A/V overhead compartment kills electronics

[chickenman05]

Yay! Our first trip in our new to us Sunova. Got out of the cold of Idaho-Spent over a week in Las Vegas, week in Cave Creek,Az and a week camping at Boulder Beach @ Lake Mead and Cathedral Gorge State Park Nv. Love our new rig but the warmer weather was hard on the Dish receiver and the HDMI extender transmitter/receiver components even with compartment doors open. The Dish receiver came back to life when I put a small cooling fan in compartment but had to replace the HDMI transmitter. The compartment heats up because it is not insulated from the front cap area-the inside of the front cap has a thin sprayed on insulation but nowhere near enough. I'm working on additional insulation now and have purchased two small equipment fans that run off of the usb port on the back of receiver or an ac adaptor. Eight weeks till a two month trip through Oregon,Washington,Canada, Wyoming and Utah-plenty of time to work on a few things!

[powercat_ras]

Had the same front compartment overheating issue with my Vista, and resolved it as follows. Took off the top and back fiberboard panels and placed fiberglass insulation behind the cabinet and above the cabinet. Put white vinyl on the outside of the winshield on the area behind the cabinet that is painted black on the back side. Bought green felt self adhesive pads and stacked them 3 or 4 high on the cabinet doors on the side opposite the hinges leaving a small air space even when the doors are closed. That said, I still leave the doors open when the front of the RV is in direct sun when outside temp is above 80 F outside.

You may know that Winnebago's Vista solution was different (different bad IMHO) - they just completely stopped putting cabinets up there and moved the AV equipment location to a cabinet above the entry door.

[Rossi6998]

Take a look at the following link;

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/cooli...et-347091.html

I did a modification to the cabinet doors by installing a fan. The picture only shows a fan in the door over the driver's seat; however, I have also installed a fan in the door over the passenger's seat since I took this picture. Seems to help and I generally keep the cabinet doors closed unless it is extremely hot outside.

Good luck!

[Sue46]

We bought an 8" clip on fan and clip it to the "valence" around the bunk bed, keep the cabinet door open and it solved the problem. We had problems with overheating with the Directv HR24 but not the HR44(Genie).

[chickenman05]

Originally Posted by Rossi6998

Take a look at the following link;

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/cooli...et-347091.html

I did a modification to the cabinet doors by installing a fan. The picture only shows a fan in the door over the driver's seat; however, I have also installed a fan in the door over the passenger's seat since I took this picture. Seems to help and I generally keep the cabinet doors closed unless it is extremely hot outside.

Good luck!

Good idea, only wish Winnebago would address their re-occurring problems. I've fixed and modified countless problems in this like new coach-I'm a hands on guy but am getting tired of my "to do list" growing. Thanks-BMcD

[Lakejumper]

Chickenman, how did you locate the HDMI transmitter? Did you order a new one from Winnebago? My HDMI cable isn't working in the overhead cabinet. I didn't even consider the heat damaging it, only the Sat receiver. I guess it's time to increase the ventilation in the cabinet.

[chickenman05]

Originally Posted by Lakejumper

Chickenman, how did you locate the HDMI transmitter? Did you order a new one from Winnebago? My HDMI cable isn't working in the overhead cabinet. I didn't even consider the heat damaging it, only the Sat receiver. I guess it's time to increase the ventilation in the cabinet.

I looked at the Winnebago wiring diagram for my coach online-you can choose your year and model and which diagram you wish to view. I looked at your year and model and it looks like it's in the center of overhead - maybe behind a panel. You should be able to follow the hdmi cable to it or the wire from the ac/dc power supply is plugged into the receptacle in the center compartment.
www.winnebagoind.com/diagram/Wiring.htm
I'm moving mine out from behind the panel to the where the sat receiver is and run a cooling fan

[creativepart]

I tested the heat in the A/V cab on a day when it was 90 outside and it was 135 degrees at the HDMI Switch. That’s nuts. I keep a small usb fan in there and it helps. Plus, when I’m not driving I keep at least one of the 3 cabinet doors open.

I’ve been thinking about painting the roof of the front cap white were it folds over the roof of the RV. Mine is black up there.

I actually have an appointment at the WBGO factory this month to get a short list of things fixed and I put this heat issue on my list. We’ll see what they say.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Lakejumper

Chickenman, how did you locate the HDMI transmitter? Did you order a new one from Winnebago? My HDMI cable isn't working in the overhead cabinet. I didn't even consider the heat damaging it, only the Sat receiver. I guess it's time to increase the ventilation in the cabinet.

I didn’t need to replace my HDMI Switch, but you can find them online. I found some on Amazon made by a company called Pace.

Make sure the issue is the switch and not a bad HDMI cable. I had one TV not working out of the 3 in my coach. It took a lot of trial and error but found a bad HDMI cable between the TV and the HDMI receiver.

My setup maybe different than yours - in my cabinet sources run HDMI to the switch and the switch runs Ethernet cables to a small receiver at each TV. Then a HDMI cable runs from the receiver to the TV. I know in some coaches WBGO made in the past the switch was different and ran HDMI cables to the TVs not ethernet. So I don’t know if this applies to you.

[Wayne M]

Don't forget that we are all in a rolling earthquake going down the highway. Check the HDMI cables to make sure they have not come loose as all they do is push into the device without any thing other than friction holding them in.

[RzRzRzR]

Originally Posted by Wayne M

rolling earthquake going down the highway

Great way to describe it!

[chickenman05]

Originally Posted by creativepart

I didn’t need to replace my HDMI Switch, but you can find them online. I found some on Amazon made by a company called Pace.

Make sure the issue is the switch and not a bad HDMI cable. I had one TV not working out of the 3 in my coach. It took a lot of trial and error but found a bad HDMI cable between the TV and the HDMI receiver.

My setup maybe different than yours - in my cabinet sources run HDMI to the switch and the switch runs Ethernet cables to a small receiver at each TV. Then a HDMI cable runs from the receiver to the TV. I know in some coaches WBGO made in the past the switch was different and ran HDMI cables to the TVs not ethernet. So I don’t know if this applies to you.

Yeah mines the same-ordered one on amazon and hooked it up today-works great-they call them hdmi extenders-Thanks,BMcD

[chickenman05]

Originally Posted by Wayne M

Don't forget that we are all in a rolling earthquake going down the highway. Check the HDMI cables to make sure they have not come loose as all they do is push into the device without any thing other than friction holding them in.

Shake-Rattle and Roll - I'm a checking! LOL-BMcD