Modifying PowerDrive charger to use with a Timer or Remote Control

[kgsc]

Understood.. I was just going to leave the relay out of the charger case but guess it doesn't matter. It all works

[mrgolf]

Now you got me thinking, you could do close to the same thing to make the charger kick back on and charge the cart after a power failure. If you run the sense wire through a relay that is open when AC power is off and closes when the power is restored the charger would restart the charger after a AC power loss is restored. As they are now you have to unhook the charger and rehook. That might be nice for someone who leaves there cart for the season.

[Sergio]

If You look at my first post, there are all sorts of issues that I did not like about a relay that needs to be powered (so the Normally Open contacts are closed) all the time in order for the charger to work.

Power outages should not affect the OBC as it will try for 7 days once it detects an AC failure before it goes to permanent sleep.

If You set the timer for the "sense wire disconnect for 1 minute" at 7 day intervals, the pack would still charge again long before the batteries need it.

[Volt_Ampere]

I like Sergio's design here. Pretty much fail safe.

[mrgolf]

I though about the relay needing powered all the time. But the one that's in there stays powered up while charger is operation. On the other hand it's not powered up 24/7. Good point.

[jakesnake27]

Very interesting...

[thetoddjohnson]

Sergio,

The relay came today, but I’m not sure it is appropriate.

The charger I plan to modify is a MAC BA1683. (See the attached wiring diagram.) The DC side doesn’t have a “sense wire”, there are simply 2 wires (DC positive and DC negative).

The relay indicates that it is rated for 28VDC. (See attached photo.) The charger puts out about twice that. If I run one of the DC wires coming out of the charger across the normally closed posts on the relay isn’t it going to fry the relay?

TJ

[Sergio]

Those ratings are more for the make/break current of the contacts, so ideally if the relay was controlling the main positive output of the charger, You would not try to activate the relay during the first phase of the charge cycle when the current is at the maximum.

I have not seen one of those chargers before, but assuming the charger turns itself OFF after the charge is complete, it must be using either Terminal #6 (white) or Terminal #16 (black) on the control board to detect when the charger is plugged to a battery source.


Those 2 wires should carry low current as they only power the control board.


I fixed the contrast on your shcematic as it was hard to read, it does appear both of those wires originate from the same junction, so You should be able to connect both of them to one side of the relay and a single wire from the other side of the relay to the junction.


You can try disconnecting those 2 terminals from the logic board and plugging the charger to the cart to verify that it will not start.

[thetoddjohnson]

Thanks Sergio.

TJ

[Delta-Q Guru]

Hi All: I'm just sharing this because many do not know about this feature that is built into the Delta-Q QuiQ (yellow and black) charger. Every QuiQ charger has a maintenance mode, here is how it works...

"Lead acid batteries self-discharge over time and the self-discharge rate increases as batteries age. Once any QuiQ charger completes to a solid green LED the charger will monitor the battery voltage, should the batteries self-discharge and voltage reduce below 2.08V per cell the charger will restart and perform a charge cycle to top up the voltage.

If the voltage does not drop below 2.08V per cell and there is no activity for 30 days without interruption to either AC or DC connections the charger will restart and perform a maintenance charge cycle. Each time a cycle is preformed the 30 day timer is reset.

This process will continue unless the charger enters an error code situation where the AC power may need to be cycled to clear the fault. We strongly encourage users to check their batteries and charger periodically during the storage period to ensure the charge hasn't entered a fault mode and to perform any battery maintenance that is required e.g watering or cleaning terminals."

No timer needed. Simply leave it plugged in!