advice urgently needed please

[monkeymagic68]

Hi all
Can anyone give me advice on an electrical fault my Carver cascade and Carver fire will not ignite its showing low voltage but the battery is in top condition any ideas.
Pete

 

[TD42]

if you are saying they will not ignite on gas then I would check that your 12v master switch is on, then check the relevant fuses on the distribution box & finally check the inline fuse from the distribution box to the battery usualy found around the battery box

 

[Steve L]

Just check that the towing cover is off the vent on the outside of the van. Our water heater doesn't fire up on gas if the cover is on.

 

[wombat1]

I second steveinleo, I actually have to lift my flue cover completely clear of the outlet, not just pulled out to the first stop position.

 

[Damian]

Therer is no flue cover to remove on the Carver Cascade.
Only the Truma Ultrastore has a cover which should be fully removed before using the gas heat source.
There is no,"first stop" position. It should be either fully ON, or fully OFF.

As for the electrics, undo the wall switch cover and check that you do actually have 12v at the input terminals.
If there is , then it is either a switch PCB fault or the burner module.

 

[monkeymagic68]

When you say undo the wall switch do you mean the master switch or the control switch for the Carver

 

[Damian]

Which type of wall switch for the Carver do you have?
A fawn coloured one with slide and LED's. Red Amber and Green in a horizontal line or a cream push button switch with off and on press pads?

 

[Steve L]

Inside the fawn control box there is a small 0.5amp fuse. That has a habit of blowing. You could also check the plug onto the circuit board. Any plug with dirty connections could produce a reduced voltage.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Steve,

The Carver Cascade was always sold with 1A 20mm fuses, not 0.5A

 

[Damian]

And there are two of them

 

[monkeymagic68]

Hi
The control pannel for the cascade is of the on off with led's I've checked voltage to the plug and its 12.8 volts but the led is flashing and saying low voltage the Carver heater is lighting on gas but the blown heater isn't working the led's is staying on but the fan isn't working I've spun the fan and its not seized I've changed the switch and still nothing.

 

[Guest]

Theres not enough information here and what there is is confusing?... year of the van would perhaps help?
To make things clearer, the Cascade water heater has a solid yellow light to show low voltage, none of the three lights should flash.
The Fanmaster electric heater, on the back of the gas fire, has 5 yellow lights, any of which will continue to flash, but more slowly and this shows a fault.
The first reason to suspect for the fanmaster flashing slowly is low battery.
However low battery faults does not always mean the battery itself is low, only that that the heaters are getting a low voltage, this is often and simply due to a bad earth connection.

One other possibility and related to bad earths, Is there any chance you have inadvertantly connected the battery or a battery charger the wrong way round, even if for only a couple of seconds?

 

[monkeymagic68]

Hi Garry
Sorry to confuse you, this is a friends fault that im trying to sort for him, the van is a 96 ABI Northstar, The control switch for the cascade is the mk2 type with leds,when switched on the battery light slow flashes which indicates low voltage i believe.
The carver heater is an 1800 i believe, the control switch when switched to fan lights and stays lit but the fan doesnt work.
Hope this clears it up a bit

 

[Guest]

Partly but which ever Cascade switch, it should never flash, the Fanmaster switch should flash if there is a fault, however, this does not have to be the case, this depends on if the 'brain' sees the fault or not.
If indeed low voltage is the problem the Fanmaster switch will certainly flash slowly, as the Cascades yellow low voltage light is showng,( I very seriously doubt this is flashing), this would would confirm low voltage.
Bear in mind Carvers 'low voltage' threshold is 10.3 volts!

So you can see nothing is ever simple! a good way of checking is to disconnect the van battery and use that or a spare battery to supply 12v direct and one at a time to the pair of them, if things are still the same then the fault/s are on the appliances, if though they work? then it's a wiring fault.

I might add my last quesion has not had an answer?

 

[monkeymagic68]

Hi garry
I can assure you the cascade switch flashes as a answer to your last question no its not been disconnected would that blow the pcbs ill have a go at wiring direct see what happens