Intermittent Shore Power Connection

Q&A and troubleshooting
, ,
1

Multiplus 24/3000/70

I’m having a new and rather strange issue, I live full time in my camper, and I’ve had this system up and running for over a year. Two nights ago I arrived at a campsite, plugged in like usual but was getting really inconsistent power from the 30 amp outlet, and you could hear it buzzing at the connection and the LED light on my cord was flickering. So I switched to the 20A plug and called it a night, everything was fine.

But in the morning, my inverter disconnected from shore power and wouldn’t reconnect. I tried fiddling with the plugs, and ultimately pulled my generator out (Honda 2200i) and plugged it in, and I had shore power again.

So, I figured it was the campsite, even though when I tested it with my Fluke, it would show 124~ volts and 60hz. Called the front desk, and they moved me to a different spot, but same problem. Called again, moved to a spot with 50 amp service that was newer, plugged into the 30 amp plug and still it won’t take power. I can hear it clicking on and off occasionally to try to connect, the touchscreen shows my available input currently at 120v and 60.3hz, but it won’t accept it.

Again, it will work if I plug in my generator to the same plug and cord.

Edit:

Just wanted to add a bit more info, so I plugged in the MK3 to take a look at some of the settings

I do have accept wide input frequency range on

I have virtual switch off

My voltage connect and disconnect settings are such that it should easily accept the voltages I’m seeing, nothing too wild, I’ve seen between 119 and 124

I can watch the little Mains bar countdown thing to the click, so that’s a cool little feature, so now I know it tries to connect every 4 minutes.

Ideas?

2

Update:

Same Problem, new park

So pulled into a different RV park, plugged into the “wall” and having the same issue. I tried two different power cords, my big 30 amp cord, and just a 15 amp extension cord, neither worked. The 15 amp trips the breaker and/or the GFCI in the box, even though I have the input current limit set to 7.5A. 30 amp doesn’t trip anything, but the inverter just clicks and clicks but never connects.

I can still get power just fine with the generator, which is what makes this issue so strange. It never hesitates to take power from the generator, got on the first try, every time.

3

Please explain where you plug things in… Do you connect the generator to the external socket on your motorhome… or to another connection?
It sounds like a charred plug connection between the multi-socket and the campsite connection.
Perhaps you could draw us a little diagram… so we can get a better idea of what… is plugged in where…

4

I wish it were that simple, wiring issues have been the first thought, and I’ve inspected every connection and cord.

Short answer is, it doesn’t matter.

Long answer: I have two locations outside I can plug power into. I have a cord I’ve wired into where the old propane generator was, so I can run the Honda on the ground outside. Then there’s the normal side plug you would normally plug into shore power.

I’ve tried plugging shore power into both locations, with every cord I have. It’s always the same, the inverter won’t accept shore power.

Conversely, plugging the generator into either location, with or without an extension cord, makes no difference, it works no matter how I plug it in. At this moment I’m running the generator through a 15 amp extension cord into the shore power plug, which I never do, but it works. I just wanted to test every configuration I can think of.

It’s always the same, generator works, shore power doesn’t.

And it’s baffling.

5

Starting to wonder if the generator works because the power ramps up a bit slowly, where when plugging in, the amperage is immediately available, and the inverter has some fault/damage/problem/something that causes it to fail to connect to shore power.

Any recommendations about where I could have a service pro take a look at it anywhere between Bellingham and Everett WA?

6

Played with it again today. Decided to test it by bypassing the camper wiring entirely, so I wired an extension cord directly to the inverter and plugged it into shore power and same issue. It’ll trip the GFCI breaker in the post when plugged into the 20 amp outlet. (It’s the same behavior as before)

It’s out of warranty too by about 6 months, I’ll contact the original dealer in Reno when I’m back in town and see if there’s any service they can do.