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I have spent hours searching the web for information on this 20+ year old zone control panel, which supports 3 zones of Heat and A/C.

The thermostat I'm replacing (on Zone 3) connects to T4/T5/T6 as W, R, Y respectively (the wire colors do not match because it's sharing a cable with Zone 2, which go the matching colors). I need a C (Common) wire to supply power to the thermostat, and found 24VAC across M2 and T5 (M1/M2 are the power leads to the zone damper, and seem to be connected internally to "1" and "2", the 24VAC supply.

However, when I connect the C terminal on the thermostat to the M2 connection, there is a click from some of the zone relays and the transformer hums as if it's overloaded. I removed power after a few seconds and disconnected the wire (now hanging off to the right of the picture).

I've disconnected the wire from the C terminal at the thermostat, and measure 24VAC across it and the Rh terminal on the 'stat, so I don't believe the issue is in the wiring.

The thermostat is a Filtrete 3M50; I've read that it draws less than .1 Amp, so I don't think this should be enough to put the system over some maximum current draw.

I'm looking for ideas on how to troubleshoot this.

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Do you have the wiring diagrams for the HVAC system, and the control panel? Don't forget, sometimes you can't use the latest and greatest technology with a 20+ year old system. This answer might be helpful. – Tester101♦ Mar 8 at 14:08
No, it appears to date from the 80s, and I can't find anything that quite matches. – TomG Mar 8 at 16:03
Every document I find on Honeywell MABS controllers, shows M1 as C. – Tester101♦ Mar 8 at 16:10

1 Answer

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It appears according to the manual for the Mastertrol Automatic Balancing System (MABS) EZ Zone (EZ-2 and EZ-4) Control Panels (PDF), that M1 is used for C.

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Click for larger view

This does not appear to be the manual for your device, so this information may not be correct.

The manual for the MABS 2 Zone Panel (PDF), also shows M1 being used for C.

enter image description here

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@Tester- I've seen other comments pointing to M1, and one other person with the Mark V that couldn't get it to work on M1. Like them, I get 0V across T5 (thermostat's R) and M1, and 24V from T5 to M2. Perhaps there was a change made after the Mark V to the newer panels like you show. +1 for finding and including the diagrams. If a Mark V diagram doesn't surface, I may have to go with an external power supply. – TomG Mar 8 at 17:16

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