House batteries trip switch. Did it fix my JRV212T?

Dragon70 · 12-02-2016, 10:11 PM

Long story short.... since running my house batteries down to zero my JRV212t camera system/amfm/CD player etc has not worked. I recharged the batteries and went through every recommended reset, disconnecting power etc etc and while I could get it to come back on for a couple minutes and work correctly the screen would slowly fade out or go black and I was back to square one. This morning I went out to prep for a trip I'm taking and opened the battery compartment to make sure all was secure. I happened to notice this switch in the compartment that my battery leads run through and thought about one of the posts I read on here (although now can't find) that talked about some sort of saftey switch that when the battery gets below a certain voltage it trips to protect something. I pressed the button on the switch and heard it click. I then started to wonder and went in the coach and my JRV212 was on. I started the engine and checked the camera with the turn signals and back-up. Everything worked perfectly. I took it for a test drive and everything worked perfectly. I have no idea what this switch does but EVERYTHING in the coach worked fine with it tripped except the JRV212.
At this point I really don't think it had anything to do with the radio but only this switch which I'm at loss to explain as to why. Hope this will help someone else who is experiencing the same issues.

mustang94 · 12-03-2016, 12:47 AM

Take a picture or 2 to show where and what this switch looks like.

saddlesore · 12-03-2016, 02:36 AM

interesting....

KandT · 12-03-2016, 10:16 AM

I had a short and ran my house battery down to zero. The RV wouldn't charge it back up so I pulled it out and went to buy a new batt at my local grungy battery store. Guy couldn't have been nicer and checked the batt and said it should be good. He threw it on his charger and told me to come back in 1-2 hours.

Told me to try again. RV charging system worked perfectly and the batt worked great. Oh and he charged me nothing which earned him a customer for life.

Point being I have an 06 and I even might be too old for the safety switch but it is a safety feature to shut the charger off if it can't read a certain number of volts.

My guess? You are good to go. The screen fading to black make me wonder though if the batt is holding a charge. Sounds like the batt was running out of juice until it was getting RV power. Might want to have that checked.

Running those batts down to zero is awfully hard on them. Is it a few years old?

HMD0205X · 12-03-2016, 12:34 PM

Can you provide a photo of this switch?

scrubjaysnest · 12-03-2016, 12:54 PM

On our Axis, the radio in the dash is some how powered from two different sources. One maybe a memory refresh from the cranking battery? and it's main power is from the house batteries. I would guess the breaker you reset has something to do, indirectly, with the proper function of the dash radio.
Ours acted strange until I got the cranking battery recharged.

JamieGeek · 12-03-2016, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrubjaysnest

On our Axis, the radio in the dash is some how powered from two different sources. One maybe a memory refresh from the cranking battery? and it's main power is from the house batteries. I would guess the breaker you reset has something to do, indirectly, with the proper function of the dash radio.
Ours acted strange until I got the cranking battery recharged.

On ours the "keep alive" line was connected to the chassis and the main power line was connected to the house.

Oneilkeys · 12-03-2016, 01:21 PM

If the switch was the 50 amp breaker on the left side of the battery box (the one with the flag that shows when it is tripped) then you should have had no power to the coach from the battery box if it was trippped. That would mean no radio or backup camera. That switch does the same thing as the Use/Store switch. If you have the Use/Store in the Store mode, your radio and backup camera will not work either - if it is wired correctly - - big IF.

The radio is powered from both the chassis and coach batteries as indicated above. The chassis battery just powers the clock and memory. I cut the chassis battery wire in my Vegas several years ago and installed an on/off switch so I could turn the radio completely off when storing the coach or boondocking to reduce chassis battery drain.

Dragon70 · 12-03-2016, 02:44 PM

I'll try to get a picture but it was actually a button. It was located in the battery compartment and I believe two hot wires from the battery ran thru it. I'm one of those guys that likes to understand why something started working again and this one I don't. IF nothing in the coach would have worked or my lights would have been dim I would have something to go on. What really gets me is the fact that I could pull the fuse and reinstall it and everything would work for a few minutes but then quit.

mcr1010 · 12-03-2016, 03:30 PM

Take a look at some pics Bruce posted #5 here http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f10...tton-2368.html
and see if that is what tripped.

Dragon70 · 12-05-2016, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcr1010

Take a look at some pics Bruce posted #5 here http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f10...tton-2368.html
and see if that is what tripped.

That's the button! I will however again say that everything in the coach worked fine... literally everything, so if somehow this switch is "supposed" to act the same as the use/store switch it does not! I would have to agree with Bruce in that the only function I can see for this switch is it disconnects the in dash radio. That said it DID NOT completely disconnect mine. It was more like it reduced the power to the radio and that caused it not to work.

Mitch S · 12-05-2016, 06:40 PM

I believe this is a 100 amp circuit breaker. There was one on our shop truck for the electric crane. Simple reset if you know what it is.

Oneilkeys · 12-05-2016, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halibut214

That's the button! I will however again say that everything in the coach worked fine... literally everything, so if somehow this switch is "supposed" to act the same as the use/store switch it does not! I would have to agree with Bruce in that the only function I can see for this switch is it disconnects the in dash radio. That said it DID NOT completely disconnect mine. It was more like it reduced the power to the radio and that caused it not to work.

It looks to me that either the the breaker is bad or there is a miswire someplace that is bypassing the breaker and allowing current to flow from the battery to the coach when that breaker is disconnected. The first thing I would do is put a volt meter on the two terminals of that breaker and see if voltage flows when the flag is showing. If it does, then the breaker is bad -- replace it. If the breaker is good, then you have a problem. That breaker protects all the electronics in the back of your coach from a high amp surge.

Tom N3EQF · 12-05-2016, 09:10 PM

Just to clarify; that device that you reset is both a circuit breaker that will trip if the maximum current through it is exceeded, and a switch that will manually trip when you press the button.

Typically this is wired in series with the battery "hot" (positive) wire to disconnect the battery bank from the coach. However, if you happen to be running a generator or are plugged in to the camp power pole, your converter will be creating 12 volts and you may not notice the difference if the circuit breaker / switch is tripped. If in that condition however, your batteries won't be getting charged by the converter with the breaker tripped and eventually you would find the batteries are dead.

Dragon70 · 12-06-2016, 10:04 PM

More later but what is the switch called that switches the power from house batteries to shore power and where is it located? I'm pretty sure mine is bad and that's why I'm having problems.
I thought it was the transfer switch but discovered that is the switch that switches power to the generator.

Oneilkeys · 12-06-2016, 11:03 PM

The transfer switch does both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snNMsPWr-7o

Here is a short video on how it works.

Tom N3EQF · 12-07-2016, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halibut214

More later but what is the switch called that switches the power from house batteries to shore power and where is it located? I'm pretty sure mine is bad and that's why I'm having problems.
I thought it was the transfer switch but discovered that is the switch that switches power to the generator.

Rewinding a bit... Yes the transfer switch is used to switch between two sources of 115 volts AC, typically between the generator and shore power.

You have me confused when you asked about another switch, since you are mixing 12 volts DC (battery) with 115 VAC (shore power). You don't switch directly between DC and AC supply voltages since they are completely different systems.

Almost all RV's have what is called a "converter", which also most times is used as a "charger". The converter takes 115 VAC from your generator or from shore power as the input, and it creates an output that is 12 VDC. (Actually, it's usually higher than 12 volts for charging the batteries). So no matter what you are using to provide 115 VAC to your motorhome, your converter will convert it to 12 VDC to power interior lights and other 12 volt accessories, and will charge your batteries too. All this assumes all circuit breakers and disconnect switches are in their normal "USE" position.

Some RV's also have what is called an "inverter". The inverter takes 12 volts DC as it's input, from your batteries, and from that it creates an output 115 volts AC. Inverters will drain your batteries fast, especially if you turn on too many 115 volt items. Depending on how fancy the inverter setup, an inverter will often be able to automatically switch over when your shore power or generator stop creating the 115 volts AC. These automatic systems are often built into the inverter itself; essentially another transfer switch to transfer the 115 VAC input between the inverter and any available other source for 115 VAC.

...tried to keep it simple, even if it's not!

Dragon70 · 12-07-2016, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom N3EQF

Rewinding a bit... Yes the transfer switch is used to switch between two sources of 115 volts AC, typically between the generator and shore power.

You have me confused when you asked about another switch, since you are mixing 12 volts DC (battery) with 115 VAC (shore power). You don't switch directly between DC and AC supply voltages since they are completely different systems.

Almost all RV's have what is called a "converter", which also most times is used as a "charger". The converter takes 115 VAC from your generator or from shore power as the input, and it creates an output that is 12 VDC. (Actually, it's usually higher than 12 volts for charging the batteries). So no matter what you are using to provide 115 VAC to your motorhome, your converter will convert it to 12 VDC to power interior lights and other 12 volt accessories, and will charge your batteries too. All this assumes all circuit breakers and disconnect switches are in their normal "USE" position.

Some RV's also have what is called an "inverter". The inverter takes 12 volts DC as it's input, from your batteries, and from that it creates an output 115 volts AC. Inverters will drain your batteries fast, especially if you turn on too many 115 volt items. Depending on how fancy the inverter setup, an inverter will often be able to automatically switch over when your shore power or generator stop creating the 115 volts AC. These automatic systems are often built into the inverter itself; essentially another transfer switch to transfer the 115 VAC input between the inverter and any available other source for 115 VAC.

...tried to keep it simple, even if it's not!

My question was very poorly worded but you gave me the info I needed to take the next step in troubleshooting. I sincerely appreciate it. Is there a basic wiring diagram out there that shows the different components?

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