smart wheel

[Dave Cunningham]

Ok here's one for you, due to a leak in the front electrical bay, the controller for my smart wheel got wet and I guess some of the terminals shorted out, anyway after doing all the diagnostic tests on it I figured I needed a new controller, so I ordered one from VIP and installed it this morning. I was looking forward to jumping in the drivers seat and having everything work perfectly, no such luck, I turned on the ignition and fired it up, tried the wipers , they worked perfectly, then the horn, no horn tried the cruise to bump up the idle, nothing ( yes I had the engine brake off) so then I went to shut the engine off and the ignition switch does nothing, you can switch it to whatever position you want and nothing happens. So then just by playing around with the buttons, I find out that if you press the marker light flash button , that shuts the motor off, tried it all again , same thing , only now the horn works.
How can the smart wheel control the ignition system? I guess I must have a bad controller , checked all the connections and there is only one way they can go. Just wondered if anyone else had, had theirs act up in this manner.

[Joel Ashley]

It sounds like a miswired or faulty relay, Dave, but I don't know which one.  Somehow, the flasher relay is serving to complete the ignition "On" circuit to the engine, so that turning the key off alone doesn't break the battery to engine line.  I perused my book of schematics, but the one diagram I have of the cruise control wiring does not include a VIP control unit drawing of the marker light flasher, just the headlight flash side.  Reckon I'm not much help. Too bad you didn't attempt this install on a business day so you could get help from VIP.

Joel

[Dave Cunningham]

Thanks for your input Joel, I have made a little progress, I was searching the Internet for smart wheel problems, and actually ran across a post from the BAC website and someone was talking about having daytime running lights, they didn't get into detail about what this had to do with the smart wheel , but it sparked my memory, as I had installed the daytime running light module that is needed here in Canada, just shortly after the smart wheel controller failed.
So I went back up to the motorhome and cut all the wires to the daytime running light module and fired up the coach, obviously it had something to do with it because now everything works properly, including the ignition switch, except the cruise control, not sure what's up there but I will give VIP a call on Monday.

[Edward Buker]

Dave,

You could look at the Roy Mueller headlight modification where you add a Bosch type relay. In your case you would do just the low beams only and tie the coil lead that activates the relay to the buss that is powered up with the ignition solenoid. On my 2002 Marquis that is the right copper buss under the driver seat area in the compartment in front of the driver side front wheel. The relay coil would be connected to ground and that buss. When you turn on the ignotion the relay would turn on the headlights. This would allow you to ignore the extra VIP Smart Wheel module seeing you have everything else working without it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmYyoILEhMY

Later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Hey that's a great idea Ed, I did just finish doing the headlight conversion, but that would be an easy way to accomplish the daytime running lights , I still do have one problem with the smart wheel though, there is no cruise control function, seems strange that the controller would be bad right from VIP, I am sure they test everything before it goes out. It still makes me wonder if I have done something wrong , or that there is another problem.

[Edward Buker]

Dave,

I'm sure you are aware that the cruise only works above some speed, probably about 35MPH. It does seem strange that all the other things work, let us know what you learn.

Later Ed

[Roy Mueller]

Dave,

You said you had water in the electrical bay.  Check the big canon plugs in the electrical bay for corrosion.   I have found a problem there.  Just  wire around any bad connection.  Also clean your smart wheel contacts with a cotton swap and alcohol.  Also, check with Lamar Keck.  He has had the same problem.  805-796-7213

Roy Mueller

[Joel Ashley]

My electric bay suffers from water intrusion as well, coming in through its ceiling, and apparently from points above, likely the windshield boot.  Beaver Coach Sales techs don't agree, but that boot is cracked across a couple feet of its top, and the only obvious possibility to me.

If I don't check it regularly I can find an inch of water in the bay's bottom.  I have found mild corrosion in a couple of pins within the connectors Roy refers to, as well as some rusting buss mounting screws.  On Ed Buker's advice, I applied Corrosion-X to all open metal connections and posts in the bay, and I also dabbed bulb grease on pins in the big black connectors.  Another issue is that the moisture swells the white panel board wall everything mounts to, causing it to crack.

So until I can ferret out and stop the water source, I keep a Dri-Z-Air unit in the bay, and try to keep it mopped and dry.

Joel

[Edward Buker]

Dave,

I neglected to mention when I talked about having the low beams relay triggered off of the buss that is on with the ignition on, that there are a couple of items to consider. You would take the trigger wire for the relay and attach that to one of the breaker terminals/wires coming off of that buss and not the buss itself to give you some level of breaker protection. You could put a 5amp inline fuse in that feed and then come off the buss or a breaker. The current for the trigger circuit is low enough to be negligable when picking a convenient breaker.

The other item is that I am working on the headlight modification as we speak and it is definately a vast improvement (thank you Roy and Steve) given at 13.1V on my buss I had only 9.1V actually going out to the headlights measured from the bay terminal point. (and I thought my eyes were failing :-) It would be lower voltage at the headlight itself. Given that I was doing a little wire sizing calculation, I took the time to do some measurements and measured 8.9 amps on the low beams, while feeding them 13.1V from the buss, and 9.8 amps for the high beams. I noticed that there is just one 20amp breaker feeding the headlight circuit and that is fine in the U.S.  I'm assuming Beaver has either the high beams on or the low beams but not both given the size of the breaker. If you are powering on the low beams all the time and will then add the high beams at times you need to change that 20 amp breaker to a 30amp. It is not a problem given there are 30 amp versions on that buss, you just need to get one in hand. I'm not sure how the VIP daylight light module system deals with this issue but if it powers up both high and low beam together and it is using that one 12V 20 amp breaker on the buss then the same holds true, you would need to change that out to a 30amp breaker.

I confirmed that only the high beams or low beams are on, but not both, for the standard wiring for the U.S. I believe that the headlight wiring is 12GA but even if it is 14GA it is acceptable for 35 amp capacity at 12V. I would only consider both high and low beam lights on at the same time with Roy's relay modification given it shortens all of the current paths and the voltage drops. You would not want to send that load through the dash switch.

Hope this helps.

Later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Thanks Ed, the daytime running light module , I was using wasn't made by VIP, it was some aftermarket brand, and that's good advise on the wiring method. But that is the least of my worries, right now. As I mentioned earlier, I got everything but the cruise control, working after disconnecting the DT RL module, and after talking to a tech at VIP, I found out that the cruise won't  work unless a jumper at the JP1 position on the board, is in the same position as the original one, which mine wasn't . But yesterday when I went to make that adjustment, everything was inoperable once again, got on the phone again with Smartwheel and after some testing ,realized that somehow the board has been damaged again. Victor at VIP told me to really check the two wires that run to the steering wheel, so I dismantled the wheel , got into the clock spring mech , ran continuity tests on both wires and there is nothing wrong with them. I have a new controller ordered ,but hate to install it , not knowing the cause of the problem, especially when they are , with shipping , $300.00 apiece .

[Edward Buker]

Dave,

Seeing you have been a good customer of VIP, see if they will test your current board and tell you what is wrong with it. That may yield some insight from them as to what might be happening. You might see how they handle the configuration for Canada and if they have a daytime running light module option.

If they relate this fail to the aftermarket module or you have your suspicions then remove it and get back to the VIP alone with the new board. Verify the jumpers and connectors are correct and see if you can get the original system to operate properly. If you can, I would opt for the external method to adapt daytime running lights unless there was an approved add on from VIP. Good luck, these are some thoughts and I'm not sure they will get you there....

Later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Ed,

I didn't ask them if they could test the board, but i did ask them if they were fixable, to which they replied ''no'' which i think probably means yes but we're not going to fix it for you. I am not even going to worry about the daytime running lights, I just needed them to pass the one time federal inspection, as part of the importation process, I just pray that the new one works properly when I install it.

[Dave Cunningham]

Just a final note on my smart wheel situation. Received another controller from VIP. Really cleaned up all the connections and plugged it all in, and success.  It all works properly.  The one note I wanted to add, for anyone who has to replace one in the future, is that, as I mentioned before,the cruise control will not function unless the jumper on terminal JP 2 is in the same position as the original one.  They shipped the controller with it on the second position, and Beaver used the first.

Dave