Magnum Fault! No Comm

[ofdcb]

Checked on my 2013 AI and there was no indication of the battery status. After bringing the RV home and applying shore power the Magnum showed Fault! No Comm.

I'm in west Tx and the temps have been in low 30's. Could this be the cause?

Thank you for any help

Chris

[lewster]

On your Magnum you will see a little grey re-set button next to a green LED. No comm means that the ME-MR and your MMS-1012 are not speaking.

Press and hold the grey button until the green LED starts flickering. Check your remote to see if contact has been re-established.

If not, check the telephone-type cable running between the remote and the inverter. Unplug and the-plug and be sure you hear a distinctive click.

If neither of these actions show a bad cable or connection and the 'soft' re-set does not solve the problem you will need a 'hard' re-set where all power is removed from the inverter (AC and DC) for 15 min.

If no joy there, next step is to have the unit and remote tested by a factory authorized Magnum service center.


Lew Farber
RVIA/RVDA Nationally Certified Master Tech
ABYC Certified Master Marine Electrician
Master Tech Energy Systems, Inc.
AM Solar Certified Installation Center*AMS Lithium Batteries
Lifeline AGM Batteries**Magnum Inverters
541-490-6357

[c21]

Lew a friend will soon be picking up an 08 Holiday Rambler Endeavor that is supposed to come with factory solar prewire. Do you have any experience on these or the counterpart Monaco's. If so, what is the extent and size of the prewire. He is thinking about installing a pair of the AM Solar 160W panels with a BlueSky Controller
Thanks in advance.
Bill

[lewster]

Originally Posted by c21bill

Lew a friend will soon be picking up an 08 Holiday Rambler Endeavor that is supposed to come with factory solar prewire. Do you have any experience on these or the counterpart Monaco's. If so, what is the extent and size of the prewire. He is thinking about installing a pair of the AM Solar 160W panels with a BlueSky Controller
Thanks in advance.
Bill

Bill,

AM Solar was the OEM supplier to Monaco Coach Corp. which made the Holiday Ramblers in '08. From what I've seen, they provided 10AWG pre-wire…..just like Airstream does. That won't cut it for 320 watts of solar modules, especially considering the long runs required in a motor home.

In this situation, especially if he has no plans for expanding the system, he would do well with a Blue Sky 2512iX-HV controller with the iPN-PRO remote and use 6AWG duplex cables up to 30 feet. 4AWG if the combined runs will be over that.

If he wants more 'head room' for expansion, then the Blue SKY 3024iL would be my choice along with 4AWG duplex cable.

[ofdcb]

Is this located under the sofa? If so which side should I look on. This is a 2013 AI extended lounge.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by ofdcb

Is this located under the sofa? If so which side should I look on. This is a 2013 AI extended lounge.

Should be under the lounge. Access from the rear doors. Remove the black fabric that's velcro'd to the housing in the middle of the coach, under the lounge. Should be 3 screws on the vertical edges of the wood box.

Remove the top grill and the back panel and the Magnum should be in sight. Look for the green LED (might not be illuminated) and there will be a little grey flush mounted soft re-set button. Press and hold until the LED flutters and see if the system fault has been relieved.

[ofdcb]

Tried the soft rest- no luck.
Tried the hard reset- still no luck.

I've pulled the house batteries and placed them in charger.

Could this possibly be related to the freezing temperatures I've had here over the past week or possibly just need new inverter?

If I do need a new magnum inverter any suggestions as to an upgrade or stick with what is there now?




Thanks

[lewster]

How old are your batteries and can you independently measure the voltage?

I am not a fan of the ME-MR remote. I only use Magnum's ME-RC or on rare occasion, the ME-ARC advanced remote, which you really don't need unless you're a tech geek.

If you were going to upgrade the inverter, the next step up is the Magnum MS-2012 which is a good first step toward eventual battery replacement with lithiums.

See what your battery voltage is and let us know.

Also, have you checked the ANL fuse that's in the positive inverter cable? They are in a plastic cover screwed into the floor just below the BIM solenoid. See if you are getting 12VDC on both sides of that fuse. If it's bad……you won't see anything on your remote either.

[ofdcb]

I purchased new batteries in November. Went with Lifeline GPL-4CT (6 volt in series)

The first battery was down to 2 volts according to the charger

The second battery was down to 0.0 volts.

I had just brought the unit home a week ago and connected it to shore power to charge the batteries and everything seemed to be working normally then.

[ofdcb]

What in the world could have drained the batteries? I had the battery switch off. Confirmed by the radio not working with the ignition off and none of the switches provided power.

[lewster]

Wow! I have never seen a new Lifeline battery completely flat like that. I would not count on the readings from the internal voltage sense, preferring to measure directly at the batteries.

Please don't get insulted by this question, but we're the batteries properly connected in series and not parallel ?

Also, did you use an external battery charger to bring them back over 12.0 VDC? The inverter should be able to take over at that point to continue the charge.

As for your power drain.....very difficult to ascertain. Generally, unless you have rewired your disconnect switch to interrupt the main positive battery cable, you will still have some loading for items like LP solenoid and CO detector.


Lew Farber
RVIA/RVDA Nationally Certified Master Tech
ABYC Certified Master Marine Electrician
Master Tech Energy Systems, Inc.
AM Solar Certified Installation Center*AMS Lithium Batteries
Lifeline AGM Batteries**Magnum Inverters
541-490-6357

[ofdcb]

Charging the first one now. Not sure if the second one will take a charge since it's completely drained.

I did have them connected in series correctly.

Just can't imagine what could have impacted the batteries so severely.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by ofdcb

Just can't imagine what could have impacted the batteries so severely.

Only thing I know of that can cause a battery to show 0 volts is a dead short. Possibly the battery was dropped on its head as a child and the posts were damaged. In any event, a battery showing 0.0 volts cannot be recharged.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by ofdcb

Charging the first one now. Not sure if the second one will take a charge since it's completely drained.

I did have them connected in series correctly.

Just can't imagine what could have impacted the batteries so severely.

If you're charging them individually, I sure hope you are using a 6VDC charger………...

[ofdcb]

Yes I am

[ofdcb]

Update.

The battery that showed 0.0 volts showed 3.2 volts yesterday. After charging overnight (6volt charger) it's back to 100%. I will check it again when I get home to see if it's maintained its charge.

I will reconnect everything this weekend to see if this was the cause of the magnum fault.

[JPAIRSTREAM]

The no Comm is coming from the battery voltage being too low and not allowing the Magnum invertor to communicate with the system.

If this happens, you would need to get voltage up. So if you start your engine and allow it to run it will charge the house battery to raise the voltage. So leaving the unit plugged in with engine running this will allowing the Magnum Invertor to work again.

[Amg]

Perhaps someone can help. On several occasions the Magnum shut off with the No Comm fault on the remote screen. I was able to clear the faults by shutting off all power with the shutoff. In the past I never turned off the Magnum inverter when I turned on the generator. Perhaps that caused the fault when the generator took over the A/C power. I use the invertor to run the TV. Now The past day I shut off the invertor before turning on the generator and so far have not had a fault. Any help would be appreciated.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by Amg

Perhaps someone can help. On several occasions the Magnum shut off with the No Comm fault on the remote screen. I was able to clear the faults by shutting off all power with the shutoff. In the past I never turned off the Magnum inverter when I turned on the generator. Perhaps that caused the fault when the generator took over the A/C power. I use the invertor to run the TV. Now The past day I shut off the invertor before turning on the generator and so far have not had a fault. Any help would be appreciated.

There is no internal relationship between having the inverter 'ON' and then applying shore power sourced either from the generator or the power post that should create a problem as you described. The Magnum has an internal transfer switch which will pass thru any shore power once detected and will cease to 'invert' the DC into 120VAC.

It is usually a bad idea to leave the inverter in the 'ON' position, as it will create it's own parasitic load on the batteries while it is 'searching' for a load. I always council my clients to leave the inverter 'OFF' until you want to create 120VAC from the batteries and then turn the inverter 'ON, then switch it OFF again when finished using the device.

[Amg]

Lew
Thanks for help. Going through the check list further up this thread, I know it is not a loose cable since I checked it. It is sporadic thus it must be the inverter itself. I will have it checked out. Thanks again