Magnum inverter error will not clear. HELP

[Bandit411]

my magnum inverter model 2812 is showing a fault AC overload. I have checked the batteries and found two chassis batteries bad so I replaced them and still have the fault. So I did a soft reset that didn’t work so I tried hard reset and still have the fault   The batteries charge and the power works while th bus is plugged up to shore power or the generator is cranked up. But the inverter will not work on it’s own. 
Any other ideas before I take it out of the motor home. 

[TomV48]

Is that 2810 the old black SQUARE WAVE or the newer (I would presume, upgraded) white Pure Sine?  Is the fault you see, a code, a message, or just an idiot light?  AC overload would have me looking for something off normal, down stream.  Our inverter just runs two legs.  One is the microwave and the other is the GFCI loop of out let's.   Is one of the circuits breakers on the inverter output popped.   Is be looking to see which output leg might be the problem

 

PS asking if the 28 is the upgrade because I am looking for an excuse to upgrade our old black box with the white, pure sine and maybe upgrade to the 2800 from the factory 2000 watt.

[vito.a]

Remove all power from the coach.  Both AC and 12V. 

So, unplug from shore, turn main AC breakers off, turn off house battery disconnect at the batteries.  

Good luck.  

If that doesn't help, call the Magnum tech line.  

Bloomington, MN 55437
T: 800-553-6418 or 651-653-7000

Inverter troubleshooting guide:  General Inverter Troubleshooting | Magnum Dimensions (magnum-dimensions.com)

Edited August 13, 2023 by vito.a

[Tom Cherry]

54 minutes ago, vito.a said:

Remove all power from the coach.  Both AC and 12V. 

So, unplug form shore, turn main AC breakers off, turn off house battery disconnect at the batteries.  

Good luck.  

If that doesn't help, call the Magnum tech line.  

Bloomington, MN 55437
T: 800-553-6418 or 651-653-7000

Inverter troubleshooting guide:  General Inverter Troubleshooting | Magnum Dimensions (magnum-dimensions.com)

Basically, do, as the above, a HARD RESET.  You MUST do it this way.  This is straight from a Magnum tech,

Disconnects OFF.  Remove the battery terminals from the back of the magnum.  You have, I believe, the Res Refer MS2812 Pure Sine Inverter.  NOW with the batterY cables disconnected….LEAVE THEM OFF for up to an hour.  Unplug ALL the 3 phone lines.  Bat Temp Sensor, Network and Remote.  It takes a while to clear and dissipate any. “Stray” or left over gremlin.  NOW…here is where it gets tricky, so follow along.  

Do NOT reconnect any of the phone cables.  That means the remote will be DEAD.  IF you have fully charged or GOOD House, hook the cables back up on the rear of the Inverter.  Turn back on both battery disconnect switches.  THEN, hold in the power button for a few seconds & power on the inverter.  You should have AC Power on both the Microwaves snd refrigerator circuits as well as on the internal outlets next to the sink or wherever.  There are default settings inside the inverter so it is running “OK” without the remote.  If THAT works….fine….then hold the Power Button for maybe 20 seconds.  Then hook up the remote.  You will need to then turn back on the inverter as you did in soft reset.  If the remote is OK, still power to outlets….then plug in the bat temp and network cables..

BUT….if the house are too low….then turn off both banks.  Disconnect, again, the cables on the back.  Wait…20 minutes.  Then put a Jumper Cable between the positives so the Chassis and House are in parallel….like you would to start a MH with a dead chassis bank. Hook back up the Cables to the inverter…power ON….but still with no phone lines plugged it.  The default settings in the inverter should be OK and you have AC power.  Plug in the remote….still ok…then the other two.

BUT…if still no AC, then you have a problem in the inverter.  There is an ATS on the board of the inverter.  With OK house and on shore or genny, then the shore or genny AC is being routed THROUGH the inverter.  It is NOT inverting….it is running off the incoming AC.  But, if the ATS is bad or the inverter board is bad….NO Outgoing AC.  That is what you have described.

NOW….we have had this happen when a “serious” fault hit and sort of “burrowed” in.  The ONLY way to chase it….let the inverter cool down with NO cables and no “juice” and eventually it goes away.  This has fixed this at least 5 systems in the past 3 years…so the track record is good.

Do the above…no joy….call Magnum.  Let us know.

[Bandit411]

3 hours ago, TomV48 said:

Is that 2810 the old black SQUARE WAVE or the newer (I would presume, upgraded) white Pure Sine?  Is the fault you see, a code, a message, or just an idiot light?  AC overload would have me looking for something off normal, down stream.  Our inverter just runs two legs.  One is the microwave and the other is the GFCI loop of out let's.   Is one of the circuits breakers on the inverter output popped.   Is be looking to see which output leg might be the problem

 

PS asking if the 28 is the upgrade because I am looking for an excuse to upgrade our old black box with the white, pure sine and maybe upgrade to the 2800 from the factory 2000 watt.

It’s a magnum ms2812 inverter/charger pure sine wave  

its 2800 watt 23.3amps

120 volt. 60 hz

[TomV48]

9 minutes ago, Bandit411 said:

It’s a magnum ms2812 inverter/charger pure sine wave  

its 2800 watt 23.3amps

120 volt. 60 hz

Upgraded from the original me2012?   Did you do it?

 

[Bandit411]

11 hours ago, TomV48 said:

Upgraded from the original me2012?   Did you do it?

 

No it was upgraded when I bought the coach. The print’s online look pretty straightforward if you want to give it a try. 

[TomV48]

18 hours ago, Bandit411 said:

It’s a magnum ms2812 inverter/charger pure sine wave  

its 2800 watt 23.3amps

120 volt. 60 hz

Upgraded from the original me2012?   Did you do it?

I was just wondering if you had a comparison between the old one and the new one. Obviously not. Magnum and Don Rowe inverters out of Oregon both say it's just a direct bolt-in replacement.   Main reason I'm considering it is because my wife won't run the microwave oven on the old Magnum we have because "it makes it sound bad".  

And frankly square wave inverting is not the best thing for electric motors and many other electronic things.

[Bandit411]

On 8/12/2023 at 8:05 PM, Tom Cherry said:

Basically, do, as the above, a HARD RESET.  You MUST do it this way.  This is straight from a Magnum tech,

Disconnects OFF.  Remove the battery terminals from the back of the magnum.  You have, I believe, the Res Refer MS2812 Pure Sine Inverter.  NOW with the batterY cables disconnected….LEAVE THEM OFF for up to an hour.  Unplug ALL the 3 phone lines.  Bat Temp Sensor, Network and Remote.  It takes a while to clear and dissipate any. “Stray” or left over gremlin.  NOW…here is where it gets tricky, so follow along.  

Do NOT reconnect any of the phone cables.  That means the remote will be DEAD.  IF you have fully charged or GOOD House, hook the cables back up on the rear of the Inverter.  Turn back on both battery disconnect switches.  THEN, hold in the power button for a few seconds & power on the inverter.  You should have AC Power on both the Microwaves snd refrigerator circuits as well as on the internal outlets next to the sink or wherever.  There are default settings inside the inverter so it is running “OK” without the remote.  If THAT works….fine….then hold the Power Button for maybe 20 seconds.  Then hook up the remote.  You will need to then turn back on the inverter as you did in soft reset.  If the remote is OK, still power to outlets….then plug in the bat temp and network cables..

BUT….if the house are too low….then turn off both banks.  Disconnect, again, the cables on the back.  Wait…20 minutes.  Then put a Jumper Cable between the positives so the Chassis and House are in parallel….like you would to start a MH with a dead chassis bank. Hook back up the Cables to the inverter…power ON….but still with no phone lines plugged it.  The default settings in the inverter should be OK and you have AC power.  Plug in the remote….still ok…then the other two.

BUT…if still no AC, then you have a problem in the inverter.  There is an ATS on the board of the inverter.  With OK house and on shore or genny, then the shore or genny AC is being routed THROUGH the inverter.  It is NOT inverting….it is running off the incoming AC.  But, if the ATS is bad or the inverter board is bad….NO Outgoing AC.  That is what you have described.

NOW….we have had this happen when a “serious” fault hit and sort of “burrowed” in.  The ONLY way to chase it….let the inverter cool down with NO cables and no “juice” and eventually it goes away.  This has fixed this at least 5 systems in the past 3 years…so the track record is good.

Do the above…no joy….call Magnum.  Let us know.

Tried the hard reset by removing battery cables and shore power along with turning all breakers in the coach off and removing the small cables from the front plug in of the inverter. I let it set overnight then reconnected the battery cables and tried to turn inverter on did not work. Called magnum tech help told him what I had already tried and he told me it would need to go to repair facility. But there is a nationwide shortage of parts for the inverter. 
i called the repair shop in Daytona Fl. And was told it was a bad board inside the inverter but with the shortage of parts he already had 23 inverters waiting on the shelf with no insight on when he would receive the parts to repair them. 
I told him that I would just wire nut the power in and out wires and get a battery charger to charge the batteries. 

[Tom Cherry]

1 hour ago, Bandit411 said:

Tried the hard reset by removing battery cables and shore power along with turning all breakers in the coach off and removing the small cables from the front plug in of the inverter. I let it set overnight then reconnected the battery cables and tried to turn inverter on did not work. Called magnum tech help told him what I had already tried and he told me it would need to go to repair facility. But there is a nationwide shortage of parts for the inverter. 
i called the repair shop in Daytona Fl. And was told it was a bad board inside the inverter but with the shortage of parts he already had 23 inverters waiting on the shelf with no insight on when he would receive the parts to repair them. 
I told him that I would just wire nut the power in and out wires and get a battery charger to charge the batteries. 

Two things.  The battery cables, per Magnum should be pulled off the back…then wait 30 - 45 minutes.  I don’t know what have be somewhere, some way, connected to the chassis or such.  I am a stubborn cuss.  That has worked for several….so, if it mine…I’d to it.  You NEVER know if you don’t try.  Some folks also stick a screwdriver across the posts on the back to ensure that all the electronics are drained.

NOW….this is my thoughts….assuming ghr above doesn’t work…but TRY IT.

It is a heck of a lot cheaper to buy a new one.  You might be able to swap out a PCB…..as the repair shops can.  But there is a LOT of other stuff inside like fans and thermostats in addition to the Pin breakers.  Why throw $$ at a 17 YO box?  Magnum told me that the boards typically last 8 - 10 years.  I would purchase  a NEW  ONE…a Pure sine wave and pop it in yourself.  Only two cable connections. The AC is a slam dunk.  Save your phone line to the remote…but BUY a new remote….mind bit the dust.  Then the Battery Temp Sensor comes with it,  easy to run.

YES…more, but you will have a better inverter and it sill increase the value, as well as the enjoyment of your MH.

Unsolicited….but you sre about  the 25th plus individual that  I have worked with.  Many salvaged their existing and the ones that popped for the new one said best decision ever made.

Good Luck…just sit down and figure out what makes the most sense…

[TomV48]

TOM CHERRY

I do not know about these Tech procedures THAT SAY TO take the wires off the device.   The RENOGY "engineer" (and after talking to him at length, that title is iffy) also insisted that I needed to disconnect the wires from my DC to DC charger to clear error faults. But electrons do not know if the wire is attached or not. They just know conductivity of none and turning off the POWER SWITCH or  In my case I have DC circuit breakers on both sides of the DC to DC which isolate the unit, works just fine.   Are they just suggesting detaching the CABLES because they do not trust us to otherwise be smart enough to DISCONNECT THE POWER.  Between my Magnum Inverter and the battery bank I have a BIG OLD RED KNOB THAT DISCONNECTS IT ALL.  Are they assuming that we MIGHT not have that full OFF SWITCH?

[Tom Cherry]

34 minutes ago, TomV48 said:

TOM CHERRY

I do not know about these Tech procedures THAT SAY TO take the wires off the device.   The RENOGY "engineer" (and after talking to him at length, that title is iffy) also insisted that I needed to disconnect the wires from my DC to DC charger to clear error faults. But electrons do not know if the wire is attached or not. They just know conductivity of none and turning off the POWER SWITCH or  In my case I have DC circuit breakers on both sides of the DC to DC which isolate the unit, works just fine.   Are they just suggesting detaching the CABLES because they do not trust us to otherwise be smart enough to DISCONNECT THE POWER.  Between my Magnum Inverter and the battery bank I have a BIG OLD RED KNOB THAT DISCONNECTS IT ALL.  Are they assuming that we MIGHT not have that full OFF SWITCH?

What they are assuming or eliminating is that some “sneak” circuit exists between the batteries and the inverter.  The theory and I THINK the exact wording for the Magnum Hard Reset is to “disconnect the battery cables from the inverter”.  When you get stored gremlins….and they never get dissipated, all sorts of strange things happen,  FOR EXAMPLE, many laptops or desktops will get into a funk.  The tech support folks say to power down the laptop.  Remove the battery.  Don’t plug it in.  Hold down the power button for up to a minute so that any tiny electonvolt (flea kick as one of my EE profs said) is dissipated.  There are a plethora of capacitors on a PCB or in a power supply.  They STORE ENERGY….like the starting capacitor does to “jump start” your AC compressor.  You gotta drain and dissipate every minute, not measurable  amount.  If you find a bad component in a car’s electrical system and the “genius” from AutoZone says…buy this…it will fix it, even if it does, it takes 3 drivability cycles to reset the “idiot light”.  OR…Pull the cables and hold down the horn button for a minute. Some disreputable used car dealers will pull the battery cable from a car with an emissions problem ….so that when the customer who called shows up, NO IDIOT LIGHT.  Then rarely does the light come back on as  it can take up to a 20 mile “drive cycle” for the CPU to say “thats ONE”. And then MOST of the CPU’s have to “record 3” and then on the Fourth one…OK…IDIOT light.

If you did not pull the battery cables from the Magnum, I would.  Yes…if you have disconnects and you know for a fact that there is no “sneak” circuit…then the test will ,be for naught…but sometimes, I have a real life example, it took 3 hard restarts to clean out a Magnum….and it is running, or I have  NOT been advised to the contrary, today.  

That’s my explanation….and what I just told you came from several Magnum techs…and the one that said…30 minutes or so….it has been known to take that long, gave me the knowledge and it has worked…but maybe, my luck has run out…but, it came from tech support snd not some other “internet” source…let us know…