Hi,
I have an orion converter 12/12 30, i have fitted it in a campervan.
It has a feed from the starter battery, with a 60a fuse on the input. It has an input to the remote “h” terminal with 12v from ignition fused at 5a. The output is connected to a leisure battery through a 30a fuse. The leisure connection is shared with the leisure circuits (mainly led lights).
The aim is to supply the leisure consumers during travel and keep the leisure battery topped up.
It is a unit with “isolated” capability but my system is non-isolated so both -ve input and output bonded to the chassis (same length cable).
When ignition on it was outputting around 14v
Steadily.
Since installation i ran some 10-20min journeys ok, and this week a 2.5hr journey, all seemingly ok. Then 5 min into a journey, it caught fire.
I have opened this up, i have pictures if this helps.
Can i get some input on if my setup is ok, or if this could have been an internal failure. I want to replace or change but ensure everything is safe.
Thanks
It looks like a lot of arching has been happening on the PCB on the area of the HF transformer.
Your setup, from you description, is OK and seems to be an internal failure.
Could you take some picture from the other side of the PCB?
Hi, thanks for your response. I will try to remove it, but it seems fixed in place, possible as a result of melted plastic from the casing. The outside is OK, but I see signs of melting on the inside. I have already forced opened the bottom so don’t expect any warranty now, will try to dismantle further later today.
Unfortunately I am unable to remove the PCB it seems welded in 
Attached is my “schematic”, a photo of the device in situ, its mounted flat, and a photo of the front showing the “right, H” terminal is actually labelled on the left!
I cant work out what has happened here, I believe that the device should have short circuit and over current protection, did not blow any fuses on the infeed or outfeed, so with this setup, should not be catching fire.
My aim is to work out a probable root cause, what i should use instead and how I can prevent this from happening with any replacement.
When you state it was mounted flat do you mean on a horizontal surface Cooling is better when mounted on a vertical surface with the fins vertical to get better convective air flow.
What is the surrounding of the converter, was it in an enclosed space or a well ventilated space, was it located next to a heat source where it would receive external heat such as an engine, heater etc.
Hi, thanks for replying. It was mounted horizontally, airflow possible around in but no fans. No heat sources other than itself.
Had been ok on short runs (10-20mins), and a 2.5 hour run. Fire happened 5 mins into a run at 4am where ambient temp was 2 degrees.
