Trace Engineering Inverter (Xantrex) Not Inverting

[Wheelsnkeels]

Just replaced all the house and coach batteries with Full River AGM's

The chassis batteries were bad for a while and the coach batteries were overdue.

Our Trace Engineering RV2012GS inverter has been giving me fits. Xantrex is of little help and seems to have outsourced support to a fellow with a script in India. Oh Joy.

Everything is fine on Shore power and Generator and the Esco ES65N transfer switch is working fine.

However when off shore and generator the inverter will run only a minute or 2 sometimes up to 10 minutes. Then it will stop inverting and flash every 4 seconds as if in search mode. However search mode is set to default (off).

Stranger yet, if the coach engine is started the inverter switches to inverting and will remain on as long as the coach engine is running.

I am suspecting the internal transfer switch relay is stuck in the pass thru mod and the alternator is somehow back feeding energizing the inverter?

I disconnected the shore and DC power and AC outputs then waited an hour for the "Master reset". No change.

I bypassed the coach wiring with #4 gauge jumper cables direct to the inverter terminals. No joy-- with direct DC from the batteries applied to the inputs no AC out was measured.

Battery charger works fine in all 3 stages and confirmed same with DVM measurement at battery terminals.

Short of pulling it and sending it out for repair I am out of ideas.

Anyone have any?

[wolfe10]

Wheelsnkeels,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

OK, first question-- what kind of sailboat lead to the "keels" part of your forum name? Many ex-sailors here.

The only effect I can see of running the engine would be higher voltage to the batteries. Have you measured voltage at the large 12 VDC lugs on the inverter with shore and generator off, engine off? And then with engine on. Wonder if a bad connection, bad cable between battery and inverter is limiting voltage at the inverter to where it detects voltage lower than it will invert.

The good news is there are a lot of things going right: You know 120 VAC is getting to the inverter and both passing through and charging the batteries. That is why I mention checking battery voltage at the inverter when not on shore or generator-- if it senses low voltage, it will NOT invert.

[Wheelsnkeels]

wolfe10

Avid boater but not Sailor currently running a 1972 Chris Craft Catalina 31 she isn't as old as the bride but she is just as temper mental :-)

I agree much is working as advertised except dry camping.

Yes the battery voltage at the lugs is 12.5V with all AC sources and engine off

13.8V engine running

Batteries are 4 6Volt in series / parallel 500 Ah total.

Also checked the battery isolator connections and battery maintainer too. Just strange it only inverts when the engines running.

As I'm not the original owner (2nd) wondered if some of the connections were incorrect that's why I took it out of circuit and wired it direct to the batteries. It should have produced AC but it didn't?

I'm pretty confident the issue is inside the inverter. I'm just stymied because it does work when the engines running?

[wolfe10]

Is this a recent development/related to changing the batteries?

And, proper wiring is for there to be a high-amp, slow burn fuse between the battery bank and inverter.

You probably need to find a repair facility familiar with your inverter. It could be as simple as the circuit that senses battery voltage is reading incorrectly and therefore telling the inverter battery voltage is too low to invert.

[Wheelsnkeels]

Actually the batteries needed replacement when I purchased the coach so we relied on the generator most of the time.

When we needed to use the Boost feature to start the coach from the house batteries it became more of a priority.

I knew the inverter was "short cycling' but thought it was just the batteries.

A Google search turned up a Magnum repair shop about 30 miles away :-) I'll contact them tomorrow.

Xantex gave me a dealer in Virginia UGH

Thanks for your replies!

I'll report back what the findings are it may help some other poor soul

[rossboyer]

Since you are in Indiana, why not take it to the Xanterx repair in Elkhart, IN. Call first and get a repair order number. They will tell you to ship it back to the state of Washington, but with the number you can walk in with the inverter to the Elkhart repair facility, and they will accept it. Without the number, they will not accept. When I took mine in, I was told it would take a couple of days. Got a call the next morning, repaired, and I went back and picked up. A fan and module were bad. I think the charge was less than $100.00. The address is 541 Roske Drive, Suite A, Elkhart. IN 46516, just west of CR 17.. The company main phone number 800-446-6180 and the Elkhart number is 574-294-5858. Otis was the tech that worked on mine.

[Lenp]

Wheelsnkeels,

When you say there is 12.5 volts at the "lugs" do you mean the battery terminal lugs for the inverter lugs? Was the measurement taken immediately after removing shore (or) generator power?

If the 12.5 was at the battery, there could well be a voltage loss between the batteries and the inverter. Check at the inverter to be absolutely sure the volts are getting to the inverter.

To get an accurate voltage level you MUST let the batteries dissipate any surface charge before making your measurement. Do do this, remove all shore and generator power and then turn on a 12 volt light for 10-15 minutes. Then turn the light off and make your measurement.

A reading of 12.5 volts (measured after surface charge is removed) indicates a battery at about 80% charge level.

Are you sure there are no heavy loads connected to the inverter? Water heater, frig on AC or even the inverter trying to power the converter (charge batteries)?

Lenp

[Wheelsnkeels]

Since you are in Indiana, why not take it to the Xanterx repair in Elkhart, IN. Call first and get a repair order number. They will tell you to ship it back to the state of Washington, but with the number you can walk in with the inverter to the Elkhart repair facility, and they will accept it. Without the number, they will not accept. When I took mine in, I was told it would take a couple of days. Got a call the next morning, repaired, and I went back and picked up. A fan and module were bad. I think the charge was less than $100.00. The address is 541 Roske Drive, Suite A, Elkhart. IN 46516, just west of CR 17.. The company main phone number 800-446-6180 and the Elkhart number is 574-294-5858. Otis was the tech that worked on mine.

Called them today after pulling and bench testing inverter its definitely the problem. They quoted $1,000.00 to repair it as its 16 years old going to just replace it

[wolfe10]

Sounds like the right decision.

And, the cost of pure sine wave inverters has come down quite a lot.

[rossboyer]

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