Txt battery charger

summitrookie

Has anyone tried any aftermarket ezgo battery chargers? I see them advertised on eBay for $70 and wonder if they are worth it? Reason for the question is that I'm having issues with my powerwise charger not charging brand new batteries.


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BGW

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JohnnieB

Do yourself and your new batteries a favor and get a DPI Accusense charger.

http://www.cartsunlimited.net/chargers-36-48v.html

summitrookie

Johnnie the issue I'm having is when I plug my charger into the cart it turns on and then after an hour or so, it stops charging! So I unplug and plug back it and its starts charging again! Could I just replace the control board in the powerwise?


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JohnnieB

All the control board does is turn the charger on and off. Basically, it is a semi-smart switch that does only three things.
1. If the pack voltage is above about 28V, it turns on the charger.
2. When the on-charge voltage climbs to about 45V, it shuts off the charger.
3. If the on-charge voltage does not climb to 45V in about 16 hours, it shuts off the charger.

The charger is turning on and off, so the control board is most likely okay.

The actual battery charging profile is accomplished by the pairing of a ferroresonant transformer and capacitor.

The charger shutting off in an hour or so every time it is connected to cart could mean the batteries are fully charged, or it could mean the battery sensing circuit is not sensing the battery pack voltage correctly.

Excessive resistance in the charger's output cable, or the cart's charge receptacle, or the black and white wires between receptacle and battery pack, or the five high current cables connecting the six batteries in series, can cause the charge cycle to terminate prematurely.

Attached Files

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

summitrookie

Thank you for the info.


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LukeL

Don’t get one of those little ones. They take 25 hours to do a complete charge. They are just five amps, the cord is thin and short, and they don’t shut off. Mine went straight back.

Powerwise control boards are cheap and easy to replace.

yurtle

While tedious, try hooking up a DMM to pack + and pack -, and monitor what the voltage reaches when the charger turns off. You can probably just check it every 5 minutes. Even if you don't see the exact moment the charger turns off, if it's approaching 45 volts, the pack is satisfied. Wait 12 hours and check the pack voltage. You should get around 38.22 for a 36 volt pack and 50.96 for a 48 volt pack.

JohnnieB

Everybody ought to have a DMM with a min/max function.

Comes in mighty handy when checking max voltage reached while charging or min voltage the pack or individual batteries drop to while climbing hills, etc.

I've used the min/max function on one of my DMMs to verify the accuracy of the voltages logged by my XCT controller.

scottyb

Cheap eBay chargers do not have the amp output needed to meet the golf cart battery needs.
The bulk charge (stage1) where the battery gets up to 80% of it's charge must be equal to 10% of the battery's total amp hour rating.
I know - your heads spinning....
Simply stated a golf cart 6v battery is about 200 amp hours (ah) so it needs a 20amp start to the charge.
An 8v battery has 160-190ah and generally a 18a charger will do the job for any pack consisting of 8v or 12v GC batteries.

If these guide lines are not followed you run a high risk of leaving the heavy elements at the bottom of the cells and weakening the batteries by a process we call stagnating. Maybe JB will expound?

JohnnieB

Stratification rather than stagnation.

Technically, a lead-acid wet-cell battery is not fully charged until the SG (specific gravity) of the electrolyte ceases to increase while a charging current is passing through it. At that point, the entire volume of the electrolyte in the cell has the same SG, however as soon as the charging is terminated, the battery starts to self discharge and the SG of the electrolyte in intimate contact with the plates starts to decrease. The electrolyte with the lower SG is lighter than the electrolyte with the higher SG, so it floats to the top.

Eventually, you end up with a battery that is fully charged at the bottom of the plates where the electrolyte with the higher SG is and partially discharged at the top of the plates where the lower SG electrolyte is, allowing the upper portion of the plates to become irreversibly sulfated.

Fortunately, a charger that causes the cell to gas vigorously during the charging process, mixes the electrolyte.

Float charging after the regular charge cycle ends, also prevents stratification.