Strange Electric question...

[ford_truck_guy]

I have a Winegard Connect 2.0 4G wifi device mounted on my roof.. I just broke down and got a SIM card for it so I could use it for my wifi while traveling...

I power it up, nothing... NO LED on the roof unit, checked volts at connection and I have 13.6... called Winegard told them.. They said bad device we will send you replacement under warranty..

Received the replacement, placed it up there, power it up,,,, NOTHING ???? checked volts and again I have 13.6... Called Winegard they told me to try hooking a battery direct to see what happens...

I took a battery pack up, checked volts and had 10.4, hooked it to the unit and it worked...
So, If I am putting 13.6 volts out, how does it not work ???

Waiting on response from Winegard, and I am pretty much clueless when it comes to electric....

what do you all think???

[ford_truck_guy]

ALL DONE . . .

Went up after work, removed the lid and placed my meter like I did before... Got -13.6... Then I hit the red wire with the black lead, and black wire with red lead.. got 13.6..

disconnected the wires switched red to black and black to red... all LED's came on... found signal on wireless search... ALL GOOD

I tried to remove the switch plate where they are hooked and all wires SEEM to be hooked properly from what I can see...

Gonna keep it this way, I have wasted way too much time on this already, no need to dig into it any farther now that it is working... Thank You to all who answered...

[opnspaces]

ford truck guy wrote:
**UPDATE **

Winegard just responded to my email,, they said that it "looks" like the wires are just reversed somewhere in line... I will put the meter back on them later today when i get home from work. I will try red lead to black wire and black lead to red wire.. I SHOULD have a normal reading at that point..

Thanks to all.. I am not afraid to admit when i have no idea what i am doing... Thanks for the responses..

Correct. From what you have been saying it looks like the wires are crossed somewhere before the Winegard. But with one Caveat that we haven't touched since you say you are new to this. Are your leads correctly plugged into the meter? Because if the leads are reversed your readings are reversed.

Before you climb up on the roof take your meter and touch red to positive (+) and black to negative (-) on your battery and make sure you read +12 volts. Then climb up on the roof and ignore the wire colors. Once you find the combination that reads positive voltage the wire touching the red lead is positive.

[p220sigman]

If you want to verify which wire has +12 volts, ground your meter black probe to either the battery negative post or the chassis of the RV and then read the wires for the unit. Only one should show 12 volts. That will be the one that is positive regardless of color. If you really want to confirm once you have established which wire reads +12 volts, switch your meter to the continuity setting with your black lead still grounded and check the other wire that didn't have +12 volts. It should show continuity since it should be the ground. It certainly looks like the wiring doesn't match the colors. Once you confirm the wires are backwards coming from the source, you have a couple of options. One, you can reverse the wires before they go into the Winegard so it is seeing the correct voltage (easier, but not preferred as someone else at some point is going to be trying to figure out why it is wired the way it is). Or, two, you can backtrace the wires from where you are testing to find where they got reversed (preferred, but can be an extremely frustrating endeavor) If you have some type of switch inside to turn the unit on/off, I would look there first.

[ford_truck_guy]

**UPDATE **

Winegard just responded to my email,, they said that it "looks" like the wires are just reversed somewhere in line... I will put the meter back on them later today when i get home from work. I will try red lead to black wire and black lead to red wire.. I SHOULD have a normal reading at that point..

Thanks to all.. I am not afraid to admit when i have no idea what i am doing... Thanks for the responses..

[ford_truck_guy]

this was red to red and black to black up on the RV roof..

[opnspaces]

Check it again to be sure.

But if in fact you were getting -13.6 when testing red to red to red and black to black then yes your wires are reversed and red is negative. Whichever wire your METER RED probe is touching when you get a +13.6 volts is your positive lead.

Try it down on the battery or even on your remote battery where the polarity is positively identified. Get comfortable with understanding what the readout looks like when connected positive to positive and reversed polarity as positive to negative.

The meter won't lie, and the meter won't damage the Winegard so test a few different ways to make sure you understand.

[ford_truck_guy]

wa8yxm wrote:
You said it powers up with the battery
But not with the House power

YOu measured 13.6 on the house power hot lead
You measured to WHAT ground?

Two possible answers

One You used a different ground (negative) lead when testing the house power lead and the one you have hooked to the Winegard is defective giving you zero volts.

Two. RV's builders were trained by an electrician BLACK is hot.. White is Neutral and bonded to ground That is bass ackwards to someone like me who was trained as an Electronics Tech.. The folks who built the winegard were trained by folks like me.

I can not tell you how many WHITE wires from the fuse panel are hooked to BLACK wires on devices in this RV (I do not know how many devices are IN this motor home. each light fixture is a device for example I've never counted)

But your volt meter is your friend in this case. It will indicate the polarity
IF the red wire is plugged into the red jack
And the meter shows 13.6
Then the wire the red lead is touching goes to the Positive wire/terminal on the winegard

If the red lead is plugged into the red jack and it shows -13.6 (Negative) then the wire the red lead is touching goes to the NEGATIVE terminal/wire

And thank winegard for putting in reverse voltage protection.

A 3rd possible answer is very rare on Modern RV's (Dirty DC) again your volt meter may be your friend (Dirty means AC on the DC line) the meter will show it if you set to AC volts.. However not all meters will do this Some will give a false reading.

The meter was showing -13.6 red to red... black to black..

[Bobbo]

ford truck guy wrote:
Should I try to reverse the leads? red to black, black to red?

Don't reverse the leads unless you have proved that you need to. If you reverse the polarity on the Winegard, you may damage it. Take your multimeter up there and check the power again. Twice. Once with the red lead to red wire/black lead to black wire. Then again, with the red lead to black wire/black lead to red wire. When you get a negative voltage reading, then whichever wire is on the BLACK lead is the positive wire.

[ford_truck_guy]

Thanks ALL..

* - I do have an on /off switch and it is on
* - I have a red wire and a black wire coming from the RV
* - I tested red to red, black to black on the RV wires
* - I tested Red to red and black to black when I hooked to the battery direct
* - I hooked red to red and black to black when I hooked up the battery and it worked..
* - the issue may have been around for a while as I never tried to use it before last week.The RV is only 1 year old..

Should I try to reverse the leads? red to black, black to red?

As you can ALL tell, I am clueless when it comes to wiring and electrical stuff...

[wa8yxm]

You said it powers up with the battery
But not with the House power

YOu measured 13.6 on the house power hot lead
You measured to WHAT ground?

Two possible answers

One You used a different ground (negative) lead when testing the house power lead and the one you have hooked to the Winegard is defective giving you zero volts.

Two. RV's builders were trained by an electrician BLACK is hot.. White is Neutral and bonded to ground That is bass ackwards to someone like me who was trained as an Electronics Tech.. The folks who built the winegard were trained by folks like me.

I can not tell you how many WHITE wires from the fuse panel are hooked to BLACK wires on devices in this RV (I do not know how many devices are IN this motor home. each light fixture is a device for example I've never counted)

But your volt meter is your friend in this case. It will indicate the polarity
IF the red wire is plugged into the red jack
And the meter shows 13.6
Then the wire the red lead is touching goes to the Positive wire/terminal on the winegard

If the red lead is plugged into the red jack and it shows -13.6 (Negative) then the wire the red lead is touching goes to the NEGATIVE terminal/wire

And thank winegard for putting in reverse voltage protection.

A 3rd possible answer is very rare on Modern RV's (Dirty DC) again your volt meter may be your friend (Dirty means AC on the DC line) the meter will show it if you set to AC volts.. However not all meters will do this Some will give a false reading.

[opnspaces]

You said this started when you added a sim card? Did you try taking the card back out and see if it starts working again?

[opnspaces]

When you said you have 13.6 volts at the connector, where is the connector? Is it up on the roof?

Did you use the same connector when testing with an auxiliary power source? If yes then you have a wiring problem. If no then you need to find a way to run the same test or take the same measurement at the same spot on the roof.

One thing to try is go up on the roof and take a voltage reading while someone else turns the system on. If the voltage drops it's possible you have a severely corroded connection somewhere. There can be enough current to read with a meter, but if you put a load on it the voltage drops. You can do the same basic test with a 12v test light. Does the light come on bright up on the roof, or is it dim?

[Seattle_Steve]

I don't want to state the obvious, but mine has a power switch (standard 12 volt rocker) mounted inside the AV cabinet. Yours might be somewhere else.