Inverter comm loss when master off

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Mile High

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 17, 2016
Posts
985
Location
Denver
I put our MH away in storage, and noticed when all the master switches are off I have a lit screen on the inverter control with a red light and (communication loss) on the display.  I never noticed this before.  Is that normal?  Seems like that may have been what got my batteries last winter.

I have the Magnum 2800 MS2812
 
By "inverter control", do you mean a remote display panel of some sort? Or the Magnum itself (in/near battery compartment).

Comm Loss typically means just that - one unit is no longer in touch with another. Not surprising if you have all battery power disconnected with the "master switches".
 
I meant the remote display.  The alarm makes sense, but the fact it stays powered with masters off doesn't.
I just learned the big brother Tour had an inverter shut off in the basement cabinet.  Guess i better see if i can find it if i have one.
 
I don't remember for sure but I'm thinking the remote panel is powered from the interface cable. I replaced my Xantrex with the Magnum PSW two years ago and I already forgot the details  :mad:
 
I have the manuals, guess I better do some studying.  The Chassis and Coach battery switches are both off and the only thing that works is the step, and that interface.  I'll go up this week and see if shutting off the inverter with the power button on the unit itself will shut that off.
 
Mile High said:
I put our MH away in storage, and noticed when all the master switches are off I have a lit screen on the inverter control with a red light and (communication loss) on the display.  I never noticed this before.  Is that normal?  Seems like that may have been what got my batteries last winter.

I have the Magnum 2800 MS2812
The remote having power shouldn't have killed your batteries. The remote itself should not draw much power. Evidently the remote is wired directly to 12V somewhere, but the master switches disconnect the inverter from the batteries. 

If you charged your house batteries every 4-6 weeks that is good.  If you left them for 4-6 months w/o charging them than is not good. 

If your chassis battery went dead if the engine wasn't started every 2-3 weeks or so to charge the battery, that may be normal. The engine computer may draw some power.
 
AStravelers said:
The remote having power shouldn't have killed your batteries. The remote itself should not draw much power. Evidently the remote is wired directly to 12V somewhere, but the master switches disconnect the inverter from the batteries. 

If you charged your house batteries every 4-6 weeks that is good.  If you left them for 4-6 months w/o charging them than is not good. 

If your chassis battery went dead if the engine wasn't started every 2-3 weeks or so to charge the battery, that may be normal. The engine computer may draw some power.

That's exactly what I did last year AStravelers, a costly mistake - By November I didn't want to start anything in the cold so I let it go until Memorial Day.  I'll know better this winter.  My daughter pointed out that they could have already been damaged sitting on the Dealer lot too.  If I had known better I might have asked for them to be replaced.

As far as the comm loss - I guess I just hadn't seen it before with the masters off.  The manual never mentions it, except to say it means I have to reset the panel and the inverter to clear it up.  I'll have to play with it some more this weekend. 

The chassis batteries did fine last year - they are lead acid, the coach is AGM.
 
Mile High said:
That's exactly what I did last year AStravelers, a costly mistake - By November I didn't want to start anything in the cold so I let it go until Memorial Day.  I'll know better this winter.  ...
You could pull the chassis batteries and store them somewhere heated. If they are discharged they can freeze, not a good thing.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
AGM is lead-acid too, exactly the same chemistry. I suspect you meant AGM for the house vs flooded cell for the chassis battery.
Yes I suppose technically.  "flooded" is a new term for me, I guess to distinguish it from all the other new varieties out there. 
 
John Canfield said:
You could pull the chassis batteries and store them somewhere heated. If they are discharged they can freeze, not a good thing.

That is a lot of work - I tell you.  It took a lot just to replace them.  Not only are they in a not so convenient space between the frame rails under the slide out tray, they weigh almost 150 lbs a piece and there are 6 of them, and a dozen battery cables to sort out.  I like to occasionally use the coach in the winter and the harder it is to do that, the less I will use it.  I would rather just disconnect them if I have to, but even that is not real simple because the cabinet doors don't open wide enough in the garage to allow the slide tray to come out to get to the batteries.  I would have to start it on chassis batteries and pull it out to hook up the coach batteries.
 
Chassis and Coach cutoff switches don't kill the big inverters as they require far too much power to be looping them around the coach through switches, they are cabled directly to the battery. The house cutoff contactor kills only the coach. You didn't mention what remote and/or additional widgets you have on the Magnum, but the ME-RC and ARC panels are powered via the remote cable from the inverter. Unless you have the remote off module installed on the Magnum buss, the inverter will stay on regardless of having the coach powered or not. I have an optional buss widget that shuts off the inverter when I kill the coach batteries, but the inverter only goes into standby and cannot be powered On. Any of these big inverters can kill the batteries over time. I have a manual master house battery shutdown for emergency shutdown, but this isn't the norm.
 
Kevin Means said:
Brad, do you have the option of leaving the coach plugged in while it's in storage?

Kev
Kev, I don't think I do.  The owner didn't provide outlets in the garages so I assume that was to prevent us from plugging in, but I have thought about the garage door outlet at the ceiling.  The only problem is if I pop the breaker I may shut down the whole row of garage doors and I'll be ejected for sure :) 

Do you get this on your Tour if you kill the two battery switches?



 

Attachments

  • inverter.JPG
    inverter.JPG
    225.8 KB · Views: 10
SCVJeff said:
Chassis and Coach cutoff switches don't kill the big inverters as they require far too much power to be looping them around the coach through switches, they are cabled directly to the battery. The house cutoff contactor kills only the coach. You didn't mention what remote and/or additional widgets you have on the Magnum, but the ME-RC and ARC panels are powered via the remote cable from the inverter. Unless you have the remote off module installed on the Magnum buss, the inverter will stay on regardless of having the coach powered or not. I have an optional buss widget that shuts off the inverter when I kill the coach batteries, but the inverter only goes into standby and cannot be powered On. Any of these big inverters can kill the batteries over time. I have a manual master house battery shutdown for emergency shutdown, but this isn't the norm.
Jeff, I'm looking at the Winnebago drawings and it looks like you are right, the inverter connects direct to the coach batteries, and then the batteries themselves are cabled back to the rear where the cut off solenoids are located.  The battery switches would isolate the batteries from the coach, but not the inverter. 

I don't see a number on my remote but it is pictured above.  The remote lets me shut off the inverter as the green light on the inverter goes off, but as soon as I kick off the master switch to the coach, I get the fault.  Would that be normal?  I have to confess I didn't notice it before.
 
Arch Hoagland said:
Problem solved......

https://www.amazon.com/WirthCo-20108-Battery-Doctor-Batteries/dp/B002OWFLC4
Except I don't really have posts.  I could rig up a disconnect I suppose - just a real bear to get to.  I bet I could put it on the inverter itself, which would be easy to get to, as long as it didn't cause harm to the inverter.

 

Attachments

  • batts.JPG
    batts.JPG
    226.1 KB · Views: 7
Back
Top Bottom