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Bill 112

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Jul 28, 2021
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I am installing an Aims 3000 watt inverter/charger in my Rv. Someone said when you put it in...to disconnect and remove the small converter from you Rv. Well I looked at mine which is mounted under my panel box. Seemed simple enough....has 3 wires hot, neutral and ground...and 2 wires to DC side of the panel for powering DC circuits. I turned the breaker off on the AC side going to the converter....and all the power in my RV went off. AC and DC .....is this normal ???
I would have thought only the converter would have shut down and the DC side of the electric panel box. I'm confused why the AC side also went off.....just the same as if I had turned off the Main AC breaker......???????
 
Bill 112 said:
I turned the breaker off on the AC side going to the converter....and all the power in my RV went off. AC and DC .....is this normal ???
I would have thought only the converter would have shut down and the DC side of the electric panel box. I'm confused why the AC side also went off.....just the same as if I had turned off the Main AC breaker......???????
Click to expand...
There may be more than just the converter connected to that circuit.
 
Bill 112 said:
I am installing an Aims 3000 watt inverter/charger in my Rv. Someone said when you put it in...to disconnect and remove the small converter from you Rv. Well I looked at mine which is mounted under my panel box. Seemed simple enough....has 3 wires hot, neutral and ground...and 2 wires to DC side of the panel for powering DC circuits. I turned the breaker off on the AC side going to the converter....and all the power in my RV went off. AC and DC .....is this normal ???
I would have thought only the converter would have shut down and the DC side of the electric panel box. I'm confused why the AC side also went off.....just the same as if I had turned off the Main AC breaker......???????
Click to expand...
From your other messages I understand that you have not done any integration yet and the legacy system should be running as it always did, confirm?
In that case its not normal for the ac side of the distribution panel to lose power when you manually trip the breaker for the ac/dc converter.
Are you perhaps tripping the master breaker?
 
smoothJoey said:
From your other messages I understand that you have not done any integration yet and the legacy system should be running as it always did, confirm?
In that case its not normal for the ac side of the distribution panel to lose power when you manually trip the breaker for the ac/dc converter.
Are you perhaps tripping the master breaker?
Click to expand...
I'm sure I didn't trip the main by mistake. The converter only has 3 wires...ground, neutral and black hot wire....on the other end it has two wires a white an a red those go to the circuit panel on the fuse side of the main panel box. It is a simple set up ...that is why I don't get the converter breaker shutting down the whole electric system....unless I need to hook up my new inverter/charger to the AC side of the main panel and run my DC wires from the DC side of the panel to the battery.
 
Bill 112 said:
I'm sure I didn't trip the main by mistake. The converter only has 3 wires...ground, neutral and black hot wire....on the other end it has two wires a white an a red those go to the circuit panel on the fuse side of the main panel box. It is a sbbimple set up ...that is why I don't get the converter breaker shutting down the whole electric system....unless I need to hook up my new inverter/charger to the AC side of the main panel and run my DC wires from the DC side of the panel to the battery.
Click to expand...
I affirm again that it should not work this way.
I'll ask again in a slightly different way, have you modified the legacy system?
Has it always worked this way?
 
smoothJoey said:
I affirm again that it should not work this way.
I'll ask again in a slightly different way, have you modified the legacy system?
Has it always worked this way?
Click to expand...
Don't know what you mean by legacy system ...but I have not modified anything on the RV electrical system...and this is the first time I have done anything in the electric panel box
 
Bill 112 said:
Don't know what you mean by legacy system ...but I have not modified anything on the RV electrical system...and this is the first time I have done anything in the electric panel box
Click to expand...
legacy system means, the rv electrical system before you started integrating new parts.
If it always worked like you described, then that is very unusual.
I suggest we understand what is going on before you start integrating.
 
smoothJoey said:
legacy system means, the rv electrical system before you started integrating new parts.
If it always worked like you described, then that is very unusual.
I suggest we understand what is going on before you start integrating.
Click to expand...
Tks for all your help...I will go out tomorrow and start looking at it again and see if I overlooked something. I do have some electrical/electronics knowledge. I may just be missing something simple. Will let you know if I find anything new. I have a feeling it has something to do with the new batteries, inverter/charger an solar controller I'm hooking up. It may be they need to be completely hooked up and then unhook the converter....we'll see tommorrow..... tks again
 
Bill 112 said:
Will let you know if I find anything new. I have a feeling it has something to do with the new batteries, inverter/charger an solar controller I'm hooking up.
Click to expand...
It really makes it difficult to help you if you don't answer my questions.
Gonna step off now and let the next person take a swing.
 
As I recall, the breaker that fed my 120vac->12v converter had more than just the converter on it. There's only so much room on the rail for breakers, so they can't fit a bunch of breakers in the box.

If you're not going to use the converter (and you probably aren't), then just go ahead and disconnect the converter's three input wires from the AC side (after shutting down the AC side, of course).

I had more room on the rail for another breaker (or two) so I added another breaker. That allowed me to keep the existing converter and add a LiFePO4 converter, each on their own breaker. Different situation, but I provided it to show that you could add another breaker that is dedicated to your converter. However, since you're putting in an inverter/charger, it doesn't make sense to do that. Rip that converter out and lighten the weight load on the trailer.
 
I ripped out the converter...wired up the aims inverter charger....everything seems to be working only thing is the charge light on the inverter doesn't go off.....hhmmm ....Not sure if that is the way they work or not.
 
HRTKD said:
You have shore power on and there is a 12v load? Sure, I could see the charge light being on.
Click to expand...
Well that does make sense ....this solar is a lot to wrap my little brain around. Inverter/chaer is running all time, no matter if you are plugged into shore power or out boondocking. Since all your power goes though the inverter/charger it is always doing something. So guessing you are right maybe the charge light stays on all the time. Wish someone smart like Will Prowse would do a video on the actual operation of the aims charger, and include setting the controller and the lights on top.
 
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