bypassing relay Total Charge III

Rangerdaniel

Been having issues for a while with batteries or charger in 36 volt 95 medalist. I recently replaced 6 trojan 605 batteries with 6 interstate batteries.

Charger would not charge batteries past 41 volts (on Scottybs gauge).
It read:
41 volts at 20 on amps
42.1 volts at 18 amps
43.2 volts at 15 amps
43.8 volts at 11 amps

So going with advice from Jonnieb, I am bypassing the relay and allowing it to charge.

2 questions now,
1. How long do i let it charge?
2. Does this mean i only need to replace the board?

Thank you all for the help

BGW

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Rangerdaniel

To be more clear, the volts I posted earlier were after I had bypassed relay.

yurtle

11 amps is still charging quite a bit. The first charge will take quite a while. Did your charger turn off while still at 11 amps? If so, unplug from the cart and replug, to start a new cycle.

Rangerdaniel

Thank you for the response. To answer the question, no battery charger didn't turn off on its own. And unless I am incorrect, it wont turn off with relay bypassed will it?

I had to leave the house, and with the relay bypassed the charger was putting off a lot of heat. So, I unplugged it. I didn't really know how safe it was to leave relay-less charger running and not be at home.

Now, after 12 hours the battery pack is showing 38.3 volts. I tested the red and black wires going into the board and I got 38.3 volts!!! That should mean battery sensing wires are good? Which should mean I need a new board, correct?

Also, how safe is it to run charger with relay bypassed? I have read that it is mainly done for diagnostic purposes. Is it safe to run it for a 12 hour cycle?

yurtle

Undo the bypass and let the charger do what it was designed for. It is not uncommon to take a long time for an initial charge.

Rangerdaniel

I didnt do a very good job giving background info. I kind of have a bad habit of doing that, sorry. Bet i looked a little foolish bypassing relay on what was assumed a good charger. But, the charger isnt working well at all.

I have had charger / battery problems for a while now. I posted a long time ago about this, and Jonnieb gave me good advice. But with older batteries in cart, I feared strange trouble shooting on charger. That's why i replaced batteries. I wasn't sure the issues i was having weren't due to bad batteries.

Well, with new batteries still having same charger issue. With everything plugged up as it should be, charger will only run for about 5 minutes to about 41-42 volts on Scottyb gauge, then it immediately shuts off. Doesn't matter how many times I plug and unplug the charger. It chargers at 20 amps, but when it reaches 41 or so volts on meter it will cut off.

Just dropped batteries in cart on Wednesday, and i was expecting a long initial charge. Unfortunately, it only ran about 5 minutes and cut off. The pack voltage then dropped to about 38.3 or so. Within 12 hours the voltage of the pack is around 37.7 or so.

After reading a ton on this board, I tried advice given by Jonnieb a while back and ran the bypass.

Only after using bypass did i get charger to operate above the 41 volt stopping point, and the amperage actually began to drop as it is suppose to. I monitored the charger and pack voltage. Around 42 volts (with relay bypassed) I heard a click sound from the charger board (I assume that is the relay).

Thank you for your time yurtle, it is GREATLY appreciated

Any other advice or if it seems like I'm making any mistakes please let me know

yurtle

Usually, if the charger is putting out 11 amps, it's far from complete. Contrary to popular belief, unless your charger capacitor is bad, you can't overcharge your batteries, and your voltage proves that. If your charger is bad, give those batteries a solid charge, then buy a DPI charger from ScottyB.

Rangerdaniel

I didn't allow it to go any lower than 11 amps, I unplugged it. In about 45 minutes it went from 20 amps to 11. I only unplugged it bc I was worried about having the relay bypassed. I had read bypassing the relay was something done just to test the board. I had to leave the house and didn't want to leave it on without the relay working.

So, I have ordered a new board and gonna give it a go.

I have seen jonnieb recommend running batteries like mine for 12 hours. Unfortunately, with the charger situation I have I can't run mine that long, unless I bypass relay. Is it ok to run charger 12 hours with bypassed relay?