On board charger question

[mgray70]

Anyone have any insight on these on board charger replacement thing that you wire to the charger to take the place of the OBC on the cart? I have a friend asking me about them, but I have never used one or even read that much about them. Are they trash? Thanks!

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Originally Posted by mgray70

Anyone have any insight on these on board charger replacement thing that you wire to the charger to take the place of the OBC on the cart? I have a friend asking me about them, but I have never used one or even read that much about them. Are they trash? Thanks!

I've got a factory one with a diagram in it. They work great. They're originally intended for the 17935 big PowerDrive chargers but I'd successfully adapted them to a 22110 PD2 and installed about 15 of them in some carts for a local chemical plant. Mounted the charger in the bagwell of the cart and rolled the cord up and tucked it in tight behind the charger. It's been about 3 years now and they're still working great.

[mgray70]

Originally Posted by TahoeDawgZ71

I've got a factory one with a diagram in it. They work great. They're originally intended for the 17935 big PowerDrive chargers but I'd successfully adapted them to a 22110 PD2 and installed about 15 of them in some carts for a local chemical plant. Mounted the charger in the bagwell of the cart and rolled the cord up and tucked it in tight behind the charger. It's been about 3 years now and they're still working great.

Thanks Tahoe! This guy has the big power drive charger.

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Originally Posted by mgray70

Thanks Tahoe! This guy has the big power drive charger.

They'll work perfect in those. Much more room to install it.

[Sergio]

...replacement thing that you wire to the charger to take the place of the OBC on the cart

The on-board charger conversion still uses the OBC, I thought he was talking about those timer boards that only work on the Ferro-Resonant charger models.

[smokey tennis shoe]

Sergio, thats what i thought he was asking about also.

[mgray70]

Originally Posted by Sergio

The on-board charger conversion still uses the OBC, I thought he was talking about those timer boards that only work on the Ferro-Resonant charger models.

I think that is what I'm talking about. Lol, but I'm also interested in what Tahoe was talking about. Which is better, or should he just replace the OBC?

[TahoeDawgZ71]

I missed the part in your original post about eliminating the OBC. The part I'm referring to is an AC Interrupt board. With the factory charging system that uses an OBC and a PowerDrive charger, if the cord is plugged into the cart, the cart won't run. It's a safety feature. In order to use a charger as an On-board charger you eliminate the DC cord plug and hard wire the cord to the battery pack. This is essentially the same as keeping the cart plugged in at all times. The AC interrupt board will allow the cart to run with the charger hard wired, but will keep the cart from running when the AC cord is plugged into the wall. As soon as you unplug the AC cord from the charger, the cart wakes up and is ready to be used. It still uses the OBC just as it always did.

[mgray70]

Originally Posted by TahoeDawgZ71

I missed the part in your original post about eliminating the OBC. The part I'm referring to is an AC Interrupt board. With the factory charging system that uses an OBC and a PowerDrive charger, if the cord is plugged into the cart, the cart won't run. It's a safety feature. In order to use a charger as an On-board charger you eliminate the DC cord plug and hard wire the cord to the battery pack. This is essentially the same as keeping the cart plugged in at all times. The AC interrupt board will allow the cart to run with the charger hard wired, but will keep the cart from running when the AC cord is plugged into the wall. As soon as you unplug the AC cord from the charger, the cart wakes up and is ready to be used. It still uses the OBC just as it always did.

I guess I'm talking about the timer thing. Cart won't charge without jumping the black wire to negative battery post. Just wondering if the timer thing was ok, or should he go ahead and replace the OBC?

[Sergio]

Since those timer devices don't have any way to control the charging current, they are designed to only work with Ferroresonance chargers.

Those are the chargers with the large capacitor inside that automatically tapers the current as the pack voltage increases.

I have seen some vendors selling those timers for powerdrive chargers, but you will end up killing the pack.

That thing is just a fancy timer with LEDs that light up as the voltage increases, so of course it will go thru its light show and turn the charger OFF when it reaches the max voltage.

Unfortunately there is more to the charging process than just reaching the max voltage, so You do need an OBC or a smart charger that can control the current during the absorption phase of the charge.