rather than take time tracing everything out in no mans land wire bundles, i am just going to put in a new AMP-L-Start. since it is in the same little compartment as the merge solenoid, i will just run new 10 gauge wires from the amplstart to the merge solenoid and be done with it.
simple enough.
tom
2002 45'8" Newell Coach 608 Series 60 DDEC4/Allison World 6 Speed HD4000MH
my starting batteries were not charging up to the house batteries. i measured the voltage to be 13.15 house and 11.9 starting. echo charger says it is charging always.
i checked the fuses, and that was not it
so i took out the echocharger that was dated 2000, (it was in the blank spot in the upper left corner) and put in a new AMP-L-Start. i put it in a blank space in the middle of the panel so it would be easier to wire and look at. i upped the fuses to 15a from 10a and got it all hooked up.
will see tomorrow how well it works. the factory install was from the fuse block to the battery isolator, so i left it that way. easy to install by taking the fuses out. they are in the fuse block next to the amp-l-start that says echocharger. a fuse for each battery bank.
the amp-l-start does not call for fuses so i guess it is internally protected, but i used the fuses that were there anyway.
tom
2002 45'8" Newell Coach 608 Series 60 DDEC4/Allison World 6 Speed HD4000MH
Echo and Amp-L-Start are only voltage sensing by-pass switches not really a charger. The Amp-L-Start looks like a much better quality switch than the Echo.
after a day of the amp-l-start saying it was charging the start batteries it starting beeping and a red flashing light saying the start batteries were disconnected. i still measure voltage everywhere and it still has the same 1.2v differential.
i will run some new wires and see if that helps. all the wires and voltages seem to ohm and measure ok. strange.
tom
2002 45'8" Newell Coach 608 Series 60 DDEC4/Allison World 6 Speed HD4000MH
Unit is beeping, and STARTING BAT. light glows steady – Indicates that the starting battery(s) is severely discharged to the point where permanent damage is possible (approx. 11.9 volts). Check your house battery charger to confirm that it is powered up, and is operating normally. To silence the beeper, temporarily disconnect Starting [+] terminal or your starting battery (by using your battery disconnect switch) until the battery can be recharged.
You might try merging the batteries and see if your start battery voltage comes up after a couple of hours. The amp l start may be trying to close to much of a gap, OR your start batteries may have a bad cell.
Richard and Rhonda Entrekin
99 Newell, 512
Maverick Hybrid Toad
Inverness, FL (when we're home )
Starting light is flashing not steady indicating start batteries disconnected. New start batteries. Already disconnected it. Start batteries are at 11.9 v
Tom
2002 45'8" Newell Coach 608 Series 60 DDEC4/Allison World 6 Speed HD4000MH
Sounds like a wiring issue. The Amp-l-start manual says that you will get this indication if the start batt falls below 2V. Not a differential voltage...it thinks that the battery is not connected at all.
i have resolved this and it was not straight forward so i will step through it from the beginning.
initial symptoms were that the start batteries would not charge up to where they should be using the echocharger when sitting plugged in. i did put in new starting batteries about 6 weeks ago.
the xantrex echocharger that was original to the coach showed to be always charging the start batteries. the configuration was that the start lead from the echocharger went to a 10a blade fuse in a fuse block then over to the start side of the battery isolator. the same thing for the house battery lead from the echocharger. the ground went to a good ground.
the voltage of the house batteries at both sides of the fuse block was 13.1 to 13.2 volts as it should be. they are being kept charged by the magnum inverter charger.
the voltage of the start batteries on both sides of the fuse block was about 12v. and holding. just barely enough to start the coach.
with the blade fuses out, everything ohmed out ok.
so i assumed the echocharger that was 19 years old was bad. i liked the features of the amp-l-start so i bought one and installed it. only i put new 15a blade fuses in the fuse block.
it immediately went to charge mode and i thought all was fixed. about 24 hours later i hear beeping and i looked at the amp-l-start and the indicator light for the start side said the start batteries were not connected. the voltage on the house batteries was still about 13.1v and the start side still about 12v. so it had not charged at all.
still everything ohmed out good.
i decided to put a new lead from the start side of the amp-l-start directly to the start side of the battery isolator. immediately the error light went off and it went into charge mode.
after about a day and a half, the house side was still at about 13.1v and now the start side was at 13.01 v. so it was working now
the issue was that the old fuse block had enough corrosion inside it to stop enough current from going through. it was doing some charging (because i disconnected both sides for a day and the start batteries went down to under 11v), but not enough to get it up to where it should be.
a very subtle issue that was not found with a volt meter/ohm meter but by trial and error.
richard had a similar issue on his hwh control box where a fuse holder had enough corrosion to cause intermittent issues.
i like the indicators and noise indicators on the new amp-l-start so i have no regrets replacing the older less featured echocharger.
thats my story and i am sticking to it
tom
2002 45'8" Newell Coach 608 Series 60 DDEC4/Allison World 6 Speed HD4000MH
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