Hi Lou,
Thanks for the very involved reply, please see my comments in red
aka Porky said:
It sounds to me like all circuits have an open return. If all circuits have 12v on the fuses, and presumably 12v at the load,
...Just removed a bulb and tested, no voltage...and still don't work, then they have NO return path to the source. They appear to all return to the neg bus bar, but it is not grounded.
That makes sense to me
Unhook from the main power and inspect the incoming ac connections. The ground lead of the incoming power should be at ground (vehicle frame) potential. Measure with your ohm meter. This lead should be attached securely to the metal case of the panel/converter in some fashion. This is your primary ground connection.
Sorry, you lost me there ??? as I can't understand the relation to the incoming ac; But it may not matter
Let me first of all state something wonderful...
...My converter is currently working ;D ;D ;D
BUT that's not enough of course, because I may have effected a fudge and be storing up trouble for later.
Let me explain... (what follows will sound like fact but is actually my take on what is happening etc. so PLEASE disagree with anything at will
)
The converter provides one circuit of 13.7v This is available through the 12v fuse board in the converter for any load connected to it. Along with the lights, ceiling fan etc. is another load...the house battery. This battery charges itself purely by the fact that 13.7v is greater than the 12.x volts that it has.
The battery positve connection on the fuseboard provides the +ve load connection for the house battery (see number 3 connection in picture on page 7 of
Parallax 7355 manual )
The battery negative connection on the fuseboard is connected by a wire on the back to the converter white wire (negative) and by a wire on the front to the earth busbar.
The earth busbar also has connections to the earth wires for the various 12v circuits (lights etc.) and also has a connection to the negative terminal on the house battery.
NOW...
In my case all the strange goings on eventually pointed to bad wiring in or around the converter.
The wire connecting the battery negative on the fuseboard (connection number 4 on page 7 of
Parallax 7355 manual to the earth busbar did not seem right. I couldn't trace it as it goes under the floor and back out again. When I disconnected both ends from their respective connections and put the meter across it, I did not get continuity. If I set the meter to ohms where it should have read 0 it read -0.521 Now I don't understand this reading but I know enough to know that the it meant that it was sort of the same wire but not fully - if you understand what I mean.
As an aside here is something I did not tell you for fear of complicating the diags...I have another RV which is also an R-Vision Traillite and it has a 7345 converter. It is essentially the same and what I can see in there is that the wire in question does indeed run straight from the negative connection on the fuseboard to the earth busbar.
So, taking that as my lead I disconnected the existing wire at both ends and connected the fuseboard negative to the earth busbar with a temporary wire. The lights came on ;D
I checked the voltage from the busbar to the negative on the fuseboard (was 13.7v) it was now 0v. I checked the negative on the fuseboard and the coverter housing (was 13.7v) it was 0v.
So unless this wire that is now disconnected did something else (how would I know) then it *may* be fixed...
Please comment with your thoughts/questions or any checks I can do to double check before I put this to bed 8)