Installing ‘DC Pigtail’ to Sunstar 29VE

[marudnick]

I’m trying to decide whether to take the easy route or the more interesting one, and need some assistance. I’m planning on purchasing a WiFiRanger Spruce router for our Sunstar 29VE. I can get a power adapter or I can add a ‘DC Fuse Pigtail’ to the MH wiring. Having never done any electrical work on the RV, I’m not sure how easy it is to find wires I can tap into. I’m attaching a pic of the pigtail.

Would it be relatively easy to add this to the MH wiring, or should I just purchase the adapter and save my energy for something else?

Thanks.

[l1v3fr33ord1]

marudnick-

Using the 12V "pigtail" is a great idea, and not difficult to implement. This modification would get your feet wet with your coach's 12V system. One place to get started is with the wiring diagrams for your coach, here.

You should select a location for the router. I used a Pepwave Surf SOHO router in my coach. It ran on 12V. I placed the router in the cabinet above the driver's seat, for these reasons:

1) It was high in the coach and near the coach outer wall, so ideal for receiving and transmitting though the wall to the RV park WiFi and Verizon cell towers
2) The cabinet was not useful for frequent access due to the driver's seat and steering column being in the way
3) It had an unused 12V cable
4) It was near available 120V outlets in the adjacent "entertainment" cabinet
5) It was easy to ventilate- I kept the cabinet door open

If you do not have an unused 12V connection in the area you wish to place the Spruce, look for an unswitched 12V circuit. On my first coach that was a 12V feed to the overhead lights, as each light was switched on or off on the light fixture.

I can provide more details on how to set up a 12V-powered "computer room."

[Morich]

A small point on RV wiring that may confuse the newer person?
You have a setup that seems to make it easier to wire and that is fine but don't let the two wires make it seem terribly hard to find two wires to connect those.
In a house we often find both hot and ground running as two wires together but in an RV, we may only find the hot as a single wire.
Like in a string of lights on a wall switch? Only seems to have a hot going in and a hot going out? Where do we get the ground? Look for any nearby metal connected to the frame as the ground and don't fight too hard to have a different ground wire!

One of the really basic ideas of wiring may help. To get an item to work it has to have a full circuit or maybe easier to think of it as a full circle?
You have to have a wire connected to the hot wiring, leading to the item to power and then a way to close that "circle" back to ground of some sort! You may find a ground wire nearby or ground might be as handy as a metal brace running around th eback side of a compartment. With low voltage 12 VDCwiring, the hazards are much reduced but alway good to insulate th eiwres as a way to avoid random fuse blowing if the hot gets in contact with metal.

And from there, it is a matter of finding the right space and some route to get one or more wires run to that space. You may easily find a hot wire in some overhead cabinet but want to get a ground wire from some totally different direction if easier!

Are you familiar with the way Winnebago labels their small wires? It may be very helpfull to check those when you find a wire as it can ID the hot!



Decoder list?
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf

So if you find a switch and locate it on the installation drawings, that will give you the wire ID for the circuit on that switch.
For example if you found switch DG looks handy to use, knowing what those wires do may help!


Find detail DG on the drawings and it then lets you look at what those wires lead from and to!



BINGO! JD goes to a fuse, so that makes it a hot wire!!

The idea is that you can save a lot of grief if you look at the RV, find a place that looks handy to tie the wiring to, but you want to know if that has a hot wire to use?
Finding that info on the drawings lets you get that info without the work and worry of taking things apart! Sometimes getting a simple switch out of the wall can be the hard part, so I use the drawings to avoid the real work!

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by l1v3fr33ord1

Using the 12V "pigtail" is a great idea, and not difficult to implement. This modification would get your feet wet with your coach's 12V system.

OK, ready to jump in on this. First question is the wiring diagram. There are two wiring diagrams for my RV, based on the serial number. Apparently, that is not the same as the VIN number. Where do I find the serial number?

I’ll need some equipment for this adventure. I have a basic multimeter and some wire connectors. Anything else I need?

The router I’m considering doesn’t accept a SIM but can accept USB tethering, so I was planning on connecting my phone for hotspot data when appropriate. One idea was to put it on the front dash, so it can be handy and have good access to signals. Based on that idea, I probably would want to grab a wire from under the dash. Another idea is to put it in a shelf in the front of the cab and connect a long USB cable that I can use for tethering, when needed.

Any and all suggestions welcome!

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by Morich

A small point on RV wiring that may confuse the newer person?
You have a setup that seems to make it easier to wire and that is fine but don't let the two wires make it seem terribly hard to find two wires to connect those.

Richard, As always, very thorough. Once I determine where to place the router and look at the diagrams, I may have a follow up question on which wire to tap into.

[BirchyBoy]

An alternate solution is to add a cigarette lighter plug to the pigtail and use an existing receptacle.

[Morich]

I might choose a different meter as a convenient thing?
Depending on your past experience, it may make it much easier to use a digital meter.
Analog meters require us to look at the correct line on the meter and and also have the probe location chosen more carefully to get a reading.
The digital meter will always give you some reading if you get the probes backwards. It may tell you that you have 12 negative when you really know the RV only uses 12 positive, but that is not a problem because we just want the correct number as we KNOW that there is no 12 negative if we get the probes placed backwards.
Just one of those really small things that can get really irritating if we don't want to think each time we place the probes.
On an analog meter, if the probes are backwards, the hand tries to bend itself on going the wrong way. Not a big deal but I rarely even question which probe goes where on stuff that only has one answer like everything on RV is positive.
Also it spits out a number that I get quick and easy without having to make sure I am reading the correct scale.
I might suggest this as an easier one to deal with if not used really often enough to avoid study to spot the correct scale?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerci...038607#overlay

Personal choice thing but I like to NOT think on the small stuff!
The battery test function on both is kind of a sales gimmick because all it does is test the DC voltage and then get an opinion of whether that reading is "good" or "bad". I think most of us will decide a 9 volt battery is good if it works! Or if it shows 6 volts, we likely don't question it too much further! Having a red or green area on the meter is okay but our brains are likely to sort out the answer!

For another tool, it depends on what type connector you use but you may want to strip the wires for some?

[JLUSoCal]

It's the serial number on the yellow sticker above the drivers side arm rest on the wall.

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by BirchyBoy

An alternate solution is to add a cigarette lighter plug to the pigtail and use an existing receptacle.

Yes, definitely. Just thinking about a more elegant solution. Thanks.

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by JLUSoCal

It's the serial number on the yellow sticker above the drivers side arm rest on the wall.

Got it. I'll have to drive out to the storage facility to get that.
"Reminder to write down the Serial Number so I don't have to do this next time."

[Morich]

Don't need to sweat getting the whole serial number for this work as it is the 7th digit that you need! early build 7th digit of 1, while later is 7th digit of 2!

But then you might be able to avoid the trip if you spot a difference in the drawings??
I did a check of the parts catalog here:

https://catalog3d.winnebagoind.com/menu/Parts.htm

Looking at electrical and drilling down to "front end wiring" I may see a small point thay you already might see the difference of early or late?

Early build shows speakers overhead that seem to point to the rear while late build they point in to the center of the front from each side? Do you know which way your speakers point???

It'll take a keen eye and being really "aware" but it might save a trip?



Early



and late

[Morich]

Early has 3 vent stacks!


Late has 2??



Looking for small details which changed, you might spot lots more than I do without knowing the RV?? Looks like they did a major change on the tank shapes and plumbing!

[l1v3fr33ord1]

marudnick-

Does your Sunstar have the loft bed option?

[marudnick]

Just came back from the RV and have the serial number. While I was there, I looked at logical places to install the router. The 29VE has an A/V panel area over the door where I can change each TV input from antenna to cable. Not sure how this is done in other rigs. See below for pics. This may be a good place to put the router as it’s out of the way yet accessible. I even found a set of wires (see below and sorry that it’s rotated sideways) that might be of use. Now comes the test. I know that this is my wiring diagram. I looked at the diagrams but I’m not sure how to find the appropriate wire that would be located in this area. I think I need ‘Reading Wiring Diagrams 101’.

Thanks.

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by l1v3fr33ord1

Does your Sunstar have the loft bed option?

Yes. There are some small storage areas that are accessible when the loft bed is down and covered when the loft bed is up.

[JLUSoCal]

Originally Posted by Morich

Early has 3 vent stacks!
Attachment 186469

Late has 2??

Attachment 186470

Looking for small details which changed, you might spot lots more than I do without knowing the RV?? Looks like they did a major change on the tank shapes and plumbing!

I think the difference between the two plumbing diagrams is the small tank in the first diagram is actually the outside kitchen. It shows the extra drain that is actually pumped out. I would think that most 29v(e)'s are ordered with outside kitchens.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by JLUSoCal

I think the difference between the two plumbing diagrams is the small tank in the first diagram is actually the outside kitchen. It shows the extra drain that is actually pumped out. I would think that most 29v(e)'s are ordered with outside kitchens.

Sounds like it "could" be an option that they show on the late build that is not shown on the early build or it could be the change they made from early to late builds. We can't be sure without checking the options sheet for each RV or knowing the serial number.
I'm good with what you say that the third vent is for the outside tank!

On reading these drawings, it is not always a matter of us not being able to read them, but also they are really not very good!
We don't get what I call "real" schematics that give us wire by wire info but we get far more "hints" like the wire labels and drawings that are near impossible to follow the cable routes.

I did find a couple items that might help, or not as I can't read the wires labels I think I see!


Can you read the label on this wire that has the quick connect on the end?

Or there might be other options in that cabinet that might work better.
There are drawings for the TV, etc here:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File.../000124819.pdf

This is part of the hints they give us instead of good info!
There seems to be a couple ideas that you might consider. One is that there is a 110AC outlet shown behind the switcher. Is a small "wall-wart" power supply inline with when you would use this? Will you have AC power to use this outlet?

OR there also is a note about a 12VDC feed to the switcher which you might consider?

Click these snips to get a better picture or go direct to drawings for the whole thing.




Ideas! Ideas! But do any of them work???

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by Morich

Can you read the label on this wire that has the quick connect on the end?

I’m not at the RV now, but I was able to zoom in on the original pic I took and attach it. If you need more, I can get it later this week.

Thanks.

[Morich]

ok! That last three letters is the ID that we can then go to the list and "decode" where it comes from and goes to. Not a lot of help on this one as I'm not sure what those items do!

Click this to see what I'm finding?


I was hoping we might get lucky and find something like for JJL as it is clear that is a power feed and you might have been able to tie into it.
Part of th ehunt and peck system we get left with after the 2010 model year when they stopped the schematic drawings that let us look at where each wire went so we could kind of do an educated guess at things much better when we got the whole picture instead of just one wire ID.

On the 110AC part, we still get pretty good drawings, but not much on the 12VDC end.
Those two that have the crimp connector? Do they have ID you can read as the yellow is often power and white is ground.
Would that be nice!

[marudnick]

Originally Posted by Morich

ok! That last three letters is the ID that we can then go to the list and "decode" where it comes from and goes to. Not a lot of help on this one as I'm not sure what those items do!

Ok, Back to square 1. Is the next step opening up that TV connection area and snapping pics of each of the wires or is there a way to get information from the diagrams?

Thanks.