Yup, Ken. It took me awhile to get the hang of it also. It's kind of like getting a new cell phone - their organization is not always intuitive, especially to the cyber-challenged like me. The owner's manuals don't always explain everything you need to know either.
You have to push in on the selector knob to actually set or activate the selection that's currently onscreen. The AGS button on the faceplate merely brings up the AGS menu onscreen so you can select from options; the button itself doesn't activate any generator operational function, like ON or OFF.
The telltale thing to go by here is the left arrow (<) icon I mentioned in my previous post. If you turn the selector knob and scroll through menus, you will see that icon immediately to the right of whatever function is currently activated. And activated functions should always come up first onscreen after you initially go to a menu that has several functions available.
So if you push the AGS button, select AutoGenSt Cntrl, and the first thing onscreen is AutoGenSt OFF <, then the AGS is indeed off. If the first thing onscreen is AutoGenSt Enabl <, or AGS w/ Quiet Time <, then it is on. The little < is the clue, and only one of the 4 possible functions you can scroll to in that menu will have the < beside it.
AutoGenSt Enabl and AGS w/ Quiet Time do the same thing: they turn on the generator in one or both of two situations - 1) the battery bank voltage falls below a set level, or 2) the interior coach temperature reaches a set point that might trigger the thermostats to run the air conditioners, which need the generator to run. Pretty simple, really, since there are only those two reasons for the AGS to exist. By choosing AGS w/ Quiet Time instead of AutoGenSt Enabl, you merely are adding into the mix that, should low battery voltage or high interior temperature trigger the generator to come on, it will never happen between certain night time hours. That's great, but it theoretically leaves a person open to waking up in the morning with dead batteries if some component draws some serious current overnight.
One further option onscreen which you've probably scrolled across, is Set Current Time, and that relates to the Quiet Time lockout feature - you adjust for the appropriate quiet time period by using the Magnum black control box in the outside electrical bay, but it won't work right if the system doesn't know the current time of day. So if you are going to use AGS w/ Quiet Time instead of just AutoGenSt Enabl, then the screen will want you to make sure it's timeclock is correctly set. I had trouble with that one when we first got the coach, as the AM/PM wasn't set right, so the thing wouldn't come on mid-day, but did come on in the middle of a warm night! We often don't set the air conditioners to come on and don't mind slightly high temps; but when the interior of the rig got to 75 degrees the generator would kick on out of the blue. I'd go kick the switch on the dash off, and seconds later the generator would kick on again. Aggravating, and perplexing, til I got the clue by hook or by crook of how to turn the AGS off.
That black Magnum control box in the outside electrical bay, by the way, is also where you set the low voltage point, the coach interior temperature point, and the length of run time for the AGS, as well as Quiet Time hours. (Ignore the Clock AM/PM setting on the black box, since it is disabled on our coaches that are networked with inverters). Theoretically, one could rotate both the Start Temp F and Start Volts DC knobs fully counterclockwise to OFF and prevent the generator from auto starting if setting the inside remote wasn't doing it.
Hope I didn't add to any confusion. If not, and you need more input, feel free to ask. And thanks for bringing up the subject, Ken... I needed to refresh myself on the topic.
-Joel
