Magnum Inverter/Charger Fault

[f433921]

My 04 Holiday Ramble has the original Magnum Series M inverter/charger and performed flawless until to today.  Was loading the coach today and found the red fault light flashing on the Remote Panel and the voltage was swinging from 12.2 to 15.3 and the current from 30 A to 97 A.  the charger was in the ABSORPTION .  The RED fault light as only on when voltage was at 15 V and above.  The charger in ABSORPTION mode is programmed for a maximum voltage of 14.9 V.

I turned the charger off from the Remote panel and restated , no change, voltage and current continue to swing and fault light flashing.

Performed SOFT REBOOT with same results.

Performed HARD REBOOT , the  inverter/charger will not start in either mode and BAD BATTERY CHARGER  message is now displayed on Remote Panel.

Owners Manual has nothing to offer in its trouble shooting instruction.

I'm speculation that the problem lies with in the control board.

I would appreciate any thoughts that you might have if you have experienced a similar problem. 

It might be time to just bite the bullet and  upgrade the inverter/charger instead of repairing, what's your thoughts.

 

Jim

 

 

 

[manholt]

Did you check the CB on the inverter?  That is where you do a reset.  Last time it happened to me  was on the AC Tradition. I had 2 Inverters and one of them went nuts, I flipped the CB on left side of unit off (Magnum 2812) & 20 minutes later turned back on, no more problems! 

Edited November 23, 2020 by manholt

[dickandlois]

2 hours ago, manholt said:

Did you check the CB on the inverter?  That is where you do a reset.  Last time it happened to me  was on the AC Tradition. I had 2 Inverters and one of them went nuts, I flipped the CB on left side of unit off (Magnum 2812) & 20 minutes later turned back on, no more problems! 

Carl, When you reset the unit, did you need to reset the system presets ?

Rich.

[manholt]

No!  Per Magnum, too do that, you need a tech too walk you thru it.  Not recommended..

[f433921]

3 hours ago, manholt said:

Did you check the CB on the inverter?  That is where you do a reset.  Last time it happened to me  was on the AC Tradition. I had 2 Inverters and one of them went nuts, I flipped the CB on left side of unit off (Magnum 2812) & 20 minutes later turned back on, no more problems! 

My inverter only has the push to reset circuit breakers, I did true the circuit breaker off at the AC power panel and removed the fuse to the batteries, this part of the HARD REBOOT.

[f433921]

Went out to finish loading this morning and looked at REMOTE panel and was surprised to find the following message:

BATTERY IS FULLY CHARGED 12.7 v. and no fault light all seem to be working fine.

I hate gremlins like this, it's a lot simpler when something just fails.

Now off to the Washington coast to celebrate Thanksgiving with just my bride of 50 years.

Thank yo for your response and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

 

Jim

 

 

[f433921]

3 hours ago, dickandlois said:

Carl, When you reset the unit, did you need to reset the system presets ?

Rich.

Rich,

I will check my presets later today and get back with you.  I changed some of the presets when I upgraded the batteries.

Jim

[dickandlois]

3 hours ago, f433921 said:

Rich,

I will check my presets later today and get back with you.  I changed some of the presets when I upgraded the batteries.

Jim

Now off to the Washington coast to celebrate Thanksgiving with just my bride of 50 years. 

I bet that 50 years has passed quicker then you expected !

Rich.😂

Edited November 23, 2020 by dickandlois

[f433921]

2 hours ago, manholt said:

No!  Per Magnum, too do that, you need a tech too walk you thru it.  Not recommended..

I when through changing some of the presets several years ago when I added their battery charge level display feature and it was pretty straight forward,

Jim

[jleamont]

2 hours ago, f433921 said:

Now off to the Washington coast to celebrate Thanksgiving with just my bride of 50 years

Glad it works. Might be a good time to consider an inverter upgrade at your convenience. 

Congratulation's on the 50 year milestone! 

[manholt]

Have a great Thanksgiving! Happy 50th! 

That's not the type of pre-set I was thinking about.

[rayin]

Last year my battery charge readout  behaved irregularly, Went tracking down the cause. When I checked battery cell liquid levels all were just below top of plates, filled cells with distilled water and my charger behaved normally. After the display read "float" I took hydrometer readings of each cell, one battery had a really low reading. New batteries cured all problems. Old batteries were 5 years old.

Edited November 24, 2020 by rayin

[f433921]

On 11/24/2020 at 5:06 AM, rayin said:

Last year my battery charge readout  behaved irregularly, Went tracking down the cause. When I checked battery cell liquid levels all were just below top of plates, filled cells with distilled water and my charger behaved normally. After the display read "float" I took hydrometer readings of each cell, one battery had a really low reading. New batteries cured all problems. Old batteries were 5 years old.

Thanks for your response.  My batteries are less than 6 months old and I checked the electrolyte level and specific gravity within the last month.  I will check them again if  acts up again.  

Just got back from 5 day road trip, all was well.

Jim

[five]

Have you talked to Magnum, they are very helpful?  My coach goes through spells where the Magnum will give my an "AC OVERLOAD" fault.  A few years ago this happened off and on for a couple of months.  After quite a few calls to Magnum, they said to send it to them and they'd check it out.  BTW, there are lots and lots of lines going into that thing, I took photos and double tagged every one, then I took it to UPS retail store to ship...they are heavy.  They called in a week saying they had been running it all week and it was fine, no problems.  They shipped it back (in an OEM made for Magnum box, which they told me to save) and I reinstalled it.  It still does the same thing once in a while.  I turn the charger off, do my next project, turn the charger back on and all is well.  So I still don't know what the problem is, but it does not seem to bother how it works.

Edited November 28, 2020 by five