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[GUS2000]

Neemer - Is your watchdog equipped with emergency power shut off or just surge protection??

 

[Neemer]

@GUS2000 , it has emergency shut off.

I removed the watchdog from the coach earlier and opened it up expecting to see signs of high heat or burning. I could not identify any. Yet, there sure was smoke coming from it when I tried to reset the pedestal breaker.

When my son the electrician gets home, I’m going to have him wire the cable back together sans the watchdog.

BTW @Neal , I have a progressive surge unit plugged into the pedestal, and the watchdog was supposed to be second in line to fail. Didn’t work out that way.

I’m putting together a list of things that work/don’t work. It makes no sense. For example, with house batteries disconnected, the entry lights come on and go off as they should. If house batteries are connected, the entry lights go on and stay on.

My scalp is getting raw from all of the head scratching.

The good news is it will start.

Still waiting on a callback from NIRVC.

 

[Neemer]

Into the shop near the end of July. When I called to make the appointment there was another DS there for the same thing.

 

[GUS2000]

thats interesting.. makes me wonder if there is possibly something inverter related going on.. I had read on a FB post someone had an "internal" surge that was out of warranty that had caused close to 15k worth of damage.. sounds like something that Magnum should be covering?

 

[Joe Hogan]

The Watchdog has an easily replaceable Surge Fuse, a sacrificial part. Call Hughes if you have any questions, I am sure they will be happy to help.

Power Watchdog - The World's First Smart RV Surge Protector - Hughes Autoformers

hughesautoformers.com

 

[Neal]

How many have had a failure of this same watchdog device? I am wondering...if this was not an external electrical issue but simply a failure of this device that caused issues within your coach as a result? I don't know if that can be proven and if so if Hughes would cover damages as a result? I know back in the day of computer surge protection APC for example offered coverage if their product failed to protect you. My hunch is the watchdog is the failure item and cause for damage.

 

[Neal]

I don't know if anything changed in newer model year Newmar's but one thing I did on my '17 Ventana was put a cutoff switch to kill the connection between the batteries and inverter in the event of fire, etc. I don't know if there is a way to complete cutoff 12V (house battery) supply in your coach @Neemer to force a complete reset. In my SES overhaul of my batteries to LiFePO4 last November they also install a cutoff switch. I would be inclined someway to disconnect your battery bank (positive going to Inverter) and/or any other connections to get a complete 12V reset of the coach.

 

[Neemer]

I had a pretty good conversation with Hughes Autoformer yesterday. I won’t replay it here, but the thing that has people stumped is how and why 12v was affected.

Obviously, there was a short somewhere in the watchdog. My son is troubleshooting it now attempting to locate the area that shorted.

 

[Neal]

Keep in mind while we think of an inverter as just an inverter, it's actually an INVERTER/CHARGER in our coaches. So the 50A does make its way via the inverter/charger to the house batteries to charge them as does the GEN and Alternator. I don't know the intricacies and current flow and protections inline, for example, could a faulty inverter/charger be a suspect in the cause? Or some other component? Could the Watchdog send a short down the line through the inverter into the 12V system? I don't know. Maybe @Chuggs if he gets this alert could chime in on possibilities.

 

[Chuggs]

Unless his house has more than one catastrophic fuse…or the house disconnect has fried…I’m unaware of a way a portion of the house is dc powered and another part is not. It’s easy to trace with a voltmeter… if you know the wiring route. I can only speak of my Ventana…but the DC power flows…

Battery >> catastrophic fuse in battery compartment >> (behind cord reel) meets one side of the house disconnect latching relay (cascade of wires piggybacking on same terminal going to a couple of self-resetting dc breakers and a fuse panel for “continuous battery power” branch circuits. The other side of the house disconnect latching relay is only hot when the use/store switch has latched the relay in the connected position. If that side is hot…it has a cascade of wires on that terminal which go to a handful of self resetting breakers and also another separate fuse block which is designated as disconnect battery powered…as these are what loose power when the salesman switch is in the store latched position. I keep saying latched because this relay, unlike others…doesn’t need power to a coil to hold it in a particular position. It only needs a momentary flash of power to energize a coil to polarize it…the polarization causes it to move open or closed..,but once the power has stopped..lathe relay stays mechanically latched in that position. Your disconnect battery powered fuse block has two rather large fuses…and these provide power to the distribution fuse block in the half bath cabinet…and those include a lot of things. Reading the legend decal in there is a good read. The back of the plastic cover behind the cord reel should also have a legend of fuses and breakers…although sometimes they get in a hurry and don’t install them when building the coach.

Silverleaf??? Sorry, I have the black Carlisle switches thru out my coach good for 250,000 cycles… yeah, not a fancy as Taptic switches…but I’m good with that. Less likelihood of failure, quite honestly.

Anything in your dc system should be sharing a chassis ground…so holding the ground lead to a chassis member, while probing with the multimeter positive lead in DC Volts…should let you quickly follow the pathway and find the issue.

Your inventory of things working vs things failed is a fantastic way to troubleshoot where the issue is..lubricant will require you to reference those fuse legends to properly identify where the link is inoperative.