Power center problem

Question

OK I have a Arctic Fox 25Y and the power center so far as I can tell is a PD5000. I can not find any manuals or installation guides on the PD website and the AF manual has a worthless paragraph. This is a straight distribution panel not including a converter which is separate.

I have had a long standing problem with my entertainment center which resolved (but not fixed) to low 9V on the power lines. Just yesterday the lights went out in the kitchen/living room area. They work everywhere else. Checking the fuses, which were good I decided to check the voltage on the jacks that the fuses plug into. I found 13+ V on all the pin pairs except fuse numbers 2 and 9 which are the ones for the lighting that is out and the number nine which is the stereo. On those I get 6V and 9V respectively. The 9V is the same I was getting when checking the wiring at the stereo.
I can't find a thing helpful on the PD site, just a block diagram.

Any ideas? I've pulled the power center out and except for a welter of wires I can see nothing. I hoped for loose connections but no. I thought I might be able to jump a 12V line to the low voltage -inputs- on the fuse block but that is internal to the box and inaccessible. The only thing that shows is the output wiring. I could jump to those but that would overload one fuse or another.

Any suggestions welcome

beemerphile1 · Answer

That is puzzling, were you checking the load side or line side of the fuse?

drewe · Answer

Are you reading the voltage across the fuse terminals (or where the fuse would go)?  If so, having a very high resistance on the load side, nearly an open circuit, would make your meter show something other than 12V.  Having an entirely open circuit would result in basically no reading as there's no path to ground.  Slightly more useful is to check the voltage from the source side of the fuse to a known ground point; they should all be at (nominal) +12V and all be the same.  Since a meter doesn't provide any significant load, though, it doesn't tell you much beyond there's some connection there; in particular, it tells nothing about how good that connection is.

agesilaus · Answer

DrewE wrote:Are you reading the voltage across the fuse terminals (or where the fuse would go)?  If so, having a very high resistance on the load side, nearly an open circuit, would make your meter show something other than 12V.  Having an entirely open circuit would result in basically no reading as there's no path to ground.  Slightly more useful is to check the voltage from the source side of the fuse to a known ground point; they should all be at (nominal) +12V and all be the same.  Since a meter doesn't provide any significant load, though, it doesn't tell you much beyond there's some connection there; in particular, it tells nothing about how good that connection is.OK I'll try that. The other fuse terminals showed 13+ volts tho so it's a strange coincidence that the two circuits that I have trouble with are the two that do not.

time2roll · Answer

If you are measuring 13+ on most pins and less than 9 on a couple pins in the fuse/distribution panel then you have a defective board, poor connection or bad fuse etc right there.  Keep poking and eventually you will find the issue with 13 on one side and 9 on the other.  Replace or repair is your call.  May need to remove the board to inspect.

Forum Discussion

Power center problem

About Technical Issues

Related Content

House Power Problem

More power problems

Power Converter Problems????

Center Console Swap

power awning problems