Zero electrical power. Something obvious? I hope.

SO

Southpaw Surfer

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Joined
Jul 18, 2016
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17
Location
Central Coast California
So I just got my 2008 Hawk home yesterday (First FWC). This morning I changed out the old battery to a US Battery 2200 that I know to be good. Also the wiring to my truck is not done yet. Culprit?

Here's the issues.
  1. No 12 volt power
  2. I had 110 power this morning when plugged into shore power in my garage. Was able to start refrigerator, water pump, furnace, etc. Everything worked.
  3. I unplugged from shore power and left to run some errands. A few hours later I plugged back into shore power and nothing. Well the GFCI 110 plug is hot but nothing else.
Things I've tried already:
  1. Tested the 30 amp 110 outlet in my garage. It's good.
  2. Checked the circuit breakers and all fuses in the Hawk. All good.
  3. Used a voltage tester on the 10 awg cable from Hawk to shore power. Getting power.
  4. Used voltage tester on all 3 circuit breakers. Getting power.
Also the original owner had a ton of paperwork on the Hawk but there was no information on the IOTA Distribution Panel on the Hawk. Something more to check there?

Also what is the red pull lever located left of the Distribution panel I attached below.

Thanks much

IMG_5001.JPG
 
Pull it out!

That's the main 12 volt cut off switch. Out is ON. In is OFF! Hopefully that's the problem. It breaks the circuit between the Battery and the fuse box.

Not so bad. My 1st thought is you had maybe flipped the battery cables!!!!!!!!!! You wouldn't be the 1st to have done that. Not good.
 
That red knob is to turn off the battery feed between the battery and panel. Pull it out to get power to camper. It is there to prevent battery drain while the camper is not being used for a while. Needs to be open circuit to allow the 120 AC iota charger to charge the battery. Make sure the positive cable is to the positive battery post and negative cable is to negative battery post.
 
Pulled it out and got some power to the outside lights but it was pretty weak. Maybe my battery isn't as charged as I thought. I will put it on my smart charger and get it to full power and try again tomorrow.

But what could be the issue with the only 110 power to the Hawk being the GFCI plug? It all worked this morning and between unplugging from when it was working to plugging back in nothing changed. Plus I never had the 12v red turn off switch open.
 
Squatch said:
Pull it out!

That's the main 12 volt cut off switch. Out is ON. In is OFF! Hopefully that's the problem. It breaks the circuit between the Battery and the fuse box.

Not so bad. My 1st thought is you had maybe flipped the battery cables!!!!!!!!!! You wouldn't be the 1st to have done that. Not good.
Click to expand...
White to positive and black to negative? What? I can't believe it.

Is this 12 volt good practices and I just never knew that? It goes against all electrical work I've done.

What kind of damage have I done? I feel sick. Did I destroy my IOTA? Something more?

What steps do I need to take now
 
gjfsfp said:
White to positive and black to negative? What? I can't believe it.

Is this 12 volt good practices and I just never knew that? It goes against all electrical work I've done.

What kind of damage have I done? I feel sick. Did I destroy my IOTA? Something more?

What steps do I need to take now
Click to expand...
Auto 12 volt has had black as negative forever. House wiring black is hot. On the camper, you have 120v and 12v best to check everything with a meter.
 
Not that it will help here, but one of my practices is to take a photo or series of photos to document what goes where when putting things back together.
 
I spent 17 hours picking up my Hawk yesterday and all day today getting things set up. It definitely had an effect on my clarity.

Totally my fault. Hopefully the damage is minimal. I'm pretty p!$$ed at myself.
 
gjfsfp said:
I spent 17 hours picking up my Hawk yesterday and all day today getting things set up. It definitely had an effect on my clarity.

Totally my fault. Hopefully the damage is minimal. I'm pretty p!$$ed at myself.
Click to expand...
When you’re rested up, drag out the documentation for the converter and see if there is a reset button and/or fuse in the unit. Hopefully it will be that simple. Don’t beat yourself up, we’ve all made mistakes.
 
Thanks Paul for the documentation.

The unit on my Hawk is the Iota DLS-30 M Series. I pulled the vent cover and took the pictures below. Tough to tell for sure but seems like there isn't a fuse near where the schematic from Iota shows that it should be.

Any thoughts before I remove the DLS-30 and dig deeper on the unit?

Reference this is a 2008 Hawk

IMG_5006.JPG

IMG_5005.JPG
 
REVERSE POLARITY FUSES The IOTA Battery Charger/Power Supply is protected against reverse polarity on the DC output. If a battery or the unit is hooked up incorrectly, the fuses will blow and can be easily replaced. Always use the same size and style fuse that came with the converter. To change the fuses, use a screwdriver to loosen the screws and remove the fuses. Always replace the fuses with the same type and rating. After inserting the new fuses, tighten the screws firmly. Apply 8 inch-pound maximum torque. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN. Note: some DLS models require only one fuse. For these units, a small fiberglass spacer may be used in the empty fuse slot to aid with tightening.
Click to expand...
///
.
Page three of the instruction manual of the link Russ provided is the picture of the fusses.
 
pvstoy said:
///
.
Page three of the instruction manual of the link Russ provided is the picture of the fusses.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting that. I was about too. Couple other thoughts.

By convention white is the 12-volt ground throughout the RV industry. Black is always hot although red is more commonly used. When in doubt check with your meter. If you see a negative sign in the window of the meter, you have the probes reversed.

If you only have two choices, red and black, as you sometimes find at the battery, the black should be the ground. And you will not damage anything by reversing polarity, that is what the polarity reversal fuse is for. Before converters had one, you used to damage the converter itself. Over the years hundreds of folks including RV technicians like myself inadvertently reversed polarity. Some things will even work that way sort of. :)
 
The 30 amp fuse in the convertor was blown and saved my @$$. Pheeeeeeew.

Thanks for the help provided. It really helped turn around my weekend thinking I had done serious damage to the Hawk. Not a good night sleep for sure.

For others that find themselves with a blown fuse on the same model Iota DLS-30 M Series. The fuse is located below (Not to the right like the schematics show) of the black and white wire connection points you see in the picture below. It is really close to the wall that the convertor is mounted to.

I was trying to avoid unmounting the convertor but if I was to do it again (I hope I am done with that nonsense) I would unmount the convertor it would be a lot less work than what I went through with it mounted.

On my 2008 Hawk I needed to remove the vent cover of the convertor and the front panel of the distribution panel to access it (Which I had already done trying to troubleshoot but that could be avoided by just unmounting the convertor). It was really difficult to feel around for it and placing the new fuse in was even harder.

Have a great Sunday everyone. Mine is looking much better now.

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:30715]
 
Good to hear things are looking up. :)
It can be a experience when things go so wrong & you are about to have an adventure in trouble shooting the electrical gremlins at a time not of your choosing.

It could have been worse. You might have been somewhere without internet access with a winter storm on the way. :p

Paul
 
12 volt colors get screwy.

Red+ Black- is automotive and what most of us think about who work on cars alot.

120 white is neutral. So because of the amount of 120 in an RV they use white as Neg and black as + on 12 volt stuff.

I wasn't aware of this when I got my FWC. When I replaced the wiring to the truck I couldn't figure out why they had Red Black outside the thing that was spliced to Red >black, and Black>White inside. WTH. I now know why.

I've had a career doing low voltage wiring but never messed with RV's before.

When I rewired my fwc for the solar I mainly used marine cable so most of my wiring is automotive standard and well marked! I don't have shore power in mine.
 
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