An autostart condition is a threshold the controller watches continuously and acts on with nobody present. On a Sensata Magnum ME-AGS-N paired with an ME-ARC50 remote, those conditions sit in the 04 AGS Setup menus: 04A Gen Run VDC for battery voltage, 04B Gen Run Time for a fixed time of day, 04C Gen Run Amps for inverter load, 04D Gen Run SOC for state of charge, and 04E Gen Run Temp for rising temperature. Voltage is the factory default, set to start at 11.5 VDC on a 12 volt bank after a 120 second delay and to stop again at 14.4 VDC. That default exists to protect the battery bank, not the people or animals inside the coach. Temperature and time of day both ship switched off. A rig can therefore carry a fully working, correctly wired AGS and still do absolutely nothing on a hot afternoon, because the only condition anyone ever enabled was a low voltage number.
The 04E Gen Run Temp menu starts the generator when a measured temperature climbs past a setpoint, adjustable from 65F to 95F, or 18C to 35C. It reads one of two things: the AGS module's own remote temperature sensor, a 60 foot cable with the sensor wired to the far end and covered in heat shrink, or an external command from the air conditioner's thermostat circuit through an ME-PT1 or ME-PT2 pigtail adapter on the controller's purple REMOTE port. Sensor placement is most of the job. It belongs in the air the animal is actually breathing, at floor or crate height, not coiled behind a panel where it reads cabinet air. The setpoint has to sit slightly above the thermostat setting on the air conditioner itself. Set it lower and the generator starts on cue while the thermostat stays satisfied, so the coach burns fuel for a two hour run period and never cools.
Quiet Time, menu 04G, is a daily window in which the AGS is not permitted to run the generator, set in 15 minute increments. It does two separate things and the second one catches people out. It blocks any autostart inside the window, and if the generator is already running on an autostart condition when the window opens, the controller shuts it down. The feature depends entirely on the remote's internal clock, which is powered from the inverter and loses time whenever the inverter or the remote loses power. Parks set and post their own quiet hours. A generator that fires itself up at two in the morning in a full Florida park becomes a complaint, then a warning, then a request to leave, and the owner is usually asleep through the part that caused it. Victron's GX devices take the opposite approach: quiet hours there substitute stricter start thresholds rather than blocking a start outright.
EPA is blunt about generators: never run one inside a home, garage, crawlspace, shed or similar area, because deadly carbon monoxide builds up quickly and can linger for hours after the engine has shut off. CO is colorless and odorless, so it reaches a dangerous level before anyone notices it. The acute effects come from carboxyhemoglobin blocking oxygen uptake in the blood, giving headache, dizziness, confusion, nausea, impaired vision and coordination, and death at high concentration. Automatic starting changes the risk because nobody is standing there at the moment of ignition. Three things become non negotiable. The exhaust outlet must discharge away from the coach with no window, door or roof vent in its path and no neighboring rig parked broadside to it. A working CO alarm must be inside, and the guidance CPSC gives is one on every level outside each sleeping area. And the AGS gets switched off any time the coach sits inside a storage building, a carport or under a tight canopy.
Owners describe this two ways: the generator will not start on its own any more, or we want the air conditioning to stay on for the dog while we are out. Both begin at the same place. First is the generator's start circuit type, because a DIP switch inside the controller has to be set to 2 wire maintain, 2 wire momentary, 2 wire standby, 3 wire, 5 wire, portable or QD mode, and a wrong selection gives a unit that cranks and never latches. Second is the run sense signal at terminal 2 of the eight position block, since without it the module cannot tell a running engine from a dead one. Third is the house bank and the generator's start battery, read under load with a digital multimeter rather than at rest. Fourth is the remote clock and the AGS status screen. Our service call covers the trip out and the first hour on site at the rate in the pricing table on this page; anything past that first hour is quoted and approved before we carry on.
This is the part a sales page will not tell you. Between an animal and the heat sit a row of single points of failure: a flat generator start battery, an empty fuel tank, a tripped air conditioner breaker, a start relay that does not pull in, a corroded controller connection, and the Max Gen Run Time limit in menu 04F. That last one defaults to 12.0 hours. When it is reached the AGS stops the generator and latches a Fault MaxRn status, and it will not autostart again until a person clears it by selecting OFF in the CTRL: 03 Gen Control menu. Fault Temp means it tried on temperature and failed. Fault Gen Run means it started, ran past two minutes, then quit on its own. None of those reach your phone unless separate monitoring was added.
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Call 888-759-1438Yes, and an auto generator start sits exactly on the seam between the two. The controller watches cabin temperature, commands the generator to start, then hands 120 volt power to the air conditioner through the inverter transfer. A fault anywhere along that chain looks identical from inside the coach, so the generator side and the air conditioning side get checked together rather than as two separate visits.
It improves the odds. It does not guarantee anything, and it should never be the only protection. A start battery, a fuel level, a breaker, a start relay and the air conditioner itself all have to work with nobody watching, and the Max Gen Run Time limit will eventually stop the generator and latch a fault that only a person can clear. Pair it with a cellular temperature monitor that alerts you, and plan around the AGS failing.
No. When the inverter and charger are connected to another AC source, the controller reports an AC In status and is locked out of every autostart condition except the generator exercise routine. That is deliberate, because the coach already has power. The generator only becomes the backup once shore power actually drops out, which is why an outage is the scenario this system is really built for.
Usually, but the answer turns on the start circuit rather than the brand. The controller's relays imitate what a person does at the panel, so the generator has to accept a remote start command in one of the supported wiring modes, and it needs a run sense signal the module can read. Sets without a dedicated run output can be picked up from a generator running lamp, an hour meter, or a relay on a 120 volt outlet inside the generator.
You set the Quiet Time window in the remote to match the posted hours. During that window the controller will not autostart, and it will shut down a generator already running on an autostart condition. The Quiet Time Topoff option can pre charge the batteries beforehand, but it only ever triggers on battery voltage or state of charge, so it does nothing for a temperature start. Set the clock, or the whole window lands in the wrong place.
The Gen Exercise menu can start the generator after a set number of idle days, anywhere from 1 to 255, with a default run of one hour. Whether to use it is a judgement call rather than a rule. Exercising fights the varnish and corrosion a long idle causes, but it also means an engine igniting in a storage lot with nobody there to notice an exhaust leak, a fuel weep, or a neighboring rig parked broadside to the outlet.
Every figure on this page comes from a manufacturer document or a standards body, not from another repair site. Here is where each one comes from.
| Item | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Service call | $299 | Includes the trip out to your RV and the first hour on site |
| Work past the first hour | Quoted after diagnosis | We tell you what it will take before we carry on |
| Parts | Quoted per job | Special-order parts may need a deposit before we order them |
| Written estimate | No charge | You approve the estimate before any work starts |
The service call covers the trip out to your RV and the first hour on site. Anything beyond that depends on what we find, and we quote it and get your approval before carrying on.
The price ranges on this page come from our own recent jobs across Florida, not from an industry average. What you pay depends on the rig, the parts it needs and what we find on site, so we give you a written estimate before any work begins and you approve it first.