New Batteries, Low Drive Time

[Wingsy]

It's now 9PM and the charger shut off! Some time between now and 5:30 so that's 8 hrs or less of charging time. Sounds about right to me. Pack voltage is 51.5v, or around 8.58v per battery, or 2.14v per cell. It must have been off for a while I'd say. But wouldn't you think that's a wee bit low?

But the good thing is that it shut down way before 16 hrs, so from now on I'll leave it on the charger until it completes.

My thanks to Sergio and NoleFan4Ever who added to the solution to my problem.

Edit: Wait. Thanks for the charger problem solution but I'll have to wait and see about drive time. That was the original thing.

[NoleFan4Ever]

Originally Posted by Wingsy

It's now 9PM and the charger shut off! Some time between now and 5:30 so that's 8 hrs or less of charging time. Sounds about right to me. Pack voltage is 51.5v, or around 8.58v per battery, or 2.14v per cell. It must have been off for a while I'd say. But wouldn't you think that's a wee bit low?

But the good thing is that it shut down way before 16 hrs, so from now on I'll leave it on the charger until it completes.

My thanks to Sergio and NoleFan4Ever who added to the solution to my problem.

Edit: Wait. Thanks for the charger problem solution but I'll have to wait and see about drive time. That was the original thing.

PLEASE before you drive it tomorrow, unplug the charger cord, wait a minute and plug it back in. The readings you got tonight will not be there tomorrow. These batteries will sit over night and settle out and your true reading will be 12 hours after the charger shut off. Your batteries have not seen an equalized full charge in quite some time. By unplugging it tomorrow and then replugging it and letting it top off the charge off (could be anywhere from 1-6 hours) will assure you a topped off energy pack and maximum run duration....

Good Luck!

[NoleFan4Ever]

AND rest assured, if you do as we have said and still do not get the duration you seek, there is nothing left except the batteries are gone.... Everything else has been proven through verification that it is working correctly and as designed.

[Wingsy]

OK,I'll stay on this problem a bit longer. This AM at 4:30 the bank voltage was 50.7 (8.45/batt, 2.11/cell), so I unplugged it for about a minute and plugged it back in. After several seconds the charger came on (at 15A), but it never went off briefly after a few seconds like it normally does. It just stayed on. After 5 minutes the charge current was humming along at 5A.

You say that you don't think my battery has been topped off completely, but remember I originally charged it for 12 hrs, then charged again yesterday for some time between 3 and 8 hours. The battery started off just a little weak prior to charging (getting sluggish up hills and my dash voltmeter hitting the orange "E" region at the steepest climb).

[Sergio]

The OBC does not do the charger check cycle if the cart has not been driven since the last charging cycle.

It would be nice if You had a regular digital voltmeter rather then a "fuel gauge" type, that would allow you to see how much the batteries drop under load and the recovery time after the load is removed.

[Wingsy]

By 6AM the charger had turned off, so it looks like the OBC is happy with the battery voltage at full charge.

About that digital voltmeter for the cart... got a link for a good one?

[Sergio]

Please support our site sponsors, lots of folks here use these:

http://www.cartsunlimited.net/battery-meters.html

[NCPW]

+1 on that DVM Sergio suggested.

[Wingsy]

Well D***. After driving the cart less than 1.5 miles over the past few days I plugged it into the charger. This was before it started getting sluggish up hills. And after 15 hours it was still charging away, batteries bubbling and gurgling. So I unplugged it.

And now that my confidence in the OBC charger control doing a proper job is at an all time low, I'm seriously considering charging these batteries with an external charger.

Any suggestions?

In a final effort to get to the bottom of this I plan to connect a data logger to the bank the next time I charge it. I'll record the voltage from start to finish, one sample per minute, and make a graph of what it's doing. If I see a delta-V or excessive voltage and it still won't shut down I'm pulling the plug, literally.

[mrgolf]

Charger can run up to 16 hours, voltage can get up to 60's