[TheLooks]

The control board in the door is just a switch. The board that actually controls things is on the back of the unit. open the lower hatch and take a look. We did not work on the ice makers at school, but they plugged into the board in the back.

 

[TheLooks]

Also let me know if I can dig further. I have the schematics for the refrigerators and I have the resources of the school and its students in private groups to answer questions.

 

[marc2912]

Did you get your switch back?