The inverter shuts down when I put into invert mode to run AC. I push the invert button on my Link controller at the Nav station panel and as soon as I turn on the breaker for my onboard AC it shuts down and causes the controller to go haywire. All power, DC and AC are lost. I then turn off all the AC breakers on the main electrical panel and after a few seconds the Link controller again shows battery status, voltage and amps. The amp hours used function resets to 0. DC again runs normally. It has done it early in the morning with batteries at 75% and in the evening with about the same battery charge,
Boating - Xantrex Technology - Heart Freedom 20 12 Inverter
Answers & Comments
Hi and welcome to FixYa, I am Kelly.
First let me say this is not about money for me... It is about my being a life long electrician since the late 1960's. This problem really caught my eye and has my curiosity factor very high.
What I recommend you do is turn off all other AC breakers and only turn on the AC breaker but have the temp setting on the AC high enough that is does not cycle when you switch into the invert mode. Then lower the AC thermostat set temperature so that is cycles on. If the inverter shuts down there may be a problem with the AC unit itself.
Try the same routine with the all breakers off ensuring you leave AC breaker off. Turn on Invert and start cycling on circuit breakers. If any one CB results in the inverter self protecting or shutting down you may have a circuit problem in the last CB circuit you switched on.
If adding any load at all to the inverter results in it shutting down, the inverter is going to need some time in a service center for repair.
Maybe you have tried the above already but I did not read that you had performed the sequence I mentioned.
I would appreciate your feedback with the result of the above troubleshooting steps.
Thanks for choosing FixYa,
Kelly
Good to hear you found loose connections. Given your symptoms it was the only thing that made sense to me as an electrician. I look forward to any future repsonses. Lets hope you solved the mystery.
Kelly
Hi again,
The way the FixYa site operates I have to repond within 4 hours of any response you have or your inital post goes back to the "answer it" pool and is open for any rated expert to provide yet another solution. I am responding now just to stop the clock. There is no need for you to respond at this time unless you have new information. By all means if you have anything to add respond with that information. Otherwise ignore this post.
Take care,
Kelly
What is the battery voltage and does the Link Panel show any LEDs on the DC AMPs Bar Graph when the unit shuts down?
Just looking into the manual again and I think for some reason the unit is switching into Idle Mode. Do you know what the DIP Switches are set at for this on the Link System?
Not sure, the manual doesn't go into detail as to what shuts down. One last thing before you see if the loose connecting has solved your problem. Did you do the 8 hour equalization charge on the batteries when they where replaced?
Your unit is asked to supply too big of a load for its design. Some of the appliances you are powering may have large capacitors in them. The capacitors make a big drain on the power supply initially until they are "charged". As they take a big drain, the inverter starts going "haywire" and eventually sees this as an overload situation and shutsdown. When you restart, the capacitors in the appliances are already charged enough so you don't have such a big load on the inverter so it runs normally.
It may take the capacitors in the applicances 10 minutes to several hours to discharge depending on how they are designed. There may even be some capacitors in the inverter that need to be charged and it is causing the drain itself.
You can try to start it with most of your applicances turned off to see if the same thing happens. You can turn appliances on one-by-one after that. You can also do some tests for the next week with one specific appliance left on to see if one particular applicance may be causing the issue. Large electric motors (air conditioners, pumps, whole house fans, ...) have large capacitors and my be causing the issue.
good luck.
-Mark
I am stumped for now. I will look into a few options but please reject my "solution" for now so other people can see your request and offer some support. -Mark