Power Converter

[gerry gregory]

Hi All

I just bought a Progressive Dynamic Power Converter model PD 685. It is Solid State but vintage. I need help with the wiring. The 110 side is straight forward a Black, a white, and a green ground. The 12 volt side has a white (hot I presume) and a red and a blue which goes to the light. Where do I attatch the ground from the battery?

cheers
gerry

[Pete Dumbleton]

Your best bet is to try to get a wiring diagram from the manf.

Some converters have two positive 12VDC wires and one negative (aka ground) wire -- One of the two wires is somehow filtered by the RV battery and the other is unfiltered -- I believe both wires, plus the negative, go to a fuse panel and the battery is charged from there, however, I could easily be wrong about this and your best bet would be to find the appropriate wiring diagram.

Personally, I ditched my older converter after salvaging its 12VDC fuse panel and just use a good battery charger to recharge my battery (I hardly ever camp with hookups and my battery supplies enuf 12VDC for my needs, plus the darned thing just weighed too much).

[Gina D.]

I am with Pete.

[Darwin Maring]

On the AC side: Black is hot and white is return. White is light (Meaning that the white wire attaches to switches and receptacles to the lighter of the 2 screws, one being a gold color and the other being s silver color, silver being the lighter color)

Just remember the following: White is light and Green is ground the world around.

On the DC side, Impossible to answer not knowing where the wires go.

[Joe MacDonald]

Progressive dynamics is still in business look'em up on the web. they will be happy to help you, just get the model number from the converter

Pete--

When I bought my fairly new Scamp, the former owner mentioned something about the inverter. I believe it's located just below one of the seats. Do you have to do anything to make it work? My guess is that it charges the battery when the trailer is hooked up to AC. Is that right?

Thanks,

Bill and Margy

Your best bet is to try to get a wiring diagram from the manf.

Some converters have two positive 12VDC wires and one negative (aka ground) wire -- One of the two wires is somehow filtered by the RV battery and the other is unfiltered -- I believe both wires, plus the negative, go to a fuse panel and the battery is charged from there, however, I could easily be wrong about this and your best bet would be to find the appropriate wiring diagram.

Personally, I ditched my older converter after salvaging its 12VDC fuse panel and just use a good battery charger to recharge my battery (I hardly ever camp with hookups and my battery supplies enuf 12VDC for my needs, plus the darned thing just weighed too much).

[Brian B-P]

An inverter makes AC power; in an RV, this means it takes in 12V DC power (such as from the battery) and makes 120V AC power (to run household-style appliances).

A converter could convert any form of electrical power to any other, but in an RV the term nearly always means a device which takes in AC power (from the campsite services or a generator) and makes 12V DC power, to run stuff in the trailer and possibly to charge the battery.

A battery charger is a specific type of converter which is intended to charge a battery, and should manage the power supplied to it. A converter can incorporate a battery charging feature.

Older trailers normally have a converter (my Boler does), which in only some cases charges the battery (it was an option for my Boler and I don't have it). Some newer RVs have in inverter, often in combination with a converter with battery charging capability. More commonly, people use separate general-purpose inverters - I have two, and intend to mount one in the Boler, but have not yet.

Converters are usually on whenever the AC power cable is plugged in, but some require the user to flip a switch to go between 12V DC power from the converter and power from the battery. With mine, the switch is automatic, whenever the converter is supplied with power, but I can turn off the converter with the circuit breaker which supplies it - the breaker panel is right beside the converter.

I suggest using the Search feature in this forum (see the link near the top right of the page) using some of these keywords, since there has been lots of good information posted.

[Pete Dumbleton]

The thing under the bunk should be a converter, not an inverter, as Brian explained -- Unless it specifically has a SmartCharging module of some sort, it's likely not a good battery charger -- It will be OK when you are at a campsite, but if you leave it connected for long periods of storage, it may overcharge and ruin the battery (get a real battery charger or a maintenance charger for storage unless you have a ChargeWizard or some other smartcharge module in the converter).