Xantrex: inability to update firmware [updated]

[Ray and Susan Huff]

17 hours ago, Jim_Oker said:

I found no such thing in my packet (December 2020 delivery)

We were not provided numbers, either.  When I asked, Oliver told me they do not keep a record and that the only component requiring a serial number for warranty is the Dometic AC.  Wrong. . . . . Dometic reuired a serial number for warranty on the cooktop; stove has to be removed to access the service sticker.  

Anytime I have called a vendor regarding service or warranty (RV related and other) the first thing they want is the model and serial#.  The seria# tells the manufacturer a lot about the component.  Those ordering now should ask in advance of production.  I don't think this is too much as ask for a $70K trailer.  Perhaps Oliver will decide this is important.

[Maverick]

5 hours ago, Ray and Susan Huff said:

We were not provided numbers, either.  When I asked, Oliver told me they do not keep a record and that the only component requiring a serial number for warranty is the Dometic AC.  Wrong. . . . . Dometic reuired a serial number for warranty on the cooktop; stove has to be removed to access the service sticker.  

Anytime I have called a vendor regarding service or warranty (RV related and other) the first thing they want is the model and serial#.  The seria# tells the manufacturer a lot about the component.  Those ordering now should ask in advance of production.  I don't think this is too much as ask for a $70K trailer.  Perhaps Oliver will decide this is important.

At the time we ordered the Oliver I requested a list of equipment  including model and serial numbers in writing to our sales person; no list was ever provided by Oliver Trailer Trailers.  At delivery I requested the completed list, the sales person said there was no such list; I present a copy of my original request, he said they did not provide the information, that's not what he said at the time we purchased the trailer.

[Ray and Susan Huff]

4 hours ago, Maverick said:

At the time we ordered the Oliver I requested a list of equipment  including model and serial numbers in writing to our sales person; no list was ever provided by Oliver Trailer Trailers.  At delivery I requested the completed list, the sales person said there was no such list; I present a copy of my original request, he said they did not provide the information, that's not what he said at the time we purchased the trailer.

Each component should have a service tag with this info.  With today's technology, there could even be a bar code which can be scanned into a data base.  

It is not always convenient to access this information when some of the components are buried inside the hull.  We had warranty work done on the cooktop and the service center had to remove the stove to get the necessary numbers.

I'm disappointed that Oliver doesn't consider this important and provide this information to customers purchasing a high price RV.

[SeaDawg]

I think this is a two edged sword. Writing down serial numbers for low cost, low failure items is probably a,waste of time.

However, just for inventory control, I'd want to record items above $40 or so. If it were me, (and it was, in another place, another time.)

Honestly,  every warranty item over $50, with the exception of FanTastic vent fan (the pre-dometic acquisition), requires a model and serial number, when asking for warranty repair. A few, like my mom's deLonghi portable ac, required a photo of the plate.

I'd have to weigh the time and cost, as a manufacturer.  The only time you need the info is a failure. Most items don't fail during warranty,  or, the label is clearly visible. Or, to troubleshoot, you have to go look at it, or pull it, anyway.

Ask me that again, next time we have to go up 14' and look at a ceiling fan. 😅

 

 

[IL_Travelers]

It wasn't long after our delivery on May 17, 2021, that I determined our Zamp Solar controller had problems.  Illinois to Tennessee is a nice drive, so after Jason answered my service request, we set an appointment and planned a trip to Hohenwald.  Our digital TV antenna was not working, and there were a couple other minor issues to have remedied during the service call.

We arrived at service before 8 a.m. on July 12; everything was fixed by noon!  A new Zamp controller was installed, and the antenna was rewired.  Now everything works fine.  

Kudos to Jason and his crew!

Edited July 24, 2021 by IL_Travelers
I initially entered Xantrex controller when I meant to enter Zamp controller.

[LongStride]

When we find ourselves disappointed because Oliver “didn’t do this” or “didn’t provide that”, we also need to consider the efforts that the service dept. puts into trying to resolve customer issues.  I would not trade that level of performance for any of the things that I think should have been provided by the factory including the elusive wiring diagrams.  

[GAP]

11 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

I think this is a two edged sword. Writing down serial numbers for low cost, low failure items is probably a,waste of time.

However, just for inventory control, I'd want to record items above $40 or so. If it were me, (and it was, in another place, another time.)

Honestly,  every warranty item over $50, with the exception of FanTastic vent fan (the pre-dometic acquisition), requires a model and serial number, when asking for warranty repair. A few, like my mom's deLonghi portable ac, required a photo of the plate.

I'd have to weigh the time and cost, as a manufacturer.  The only time you need the info is a failure. Most items don't fail during warranty,  or, the label is clearly visible. Or, to troubleshoot, you have to go look at it, or pull it, anyway.

Ask me that again, next time we have to go up 14' and look at a ceiling fan. 😅

 

 

I appreciate arguments on both sides of this issue but, that said, since picking up our E2 in December, I've had 13 issues involving 6 of the after market products.  Of these only two could be fully resolved with the help of Oliver and all the rest required at least one call to the manufacturer.  While Oliver has been exemplary (Jason in particular) in making themselves available to assist, there is only so much they can accomplish over the phone.  Considering Oliver has one location, it does seem like a prudent and minimal effort to share this information up front.  Almost every manufacturer I've sought assistance from asked for these particulars and, in some cases, such as the MaxAir Fan or Dometic AC, I've had to do a certain level of surgery, following their directions, to even find where the tags are located.  Much more humane for Oliver to do at the time of instal than it is for me to do, standing on the roof, with a phone in one hand and tools in the other.

[GreenFlash]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:51 PM, Jim_Oker said:

[Update: after politely explaining my current frustration to Xantrex in email and asking them how quickly they would expect to turn around my inverter if I send it in to them to troubleshoot in their shop, they emailed me telling me they're quite backed up in that sort of tech  troubleshooting  work (you  think!!???) so it would take a while to turn around, so they're instead going to ship me a replacement  unit and RMA info for  sending my unit back once I receive the replacement. I'm hoping it's fairly straightforward to remove and replace  - looks likely to just be a matter of shutting off its breaker and being disconnected from incoming power and then taking it off its mounts and removing a few wires (looks like I'll have to remove a panel to get at the connections). I will review the manual and  have asked Jason Essary for their take on steps and any warnings as well. I will reply back to this thread once I've dealt with the replacement. I do not know whether  Jason  intervened with Xantrex on my behalf or not, but in any case wanted to quickly  update with this info in case anyone else has this as an outstanding problem. If you're not sure, you  may want to try updating your  firmware if its out of date (the  manual discusses  how  to see the current  versions) and consider whether you want it fixed if you're under warranty and yours also won't update! /update]

After months of grindingly slow responses from Xantrex and Oliver for the E20 issue on the Xantrex remote, and after finding that my unit fails at attempts to update its firmware, I've finally been told by Xantrex to ship them my inverter so they can troubleshoot it on their bench. I'm not super happy about having this removed from my trailer for an indeterminate amount of time particuarly given how long it seemed to have taken them to even start to address the issue with Oliver so I'm wondering whether anyone else here has had the same issue and if so what steps did you have to take to get it resolved? Did you remove your inverter yourself and ship it in? Have it done at a shop? Or did Xantrex send you a replacement in exchange for your malfunctioning unit? 

I'd like to have a sense of how this was dealt with for and by anyone else who's already dealt with this to have an idea of what I should be trying to negotiate here.

[rant] I get that the components in the trailer will have troubles from time to time but damn this was broken out of the box and was clearly a known problem for m onths before I took delivery so it would have seemed that Oliver would have likely been able to easily know whether they were delivering me a defective unit before my delivery date. And given that it clearly didn't work from day one I would have hoped to have gotten to this point much faster. I hope this is an outlier in terms of service experiences in my future with this trailer. Otherwise things have gone mostly fine with my trailer but damn this is a big pebble in my shoe. [/rant]

I’m having the same problem. Delivered in June with outdated firmware and E20 signal loss on remote. Unable to install updates despite following all procedures correctly. Very frustrating this happened.  It’s really an unacceptable delivery issue as well as solution. 

[Cameron]

Well, like I feel that I am now truly part of the Oliver family. We picked up the trailer on Monday afternoon and this morning after waking up in Green River WY, I discovered the dreaded error code 20. At first I panicked because I could not use my electric tea kettle to make water for coffee, and I'm no good without my coffee. But, I did get my AC power to work, had my coffee, red all of these threads, and now I will also be opening a ticket. 

 

[Jim_Oker]

3 hours ago, GreenFlash said:

I’m having the same problem. Delivered in June with outdated firmware and E20 signal loss on remote. Unable to install updates despite following all procedures correctly. Very frustrating this happened.  It’s really an unacceptable delivery issue as well as solution. 

Wow. I can sort of get that they may not have really been on top of this issue when mine was delivered in Late December (though from a separate thread on the forum I have seen that at least one owner had raised the E20 issue directly with them at least a few weeks before and multiple others noted having the issue but I don't know if they'd contacted Service yet). But by June both the E20 AND the problem with not being able to update firmware on some units (the two issues don't always co-occur based on comments from some folks who indeed seemed to resolve the E20 issue with successful udpating  of firmware). So I'm scratching my head wondering  whether dealing with  the downstream service issue and associated customer frustration is really worth  whatever they're saving by not testing for both  problems and resolving them pre-delivery. 

I've been generally happy  with my limited need for responsiveness and help from Oliver service folks but I'm underwhelmed by some details of delivery particularly though  not entirely limited to this pair of issues. When I pay a premium for a premium product my expectations around such details are higher than when I go for cheap and cheerful.

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 7/24/2021 at 5:42 AM, LongStride said:

When we find ourselves disappointed because Oliver “didn’t do this” or “didn’t provide that”, we also need to consider the efforts that the service dept. puts into trying to resolve customer issues.  I would not trade that level of performance for any of the things that I think should have been provided by the factory including the elusive wiring diagrams.  

Well said 😊

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 7/24/2021 at 6:58 AM, GreenFlash said:

I’m having the same problem. Delivered in June with outdated firmware and E20 signal loss on remote. Unable to install updates despite following all procedures correctly. Very frustrating this happened.  It’s really an unacceptable delivery issue as well as solution. 

I wonder how many of these inverters with bad communication boards are still out there?  If it caused a safety issue, there would be a recall, but since it doesn't, I guess it's wait and see.  Bottom line: Xantrex should be testing their inverters more thoroughly, since it is obviously a manufacturing defect.  When Oliver installs components, they assume they are not defective; on initial use, our inverter appeared to be functioning properly.  The invert/charge functions were not affected.  

 

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 7/24/2021 at 7:06 AM, mywinnemucca said:

Well, like I feel that I am now truly part of the Oliver family. We picked up the trailer on Monday afternoon and this morning after waking up in Green River WY, I discovered the dreaded error code 20. At first I panicked because I could not use my electric tea kettle to make water for coffee, and I'm no good without my coffee. But, I did get my AC power to work, had my coffee, red all of these threads, and now I will also be opening a ticket. 

 

Are you aware that the inverter still functions?  You just can't control or monitor it from the remote display.  If you access the inverter under the street side bed, you can turn it on/off, monitor power, etc.  It functions the same as the remote panel, except you have to struggle to get under the bed and stand on your head or use mirrors to read the display.  If you need inverted power, turn it on and leave it.  Otherwise, it can remain turned off.

[Ray and Susan Huff]

23 hours ago, Jim_Oker said:

Wow. I can sort of get that they may not have really been on top of this issue when mine was delivered in Late December (though from a separate thread on the forum I have seen that at least one owner had raised the E20 issue directly with them at least a few weeks before and multiple others noted having the issue but I don't know if they'd contacted Service yet). But by June both the E20 AND the problem with not being able to update firmware on some units (the two issues don't always co-occur based on comments from some folks who indeed seemed to resolve the E20 issue with successful udpating  of firmware). So I'm scratching my head wondering  whether dealing with  the downstream service issue and associated customer frustration is really worth  whatever they're saving by not testing for both  problems and resolving them pre-delivery. 

I've been generally happy  with my limited need for responsiveness and help from Oliver service folks but I'm underwhelmed by some details of delivery particularly though  not entirely limited to this pair of issues. When I pay a premium for a premium product my expectations around such details are higher than when I go for cheap and cheerful.

I got the impression, when I was addressing the 20 code, back in April (following December delivery), that the inability to update the firmware was not yet known - both Oliver and Xantrex expected the firmware update to solve the problem.  Which it did, but not in all cases.  Perhaps if I had pursued the issue sooner, it could have been addressed differently.  Oliver has sent us a replacement inverter from their stock.  I don't know if they tested it first, but the 20 error code has not repeated.

I'm curious to know if there are un-Oliver installations of the XC Pro inverter that are also experiencing the bad communication board defect.

[Cameron]

Well, my fix for this problem was pretty darn simple, so I count myself very lucky. Or, it's possible that Oliver has done the work to resolve this problem for new trailers being picked up now. 

The service department told me to turn off the 300a breaker under the driver side bed access panel, wait 30 seconds then turn it back on. 

I did that and the problem was solved. I made sure that the remote was showing U3 01 06. When I continued pressing the battery button on the remote I saw other codes (U2 01 18 and U3 01 04) but stayed with that first code recommended by service.

[Cameron]

I guess the code was as shown on this pic I sent to service, which works.

[Jim_Oker]

On 7/26/2021 at 4:31 PM, Cameron said:

The service department told me to turn off the 300a breaker under the driver side bed access panel, wait 30 seconds then turn it back on. 

I did that and the problem was solved.

That worked briefly for me, then the error came back. Hopefully you are now on the other side of it for good!

I've installed the replacement that Xantrex sent me (following nudging by Mike in Oliver service on top of my requests) and in a few fairly brief rounds of testing it's all looking good. 

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 7/26/2021 at 4:31 PM, Cameron said:

Well, my fix for this problem was pretty darn simple, so I count myself very lucky. Or, it's possible that Oliver has done the work to resolve this problem for new trailers being picked up now. 

The service department told me to turn off the 300a breaker under the driver side bed access panel, wait 30 seconds then turn it back on. 

I did that and the problem was solved. I made sure that the remote was showing U3 01 06. When I continued pressing the battery button on the remote I saw other codes (U2 01 18 and U3 01 04) but stayed with that first code recommended by service.

When we reset the breaker, the 20 code went away, only to return later.  Hope this isn't the case with yours.

 

[Ray and Susan Huff]

15 hours ago, Jim_Oker said:

That worked briefly for me, then the error came back. Hopefully you are now on the other side of it for good!

I've installed the replacement that Xantrex sent me (following nudging by Mike in Oliver service on top of my requests) and in a few fairly brief rounds of testing it's all looking good. 

Same here, with new inverter supplied by Oliver.

Just curious . . . . have you tried using the Xantrex BT app?  I haven't tried it yet . . . . don't feel like having tech frustration right now 😁

[Jim_Oker]

23 minutes ago, Ray and Susan Huff said:

Just curious . . . . have you tried using the Xantrex BT app?

Yes. It is in fact how I changed the four settings that Jason told me to customize (btw in his mail where he shared this link to the inverter settings customization guide for  various Oliver configurations, he mentioned that I could use a 120a "charger current" setting instead of the 150 listed in the  table for my config with the LifeBlue batteries, and btw 120 matches what LifeBlue suggests in their documentation). And I also finally realized I can scroll down on the settings page and see my Inverter's serial number on my phone via this app 😉  - you'd have thought Xantrex support might have told me that when I told them that  my serial number was fairly well hidden as installed in the  trailer by Oliver but hey now I know.

I will also be using the app to switch between 15 amp and 30 amp "AC input breaker" settings depending on whether I'm plugging into a standard household 15 amp circuit or a 30 amp circuit.

[Ray and Susan Huff]

7 hours ago, Jim_Oker said:

Yes. It is in fact how I changed the four settings that Jason told me to customize (btw in his mail where he shared this link to the inverter settings customization guide for  various Oliver configurations, he mentioned that I could use a 120a "charger current" setting instead of the 150 listed in the  table for my config with the LifeBlue batteries, and btw 120 matches what LifeBlue suggests in their documentation). And I also finally realized I can scroll down on the settings page and see my Inverter's serial number on my phone via this app 😉  - you'd have thought Xantrex support might have told me that when I told them that  my serial number was fairly well hidden as installed in the  trailer by Oliver but hey now I know.

I will also be using the app to switch between 15 amp and 30 amp "AC input breaker" settings depending on whether I'm plugging into a standard household 15 amp circuit or a 30 amp circuit.

I changed the charger current to 120a, at Jason's suggestion.  Good idea switching the AC input breaker setting when plugged in to standard household current.

[Cameron]

On 7/26/2021 at 6:33 PM, Cameron said:

I guess the code was as shown on this pic I sent to service, which works.

 

 

Well, things took another dump with the whole inverter situation. Today the inverter conked out. No screen readout. No lights. Nothing to indicate that it was active and alive. The remote also was lifeless. Talked to OTT service and tried everything they suggested, such as tripping the breaker, tripping the 200a and 300a switches in the wheel well, pressing and holding the little silver button for five seconds, etc. They were apologetic and said they check everything during production to make sure it works but there's not much they can do in with their shop in Tennessee and me in Idaho.

I was not able to reach Xantrex. Their phone system didn't seem to be working today. I looked up "authorized service centers" and spoke to Mark Snyder Electric (Sacramento)  to initiate the process the get the Freedom XC 300 replaced. Everyone agrees that it's very strange that a brand new unit would conk out. We're dry camping but haven't been using the AC. The temp was hot (89 degrees inside the trailer) but not excessive. The only draw was us charging phones and using the Maxfan. The Norcold fridge, when set to Auto, likes to go to AC so I keep having to switch it to LP when dry camping.  Also, the the solar panels are charging the batteries no problem, and the batteries are powering everything that is 12v, so it's just the AC, TV, 120 plugs and microwave that won't work.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll speak to someone from the authorized dealer who might be able to help me troubleshoot some more. Otherwise, it's no inverter for the rest of our vacation (9 days). It will be like when we rented SOB trailers in the past and didn't have the "extras" when boondocking. Not the end of the world. But irritating.

[Cameron]

UPDATE

Drove from dry camping at Craters of the Moon Idaho to my cousin's in Emmett ID. She gave me a hose  and a standard 110v extension cord. With an adapter, I connected my 30a shore power cord to the extension cord. Suddenly, the inverter was alive. I then disconnected the 110 extension cord and tested each item (AC, micro, TV) separately to make sure they worked. And the outlets too. Everything seems to be functioning normally. I'm running the AC now off the lithium. No prob. 

I remember seeing somewhere in a forum post about someone who had a Xantrex die, then when they plugged it in to shore power it came back to life. If I can find that post, I'll ask them more about it. 

Very strange.

[SeaDawg]

Well, that's an interesting, and happy turn of events.

[LCTraveler]

Hi there.

We picked up hull 836 on June 21st and ran into the same Xantrex issue where it just shut down and we couldn’t seem to revive it. We to had been dry camping and not using any significant 120vac loads. I finally plugged my generator in and it miraculously brought everything back on line. It was a mystery until it happened again while we were home and the trailer was just sitting there again with minimal ac loads. I called Xantrex and found out that there is a setting in the Xantrex (setting #5) that is set default to 25 hours. This is called a power save setting and it shuts down the inverter after 25 hours if it does not detect any significant 120vac load. It does not detect a load as small as the microwave front panel display but if you ran the microwave it would detect that and cancel the 25 hour countdown to shutdown. The Xantrex guy told me to change setting # 5 to OFF. This disables the shutdown timer. I did that and it has been trouble free ever since. 
Also make sure if you were pushing on/off buttons on the inverter under the bed and the inverter remote that you go back and check that the inverter power button under the bed is in the off position and the on/off button on the remote is in the on position. This gives full control to the remote and will save you from having to go under the bed if you ever need to turn on or off the inverter. 

There is instructions in the manual on how to change settings but it’s much easier if you put the Xantrex app on your phone and connect by Bluetooth.

let me know if I can help more.

Mike