Total Charge III compatibility

Tesirebel80

The charger has a SB50 plug and my cart is a 96 TXT with the D style plug. My current charger is a Lester that has the manual switch to select how many hours of charge you want. My question is can I just switch the plug ends out and it work fine. I also have read about a small red wire in the D style plug that isn't in the SB50 plug. Will that make a difference and what would I need to do to get the charger to work like it should.

Thanks for any help

BGW

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Bowslayer

You can switch the plugs and it will work fine. The D style plug has a magnet in it that works the reed switch on the cart to prevent someone from driving away with the charger connected.

JohnnieB

The third wire in the D type Plug is how Automatic chargers sense the battery pack voltage to turn charger on and off.
If your charger is truly manual (IE: Can be turned on when not connected to cart).
It will work the same way it always did if you connect the two heavy gauge wires correctly in the new plug.

The third wire in the D type Receptacle mounted in the cart is connected to the reed switch in the receptacle that works as Bowslayer describes.

FWIW: The third wire in the plug connects to B- while the third wire in the receptacle connects to B+.
They are entirely separate circuits with entirely different functions, and function entirely independent of each other.

--------------
Which Lester charger?
Some of the ones with what appear to be a timer are actually automatic ones and the "timer' is actually an elapsed time indicator.

If the dial begins at "ON' or "Start" and the numbers increase to the "OFF" position, it is an elapsed time indicator and you may have an automatic charger.
If the numbers start high and decrement to OFF, it's a manual charger.

Tesirebel80

The Total Charge III that has the SB50 plug doesn't have a third wire in its plug even though its automatic. The Lester that has the D plug on it, that I want to put on the Total Charge III, will cut on when I turn the dial to whatever length of time I want to charge. But it doesn't send any charging amps (per the amp meter) till I plug it into the cart. Since the Lester does not cut on and off automaticly will it not have the 3rd wire in the plug? I haven't went and got the Lester yet to take the plug apart to see. Just trying to figure out if I can just simply put the Lester D plug onto the Total Charge III without haveing to modifiy anything else to get it to work properly.

Tesirebel80

JohnnieB I just saw the second part of your post. Not sure of the Model number but the Off position is directly down and starting clockwise it goes from high numbers to low numbers back around to off. So does that mean its a manual charger based on what you said. And if so what does that mean for me to switch the plug over to the Total Charge III.

I really appreciate your help

JohnnieB

The battery sense wire is connected inside the TC III instead of picking up B- via the Aux contact.
These are not TC-III schematics, but they show the wiring differences with a two wire and a three wire output cable.

Either the TC III has a two wire output cable and the sense wire is connected internally, or if it has a three wire cable the sense wire might be connected to B- inside the SB-50 plug.

As long as the sense wire is connected to B- someplace, the TC III should work as an automatic charger.
Personally, I believe connecting it via the Aux contact is just adding potential problem areas to the design.

Attached Images

	Generic Charger - Auto Shutoff - Three Wire Plug.JPG (41.5 KB, 0 views)
	Generic Charger - Auto Shutoff - Two Wire Plug.JPG (41.5 KB, 0 views)

Tesirebel80

Ok so if I understand correctly My TC III has only 2 wires in the SB50 plug which means its done internally on the B-. If I take off my D plug and it has the 3rd red wire I should not worry about it on the TC III because its not needed due to it internally detecting a charge on the batteries through the B- wire. So seems like a easy swap over and I'll be done. With the differnce being the Lester has a external sensor and TC III has it built internally.

Thanks for your help

JohnnieB

If the Lester is a manual charger, it doesn't have a battery sense wire.
However, the TC II does and it is either connected to the negative terminal in the SB-50 or it could be connected internally.
You'll just have to look when you get the SB-50 apart.

Tesirebel80

I got it switched over. When I took the D plug off the Lester charger it did have the 3rd wire. The SB50 that was on the TC III only had 2 wires so I just hooked up the same 2 wires in the D plug since the TC III should have the sensor internally.