TV Wall Plate Power Connector Failure!
Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:11 pm
Older Born Free Motorcoaches were generally furnished with a TV Wall Plate made by Braund. This wall plate contains the TV antenna RF connector along with an associated TV antenna signal booster amplifier and a 12 VDC cigarette lighter type power connector.
Later BF motorcoaches were equipped with a better TV Wall plate made by Winegard.
The TV Wall Plate made by Braund looks like that shown is the two photos below. Notice the Braund brand name printed along the bottom of the ivory plastic wall plate.
This wall plate made by Braund unfortunately seems to suffer a high failure rate of the the 12 VDC cigarette lighter type power connector.
What happens is this: The +12 VDC hot side center terminal is mounted in black plastic at the rear of the connector. If and when the DC TV power plug that is inserted into this connector backs out of this power socket a sufficient amount due to vibration over time, the two center pin terminals that are supposed to stay in contact with each other will loose their low resistance direct contact and start arcing. This will heat the center terminal in the wall plate causing the black plastic holding that terminal to soften and/or melt and be pushed back causing the contact to be lost altogether. This results in the loss of +12 VDC power to your TV causing you to maybe think that your TV just failed.
You can help prevent this problem by periodically checking to see that the TV DC power plug is fully inserted into this wall plate connector. If the damage has already been done, your only solution is to replace the TV Wall Plate with an equivalent part made by Winegard. The part that you generally want to get is their P/N RA-7596. This version of Winegard's TV Wall Plate contains the necessary antenna signal preamplifier like the Braund wall plate to work properly with the non-amplified Delta TV antenna. Either replace it yourself with a part ordered from the Born Free factory or have it replaced by your favorite RV repair center.
Later BF motorcoaches were equipped with a better TV Wall plate made by Winegard.
The TV Wall Plate made by Braund looks like that shown is the two photos below. Notice the Braund brand name printed along the bottom of the ivory plastic wall plate.
This wall plate made by Braund unfortunately seems to suffer a high failure rate of the the 12 VDC cigarette lighter type power connector.
What happens is this: The +12 VDC hot side center terminal is mounted in black plastic at the rear of the connector. If and when the DC TV power plug that is inserted into this connector backs out of this power socket a sufficient amount due to vibration over time, the two center pin terminals that are supposed to stay in contact with each other will loose their low resistance direct contact and start arcing. This will heat the center terminal in the wall plate causing the black plastic holding that terminal to soften and/or melt and be pushed back causing the contact to be lost altogether. This results in the loss of +12 VDC power to your TV causing you to maybe think that your TV just failed.
You can help prevent this problem by periodically checking to see that the TV DC power plug is fully inserted into this wall plate connector. If the damage has already been done, your only solution is to replace the TV Wall Plate with an equivalent part made by Winegard. The part that you generally want to get is their P/N RA-7596. This version of Winegard's TV Wall Plate contains the necessary antenna signal preamplifier like the Braund wall plate to work properly with the non-amplified Delta TV antenna. Either replace it yourself with a part ordered from the Born Free factory or have it replaced by your favorite RV repair center.