Lights flickering

olcoon

Well-known member
As I'm not much of an electrician, I'm asking for some advise. I've noticed in the last few nights the 12 volt lights flickering...dimming, then getting bright again. It's not just 1 light or group of lights, but it seems that every light in the rig I've checked does it. Doesn't make any difference if there is only 1 light on or several of them. I've got a Progressive 50 amp EMS installed. We don't have a genset, and no gen. prep. One issue I did have last week was that I noticed an issue with the bedroom light, took the switch out & the wire came out of the solderless connection that hadn't been crimped properly. I'm hoping it's not the converter!
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
Shut off the converter for a while and see if you still have the issue.

When the converter kicks on and charges the battery it can be a noticeable change in light brightness. Depending on the type of bulbs this could be normal behavior as the voltage varies with the voltage sent out by the converter and the charging mode.

I noticed it quite a bit more when I had lots of the regular 12v bulbs turned on in my old NT but with all the LED lights that I now in the new NT The voltage can vary but the light output pretty much stays the same because of the extra circuitry in the LED lights that adjust to the varying voltage levels.
 

dbbls59

Well-known member
Mine did that too . One of my batterys was bad. You might check your batteries out. We missed you at Carthage.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Actually, that's normal. When the converter goes into BOOST mode to bump the charge on the battery, all lights will brighten until it's done and then go back to normal brightness. If you had the Charge Wizard pendant attached to your converter, you would see the indicator steady on, which is the BOOST mode. During normal operation, the light blinks every few seconds.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hey Roy,

I take it the underlying question is why it's just now started doing something it never did before.

I'd start by checking out the battery. If it's low on water or over 2.5 years old it may not be holding up its end of the 12V system.

Could also be a problem with the Power Converter getting ready to quit on you.

Is your power ok at the pedestal? I think the Power Converter has a protective circuit that shuts it down if incoming voltage is less than 107V. If it's cycling on and off, the lights might flicker.
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Roy, those sound like symptoms before our converter gave up the ghost, last winter. Check battery first, but note you can order with overnight shipping a new converter on Amazon. If you have prime, it's not but $8 or so to get it overnight.


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jimtoo

Moderator
Hi Roy, Like the others said, check the battery first and then the converter. If all OK, have Sally look you over... this is where I think the problem most likely is. ♥ :) ♥ Start at top.

Jim M
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah Roy, I'm with J2 on this one. Poor Sally.
But I'm also in agreement with Erika. It sounds like your converter is about to die. I experienced the same symptoms and it wasn't long before the converter gave up its last gasp.

Peace
Dave
 

danemayer

Well-known member
If the converter fails completely, you can get by with a battery charger until you have to start running the furnace a lot.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
OK, I'll go along with the battery needs checking, if this is the first time you've noticed this. But mine does it periodically if we have lights on and our battery is the original from when we bought the rig. And there is nothing wrong with our battery. I was using it the last two days to run the slides and some lights while working on it at the storage yard. Brought it home to charge so it'll be good when I go back in a couple of days to winterize.
 

olcoon

Well-known member
Thanks for all the good advise from everyone! We've just noticed this in the past few days. I've got 2 batteries, one of them is the original, the other is about 3 years old. I know, I should have put 2 new ones in when I added the 2nd one but I didn't. Anyway, I'll check the water level in the morning. Sally & I didn't notice it tonight, so maybe you are right John. But they kept going from bright to dim...bright for a couple of seconds then dim for a couple of seconds. This morning when it was doing it, I checked the EMS display, and both legs were showing a constant 123 volts, and a few days ago, I checked how many volts the batteries were putting out, on the ground control display, and it showed 13+ volts. Guess if the level in the batteries is OK, I'll hope that if it is the converter that it lasts until we get home around Oct. 8!

Jim, every time Sally looks me over she falls over backwards laughing! I'm starting to get a complex!!! Dave you aren't helping much either. I'm about ready to crawl in the corner, get in the fetal position & start sucking my thumb!!! :(

Wish we could have made it to the MO rally, Don, looks like we missed out on a great time!
 

danemayer

Well-known member
I checked how many volts the batteries were putting out, on the ground control display, and it showed 13+ volts.

13+ would be the output of the Power Converter. If you turn off the circuit breaker that provides power to the converter, you can measure the actual battery voltage which might be more like 12.4V.
 

happykraut

Well-known member
Roy, if your converter is charging properly, you should see 14 plus volts. I replaced my converter earlier this year. Bought it at Amazon. Good luck.

- - - Updated - - -



- - - Updated - - -

Sorry Dan. Your post came up while I was pecking away on two fingers.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
If your lights are repeatedly going bright to dim in the span of a few seconds, then that's definitely not normal operation. For mine, the brightness increase lasts several minutes and occurs infrequently. Might be a problem with one of your batteries. The converter manual has some basic troubleshooting in it so you can try to eliminate it as the problem and then move on to the batteries.


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olcoon

Well-known member
Well, I just checked the fluid level of the batteries, and they are all good. Put a voltage meter on both batteries & they both have 13.58 volts. After checking the voltage, I turned on all the lights plus the fan in the bathroom, and there was no flickering. Turned on the furnace, as long as I could stand the heat and nothing. We have noticed on the last few trips (like a year or 2) when the vent fan in the bathroom is on, and the bedroom lights are turned on it will slightly slow down until the lights are turned off. This may have been like this from day one, and we just didn't notice it. I just figured this is somewhat normal. I re-checked the voltage with the ground control panel again, and it says the battery is at 13.7 volts.

This morning while I was eating breakfast, I had the lights on, and didn't notice the flickering. When I turned on the furnace, a short time later they started flickering.

Possibly gremlins, I guess. If it is the converter, I'm hoping it'll last until we get home, because at this point Amazon isn't an option, as when we leave here, the owners will be following us out the gate & locking it. There are some RV dealers in the area I guess I could go to.
 

olcoon

Well-known member
If it does wind up being the converter, anybody got any ideas what to replace it with? I was able to access it enough to get a photo, and whats in there now is a:
WFCO 65 amp
Input 105-130 VAC. 1260W
Output 13.6 65 Amp
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Get a Progressive Dynamics 9200 series of the same amperage.


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Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Kinda read through this whole tread, and didn't see anyone say to check your ground wire from the batteries to the frame. And of course the rest of your battery connections. Find where it mounts to the frame remove it grind it clean and remount it.
I may be wrong but you would be amazed what odd things a bad ground will create.

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happykraut

Well-known member
Roy, you can always have Amazon send it to one of your neighbors. I've done it several times. Actually when mine went out I had it sent to a campground that I was going to for a rally.
 

avvidclif

Well-known member
Kinda read through this whole tread, and didn't see anyone say to check your ground wire from the batteries to the frame. And of course the rest of your battery connections. Find where it mounts to the frame remove it grind it clean and remount it.
I may be wrong but you would be amazed what odd things a bad ground will create.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Yep, all those hot leads are just 1/2 of the circuit. The ground is the other half. Either can cause problems.
 
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