PL 40 on strike

[shonky]

Hi, all.

Any forum readers know why a PL40 should stop working for no apparent reason? The fridge and inverter are still running via the controller, but the screen is blank. Any assistance appreciated.
Thanks.

[Mrcoolabah1au]

But don't they have a sleep function in the screen ?

[shonky]

HI, all.

Yes they do, but normally they come back to consciousness at a touch of the button. This one's hibernating.

[Craig]

Have you done the obvious and checked the fuses at the battery. Don't forget the PL40 is controlled from the negative side and there should be a fuse in the negative side at the battery.

[T1 Terry]

Check there is battery voltage at the battery positive terminal on the PL40. It requires battery voltage at this point to power the display and drive the various functions. Hopefully the inverter and fridge as drawing their power via the shunt, not the controller directly, the PL40 only has a 7 amp load capacity so it's really only designed to drive a relay or a few lights, nothing more.

T1 Terry

[shonky]

Hi, all.

Problem solved - a crimp had come loose. Seems the operator ( nameless) had considered the first setting on the ratcheting crimpers to be satisfactory, although he crimped the in-line connector twice . Said operator is now on the hunt for a couple of lengths of pipe to fit over the handles of aforementioned crimpers, thereby giving them the leverage to flatten water pipe with a single bound.
BTW Collyn Rivers states in his excellent books NOT to solder cable end-on as it will eventually give up..

[campingnut]

I have soldered on my boats, general camping gear and now Motorhome and have seen no evidence of corrosion just make sure the iron is hot and doesnt do a cold solder joint. -a good crimp after the solder seems even better. Has anybody else proven this corrosion theory? I dont use acid to solder just the cored lead/tin wire type.

[T1 Terry]

I recommend not to solder the cable end but rather use bootlace crimps. Here is why

House solar.JPG

The soldered cables made a less than perfect connection in the brass busbar, the cable got hot and gradually oxidised until it actually melted. It looks like lightning strike or massive short circuit doesn't it, but it was simply a poor connection creating heat via resistance. You can see how much heat must have been there when it failed by the discolouration of the brass and the screws, yet the boot lace crimps are still fine.
The fix for this one was to redrill all the holes slightly larger to get a clean contact, boot lace crimps on all cables, problem gone.
This happened when we were away 2 Easters ago, lucky it didn't start a fire.

T1 Terry