Trying to understand my electrics

[Rob K, Waterbeach]

Progress! I had a play with the red key and, while it seemed it was already in the on position, fiddling with it got the inverter powered up.

 

When turned on it emits quite an annoying ringing sound, which I understand may be due to an insufficient battery cable size. Do I actually need to fix this or can I just put up with it?

 

While I'm encouraged I could power up, I still couldn't get any response from the power sockets, but it feels like I just need to flip the right switches. I did try lots of combinations without any luck...

 

Any further thoughts?

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Rob K, Waterbeach said:

Any further thoughts?

 

The noise is almost certainly a fault code, look it up in the manual.

 

Quite likely to be low battery voltage and the reason the sockets still don't work. Try starting the engine, the higher alternator charge voltage might fix it. 

 

[Rob K, Waterbeach]

Thanks MtB - I'll try that. I did note that the solar controller shows the leisure battery is full and charging okay. I'll see how it responds to the engine being on.

[Tony Brooks]

7 minutes ago, Rob K, Waterbeach said:

Progress! I had a play with the red key and, while it seemed it was already in the on position, fiddling with it got the inverter powered up.

 

When turned on it emits quite an annoying ringing sound, which I understand may be due to an insufficient battery cable size. Do I actually need to fix this or can I just put up with it?

 

While I'm encouraged I could power up, I still couldn't get any response from the power sockets, but it feels like I just need to flip the right switches. I did try lots of combinations without any luck...

 

Any further thoughts?

 

That may be what the manual or towpath expert tells you but insufficient battery cable size is only one cause of a low voltage warning. Note the word CAUSE, that is not the same as the actual fault. Base don you having to fiddle with the red switch my first suspicion, knowing the "red key" masters witches are known to be unreliable is that the switch has gone resistive, causing volt drop when a high load is applied to it. This assumes it is some indication of low voltage.

 

I would suggest that you put both cables on the master switch onto one stud. If the noise goes away it shows the switch is a problem.

[ditchcrawler]

58 minutes ago, Rob K, Waterbeach said:

Progress! I had a play with the red key and, while it seemed it was already in the on position, fiddling with it got the inverter powered up.

 

When turned on it emits quite an annoying ringing sound, which I understand may be due to an insufficient battery cable size. Do I actually need to fix this or can I just put up with it?

 

While I'm encouraged I could power up, I still couldn't get any response from the power sockets, but it feels like I just need to flip the right switches. I did try lots of combinations without any luck...

 

Any further thoughts?

I would suggest you look to replace the red switch quite soon

[Rob K, Waterbeach]

I have power! I went back to work through the list of things to try but when I switched the inverter on there was no more ringing sound. I was able to listen to the radio this morning and get the heater light to come on. Thanks a lot everyone. I expect there's a bit more maintenance to take care of but for now it's working so I'll move on to the next challenge of getting my Alde heater running again. I'll use a different thread for that.

[nicknorman]

17 minutes ago, Rob K, Waterbeach said:

I have power! I went back to work through the list of things to try but when I switched the inverter on there was no more ringing sound. I was able to listen to the radio this morning and get the heater light to come on. Thanks a lot everyone. I expect there's a bit more maintenance to take care of but for now it's working so I'll move on to the next challenge of getting my Alde heater running again. I'll use a different thread for that.

Well done. However I would still look at replacing the red key battery switch as it was clearly a bit intermittent and it isn’t going to get better by itself.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Rob K, Waterbeach said:

I have power! I went back to work through the list of things to try but when I switched the inverter on there was no more ringing sound. I was able to listen to the radio this morning and get the heater light to come on. Thanks a lot everyone. I expect there's a bit more maintenance to take care of but for now it's working so I'll move on to the next challenge of getting my Alde heater running again. I'll use a different thread for that.

It will probably fail again

[MtB]

2 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Well done. However I would still look at replacing the red key battery switch as it was clearly a bit intermittent and it isn’t going to get better by itself.

 

Yes. The maxim by which I work is "faults that go away by themselves, tend to come back by themselves". 

 

I predict this is not the end of the saga! 

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

15 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Yes. The maxim by which I work is "faults that go away by themselves, tend to come back by themselves". 

 

I predict this is not the end of the saga! 

 

 

 

I think a number of us have told him this one way or another, but it seems hope springs eternal.