Charger Not Shutting Down

Seattle_Mike

I have a situation where the charger acts normal up to the point of actually shutting off. It was giving off a pretty heavy acid smell after being on the charge cycle for 7-8 hours. The Amps were low but still charging so I unplugged the charger. I measured the voltage and it was 53 volts so didn't plug it back in for fear of cooking the batteries which are only a few months old. The old batteries did the same thing so I'm wondering if the OBC has gone South? Should I let it charge for a while longer and monitor the voltage to see if it keeps climbing or does that 53 volts say the OBC isn't working correctly? Is that relay below the OBC what shuts down the charger or something else?
Is it worth trying the OBC reset procedure or is that for some other issues?
Thanks

BGW

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rib33024

I don't see any problem. It can take up to 16 hours to fully charge the pack. And the volts can get as high as 65 volts before the charger turns off by it's self. What was the volts before you unplugged the charger?

Seattle_Mike

53-54 volts...just gun shy I guess of cooking the batteries. I'm trying to understand how the OBC behaves if you unplug the charger before it's completely charged. From reading the manual tonight it sounds like if you unplug it, it doesn't really understand where the charge cycle was, but maybe I'm way off base. Does it do a full cycle from the beginning or take off from where it was if a charge cycle was not completed? Is resetting the OBC a bad thing to do or no harm, no foul?

teecro

Resetting the OBC is a no harm no fowl thing... Disconnect your main pack (-) and wait 10 minutes. From this point forward expect your charger to go through a full charge and may run upwards of 16 hours, this is NOT harmful. If you are smelling rotten egg it does not always mean over charging at all... New batteries may smell through several charge cycles and this generally means they are actively accepting charge... If you are finding your batteries boiled out and needing water this may be an issue, but just smelling it not... During the charge you can find voltage as high as 64/65 volts...

Have you recently replaced cables? Is your main pack (-) still being run through the OBC not around it?

TahoeDawgZ71

The OBC won't even consider turning the charger off until the voltage reaches 58.3V while on charge. If your batteries won't get high enough to trigger a turn-off signal, you've got a battery issue. The OBC is probably fine.

Seattle_Mike

Question on the charger 3 pin plug...is the top in shorter than the other two? I never noticed that before. I pulled gently on the pin to see if it would move out but it feels pretty solid. I plugged in back in and started to charge again and sure enough it did shut down like it should. Not sure if the pin was not making good contact or I just didn't wait long enough for it to fully charge.

Thanks all for the help. The only issue I continue to have is trying to charge the batteries using my Honda EU2000 generator when we are at the race track. The charger appears to charge as normal but when I unplug the charger and use the cart, the battery charge level is exactly where it was when I started charging. I've seen other posts with the same issue but have never seen a solution to the problem. I use the generator to power the race trailer and plug the charger into a trailer outlet. I also tried plugging the charger directly into the generator and it does the same thing.

Sergio

The "sense" wire pin is shorter so it is the last pin to make contact and the first pin to be disconnected.

Since that controls the charger relay, it assures there is no big spark on the charger DC plug when connecting/disconnecting from the cart.

I think I asked this before, but are you disabling the 'Eco-Throttle' on the generator when using the charger?

Seattle_Mike

Thank you for the pin info...makes sense. On the generator, no I am not disabling the Eco Throttle, but I am running a pair of the 2000's linked together so didn't think there was a need turn it off. That being said, if disabling it fixes the charging issue I have no issue doing it, probably worth a try.

Sergio

The Inverter type generators do a great job at generating a clean sine wave that does not have its frequency and shape affected by the load like a conventional generator where the output can greatly vary with the engine RPM.

Unfortunately, chargers present a unique challenge to any generator since they are a "non-linear" load.

The "Eco-Throttle" is not just a mechanical switch that controls the carburetor, it is part of the voltage regulation system of the generator.

Disabling that feature prevents the generator from attempting to regulate the "non-linear" aspect of the charger load that occurs 120 times per second.

Seattle_Mike

Great info...I'll try doing that this coming weekend and see how it does. Thanks again for the info