Another service center

When we left Elgin, Illinois on Tuesday, we headed toward Nappanee, Indiana, to Solar Energy Systems for service on our inverter.

Since April, we've had a problem with the inverter; normal operation is that when we get 110V power from shore power or the generator, the inverter would automatically switch from creating 110V from the batteries to charging the batteries. But... since the electrical problem we had in April (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/04/an-awning-and-electrical-issue.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/04/back-to-nirvc-again.html), we have been having issues with this -- the inverter would throw a fault and sometimes emit a loud buzzing noise. We had done some debugging with Magnum (the manufacturer of the inverter) and they felt that we had a damaged board in the inverter. They recommended taking it to one of their service centers, so we had made an appointment for September 8 at Solar Energy Systems in Nappanee. We could deal with the error by turning off the inverter before we applied external 110V power (before plugging in to shore power or turning on the generator) and then remembering to turn the inverter back on when we wanted 110V power from our batteries when we were not plugged in (driving or boondocking). But, this required remembering on our part, and caused a loss of 110V power every time we plugged in / unplugged (requiring reseting of clocks, timers, etc.), so we wanted to get it fixed.

We arrived at the service center at about 3pm on Tuesday afternoon...

We had an appointment for Wednesday; Jason came out to see if he could start working on the inverter on Tuesday afternoon, but, since he would not be able to complete the work on Tuesday, and since we would want to have power in the coach overnight Tuesday night, he decided to wait until Wednesday morning to start.

We could park in their lot overnight...

There were two other rigs also there overnight -- the one in the middle is getting a complete solar setup with new batteries and charge controller installed -- they have been at the service center since Friday last week (they arrived early for their Tuesday appointment). Gracie could be parked just outside the shop and we could use a 50A hookup that they supplied us.

The inverter is installed on the ceiling of the basement compartment between the frame rails -- not a very accessible area, and, of course, we have lots of stuff stored under there!

So, we took almost everything out of the bay on Wednesday morning...

... from both sides of the rig -- stacked some of it beside and under the rig...

... and some more on the concrete pad up by the shop (it had rained overnight and the ground was a bit wet and sticky, so some things were better on the concrete pad).

Dillon got into the compartment ...

... and worked to get the inverter removed so Jason could take it to the workbench and test its components.

Jason determined which board was failing, let us know he found it and what the cost would be, and then replaced it. He kept us informed on what he was finding, and completed the fix by about 11am --

We looked around in their retail shop at Lithium batteries, inverters, solar controllers, and all sorts of other things!

One of the information items indicated that it is a good time to go with solar (before 2022) -- this applies for us as well as farmers!

Some of the decor on the walls of the retail shop...

Mission Statement

When Jason had finished with the fixes, Dillon brought the inverter back to install it...

Information on our inverter (good to take a picture when it is accessible!).

Dillon ran through tests with us to make sure everything was working correctly (it was!), and we were able to head out by soon after noon! We would highly recommend Solar Energy Systems!