The Big Picture view of how a TXT cart works

[DaveTM]

Ok, let me see if I have a basic understanding of just how my TXT electric cart works, so that if nothing else, I have some sense of what I’m following when I read post, and some sense of what my cart may be doing when\if it breaks down. Not that I wouldn’t post the issue here, but an understanding is still helpful.

So, as my reading and understanding goes, my TXT cart works sort of like this:

#1- There are essentially two electrical systems (for lack of a better word) that make my cart run. A light duty system (visually seen by light duty wiring), and a heavy duty system (visually seen by heavy duty wiring).

#2- When I turn on my key, the light duty system now is “on” and allows power to go to my “gas peddle” or my ITS (Inductive Throttle System)

#3- The ITS when pushed, sends power (the more it’s pushed, the more power....(I dunno in volts, how much the max is) it sends to the controller (via the light duty system). At the same time,(again, when the ITS is pushed) power is sent to the solenoid (via the light duty system). All the solenoid does when this occurs is connect via an electronic magnet, a big plunger type switch that allows this to carry the heavy amps needed (via the heavy duty system) to run the cart.(That’s the CLICK you hear in solenoid when you press the peddle. Or you should hear.)

#4- The controller receives this voltage (light duty system) from the ITS and depending upon how much voltage the ITS sends (see #3 above) it (how far the operator is pushing down on the peddle) the controller then “controls” or sends the amount of amps that the ITS is “telling” it (via the operator by the peddle) to the electric motor via the heavy duty system. (Big heavy wires) Because both the light duty system AND the heavy duty system of wiring run through the controller.

#5- On a TXT system, the operation of going forward and reverse is done via a manual switch. This switch simply reverses the polarity of the wires going to the electric motor. Now, this switch can also be an electric one which is known as a “contactor switch.”

So, help me out with the above. Please correct this if it’s too over simplified. I don’t want to make it scientific....just understandable to those like me.....who are laymen. Now, I haven’t addressed battery voltage or amps or amp\hr or wire gauge and technical matters such as that. But, just the kind of “big picture” view of what makes it tick.

I know from working on late ‘60’s cars that you needed two major items to have them run. #1 was gas to the cylinders, and #2 was spark to the cylinders. So, those were the first things you checked for. If you didn’t have one or the other.....then the “hunt” began. I guess I’m attempting to do the same with a TXT.

Thanks....please shoot holes!!

Dave

[nobuckbuild]

thats just about the sum of it , other than the voltage fairy's that live under the seat and feed on batteries and poop white powder all over the terminals.

[remac]

except sometimes the voltage fairies get constipated
and blow up in a cloud of magic white smoke
then the cart never works right ever again

[Sir Nuke]

Dave.....I am fairly new to all of this as well, however I do have a fair amount of troubleshooting skills, and I rebuilt/upgraded my cart totally all in my own using the information I attained here, and I am NOT an electrician by any stretch of the imagination, I'm a mechanic by trade.......AND I followed your description with no problem at all, and I fell it's "on the money".

[JohnnieB]

#5: TXT is a body style rather than a drive type. Your description fits the series drive you have, but not the sepex drive I have.

Other than that, my cats didn't run to their litterboxes after I read it to them, so it is more lucid than the remembrances of some newscasters.

[neednomotoyz]

So with all this explained tell me why my txt 36 series will function properly in reverse but when I go forward i press the accelerator about 1/4 down and cart takes off at about 2x normal speed and will continue till I either accelerate more or let off then it stops. when it is going like 2x normal speed the f/w switch and cables get hot and you can smell them.
Would like to reason things out before I start chunking parts at it.
Thanks

[DaveTM]

I'll SWAG at that......but let the experts chime in on it. But to me, that sounds like a controller thing. If your controller is letting that much juice thru the system to cause that much heat, then something in the controller is telling it to "let it fly."

What kind of controller do you have? Do you know if it's programable?

[cgtech]

Your mechanical F&R switch is bad, it connects properly in reverse, but when you turn it 90° to forward the contacts are not connecting well until enough volts and amps are fed to overcome the poor connection (thus the jump, and the heat on the wires). Drive it a little and Carefully touch the wires at the back of the F&R, bet their really hot.

But Daves description sounds good enough to me, and completed by Johnnys addition.

[scottyb]

Wait. What? Fairies poop? Tell me it isn't so

[DaveTM]

Well.......

#1- Neednomoto could very well have a toasted or semi-toasted F\R switch and\or the heavy gauge wires connected to it are semi-toast or toast, but I mentioned the controller as Need...etc said it works fine in reverse, and when he press's the peddle 1\4 down, the cart takes off at twice it's normal speed (this is when things "get smoking") and then when he press's the peddle fully, the cart "slow's" to it's "normal" top speed and the wire-frying stops. So...initially it sounds to me like the controller is doing some really odd things. Which is why I ask for model and if it's programmable.

#2- I actually once had a voltage fairy living under my cart. Then one day I thought I knew what I was doing and I crossed some wires.....thick black smoke poured from my old controller....followed by chunks of fried fairy poop. Pretty big chunks for fairy poop I must say.

#3- The cops did show up asking about a missing fairy. I just said I didn't know what the S$^T happen. At least my answer was honest.

#4- JohnnieB's cats did bolt for the litter box. JohnnieB was on his 3rd Johhnie-W so...he really didn't notice.

Dave