New brake controller not working ! ackkk

[arcamedies]

Just as I was getting ready to pull out for a 6 day jaunt after hooking up I doing a pre-flight (tow) inspection I realized that my Prodigy P3 controller looked dead. Yup dead as a doornail no display, no brakes, no nothing!!!

Panic time!!!, I only had an hour to get it fixed and couldn't find the instructions to troubleshoot.

Frantically and in dress cloths I quickly checked all connections, pushed the buttons, to no avail, and finally noticed that the display still had a faint glimmer of green light at an angle, so it's got juice, oh my God the controller has had an internal problem, GAHHHHHHH.

I tried calling 411 for Tekonsha on my cell, bless the new automated phone books, it didn't recognize tekonsha no matter how I tried saying it I don't want the number for Tacumsah, grrrrrrrrr.

Now blood pressure near 500 over 350, eyes bulging past my nose, and more frantic than ever, 20 minutes to launch or miss my appointment 3 hours later 65 miles away, I take it down from the dash bracket, (can't release the plug while attached to dash, bad design), and unplug it and count to 5 and plug it back in.

Voila Tekonsha display and it works. What thaaaaa, finally realized and laughed after realizing that a few days earlier we had a nasty lightning storm and an errant charge must had confused the computer. phewwww

When all else fails unplug it and plug it in again, hasn't missed a lick since.
Now how to attach a lightning rod to my Cruiser hmmm ???

[Mel]

Whew! Your writing style certainly manages to convey the panic that comes from having something go wrong just as you're trying to pull out of the driveway. Thanks for the story!

[bobfowler]

Reminds me of when I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why the tail lights on my Base Camp didn't work. The contacts between the rear doors and the body were dirty...

[airstream66]

This happened to me a few weeks ago with mine, but unplugging it and plugging it back in didn't help. Had to make a pit stop at the nearest Rural King. I think mine got zapped when I had shore power still plugged in when I hooked up my truck to check the lights before leaving. Still haven't figured that one out. Maybe its that I don't have a battery and my uni volt is original.