Progressive Dynamics 9200 series converter repair

I rather doubt that the bad battery caused the converter to die, though I suppose it's possible. The PD is supposed to be protected against short circuit output conditions and open circuit output and most anything between. Maybe if it was operating at full output for a long time with inadequate cooling the fuse would eventually die of "old age" on its own absent any real fault.

The fuse should read zero ohms (or close to that) whether in situ or not. If it's open, it is blown. From your description it sounds as though it's probably the main AC input fuse, and that would usually imply that something is short circuited in the input side of the converter. Converters these days are basically just largish switching power supplies, so check the usual input side things--the big electrolytic capacitors, the input rectifier, the switching transistor....something may have failed short circuit.

The fuse in your photo (glass with white middle?) is a 120v fuse for the 120v input to the board right by where the 120v cord has its three wires attached inside the unit. If it is blown -no input and no output. You can check for 120v voltage on the other side of that fuse.

You can jumper that fuse end to end and see if the unit then works. Or it might work for a second and then smoke from whatever blew that fuse if internal cause.

EDIT--You cut the 120v plug to hardwire it ISTR. So that means you could have shorted the input where the plug was cut off--which would have blown the glass fuse? If so it was external and it should be safe to jumper the fuse with the cord wires repaired? ISTR you said water got in there?

My converter has only one 120v glass fuse at the input, not two. Hmmmm.

Here is a photo with some info from a thread a while ago--scroll down to the photos of the 9280's board and some info about its fuses.

https://forums.goodsamclub.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26139699/srt/pa/print/true/pging/1/page/30.cfm

The fuse I'm referring to is white middle and appears to me to be ceramic?

I don't think it's glass as the one to the left, usually glass fuses you can see the fuse element as the glass fuse to the left.

I should probably test further to determine what it's connected to.

The glass fuse has continuity and the white one doesn't

The white fuse measures from metal end to metal end approx. 35-35mm and approx. 5-6mm in thickness.

I'm fairly certain the white fuse is a ceramic fuse. Whether it's fast or slow blow I'm uncertain.

yes I too think a bad empty of electrolyte battery shouldn't damage an inverter.

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago some water had been spilled from the sink onto the distribution panel of which the PD9280 was connected to, a few sparks occurred and i disconnected the 30 amp service, cleaned the water and allowed everything dry then reconnected the 30 amp service.

All was working well for a couple of weeks until I noticed my Norcold Frig was putting out an error message LO-DC. Testing the voltage at the converter measured approx. 9.5 vdc. So I checked the 3 RV batteries and found one that I previously filled with distill water was empty again. Instead of re-filling I removed the RV battery with low electrolytes leaving the bank with two RV batteries.


The battery loosing electrolytes is dated 01/06 while the other two 01/07.

Perhaps the water spillage effected the PD9280 which AFAIK never became wet with water.

I'm just making certain that the PD9280 is beyond a simple repair such as replacing a fuse.

I went out and briefly tested the PD9280 and found only the right side of the white fuse has continuity to the black AC power wire.

There is no continuity from the left side of the white fuse.

So it appears the black wire AC voltage connected to the right side of the white fuse isn't passing over to the left side.

I would risk it by attaching a plug to the cord and plug the unit in. You already did that I guess, since you confirmed it has no DC output.

With multi-meter set to 120v, see if it has 120v on the board to each fuse and then on the other end of the fuse, for each fuse. If the ceramic one is open, I would jumper it ( with something that has a wood handle!!) and check for DC output.

It is possible water got into where you hard wired the unit into the AC breaker panel and shorted the 120v input so one of those two fuses blew.

BFL13 wrote:
The fuse in your photo (glass with white middle?) is a 120v fuse for the 120v input to the board right by where the 120v cord has its three wires attached inside the unit. If it is blown -no input and no output. You can check for 120v voltage on the other side of that fuse.

You can jumper that fuse end to end and see if the unit then works. Or it might work for a second and then smoke from whatever blew that fuse if internal cause.

EDIT--You cut the 120v plug to hardwire it ISTR. So that means you could have shorted the input where the plug was cut off--which would have blown the glass fuse? If so it was external and it should be safe to jumper the fuse with the cord wires repaired? ISTR you said water got in there?

I'm referring to the white fuse near the middle.

No after the 120 VAC plug was cut it didn't create a short. I made certain all three wires black, white and green were isolated and connected the to a proper connections to the dist. panel.

The PD9280 has been working well since it was installed with a cut-off AC plug for years. So I assume the problem is from the water spillage, the bad battery or perhaps another problem.

After dismantling the PD9280 I washed the dirty areas of the PCB with water and electronic spray using a tooth brush and then allowed to dry for several hours.

BFL13 wrote:
I would risk it by attaching a plug to the cord and plug the unit in. You already did that I guess, since you confirmed it has no DC output.

With multi-meter set to 120v, see if it has 120v on the board to each fuse and then on the other end of the fuse, for each fuse. If the ceramic one is open, I would jumper it ( with something that has a wood handle!!) and check for DC output.

It is possible water got into where you hard wired the unit into the AC breaker panel and shorted the 120v input so one of those two fuses blew.

See my other post about continuity to the white fuse.

At this point in time I don't want to jumper the white fuse with power.

What I would prefer to do is replace the white fuse by soldering in a another one with the correct specifications.

e.g. I would need to know if it's a fast acting or slow blow and it's amperage .

It is marked on one of the metal end caps. Which may be facing the PC board. Good luck to you.

Earlier in that thread he posted a diagram of the input--scroll down to the input one --it might say what that fuse is, I didn't check.

https://forums.goodsamclub.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26139699/srt/pa/print/true/pging/1/page/13.cfm

He refers to the patent to get all the details. Yipes!

--Since you know it is blown, you could snip it out and see if it says what it is on it.

Pull the broken ceramic fuse out and see if there are any part numbers on the ends or underside. You’ve got nothing to lose. If it’s indeed connected inline with the AC input, 15A sounds about right since the specs for you unit say 1300W/130V (10A) though it also says to use a 20A circuit.

If still in doubt, install a fast blow 15A. The worst that will happen is false blowing. That said, slow blows are often used where more than brief over current is expected like with an inductive load inrush current. I’d guess fast blow is most likely in yours.

I tried to find some markings using my reading glasses.

I suppose I can jumper it using another fast acting 15 amp fuse before desoldering.

Once removed I'll inspect it further using a magnifying glass.


It's ~35mm long. Most longer fuses I've see are 20mm long. Searching so far hasn't produce any 6mm x 35mm fuses. I think I remember a fuse while searching that's 6mm x 32mm.

But there must be some sort of replacement fuse somewhere and length may be important for a replacement.

I also inspected the PCB for markings but none showed anything about fuses and amperage