Local electrical help needed in brookings OR

I've had a solar guy, an electrician, a mechanic here in the last week no one can figure out the system and I'm freezing cold with no power....

Please please please can someone help a girl and her two dogs out?

We live in a grand design 42 ft 5th wheel, off grid on my 9 acre land. Someone who didn't know what they were doing wired up a 48 volt system along with the fifth wheels native 12 volt system, 15 months ago and it's been nothing but problems.

The 12 volt is run off lead acid batteries, and the 48 volt is ran off chin lithium that are 12 volts batteries and tied together to make this mess of a system.... It's all victron components except for the batteries.....

Now the Onan generator (which was my lifeline) completely broke after 15 months, and no new generator will work with the system........ I've had many people over, here spent tons of money, and we have been without power for 10 days......no hot water, no heat, no power, no internet, no nothing.....just this shell of a 5th wheel

I'm on the California/Oregon Coastal border. I don't think anyone else can figure out this mess but you.

We can't move the 5th wheel to shore power because that part was disassembled as well..........

I believe it's a wiring nightmare. The GFCI in the bathroom always tripped when the generator came on. Also I could not power any devices in the rig when the generator was on or would shut down. The Onan generator constantly gave me code 15 and code 36 and shut off.

I think the strain of something being wired and correctly finally broke the generator here's pictures of my crappy system.

I'm desperate, please help us........

Thank you. Kindly.

Without being onsite the only advice I can give is to bypass the present system and run from a generator wired/or extension cords up to those items that you desperately need power for. Any competent electrician or handy person could do this. Later you will need a qualified person to trace out and repair/replace areas of the system that are not working.

Sorry you're having these issues.

How cold has it been getting? I'm wondering if the batteries have actually triggered a low voltage disconnect because they got too cold.

I see you have a cerbo connected. Was that connected to the internet so you could access the data remotely through their VRM?

Take your destiny in you own hands and watch some of Will Prowse's videos on a simple system like you have. IF you take the time to educate yourself you will not be dependent on the kindness of strangers or the knowledge of local so called experts. Look through all his early videos and begin to learn. Here is one.

I agree with @Mattb4 . Get a working generator and bypass the installed system.

After you thaw out you can grab a multimeter and test voltages at each battery and at the main lugs on your charge controller and inverter. While you are in there you can take notes a draw a sketch of how the parts are wired together. You can teach yourself how it works by explaining it to us. Just be careful while you are in there and don't short anything out with bracelets, chains, rings, etc.

Wow... sorry to hear of your predicament!!

I'll echo that without being on-site this is a tall order, coming from a highly trained diagnostician (in the automotive realm) who is usually pretty ok with doing things 'the hard way' over the internet for a challenge. Id probably have to spend hours with you over facetime and across the forum is.. eesh.

I would say the good thing is that its very likely that not much is actually broken (of the battery/inverter system) and it's probably a wiring issue causing the symptoms. Unfortunately that pushes it into the relatively harder realm for anyone not standing there because the wiring in an RV, especially once modified, is pretty close to a total unknown. It's not like a car where everything is documented and published and web hosted and accessible from pretty much anywhere.

I agree with Mattb4 to run what you need directly off a small generator for the time being.

If you wish to try and diagnose the system yourself the starting point i would choose is to measure battery voltage at the inverters' battery hookups and see what you've got there. If it's enough to run the inverter system you could try disconnecting the ac outputs of the inverter and see if they will power up without errors.

Do you have any background in electrical? Know how to use a meter to measure volts, amps, ohms?

I wish I could help, I would if I could get to you, but in all honesty, it would likely take a couple of days to look at, diagnose, correct & rebuild as needed. Diagnostics by remote/internet is very very difficult. We do have members ALL OVER THE US...
I suggest you edit your First Post & Modify the Title to say"
"urgent-please-help-no-power-for-12-days-and-counting in (closest city & state)"
That will get more "localized" attention and possibly someone can help you out.

Agreed. I bring a generator and battery charger to EVERY off grid service call. If batteries are dead, nothing can work.

You already have the cerbo, i recommend the touch 50 screen for display. Then you are not relying on internet monitoring. From there im sure you could pinpoint your own problem and really see what the system is doing.

Dart at the wall, i suspect dead batteries at the least.

Assuming a propane furnace I would start with a portable generator and a battery charger (10+ amps) to get the 12v system working. Easier to think when you have heat, lights and water etc. Good chance the the 12v batteries are shot. Put the charger direct on them. No need to disconnect. And see if they charge.

Once the 12v system functions it will be time to look at the 48v system.

Check each 12 volt battery. One or more of your lithium batteries may have shut down due to being out of balance with the other 3 batteries or temperature

I've been testing/using 12v batteries in series for the last two months and one battery drops out because it either over charges or under charges. Four 12v batteries in series is unreliable unless you have some way to actively balance each battery.

Ariel188 said:

I'm on the California/Oregon Coastal border.

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I'm not sure what the weather is there right now, but first things first: make sure you have a place to go where it's warm and where you can rest to take a break from this (and get sleep + shower). If you have to hit a hotel/motel whatever, do it. You can't think straight in your current condition.
After that, look at this thread for the other advice and start trouble shooting.

Great equipment in there, I don’t have anything productive to add other than I empathize with your weather conditions and hope someone can guide you on the right path soon

upnorthandpersonal said:

I'm not sure what the weather is there right now, but first things first: make sure you have a place to go where it's warm and where you can rest to take a break from this (and get sleep + shower). If you have to hit a hotel/motel whatever, do it. You can't think straight in your current condition.
After that, look at this thread for the other advice and start trouble shooting.

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THIS!

Cadillac equipment that is even mounted up nice but then for some reason there is a rats nest of extension cords and the ever-important electrical tape on the wire nuts.

At any rate, I could have you up and running in less than an hour if I were there but unfortunately none of us are.

I can't believe an electrician couldn't at least get you up and going off generator??

Are you able to do any work yourself if guided by any of us?

Do you have access to the Victron connect app?

If so post the screen with all the components on it. If you have the app and have looked at them in the past and they are not there now, that tells us the batteries have completely shut down.

Rocketman said:

Do you have access to the Victron connect app?

If so post the screen with all the components on it. If you have the app and have looked at them in the past and they are not there now, that tells us the batteries have completely shut down.

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You can see the low battery indicator on the first Quattro is illuminated.

I wouldn't worry about accessing the Quattro firmware yet.

Going to guess it's a simple wiring issue.

Batteries probably depleted and bms tripped and now 12 volt house batteries that start gen are dead.

OP, if you have a vehicle, just run jumper cables from the vehicle to the 12 volt portion of the system in the 5th wheel and see if you can get the generator to start.

Looking through the pics, wires with wire-nuts and no junction boxes,
chunks of extension cords used for cables,
no labels on anything,
just screams poor workmanship.

A day in a local hotel to get rest, washed and fed is where to start. Then:
+1 get a generator that will run, start it up.
run extension cords to things you need right away - heating system, lights, water to get the space up to temp and so you can see.
Then begin the process of un-doing what others have done, so it can be re-done properly.

I would start by isolating the new (48v) from the original (12v). Get the 12 volt system going again - ck batteries/recharge (replace if needed) check everything on the 12v side is working or track down what doesn't work and fix.

Once all the 12v side is in line working, then you can begin to trace out the 48 volt side and the voltage step-down between them.

Adam De Lay said:

Sorry you're having these issues.

How cold has it been getting? I'm wondering if the batteries have actually triggered a low voltage disconnect because they got too cold.

I see you have a cerbo connected. Was that connected to the internet so you could access the data remotely through their VRM?

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I dont think it even hit 32 I AM just freezing. The cerbo I have no idea on, the solar guy that came out months ago was suppost to get something working so he could remote in but he never did.......

SolarScott said:

Take your destiny in you own hands and watch some of Will Prowse's videos on a simple system like you have. IF you take the time to educate yourself you will not be dependent on the kindness of strangers or the knowledge of local so called experts. Look through all his early videos and begin to learn. Here is one.

Click to expand...

DON'T JUDGE! I HAVE been trying to figure this out. IT WAS NOT DONE RIGHT so I am having a HELL OF A TIME!

ALSO THIS IS A 48 VOLT system IT IS DANGEROUS for someone who has NO clue about any of this!!!! Yeah lets mess with it and kill yourself this is NOT a 12 v system tyvm for not helping and being rude.

seneysolar said:

Agreed. I bring a generator and battery charger to EVERY off grid service call. If batteries are dead, nothing can work.

You already have the cerbo, i recommend the touch 50 screen for display. Then you are not relying on internet monitoring. From there im sure you could pinpoint your own problem and really see what the system is doing.

Dart at the wall, i suspect dead batteries at the least.

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I have the 70 touch screen on the wall

Ariel188 said:

DON'T JUDGE! I HAVE been trying to figure this out. IT WAS NOT DONE RIGHT so I am having a HELL OF A TIME!

ALSO THIS IS A 48 VOLT system IT IS DANGEROUS for someone who has NO clue about any of this!!!! Yeah lets mess with it and kill yourself this is NOT a 12 v system tyvm for not helping and being rude.

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Everyone here wants to help but that means you have to do something and not respond to people in this way.

It's clear the batteries are dead on the 48V side.

Are you able to get a pair of jumper cables and run them from a vehicle to the 12v side of your system to see if the generator will start?

I assume you have gas or propane to fuel it and the generator is built in to the 5th wheel?

We have a cold snap coming this weekend and I'm sure you want to be up and running.

If you all must know, I had my own pet sitting buisiness in So Cal. I am also photographer and was a dog breeder, I know nothing of electric stuff.

I was with someone who wired this all up wrong, we decided to call it quits, but I have no where else to go right now.
I am in this rig until my sick girl passes away, and then I plan to build out a van and travel the country. I do not want to mess with a 48 v system and kill myself at least not until I loose my girl.

I need someone to come here, or please dont comment, I will not mess with this system myself. Beleive me I have done A LOT with the generator and some minor things with the system to get the power back on in the past, but the generator was not broken then. The mechanic took it apart and it had a busted in half rocker switch. It is dead and new generators are not working........its a wiring mess nightmare. The gfci always being trigger when the generator was on and not being able to run anything while the generator was on or it would shut off with code 15 and 36, that is NOT normal and has been going on the whole time, but we got by.....now there is no getting by...........

An electrician did get the heat on today, but not sure how long for since it is a temporary bandaid......

the

Checkthisout said:

Everyone here wants to help but that means you have to do something and not respond to people in this way.

It's clear the batteries are dead on the 48V side.

Are you able to get a pair of jumper cables and run them from a vehicle to the 12v side of your system to see if the generator will start?

I assume you have gas or propane to fuel it and the generator is built in to the 5th wheel?

We have a cold snap coming this weekend and I'm sure you want to be up and running.

Click to expand...

The 48 volts are not dead.
I did jump the 12 volts before but they wont stay on
I have 100 gall propane tank they deliver.
The Onan gen WAS hooked into the system, not anyomre they tore it apart, its beyond repair. Probably broke from all the strain of incorrect wiring since it was only 13 months old.
Finally got an external generator to work for the moment it has been on for about an hour and allowing the 12 volt to send heat in, but once it shuts off so does the heat....

Ariel is very frustrated as I would certainly be just like everyone else.
Many responses here were USELESS which makes it even more frustrating.

Ariel please see my first post so you can edit the Tile and put in the closest City & your state, there MAY BE SOMEONE CLOSE BY and you want to catch their attention !

48 Volts is NOT Dangerous and will NOT kill you. A good "zap" but that's about it unless there is an electrical fault but battery voltage is irrelevant if that happens.