Frequently Asked Questions

Question:
Can I use any power supply with RMSv1?

Answer:
No, RMSv1 was designed to use DC current only. DC voltage from 10 to 60 volts may be used. You may provide power to RMS directly from a 10 to 60 volt battery, or use an Ac to Dc wall outlet power supply with at least 300 ma rating. 

Question:
When I turn on the RMSv1 device nothing happens, no power light, no nothing!

Answer:
Check the polarity of your power supply wires to ensure that the positive wire goes to the positive power input on the RMSv1 board, and that the negative wire goes to the negative power input. The power wires should be attached to the terminal block closest to the on/off switch. The power LED should light up when power is applied correctly. 

Question:
I just realized I hooked up the power supply wires backwards, is it all over?

Answer:
No, the power supply on the RMSv1 board was over engineered to handle just about anything you can throw at it. The LM2575HV switching regulator has built in short circuit and over voltage protection. We have added to this with extra short circuit and over voltage protection components. RMSv1 also has a fast burn fuse incase anything goes drastically wrong. We have done extensive testing with different power supply voltages and improper polarities and have never yet blown the fuse!

Question:
I hooked up my spark plug to one of the relays to stop my generator. Why did the RMSv1 board reset and act strangely?

Answer:
Spark plug gap in most gen-sets is .025 of an inch. It takes from 6000 to 20,000 volts to jump the gap. This by far exceeds the maximum voltage that the power relays can handle. That high of a voltage may cause arking all over the RMSv1 circuit board. Don't do it, instead, figure out what wires are used to stop the engine and have them routed through the power relay. Disassembly of your gen-set is probably a must and a basic knowledge of small engines and electronics will be helpful. As an example, most Honda generators have a kill wire that when grounded will stop the generator. One of our clients at TFROsystems uses one relay with the low oil safety shut-off circuitry on their gen-set to stop the engine. The other two relays are used to engage the starter and actuate the choke.

Question:
Do I need to change the Mac Address, or can I leave it at 00:00:00:12:34:56 ? 

Answer:
It is usually a good idea to change the factory Mac Address to some fictitious hex number. The Mac address can stay at factory default if it's not on the same physical network segment as another RMSv1 unit with the same Mac Address. Note: The first and second octet or set of digits reading from the left should be set to an even number. Example: 02:00:12:34:56:AA. These octets are reserved for multicast or broadcast mac addresses. Setting these octets of a RMSv1 mac address to an odd number will cause you to lose connectivity with the RMSv1 unit forcing the need for a firmware reset and re-configuring the unit. The rest of the octets can safely be set to any hex number. To be safe, you may set the first two octets to 00:00. Example Mac: 00:00:AB:CD:EF:99 Trivia: Six octets in a mac address gives a theoretical 281,474,976,710,656 addresses. This would be more than 56,000 MAC addresses for each person on the planet.

Question:
Must I use the supplied RMSv1 software to view output from the RMSv1 device? 

Answer:
No, RMSv1 has a built in mini web server that outputs a standard html web page with all voltages, temperature, relay settings, I/o pin status etc. Web page data can be viewed with any current version web browser. To configure RMSv1 or to change settings, the supplied RMSv1 software must be used.

Question:
Can I measure Ac voltage with the ADC inputs?

Answer:
No! Only use the built in volt meters to measure DC voltage from 0 to 60 volts!

Question:
I have four 6 volt batteries in series to make a large 24v battery. Can I use the Voltmeters to measure each individual 6 volt battery?

Answer:
No! You will only be able to measure the battery bank as a single 24 volt battery. If you hook up wires to each individual battery and attach them to the Voltmeter inputs, you will risk blowing the traces off the RMSv1 circuit board causing catastrophic failure thus voiding the warranty. As a rule of thumb, never attach RMSv1 Voltmeter wires to any battery post that is directly connected to another battery post of the opposite polarity.

Question:
Can the power relays be used with AC current?

Answer:
Yes! The power relays on the RMSv1 device can be used for AC and DC powered equipment. Caution must be taken not to overload the current capacity for the relays. The smaller relays can pass 5 amps, and the large relay can pass 10 amps.

Question:
How do I upgrade the firmware on the RMSv1 boards?

Answer:
See our firmware upgrade tutorial here: Firmware Upgrade Tutorial