Is There an Electrician in the Family?

Oh yes! There are a couple. But they are 5000 kilometers away!

The new voltage regulator has arrived! Got a call yesterday afternoon from Electronica Mitron saying that it had come in, took the Jeep into centro and picked it up this morning.

Now to transfer the input and output cables from the old unit to the new one.

While getting ready to start Art had a closer look in good light at the EW50 and was able to see signs of damage--one small part looked like it had over heated and there were sooty like deposits on the inside of the cover and on the outside of the fan vent. With no schematic and no schematic not much to be done. Art sent an email to the company, we'll wait and see. The warranty runs out before we get to Mazatlan, but there is a Home Depot in Puerto Vallarta. As I said, wait and see.

The Ecowise unit is much more high tech--mostly electronics, the SOLA BASIC mostly transformer with some solid state switching and control.

The EW50 was set up for very standard connections. Hot, Neutral and Ground input connections on one side, and Hot, Neutral and Ground output connections on the other. Two large openings accommodated the two large gauge three wire cables.



But! The SOLA BASIC had only three connections in total; Hot in, Hot out, and a single neutral. Ground? What ground? This is quite common in Mexico. Art did notice that the electronic circuit board had a small gauge green wire going to a nut on the metal box. So here was where he attached the two grounds from the input and output cables. He had to splice the two neutrals together (as shown on the diagram provided). He had his soldering gun and heatshrink tubing to do a reasonable job. He also had to pare the cable cover right back and was just able to get the six individual wires through the small hole. Cable clamp? No room! A few wraps of PVC Tape and a cable tie for a strain relief and we were good to go.

Plugged in, breaker turned on, no smoke! This will be a re-do project when we get home and have the tools and space to work on it. So far it is working in that the power is coming through, though the inverter did have to come into play when the AC started up, the SOLA BASIC didn't correct fast enough for the compressor startup voltage sag. We'll see how it does with the high voltages overnight.

Well it works well enough on the high voltages though unless there is a good load it idles somewhere between 108 and 112. And it boosts the low voltages up to a reasonable level (about 115) BUT it is much too slow to going into boost mode. 108 is the minimum allowable voltage for the heatpump.  The Xantrex is still having to go into invert mode to start the compressor. Once that is done the voltage is usually somewhere between 112-115 with the heatpump running.

Concerned with the inverter switching on and off so much under high current load I eventually took the SOLA Boost 4000 out of circuit and stored it away. The heatpump will sometimes start if the morning line voltage is approaching 130V. We will move north to Puerto Vallarta soon and hopefully will be able to do without the air  conditioning.

Zihuatanejo, January 2017

Having a bit of an electrical problem with very high and very low AC at the RV Park connection. The Xantrex of course protects the rig and equipment by stopping incoming  power that is out of spec. If it is set to "Invert" then it does and supplies a nice 118 volts from the batteries. Which is fine unless we forget to disable the high current devices such as the air conditioner!






Another problem is high current heating to the 50A shore power cord where it connects to the 50A-30A adapter. Probably due to poor connections inside the fitting and/or low voltage.

You can see where the rubber has partially melted on the 50A plug. (Right)






Of the two adapters I have (the black one is new and is the spare) the yellow one at first glance seems OK but on closer inspection may show some sign of heating in the middle. There seems to be a small shallow depression in the plastic.

The cord runs about 75-77 degrees F, the plug right beside the terminals was running about 100F. Runs cooler (92) with the new adapter. 


UPDATE February sometime. The plugs and cords were running cool enough, just slightly over ambient. Noticed though that the breaker box was warm as was the supply 30A outlet, though slightly less so. Advised Mundi, (the park owner) who came and had a look: the buss on the box was burnt!  The electrician arrives soon; a new box, new breaker and new wire spliced in. I wish I had had the nerve to photograph the job but I thought the electrician would take offense! I foot long piece of #8 red wire spliced in to replace the scorched original wire, and a piece of what looked like # 10 or 12 green wire spliced into the white neutral! However, it works. All nice and cool now.  The electrician said that these should be replaced almost every year because of the humid salt ridden air.




Last year (and in previous years) we have also had problem with high voltage overnight and sometimes, during the afternoon when the demand is high, with low voltage. We looked into various voltage regulation devices and last year on the way home, in Mazatlan we purchased a high tech electronic one. At home Art wired in the required cables and plugs and tried it out when we got here in November. It worked great! The inverter did not have to interfere once, the EW50/1 holding the voltage at 118V even when the incoming voltage rose to above 130.

Until one day a month or so later the lights flickered a few times and the inverter came on. Investigation showed that though there was acceptable voltage at the post there was no output voltage. The indicator lamp was flashing a code which the manual stated showed short circuit in the device. Disconnecting the output, so there was no out connection, the same code showed.

Art unplugged the unit and plugged the shore power cord into the campground supply. So we're back to depending on the inverter. No one here can service it, we'll try in Mazatlan.



Meanwhile, friends in the park across the street last year purchased and installed a SOLA BASIC 4000 which they report as working flawlessly. Their friends and neighbours bought one this year and we get the same reports from them. Art ordered on Wednesday from Electronic Mitron, delivery a week to ten days. Waiting now with fingers crossed.