240V mania

Hi all,
I have a 1994 SWB Trophy which has an odd problem with 240V power. Although all the sockets are live, the fridge, internal 230V light and charger light on the zig panel dont work any more. I've checked all fuses and they are fine. I cannot find any ciruit breakers anywhere. Could these symptoms match what you expect if the charger blows? Any advice on RCB location and charger appreciated.  

simon wrote:Could these symptoms match what you expect if the charger blows?

No - this would normally only take out the 12V side, unless the charger has failed and blown a fuse that you haven't yet found.

Probably the best thing to do is to post up a photo (via one of the photo hosting services like Photobucket) of your ZIG panel, and someone will almost certainly recognise it...

Sounds like a mcb has tripped. According to a wiring diagram I have, the sockets are on a 10amp mcb and the water heater, mains light, fridge & battery charger are off a 5amp one. The Zig distribution panel is fed from the battery charger.
Can't tell you the location of the consumer unit on a Trophy though, mine's in a cupboard under the sink.

Frank

Thanks for this advice. Really helpful. Will have a look this evening.

boxerman wrote:Sounds like a mcb has tripped. According to a wiring diagram I have, the sockets are on a 10amp mcb and the water heater, mains light, fridge & battery charger are off a 5amp one. The Zig distribution panel is fed from the battery charger.
Can't tell you the location of the consumer unit on a Trophy though, mine's in a cupboard under the sink.

Frank

Thanks Frank.
I found the RBCs obscured behind a box in the cupboard under the sink as you suggested.
Now the lights and fridge are working again but the charger light on the zig is not on. I dont think I have seen it on when the 240V is plugged in. Should the charger light be on?

My zig charger has a switch on the side of it when its on the green light on the zig panel lights up. Maybe the charger has failed and that's what tripped the mcb?.

Mike

As Mike says, the light on the panel should come on when you're plugged into 204V, provided the switch on the actual charger is on. Harking back to my van (Symphony) there is also a switch in a cupboard for it. (there are two actually, one for the charger and one for the water heater - both have neons on them and both have been tripped accidentally at times by items in the cupboard)

Frank

mikejack wrote:My zig charger has a switch on the side of it when its on the green light on the zig panel lights up. Maybe the charger has failed and that's what tripped the mcb?.

Mike

Thanks Mike and boxerman.
The charger is not working. I think I have successfully loaded a photo of the charger partly removed.
How do you replace this unit? It seems like it is hard-wired into a set of cable which run back into the hole at the back of the cavity under the fridge but I cant work out how to get it out and replace it. Any tips on suppliers and procedure?

The most useful reply I can give you is to do a search on the forum. These chargers and thier replacements have been discussed on here quite a few times previously.

Frank

Hi.  

Sorry can't see the picture(s) for some reason but:

Replacing the Zig is very easy. Any 13.6V/13.8V power supply / battery charger with sufficient current output will do the job. You’ll probably find the Zig manual confusing and sadly, support on Zig web site is abysmal (unlike the excellent Sergent site).

If it’s a ZIG X7:

The mains lead is captive and will run back to the circuit breaker as should any replacement.  On the output you will find two ¼” plug on connections on each of the power outputs (i.e. two positive and two negative). Both negatives are connected together inside the unit as are both positives so there is only a single output (this is far from clear in the manual).

The output marked LED goes to any LED on the control panel and hopefully a replacement charger will have someting similar but it has no bering on the operation of the supply. The other spare terminal (marked "AUX" or Diode) is an input for an external voltage source and can be ignored.

There are many power supplies on the market. The ZIG 70 is a direct replacement capable of delivering slightly higher current but is expensive. If you fit another power supply with a single connection to positive and negative it is simply a case of joining the existing wires and connecting them to the appropriate terminal. Obviously whatever you use to join the cables must be capable of carrying the full output of the new power supply.

I’m not sure about the X3. I’ve never seen one but from the pictures it looks similar but with lower current output.


Brod.

Brod is right. My zig unit failed and I replaced with a spare motorola 240/12v unit I had, nothing fancy just  12v to charge the leisure battery and 12v to the distribution unit. To feed the 240 cable back to the consumer unit I took off the lower fridge vent and done the job from outside, using the old zig wire to pull through the new cable to the consumer unit. The hardest part was removing the old zig unit from under the fridge it is very well boxed in.

Hope this helps

Ernie