Zamp Plug Reverse Wired?

[dasams]

My wife and I bought a 2017 FC 25 in Aug and are still working through the punch list of warranty items. Now it appears I have a new item to add.

We received our Zamp 160 watt portable panels today and I promptly set them up for a quick test. Since our FC has the prewired Zamp SAE plug adjacent to the battery, I removed the applicator clips from the charge line and plugged it into the Zamp SAE plug. The controller indicated '602' and that is a code for Reverse Battery Connection. Uh Oh.

So I plugged the alligator clips back into the charge line and clipped them on the terminals. Bingo! 13.7 volts. So wtf?

I traced the Zamp wire from the A frame plug and it splits in two: a red wire that goes to the red "+" terminal and a black wire that goes to the neg terminal. So that appears correct.

The only other thing I can think of is that the wire that is attached to the Zamp SAE plug was wired backwards. Anyone have any other ideas?

Here's a picture of my battery box that shows the Zamp plug but it's hard to follow the wires in this shot.

[AWCHIEF]

I day fix. Reverse the wiring and see what happens.

[interstateflyer]

ZAMP sent me a new properly wired adapter for my 2017 25FB. They mentioned that a batch of reversed polarity adapters were sent to Airstream. Temporary solution is to reverse the leads on the battery.

[dasams]

Originally Posted by interstateflyer

ZAMP sent me a new properly wired adapter for my 2017 25FB. They mentioned that a batch of reversed polarity adapters were sent to Airstream. Temporary solution is to reverse the leads on the battery.

Good info. Thanks for posting. Dave

[martin300662]

This is a long standing issue with Zamp and others using the SAE type connectors, not restricted to this application. On a 2 pin plug you would expect the live to be shielded, which in the case of a SAE connector means the receiving pin isn't; it is exposed. Well guess what? in this case the receiving pin is connected to the battery positive. You can swap the pins or do as I did and make a 'polarity changer' but whichever way you look at it, you are trying to connect a live feed from the Zamp to a live feed from the battery and you will leave one of them unshielded, and reliant on a secondary cover. I use the same bulk head connector (not supplied by Zamp) for a Zamp 200W suitcase and a Deltran battery tender, the Deltran follows the SAE standard and has it's live unshielded to allow it connect to the battery live (shielded), but the Zamp supplied cable doesn't follow the SAE stand so needs a polarity changer. Maybe it helps that the Deltran has in-built polarity and short-circuit protection when I am pretty sure the Zamp panel controller doesn't.

[dasams]

I just spoke to Zamp and they acknowledged that their vendor cross wired a batch of connectors. They're sending a replacement and it should be a 10 min job to swap them out.

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by dasams

I just spoke to Zamp and they acknowledged that their vendor cross wired a batch of connectors. They're sending a replacement and it should be a 10 min job to swap them out.

More than likely their vendor wired them correctly (per the SAE standard) which is actually reversed relative to their panel (which doesn't follow the standard). So if you change the connector and then use a different charging device it probably won't work.