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Marathon Techlon Free Trouble Shooting from Novice
Some History…..A month ago I was installing a new Wineguard Rayzor on the coach and my journey took me to places in the rear closet I had not been before. In the process of removing all the KVH Direct TV Satellite System …..I started by cleaning up old wiring by removing it. In the process of cleaning up old wiring I started vacuuming up 20 year old dust in the ceiling and RH and LH electronics bays. Then proceed to cleaning up and dressing existing wiring harnesses that many folks before me had routed poorly.
Story begins here….So I came across the module with the CAT 5 cable coming in one end and out the other laying on floor drivers side closet (Top picture). I coiled the CAT 5 up and cable tied it to look nicer and get it off the floor. That night on way out of coach I notice all the Techlon Switch panels were not working (on of off). So, to not waste time I shut the coach down.
When I turned the coach back on a few days later the Techlon System would not come up and neither would the Generator start switch on dash work. So I got to thinking what did I do???? The I remember the little module in top picture had a fuse on it. So, I checked it and it was blown. I put a new 3 amp fuse in it (go try and find a mini 3 amp by the way) everything was now up and working. So I deducted that this is a signal booster installed in system.
Story takes a new turn. Last year I had a problem with lights and fan switch in toilet area of bath room not working. So I call Brian Gabel at Techlon.com and paid for some expert advice. He is very helpful by the way. By paying him he gave me some instructions on how to reset the 1229 Techlon module since he designed the system for Marathon. Finding and removing the cabinet the bathroom light switch 1229 module is hidden behind is a few hours of work going in and out.
Second picture and third picture from top.
Story takes another turn…I still am having the toilet module reset problem. So I am coordinating with Brian on having a laptop sent to me to reboot system. During my discussion today I explained this recent problem I had to Brian. Brian confirmed indeed that the module I shorted runs 12VDC through the Techlon System. The reason for this is the system was only design for “X” amount of switches and Marathon was installing more then system was design for. So Marathon added this module to lets say boost the system.
Brian then went on to tell me that I should go check the motherboards in the Driver Side Bay 2 bay as I probably short out the 12 VDC side of the system on the water bay and generator board. So today I check and yes I did. Brian also point out that if you have a 2 AMP fuse in the (picture four from top) it should be replaced with 3 AMP fuse (matches fuse in closet). So when looking up at motherboards I had a 4 amp fuse in both positions. Both fuses were blown.So replaced 12VDC side with new 3 AMP fuse.
So, I ask Brian some questions to understand the system a little better. The Techlon system my coach not yours (he design only certain serial number coaches) is designed as a loop the forwardgenerator module and aft water bay module basically are half the bus Techlonsystem. The 4 AMP fuse is the 24 VDC side of system and the 3 amp fuse represents the 12 VDC side of system. When the 12VDC fuses are blown the system will function but maybe erratic. Which it was.
Final part of story and why I am resetting the bus. During tech help session Brian told me an interesting tidbit ….. that Marathon owners should be aware of. Your Techlon System does not have a infinite amount of times you can press the button and have it work. It’s working life is about 10 years for use. I am at 20 years. Then eventually components in the 1229 system modules will loss their way and the module will need to be preprogram or just reprogram the entir bus system have everything to factory defaults (for the coaches Brian design system for). Interesting…..
Brian and his wife are just the best to talk to for Marathon owners and they give you 5 star service on Techlon. He keeps new old stock spare parts. Well worth the tech support money spent for DYI. But you have to know the basics of electrical. Like don’t touch a plus to a minus as I did when shorted the 12 VDC boost module which had no labels from Marathon on what it was for and just was laying on the floor in closet.
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5 Replies
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There is nobody in this world more helpful, pleasant, and patient than Brian and Susan Gabel. Mike
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Thanks for details Ed!
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Some years ago, one of my light switches stopped responding. The output node still worked when operated manually but it did not recognize the network message from the switch. Since I was on my way home, I stopped by at Marathon. Hooking up Marathon’s refrigerator-size network analyzer and reinitializing the network fixed it in 10 minutes.
I did not get a clear answer from the tech as to what the issue was. It sounded like the Techlon node or the encoding switch had lost its assigned network ID. Maybe a stray alpha particle hit an EEPROM memory cell…. Other than that one glitch, the system has been very robust.
Just from the looks of the wiring closet and the nodes, it seems like the Techlon system is a multiplexed serial bus network using Ethernet cables and probably some form of I2C or early CAN bus (controller area network) protocols over twisted wires. It was pretty advanced 20 years ago but nowadays all our cars are infested with these type of CAN bus networks.
In terms of overall life expectancy, a system like this needs a way to store information while the power is off. There are memory cells called EEPROMs (electrically erasable programmable memory) that do that. The problem is there are limits on how many times you can rewrite EEPROMs. Say 50-100,000 times. So, every time you reset the light intensity for a particular circuit you get a little bit closer to the limit.
By the way, the same limit applies to solid state disks in your phone or laptop. That is why we all should do backups of our data.
The infamous DDEC “Code 53” Non-volatile EEPROM error is another instance of this issue.
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When this virus is under control and you get yours figeded out I need gen won’t start from inside button starts outside and inverter
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Busman, the control module for that is right behind the drivers seat in the aux air cabinet.
You will have to take the switch panel off and get the number off of the wiring harness for the gen switches.
In the aux air cabinet will be a module with the proper numbered harness. Look around and see if you see anything unusual. Sometimes the module gets corroded connections.
I think there are 3 modules in the cabinet.
Good luck and let me know if this helps.
Toyman
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