dlarue

Or get one if these to watch the meter on your phone while you pull the fuses: http://amzn.com/B01ABERQYC I have an old video baby monitor I mount the camera to the tailgate and the handheld goes in the cab. I use it to eliminate having the wife waving her arms and hands _helping_ me hookup. I've used it for many other things similar to the two person job scenario mentioned above. This new version is cheaper and uses your smart phone for the video screen.

With shore power removed and no generator or inverter running, do the lights in the coach turn off when you set the switch to OFF? If not then it sounds like trying the switch in the ON position might turn them OFF. If they don't turn off in any position the switch or wiring is faulty. If that's OK then I would look for any other wires connected to the battery terminals and remove them one by one to find out what's drinking your battery power.

I also have a Freedom 458 inverter/charger and my panel is the Basic Remote http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/default/freedom-458-basic-remote.aspx The display will constantly show status with shore power connected but when running on battery power it will turn off after a minute or so and only turn back on when a button is pushed. The battery/Charge LED process you mentioned is correct as those 3 LED colors indicate the 3 modes of the charging process. red=bulk, yellow=absorption, green=float. As for the display turning on and then off goes, I'm guessing it's still under shore power so my guess is that the phone line type connectors(RJ?) used have some corrosion on one end or the other. You'll probably need a flashlight and magnifying glass to inspect the tiny contacts in the cable connectors and then in the sockets on the Inverter/Charger and the back of the panel. Hopefully it's just a connector cleaning or cable replacement which is needed because otherwise I would guess that there is a problem on a circuit board either in the panel or in the inverter. Either a solder joint on the connector-to-PCB interface or worst, a cracked circuit board. PS, I used to be an electronics technician.

It all depends on your needs. If you have no equipment needing AC power all the time, even when/if the grid goes out, then leave the inverter section turned off and let the battery charger do it's work. Most inverters are also "converters" and supply the extra current needed to run your DC power system(lights, pumps, etc) so leaving the charger section on also leaves the converter section operating. But if you have some electrical devices which you don't want to turn off when/if shore power goes out then turn the inverter section on so it's ready to pick up when shore power is out or disconnected. You will have to either make sure your generator is wired to kick in when the batteries get too low if the grid is out for too long. Or be aware of how long your batteries can go with the grid off and the particular AC load connected so you don't run the batteries down. The large inverter/chargers(Freedom 458-what I have) are designed to work in tandem with the shore power and some even have ways to use limited shore power to augment(share) the AC load. But it's really up to your needs as to if you want the inverter ON or OFF when stowed. The electronics won't wear out because it's left on.

micro-inverters are tiny inverters which connect to each solar panel and do all the work of standard grid-tie inverters but at a fraction of the price. The 458 will not do grid-tie inverting. The idea is that the camper is stowed more than it's on trips, it's always on a 30A hookup when stowed. Since it has solar panels on the roof it makes sense to use those solar PV panels to augment existing solar PV systems while sitting in storage. At around 250W per panel, the payback on the $90/ea inverter is only about 3 years so evaluations started. I'm doing some testing and without the schematic I was concerned with how the 458 was internally connected to the input AC(shore power) because there is an AC outlet near where I'm connecting the inverter to the solar panel DC feed and that outlet is on one of the two AC circuits of the 458. Solar PV is now in the $1/W price range so it's super inexpensive to do solar charging. At least on the equipment side.

Thanks @rossboyer. So it sounds like, with a relay, the 458 outputs are effectively hard wired to shore/mains power so what I have to be concerned with is when shore power isn't there. I'll have to think on that a bit, scenarios like: 1-a blackout and what happens when the relay opens. ie how quickly does the solar inverter sense this and stop its output. 2-a blackout and someone has the invert button on the console turned on... this can't be a good result. 3-I pull the plug on the hookup, forgetting to switch the solar DC from the solar inverter to the charge controller. Maybe a secondary relay with an AC energized coil in the power distribution area for the line with the solar inverter on it is the protect mechanism. At least I know I can start testing using the existing AC outlet. Thanks.

With a bunch of batteries on the unit, solar panels and charge controller I was thinking of using all that solar energy to offset our current Grid Tied solar system by putting a few micro inverters on those solar panels when in the driveway. But with an outlet from the Freedom 458 near my charge controller and where I would put the grid tie inverter I was wondering if anyone has a schematic or knows if the Freedom 458 output is relay coupled to the grid when connected to shore power? I'm looking at a max of 5A(120VAC) so easily within the 15A range of one of the 458's output breaker. I would run a separate circuit bi-passing the 458 but would also require a breaker so hoping to leverage the existing wiring if possible. Thanks.