Powerwise plus proper operation

Kevgrn114

Ok, so I finally have my powerwise plus charger working on my old marathon sb50 cart. It's charging! Now my question is... what is the proper operation of the lights on it? It has LEDs that say on charge, 2 hour, 4 hour etc.. the only that that is on is the ONCHARGE light. It started at 20 amps, moved down to 10 amps, and now Is at 5 amps... the batteries are mostly full..

So I assume that if they are really low then it will light up say 4 hrs to show that it needs 4 hrs to charge???

Right or wrong?

Thanks,
Kevin

BGW

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JohnnieB

Wrong.

The LEDs have absolutely nothing to do with predicting how long battery charging will take, in fact they have nothing to do with the battery charging process. The simply indicate how long the charger has be charging. In other words, an elapsed time indicator.

What the elapsed time is for the various LEDs being on is explained on Pg-11 of attached manual.


Sounds like your PW+ charger is functioning normally. It should shut off when the on-charge voltage reaches 45V +/- 1V.

The attached charge profile is embedded in the matched ferroresonant transformer and capacitor pair.

Attached Images

Charge curve.JPG (33.2 KB, 0 views)

Attached Files

PW Charger manual.pdf (3.02 MB, 0 views)

Kevgrn114

Awesome!!! Thanks so much for the info!!

kantuckian

does this charger keep batteries charged during off season mine cuts off and later will kick back on and all lights will be flashing Thanks

JohnnieB

All four yellow lights flashing means the DC cord has been connected for at least 24Hrs and it should be disconnected to reduce battery drainage.

The charger isn't actually on while flashing the 4 yellow lights. The power input board has AC power connected to it whenever AC power plug is plugged into AC power, but the charger isn't on until AC power is applied to the transformer via the relay on the power input board.

This charger will not automatically keep your batteries charged while cart is in storage.

kantuckian

Thanks What I needed to Know

DG Canyon Lake

Your post confused me. I don't understand why the charger needs to be disconnected after reaching a full charge.

1. How does keeping the charger connected 'reduce battery drainage'? It's a charger; why would it drain the batteries?

2. The manual (page 5) specifically says "The charger will determine the correct duration of charge to the battery set and will shut off when the battery set is fully charged." If it's off, then shouldn't the only thing draining the battery be the PDS?

3. Your post says that the charger will not keep the batteries charged when the vehicle is in storage. If the PDS or other accessories drain the batteries, won't the charger turn back on? Page 11 of the manual says, "If the open circuit battery voltage drops to the point that charge is required, the charger will turn itself on until the batteries are fully charged." It seems like keeping the charger connected is the *right* thing to do, no? (I note that the manual (page 11) says that the 4 flashing yellow light mode represents that the charger went to 'flashing mode' (maximum time on), to conserve battery drain. Again, I don't get why a connected charger would drain the batteries.)

4. On my charger, after it's been plugged in overnight, I'm only getting a flashing light on the '2 hr' yellow LED. Any idea what that means? The manual indicates that an LED failure (i.e., on the other three yellow LEDs) is extremely unlikely, so I'm wondering if something else is wrong.

Thanks,
Doug

meimk

The relay that IS powered by the DC (battery) current is a small drain, but drain none the less. Once it has run it's charge cycle the charger will not come back on, but the battery voltage to the relay can continue to excite the coil in the relay.

JohnnieB

1. The control boards in the charger are powered by the cart's battery pack when the charger's charging circuit does not have AC power applied to transformed (Contacts of relay on control board open).

2. See #1 above.

3. Read the sentence in the manual that precedes the one you've quoted.

4. I interpret one flashing yellow LED to mean the charge cycle took over 2 hours, but less than 4 hours to complete and the charger has been plugged into AC power for at least 24 hours.

FWIW: I've noticed several inconsistencies in the PW/PW+ manual. For example, the last paragraph under the "Description" header on page-11 describes the charge being terminated using a dT/dV (change in Time over change in Voltage) process, yet the control boards used in the charger terminate the charge when the on-charge voltage reaches 45V +/-1V in a straight voltage comparison process.