Eliminating Lippert OneControl Controls

[dually mike]

Has anyone come up with a way to totally eliminate the One Control unit? Mine has been a POS for years. Constantly locks up n only way to reset it is to remove it and completely disconnect it. Ao tired of it. And this is the second one since the first one died while camping first year we had it.

 

[Soundsailor]

Don't use it? We haven't used ours except rarely to control the levelers.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

Don't use it? We haven't used ours except rarely to control the levelers.

How do you run out the awning? Or turn on/off the lights? Turn on the electric/gas water heater? Reset a leveling error?

On our Momentum, all these controls are only available through the One Control screen. Personally I would love to lose the whole thing, but that would be beyond the limit of my purview.

 

[dually mike]

Exactly! The only thing on ours that it doesn't control is the living room lights and the 2 extra awnings. Everything else is controlled by the junk little box!

 

[Forrest Cockcroft]

I am starting to study this and developing a plan. I can't find much on this but I do believe its possible. I have a 2021 Momentum 399TH-R and am fairly tech savvy. My Unity Board is starting to fail and to be honest, I do not want to put that kind of repair/replacement money into a failing outdated system that never works right most of the time and is so proprietary I feel like a hostage.

This is the current plan and knowledge that I have:

Most controls are relay based and could be replaced with something like Home Assistant.

I have no actual thermostats so that is a bit tricky but I believe I have a path to add them and am waiting on info from Micro Air now. The advantage to the Easy Touch is it will also integrate with Home Assistant.

The next big hurdles are the Leveler and Slides. But I always use the actual switches and I never use onecontrol for this anyway and I just have to determine is the onecontrol redundant controls? Or part of the system. Since these systems are on coaches that do not have onecontrol, it must be possible. More to come.

I did some work a while back tying Home Assistant into the onecontrol and it is possible but the interface was not working correctly for me and it was because my onecontrol system is already starting to fail. So now I am going to build a new system that is independent of onecontrol. Migrate thigs over one by one. Then **** can lipperts pos system.

Anyone any experience or input?

 

[WhittleBurner]

I have no advice or help to offer but totally agree about removing that stuff. The One control and lack of manual switches played a big factor in us not upgrading a few years ago. Just more to go wrong. Manual leveling is not difficult. One control or similar systems is in all makes unless you get a low entry level model.

 

[Forrest Cockcroft]

Agree on all points. I guess this is a good segue to what I have discovered so far.

Bedroom slide in an inwall Schwintek slide and has a dedicated switch n the bedroom. It can operate as a standalone system provided you have the hardwired switch. All is needed is to disconnect the CAN Bus wire to isolate it from the One Control System. - DONE

Main Slide Still tracing wiring to confirm control circuits and how they tie to One Control Board - More to come

Level Up Leveler can also operate as a stand alone but you lose a display and have no way to calibrate with the existing basic switch control that is, in my case mounted on wet bay door. All research points to the fact that you can switch out to a LCD display control so long as you also isolate from One Control by disconnecting the CAN Bus. I have tested it with it isolated and all works as it should, I just need to get an updated LCD control switch for the wet bay and confirm all other functionality. - Partially done, just need to acquire LCD control switch and test.

ACs Spoke briefly with Micro-Air about easy touch thermostats. They are a bit hesitant to engage from a technical support aspect on systems that are not theirs (typical but understandable). However, the tech and I talked and I am going to reframe my request with pictures and current wiring details and approach a little differently to get info I need (uses pictures and wiring info, minus reference to One Control). Currently confirmed that there are individual thermostat wires and temperature sensor wires from each unit to the basement. The module in the AC is a standard Colman module and the wire identities are typical for Colman multi zone systems that are non One Control systems. It appears as though they can be moved to a single Easy Touch thermostat with three zones. - More to come

Outside of these 4 systems for my unit the rest is just lighting and controls (water heater, tank heaters, etc.) that are just relay controls. These functions can easily be be moved to a Home Assistant system built on a Raspberry Pi and an ESP32.

Couple that with the ability of the Easy Touch Thermostats to integrate with Home Assistant and the One Control has been replaced, and critical systems (AC, Leveler, and Slide outs) are stand alone hardwired systems.

 

[dually mike]

I recently toured a newer (2025) model of my rig. I mentioned to the sales rep how annoying my One Control is. Told me GD may have listened to customer complaints and now has a switch panel to operate the different things mounted underneath the front kitchen cabinet. I'm thinking I can order the switch assembly from them and wire my stuff in that I want.

 

[traveldawg]

Seems to me to be a pretty easy mod to add some analog switches in parallel to the outputs of the lights. Same goes for the awnings. Probably not hard to tackle the hydraulics either but it would be a bit more technical. For ACs and furnace it seems an unsophisticated thermostat would handle that if you could get the wiring diagrams for them.

Admittedly, while it seems simple (to me- have good electrical and mechanical engineering knowledge/skill) it could be daunting for others. And I would expect the hardest part would be running the wiring from the One Control mother board to a convenient location within the RV.

Kind of timely topic for me..... Ive pretty much decided that any future RV would have to have analog controls and not BT, Raspberry, Home Automation, etc. controls (for the same reasons the OP posted). And fwiw... I doubt I'd have anything to do with an on demand hot water system. I kind of like entering my camper and flipping one switch with a single action and lights come on instantly (and consistently).

I suppose folks might see some enjoyment in all this automation and remote control, but having done this RVing thing for years, and understanding home automation, remote control, etc. very well (and implying a good bit of it at home) I don't see a real good use for most of it in an RV.

But heck - I'm a simple analog guy living in a digital world......

 

[Hoopy Frood]

FWIW, I doubt there was much input from the RV'ing public. The marketing department had their say, and all this "advanced" electrical controls is easy to promote, and convince people they can't live without it.

Heavens knows I sure can. And that includes the doorway blocking solid steps.

 

[traveldawg]

FWIW, I doubt there was much input from the RV'ing public. The marketing department had their say, and all this "advanced" electrical controls is easy to promote, and convince people they can't live without it.

Heavens knows I sure can. And that includes the doorway blocking solid steps.

I asked about input once and was told that salesman provide a good bit. Al-be-it sales folks who probably never camped one night in what they sell. Still, the answer I got was kind of - that's what buyers are asking for. The thing is, I suspect the anyone asking for this is hardly a seasoned RVer with a lot of past experience. I further expect if there were choices then the manufactures would see who wants what.

I had a long talk with a VP at GP and the product manager when I bought my rig about their choice of steps (actually stair cases). Again the answer was 'that's what folks are asking for'. When I suggested TorqLift Glo Steps instead of staircase (and instead that there be no stair case on my rig - which GD complied with) the answer was to the effect that they tried those and the feedback was bad because a lot of folks could not figure the out how to fold/unfold them. Geesh - go figure - too complicated! Kind of shed some light on who is purchasing / demanding these "features".