The Caravan Owners Club

[silverstreak]

I have a hobby 635 and the circurt board needs replacing, anyone know where to get one, I have had a quote for £350.

[esdave]

I have a hobby 635 and the circurt board needs replacing, anyone know where to get one, I have had a quote for £350.

hello i repair all these electronic converters,you may have a DOMETIC SMP190-01 450W or SMP192-01 400W
I repair all types of electronic units to component level the dometic obove are £350+vat from the agents, i have a repair charge of £100 +£10 return/recorded, I am based in talacre northwales. so if you have not got one as yet please let me know ,i also repair any other type of electronic equipment. kind regards dave electronics engineer.

[rich]

I have a hobby 635 and the circurt board needs replacing, anyone know where to get one, I have had a quote for £350.

hello i repair all these electronic converters,you may have a DOMETIC SMP190-01 450W or SMP192-01 400W
I repair all types of electronic units to component level the dometic obove are £350+vat from the agents, i have a repair charge of £100 +£10 return/recorded, I am based in talacre northwales. so if you have not got one as yet please let me know ,i also repair any other type of electronic equipment. kind regards dave electronics engineer.

Hi there, I've been trying to find some information on replacing or repairing a electric part on my Hobby Caravan. and came across yr conversation with 'silverstreak' The part is a 'Dometic SMP190-01 450W'
which I'm 90% certain is the problem why only half of the caravan lights are working! The other possibility is the PCB Board that contains the relay switches for the lights ...is there any way I can be sure which is causing me the problem? can you offer any advice?

[esdave]

hello yes I can give you technical advice on your DOMETIC SMP190-01 ,The RED LEDs, Is any of them on they should all be off if they are off then all your 12V DC outputs are ok, They only light up if a supply or a fuse has gone in the output. Sometimes one of the RED LEDs go this will not stop it working but if it is not lit then you do not know if you have a blown fuse or lost one of the 12v outputs, The fault you have of only half your lights on and no other fault is not likely to be your dometic converter, Just in case you do have a LED gone you can test all your outputs with a volt meter or a 12v 10w or 21w car bulb in a holder with wires on ,This is how 5 contacts on the RHS are negative put one wire in any then touch each fuse if your bulb lights up on each fuse you have proved your converter is ok and you do not have a fault with it .The faults that occur on the dometic are low output or no output with the circuit blown inside which I can and have repaired so when/if you do have a faulty one no need to pay £350 , please contact me again if you require any more information. best regards dave Eng

[rich]

hello yes I can give you technical advice on your DOMETIC SMP190-01 ,The RED LEDs, Is any of them on they should all be off if they are off then all your 12V DC outputs are ok, They only light up if a supply or a fuse has gone in the output. Sometimes one of the RED LEDs go this will not stop it working but if it is not lit then you do not know if you have a blown fuse or lost one of the 12v outputs, The fault you have of only half your lights on and no other fault is not likely to be your dometic converter, Just in case you do have a LED gone you can test all your outputs with a volt meter or a 12v 10w or 21w car bulb in a holder with wires on ,This is how 5 contacts on the RHS are negative put one wire in any then touch each fuse if your bulb lights up on each fuse you have proved your converter is ok and you do not have a fault with it .The faults that occur on the dometic are low output or no output with the circuit blown inside which I can and have repaired so when/if you do have a faulty one no need to pay £350 , please contact me again if you require any more information. best regards dave Eng

Hi Dave, Thank you for your advice. I have tried your suggestions. If I pull out all the fuses then all the LED lights come on. Testing by earthing from the right hand side plug in socket (the one with 4 wires in the connector) and testing the plug in socket to the right hand side (the one with 5 wires on it) I get a reading of 12.5Volts on each of the five wires.
Then by tracing the cable with the 5 wires to the P.C.B. Board each of the 5 wires puts power to the terminal in the PCB board ...however not all the relays in the PCB work when I operate the main switch board at the entrance of the caravan door. I now strongly suspect the PCB board with the relays is at fault!? your opinion would be greatly appreciated and do you repair these PCB Boards if that is my problem? Kind regards Richard

[esdave]

hello Richard I will give complete DC outputs then please check again there is only one relay inside and this switches over within 1 second when the AC fails when you have DC input ,so here are the connections from RHS 1/2/3/4/5 negative
1/2/3/4/5/6 positive you can check them with all connectors out, with only 240 AC input this should give you a DC ouput of 12.9V on all positive outputs . If you have the correct voltages It is not your converter, but get back to me with your findings. regards Dave

[rich]

:) hello Richard I will give complete DC outputs then please check again there is only one relay inside and this switches over within 1 second when the AC fails when you have DC input ,so here are the connections from RHS 1/2/3/4/5 negative
1/2/3/4/5/6 positive you can check them with all connectors out, with only 240 AC input this should give you a DC ouput of 12.9V on all positive outputs . If you have the correct voltages It is not your converter, but get back to me with your findings. regards Dave

Hi Dave, I have checked 1/2/3/4/5/6 with only 230AC, & all do give a positive DC out of approx 12.9V (I get a reading of 12.7 but my meter could be slightly out!) the PC board that these wires go into has 7 relay switches. 3 of these relays operate when I operate the switches on the main switch board. The remaining relays do not operate. However, if I operate the relays manually with an electrical screwdriver the lights that do not operate from the main switchboard operate as they should. Help! does that give you any ideas? it's got me puzzled kind regards Richard

[esdave]

hello Richard you have proved your converter is not the fault 12.7V output is ok ,so the relay board I need to know what is on it apart from relays you see relays are controlled by an electronic circuit ie transistors and diodes you have proved that some relays are not energized because when you operate them manually your lights work so you are on the right track ,Is it possible for me to see a picture of this relay unit via a web page or photo, I can then see how it is working and help you further. kind regards Dave

[rich]

hello Richard you have proved your converter is not the fault 12.7V output is ok ,so the relay board I need to know what is on it apart from relays you see relays are controlled by an electronic circuit ie transistors and diodes you have proved that some relays are not energized because when you operate them manually your lights work so you are on the right track ,Is it possible for me to see a picture of this relay unit via a web page or photo, I can then see how it is working and help you further. kind regards Dave

Hi Dave, once again I thank you for your advice. At the start of this problem everything seem to indicate that the relay board was at fault. I have had it check out by a large company close by, they replaced two of the relays, but could not find a fault on the board. The company mass produce circuit boards and dont really do repair work. They said they could not be sure the board was faulty, but couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Secondly I contacted 3 hobby caravan spare parts departments and asked for a price on a relay board. 2 of them said that the fault wont be the relay board it would be the inverter. the third said the same, he said he sells 10-15 inverters per year and has only ever sold one relay board, thats what put my train of thought back to the inverter then spotted yr comments on the caravan club! I agree with you and still think the problem lays with the relay board. If I was to send to you the board, do you think you could rectify the fault?

I've taken some photos with all the wires on but are unable to figure out how to attach them. can offer hotmail account!?
Beats me why they have to make a simple caravan lighting system so complex! Kind regard Richard

[esdave]

hello Richard I have repaired 16 of the DOMETIC converters to date and when I have repaired them I dummy load the outputs to check the current and volts that means to make the circuit work as if it was in your system connected to all your appliances, now what I would like you to do is put all your appliances on that you would normally have on , please make sure your batteries are fully charged then shut off the 240 ac, now when it switches over within 1 second to DC output please check again on your 6 output connectors that you have 12.7V DC on all 6 ,If you have then 100% your converter is ok , I can repair your relay board If required, but lets just do these tests, and If you can send me some pictures of relay board both sides because if I just see top and it is SMD that is surface mounted devices it could have very small ie 2mm components solderd to the bottom,My email is ELECTRONICSERV@ TISCALI.CO.UK kind regards Dave

[esdave]

hello Richard I have repaired 16 of the DOMETIC converters to date and when I have repaired them I dummy load the outputs to check the current and volts that means to make the circuit work as if it was in your system connected to all your appliances, now what I would like you to do is put all your appliances on that you would normally have on , please make sure your batteries are fully charged then shut off the 240 ac, now when it switches over within 1 second to DC output please check again on your 6 output connectors that you have 12.7V DC on all 6 ,If you have then 100% your converter is ok , I can repair your relay board If required, but lets just do these tests, and If you can send me some pictures of relay board both sides because if I just see top and it is SMD that is surface mounted devices it could have very small ie 2mm components solderd to the bottom,My email is ELECTRONICSERV@ TISCALI.CO.UK kind regards Dave

[rich]

hello Richard I have repaired 16 of the DOMETIC converters to date and when I have repaired them I dummy load the outputs to check the current and volts that means to make the circuit work as if it was in your system connected to all your appliances, now what I would like you to do is put all your appliances on that you would normally have on , please make sure your batteries are fully charged then shut off the 240 ac, now when it switches over within 1 second to DC output please check again on your 6 output connectors that you have 12.7V DC on all 6 ,If you have then 100% your converter is ok , I can repair your relay board If required, but lets just do these tests, and If you can send me some pictures of relay board both sides because if I just see top and it is SMD that is surface mounted devices it could have very small ie 2mm components solderd to the bottom,My email is ELECTRONICSERV@ TISCALI.CO.UK kind regards Dave

Hi Dave, Right here goes!!!

I charged battery overnight with tester on battery alone got ready of 12.96
Then connected the caravan upto 240AC supply. took reading as you requested with all light and appliances that do work on. Then I took readings of all 6 wires at the connector, on the relay board side.
Readings were as follows:
one. 12.88
two. 12.84
three. 12.82
four. 12.79
five. 12.78
six. 12.53

Then as you requested disconnected the 240 supply, within 1 second it switched over to the 12Volt battery supply. I then took the following readings:
one. 0.25
two. 11.03
three. 11.01
four. 10.98
five. 10.96
six. 10.73

I dont understand the reading on terminal one. however, I cant see what difference this would make as it is the only terminal that has no wire connected to it, and does not appear to do anything anyway.

hope the attached photos are of some help, and again I appreciate your advise

Kind regards
Richard




DSC01301.JPG

DSC01302.JPG

DSC01303.JPG

DSC01304.JPG

DSC01305.JPG

DSC01306.JPG

DSC01307.JPG

DSC01308.JPG

DSC01309.JPG

DSC01310.JPG

[rich]

hello Richard I have repaired 16 of the DOMETIC converters to date and when I have repaired them I dummy load the outputs to check the current and volts that means to make the circuit work as if it was in your system connected to all your appliances, now what I would like you to do is put all your appliances on that you would normally have on , please make sure your batteries are fully charged then shut off the 240 ac, now when it switches over within 1 second to DC output please check again on your 6 output connectors that you have 12.7V DC on all 6 ,If you have then 100% your converter is ok , I can repair your relay board If required, but lets just do these tests, and If you can send me some pictures of relay board both sides because if I just see top and it is SMD that is surface mounted devices it could have very small ie 2mm components solderd to the bottom,My email is ELECTRONICSERV@ TISCALI.CO.UK kind regards Dave

Hi Dave, Right here goes!!!

I charged battery overnight with tester on battery alone got ready of 12.96
Then connected the caravan upto 240AC supply. took reading as you requested with all light and appliances that do work on. Then I took readings of all 6 wires at the connector, on the relay board side.
Readings were as follows:
one. 12.88
two. 12.84
three. 12.82
four. 12.79
five. 12.78
six. 12.53

Then as you requested disconnected the 240 supply, within 1 second it switched over to the 12Volt battery supply. I then took the following readings:
one. 0.25
two. 11.03
three. 11.01
four. 10.98
five. 10.96
six. 10.73

I dont understand the reading on terminal one. however, I cant see what difference this would make as it is the only terminal that has no wire connected to it, and does not appear to do anything anyway.

hope the attached photos are of some help, and again I appreciate your advise

Kind regards
Richard




DSC01301.JPG

DSC01302.JPG

DSC01303.JPG

DSC01304.JPG

DSC01305.JPG

DSC01306.JPG

DSC01307.JPG

DSC01308.JPG

DSC01309.JPG

DSC01310.JPG

....I had hoped cutting a pasting the photos might have worked! It hasn't! and I keep getting this message rejected from your email address!

[esdave]

hi Richard the plot thickens,sorry I was not on the forum friday If you check NOW from the LHS the connections are + battery - battery then 1/2/3/4/5/6+ 12.7 then 1/2/3/4/5 - negative, I,m sure if you check again you will have the outputs, BUT for fully charged batteries these loaded out puts are low ,could you do the test again but this time with everything on and AC off also check across your batteries and note the volts if your wiring and connections are ok then you should not have a voltage drop like you have, but again this lower volts should not stop your relays working a 12v relay can work on the volts you have, so I still need to see your relay board to see what is on it , If not can you tell me what is on the board , sorry for being so vague but I just repair the units and have not seen a relay board off the caravans I,m just a electronics engineer working on theory, I don,t even have a caravan ,If you have a wiring diagram of the system and the units connected to it I could work out where your fault is, we will get there in the end patience is all that,s required kind regards Dave

[esdave]

hi Richard the plot thickens,sorry I was not on the forum friday If you check NOW from the LHS the connections are + battery - battery then 1/2/3/4/5/6+ 12.7 then 1/2/3/4/5 - negative, I,m sure if you check again you will have the outputs, BUT for fully charged batteries these loaded out puts are low ,could you do the test again but this time with everything on and AC off also check across your batteries and note the volts if your wiring and connections are ok then you should not have a voltage drop like you have, but again this lower volts should not stop your relays working a 12v relay can work on the volts you have, so I still need to see your relay board to see what is on it , If not can you tell me what is on the board , sorry for being so vague but I just repair the units and have not seen a relay board off the caravans I,m just a electronics engineer working on theory, I don,t even have a caravan ,If you have a wiring diagram of the system and the units connected to it I could work out where your fault is, we will get there in the end patience is all that,s required kind regards Dave