waterskier_1

Ray, you are correct. I am wrong - the outlet pictured is indeed a 120 volt, 30 amp outlet. Here is the picture of the 4-wire, 230 volt, 30 Amp outlet I mistook the picture for, along with the Pre-1996 3-wire 230 Volt, 30 Amp outlet Chuck, you are correct that it could be wired any way. BUT, there are Industry Standards that describe which outlets and plugs are to be used for which voltages and currents. This is done to prevent exactly what appears to have happened here. It does beg to question if that 120 Volt outlet was somehow wired for 230 volts, what did the owner use to connect it to his 230 volt 50 Amp plug? If he used a conventional dog bone, that would apply the 230 volts between either line and neutral. That would not be good. And I'm not sure any Surge Protector, no matter how expensive, would detect L1 - Neutral is 230 and L2 to neutral is 230, while L1-L2 would be zero.

It looks to me like it is Red, Green, Green from bottom to top.

That is a proper 4-wire 220 volt outlet. The picture, as best as I can tell, doesn't show open ground, it shows L1 - neutral and/or L2 neutral are reversed. If the outlet is wired incorrectly, and line voltage was applied to the neutral wire, I'm not sure what might happen - nothing good I suspect. I would have who ever wired that outlet (or if there are adapters between the outlet and the surge guard) confirm the wiring.

I understand Ray. My real point is not only is it there, but it is inside the coach, just like a house, until you get to the breaker panel. You are correct that no Monaco coaches, from the factory, use 220 Appliances, but Prevost, and some other high end coaches do. They have residential ranges and 220 Dryers. So, again, I wanted people not to get worked up when someone says they plugged into 220, because we all do, when using "50 Amp" service.

The surge protector (depending on the model) should protect against open neutrals and open grounds. But it obviously did not. I agree with the voltage readings would be helpful, but don't encourage him to plug it back in the same connector at smoked his washer. It could some something else if that circuit is gone.

You are correct, if he used a 3-wire 220 30 Amp connector and did not wire the neutral. But there are also 220 V, 30 Amp 4-wire connectors that DO have a neutral and ground. My real point is that all our coaches use 220 (or 230 or 240) volts when on 50 Amp service. If someone had a 220 Volt 4-wire 30 Amp connection, no damage would occur, you would just be limited to 60 Amps total versus 100 Amps. FIY NEC requires 4-wire 220 volt outlets for dryers since 1996.

See if you can get the details of how he connected the coach to the 220 Dryer outlet. As I said above, all our coaches use 220 Volts when we are connected to 50 Amp service. I realize that many are uninformed on this. Depending on how he connected the coach, it might not be a major problem. I'm assuming that it didn't have a Power Surge Protection device. The problem he might have is the open neutral, if he didn't connect it. I'm not sure why he wouldn't have generator power though. Do you know if the washer/dryer is connected to run on the inverter or only shore/generator power. This may seem like a dumb question, but I just found that my washer/dryer is indeed on the inverter - but I have a 3000 Watt inverter so maybe that's the difference.

This is NOT True. All our coaches use 50 Amps at 220 (or 230) VAC. Simply plugging into a 230 VAC, 30 Amp outlet would not necessarily cause any problems. Granted, there might not (depending on the 230 VAC, 30 Amp outlet used) have a separate ground and neutral. What really matters is how he connected (adapted) the Dryer Outlet to his coach power plug.

What year of Windsor? The older ones (90s) were wired differently than newer one. In any case, there should be no way that inverted AC should ever get back to the main breaker panel. That is why the AC from the Main Breaker panel runs through the inverter and then out to the outlets, but never should it get back to the main power panel.

Not if he is reading AC power at both L-1 and L-2 at the main power panel.

If it were a transfer switch, he would not have power at the main breaker panel, L-1 & L-2.

First, you state "There is power going in and coming out of all AC breakers including L-1 and L-2 panel breakers." If this is true, then there is power, coming from somewhere, through the transfer switch to the main breaker panel. Can they check to see if it is going through the main breaker circuit breakers? Then is it going through any of the individual circuit breakers? Specifically, in the main breaker panel, there is an Inverter circuit breaker, usually 30 Amps (sometimes there are two, one for each leg, L-1 & L-2. Is there power coming out of those? Next you state "The inverter "appears" to be working and the breaker is not flipped." Does this mean that when there is no applied power (shore or genny) that the inverter is producing 110 VAC? If so, then the inverter indeed appears to be working. That said, the error message is indicating that the inverter charger does not see any AC on it's input. Is the charger turned on (typically a remote panel push on/push off switch)? After responses to these questions, I'll try to further narrow down the problem. My gut feeling is that when the washer smoked, it may have taken out part of the inverter/charge box, namely some of the charger and associated bypass circuitry. Many don't realize that all AC power circuits that run off the inverter when no shore/genny power is available, run through the inverter. That is so the inverter can sense if there is incoming AC (in which case it simply passes it through and out the output AC terminals of the inverter. When it senses no incoming AC power, it turns off the battery charger, turns on the inverter and its internal transfer switch switches the output of the inverter to the inverted AC. It sounds like the inverter is not sensing incoming AC.

I could not find a diagram in the 2003 Windsor wiring diagrams for the water pump circuit. I'm attaching one from 2003 Dynasty Wiring Diagrams. I think they should be quite similiar.2003 Monaco Dynasty Wiring Diagram Water Pump Circuit.pdf

Jim, the large (often blue) device is an isolator, as you suspected. But it is used ONLY when the main engine is running. It takes the alternator output and divides it between the chassis battery and the house batteries. It is only in play when the engine is running, and only used when charging from the engine alternator. It is completely out of the circuit when the engine alternator is not running. Regarding the Solar. You don't say, so I'm going to assume you have the single solar panel that Monaco used. That panel was about 100 Watts, when new. That solar controller (the Heliotrope) is a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) type controller. They are the least efficient controllers. The 17- 38 volts you are measuring is the INPUT to the controller from the solar panel. The controller then "massage's" that voltage to a level around 14.2 volts to charge the HOUSE batteries (as wired by Monaco). As I mentioned, the PWM type controller is inefficient in taking that 17 - 38 volts and using all the related power to charge batteries. A much more efficient controller uses MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) to "massage" the 17 - 38 volts to squeeze every bit of power over all voltage conditions into your batteries. All this said, that 100 Watt panel, is barely enough to keep you house batteries from going dead while in storage. It was never enough to charge the batteries up - only to offset the natural discharge and the few item that always draw from the batteries (like smoke alarm, CO alarm, and other) from discharging the battery. Unless someone has rewired the controller (doubtful, unless more panels were added, and then still not likely) it only charges the House batteries. That "green" device was then supposed to charge the chassis batteries if the house batteries were above a certain voltage (around 13.5 volts). So, theoretically it could keep both batteries from discharging, but in real world, it just wasn't enough.

Jim, that green box with a green light is the device that is supposed to allow charging of the chassis battery(s) while on shore (generator) power. The light being lit should show the device is working. On my 97 Dynasty, it was lit, but NOT working. When it is lit, you should see the same voltage on either of the end terminals to ground. That should be above 13.5 volts (depending on the charge stage you are in). If you have over 13.5 volts on the chassis battery(s), then they are being charged. You may have another problem causing the chassis battery(s) to discharge at a faster rate than they are being charged. If you do not have the same voltage on both terminals to ground, then the device has failed. Replacements are scarce, and very expensive. It's better to get a Amp-L-Start or Trik-L-Start type device and replace that green unit entirely.

Paul, yes that is the camera I have to replace the cameras on the side view mirrors. You are correct that the spec sheet doesn't give duty cycle, but does consider it a back-up/parking camera, not a rear-view camera. It is my understanding that the difference is a rear-view is expected to be turned on most of the time, while a back-up/parking camera is energized only when the vehicle is in reverse. I understand you can energize it all the time, just wondering whether the camera was designed for that. I'll have to look more closely at my Aladdin wiring diagrams, but I am pretty sure that the cameras only get power when the turn signal or reverse lights are energized. Oh, of course you can energize the cameras with the joystick too, but I thought that only powered up the camera selected, not that all were always powered on, and the selection was only the video feed from a specific camera.

My concern is that I use my rear view about 98% of the time the ignition is on... the rest is side view. I have the BOYO cameras to replace the side view, but they are not rated as rear view (more like a backup camera with 2% usage). It my understanding that there is a difference between 100% duty and occasional backing.

That is my plan. What camera did you use for rear view?

I haven't replaced mine yet because the camera I have on my 2005 Executive is not compatability with any new cameras and there is no known adapter for it. It is a Panasonic TW-CC100B, it uses a special interface located behind the dash, between the Aladdin and the camera to convert the video format. I'm told it wasn't used on many coaches so it hopefully you don't have this camera. I talked with an ex- Monaco employee who installed these systems. The solution I plan to implement is cut the camera off the cable at the rear of the coach, then cut other end off the "interface" and slimmest that interface completely. Then I plan on soldering on new connectors will I'll use to connect to the new camera and also to the Aladdin system. This won't be easy because of the tiny gauge wire, especially the shielded video portion. I'll also have to provide for the proper voltage to the camera as that was previously supplied by the interface adapter. My suggestion is to first determine the manufacturer and model of your existing camera and then search on that. There are many adapters available for many different cameras, just not mine.

I'm kind of sorry to read of the solution you found. I'm glad you got it fixed, but was hoping it was something different. I didn't associate the loss of Aladdin with the locking up of my BlueFire app until it read this post. I just installed the BlueFire on a new Tablet, because I had been having problems with it maintaining BT connection with my old tablet. I experienced the same thing. I thought I was loosing power somehow, since it affected the BlueFire and the Aladdin at the same time. I've had the BlueFire adapter installed for a couple years, but never got it to work reliably with my old tablet. It seemed to maintain BT connection fine, even overnight, without the engine running. But on my trip here, it would loose connection within minutes of getting data. The Aladdin would show the shutting down screen at the same time. I'd just the joystick to bring the Aladdin back on, and I've have to exit the app and restart the BlueFire App which would fault again after a minute or so after reconnecting. Couldn't do much troubleshooting while driving. I didn't associate the two until your post. Are you now up and running without incident with the BlueFire now?

I have the same question as Ivan. Why such a high load? Using the microwave? I just start my generator, even though my batteries/inverter will run the microwave for a while, you still have to put the electrons back in the batteries. You would basically have two separate and isolated systems. One 12 Volt, but with only one battery to support all the house, and a second to support the inverter. The inverter's built in charger will have to be capable of charging your 24 Volt battery bank. That will be the only method (besides potentially solar, depending on how they are wired and the controllers). My bigger concern is that it's quite doubtful that one 12 Volt battery (unless it's something unique, like a 12 Volt, 300 AH Lithium battery) won't be able to run everything in your coach. Besides the TV and associated electronics, and the microwave, what power hungry devices are you running? Have you computed how much power you single 12 Volt house battery would need as far as amp-hours?

I had a 97 Dynasty and the power entered the coach at the far rear driver's side through a removable cable. The transfer switch was on the ceiling in the bay just in front of the drive axel (there were no bay doors to access it). This area was accessed through the bay forward of that bay through a sliding divider inside the bay.

It is a know anomaly that when running the main engine alternator charging combined with charging from another source, usual the generator operating A/C going down the road, but also when connected to shore power, and occasionally Eben solar power. The Alternator Sense circuit gets confused. There is no damage.

Ben, I'm not advocating second guessing the manufacturer's recommendation - I feel if they put that in the manual (thinking more about it, it was probably in the Aquahot manual, not the Monaco Owner's Manual) there would have to be a overwhelming reason to disregard.

Ray, I agree with your electrical analysis, but not with you presumption that previous posters know. If they did, they would not be making comments that the OP "smoked" the refrigerator, or the coach. In reality, there would be no damage INSIDE the coach, it is possible the ground or neutral might overheat, if sufficient load was applied. But just the refrigerator, not likely. Also, since the OP posted that everything else was working, we know he didn't fry the coach or the refrigerator. Those statements clearly show a lack of understanding of 220 vs 110 in RV connections. Some even denied that 220 Volts are ever connected to a RV. I really freely sorry for the OP with so many telling him he destroyed at least the refrigerator, and possibly the whole coach.