ht1250 Vehicle Charger

[MPDREO]

Anyone have any idea if a RLN5233 charger can be repaired that had it's polarity reversed? For some unknown reason the pins on the hardwire plug had the positive and negative reversed (red was in position 6 and black in 1). I didn't find that out until the fuse popped and it was to late. Thanks

[NS1J]

I'll ask the obvious question: Have you replaced the fuse and it doesn't work? Reversing the polarity should have applied 12V to the ground side, which is all connected together and to the chassis. That would certainly blow the fuse but may not have damaged anything. If you are simply concerned that damage may have been done, replace the fuse and connect it correctly. If there really is a problem, post the results. The charger can be repaired.

[MPDREO]

Replaced the fuse, fixed the polarity and it blew again. When I checked the charger with a multimeter there appears to be a short somewhere as there is now continuity between the two pins. I checked a working charger and there is not continuity between the pins normally.

[NS1J]

OK. Now the next, slightly less obvious, question: Are you asking about fixing it your self or are you just asking can it be fixed?

[MPDREO]

I guess that would depend on what the fix involves. Is this something that you would rework the board or is it just a part swap? I couldn't find a partslist on MOL.

[HLA]

i don't know the part number off hand but that charger is just a big metal housing with one of the other chargers in it so look for the parts for the smaller black charger inside. and did you just get this? if so and it was wired wrong, have it warranted?

[MPDREO]

It has the travel cup inside the metal housing, but there is a printed circuit board beneth it that seems to be where the trouble is.

Warranty is out, it was installed in an older vehicle by another person a few years ago. When it was removed from the other vehicle the power wires were cut. It was then re-installed on the new truck Red to 12v+ and Black to ground. The fuse blew, we checked a few things on our end and all was OK. Then went back to the old truck, checked the old wires and found that further down the old wires they had been cut and switched, red to black butt-ended. Whoever did the first install must have switched the pins in the connector, then realized there mistake and instead of switching the pins again decided to cut the wires and fix it that way.

[NS1J]

If you've opened the outer case have you disconnected the four pin connector from the printed circuit board to the internal charger? If so, do you still have a short at the input or an open? If it is still shorted out I believe there is a zener or FET on the small PC board that sits across the small red and black leads. This expects to "see" -12V on the red side, referenced to ground. In your case it saw + 12 volts and didn't like that at all. If you have a short circuit with the four pin connector off, the first place I would look is at that voltage regulation device which you probably tunneled through. In other words, it did what it was supposed to do although I would have hoped the fuse would have blown first.

[MPDREO]

The short is there with the 4-pin plug removed.

[MPDREO]

It was a bad Zener (part #P6KE39A), removed it and the short went away. Picking up a replacement today at the local electronics store for $0.85. Thanks to all who helped, especially NS1J.