Trace Engineering RC8 Remote Control

There is some mis-information on the net.. (go figure)

http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=4152.0;wap2

Whats quite curious to me is Sean (2nd post) is just wrong.. and thats pretty rare.. Sean (now a boatsman was a solid RV'er in his past)

Anyway.. the RC8 is just a simple board..

1 diode 1N4001
1 resistor 470ohm
1 led
1 switch

I'm not going to reverse engineer the schematic, there is enough info in the photos for someone to do, if I do get round to it, I'll post, if you do it. please also post.

If anyone has an RC9, I'd love to see inside that...  (dead or alive)

Trace Legend Series 1 Manual

LifeLine AGM Battery packout

So the wet cell batteries the coach came with were leaking up a storm.. and my lack of timely maintenance to fluid levels killed them.

I ordered a pair of 8DL lifeline batteries (House) and a pair of Lifeline GPL-2400T batteries for the engine

I carefully cut a 3/4in ply sheet to fit the base of the battery box.

everything fits.. had to relocate the door bracket.. and then let the local RV shop do all the wiring (they have the nice lug crimpers)

Only thing they forgot was to switch the Trace Engineering Legend charger/ inverter to Sealed batteries

Lifeline says
The recommended method of charging  Lifeline® AGM  batteries is  to use a 3 stage charging
profile.  In the first stage, a constant current is applied until the voltage reaches a pre-set limit.
The first stage is often called the Bulk charging stage.
In the second stage, the voltage is held constant at the same pre-set limit until the charging
current tapers to a very low value, at which point the battery is fully charged. The second stage
is often called the Absorption charging stage. A voltage setting of 14.3 volts ± 0.1 volts (7.15 ±
0.05 volt for a 6 volt battery) should be used when the battery temperature is 77°F (25°C).  The
battery is  considered to be  fully charged when the current  drops below 0.5% of the battery’s
rated capacity (0.5A for a 100Ah battery). The absorption stage will typically last 2  – 4 hours
before the current reaches this level.
In the third stage, the charging voltage is reduced to a lower value that minimizes the amount of
overcharge, while maintaining the battery at 100% state of charge. This third stage is often
called the Float charging stage. A float voltage of 13.3 ± 0.1 volts (6.65 ± 0.05 volts for a 6 volt
battery) should be used when the battery temperature is 77°F (25°C). The charging voltages at
other temperatures can be determined from the following table:

Trace Legend Series 1
Sealed:  If you are installing sealed batteries, the jumper remains across this pair of pins.  This
selection sets the charge rate to 14.3 VDC in the Bulk stage and 13.6 VDC in the float stage.  For
vented batteries, remove the jumper across these pins to set the charge rate to 14.7 VDC  and
13.3 VDC  respectively

I've switched over the jumper... to sealed.. will monitor to verify

LED Tail lights

No photos here:

I wanted brighter tail lights, the OEM incandescents seemed not very bright.

The culprit turns out to be the 80 feet of wire in the loop.

the batteries are at the back of the coach, power needs to feed forwards to the switchgear, and then thin wires come back to the tail lights.

we were seeing around 9v across the bulbs..

So I thought.. lets get soem LED bulbs.. that would require fewer amps less Vdrop in the wires... win win..

not so fast...
It seems that the LED bulbs didnt like the long runs either.

some lesser brightness ones would possibly work.. but the absurdly bright ones I found on amazon failed.. flicker/flashing or just not turning on.

with a solid 12v they were great...

Solution was to run a direct 12v feed to each tailpack and have 5 relays in each corner that are switched by the signals and that select the direct 12v feeds into each bulb as needed.

Results:

Super bright leds...

and I can hang more lights on here with no worries about overloaded switch gear.

lots of side markers, huge reverse pods...