We are up in far northeastern California visiting family and moochdocking. The low temperatures have definitely dipped below 32F so having the furnance blow air through the underbelly is a good thing. Unfortunately, my Micro-Air EasyTouch thermostat crapped out. It was working fine but just reset itself and will flash the boot screen repeatedly.
The folks at Micro-Air support were super helpful in trying to troubleshoot the problem but in the end, the unit was dead. They are sending me a replacement but based upon timing and the rural setting, getting it to me was problematic.
My original Furrion thermostat is sitting in a drawer at home (note to self: keep it in the trailer) so I needed to find another solution. Both the Furrion and EasyTouch thermostat are a 4-wire: +12V, Gnd, Comm1, Comm2. The Comm* lines are simply communication signals to the control board in my Furrion Chill A/C unit. The question is how to get the furnance to work.
The furnance is a Dometic and in looking at the wiring diagrams, it has two wires that connect to the thermostat. There is no polarity indicated on the wiring diagram and the wires connecting to the A/C control board are just labeled furnance. The question was how does this connection work. Is it simply a switch and the control board opens or closes the switch or does the control board provide +12V over them. After a little searching, I found a video of someone who replaced their old A/C unit with a new Furrion one that had controls on the unit versus being run via the thermostat and needed to control the furnance.
The video confirmed that the furnance connection to the control board is a simple switch. I connected the two furnance wires coming from the furnance and voila! it fired right up. I have heat. I didn't want to continue to plug and unplug those connectors or let the furnance run continually so I purchased an inexpensive Honeywell thermostat (RTH2300B1038/E1) which has batteries which allow the thermostat to run without the need of a power connection.
I did a little re-wrining at the A/C unit and connected the two furnace wires to the two Comm wires going to the thermostat. Thank you GD for using Wago connectors! At the thermostat, I connected one of the Comm wires to the Rh connection and the other to the W connection. In a normal residential situation, the Rh is the power for the heater and the W is the connection to the heater. When the thermostat calls for heat, it simply connects the Rh and W wires internally which is exactly what is needed.
The folks at Micro-Air support were super helpful in trying to troubleshoot the problem but in the end, the unit was dead. They are sending me a replacement but based upon timing and the rural setting, getting it to me was problematic.
My original Furrion thermostat is sitting in a drawer at home (note to self: keep it in the trailer) so I needed to find another solution. Both the Furrion and EasyTouch thermostat are a 4-wire: +12V, Gnd, Comm1, Comm2. The Comm* lines are simply communication signals to the control board in my Furrion Chill A/C unit. The question is how to get the furnance to work.
The furnance is a Dometic and in looking at the wiring diagrams, it has two wires that connect to the thermostat. There is no polarity indicated on the wiring diagram and the wires connecting to the A/C control board are just labeled furnance. The question was how does this connection work. Is it simply a switch and the control board opens or closes the switch or does the control board provide +12V over them. After a little searching, I found a video of someone who replaced their old A/C unit with a new Furrion one that had controls on the unit versus being run via the thermostat and needed to control the furnance.
The video confirmed that the furnance connection to the control board is a simple switch. I connected the two furnance wires coming from the furnance and voila! it fired right up. I have heat. I didn't want to continue to plug and unplug those connectors or let the furnance run continually so I purchased an inexpensive Honeywell thermostat (RTH2300B1038/E1) which has batteries which allow the thermostat to run without the need of a power connection.
I did a little re-wrining at the A/C unit and connected the two furnace wires to the two Comm wires going to the thermostat. Thank you GD for using Wago connectors! At the thermostat, I connected one of the Comm wires to the Rh connection and the other to the W connection. In a normal residential situation, the Rh is the power for the heater and the W is the connection to the heater. When the thermostat calls for heat, it simply connects the Rh and W wires internally which is exactly what is needed.