Monday, October 10, 2016

It's always an adventure

So as vacation is over and I went back to work Monday several people asked me where I went on vacation. My response with a smile to them was Silver Lake a small town of under 1000 people just 6 miles from where we live. As there is a private camp ground on the actual lake the city borders several coworkers knowing I had just acquired the 5er asked if that is where we stayed which gave me pause to review briefly what I had accomplished over the last week before explaining it to them what I had been doing while off work.
I left out the bumps and bruises, the twists and contortions although several mention they could see that I had gotten into something by all the scratches on my arms and hands. But what I made a point of telling them was how much I had enjoyed working on our new soon to be home and the updates I installed.
Now each night on the way home I drive thru Silver Lake and last night was no different. However I did stop at the 5er to pick up a tool I needed for work and as long as I was there replaced and end on the cable that plug into the remote control for the inverter. Something that got damaged in my hast to install it last week. I had brought several ends as I keep some with my tools at work and am glad I did as like alway this to became what I like to refer to as an adventure.
Ok for starters as I had not attempted to use the remote since pulling the wire and because both ends condition at this time were unknown my first test was to plug in another wire into the inverter to make sure all systems were go. My disappointment mounted as the switch mounted to the new wire would only turn the inverter on and not off again as expected. So as I bent while the sweat started soaking my shirt from what was a very hot and humid day I examined both wires.
Finding that the test wire I was using only had two I had to assume that the remote required the additional pair that a standard phone line comes with. On a FYI note a std phone requires just two wires and they are called tip and ring. The added pair is for another phone or phone accessory to be installed with out having to pull another line.
Speaking of which in case I needed to pull another line I had brought a 50' phone line with and so connected it to the inverter which was just 3 feet away. Again this is just for testing purposes at this time. Surprise, surprise this wire did not work either but the manual had warned about not placing the remote to far from the inverter as the resistance of the added length of wire would undermine the switches functions.
So lets take a shot and replace the end of the existing line that was damaged, which I did but still the switch would not work. My thoughts started roaming to a much simpler time when you just used smoke signals or a flip phone when you wanted to send signals.
After looking closer at the flat wire terminal connectors I found that these had slots for 6 wires not just the 4 slots I had expected, there for my termination had been shifted one wire off causing the wrong signal to be sent from the remote to the inverter.
As mentioned earlier I luckily am a master planner and had brought more than the one termination end. Again as the sweat now was running in my eyes I reterminated the factory wire and I admit it took 2 more tries to get the wiring terminated correctly but as they say the third time's the charm and after holding down the button on the remote I green light came on and I could hear auto transfer switch switch over from default shore power to my inverter / solar solution. Just another Adventure!

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