It has been a while (too long!) since there have been any updates to this site. During the past months I have been testing the OSI Power Monitor design while traveling to different campgrounds. This has provided me valuable feedback for improvements to the design.

The most common electrical issue I have encountered is under voltage (less than 100 volts) during peak loading times. While my own RV may not cause the under voltage trip with the air conditioner and other appliance running, other RVs across the street and on the same power circuit can drag down the circuit voltage. Unfortunately many older campgrounds were built in the days of 15 Amp service before air conditioners in RVs were common and have not upgraded their power distribution in years.

In another development I am working on redesigning the AC sensor array to detect additional dangerous faults such as a reverse bootleg connection. This condition is where the AC “hot” is connected to the neutral and ground terminals of the outlet and the normally “hot” outlet terminal is connected to the “neutral”. This is a very dangerous situation where the skin of the RV will be at full 120 Volts AC potential and will shock anyone standing on the ground while touching any metal part of the RV. Normal polarity testers, and existing monitor units on the market, do not detect this kind of serious wiring error.