Anyone Upgrade Aria Inverter?

[aznytfury]

Originally Posted by HaRVey

Yes, the MS2812 fits in exactly same spot, uses the same fasteners and exact same wiring.
The MS2812 insulation manual recommends adding a jumper wire from the used to unused (my Palazzo only uses one of the two available inverter circuits) hot and neutral 110 wiring lugs, but when I called Magnum, they said it's not nessesary, so I did not. And yes, everything worked perfectly afterwards without any changes and the Firefly panel reflected the new inverter model number.
I unplugged the coach, put it in Store mode, disconnected the Chassis batteries and disconnected the House batteries, all before swapping the inverter.

Did you have change any settings at all on the Firefly control panel? Or was it literally "plug and play"? Also curious about the battery charger capacity. I have a 2017 Aria 3901 with the ME2012 and am seriously considering the upgrade to the MS2812 (some electronics haven't worked on the modified sine wave inverter). I noticed the battery charger capacity is 125 amps on the MS2812 vs. the ME2012's 100 amp battery charger. That is great, but I also noticed there is a 100 amp charger connection breaker in the house battery compartment of the Aria 3901. Do you know if that will be an issue and I will have to upgrade that breaker (or if I can de-rate the charger to 100 amps in the Firefly configuration for the new MS2812 inverter?)

Thanks!

[HaRVey]

aznytfury -
You don't need to change any setting on the Firefly panel for the new inverter to work; however you will need to set the battery type to the ones which match your batteries (i.e. for stock batteries mine were four 6V flooded batteries, which I think the Firefly panel either calls "Wet" or "Flooded" and will automatically set all other parameters accordingly) and you will need to set the amount of battery capacity to match your set up (i.e. stock four 6V batteries = 400 amp hours)
The extra battery charging capacity (125amp 12V DC) will not benefit you with wet/Flooded batteries, because they can only accept a limited amount of current without damage (controlled by the inverter/charger for the type of battery selected); however if you ever change to AGM or LiFePo you can use the extra potential.
You do not need to worry about the 100amp (110V AC) breaker on the panel, because the inverter only provides 30amps 110V AC per circuit (the MS2812 has two circuits, but I think your stock application will only use one of the two circuits.) (The 125 amps is the 12V DC charging amps, not the AC power supplied to the RV by the inverter)
The good folks at Magnum can also guide you through all of your settings, questions and recommendations. I am adding a Victrom battery management system to mine later so I can monitor and manage my battery capacity so I don't wake to dead batteries because I USD too much during the day or didn't run the Benny enough to recharge them.
Good luck!

[powerboatr]

Originally Posted by HaRVey

aznytfury -
You don't need to change any setting on the Firefly panel for the new inverter to work; however you will need to set the battery type to the ones which match your batteries (i.e. for stock batteries mine were four 6V flooded batteries, which I think the Firefly panel either calls "Wet" or "Flooded" and will automatically set all other parameters accordingly) and you will need to set the amount of battery capacity to match your set up (i.e. stock four 6V batteries = 400 amp hours)
The extra battery charging capacity (125amp 12V DC) will not benefit you with wet/Flooded batteries, because they can only accept a limited amount of current without damage (controlled by the inverter/charger for the type of battery selected); however if you ever change to AGM or LiFePo you can use the extra potential.
You do not need to worry about the 100amp (110V AC) breaker on the panel, because the inverter only provides 30amps 110V AC per circuit (the MS2812 has two circuits, but I think your stock application will only use one of the two circuits.) (The 125 amps is the 12V DC charging amps, not the AC power supplied to the RV by the inverter)
The good folks at Magnum can also guide you through all of your settings, questions and recommendations. I am adding a Victrom battery management system to mine later so I can monitor and manage my battery capacity so I don't wake to dead batteries because I USD too much during the day or didn't run the Benny enough to recharge them.
Good luck!

second calling magnum...they have good techs that can help with the ins and outs

[HaRVey]

I should have corrected my spellchecker mess ups.
Much easier to talk to Magnum than try to interpret my Greek...

[aznytfury]

So I did the inverter upgrade this a.m.! I replaced the Magnum ME2012 equipped on my 2017 Aria 3901 with a new MS2812 (2800w) inverter/charger. Install went just fine...took about 2 hours for me to do it.

It fixed several issues for me actually:

1) GFI outlet is no longer tripping under certain loads.

2) The unsettling electronic 'buzzing' sound of the microwave/convection oven combo unit is gone (probably cleaner power given the pure sine-wave configuration vs. the modified sine-wave previously).

3) The reported output voltage is now showing a correct value (~120vac vs. ~90vac) on the Firefly panel (this was always an odd thing to me). See pic.

4) My UPS for my media server now works and detects the output of the inverter (vs. before it wouldn't acknowledge the power unless I was on generator).



BTW: Any recommendations on the I/C Settings for VAC Dropout and Low Battery Cutout?

[jtyphoid]

Congratulations on the successful swap. I'm happy with the MS2012 that I swapped into my Aria 3401.

I left VAC Dropout at the Magnum default of 80VAC because I don't have a good reason to change it. I wouldn't want to set it any lower, but there are downsides (potential to drain batteries more if you have frequent brownouts) to setting it higher.

You should set low battery cutoff depending on how far you are willing to discharge your batteries, while also considering auto generator start. I set my AGS to 12.2 VDC, which is 50% DOD for flooded lead acid, then set low voltage cutoff to 12.0 to keep from completely draining the batteries if AGS fails for some reason.

Also, if you haven't already done so, check whether your solar panel is wired into your charge controller with the correct polarity. Mine and some others were wired in backwards. Just use something to cover the solar panel then swap the two solar panel wires where they connect to the charge controller if yours are backwards, too.

[aznytfury]

I upgraded my solar on the Aria 3901 this past week. I didn't do a large upgrade, just enough to offset some base load/usage and provide better charging support for the house batteries. I pulled the factory solar panel and added 3 Renogy 100 watt panels with low profile mounts. Kept the original solar controller (40 AMP capable) and leveraged the existing 6 AWG wiring. I am happy with how it turned out.

[jtyphoid]

Those panels look great! Upgrading the solar on our 3401 is on my list of things to do, but I'm going to have to get creative on where to put the panels because we don't have as much roof space as you do.

[pavemike]

Originally Posted by aznytfury

I upgraded my solar on the Aria 3901 this past week. I didn't do a large upgrade, just enough to offset some base load/usage and provide better charging support for the house batteries. I pulled the factory solar panel and added 3 Renogy 100 watt panels with low profile mounts. Kept the original solar controller (40 AMP capable) and leveraged the existing 6 AWG wiring. I am happy with how it turned out.

Attachment 19666 Attachment 19663

aznytfury,
This is off subject but, is that a TOGO Roadlink I see on your roof?

[aznytfury]

Originally Posted by pavemike

aznytfury,
This is off subject but, is that a TOGO Roadlink I see on your roof?

Yes, it is. Added it a couple months ago.

[pavemike]

Originally Posted by aznytfury

Yes, it is. Added it a couple months ago.

Thank you. I'm installing mine tomorrow. Sorry for the side track folks...Now, back to our regular scheduled programing.

[aznytfury]

Originally Posted by pavemike

Thank you. I'm installing mine tomorrow. Sorry for the side track folks...Now, back to our regular scheduled programing.

If you have any questions or run into any challenges...feel free to PM me.

[pavemike]

Thanks, I will. Hopefully, all goes well.