OnePlace monitor issue?

imnightowl · 07-22-2021, 05:23 AM

I have a 2001 Winnebago Adventurer with a One Place Monitor Panel that is lighting up everywhere except the Black Water, Grey Water, Fresh Water and LP Gas section. RV hasn't been used for several years and was winterized during that time. Trying to find out if there is something behind the panel like a board of something that needs replaced but I am not comfortable taking the plate off the wall to find out. OR if there is a way to reset that section to see if the lights will come on. Any information/assistance with this problem appreciated.

Jim_HiTek · 07-22-2021, 01:19 PM

First, do you have battery power? Second, did you operate the AUX battery switch on the dash? Then there may be some 12 volt Circuit Breakers under the refer, so check those.

I take my panel off all the time, there's no reason to be worried about harming something as the boards are attached to the panel and there are wire bundles and what not back behind. Just find some support for it after it comes loose so it's not hanging on the wires.

Than you can use your digital volt meter to measure voltages.

**creativepart** · 07-22-2021, 02:11 PM

Here's how to reset:

Morich · 07-22-2021, 05:07 PM

I think this will be an older version of the monitor without a reset function as it is not the full digital if what I see in the manual is correct.
What I "think" I might see is a section with the tank and LP levels on a separate board by itself.
As a guess this would leave that board prone to having a harness and plug which might come loose but if one is not inclined to remove the board to look, there really isn't much to do but head to repair.
There are common grounds that might make a single wire corroded put all that specific level setup prone to fail at the same time but without a meter, I would not suggest looking at wiring.

imnightowl · 07-23-2021, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morich

I think this will be an older version of the monitor without a reset function as it is not the full digital if what I see in the manual is correct.
What I "think" I might see is a section with the tank and LP levels on a separate board by itself.
As a guess this would leave that board prone to having a harness and plug which might come loose but if one is not inclined to remove the board to look, there really isn't much to do but head to repair.
There are common grounds that might make a single wire corroded put all that specific level setup prone to fail at the same time but without a meter, I would not suggest looking at wiring.

Your picture is correct. That is what my panel looks like.

rgvtexan · 07-23-2021, 09:45 PM

Are you pushing the button below the LEDs?

imnightowl · 07-24-2021, 04:53 AM

Mine are a toggle switch you push in to get the light to come on

Jim_HiTek · 07-24-2021, 09:02 PM

Mine is exactly like that picture and I've had the entire assembly out of the cabinet numerous times. There is only 12 volt there so pulling it out isn't a safety issue really.

The board has two multi-wire connectors with IDC connections and those can get flakey so wouldn't hurt to pull that panel out to check them. And wiggling the wires to see if any are loose is how that's done. Then down lower in the wall are many Molex style connectors that could be causing your issue too so wiggling or disconnecting/reconnecting them to wipe the contacts wouldn't hurt either.

I really don't think it's that board though. They are simple devices and aren't really subject to 'age' related problems and not being used gives them even longer overall life span.

I'd look somewhere else. Since none of them work, I'd suspect a bad ground first, and missing 12 volt second. The ground could be difficult to find though.

imnightowl · 07-26-2021, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim_HiTek

Mine is exactly like that picture and I've had the entire assembly out of the cabinet numerous times. There is only 12 volt there so pulling it out isn't a safety issue really.

The board has two multi-wire connectors with IDC connections and those can get flakey so wouldn't hurt to pull that panel out to check them. And wiggling the wires to see if any are loose is how that's done. Then down lower in the wall are many Molex style connectors that could be causing your issue too so wiggling or disconnecting/reconnecting them to wipe the contacts wouldn't hurt either.

I really don't think it's that board though. They are simple devices and aren't really subject to 'age' related problems and not being used gives them even longer overall life span.

I'd look somewhere else. Since none of them work, I'd suspect a bad ground first, and missing 12 volt second. The ground could be difficult to find though.

I found a wire connection laying near the sensors on the water tank that has a tag on it "+12 volt constant" it's disconnected from somewhere.
Not sure how to post a picture.
Could this be related to why it's not wirking?

Jim_HiTek · 07-26-2021, 09:38 AM

Hmm. Well it could but I just checked my tanks wiring and both the black and grey tanks have 3 wires for the different levels and then a 'Common' ground wire. I can't see what the wiring is on my water tank though and it may need to have 12 volt supply because water can be so pure, there wouldn't be enough free ions to trigger level sensors that use electricity instead of a float of some kind. Which is probably all of RV tanks over the last 50 years. So it might use 12 volt to 'enhance' the readings to allow for purity.

But that's something to check for, not saying that 12 volt should go to your water tank. And one question, have you measured the voltage there? Is it 12 volt like it's tagged or could it be a ground? What color is the wire? In Winnebago's, grounds are white.

I would think that if that 12 volt is for sensing level of your water tank that it would likely go to the lowest screw on the tank. But it's best to get your electrical drawing from Winnebago and trace it out. They have them, and send them free in PDF form. Just call the Forest City Service Dept. with your year, model, and VIN#.

Morich · 07-26-2021, 09:50 AM

Does this wire have a label printed on the side as this example shows?

If it does, this wire ID chart should list the from and to of that specific wire:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf

Wire "GL" should be the ground for all tanks and the battery should be found on
Wires XH, XJ, and XK. I would expect to find a set of plugs and wires from the tank sensors to plugs for each tank as a separate item. These wires are fed from the monitor panel.

The ground side of the circuit for each tank is combined and then comes off a main ground bus bar where there are lots of other ground for other circuits, so finding this main bar and looking for loose or corroded wires may be needed if you find nothing wrong with the power side of things.

I would guess that the power wire you have found would NOT be involved,, but looking at the real thing is more important than what I see on drawings as the drawings are a guide to how it was likely built and things do get changed over time.

imnightowl · 07-26-2021, 09:51 AM

Wire is yellow with a white cap like thing on one end. My husband would probably be more familiar but he passed away in November so I'm just trying what I can to get it sold. The dealership has not been helpful with repairs and they keep charging more and more to do things. Glad to have this forum to at least ask questions. Thanks for all the help.

Morich · 07-26-2021, 11:08 AM

Okay, understand a different outlook needed!
Sorry for your loss, it seems life is often about constant change.
We are currently going through some of that do to suddenly needing to become caregivers at the ripe old age of 78! Seems our son and his wife are both suffering the lasting effects of early long term and untreated Covid!
The "brain fog" that is often mentioned is now becoming very close to dementia for a pair of 54 year old "kids"!

Meanwhile, for the connection found? If it has a cap on it, it is not uncommon for Rv to have extra wiring due to different options that may/may not have been installed, so I might tend to lay that one back if not finding anything close by to plug it into!

So we need to go a bit more on lower tech info! No big deal and we can do that.

Can you see the sides of any of the various holding tanks and if you can, do you see any wires attached to probes or pads on the tank sides? That would be the level sensors and wiring that needs a look to see the plugs are all connected. From the drawings, each tank looks to have a different set of wires, two in each plug.
The problem with thinking it is the loose plug is that there are likely to be three and not all of them should come loose at the same time.

So maybe a different way to look?
There are wires to the water heater on the same plug as the wires to the level sensors at the back of the monitor panel. So if that plug is off to make the sensors fail, we would expect the water heater lights, etc. on the monitor panel to also be acting bad.
When you try the water heater on propane, does the light that shows something like "pilot light out" light up at any time?
If that lights, we might jump to thinking it is not that plug being off??? follow that thought?

Also wire AF makes the water pump switch at the monitor panel work, so does it turn the pump on/off?

Wire AG is for the step kill switch, so does that seem to work?

Kind of looking for ways to rule out that plug being a problem!

imnightowl · 07-28-2021, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morich

Okay, understand a different outlook needed!
Sorry for your loss, it seems life is often about constant change.
We are currently going through some of that do to suddenly needing to become caregivers at the ripe old age of 78! Seems our son and his wife are both suffering the lasting effects of early long term and untreated Covid!
The "brain fog" that is often mentioned is now becoming very close to dementia for a pair of 54 year old "kids"!

Meanwhile, for the connection found? If it has a cap on it, it is not uncommon for Rv to have extra wiring due to different options that may/may not have been installed, so I might tend to lay that one back if not finding anything close by to plug it into!

So we need to go a bit more on lower tech info! No big deal and we can do that.

Can you see the sides of any of the various holding tanks and if you can, do you see any wires attached to probes or pads on the tank sides? That would be the level sensors and wiring that needs a look to see the plugs are all connected. From the drawings, each tank looks to have a different set of wires, two in each plug.
The problem with thinking it is the loose plug is that there are likely to be three and not all of them should come loose at the same time.

So maybe a different way to look?
There are wires to the water heater on the same plug as the wires to the level sensors at the back of the monitor panel. So if that plug is off to make the sensors fail, we would expect the water heater lights, etc. on the monitor panel to also be acting bad.
When you try the water heater on propane, does the light that shows something like "pilot light out" light up at any time?
If that lights, we might jump to thinking it is not that plug being off??? follow that thought?

Also wire AF makes the water pump switch at the monitor panel work, so does it turn the pump on/off?

Wire AG is for the step kill switch, so does that seem to work?

Kind of looking for ways to rule out that plug being a problem!

All wires to fresh water tank are secure and connected. Water heater lights up. Water pump works. Pulled the panel and looked at all connections. Nothing loose or corroded. Nothing burned. It looks perfect. The four items in this section are fresh water, gray water, black water and propane. None of those lights work. From the back on the panel there is a light for the solar panel as well but it is ON. So I believe the board is fine. There just must be another connection or wire somewhere else that is broken, loose or corroded that connects to those 4 items that is causing the issue. I'm not sure where the black and gray water tanks are. So not sure what the connections look like. Any suggestions?

Morich · 07-28-2021, 01:40 PM

Good enough, as that info lead us to believe that if "some" of the things on that big plug on the back of the board work, the rest should also be plugged in well enough to work.

But that also leads to conflict as there are supposed to be sets of two wires each on plugs that come directly from the back of the board to connections and then two wires should go to each tank, fresh, aux (grey?) black and propane tanks.
There are different plugs and may look different but something like this picture is common but may be black, clear, or tans, so color doesn't matter. They usually have some form of clip of retainer to hold them together and it has to be squeezed or released in some way.

But the big point is that if there are four different plugs, we would not expect all to come loose at the same times????

Any chance you can see the side of that wire you've found and read the code as I mentioned in post 11? If you can read the code, it should be able to match up on this Wire ID chart and tell us where and what it should do:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf

I'm open to saying I'm wrong and you DO need that wire----especially if it gets things fixed.
I've already got so many black marks I'm turning blue, so one more if it fits!

imnprsd · 07-28-2021, 06:03 PM

OP: Can you post a picture of what your holding tank display panel looks like? Or confirm it looks like one of the pictures above.

For those of us with LED lights and buttons, this design and circuit board is made by Ventline; and Winnebago has surely dropped the ball when it comes to documenting this subsystem.

This summer I diagnosed my Ventine (Green Board) and I now believe there has been a lot of "misdirection" over the years on how to fix it. There also has been some "cover-up" pieces written over the years too.

IMO, the Ventline design is mostly garbage. However, fortunately, the fresh water tank sensor and LP tank sensors work very well, but the gray and black water displays do not.

Here's the link to ways you can get your gray and black water tank sensors working again (jump to the end of the thread), but because you are working with SUPER LOW currents I found that even outside temperatures can affect the LED status lights; so if you have to have everything working in your RV working right, I suppose you can keep adjusting the trim-pots on the circuit board to dial-in the right gray and black tank status lights on an as needed basis, but my guess is that you just give up and not worry about the gray and black water tank levels since you dump them frequently anyway when they start to smell.

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...-360442-2.html

Summary Notes: I would recommend do 4 things to revive your Ventline gray and black holding tank LED status lights:

1) Drill some holes in your faceplate so you can adjust the circuit board trim-pots to see if that does the trick.

2) Change the ground wire. I.e., your circuit board comes from the factory grounded to the battery, but your tank sensors are grounded to the chassis. So you need to cut the ground wire at the 15-pin connector (GL) and run a long ground wire to some good chassis-ground location.

3) I would not bother changing your probes in the tank unless steps 1 and 2 above don't work.

==> Or you can do what everyone else does and just live with your gray and black holding tanks as-is; and be thankful your fresh water and LP tank fuel gauge LED lights are accurate.

4) One more (EASY) thing you can do is this. Remove the small wire connector to the top right part of the display board and just leave it unconnected. This connector powers the Solar LED status light that probably does not work anyway. And you don't need it. However, I'm suggesting you remove it because on my board the diodes on the back had "cold solder joints" and that puts noise on the power plane that can affect the Ventine comparator ICs... and prevent them from doing their job. So just disconnect the power wires and see if your board works?

==> The best solution I found was to drill access holes so you can adjust your trim pot. And there is no magic to this. Turn it to the right first, and if you don't get a favorable response, then turn the trim-pot (variably resistor) to the left.

Good luck with your Ventline LED board.

However, if the OP has the other type of holding tank board. Sorry, I can't help you there.

Morich · 07-28-2021, 06:35 PM

I think on post 5 above, they have agreed which panel they have.T

The reason for not chasing it as a failure of the sensors is that it also involves the LP sensor which is of a different type.

It would be hard to think that a failure of all four sensors, three for holding tanks with one type sensor and then a fourth for the LP levels which use a different type sensor would happen on all four at the same time.

I have to think it is more likely a single failure of some thing common to all four systems, which puts it down to common wiring plugs, common power, or common ground.

But that is where my theory is in conflict with itself as the wiring used by the sensors and the LP tank are on the same plug with other items which are still working!

Too many things at the monitor plug still working, while ALL the sensor lights on the board are NOT working!

At this point, without some different info, I would have to drop back to thinking it might be a board failure.

Testing each point on that plug for battery or ground in the correct places would be nice but I'm not sure we can get there. That can be a pretty big project for the newer electronics folks.

rgvtexan · 07-28-2021, 08:35 PM

Lot of info on the Winnie site.

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...rs-360442.html

Post #34 has a photo of the board. Check IC U1 the LM7808 it is the 5V voltage regulator for the board it supplies power to the comparators. LM339M.you can find the pin out on the web.
Check between VCC pin 3+ and ground pin 12 on one of the chips.

imnprsd · 07-28-2021, 08:50 PM

Morich comment: But that is where my theory is in conflict with itself as the wiring used by the sensors and the LP tank are on the same plug with other items which are still working!

==> Turns out the fresh water tank sensor is a different type than the gray and black water type. (Or so I believe.) Same goes for the LP tank.

==> The Ventline board uses comparators. The reference is a ~20mA signal and when you push the button it is supposed to add 5mA to the circuit, and then the comparator does it's job to switch the LED ground connections to light the led.

Note: There is only 1 transistor driving all LEDs. So if an LED is not lighting up then the comparator for that LED has an "open" to to ground.

Note: The tank sensors add resistance to the line; and you can measure this at the tank. However, I really don't think the sensors go bad that often as they are really just metal connection points... activated by water or muck in the tank that completes the resistor ladder. And since current always follows the least path of resistance, as water in the tank rises... 68K ohms is added at each step.

imnprsd · 07-28-2021, 09:03 PM

Morich comment: But that is where my theory is in conflict with itself as the wiring used by the sensors and the LP tank are on the same plug with other items which are still working!

==> Turns out the fresh water tank sensor is a different type than the gray and black water type. (Or so I believe.) Same goes for the LP tank.

rgvtexan: Your link points to the entries I created.

OTHER COMMENTS

* The Ventline circuit board uses comparators. The reference is a 20mA signal that is always on; and when you push the panel button it adds 5mA to the circuit; and then the LM339 comparator on the circuit board activates the LEDs according to the resistive ladder built by the tank sensors.

For more information go to: https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...rs-360442.html

However, I say again, your best bet is to drill a few holes in the panel (after you remove the circuit board) so you can adjust the trim-pot on the circuit board. Then you can go to more involved steps to get your gray and black water tank sensors to work.