2019 Bourton Mercedes Electrics Issues

LDPD wrote:Anyone having problems with weird behaviour of the electrics in the habitation area?
When parked up, on ours the Mercedes electrics tries to enable an energy saving hibernation mode which appears to confuse the Sargent unit which does any, or all, of the following - operate the step, awning light or worst of all sets off it's own internal battery low alarm. Given this goes off randomly in the night, a good night's sleep is something to dream of (not in the van though!). This behaviour has existed since we took delivery three months ago and despite persistent chasing there's no sign of resolution. A vehicle designed for sleeping in, but you can't have an uninterrupted night's sleep! Fit for purpose? Anyone else with similar issues or sensible advice?

Good news at last!

In the absence of interest, help or support from our dealer in sorting this issue we spent a lot of time logging events and observing activity and timings. We identified a pattern which led us to conclude that the fault was in all probability due to a software/configuration issue on the Mercedes side, something we'd always believed to be the case. We presented our findings to AS and Rygor (Mercedes chassis supplier) who eventually after being able to reliably reproduce the issue at will, agreed that it was a Mercedes fault. Both organisations were supportive and working with them they eventually they found a 'keep awake' configuration parameter whose purpose wasn't fully understood. However, unsetting it seemed to solve the problem. We are cautiously optimistic, with the limited testing we have carried out, that this problem has finally been resolved. If you have this issue on the new Mercedes chassis your dealer should be able to advise how you get the relevant update done. 

Along the way we also became familiar with the EC700 issue when our panel/software was upgraded in an attempt to solve the issue above. The problem, after believing it was a hardware issue, was finally identified as a software coding error. An update is now available through your dealer for this issue. The panel becomes more responsive and we have heard  that some that have previously been reported as failed have come back to life.

So, problems solved, but now looking unlikely to be travelling in the near future!

Thank you LDPD for posting Good News At Last, its great what you have done and you should be congratulated from all of us whose vans have the problem. We will be contacting our dealer and hopefully there will be at last a resolution once we are brave enough to venture out !!

ourannie wrote:Thank you LDPD for posting Good News At Last, its great what you have done and you should be congratulated from all of us whose vans have the problem. We will be contacting our dealer and hopefully there will be at last a resolution once we are brave enough to venture out !!

Yes thank you, I forwarded to our dealer who didn’t know about this and was going to discuss with AS, this is where it all falls down, if AS know there’s a possible fix why not let all the dealers know, they amaze me.

Hi LAPD - I spoke to you at York last December as we were thinking of downsizing from our Worcester to a Bourton but you were kind enough to enlighten me about the electrical problems. I am really pleased you have resolved the problems - do you want to sell it now?

David

The Haunted Snail has returned to the dealership.AS at last advised the dealer to put in the latest Version for the EC700  and I have been informed most of the odd behaviour  has disappeared  ( so I have been informed )  but due now to go a Mercedes garage for some of their adjustments , but due to locked down it’s going to be 3 weeks  plus before it moves from the dealership  to Mercedes. 
I also was informed that the mod to fit the interior blinds  has gone by the board and will not be fitted as we were promised. Anyone done their own thing and fitted a curtain  and where you can fit a rail. Ours doesn’t have the overhead cab window but a storage Lockyer

Skizzydo wrote:The Haunted Snail has returned to the dealership.AS at last advised the dealer to put in the latest Version for the EC700  and I have been informed most of the odd behaviour  has disappeared  ( so I have been informed )  but due now to go a Mercedes garage for some of their adjustments , but due to locked down it’s going to be 3 weeks  plus before it moves from the dealership  to Mercedes. 
I also was informed that the mod to fit the interior blinds  has gone by the board and will not be fitted as we were promised. Anyone done their own thing and fitted a curtain  and where you can fit a rail. Ours doesn’t have the overhead cab window but a storage Lockyer

Snap, ours is stuck at dealers also, was having bits done and then it was off to Merc for software update to “cure” the hibernation issues. We have had the blinds fitted so I’m told whilst it was there.

I have been informed by the security system that the batteries are indicating low voltage some days ago -  methinks that new batteries might be required  when the lockdown is over. Hindsight  says I should have pick up the Snail before the dealership closed down, and kept an eye on its batteries and systems by running the vehicle every other week .  Doh ! I wonder if that comes under the care and maintenance of the dealership?

Skizzydo wrote:I have been informed by the security system that the batteries are indicating low voltage some days ago -  methinks that new batteries might be required  when the lockdown is over. Hindsight  says I should have pick up the Snail before the dealership closed down, and kept an eye on its batteries and systems by running the vehicle every other week .  Doh ! I wonder if that comes under the care and maintenance of the dealership?

I had a call from the tracker company saying they didn’t get a response from the tracker and a alarm on leisure battery and an alert from Merc Pro saying vehicle battery going. As yours I suspect ours is in the warehouse so no solar charging going on.

That’s what I assume, but as its still half loaded  because THEY  said it would take no more than two days to sort out and test...........! Oh well back to the decorating my study  with restricted supplies.

Got ours back from the dealer after the habitation service and a couple of jobs being done under warranty on the last day they were open. Phew!

LDPD - thank you!
We have experienced many of the same problems as you on our 2020 Burford. The step retracted when I was stepping on it without any alarm sounding or awning light coming on! We also had a total failure of the comtrol panel in February whilst on a site so had no option than to return home. Neither Sargent nor AS dealers were able to help whilst on site. we had a new control panel fitted in March and managed two nights away before lockdown. The low battery alarm still sounded and the awning light came on but no step retraction! Once the lockdown is over we will visit a Mercedes dealer for the "keep awake" configuration. 
Now to sort the cab blinds......

Lord&LadyBurford wrote:LDPD - thank you!
We have experienced many of the same problems as you on our 2020 Burford. The step retracted when I was stepping on it without any alarm sounding or awning light coming on! We also had a total failure of the comtrol panel in February whilst on a site so had no option than to return home. Neither Sargent nor AS dealers were able to help whilst on site. we had a new control panel fitted in March and managed two nights away before lockdown. The low battery alarm still sounded and the awning light came on but no step retraction! Once the lockdown is over we will visit a Mercedes dealer for the "keep awake" configuration. 
Now to sort the cab blinds......

Hi. I think the Mercedes update has to be arranged with Mercedes via your dealer

Has anyone else with  Bourton suffer from the batteries ( leisure and vehicle) being drained over a period of 12 - 18 days? I have latterly used the shut down button on the EC700 unit which seems to improve the situation. Otherwise as far as I can tell every other switch is off .

Skizzydo wrote:Has anyone else with  Bourton suffer from the batteries ( leisure and vehicle) being drained over a period of 12 - 18 days? I have latterly used the shut down button on the EC700 unit which seems to improve the situation. Otherwise as far as I can tell every other switch is off .

Not Bourton but I think you have the same 80W Solar Panel and Solar Controller to the EC700 as we do in the Nuevo. The first year of ownership has been a nightmare due to the Solar Charge to both batteries being ridiculously shallow.
The total charge turns out to be just enough to maintain the standby current consumption of the EC700, try using anything, Gas Hob or Lights and you discharge the battery too low. This has recently been discussed in the very popular Solar Panel thread.

LDPD wrote:

LDPD wrote:Anyone having problems with weird behaviour of the electrics in the habitation area?
When parked up, on ours the Mercedes electrics tries to enable an energy saving hibernation mode which appears to confuse the Sargent unit which does any, or all, of the following - operate the step, awning light or worst of all sets off it's own internal battery low alarm. Given this goes off randomly in the night, a good night's sleep is something to dream of (not in the van though!). This behaviour has existed since we took delivery three months ago and despite persistent chasing there's no sign of resolution. A vehicle designed for sleeping in, but you can't have an uninterrupted night's sleep! Fit for purpose? Anyone else with similar issues or sensible advice?

Good news at last!

In the absence of interest, help or support from our dealer in sorting this issue we spent a lot of time logging events and observing activity and timings. We identified a pattern which led us to conclude that the fault was in all probability due to a software/configuration issue on the Mercedes side, something we'd always believed to be the case. We presented our findings to AS and Rygor (Mercedes chassis supplier) who eventually after being able to reliably reproduce the issue at will, agreed that it was a Mercedes fault. Both organisations were supportive and working with them they eventually they found a 'keep awake' configuration parameter whose purpose wasn't fully understood. However, unsetting it seemed to solve the problem. We are cautiously optimistic, with the limited testing we have carried out, that this problem has finally been resolved. If you have this issue on the new Mercedes chassis your dealer should be able to advise how you get the relevant update done. 

Along the way we also became familiar with the EC700 issue when our panel/software was upgraded in an attempt to solve the issue above. The problem, after believing it was a hardware issue, was finally identified as a software coding error. An update is now available through your dealer for this issue. The panel becomes more responsive and we have heard  that some that have previously been reported as failed have come back to life.

So, problems solved, but now looking unlikely to be travelling in the near future!

Hi LDPD!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but after scouring the internet your posts came up and seem to fit the bill of our problem.  

We have a 2020 Winchcombe which was built early this year and we were finally able to collect after the dealer re-opened in June.  Since then it has been parked up at home but we've had an intermittent issue with the alarm going off (mostly after about 10 p.m.) and at the same time the habitation light coming on.  I've been in contact with the alarm installer and have been trying various things to narrow down the problem, made more difficult as he couldn't understand why a problem with the alarm would make the habitation door light come on but your post sheds more light on that.  

I've worked out that if I leave the van on EHU with the charger keeping the engine battery up then the problem seems to go away but once the charger is switched off and the solar panel doesn't generate anything then, a few hours later the problems start.  I'm presuming that at that point the Merc electrics are attempting to go to sleep and this causes the problem.

I will be contacting the dealer on Monday with the findings but I just wondered if there was anyone in AS that I could suggest they speak to with regards to the work that Mercedes need to do for the "keep awake" programming as I'm sure I will get a blank look from the dealer when I raise it. 

I've also discovered that the EC700 has a software level that falls within the range requiring upgrade so will be hoping to get that sorted at the same time.

Thanks in anticipation for any advice you can offer.

Phil

Have a Broadway eb 2019 just had our 2nd ec700  fitted. Screen went blank. Apparently  there was a faulty batch of 2019 ec700. But they didnt know what Van's they were fitted to until they failed. Was a fault  with the memory keep backing up until it couldn't take anymore .if I was you I would ask dealer  to replace  it

philoaks wrote:

LDPD wrote:

LDPD wrote:Anyone having problems with weird behaviour of the electrics in the habitation area?
When parked up, on ours the Mercedes electrics tries to enable an energy saving hibernation mode which appears to confuse the Sargent unit which does any, or all, of the following - operate the step, awning light or worst of all sets off it's own internal battery low alarm. Given this goes off randomly in the night, a good night's sleep is something to dream of (not in the van though!). This behaviour has existed since we took delivery three months ago and despite persistent chasing there's no sign of resolution. A vehicle designed for sleeping in, but you can't have an uninterrupted night's sleep! Fit for purpose? Anyone else with similar issues or sensible advice?

Good news at last!

In the absence of interest, help or support from our dealer in sorting this issue we spent a lot of time logging events and observing activity and timings. We identified a pattern which led us to conclude that the fault was in all probability due to a software/configuration issue on the Mercedes side, something we'd always believed to be the case. We presented our findings to AS and Rygor (Mercedes chassis supplier) who eventually after being able to reliably reproduce the issue at will, agreed that it was a Mercedes fault. Both organisations were supportive and working with them they eventually they found a 'keep awake' configuration parameter whose purpose wasn't fully understood. However, unsetting it seemed to solve the problem. We are cautiously optimistic, with the limited testing we have carried out, that this problem has finally been resolved. If you have this issue on the new Mercedes chassis your dealer should be able to advise how you get the relevant update done. 

Along the way we also became familiar with the EC700 issue when our panel/software was upgraded in an attempt to solve the issue above. The problem, after believing it was a hardware issue, was finally identified as a software coding error. An update is now available through your dealer for this issue. The panel becomes more responsive and we have heard  that some that have previously been reported as failed have come back to life.

So, problems solved, but now looking unlikely to be travelling in the near future!

Hi LDPD!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but after scouring the internet your posts came up and seem to fit the bill of our problem.  

We have a 2020 Winchcombe which was built early this year and we were finally able to collect after the dealer re-opened in June.  Since then it has been parked up at home but we've had an intermittent issue with the alarm going off (mostly after about 10 p.m.) and at the same time the habitation light coming on.  I've been in contact with the alarm installer and have been trying various things to narrow down the problem, made more difficult as he couldn't understand why a problem with the alarm would make the habitation door light come on but your post sheds more light on that.  

I've worked out that if I leave the van on EHU with the charger keeping the engine battery up then the problem seems to go away but once the charger is switched off and the solar panel doesn't generate anything then, a few hours later the problems start.  I'm presuming that at that point the Merc electrics are attempting to go to sleep and this causes the problem.

I will be contacting the dealer on Monday with the findings but I just wondered if there was anyone in AS that I could suggest they speak to with regards to the work that Mercedes need to do for the "keep awake" programming as I'm sure I will get a blank look from the dealer when I raise it. 

I've also discovered that the EC700 has a software level that falls within the range requiring upgrade so will be hoping to get that sorted at the same time.

Thanks in anticipation for any advice you can offer.

Phil

Hi Phil.
We had the exact problem you are describing, it is an issue on the Mercedes canbus and AS / Merc have now issued a software update that your dealer had to get from AS and have it installed by the Merc dealer, we had it and ours is cured now.
If you require further info PM me 
Martin

Hi Martin,  because I'm a forum "newbie" it won't allow me to PM yet.  Thanks for the response though.  Was your problem causing the security alarm to go off too?  I've seen some posts mentioning the low battery alarm on the panel but just wanted to clarify.  We've not slept in it yet so not sure if anything else happens inside the van when the alarm is triggered.

philoaks wrote:Hi Martin,  because I'm a forum "newbie" it won't allow me to PM yet.  Thanks for the response though.  Was your problem causing the security alarm to go off too?  I've seen some posts mentioning the low battery alarm on the panel but just wanted to clarify.  We've not slept in it yet so not sure if anything else happens inside the van when the alarm is triggered.

I’ve PM you

Just to say a big thank you to Martin (redcar56) who I have just had a long conversation with and who has pointed me in the right direction in terms of contacting my dealer to get these "known problems" sorted out.  What seems amazing to us both is that AS are aware of issues but don't seem to update their dealers who are out there trying to solve problems in isolation!

Hi I know, but Phils dealer didn’t and he had an alarm issue also which is unrelated, we had this also and it was the alarm coding.

philoaks wrote:

LDPD wrote:

LDPD wrote:Anyone having problems with weird behaviour of the electrics in the habitation area?
When parked up, on ours the Mercedes electrics tries to enable an energy saving hibernation mode which appears to confuse the Sargent unit which does any, or all, of the following - operate the step, awning light or worst of all sets off it's own internal battery low alarm. Given this goes off randomly in the night, a good night's sleep is something to dream of (not in the van though!). This behaviour has existed since we took delivery three months ago and despite persistent chasing there's no sign of resolution. A vehicle designed for sleeping in, but you can't have an uninterrupted night's sleep! Fit for purpose? Anyone else with similar issues or sensible advice?

Good news at last!

In the absence of interest, help or support from our dealer in sorting this issue we spent a lot of time logging events and observing activity and timings. We identified a pattern which led us to conclude that the fault was in all probability due to a software/configuration issue on the Mercedes side, something we'd always believed to be the case. We presented our findings to AS and Rygor (Mercedes chassis supplier) who eventually after being able to reliably reproduce the issue at will, agreed that it was a Mercedes fault. Both organisations were supportive and working with them they eventually they found a 'keep awake' configuration parameter whose purpose wasn't fully understood. However, unsetting it seemed to solve the problem. We are cautiously optimistic, with the limited testing we have carried out, that this problem has finally been resolved. If you have this issue on the new Mercedes chassis your dealer should be able to advise how you get the relevant update done. 

Along the way we also became familiar with the EC700 issue when our panel/software was upgraded in an attempt to solve the issue above. The problem, after believing it was a hardware issue, was finally identified as a software coding error. An update is now available through your dealer for this issue. The panel becomes more responsive and we have heard  that some that have previously been reported as failed have come back to life.

So, problems solved, but now looking unlikely to be travelling in the near future!

Hi LDPD!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but after scouring the internet your posts came up and seem to fit the bill of our problem.  

We have a 2020 Winchcombe which was built early this year and we were finally able to collect after the dealer re-opened in June.  Since then it has been parked up at home but we've had an intermittent issue with the alarm going off (mostly after about 10 p.m.) and at the same time the habitation light coming on.  I've been in contact with the alarm installer and have been trying various things to narrow down the problem, made more difficult as he couldn't understand why a problem with the alarm would make the habitation door light come on but your post sheds more light on that.  

I've worked out that if I leave the van on EHU with the charger keeping the engine battery up then the problem seems to go away but once the charger is switched off and the solar panel doesn't generate anything then, a few hours later the problems start.  I'm presuming that at that point the Merc electrics are attempting to go to sleep and this causes the problem.

I will be contacting the dealer on Monday with the findings but I just wondered if there was anyone in AS that I could suggest they speak to with regards to the work that Mercedes need to do for the "keep awake" programming as I'm sure I will get a blank look from the dealer when I raise it. 

I've also discovered that the EC700 has a software level that falls within the range requiring upgrade so will be hoping to get that sorted at the same time.

Thanks in anticipation for any advice you can offer.

Phil

Anyone in the service department at AS should be aware of the issue and what is required for the Mercedes fix. Hope all goes well for you.

Thank you to those who responded and just a quick update........

Yesterday I composed a long email to the dealer detailing all the information I have gleaned through Martin and others regarding the software updates needed.   Today I went out to the van to do a few things and the EC700 panel is completely dead.....as a dodo.  Tried the shutdown button off for 5 minutes then back on but nothing,  didly squat!  So it looks like my EC700 joins the long list of failed panels.  

I have been able to invoke the "emergency" process to give me some basic 12v operation but clearly not ideal.  So that's another email to the dealer and a phone call to back it up on Monday morning!  Hopefully they will be able to source one of the modified panels that some of you have now had fitted without too much delay.

Hi. Has anyone had the Mercedes update to stop the hibernation issue, we have finally got our MH back after having complete new EC700 panel & PSU and the Merc update done but the issue is still present, Hab light, hab door lock etc, to say I’m upset is an understatement