Wiring Batteries in Parallel, please explain??

athomas03

Someone please explain to me how this is done and what the pros/cons are. I'm running a 48v pack (8/6 volts) in series, but I understand if they are in parallel there will be a lot more volts going to the motor. How does this work and is it safe on equipment?

BGW

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DOOmsman

No, 2 6 volts in series makes 12 volts
2 6 volts in parallel makes 6 volt with more amp hours at 6 volts than 1 battery.

Like 2 hoses more water not more pressure.

dougmcp

A GC battery has 6v.
In order to run a 48v cart you need 8x6v batteries wired in series to give you 48v. The available amperage remains constant at about 225 Amp Hours.

If you wired 8 batteries in a parallel configuration, the available amperage would be 225x8= 1800 Amp Hours but you would only have 6v and not enough voltage to run a 48v motor.

What exactly are you trying to do?

athomas03

I thought there was a way to wire a pack for series (48v) and also parallel between some to send some extra to the motor. Isn't this some of the controversey in racing, someone running a true 48v or 72v and somebody actually appearing to have this voltage but wiring is different to give more power. I'm just looking for more speed, but don't want to harm components. And I didn,t understand some wiring tricks.

riverracer

You would have to have 2 48volt battery packs to do this. If you use 6 8 volt for your packs you would need 12 8 volts to run parallel packs. Hard to do with golf cart batteries.Some are using much smaller batteries to race but you will have no ride time with this setup,It's only good for 1/8 mile then recharge them,

athomas03

OK. I was confused on how that setup worked. So, you would actually have to have 96 volts of batts, but wired in parallel the pack at the + and - ends would show 48v. I guess you could do the same with 144 volts or (12/12v) and show 72v. How would the performance increase??? Extra amps or volts to the motor or both. The controller and solenoid would stay at 48v, correct. Yeah, I understand this would be with a racing setup. Thanks!

DOOmsman

How would the performance increase?

Longer run time.

galloway

He is talking about roadies speed trick where he had the contactor and you could double the pack voltage and bypass the controller.

If you don't know much about wiring I wouldn't try to do this as more than likely you will either hurt the motor/cart or someone else in the process of doing this.

If you want more speed the safe way get an upgraded controller and motor.

Speed = more money. No cheap way to do it.

Cheers
Galloway

athomas03

The "boost?" I wasn't referring to Roady's boost I didn't think, but since we are on the subject....how do you connect the extra volts and the diode he talks about? I've looked at the diagram and there are two things that I'm not sure on: 1. How does the boost connect? (the diagram just shows it tying in to the wire after the cable leaves negative of the pack? Do you cut the cable to connect? Also, same thing at the other end of the boost, the diagram just shows it running into a cable somewhere in the middle??) 2. What kind of diode is necessary and how does it connect? (only diode I've ever seen is the one on my solenoid small terminals).

roady89

The boost solenoid connects the extra batteries in series with the original pack. The diode is not a diode like your thinking, its rated for high voltage and high amperage. The diode is used to protect the controller from the extra voltage under boost. If your not comfortable with wiring you need not do this. There is a lot of potential energy in batteries, one wrong connection can result in serious damages and/or injuries. This isn't a series/parallel circuit.