Blinking light at the breaker panel (2-part question)

I got a blinking green light on the right hand side of my breaker panel in my 2007 Class C Winnebago on my last trip.......no apparent code, just a steady blink.  I called Winnebago Tues and waited  for 45 min for a tech person.  When quitting time came in Iowa, I got a dial tone instead. 

(a) Anybody know what the blinky light means?  Maybe any malfunction; e.g., voltage sag, surge, momentary power drop out?  (I just pressed the reset button and it went solid green)

(b) In your experience, is there a preferred time-of-day to reach tech help at Winnebago?

Thx,  Ed S


edit by staff - changed message icon to topic solved

Can you post a picture? 

I haven't called Winnie in years so I don't know what would be the best time, probably first thing in the morning but avoid Mondays.  There used to be seven guys (they are salaried and most (or all) have worked in production), they were down at least one guy couple of years ago, hopefully they are at full staffing.  Winnie has had a very difficult time filling open positions, could be one of the reasons they are shifting some production to Oregon.

Thanks.............. Plan to go to the storage lot tomorrow afternoon ...... possible giant thunderstorms in the area permitting.  Will get at least an iphone pic.

The first pic just shows the panel where the "green blinky" lives....the second pic is a closer view.  The 3rd pic is the legend printed underneath the panel.

When I went over today, I opened the panel and then turned on  the coach battery power.  The light started blinking rapidly, then it slowed down to a slow steady blink.  I started the Genny and the light turned solid.  I turned the genny off, turned the coach battery sw to off and then turned the coach battery on again w/o any generator power to the converter and I got the blinking lite.....but if I press the reset button alongside the light, it goes solid....as if it was telling me "something"..... like maybe "Hey, current is being drawn from your coach batteries and there is no a/c input to your converter to resupply the batteries, dude"..... but when I reset, I am telling it "OK, I know that"?

I am most sure I am over-worrying this item.  The concern arose when the compressor on my AC quit while I was away (fan was still running) and when I saw this light blinking it was a worry.....but I now believe I had a pedestal power problem which caused (a) the A/C dropout and (b) a glitch ....... which the converter's blinky light was telling me about.

Edging ever closer to an autoformer buy.  New to RVing, but methinks voltage "droops" in the middle of a hot afternoon are pretty durn commonplace.

BTW- one of the ckt bd traces goes from the green light to the red/wh plug below which says something about TCMS.  Guessing that is some kind of Controller Monitoring System......would all make sense.

Thanks for our interest.  ed s

I believe that LED is showing you what state that your Progressive Dynamics charger is in. The button near it can be used to somewhat control the charger.

From Progressive literature:
While the built-in Charge Wizard automatically determines which operating mode is best suited to recharge or
maintain optimum battery condition, the Remote Pendant allows for manual override and has an indicator light(s) to
indicate the mode of operation.
BOOST MODE ? Indicated by green LED remaining on. The output voltage is 14.4VDC to rapidly recharge the
battery up to 90% of full charge.
NORMAL MODE ? When the battery is between 50% and 90% charged, the green LED will flash once per
second. When the battery has reached 90% of full charge the green LED will flash 2 - 3 times per second. In this
mode the output voltage is 13.6VDC and the converter is safely completing the charge of the battery.
STORAGE MODE ? Indicated by green LED flashing every 6 - 8 seconds. In this mode the output voltage has
been lowered to 13.2VDC, the RV battery is fully charged and the converter is maintaining the charge.
MANUAL BUTTON - The manual button has been provided to allow the operator to temporarily override the
converter (not recommended) or to verify the converter is operating properly. For manual operation, Press and Hold
the button. The indicator light will soon remain ?ON? indicating Boost Mode. Continue to hold the button and the
light will blink rapidly indicating the converter is in the Normal Mode. Continue to hold the button until the light
blinks slowly indicating the converter is now in the Storage Mode. After the manual button is released the converter
will stay in the selected mode. When the battery charge status changes, the converter will return to the automatic
mode of operation to prevent damage to the battery.

Al

youracman said:

..Edging ever closer to an autoformer buy.  New to RVing, but methinks voltage "droops" in the middle of a hot afternoon are pretty durn commonplace...

Click to expand...

I've carried an autoformer for years and rarely have I ever needed it - maybe once every five years.  I've heard that a membership park (Thousand Trails maybe?) has aluminum wiring in some of their older properties, they will have quite a voltage sag when electricity is in high demand.

Having said that, when you do run into a low voltage situation, an autoformer works amazingly well.  If you don't use a surge guard device, you should reconsider, they will protect your rig from low or high voltage, miswired pedestals, etc.  It is a much more useful device than carrying around an autoformer (unless you frequent old RV parks.)

Al Todalen said:

I believe that LED is showing you what state that your Progressive Dynamics charger is in. The button near it can be used to somewhat control the charger.

From Progressive literature:
While the built-in Charge Wizard....

Click to expand...

There is no charge wizard on this power center.

Found a description for older power centers here: https://www.progressivedyn.com/service_discontinued/discontinued_prod_basic_operation.html

It says:
4. Battery Charger Circuit Board ? Senses the battery voltage and then provides a signal to the SCR (Silicon Controlled Rectifier) to turn it ?ON?, which in turn supplies charging current to the RV Battery. The charger board is equipped with an LED (Light Emitting Diode) that indicates the charging status as follows. (LED optional on some units)

Light ?ON? all of the time ? The battery is being charged.

Rapidly Flashing Light ? The battery is approximately 90% charged.

Very Slow Flashing Light ? When the light blinks approximately every 5-10 seconds, the battery is fully charged.

On edit:
Ennored, the info that you are looking at is for a different PDI product than Ed and I have installed. It does have the charge wizard. I installed the same PDI retrofit kit to the original Parallax unit as Ed has. On the retrofit that we have, there is no separate pendant for the charge wizard, it's built into the replacement fuse panel that's installed as part of the kit. The LED and button that Ed's seeing is in effect acting exactly as they would as if on a separate pendant. I'm not sure that this link is for the exact unit that Ed has but it's operation will be the same. See page five of the attached PDF.
http://www.progressivedyn.com/4600_operation_guide.pdf
It's been a great upgrade for me. I have left it plugged in 24/7 when possible and haven't had any overcharging issues and have only needed to add a little water to the cells once a year or so.
Happy trails,
Al

That is the charge wizard pendant. Your converter has been up grade, there is a green sticker that says so on the panel. Look in your paper work, you may have book that came with it. It is a pd4600 series, a very good unit.

Ahhh, didn't catch the sticker....

Thanks for the responses.  I had forgotten that the PO installed a new converter not long before I bought my rig from him.  It is a Progressive Dynamics PD4655 (55 Amp) unit.  So the blinky lights are just telling about the charge rate, basically.  A relief......for me anyway.

Safe travels,  Ed S