More Electrical Questions...

[Dawn Michelle]

Happy 4th all!  Hopefully most everyone is out camping and not working on the RVs, but if anyone is around I am stumped on something.  Remembering my rig is small and simple, I have one 12v accessory socket.  And, it doesn't work.  So, today I decided to start dismembering things to try to figure that out.

First here is my converter panel:

The wires that I am working with are "B" - a green and white wire that go nowhere except to the accessory socket.  

Here's the converter's fuse panel:

I did two things, I removed and retwisted the green and white wire and retightened that nut.  I also checked all the fuses with the multimeter for resistance and like the other fuses it shows resistance.  Note #1 is not currently being used.  The other three go into the rv to assumably all my lights and fan which all work. Bottom nut "D" is negative it appears (and ground?) and the far right "C" goes on to the storage battery which is kept up under the truck hood.

The wires coming out from the converter appear to have a grounding (?) bit here.  Note the red and black wire which were also attached to the outside of the 12v accessory back:

Here are my 12v accessory wires I clipped off the accessory plug (which looked clean) and I had tried three different plugs in:

The green and white went directly into the back of the 12v accessory, again the black and red clamped to a ring on the outside.  So I am assuming green/white is positive and red/black is negative/ground.

So after I stripped I tested the wires with a multimeter - nothing, nada, forgettaaboutit.

So here's my question:

1) Is it possible my "filtered" connection on the converter is bad even though the others are working, and if so, could I potentially move the green and white wire over to unused #1?  Or since that's not unfiltered is that a bad idea for the 12v socket (it would be used for weboost, wifi repeater, 12v vacuum and possibly inverter for laptop - although I figure for that I'll have my solar set up in by then and have an inverter directly into my battery bank.

2) OR, am I not understanding this particular connection and it will only work when my storage battery is hooked back in (right now it's been wintering in the basement on a trickle charger). And I just made myself a lot of unnecessary work?

Thanks all, in advance - and again - hope everyone is camping, and not futzing around in the humidity and heat!

[Lakota Wolf]

Dawn,,, On my short 5th wheel,, the acc, 12V outlet was only HOT when cabin battery was hooked up, Im not sure how thats wired,, But when I hooked up shore power and disconnected the cabin battery the outlet wouldnt work, Quite possibly yours is the same,, or maybe they are supposed to work whether on Batt, or Converter,

[Dawn Michelle]

Yeah, I think that's the next thing to try....

[John "T" Nordhoff]

 Happy 4th Dawn, sooooooooooo many questions soooooooooo little time lol here goes hang on.

 I see that "B" terminal being called "filtered" ONLY meaning its fed from and fuse protected right off C by the RV HOUSE (NOT engine)  battery and if its (house battery) not connected there's no voltage there. Filtered just means its battery powered and NOT the unfiltered ripple output  the converter/charger produces which isn't very smooth like pure DC out of a battery and (charger ripple output) isn't good for sensitive electronics

PUT A TEST LIGHT ON B AND C TO SEE IF THEYRE HOT ??????????????? Probably NOT if its like I'm guessing

That is indeed what you should use to power small electronic loads like TV etc. YES as I view it as it ONLY works if your storage battery is present. Some of those type outlets are only like 200 watts so you cant power much ya know just enough to run a rubber chicken lol

The Green n white hooked to B are indeed POS and on an outlet that's usually the separated center terminal while the outer metal case shell is NEG

I didn't study too hard on this I'm in a hurry but my quick first impression 'guess" is B only is hot if the house battery is wired in

Looks like I agree with the good wolfman in that the outlet is ONLY hot with house battery wired in place 

 John T  Too long retired Electrical Engineer and rusty so no warranty  

[Dawn Michelle]

Perfect...

My test light appears not to work in any situation, so I was left with the multimeter (and still not perfectly comfortable after burning the leads out on the first one-and, so, a little squirrely on using it).

In the morning I'm hauling the beast back in to the truck, try to figure out how it reattaches and see if that solves my issue.

Actually (sshhhh don't tell anyone), I'm pretty pleased with myself to have determined not having the house battery live might be the issue. It tells me some lightbulbs (pardon the pun) are starting to fire.

Hell, tomorrow I'm 51 - how the heck did that happen, please enlighten me???!  But, I will say, it's awfully nice to have the brain cells engaging in higher usage.  I swear the first 45 years are wasted!

[Russell E Johnson]

Happy birthday, Dawn. And just wait till you are 61 and are wondering what happened to that wonderful 20 year old body LOL. Where-oh-where did all those years go to???? As for being smarter, all I have learned is that in reality I know very, very little in the grand scheme of things. The older I get the less it seems I know.

Any who, congratulations. Enjoy your day.

[Dawn Michelle]

Thanks :-)  I know, there's that moment when you crest the hill and all of a sudden you realize going down is going to be so much faster than going up!!!  Argh.  

[John "T" Nordhoff]

 I agree YOU DONE GOOD DAWN as your (B) suspect above is I think exactly your problem. FWIW my reason why is in the picture you posted it says C is for the POS from RV storage battery and from it there's a fuse direct over to B which it looks like are connected the green and white pos wires to your 12 VDC filtered outlet. I cant say absent all your converter/charger specs, but those other fused terminals may be fed direct off the converter/charger and WILL WORK without a storage battery. The ripple output of a converter/charger is fine for lights etc but for small sensitive electronic loads I prefer a DC battery energy source. I was your age once like twenty years ago lol you're a spring chicken !!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY  

John T

[Lakota Wolf]

Dawn, You can officially say, Your 25 with 26 years experience,,,,LOL    see.   sounds younger already,,LOL

[Dawn Michelle]

Alrighty, the house battery back in, and YES - I have hot leads. So that solved that. But let me follow up with another question. When the house battery is hooked up, even if the converter is unplugged, all my 12v works (fans, lights, etc.) even though they aren't on the same fuse as the incoming battery and the accessory socket.

Does that sound right? I guess I kind of thought shutting down the converter would also shut down 12v power into the rig.

[Lakota Wolf]

When your house battery is hooked up,,, everything 12 volt is LIVE,,, Unless you have a Master shut off switch,,(some have a switch directly on the battery,some have a switch on the wall, Those are usually larger Rv's and are used for storage). But Class C's,B's and smaller trailers are HOT when connected to the battery.

[Russell E Johnson]

As Lakota said, all the 12 volt will be live. The main shut off on my class A is over the door.

[Dawn Michelle]

Thanks - our Bounder had one - so that's why I thought to look for one.  Was worried maybe someone had done some jury rigging.  I'm hoping if I remove the fuse on the incoming line on the converter that will give me the same result as a cut off switch.  Times I'd like to just make sure there wasn't a drain or just to work on the wiring without having to go pop the hood.  Not that it isn't easy enough, just could be inconvenient sometimes.