PowerDrive charger charges but meter doesn't move

jimdandy745

Club Car 1996
PowerDrive charger 17930 model

Normal operation was:
Charger plugged in to AC
Connect charger to Club Car charger port
Relay clicks after about 2 seconds and meter on Charger jumps to 15.
about 5 seconds later, meter drops to 0
about 10 seconds later, meter jumps to whatever.

Last week, symptoms changed.

AC power is plugged in, then connect to Club Car charger port.
After a couple of seconds, relay clicks and transformer hums.
Meter never moves. Never reset to 0. Never moves.
Meter on Club Car gradually shows increase, even into red zone, so I only leave it plugged in for 1/2 hour spurts to hopefully prevent damage to batteries. Battery voltage increases, so it appears to be charging, just never tapers down to top off the charge. Since the batteries are charging, I have no problem using the cart.

I tried a friend's charger and it works normally, so it appears to be in my charger and not in the cart.

Fuselink checks okay as does the diodes and the DC cable to the cart. I have checked connections to meter, wiring ohms out okay too.

Did I miss something? Any suggestion? How can I check the meter itself?

BGW

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum

teecro

Did you try your charger on your friends cart? You do know that charging can take upwards of 16 hours right?

jimdandy745

I have had this golf cart/charger for 8 years, so, yes I know that it can take several hours to charge.

Perhaps I should explain better.

The needle on the meter NEVER MOVES. It always stays at zero. In the past it would jump to about 15 amps. Then the relay would dropout and the meter would go to zero. After a few seconds, the meter would jump to about 15, and gradually (over several hours) drop down to zero during the charge cycle.

Now it always stays at zero. The relay kicks on and the transformer hums and the batteries are charging, but there is no diminishing charge - always at full charge, as if there is no "feedback" to the OBC to tell it to "slow down".

crash test dummy

jimdandy745

failed transformer





attached is the PDF file for PowerDrive & accu-power chargers

btw ... make sure you tell us year, make, model, and volts when asking questions

Attached Images

no amp meter.png (33.6 KB, 0 views)

Attached Files

Club Car Chargers.pdf (5.86 MB, 0 views)

Sergio

If the meter does not move, how did you figure it is always at Full Charge?

jimdandy745

You're right, I do not know that it is at FULL CHARGE. My error. What I do know, or think I know, is that the charge never tapers off, whatever the charge amp rate is. As I stated in my original post, the needle on the meter on the golf cart itself gradually increases, even into the red zone, (and the total voltage of the batteries) and the reason that I only charge it in 1/2 hour bursts.

Since the meter on the golf cart never went past the half-way mark of the white zone before after a charge cycle, I assumed it was charging at FULL CHARGE rate (and you know what "assume" means).

So, what would the symptoms be if the meter fails? What can go wrong with it?

|-----|-----------------|--------|------| meter dial
red? green white RED

The Club Car is a 1996 model I believe, and the charger is a 1997 model PowerDrive model 17930-11

crash test dummy

did you read my post ?

its above Sergio's

Sergio

Crash, any of those problems means it would not charge at all, and he says it is charging....

I did not realize You were looking at one of those "Fuel" meters, that is Your first problem, those things are for decoration purposes only.

If after a regular charge it is normally in the "White Zone", that would be around 51v. During charge it will get up to 60v+, so I would imagine "Red Zone" would be correct.

Get a digital meter and measure the pack voltage while charging, as long as the charger shuts off before 64v, the batteries will be fine.

You may have an actual "failed" charger Ammeter, which is rare but it could happen.

Look at Crashs PDF for how to test the Ammeter on the charger.

crash test dummy

Sergio, incorrect ...that is a classic sign that secondary coil has failed

Connect the AC cord to the wall outlet and monitor the multimeter for the secondary coil voltage. If measured voltage is approximately 42.5 volts or lower for the secondary coil, the transformer is shorted
internally and must be replaced
so it will charge some but not shut off

jimdandy745

The pdf for the charger is for a PowerDrive 2; I have an original PowerDrive 17930 model as mentioned in the original post. Some things are different.

Specifically, the diode bridge shown in the pdf is completely different, and the wiring to the amp-meter is different. I found the right schematic for this model somewhere here on the Internet.

Blown charger fuse - NOT. Test procedure on page 5-20.
AC cord - check okay
DC cord - check okay - different wiring in my case but okay.
Black wire goes to ammeter.
Red wire goes to diode assembly - see attachment
Blue wire goes to charger relay
Transformer coils - Primary and Secondary - Okay
Voltage Suppressor - Tests okay, but don't know where that is.
Relay - OKay
Ammeter - Okay per instructions
AC Circuit Breaker - OKay

Failed rectifier - This model does not have the bridge rectifier as mentioned in the PDF file for the 2005 model. My normal way of testing rectifiers indicates that the unit is okay. ie: open (no continuity one direction) and nominal reading when reversed.

OBC malfunction - works fine with a friend's (same model) charger. I have not yet had the opportunity to try the reverse (my charger on his Club Car).

Failed transformer - Getting late - I will try this test tomorrow. I will have to review the difference in my schematic/connections to see what difference there might be between the 2005 model PowerDrive 2 and the original PowerDrive I have.

I'll attach a picture of the schematic for my PowerDrive for your reference.

A little background - I was a computer field service engineer from 1969 until I retired in 2002, and have been helping many people here in our retirement community since. Way back in the early years it was mainframe computers (then minis, micros and onto PCs, plus all the peripherals) and I was inside many power supplies for repair, but they always had capacitor banks for filtering and never an ammeter or external OBC feedback circuit.

I appreciate any help you can give. The circuit seems so simple, but I am missing something somewhere! Interesting info about the voltage to the batteries, that 64volts is upper limit. I'm seeing 51 up to 54 = volts before I decide to disconnect, so maybe I'll leave it on longer to see what surfaces. But I want to be watching it carefully when I do.

Attached Images

Club Car Charger Schematic Diagram.jpg (160.1 KB, 0 views)