PD4655 Install with Pictures

[68 Overlander]

Originally Posted by dasams

I did the same damn thing. The instructions aren't very good IMO. This is a simple install and should take 10 minutes the second time you do it. But the first time is tricky. Sorry it didn't go well.

I agree with this. The instructions are pretty clear, but to somebody that had never twisted a screwdriver, it take a little thinking like an Ikea piece of furniture when I was younger It's not difficult and when I get the call, it usually on the final step and most have it right but just want to make sure.

[duckdave]

Thanks to Snowy for the original posting of this thread. His/her posting of pictures and steps for upgrading from Parallax to PD4655 was a great help!

Next, I'd like to thank Randy of BestConverter.com for his expert guidance and recommendations. He appears in Airforums, and in this thread, as a Commercial Member as 68 Overlander.

My transplant was successful and not too difficult. I'll just add a couple of comments about what I encountered. Most of these are already covered if you do a careful reading of this long thread, and I certainly encourage you to do so especially if you are not super experienced doing this sort of stuff.
1) Yeah, do disconnect all power sources, including battery and shore power. Go back and check.
2) Use your cell phone to take some pictures as you go. I kept a pad of paper handy to make notes on, too.
3) The way Snowy transferred all the DC output connections to the distribution board worked well for me.
4)The first two positions on the distribution board are for some sort of low current use. Didn't know what would qualify for that, so I started with circuit position 3, as did the OP. Theres plenty of circuits left over still for my simple system.
5) Some of the wiring needs to be longer to reach their destination on the new board. You can take the 4 securing screws out and move the entire unit out. Getting behind the chasis, you can loosen the restraint clamps and feed more wire into the DC distribution area. Don't forget to retighten the restraint clamps for reassembly.
6) Be careful with the wiring from the converter, below, to the AC and DC distribution boards, above. After I read of D44 experience, and before I fired everything up, I disassembled the covers and checked every connection—a third time. The three wires (black, white and green, should be loosely bundled together with wire tie) need to cross over from the right side of the converter and go into the AC distribution panel on the left upper side (with the circuit breakers in it). The black and white pair of wires need to cross over from the left side of the converter to the right side DC panel. The layout is not intuitive, so triple check this so you don't let any smoke out!
7) My unit had the weird "Y" splice that goes into one of the circuit breakers that is not mentioned in the instructions. The one that powers the converter/charger below. Unless you can figure out a way to reuse this "Y splice", you need to come up with a solution that does not have you putting two wires into one breaker connection point. I had a piece of scrap 14G 3-wire cable from a home-improvement project that I cut a section of 14G black wire (solid copper wire) from. I used about 3-4" to make a pigtail to the breaker. I connected all the other needed wires to this pigtail, reusing the original wire nut. Various ways to solve this puzzle are covered in several other posts.
8) Check all your connections again, before testing. I crossed my fingers and brought up various parts of the circuitry one a at time. I'm sure that was just superstitious behavior that did not help in any way, but it made me feel better.
8)You need to use the new provided screws to secure the face-cover to the now upgraded converter charger. The old screws are too large diameter to go into the new converter/charger lower unit. This point is subtle, but you can waste some time trying to reuse the old screws (don't ask me how I know). This point has also been made before, but somehow I missed it.

So, how's it all work now? Overall, I'm mostly satisfied. As I said, I brought various part of the system up gradually, so it took a couple days to have everything working together. Finally, I left it plugged in overnight and went home...

When I got back the next day, there was a very noticeable hum coming from the unit. All loads (that I know of) were off, the battery seemed fully charged, and the pendant was blinking in a "flash about every 6 sec" mode, which I think means the charger is in storage or maintenance mode. This was a disturbing noise. I took the cover off and inspected the fans, could find no evidence of fan movement. I turned on the overhead (incandescent, for now) lighting, the hum immediately went away. Light off, hum back. Tried some of the LED lights I converted: 1 LED—hum decreased, 2 LEDs—decreased some more, 3 LEDs—could not detect hum. Hmmmm (no pun intended). Put everything back in full hum mode, and went on and switched the LPG switch—hum gone. Next, I called Randy! He said this is a fairly common problem that usually goes away with use, just to go about using my system as I normally would, and if it doesn't go away, or at least become a non-issue, to get back with him. Now, I don't exactly understand why it's doing this, and why it would go away. But for now, that's what I'm doing. We shall see.

[Fred L]

Subscribing, very helpful thread.

[mikeljla]

Snowy

Your step by step instructions along with the color pics were much better than the b&w instructions from PD.

I was able to install pretty quickly and it works! I The hard part was putting back all the small screws.

Thanks!

[Rocket53]

My next project

[Skip Stone]

I own a 20' 2016 Flying Cloud and recently (this weekend) exchanged the Parallax converter to the PD 4655, following the detailed instructions and photos from Snowy. The install seemed to progress without any problems. The following day I installed my batteries and also connected to shore power, to charge the batteries in preparation for our trip next week.

I noticed in the breaker panel, breaker #3 and #5 from the left were tripped down to the off position. Breaker #5 did switch to the on position, however I cannot get the #3 breaker to stay in the on position. Also, the light on the remote wizard pendent did not come on, indicating it is not functioning. All other lights, fan, and other switches work.

I have attached (hopefully) three pictures to possibly provide trouble shooting and insight. I knew this should be a simple project, however just looking at anything electrical creates a "fear factor". (if the pictures are not attached, can someone offer assistance to attach from my desktop?)

Thanks, Skip

[mikeljla]

From looking at your diagram , you have used the first two terminals , which are low voltage. Skip the first two and start with the third one.

[Snowy]

I hope this is not the case but double check the black and white wires connected to the top of the 12v board and ensure they are the low voltage 12v wires and not the 110v wires.

Shift the 12v outputs across two spots as the other poster said too. However that's probably only going to effect the output not input.

You have a 110v issue. Check your wiring.

[Skip Stone]

Thanks for your assistance. I wanted to be certain of the replies. I should move the purple wire to slot # 3 under the first 15 amp fuse, and then sequentially move the other wires to the right. Is that correct?

Since I will not be able to resolve the wiring until this weekend, is there any way I could damage the electrical system that is now still connected to the batteries and shore power?

Thanks, Skip

[Snowy]

Yes on the 12v wires. Just move all two spots to the right.

Looking at the picture of the 110v breakers, the 3rd breaker is the 2nd 20amp which is your converter. I now believe with more conviction that you somehow wired up the converter incorrectly.

[duckdave]

Skip,

Trying to save you pouring over 10 pages of posts. Take a look at item 6 in post #122 above (by me, “duckdave”). I think this might take you to it.

Basically, wires on the left side of the converter/charger (lower unit) go to the right-side DC board. Wires on the right side of the converter/charger go the left-side AC panel. Just make sure you got that confusing part correct.

If you got your PD from bestconverter.com call Randy!

[Skip Stone]

Dave,
Thanks for the analysis. I just removed the all the covers and discovered just what you and Snowy suggested. I did incorrectly connect the wires from the converter to the board. The wires from the left went to the left and the wires from the right went to the right.

I will switch them tomorrow and hopefully did not damage the circuit board.

The Air Stream family is supportive and awesome.
Skip

[duckdave]

Skip,
You’re certainly not the first to find this confusing part of the instructions. I might have done the same except for “learning from the mistakes of others” via this forum (thanks, Airforums!).

I suspect this might be the most efficient way for PD to manufacture this upgrade, given that it has to serve as the upgrade path for several different converter/chargers. It might make perfect sense from the left-right perspective for another upgrade path, I donno. But it is clearly confusing for the upgrade path we were on. Hopefully, PD will consider some bold type emphasis in their instructions.

Hope you emerge unscathed. Keep us posted about outcomes.

[DreamsInSlvr]

Hello Snowy,
I want to thank you for all of your hard work in posting the installation instructions for the PD4655. I just completed the very same replacement on my 23D 2013 International. Everything seemed just fine after the installation; batteries were charging, shore power worked too.

However here is the mystery : when I turned the furnace on with battery power only, I lost all power in the trailer!! No fuses were blown, no breakers were tripped!!

The only way to restore power is to connect shore power again! What could be causing this problem? I wonder if it is a bad converter/charger unit? Wouldn't the fuses blow or breakers trip? It seems putting a load on the system like turning on the water pump or furnace causes a complete breakdown in the system.

Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by DreamsInSlvr

Hello Snowy,

I want to thank you for all of your hard work in posting the installation instructions for the PD4655. I just completed the very same replacement on my 23D 2013 International. Everything seemed just fine after the installation; batteries were charging, shore power worked too.



However here is the mystery : when I turned the furnace on with battery power only, I lost all power in the trailer!! No fuses were blown, no breakers were tripped!!



The only way to restore power is to connect shore power again! What could be causing this problem? I wonder if it is a bad converter/charger unit? Wouldn't the fuses blow or breakers trip? It seems putting a load on the system like turning on the water pump or furnace causes a complete breakdown in the system.



Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!

I would start debug at the use/store switch.

[DreamsInSlvr]

Hello fellow subscribers to this thread,

Please take a quick look see at my installation. Does everything look correct?

I am perplexed about the upper right hand corner where the very large battery wire is connected to the positive converter post and not to the positive BATTERY post. Everything seems to work so far, just wondering.

Thanks to all for an excellent thread!! Our batteries thank you!!

Jim

[Al and Missy]

Sorry but I'm confused. It looks to me like the large red wire is connected to the positive battery post, the black wire is connected to the positive converter post, the smaller white wire is connected to the battery negative post and the larger white wire is connected to the converter negative post.

I'm guessing, but the larger white wire may go to the negative terminal on the battery and the smaller black wire to the converter negative. I do suspect that those two posts on the circuit board are connected together on the board so which wire goes where for the negative doesn't matter but for consistency's sake you could swap the white wires (if I'm right about the two being electrically the same).

Al

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by DreamsInSlvr

Hello fellow subscribers to this thread,



Please take a quick look see at my installation. Does everything look correct?



I am perplexed about the upper right hand corner where the very large battery wire is connected to the positive converter post and not to the positive BATTERY post. Everything seems to work so far, just wondering.



Thanks to all for an excellent thread!! Our batteries thank you!!



Jim

I assume you are talking about the white "negative" wires on the top right.

As others have said, the conv and batt terminals are connected on the PCB so it doesn't really matter which is which. But you can switch the two white wires around if you would like the thick white battery wire to match up with the batt terminal.

[Arnoldter]

Originally Posted by D44

So after talking to the service department at Colonial and Randy at Bestconverter it appears that I hooked the black and white wires from the D.C. Side of the PD 4655 to the AC side of the trailer. I used the black and white wires on the left side of the converter, directly under the AC trailer connection. I should have used the black and white wires that were bundled with the green ground wire. Randy thought that the sparks and smoke was me burning out the board on the new converter.

Looks like the old Parallax will go back in until I can order a replacement PD 4655 - or I will leave if for Colonial to do in mid-July. A moderately expensive reminder to read ALL directions and labels a number of times and to check everything multiple times before throwing the switch.

Thanks

[Fred L]

Installed my new PD4655 today.
Not complicated, but did have a few moments of sitting back thinking, "there has to be a better way".
First of all, I tried struggling with the battery cables and became frustrated with their difficulty in maneuvering them.
So I removed the entire cabinet and found the wire clamps on the back and loosened them to give me as much cable as I needed. Then when done, I push the cable back through to the point where almost all the slack was out.
I would have been there a lot longer if I didn't.
Second frustration was purely user error. I thought I had the correct socket for my screw driver, so when I went to reseat the board, the screws would feed, but then just spin. But they had grabbed, but would only move in ever so slightly. At that point I started to think there was some kind of nut on the back that wasn't engaging. I tried to back them out and again, barely moving.
I tried to twist them by hand but hard to get a grip, but they seemed to move.
Cutting to the chase, I had used the socket needed to remove the plate from the 120 panel.... and while close in size (metric), would just spin on the heads. Feeling pretty dumb right now, but have done a fair share of mechanical work and haven't experienced that ever before. Needless to say I put the flat blade driver in and they went right in. It took that for me to realize my mistake. Lost close to 1/2 hour on that alone.
Made it all the way to the end, and plugged the 4 prong plug into the panel, but no clue what I should do with the other end. Frankly thought that was what was used for the pendant, which I don't have so I didn't do anything with it. Hooked it all up, switched out the 12v fuses and knew it was time to see how well I did. Hooked the battery back up and plugged the AC in.
TA DA... it worked. Except the green light wasn't on..... frustrated since I couldn't think of a thing I did wrong. Went out with a multimeter and batteries were not charging. Came back in, went to Snowy's thread and started studying things and there is was.... the 4 prong plug connects to the converter board (kind of like what the instructions say, but don't show and I kind of thought if it were to connect to anything of importance, there should be a pic). BTW, the instructions are kind of ok, but miss a number of steps and if it wasn't for this thread, I wouldn't have been able to figure this one out. So thanks to Snowy and all the others here who contributed. And thanks to Randy for his assistance in figuring out the right converter etc.
So its all now working, I put the AC plate back on, and now know what socket to put in the driver... then the cover. Come to find out the factory most likely put the plastic clasp on vertical instead of horizontal, which is why after towing, the converter cover was always open. Punched that out and put it back in turned 90 degrees and that works tightly now.
But darn if the screws wouldn't go back in. Struggled for a while with that think the holes weren't lined up. Finally pulled the cover away and tried to thread a screw... and they wont thread. I was happy enough and figure I would go get some at the store this week. So cleaning up and dumped the envelope out and a small bag with 4 tiny screws came out... ahh done.
The only thing I didn't use was a black plastic bar type thing about 4 inches long ? Please don't tell me that is something I should have put on the converter before I put it back in, or worse yet the board...