Intellitec Battery Disconnect Relay
I'm troubleshooting this relay on my motorhome and I'm just not getting anywhere. While in storage I use this device all the time. On my monthly startups and genset exercise, I engage the relay from m...
Forum Discussion
Peter,
The part you are trying to diagnose may be stranger than you expect. It is a tall solenoid affair, then it is one of these and in lots of years, I have only seen one actually fail.
The trick is that it is not a Normally Open or Normally Closed type of contactor (electrician for BIG relay). It has two permanent magnets that will hold it either open or closed. The switch feeds it a pulse with the polarity one way for Open and a reversed polarity pulse for Close. So the switch is the same as the type for reversing a simple DC motor.
I will lay odds that the switch is failing. I have recovered these a few times (usually in power boat trim tab motor controls). If the switch can be removed without too much effort and you feel adventurous then get the switch loose and get someplace where you can take it apart. Be very careful at this stage because there are little springs and brass fingers that can attain escape velocity and then you have to buy a new switch. It will probably have lots of old hardened grease that is keeping one set of contacts from making good.
If you need to buy one, what you want is a DC reversing switch that is momentary both ways. It may say DPDT Mom On-Off-Mom On. I don't have
the catalog I want here so I can't give you a part number.
Matt
The part you are trying to diagnose may be stranger than you expect. It is a tall solenoid affair, then it is one of these and in lots of years, I have only seen one actually fail.
The trick is that it is not a Normally Open or Normally Closed type of contactor (electrician for BIG relay). It has two permanent magnets that will hold it either open or closed. The switch feeds it a pulse with the polarity one way for Open and a reversed polarity pulse for Close. So the switch is the same as the type for reversing a simple DC motor.
I will lay odds that the switch is failing. I have recovered these a few times (usually in power boat trim tab motor controls). If the switch can be removed without too much effort and you feel adventurous then get the switch loose and get someplace where you can take it apart. Be very careful at this stage because there are little springs and brass fingers that can attain escape velocity and then you have to buy a new switch. It will probably have lots of old hardened grease that is keeping one set of contacts from making good.
If you need to buy one, what you want is a DC reversing switch that is momentary both ways. It may say DPDT Mom On-Off-Mom On. I don't have
the catalog I want here so I can't give you a part number.
Matt
