Alltrax Controller Weird Issue

jonequest

I had a total failure from my Alltrax controller today. I was washing out the battery tray and surrounding areas since I over filled my batteries and a lot of acid got on the tray. I have hosed out the area before and my controller is waterproof it is a model SPM72400. After washing the cart it would not run. I got the standard 4 green blinks for EZGO ITS, then a green flash, then 4 red flashes and the fan on the controller was coming on, but not doing anything else. I used air and blew everything out pretty good to no avail. I talked to a Alltrax tech and he said the overheat sensor was bad and the controller falsely thought it was overheating, hence the 4 flashes. After it sat a while it started working again. The first several times the fan came on but went back off, then the fan didn't come on when the motor was engaged. I know the fan is for high temps but the cart was cold since I had not driven it yet. Any suggestions checking error codes or something? I still think the water freaked out something and caused the error but will water hitting wires, connectors, etc. cause this even with a "waterproof" Alltrax controller?

BGW

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Mooncarter

Hey Jonequest. I'm no expert on controllers, but I would put a regular fan blowing on it for tonight. Let it dry out good and see what happens.

Sergio

The only consistent cause of the erroneous "overheat" error reported on this site has been due to "voltage on the frame".

Did you neutralize the spilled acid with baking soda before splashing it around with water?

Those controllers are pretty water resistant and I doubt You did anything close to what Alltrax did on this test:

Volt_Ampere

Dry everything out and it will probably run. It's not the controller but water and acid causing voltage to get on the frame from the batteries.

jonequest

That is interesting. I did get a couple of mini shocks from touching this yesterday through a little cut on my fingertip so there definitely was some stray voltage. I also blew everything off with an air hose and it was still acting up for a while but did start working again normally. Last night I went in the garage and put it on jack stands. It now seems to work perfectly. I called Alltrax from my driveway yesterday and they have such GOOD customer service that even though my unit is 4.5 years (I had a 2 year warranty) they offered to repair it or try to swap it for a used one for free! I now have an RMA# but I want to use the cart to play golf tomorrow. I wonder if I can test drive it around my neighborhood and let it roll. I need to contact Alltrax about the RMA if they agree it was probably a fluke caused by stray voltage. That is actually what made sense to me at first too. I have to say, hands down, ALLTRAX is the ONLY company who I will buy controllers from. I had a Chinese Kelly brand that was a nightmare of errors and after getting my Alltrax I have never looked back.

JohnnieB

I cannot find any reference to it on the Alltrax website, but there was a capacitor had to be connected between either the B+ or the B- terminal and the heatsink (cart frame) to get some SPM controllers to work properly in some carts.

The attached picture (which I downloaded from this forum, but don't remember which thread) shows the connection to the heatsink and a little of the capacitor, but not what the other end is connected to or the µF value of the capacitor.

Contact Scotty at Carts Unlimited, he will know about it.

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Of course, you need to neutralize and clean the acid off the battery rack to get rid of the current path(s) between the battery voltage and the frame.

Attached Images

20140322_185347_zpsbbd7e3b0 circled.jpg (142.6 KB, 0 views)

Sergio

That was related to ITS throttle problems:

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...ml#post1004129

scottyb

The SPM controller in the Alltrax water video was a special model with very specific precautions taken to prevent water intrusion & make the video possible. Unfortunately this wasn't made clear and it led alot of to believe they could hose their SPM control off .... which frankly, it can't take it.

One of the main reasons that Alltrax replaced the SPM with the SR control was improved water intrusion resistance. The main thing to realize is these controls should be treated as water resistant not waterproof.

I religiously cover my controllers with plastic bags when hosing the pack off including the new SR and XCT controls. Mist them with Windex and wipe clean if needed.

Sergio

First, I agree one should not do that with any kind of electronics.

However, the controller on the beginning of the video is a plain controller with spade connectors, which is why the solenoid keeps clicking as the "pedal micro-switch" input signal is just a "logic" signal and easily disturbed by low current (water interference).

The controller on the second half of the video (HD) has the water tight connectors.

Volt_Ampere

There is nothing wrong with your controller. IT doesn't like the frame having voltage on it. That is "Leakage" from wet leaked acid - what you felt when you got shocked. It will probably work fine as long as things are dry but it will act up again if the battery tray gets wet.