Local electrical help needed in brookings OR

[Ariel188]

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.

 

[Mattb4]

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.

 

[Adam De Lay]

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?

 

[SolarScott]

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.

 

[justgary]

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.

 

[Vigo]

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?

 

[Steve_S]

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.

 

[seneysolar]

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.

 

[time2roll]

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.

 

[Zapper77]

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.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

I'm on the California/Oregon Coastal border.

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.

 

[G00SE]

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

 

[Kenny_]

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.

THIS!

 

[Checkthisout]

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?

 

[Rocketman]

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.

 

[Checkthisout]

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.

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.

 

[Checkthisout]

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.

 

[OffGridForGood]

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.

 

[Ariel188]

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?

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.......

 

[Ariel188]

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.

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.