Xantrex sw2512 both red error lights on - no power - dead on the road

[Rick Vyncke]

Have a xantrex SW2512 in our 2004 Marquis.  Was hooked up to 30 amp shore which was insufficient to run all A/C so we ran generator.  All well until I shut down the generator. Then the inverter control panel would show an error.  I couldn't seem to clear the error and so I shut off all power, disconnect coach batteries.  Then turned off every circuit breaker and powered back up. The inverter panel looked liked it ca,e on without error. Yeah.  I began turning circuits back on one at a time.  During this process the inverter screen went blank but is still backlit.  Both error lights are on solid red.  One Amber inverting light is on.

We've got no power to anything.  Am at a campsite and in need of help/advice.   Called xantrex support and they said they would call a technician but have heard nothing yet.

Is there a way to reset the inverter?   Is it toast?   Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Edward Buker]

Mine has reset by disconnecting the house bank with the main switch in the battery compartment and then turning off all AC feed to the coach for 30 seconds and then turning it all back on. Both DC and AC needs to be disconnected to reset the unit. If you do not have a house switch then disconnect the main feed to the coach from the house battery bank.

Later Ed

[David T. Richelderfer]

Do you use a surge protector which will not allow shore power to pass through if it's out of voltage limits (I think 108v to 132v) or if the shore power polarity is incorrect?

I think I have the same inverter.  Does your inverter panel have a green and red square button on its lower right side and four up and down arrows (two of each up and down - down, up, down, up) on the lower left side just under the digital screen?

My inverter panel has two red lights on the upper right side - upper red light is labeled "error" and lower red light is labeled "over current."  Same?

Do you have a manual for your inverter?

[Rick Vyncke]

Thanks for the replies.  I was able to reset the inverter by disconnecting the coach batteries and then reconnecting.  Turning the disconnect switch would not do it. 

The house batteries were almost competent  discharged.  Down to just over 5 volts. 

I had to jump with car just to get some power. While Alladin shows that I am getting shore power (park only has 30 amp) it is discharging the house batteries unless I run the generator

The generator did not auto-start.  According to the Xantrex user manual it should be able to auto start the generator.  We're the Beavers setup to do that?  Mine doesn't seem to be.

In any event it looks like I need to take her in and have her checked out.

Thanks again!

[David T. Richelderfer]

If your inverter is programmed to allow the maximum battery charging rate, then just that charging operation will nearly exhaust the power available from a 30a shore power plug-in.  If you want to run almost anything else (one a/c, the microwave, etc.) while aggressively charging the batteries, then you need to reduce the battery charging rate way down from 25 to 10 or less.

[Joel Ashley]

I'm not familiar with Xantrex, Rick, but our Magnum appreciates knowing what type of batteries it's asked to charge;  so be sure that part is correct - wet cell or glass mat.  Also your AGS (automatic generator start) won't work if there isn't even enough battery voltage to start the genset in the first place.  Your batteries are like half discharged at 12 volts... 5 v isn't anywhere near "competent".

Your AGS Needs to be programmed to kick on at 12v.  As a new-be to AGS I set mine at 11v.  Not.  The AGS programming gets confusing, requiring coordination between a remote programmer in the electrical bay and the inverter controller panel.  I don't rely on it anymore, but that's likely more my lack of programming adeptness than the system's ability.

And Dave's right... If you finally get your inverter back up, but your battery banks are very discharged, a lot of juice is going to go to charging them ultimately back to ideally 13.2-13.8v if it's set to max rate;  the initial bulk charge rate will show battery voltage well over 14v. for some time until it settles down.  If you put much else online, like the electric side of the AquaHot, fridge/ice maker, A/C, or other power hog, the system is stressed.  Your inverter or its charger circuit may indeed need checking by techs.

If your house batteries are wet cells, how long since someone checked their water level?

Joel

[Bill Sprague]

The generator did not auto-start.  According to the Xantrex user manual it should be able to auto start the generator.  We're the Beavers setup to do that?  Mine doesn't seem to be.

The Xantrex from the '04 era (if I recall correctly from factory sponsored seminars back then) had two different controllers used.  The one on our Monterey was complex.  It took several readings of the instruction book to understand how to program it.  Ulitimately I figured out how to get it to start the genset when the batteries were about half discharged and then stop when it got up to about 90%.  It was delivered with auto start off.  I suspect dealers didn't want a lot full of motorhomes randomly starting their gensets!

[Rick Vyncke]

Thanks again for all the info.   

I got the inverter reset.   I see that regardless of what is (or is not) running in the coach, Aladdin tells me we are discharging the house batteries when running on 30 amp shore power.  Only way to not be discharging is by running generator. 

We have camped previously on 30 amp shore and not had these issues so clearly something isn't right.   Anybody know of a great source for understanding how to use the xantrex inverter in all scenarios?  Shore power, generator power, house batteries only?  The user manual seems geared toward somebody other than a user.   I'm a computer programmer and that's easy compared to figuring this out.  Perhaps I should have gotten an electrical engineering degree

[David T. Richelderfer]

Unplug your Insta-Hot, switch off your AquaHot's water heating element at the electrical panel, change the mode on your fridge to LP, turn off the heat pumps-air conditioners then check your Aladdin's reading for power usage on the two legs.  It should be showing a sum of under 5 amps (at 110v, I assume) of usage if your batteries are charged up.  When my house and chassis batteries are charged up the Aladdin's reading for "House Bat'" charge rate cycles from under 5 amps up to 12 amps (at 12v, I assume).

The generator's auto start can be programmed to start the generator based upon a schedule for exercising it, to not run during programmed quiet times, and programmed to start based upon the batteries' charge status.  I think for any of these programs to work the generator status must be set to "AUTO" on screen heading "SET GENERATOR."  Push the green button, "GEN MENU," to get the "SET GENERATOR" screen heading.  Also "GEN AUTO START SETUP 12" is an important category to learn.  This category is both where the generator's auto start exercising schedule is programmed and the generator's auto start is programmed based upon the batteries' charge status for four time-length intervals - 24 hour, 2 hour, 15 minute and 30 second.  Once the "GEN AUTO START SETUP 12" screen heading is mastered, life gets a lot easier.