Pinging noise under couch

[beetlebob]

I have had a pinging noise under the couch for a few weeks now. When at the mother ship they said that they never heard it and have read that it is not a problem. Well now I have no pinging noise and the batteries are not charging. Never had a problem before I went to the factory for work. Had to replace the 2 30 amp fuses in the fuse box after the repairs. Did not know they were bad until we left and the solar could not keep up. Confused. Was thinking of upgrading the convertor/charger. How hard to do?

[jayseejay]

I don't know where your factory solar controller is located but mine made a ticking or pinging noise every few seconds when it went bad in my 2011 FC. Replacing it stopped the noise. Joe

[beetlebob]

Well now the pinging is back and the batteries are charging??????

[richinny]

yes, it is the solar controller. it is quiet when it sleeps.

[pmclemore]

Did Monty Python misplace their machine that goes "Ping"?

Good luck - Pat

[beetlebob]

Well I waited a while to respond. Yes it pings when we are not hooked up and have now determined that it's the solar charger. Why it's now making the noise is a mystery but it works so will wait and see on it. Now the convertor/charger after blowing 3 sets of 30 amp fuses has stopped doing that and is working great. O well. Planning on a newer better convertor in the future so fingers crossed all will be ok. Now onto the blasted power awning. Worst thing ever put on the trailer. Just had it fixed and it worked 2 times great and now shows status when it's closed instead of closed. I had a kill switch hooked up at the mother ship so power off until I get a day off

[beetlebob]

Well riddle me this. I am off today so I try to use my power awning. The one that didn't work right. SURPRISE it works great. So maybe since it was broken for so long it may of had rust on the motor contacts? Only time will tell but for once in a year since I have owned this trailer everything is working properly ( knock on wood)

[BAB]

If you are blowing the 30 amp fuses in the converter/charger, I'd bet you have an intermittent short circuit somewhere. It's obviously possible that it's the unit itself, but I'd be looking for a short first. Replacing it is not difficult at all.

[beetlebob]

Thanks Babs. Going to replace in the future with a good 4 stage unit. Want to wait a while to see if the electrical gnome goes away

[alano]

beetlebob, you might consider upgrading to the Blue Sky solar controller and IPN remote. It works well by reusing the CAT5 cable to connect the remote and includes a proper battery monitor. The Blue Sky has a three-stage charger so you can avoid or delay the need to upgrade your converter.

On another note, I too have added an awning disconnect switch and found some strange behaviour of the awning even if I first reset the controller after applying power. Since I took delivery of my trailer I sent back the awning controller to ZipDee after reading about a possible motor burn-out problem when the batteries are low. When I removed the controller myself, I was surprised by the relatively stiff solid copper wire connections to the controller's terminals. My own suspicion on why some of these controllers have deployed haphazardly has to do with intermittent contact of these power connections while the trailer is moving. I'm glad I added the disconnect switch for security. The folks at ZipDee said they were planning to add a disconnect switch in the future.