[Jack Houpe]

I have and issue now for 2 years that has prevented me from selling or trading off our Newell as the rear slide will not extend, read all the wires out to the control panel and limit switches all OK other than a compromised wire under the bed. Removed the logic board for slide 2 which is the rear slide and found a few of ground traces fried on the board itself, being a retired electronic tech I started tracing back to where the problem was and found one of the mini relays on the board defective and in the closed position, then found a few diodes open and one of the three 555 timer chip and a NPN transistor defective. Ordered and replaced all these parts and jumped the circuit board traces and still not working so called HWH they said to send it to them which I did in Sept of 2025 they said 4-6 weeks so I told them I would be in Florida after that time frame and not to ship back to me till our return end of March. They called yesterday and informed me that board is no longer available and they don't have one for sale. Does anyone here have one of these boards for sale? Or the entire control box? These boxes are only for Newell and there isn't a replacement. This is not only my problem this is a problem for all late model HWH Newell owners. If I can't find a board here my only choice is to purchase a PLC (personal logic computer) and retrofit it. 

Sequence of operation for those who are interested. 
Turn on or start coach. When you turn the slide key on there is a delay time (555 timer) so your seal can deflate, then when it illuminates you can start the extend or retract procedure either way the first thing is the locks activation to open after fully open there is a slight delay (555 timer) then the main hydraulic ram under the bed to either in or out and once the limit switch for totally in or out under the bed is made then there is slight delay again activates the locks to lock. Note my locks have NEVER worked in the rear and this unit has been out and sent to HWH prior to my ownership so somehow those limit switch activation has been removed from the sequence of operation.

[Jack Houpe]

I got the board back from HWH after 7 months, found a quiet spot in my garage and started reverse engineering its electronic sequence of operation and found the problem, one small trace burnt on the circuit board UNDER one of the relays that sent the trigger voltage to the 555 timer. After many hours of back tracing I felt like I won a fight with Ali. Hopefully I can retain this in my brain for future problems that others may have.

[markkitch]

You definitely won!

You almost want to reverse engineer and prototype some boards.

[Richard]

Mark,

In noodling through how to help Jack, there are also two other alternates. One is a industrial 12V based PLC. The second is an industrial DIN rail based Arduino that would be programmed to handle the inputs and outputs.

[Jack Houpe]

What Richard said! He and I had discussed this and I understand plc's very well. I've used them in the past, but the Arduino would take me time to figure out with his guidance.

[Richard]

The point that Jack and i are making is that at some point in time the HWH circuit boards may become unobtainable. There are reasonable solutions out there to control these basic systems. In today’s “maker” world of programmable Arduinos and Rasberry Pi computers along with the ready made relay and input add ons, it is possible to replace the hardwired circuit boards in many control systems.

I first became interested in this when figuring out different ways to work around the unobtanium SCS boards. The availability of industrial versions of the Arduino and Rasberry Pi lead to robust control systems. I was amused to learn that Marathon has a Rasberry Pi under the bed which is used to read all the signals from the monitoring systems and convert them into video displays.

[windtrader]

It is stories like this that provide a clear peek into the reality of jumping into this club, really feels like jumping from one frying pan (half century old bus conversion) to another, just more shiny. lol

With my bus, 100% of the build and design docs are in hand, the physical build and component layout is easily accessible, some wire runs excepted, and no proprietary parts makes acquiring replacement more achievable.

What is outlined here is a classic DIY project and one's wits, ingenuity, tenacity, and patience are key aspects to play in this sandbox. But a 7 month stretch of not having working slides is a significant outage. I'd hope there is a way to manually operate Newell slides.

Just curious, is taking it to Newell to repair an option and ballpark cost estimate? If the OEM has no stock on the control board, what is Newell going to do?

[markkitch]

Fantastic stuff, I am not a software more mechanical, I can locate and fix other stuff. I am super glad we have you guys as a resource!

Having all the schematics and diagrams and mechanical dwgs is a real asset, I don't have it for this coach. I did for my Wanderlodges.

[smagown]

Jack, could you see the trace on the backside or did you have to remove the relay?

[HoosierDaddy]

That is great news, Jack!!! Getting this repaired along with the other amazing improvements you’ve made on the Newell should provide many more years of service.