Alltrax popped, now what?

[JohnnieB]

Okay, your cart is wired differently than others and the voltage source for Pins 6 & 9 is something other than the Reed switch.
That does not change the fact that B+ has to be applied to Pins 6, 9 & 10 to get the Green LED to illuminate on a DCX controller.

[hugger6933]

I understand that the voltage that should be applied to pins 6 and 9 is coming from somewhere other than factory diagram. When I built the cart the man[John from LA carts] that sold me the motor and controller and solenoid as a group package[something in the motor is different than the regular 06 PDS and now it is no longer a regen type cart]told me that I did not need the reed switch. The only difference in the wiring is the harness that has been added between the factory wiring and the Alltrax controller, But I assume all have that that have had that type of controller put in. I have done the test that were put up on the sticky and I checked for pack voltage at pins 6, 9 and 10. I'm gonna print off the 14 pages of trouble tree from the service book and carry to the shed with me in a little bit.[waiting on a customer to pickup a Tahoe I just finished]. I am only 4 min. to the cart shed from my driveway so when I get to golf it is usually pretty nice. I would love to be wrong here and for you to be right. But every test I've done so far on those sheets pulled from this site is showing me that the controller is bad.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by hugger6933

I understand that the voltage that should be applied to pins 6 and 9 is coming from somewhere other than factory diagram. When I built the cart the man[John from LA carts] that sold me the motor and controller and solenoid as a group package[something in the motor is different than the regular 06 PDS and now it is no longer a regen type cart]told me that I did not need the reed switch. The only difference in the wiring is the harness that has been added between the factory wiring and the Alltrax controller, But I assume all have that that have had that type of controller put in. I have done the test that were put up on the sticky and I checked for pack voltage at pins 6, 9 and 10. I'm gonna print off the 14 pages of trouble tree from the service book and carry to the shed with me in a little bit.[waiting on a customer to pickup a Tahoe I just finished]. I am only 4 min. to the cart shed from my driveway so when I get to golf it is usually pretty nice. I would love to be wrong here and for you to be right. But every test I've done so far on those sheets pulled from this site is showing me that the controller is bad.

With an aftermarket controller installed, the troubleshooting tree in the PDS service manual does not apply and neither do the test procedures in the stickies.

The easiest Pins to troubleshoot are 9 & 10, they don't make as many trips through the adapter and Pin-6 does.

If I was troubleshooting this, I'd check for voltage at J1 Pins 4 & 5 of the factory wiring harness. If it is present at both of those pins, the adapter has got some issues.

Actually, before I did that, I would unplug the adapter from the controller and all the plugs on the factory wiring harness and spray clean them, using dielectric grease when I reinstalled the adapter.

[hugger6933]

Okay, That is something I can really use, not that the other hasn't but it seems like going in circles. It may just be me. I'm in a little different mindset since just the last post even I have a friend going out of town for the long weekend to stay at their lake house so I can use their cart. i have finished and collected on the last two big jobs I just built at the shop so I feel a little no a lot better now. I will try to track this down some more on Friday [Two DR appointments on Thursday]. May even pick up a new DVOM in town tomorrow just to make sure the readings are true.[the last digit on mine is not clearly reading out]As far as checking the pins if doing that at the controller or on either side of the adapter should [should being the key word in this whole thing] be the same? unless there is an adapter problem? is that any more common than a controller failure? I would think they both would be rare. I do thank you all for the help in trying to get me back to spanking the ball again. if you every need help on you Chevy or paint and body questions I'm your go to guy. Jim

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by hugger6933

Okay, That is something I can really use, not that the other hasn't but it seems like going in circles. It may just be me. I'm in a little different mindset since just the last post even I have a friend going out of town for the long weekend to stay at their lake house so I can use their cart. i have finished and collected on the last two big jobs I just built at the shop so I feel a little no a lot better now. I will try to track this down some more on Friday [Two DR appointments on Thursday]. May even pick up a new DVOM in town tomorrow just to make sure the readings are true.[the last digit on mine is not clearly reading out]As far as checking the pins if doing that at the controller or on either side of the adapter should [should being the key word in this whole thing] be the same? unless there is an adapter problem? is that any more common than a controller failure? I would think they both would be rare. I do thank you all for the help in trying to get me back to spanking the ball again. if you every need help on you Chevy or paint and body questions I'm your go to guy. Jim

Pin-9 on controller should be same as Pin-4 of PDS wiring harness, or darn close to it.
Pin-10 on controller should be same as Pin-5 of PDS wiring harness, or darn close to it.
Pin-6 on controller should be about 0.6V lower than the voltage on Pin-4 of PDS wiring harness, it goes through a forward biased diode.

If you have the battery pack voltage at Pins 4 & 5 on the PDS wiring harness, but don't have the correct voltage at Pins 6, 9 & 10 at the controller, something is amiss with the adapter.

You say you are missing all three at the controller and the only thing (other than the battery pack) all three have in common is the J1 interface between the PDS wiring harness and the adapter.

From what I've read here on the BGW forum and elsewhere, both the DCX/NCX and the PDS adapter are very reliable, but both have been known to fail.

Personally, if properly sized for the way the cart is set up (tire height, Zmotor, weight carried or towed, etc) and the driver doesn't do something stupid (Like I did. ), the adapter is more vulnerable because many people don't secure the PDS wiring harness and you've got something like 18 crimped connections the wires are wiggling in when the cart is moving.

I secured the PDS wiring harness to the short high current cable between the solenoid and controller's B+ terminal to minimize movement.
I also applied a dielectric lubricant to the plug and jack pins prior to connecting them, to minimize corrosion in the acid laden atmosphere under the seat.

[hugger6933]

Pack voltage today was 36.5 and pin 4 and pin 5 is 35.5. when I go to town tomorrow i am getting a new DVOM to double check. All of those were at the controller. I went back and checked 6,9 and 10 on the cart side of the plug still 0.0 volts [I checked at the first connection to eliminate the harness]. Jim

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by hugger6933

Pack voltage today was 36.5 and pin 4 and pin 5 is 35.5. when I go to town tomorrow i am getting a new DVOM to double check. All of those were at the controller. I went back and checked 6,9 and 10 on the cart side of the plug still 0.0 volts [I checked at the first connection to eliminate the harness]. Jim

The battery pack is only 55% charged and the plates on those batteries are sulfating as we speak, so they really ought to be charged!
However, that is enough to light up the Green LED on the controller.

[hugger6933]

Just brought this post back from the deep to update it the controller was bad just as I had suspected. All the testing I kept doing lead me that way, and that was my first inclination from the moment it quit. I got spooked a little by some saying it wasn't So I talked to the guy I got all my stuff from when I built it and he agreed with me that it sounded that way. I loaded it up this morning and carried it to him 229 miles he happened to have another alltracx there[I checked that before the drive, I needed away from the shop anyway]and a few min later after he rechecked a few things he put on the controller and away I went with my cart running again. I also got to see my son He is down that way and carry him a grille that his step mom and I had gifted to him so it wasn't all cart business. Jim