Charging Problems W/ Total Charge 1
 

Having some issues with EZGO Automatic Battery Charger "Total Charge 1" (the green face charger). Coworker got in the cart and pulled away with charger still plugged in. Charger fell off shelf about 5' high. Unit wont charge when plugged into cart (cart charge read 33.9vdc on multimeter). I opened it up, fuse is good, breaker is closed/ not tripped. I got 120 into im guessing what is called the relay board. I get nothing out of it weather the cart is plugged into it or not. Ive checked the voltage at the charge port on the cart and read a battery charge of 33.9 volts. I took the yellow wire (120 out from relay board) off the mechanical timer and just brought the 120 (from the line-in after the fuse) right up to the timer (bypassing the relay board) and the charger turns on with the timer and output at the charge plug read 41vdc with a meter. Is there a way to test the board? Im guessing the board is supposed to sense a load (cart being plugged in) before it will allow the charger to come on? What is the cut in voltage and cutout voltage the board looks for? It is working now with the relay board out of the loop but im afraid its just going full output and do not want to ruin a fairly new (6 month old) set of batteries. The cart was ran down to 33vdc and I charged them up to around 36vdc with the charge board bypassed. I did not check the diodes or the capacitor. When the charger is plugged in to the cart should the red and black wires going to the relay board read the same level charge as the cart batteries?

Re: Charging Problems W/ Total Charge 1
 

Get DPI charger.
Batts will last longer, Life will be easier ( plug cart in -- charger handles the rest)

Re: Charging Problems W/ Total Charge 1
 

You won't hurt the batteries by charging with the relay bypassed as long as you don't let the charger run for more than about 16 hours.

The "control" board does not control the battery charging profile, All the control board does is connect and disconnect AC power to the transformer primary. The battery charging profile is built into the ferroresonant transformer and capacitor pair.

The cart's battery pack voltage is what powers up the control board and energizes the relay initially. The pack voltage has to be about 28V or so get the relay to close and power up the charger. The voltage between the red and black wires on the control board should be the same as the pack voltage, or there is excessive resistance in the battery sensing circuit.

When the on-Charge voltage reaches about 45V, the control board disconnects AC power from the transformer. If 45V is reached in about 12 hours, the electro-mechanical timer times out and disconnects AC power from the transformer.

In a nutshell, the battery charger circuit is the transformer, capacitor and diodes, while the control board is a semi-smart on/off switch.

Re: Charging Problems W/ Total Charge 1
 

Thanks JohnnieB! So as long as its working now with the control board bypassed I should be ok. The mechanical timer is still controlling the length of the charge cycle.