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The dreaded sensor panel


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Argh, I seem to have a dead sensor panel.  The water pump switch works (phew), but I can't get status readout on the black, grey and fresh water tanks or the coach battery.   I know the wastewater sensors can be problematic, and I have no problem peering down the potty or under the rig to check the tanks visually.  But it would be nice to know how much is in the fresh water tank, and even nicer to know how the battery is doing.  Can these be repaired or replaced?  Will a multimeter or something similar tell me how the battery is doing?  Suggestions welcome. 

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Edited by KGordon
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I'm not familiar with that panel it may have a fuse inside for the panel itself. The pump will work even if the panel does not because of the way it is wired. There are any number of aftermarket volt meters out there. I'm sure if someone is clever enough the panel can be repaired.

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I just got myself a 12v/120v multimeter and a circuit tester.  Looks like I'll get to play with my new toys this weekend!

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one of my many jobs at the rv plant was to build and install the black and grey tanks. 99.9 % of the time when panel doesn't work are the senors in the tanks. the senors are a pretty much a well nut that the panel wires are hooked to .they read by the fluid in the tanks grounding out the prob.this day in age they still use the same set up. most rv centers still have the same prob used in the black and grey tanks and fresh water tank. Common  wire set up is orange, green, yellow,  white and sometimes blue, white

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6 hours ago, jdfrost64 said:

one of my many jobs at the rv plant was to build and install the black and grey tanks. 99.9 % of the time when panel doesn't work are the senors in the tanks. the senors are a pretty much a well nut that the panel wires are hooked to .they read by the fluid in the tanks grounding out the prob.this day in age they still use the same set up. most rv centers still have the same prob used in the black and grey tanks and fresh water tank. Common  wire set up is orange, green, yellow,  white and sometimes blue, white

So I have to ask, do you keep your display panel in working order and use it? 

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I keep everything in my mini in working order .I restore my mini from the floor up replacing just about every square inch of it . only thing that i use is the microwave and furnance. but everything has been tested. only time it has ever had water in it was to pressure  test for leaks and to check tanks sensors.

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9 hours ago, jdfrost64 said:

Common  wire set up is orange, green, yellow,  white and sometimes blue, white

One thing I've learned about RV wiring:- Don't expect colours to be consistent between RV or equipment manufacturers or even from year to year. And that doesn't even consider 'improvements' made by DPOs. :)

Here's the 1993 Dolphin version of monitor wiring:-

 

93 Dolphin - Monitor Wiring.jpg

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If you want tank sensors that work there is only one that I know of SeeLevel. They are not in the tank and in most cases you can use the existing wiring. They work and are accurate SeeLevel is also a great co. to work with I had an issue with one and the co. owner was the one that called me sent a replacement part that came the next day!

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Thanks for all the great info!  That may be my next challenge . I just spent the morning on the roof replacing the Ventline fan.  Went smoothly, and I'm glad to have a chance to get familiar with butyl, caulk etc before tackling windows and other big stuff. 

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If it ends up being the panel itself, it's very, very unlikely that the board itself is damaged. If it's anything like mine, it has hand drawn traces. Like this:

 

toorumquest_pcb.jpg

 

They're very easy to follow if you know just a little bit about how circuits work. More likely than anything - if it is the board - is that one of the thruhole mounted components (like a capacitor) got fried. If that's the case, you can replace it for pennies, plus a soldering iron and some solder+flux. Here are some pics to help:

 

close-up.jpg

50515d1431571302-fbii-xl-2t-blown-resist

 

 

Edited by 256bit
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5 hours ago, 256bit said:

If it ends up being the panel itself, it's very, very unlikely that the board itself is damaged. If it's anything like mine, it has hand drawn traces. Like this:

 

toorumquest_pcb.jpg

 

They're very easy to follow if you know just a little bit about how circuits work. More likely than anything - if it is the board - is that one of the thruhole mounted components (like a capacitor) got fried. If that's the case, you can replace it for pennies, plus a soldering iron and some solder+flux. Here are some pics to help:

 

close-up.jpg

50515d1431571302-fbii-xl-2t-blown-resist

 

 

Looks like a motherboard from around 2004.

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1 hour ago, Maineah said:

Looks like a motherboard from around 2004.

Yes, example pictures. I don't have blown capacitors on my sensor panel to show him :P

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